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03
THE SUPPORTERS
MY SPECIAL DAY
This was something new to Sky Sports News this season,
and a reflection of the power of sport to change people’s
lives. They were poignant reports, where children with
life-threatening illnesses met their sporting heroes; so
that included Olympic gold medal winner Greg Rutherford,
Ryder Cup winner Paul Lawrie and the England rugby team.
The first two reports in the series were shown before
Christmas and featured young football fans of Premier League
clubs. Ten-year-old Tottenham fan Callum Fuller, who has
overcome two cancer battles, was stunned to watch a
special message from the Soccer AM crew.
It included Tottenham Hotspur manager Andre Villas-Boas
inviting him to their training ground. Callum met his hero
Gareth Bale and watched him score against West Ham United
as he sat in Ledley King’s box at White Hart Lane.
We also featured six-year-old Manchester City fan Hayden
Whitbread, who has been fighting kidney cancer, as he met
the entire first team including his favourite player Joe Hart.
Hayden had his own training session with Joe and was led
out onto the pitch by him at the Etihad Stadium as his mascot.
Andy Burton’s reports highlighted the strong community
spirit of Premier League clubs and showed us the courageous
battling spirit of some of their youngest supporters.
The two clubs were excellent in providing us access and
that really helped to tell the story of these courageous children.
We received an extraordinary amount of feedback from
viewers who told us they had been moved to tears by such
inspirational stories.
You’ve got a friend: Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart made the
day of young City fan Hayden Whitbread by showing him around their
training ground to meet their players.
Starman: Presenter Jim White comes into his own with outside broadcast
events like the announcement of Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement.
SIR ALEX FERGUSON’S RETIREMENT
I think we will look back on Wednesday 8 May 2013 as one of
those “Where were you when…” moments in football. There have
been few stories like it, as the most successful manager in British
football history announced his retirement after winning his
13th Premier League title with Manchester United.
Our senior news editor, Keith James, who has been at Sky for
15 years and was one of the first appointments at Sky Sports
News, abandoned the normal diary in the daily 8.30am
editorial conference and dedicated a significant amount of the
day’s resources to providing tributes. Within hours of the club’s
confirmation, Steve Bruce, Paul Ince, Alex McLeish, Mark
Hughes, Eric Harrison and former Manchester United chairman
Martin Edwards had given their unique insight into Sir Alex.
We were overwhelmed by the number of emails, texts and
tweets from football fans around the world.
Jim White was sent from London to the club’s Carrington
training base. Later that day he relocated to Old Trafford and
brilliantly anchored the programme. He not only presented
in the howling wind and rain, but he also did it without an
autocue. Jim lives for seismic moments like these, as we all
do in rolling 24-hour sports news. Nothing beats the
buzz of reporting on a defining moment in the game.
Everyone has their own story about Sir Alex and, as a
young fresh-faced reporter at MUTV in the 1998/99 Treblewinning
season, I remember he was always the first to arrive
at their old Cliff training ground at least three hours before
the players. I was always struck by his complete dedication.
It’s very hard to imagine the new Premier League season
without him in the dugout and, indeed, it will be a different
Sky Sports News without him too.
INCLUDING 24 PRESENTERS AND 33 REPORTERS... SOCCER SATURDAY AVERAGE AUDIENCE IS 448,916.
THE SUPPORTERS 2012/13 • SEASON REVIEW 35