Gerald Sinstadt

Gerald Sinstadt (born 19 February 1930) is a British sports commentator, broadcaster and newspaper columnist, usually on football.

Born in Folkestone, Kent, Sinstadt attended the Harvey Grammar School, and began broadcasting on the British Forces Broadcasting Service in October 1949 and BBC Radio in the 1950s and 1960s – where he was deputy to head of sport to Angus Mackay. Whilst at BFBS he met a young 2nd Lieutenant doing his national service by the name of Barry Davies who was keen to try his hand at sports broadcasting. Upon their return to the UK Sinstadt helped Davies to get a foothold in BBC Radio. Sinstadt moved into television in the mid-1960s with Anglia Television.

From 1969 to 1981 he was the main football commentator/presenter for Granada Television in North West England, replacing Barry Davies who had moved to the BBC. He presented the Friday evening Granada football magazine preview show Kick Off, and then over the weekend commentated on matches, usually involving Liverpool, Manchester City, Everton and Manchester United which from 1975 until he left would be broadcast in Kick Off Match, Granada's regional variation of ITV's The Big Match. He would also cover numerous other clubs such as Blackpool, Bury and Preston North End.

He often commentated nationally on European matches involving north-west clubs, notably Manchester United's victory over Ajax Amsterdam in the 1976–77 UEFA Cup and Liverpool's defeat of Saint Etienne in the same season's European Cup. Sinstadt covered four World Cups for ITV, from 1970 in Mexico to 1982 in Spain, with the main matches he covered including the live 1978 third-place play-off between Brazil and Italy, and the 1982 semi-final between France and West Germany. He was also part of the ITV team at the European Championships in Italy in 1980. Sinstadt was ITV's number three commentator behind Brian Moore and Hugh Johns, covering the UEFA Cup finals in 1974 and 1976 and the Football League Cup final replay between Nottingham Forest and Liverpool in 1978. During his ITV years he commentated on other sports – including all ball games at the 1972 Munich Olympics, snooker, golf and cricket.

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