{"id":90181,"date":"2025-09-28T05:20:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T05:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/90181\/"},"modified":"2025-09-28T05:20:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T05:20:15","slug":"gabby-logan-says-she-hasnt-heard-from-gary-lineker-since-he-quit-match-of-the-day-and-reveals-her-secret-for-keeping-warm-on-the-touchline-in-her-first-interview-since-becoming-one-of-the-bbc-footbal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/90181\/","title":{"rendered":"Gabby Logan says she hasn’t heard from Gary Lineker since he quit Match Of The Day and reveals her secret for keeping warm on the touchline in her first interview since becoming one of the BBC football show’s main presenters"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s the longest-running football television programme in the world. And for more than 60 years, the BBC<\/a>\u2019s Match Of The Day, with its iconic theme tune and prime-time Saturday-night slot, has always had a man at the helm.<\/p>\n

But after the departure of veteran host Gary Lineker<\/a> at the end of last season, bosses made a calculated pivot.<\/p>\n

They signed up not one, but two women \u2013 long-running BBC Sport presenter Gabby Logan<\/a>, and Kelly Cates<\/a>, the daughter of Scottish legend and manager Sir Kenny Dalglish \u2013 to present the flagship football show alongside Mark Chapman.<\/p>\n

And no one, it seems, was more surprised than Gabby herself. Despite a well-respected career on screen, which has included hosting Final Score for BBC Sport and live events such as the London Marathon, the glamorous 52-year-old today jokes: \u2018Who\u2019d have thought they\u2019d have a menopausal woman hosting Match Of The Day?<\/p>\n

\u2018Not only has football come a long way but so has being able to use that M-word, because it used to have the connotations of being past it.\u2019<\/p>\n

In her first interview since she began one of the most prestigious jobs in television, it\u2019s clear that Gabby is a long way from being \u2018past it\u2019.<\/p>\n

But there was, of course, quite the battle to replace Lineker, who had hosted Match Of The Day (MOTD) for 26 years. The show\u2019s longest-serving presenter was the latest in a male lineage that included Kenneth Wolstenholme, David Coleman, Jimmy Hill and Des Lynam.<\/p>\n

Gabby tells me that she is yet to hear from Lineker, who left the BBC under a cloud after he shared an anti-Semitic social media post. But what about the show\u2019s male viewers, many of whom might have found a woman presenting it hard to get used to? In fact, it\u2019s the opposite.<\/p>\n

\"After <\/p>\n

After Gary Lineker’s departure at the end of last season Gabby Logan (centre), stepped in to present Match Of The Day, alongside Mark Chapman and Kelly Cates<\/p>\n

\"And <\/p>\n

And no one was more surprised than Gabby herself, who jokes:\u00a0\u2018Who\u2019d have thought they\u2019d have a menopausal woman hosting Match Of The Day?’<\/p>\n

\"But <\/p>\n

But she is yet to hear from Gary Lineker. The pair are pictured in a promotional shot for BBC Sports Personality Of The Year 2021<\/p>\n

People regularly approach her and, she adds: \u2018What I\u2019ve loved is how many women have said, \u201cIt\u2019s just so great\u201d, which is really lovely.\u2019<\/p>\n

Gabby acknowledges: \u2018There are still a small percentage of older blokes who feel that you\u2019re treading on their patch, but they\u2019re not as noisy as they used to be.<\/p>\n

\u2018So hopefully they\u2019re used to it, and I love it when an older bloke comes up to me and says, \u201cI really like you on Match Of The Day\u201d. Then you go, \u201cOh, OK, I must be doing something right.\u201d \u2019<\/p>\n

As a seasoned stand-in on the show since 2007, and having been Des Lynam\u2019s relief presenter on The Premiership (the ITV version from 2001 to 2004 when the BBC lost the rights to show Premier League highlights), Gabby considers her new gig as \u2018just work\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u2018We couldn\u2019t understand why everyone was so interested, but then you realise, actually, that this is a big, iconic, important show for people and that\u2019s why they\u2019re interested,\u2019 she says. \u2018It has been quite strange . . . You go around doing your job, doing it as best you can, but Match Of The Day is a different level of scrutiny. You feel more watched.\u2019<\/p>\n

Gabby believes that, for the younger generation, seeing women presenting a show such as MOTD will \u2018just become the norm\u2019.<\/p>\n

She says: \u2018A lot of women have been going to watch football for a long time and football has to reflect its fans as well. I think that\u2019s the great thing about it \u2013 it is for everybody. That\u2019s why it\u2019s important that you have people from different ethnicities and backgrounds. TV should reflect society.\u2019<\/p>\n

But, sadly, it hasn\u2019t always been the case. When she started out in football she would get quite a few nasty comments on social media and even found herself replying. It was only after a stern talking-to from American Olympic champion sprinter Michael Johnson, while working on the BBC\u2019s athletics coverage, that she learned to ignore the hate.<\/p>\n

She says: \u2018I\u2019ve had plenty on social media, not so much now, but I have had it over the years. At the beginning I wanted to reply to all those types of things, but then Michael Johnson said to me, \u201cGabby, I saw you, you\u2019ve got 500,000 followers on Twitter, why are you responding to that guy who has got two followers? You\u2019re giving him oxygen\u2026\u201d and I thought, \u201cDo you know what? He\u2019s right.\u201d The people who matter are your producer, and your peers and the people that you are working with.<\/p>\n

\u2018My job is to make pundits shine and get their stories out, and their explanations and interpretations as to how a match has panned out, and what they want to analyse.<\/p>\n

\u2018For me that is more important than what some faceless bloke on social media thinks about me.<\/p>\n

