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The clock is ticking on the countdown to Qatar 2022, with one month remaining until the beautiful game's showpiece event kicks off.
In this series of interviews with some of the biggest names in football media who have worked with SBS, David Basheer explores some great memories and anecdotes from past World Cups.
Keep an eye out for the interviews with Martin Tyler and Tracey Holmes on the SBS Sport site and SBS On Demand as they are rolled out closer to the start of the FIFA World Cup™.
Simon Hill - Commentator
Simon Hill worked with SBS from 2003 to 2006 and was lead commentator for the 2006 FIFA World Cup matches involving Australia, including their historic qualification in the two-leg play-off against Uruguay a year earlier.
Hill came over from the UK after years with ITV and the BBC as a commentator and presenter, finding himself at home with SBS in his first job in Australia.
“When I arrived (at SBS), I knew that football wasn’t the main game in Australia and I didn’t know how much football culture I’d find,” said Hill.
“The brilliant thing about starting my life at SBS was that I walked into an office more rabidly pro football that anything I’d been exposed to in the UK. I walked into the bosom of an organisation that had football in its DNA.”
Hill worked with Les Murray and Johnny Warren over many broadcasts and talked of their legacy to football in Australia.
“As I went on, I realised how important and how iconic Les Murray and Johnny Warren were to the game of football in particular in this country because they’d fought so hard for so many years,” said Hill.
"They are sadly no longer with us, but we have to carry on that mantle, or as Les put it ‘the mission’. And ‘the mission’ goes on.”
Hill has become an indelible part of the football history of Australia, calling the Socceroos’ second-ever qualification to the World Cup in the playoff against Uruguay. The away leg in Montevideo still ranks at the top of Hill’s broadcasts in his career.
“The build-up I remember growing day-by-day,” said Hill.
“The broadcast at the Centenario was one of the best broadcast experiences of my career. I remember going on the bus two hours before kick-off and he streets were empty.
“I remembered thinking ‘where is everybody, I thought this was going to be mad today’. I found out once we got to the stadium because they were already there and making a big racket.
“That noise throughout the 90 minutes was extraordinary and something that will live with me forever.”
Tracey Holmes- Presenter
Tracey Holmes has decades of experience broadcasting a wide range of sports as a commentator and presenter within Australia and around the globe, but she still has vivid memories of being brought into the SBS World Cup team.
“I got a phone call from Les Murray saying ‘we haven’t really met, but I’d like you to come along and have and a chat, and maybe be part of our team for France ’98,” said Holmes. “I was like ‘is this for real, or is this a crank call’?”
“Being a bit of a football outsider, I’d covered some football for the ABC, but I wasn’t part of the inner sanctum of yourself (David Basheer), Les Murray, Johnny Warren, and in years to come Craig Foster. I think what SBS has done for the sport in this country has been phenomenal. You can’t give enough praise.”
Part of the hosting team for 1998 and 2006 men’s World Cups, in addition to the 2019 women’s World Cup, Holmes has unique memories from each, from the sometimes ad hoc style of the France World Cup, to the scenes in Germany and finally to the shift in the football landscape with the 2019 World Cup, also in France.
France 1998 FIFA World Cup:
“I was in a car with Les Murray and Johnny Warren, two absolute legends and Andy Harper and I were in the back. Les was taking us to go and watch Brazil at a training session.
“Les was talking a million miles an hour as he does, Johnny was reading a newspaper because he didn’t like the way Les drove, and he was trying not to see the road. Andy and I were nodding and commenting when necessary. Les was abusing people and cutting in on lanes in the road. We went straight past the training venue and I think we ended up in Austria!
“We were laughing in the back seat and trying not to, and here were these two legends trying not to catch each others’ eyes as it was all melting around us. We got to Brazil training with about ten minutes left in the session.”
Germany 2006 World Cup:
“My recollections of Germany was a lot of train travel between venues and getting three hours sleep a lot of nights. You absolutely love it during these big events, because you just want to keep doing the story. What happens on the pitch is a million stories, but there a thousand others when you pull that lens back from the pitch.
“You sensed this change in the spirit in Germany. You sensed there was a bit of nervousness in inviting the world back in, there had been so many negative stories associated with big events in Germany in the past. This was almost like them re-branding themselves and coming out afresh. You felt that change in the people as the tournament went on.
“Fan sites all over, couches filling up the centre of stadiums and big screens beaming in the coverage to other cities for people who couldn’t get there. That was remarkable.”
France 2019 World Cup:
“That World Cup was sensational for so many reasons, but I’ve got to give credit to SBS here because SBS has always been onboard with the womens World Cup in a way that no other broadcaster has.
“SBS has not only built the brand of the Socceroos but also of the Matildas through being so committed through years of trial and tribulation. France ’19 was where the women’s game went to new levels, not just here in Australia, but around the world.
“The quality of the game, with new leagues expanding and getting more professional around the world, it just came to life and we saw people really buying in. This is what has taken the game to a new level and SBS has been there every step of the way.”
The third interview of the series, with commentator Martin Tyler, will be published on Friday, November 11.
All 64 matches of the FIFA World Cup 2022ᵀᴹ will be broadcast LIVE and FREE on SBS and SBS On Demand.
