SCOTLAND’S SEASONED COMMENTATOR TALKS TO AM
Gill Sherry
Having spent over three decades commentating on a variety of different sports and on some of the world’s biggest and best sporting events, it’s difficult to know where to begin with Dougie Donnelly. But seeing as this issue is very much looking forward to the World Cup, I decide to start there.
Dougie commentated on both the 1990 and 1998 World Cup tournaments, played in Italy and France respectively.
“It was a golden age of Scottish sport,” he recalls, “not just with football. We were having success in rugby, Stephen Hendy in the snooker, our golfers were among the best in the world, and we’d qualified for five out of six World Cups… so it was no big deal to be going to a World Cup at that time.”
No big deal? Based on the frenzy surrounding this year’s qualification, that’s very hard to believe.
“Sadly, we never got out of the group, that was the frustration. I don’t want to be controversial, but we probably had better teams then than we do now and were entitled to expect that we would do quite well, but never did.”
For Dougie, one moment at the very start of the 1998 tournament stands out.
“It was hugely exciting for me to be there presenting the BBC coverage to what we knew was a huge audience back home. I still remember standing in the gantry of the Stade de France with Ally McCoist and Willie Miller. It was the opening match of the World Cup. Scotland against Brazil. We looked at each other and said, ‘This is a big deal, isn’t it?’”
The match resulted in a 2-1 defeat, followed by a draw against Norway and then what he describes as an “absolutely shocking” 3-0 loss against Morocco. Like many Scots, he no doubt wished Kenny Dalglish had still been playing for his national team in the 90s.
“As a kid I was always a Denis Law fan. Then as time went on, I became a big fan of Kenny Dalglish. He’s probably the greatest ever Scottish player. He’d finished by then, but we had a good squad in 1990, and a good manager in Andy Roxburgh. It was hugely frustrating we weren’t able to qualify for the next stage.”
Leaving football behind for the time being, our conversation goes way back to the beginning when Dougie found himself presenting for Radio Clyde.
“I was studying law – I got a law degree which I’ve never used – and got sidetracked into being a DJ. My first great mentor and supporter, Andy Park, ran Radio Clyde and he was kind enough to give me a job.”
He always thought he would eventually become a lawyer but: “Here we are, all these years later, still making a living.”
Despite joining the BBC in 1978 he continued with Radio Clyde until 1992, presenting his radio show in the morning and BBC sports programmes on a Wednesday evening and at the weekend. But it wasn’t just football he was covering.
“I was young and keen and was interested in a whole bunch of sports. The BBC kept coming to me and saying, ‘what do you know about snooker?’ and I would say not very much but give me a week! Then they’d ask, ‘what do you know about indoor bowls?’ and I’d say, even less, give me two weeks! I turned nothing down and found that I was quite versatile.”
That versatility led to him commentating at major events such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, Six Nations and Ryder Cup, not forgetting 33 consecutive Scottish Cup finals! And he’s been invited to cover the highlights programme for this season’s Scottish Cup, saying: “I’m back doing football for the BBC Scotland – very unexpectedly but I’m enjoying it enormously. It’s better than a proper job!”
He’s now covering golf pretty much full-time, although, he refers to himself as semi-retired.
“I’m the lead commentator on the Asian Tour. I do ten events a year. I absolutely love it. I’m very lucky at this age to be still working and still in demand.”
Not only is he still working, and travelling to places such as Japan, Singapore and Morocco, he’s also found time to write a book. His memoir, Dougie Donnelly: Recorded Highlights – My Life in Sport was released in 2024 and earned him an invitation to this year’s Boswell Book Festival.
“I’ve always been the sort of person that kept diaries – not the ‘took the dog for a walk, had breakfast’ type of diary, but an appointment diary… so when Covid hit and we all had time on our hands, I finally decided it was time to do the book.”
Thinking he would need a ghost writer to help him, he contacted his sports journalist friend, Hugh MacDonald, who encouraged Dougie to write it himself. This was the first of two very good pieces of advice.
“I’m quite proud of the fact that I wrote it myself. But he also said, ‘don’t be modest, don’t feel that you can’t name-drop because that’s what people want to read in an auto biography.’”
Dougie has been lucky to meet so many stars, not just in sport but in music (Sir Elton John and Sir Paul McCartney, to name just two) and Hugh encouraged him to include these stories in his book. He also injected some humour, resulting in a very entertaining read.
But back to the World Cup… I ask if he believes Scotland can finally make it out of the group stage.
“I’m hopeful rather than optimistic,” he says, “which sounds a bit negative. We’ve got a tough draw. The important game is the first one against Haiti. The other two I think we might struggle in, but if we beat Haiti we have every chance of qualifying and finally getting into the knock-out stages.”
Football is, of course, a team game, but does he think the key lies with any one player in particular?
“We’re very strong in mid-field with players like Scott McTominay, who scored that wonder goal against Denmark, and John McGinn. I’m a big fan of Andy Robertson as well. Andy’s is a story you don’t hear very often these days. He began his career at Queens Park as a part-timer… then he got his first move to Dundee United, and then his career took off from there. You see so many young players now that are superstars at 15,16,17 years old. Andy came up the hard way and will probably become our most capped player very soon. And he’s the captain. I admire him enormously.”
And where will Dougie be watching?
“Believe it or not, I’m actually going to be in Morocco. I’m doing a golf tournament in Morocco so I will be watching on my laptop for one of the games. For the other two, I’m at home in Glasgow.”
We spend a couple of minutes chatting about the late (or early) kick-off times and speculating about the amount of alcohol likely to be consumed by high spirited Scotland fans before a ball is even kicked. Let’s hope the high spirits continue after 90 minutes!
Dougie Donnelly: Recorded Highlights – My Life in Sport is available from all good book shops or as an eBook or Audiobook.
