Reshmin Chowdhury took issue with what BBC staff asked before MOTD snub | Football | Sport

Reshmin Chowdhury has previously spoken out about her frustration with BBC colleagues who “tested” her. A member of the BBC Sport team since 2010, she was believed to be amongst the candidates to replace Gary Lineker as host of the corporation’s flagship football highlights programme Match of the Day.

The former Tottenham and England striker departed the show, and the BBC, last year. Despite Chowdhury’s extensive credentials – including work for beIN SPORTS, talkSPORT and Discovery Plus, as well as previous appearances hosting Match of the Day 2 – she was ultimately passed over for Mark Chapman, Kelly Cates and Gabby Logan.

Alleging she faced ethnic and gender discrimination, she told The Sun in August 2024: “Being British Asian… I think I had to convince a lot of people that I knew about football. That was the most frustrating part… I mean, is it a surprise? I started off working in news, no one questioned me then. I have a politics degree, so it was quite normal. But when you come into sport, people look at you and they are thinking: ‘Does she know what she is really talking about?'”

She recounted a particular incident where two male colleagues questioned her knowledge of Real Madrid, acknowledging it felt like a “test.” She said: “I can remember when I was at the BBC a couple of guys asked me a question about a specific Real Madrid player. I knew they were testing me. And maybe this is the case for other women, and not just about colour – but they wouldn’t do that to another guy.”

The Spanish giants proved to be Chowdhury’s breakthrough opportunity when she secured the presenter role for Real Madrid TV in 2008. She became the first journalist to interview Cristiano Ronaldo following his then-world record move from Manchester United in 2009, before landing another global exclusive with Karim Benzema that same summer when he arrived from Lyon.

Having presented prestigious events such as The Best FIFA Football awards, she’s previously discussed the challenges of entering the media industry, particularly for individuals of her ethnicity. “It shouldn’t be as hard as it was for me for someone getting into sports broadcasting now,” she said. “I believe it would have been 100 per cent easier if I had an ‘in’. The barriers to entry were everywhere.

“Being British Asian… I think I had to convince a lot of people that I knew about football. I didn’t have a famous sporting person in my family, or know anyone in TV. We need more representation [in the industry]… It’s something I am passionate about. In the last five or six years, the doors have opened for women in sport. But that hasn’t always been the case.”

She is of British and Bangladeshi heritage, and was born and brought up in London in what she described as an “open-minded, progressive Bengali Muslim” family. Her presence on television has seen her become a role model for young British Asian girls aspiring to enter the media landscape.

“I get Bengali parents who come up to me and tell me their daughters want to become sports journalists because they saw me,” she admitted. “I can’t tell you how much that means to me. Every time I hear that my heart skips a beat.”