\u2018I can\u2019t please all of the people all of the time.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"Gabby <\/p>\n

Gabby Logan with Alan Shearer prior to a match. The pair’s secret to filming on a pitch in freezing conditions is a heated vest<\/p>\n

\"She <\/p>\n

She is launching The Menopace Strength Test to help women assess and improve their physical strength<\/p>\n

Gabby organises her own wardrobe when in the hot seat because, unlike the big entertainment shows, there is no budget for stylists.<\/p>\n

But she\u2019s clearly getting something right \u2013 men message her on social media asking where her clothes are from on behalf of their wives.<\/p>\n

However, as the show is shot in front of a green screen, picking her own wardrobe is \u2018an absolute nightmare because you can\u2019t wear anything green or cream or white\u2019 as it would disappear.<\/p>\n

She adds: \u2018I had this gorgeous turquoise dress and they were like, \u201cNo, it\u2019s too green.\u201d I tend to wear unfussy things because I\u2019ve got to get a mic pack on quite quickly, and you\u2019ve got to feel comfortable. I prefer quite classic cuts but monochrome, so all red, all blue.\u2019<\/p>\n

Shirts, too. \u2018They sit well on TV but you don\u2019t want something that\u2019s creased. Also, you don\u2019t want to wear something that would distract the viewer, where they go, \u201cWhat has she got on?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018I do love it, though, when blokes contact me on Instagram and go, \u201cMy wife really loved that shirt you were wearing on Match Of The Day, where\u2019s it from?\u201d \u2019<\/p>\n

And Gabby\u2019s less-than-glamorous secret when filming down on the side of the football pitch in freezing conditions? A heated vest.<\/p>\n

She says: \u2018I\u2019ve got a really good coat selection. I\u2019m always looking out for coats. I could be in the middle of Italy, it\u2019s 92F, but if I see a nice coat I\u2019m buying it.<\/p>\n

\u2018Temperatures can be minus and you\u2019re there for hours. So I wear a heated vest. It has a battery and it heats up. I wear it under a polo neck, and then my coat. It means you don\u2019t have to wear too many layers.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s been a game-changer. They all laughed at me a few years ago, and then they all got one!<\/p>\n

\u2018A few years ago it was Ally McCoist and Alan Shearer, and then I think Amazon sold out of the one I was wearing. It spread throughout everyone.\u2019<\/p>\n

Gabby\u2019s new role at the BBC has coincided with a quieter home life as an empty nester.<\/p>\n

\"Gabby <\/p>\n

Gabby with her husband Kenny at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2024. They have two children Lois and Reuben, both 20<\/p>\n

\"Ms <\/p>\n

Ms Logan, pictured presenting in August, believes that, for the younger generation, seeing women presenting a show such as MOTD will \u2018just become the norm\u2019<\/p>\n

She and her husband Kenny, 53, a former Scotland rugby player, live in Buckinghamshire and have two children, twins Reuben and Lois, 20. Lois returned to university on Friday while Reuben is now living in Manchester where he has followed in his dad\u2019s footsteps by playing rugby, for Sale Sharks.<\/p>\n

So how does she feel about this new chapter in her life? \u2018Reuben moving to Manchester has been the biggest change for us,\u2019 she says. \u2018When he was at Northampton he could come home after matches.<\/p>\n

\u2018We\u2019ve had Lois home all summer so, with her gone as well as Reuben, we\u2019re going to really feel it this week.<\/p>\n

\u2018But there\u2019s also a lot of freedom that comes with this time in your life.\u2019<\/p>\n

By that she also means the menopause \u2013 something that Gabby has been open about going through. She is an ambassador for nutritional supplement Menopace, made by Vitabiotics, and has long been an advocate for health and fitness to empower women through hormonal changes.<\/p>\n

She is launching The Menopace Strength Test to help women assess and improve their physical strength. Scientific evidence suggests that strength training can reduce the risk of osteoporosis, improve heart health and boost mood for menopausal women.<\/p>\n

She says: \u2018It\u2019s about looking at this next stage of your life as an opportunity. It\u2019s about preparing yourself, looking at your nutrition, training \u2013 all those things to make yourself feel better.\u2019<\/p>\n

Gabby, a former gymnast, has found training in her 50s refreshing. She says: \u2018In my 20s I was training because I felt that my thighs shouldn\u2019t be that size or I should be a smaller version of me and, thankfully, that is absolutely the furthest thing away from why I go to the gym now, why I go to pilates or do a cycle ride.\u2019<\/p>\n

Gabby has also found freedom in caring far less about what other people think. In particular, she jokes, she can\u2019t believe she used to agonise over the size of her breasts.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019ve never had boobs, and in the 1990s it was all about having cleavage, and I can\u2019t believe I ever agonised about it all because I don\u2019t care,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n

\u2018I try to have those conversations with my daughter. She\u2019s generally pretty well balanced about all of that, but if I ever hear her getting hung up about anything, I hope I\u2019ve done a good job of not ever letting her know that I\u2019ve had any body anxiety.\u2019<\/p>\n

For her, body strength is more important than \u2018having a small bum or having a bigger bum, or a smaller waist or whatever it is with the current trend\u2019.<\/p>\n

And after nearly three decades working in the testosterone-soaked world of sports presenting, she\u2019s clearly not short on mental muscle, either.<\/p>\n

To find out more,\u00a0go to menopace.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s the longest-running football television programme in the world. And for more than 60 years, the BBC\u2019s Match…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[118,18,117,3410,32436,19,17,2837,438],"class_list":{"0":"post-90181","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-gabby-logan","12":"tag-gary-lineker","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-match-day","16":"tag-tvshowbiz"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}