After 34 years commentating for SBS, the face of football will hang up his microphone.
The great Les Murray will commentate his last World Cup these next few weeks, and will officially retire from full time commentary at the end of this year.
His contribution to the sport in Australia shouldn’t be glossed over. Ever since calling the 1980 National Soccer League grand final for SBS, Murray has fought to promote the game in a cricket, AFL and NRL loving country.
Affectionately known as ‘Mr Football’, Murray has hosted World Soccer, On The Ball, SBS World Sport with the help of Andy Paschalidis and was a major
player in securing the first broadcast rights to the World Cup.
Cornering the SBS CEO Brian Johns in the SBS lift, Murray convinced him to take the 1986 World Cup on, despite the $1 million pricetag, after the ABC weren’t interested. From then on, SBS has broadcast eight World Cups to Australian living rooms, challenging the face of Australian sport and promoting the multicultural aspect that makes the sport so popular here.
Their ratings for the World Cup have climbed from 3 million in 1990 to 15 million in 2003.
In 2006, Murray was made an Order of Australia for his contributions to football, and was even immortalised in a song by Melbourne band TISM What
Nationality is Les Murray?. He even accepted an Aria Award for the band, in Hungarian.
Over the next four weeks, SBS will broadcast more than 700 hours of event coverage including 64 games live and in high definition.
Murray will be hosting a primetime analysis, review and preview show with Craig Foster in Rio de Janeiro to keep fans up to date without having to wait up all night for the matches.
Source: The Age, SBS