Gerald Sinstadt

Gerald Sinstadt (born 19 February 1930 in Folkestone, Kent) is a British commentator and broadcaster, usually focusing on football matches.

He attended the Harvey Grammar School, Folkestone and he began his broadcasting career on the British Forces Broadcasting Service and BBC Radio in the 1950s and 1960s - where he was deputy to Head of Sport Angus Mackay. He made a move isnto television in the mid-1960s with ITV company Anglia Television.

From 1969 to 1981 he was the main football commentator/presenter for Granada Television in North West England, replacing Barry Davies. There he commentated on many matches involving the region's biggest clubs, Liverpool, Manchester United, Everton and Manchester City, though such was the nature of the television contracts at the time he would also find himself covering the likes of Preston North End, Bury and Blackpool. He often commentated on nationally networked broadcasts of European matches played in the North West, notably Manchester United's victory over Ajax Amsterdam in the 1976-77 UEFA Cup, Liverpool's dramatic defeat of Saint Etienne in the 1976-1977 European Cup.

Sinstadt covered four World Cups for ITV from 1970 in Mexico through to the 1982 tournament in Spain. He was also part of the network team at the European Championships in Italy in 1980. For much of his time he could be considered ITV's number three commentator behind Brian Moore and Hugh Johns, covering at least three major club finals for the network - the UEFA Cup Finals in 1974 and 1976 and the League Cup Final replay in 1978. During his ITV years he was also asked to commentate on other sports - including all ball games at the 1972 Munich Olympics, snooker, golf and cricket.

Sinstadt left Granada after the 1980-81 season, his place being taken by Martin Tyler. From the beginning of 1982 until the end of the 1982-83 season, Sinstadt commentated for TVS, whose region at the time had two First Division clubs, Southampton and Brighton and Hove Albion. Subsequently, he commentated on golf for Channel 4. He then rejoined the BBC from the mid-1980s, working as a reporter and commentator for Football Focus and Match of the Day and covering other sports, such as rowing (where he commentated on some of the Steve Redgrave / Matthew Pinsent Olympic successes), and covering the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race in the early 1990s, succeeding Harry Carpenter but soon being replaced by Barry Davies. From the 1960s to the 1980s, Sinstadt was also a sportswriter - writing mainly about football, but also covering golf on occasions - for The Times.

Sinstadt now seems to have retired, but well into the 2000s he continued to report from football grounds for BBC Sport's Score programme, broadcast on Saturday afternoons on BBC One and the BBC's interactive digital service.

He appeared in a film about the Hillsborough disaster, directed by Charles McDougall.