By Simon Wright – Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88
Sky Sports will have a new permanent football anchor for
their Premier League coverage in 2016/2017 with Ed Chamberlin ending his
16-year association with the corporation.
Southampton supporter Chamberlin announced on Wednesday that
he was leaving the broadcaster that he has been with since 2000. He will be
taking a new post as presenter of ITV’s horse racing coverage. ITV take over as
terrestrial broadcaster of all the major horse racing meetings from Channel 4
at the start of 2017, which will include the Cheltenham Festival, Royal Ascot
and the Grand National.
On his Twitter account, he posted the following tweets: “I’m
thrilled to be joining ITV & really looking forward to the new challenge.
Exciting times ahead.
“I had 16 years at Sky full of great memories: from wearing pink braces
on 90 minutes, via 9 years on Sky Sports News, through to Leicester’s incredible
story. A huge thank you to the brilliant Super Sunday & MNF teams.”
Keeping
Sky ahead
Ed Chamberlin has been with Sky Sports since the start of
the millennium and began fronting Sky’s live coverage of Premier League football
in February 2011 after Richard Keys’ abrupt departure from the broadcaster.
 |
| Ed Chamberlin was the perfect anchor for the award-winning MNF coverage |
He has fronted over 400 top-flight games since, anchoring
the flagship Super Sunday and Monday Night Football programmes and being a huge
part of their success in keeping Sky ahead of the competition. Chamberlin (pictured) also was the
perfect referee during the debates and laughs between MNF pundits Jamie
Carragher and Gary Neville.
His final game was the rearranged Premier League match
between Manchester United and AFC Bournemouth in May which was delayed by two
days due to a security threat inside Old Trafford. He will start his new role
with ITV in January 2017.
Chamberlin is a keen follower of horse racing, having previously
worked for Ladbrokes and he is the right fit for ITV as they prepare to take
over from Channel 4, who’ve have been at the forefront of major horse racing
events for nearly 30 years.
David’s
the favourite
Chamberlin’s likely replacement will come from within the
Sky football family. David Jones is the favourite to replace him on Monday
Night Football and Super Sunday. It is likely that a second presenter will be
signed for the new Saturday lunchtime/Friday night slot for 2016/2017.
Jones has been with BSkyB ever since the launch of Sky
Sports News in October 1998 and fronted the corporation’s Football League
coverage for five seasons in the mid-2000s. In 2013, he took a new role hosting
Saturday Night Football when Sky won this broadcasting slot in the last TV
contract for Premier League rights.
Saturday Night Football is no more from next season, with BT
Sport taking the teatime kick-off on Saturdays. Sky will instead revert to
Saturday lunchtime slots and will also show upto 10 live Friday night matches
as part of the new TV deal, which starts next season.
Should Jones get a promotion, he will join Carragher for MNF
next season and be supported by other regular Sky Premier League pundits Graeme
Souness, Jamie Redknapp, Niall Quinn and Thierry Henry. No announcements have
been made on whether Sky will bring in another full-time pundit to join the
team or if they will continue to use guest pundits for MNF, which they have
been doing since Neville left in December 2015 to take over unsuccessfully at
Valencia in Spain.
Soccer Saturday’s Jeff Stelling has also been linked with
doing some live Premier League coverage next season whilst Goals on Sunday host
Ben Shepherd is another name in the running.
Interesting times will lie ahead for Sky Sports over the next
few weeks following Chamberlin’s defection away from the channel.
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