Originally Posted by 4-4-2:
“BBC Radio 5 Live
Mark Pougatch presenting Euro 2012 Final Live from the Olympic Stadium in Kiev - with Chris Waddle and Graham Taylor.
UEFA Euro 2012 Final
Spain v Italy - Mike Ingham and Alan Green, with Chris Waddle and Graham Taylor (commentary)”
I had a flick through Radio 5 Live's Euro 2012 Final coverage on the iPlayer yesterday, so I am in a position to flesh out the details that have already posted on here as to how they covered it.
Mark Pougatch presented from the Olimpiyskiy Stadium alongside Graham Taylor throughout, with all three members of the commentary team chipping into the build-up intermittently. He was also joined by Martin Keown both just before 7pm (suggesting the pre-match piece he did on BBC One was pre-recorded) and at half-time with Graham Hunter, the noted Spanish football journalist many will know through his work on Sky's Revista de La Liga, joining the team in the first half hour of their coverage (which started at 6.30pm, although only an hour of their pre-match build-up has been archived on the iPlayer so I might have missed a few names out). Mark also pre-recorded an interview with BBC One pundit Gianluca Vialli which was played after 7pm.
As for the commentary, Alan Green did the opening leg of each half with Mike Ingham doing the anchor legs and Chris Waddle being the summariser. From skimming through the iPlayer recording of it, I didn't hear Graham Taylor contributing during the commentary itself as he does during England games although someone who listened live and in full may be able to correct me on this. It was also mentioned by Mike that the BBC World Service were carrying the commentary as well as 5 Live.
In terms of the reporters they used, 5 Live's football correspondent Ian Dennis conducted their post-match interviews (which were also used on the BBC Sport website, and Ian may have been heard on the 15 minutes of build-up that weren't uploaded). As has been the case for the last few World Cup and European Championship finals, they also had reporters at fan parties in the capital cities of the countries contesting the final. Tom Burridge was called upon in Madrid and Alan Johnston (who I believe was the noted former war correspondent of that name, although from his crackly phone line I couldn't be sure) was in Rome for them. We also heard the BBC World Service's Lee James interviewing fans as they were entering the stadium in Kiev during the build-up. Just ahead of the 7pm news, they played a pre-record John Motson had recorded about the facts and stats of the tournament (it sounded like the sort of thing that I presume would have been a staple part of their build-up before most Euro 2012 commentaries).
I hope I'm not being too cheeky here, but do we have a statistical breakdown of who did what for Radio 5 Live over the course of Euro 2012 in terms of presenters, commentators and summarisers in the same vein as I have posted for talkSPORT above? I know Shaun usually comes up trumps here and I for one would be interested to read such a post.