Caroline Barker (born 1981) is a British sports journalist and broadcaster who works in television and radio. She currently presents mainly for BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC World Service,

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

and

Premier League Productions Premier League Productions is an IMG produced company with studio shows and commentators for worldwide viewers of Premier League association football. English-language broadcast team The company has a group of UK based commentators, pundits, and pr ...

. Barker was the first female presenter of Match Day Live for Premier League Productions.

Career

Barker first worked for

BBC Essex BBC Essex is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Essex. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios on New London Road in Chelmsford. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of 160,000 ...

, before joining

BBC London 94.9 BBC Radio London is the BBC's local radio station serving Greater London and its surrounding areas. The station broadcasts across the area and beyond, on the 94.9 FM frequency, DAB, Virgin Media channel 937, Sky channel 0152 (in the Lond ...

in 2004 as a sports reporter. While at BBC London, she worked as cover for sports reporters on BBC Radio 2 and

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

. Beyond sports news, Barker presents the award winning ''Sportshour'' for BBC World Service and was presenter of '' Sportsworld'' for the BBC World Service until 2015. Since 2014, she has regularly presented on programmes across BBC Radio 5 Live, covering on the '' 5 Live Sport'', ''5 Live Drive'' and ''Weekend Breakfast'' shows. She has become a frequent panellist on BBC 5 Live's sports comedy show ''

Fighting Talk ''Fighting Talk'' is a topical sports show broadcast on BBC Radio 5 Live during the English football season. The show is broadcast on Saturday mornings for an hour between 1100 and 1200 and is based on a similar format to the ESPN show '' Around ...

'', winning the programme's "Rookie of the year award" in May 2015, and in the same year, led 5 Live's coverage of the Women's World Cup. She has since hosted the 2019 Women's World Cup for 5 Live. Barker is known for her love of fancy dress and appeared in a parrot costume during a live edition of ''Fighting Talk'' broadcast from Cardiff. Barker has also acted as stand-in host of ''

The Totally Football Show ''The Totally Football Show'' presented by James Richardson is a thrice weekly podcast about association football produced by Muddy Knees Media. From June 15, 2020 it was incorporated into and also available via The Athletic. It regularly featur ...

'' podcast in the absence of regular host, James Richardson, her first appearance being in February 2018. She now hosts ''The Totally Football League Show'' and football coverage for

. A fan of her hometown club

Chelmsford City Chelmsford City Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Chelmsford, Essex, England. Currently members of they play at the Melbourne Stadium. History Chelmsford Chelmsford Football Club was established in 1878 by members of ...

, Barker has long been a supporter of non-league football. She is the presenter of ''

The Non-League Football Show ''The Non-League Football Show'' is a weekly podcast. The show covers news and features from non-league football, that is, club football played in England at levels below The Football League. The presenter since its launch in 2006 has been Car ...

'', which she created for London 94.9 in 2006, moving with it to 5 Live in 2012. She is a director of the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

and was a founder member of the Non-League Footballers Association. From 2009 to 2011, she was a director at Chelmsford City. As well as football, Barker is also commentator and analyst on

netball Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...

, leading BBC coverage of the 2018 Commonwealth Gold winning team and for Sky Sports live coverage of the

2015 Netball World Cup The Netball World Cup Sydney 2015 (NWC2015) was the 14th edition of the INF Netball World Cup, the premier competition in international netball. It was held from 7–16 August, in Sydney, Australia, which secured hosting rights after defeating a ...

. She is lead commentator for Sky Netball. She hosted the

2018 Champions League of Darts The 2018 Paddy Power Champions League of Darts was the 3rd annual staging of the tournament, organised by the Professional Darts Corporation. It took place from 22–23 September 2018 at the Brighton Centre, Brighton. The defending champion Men ...

and

2019 Champions League of Darts The 2019 Paddy Power Champions League of Darts was the 4th annual staging of the Champions League of Darts, organised by the Professional Darts Corporation. It took place from 19–20 October 2019 at the Morningside Arena, Leicester. The defendi ...

on the BBC alongside Mark Webster and Paul Nicholson. She also covers the

NFL International Series The NFL International Series is a series of American football games during the National Football League (NFL) regular season that are played outside the United States. Since 2017, the series has two sub-series: the NFL London Games in the Uni ...

for

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC television, radio and online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside flag ...

. In addition to her broadcasting, Barker founded and was director of digital content company JibbaJabba.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barker, Caroline British journalists 1981 births Living people People from Chelmsford BBC sports presenters and reporters BBC Radio 5 Live presenters Netball commentators Chelmsford City F.C. non-playing staff