Alan Green (born 25 June 1952 in Belfast, Northern Ireland), has been a BBC Radio sports commentator since 1981, mainly on football but also on golf, rowing and the Olympic Games.[1]
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Green started in the BBC in 1975, with the ambition to be a TV news producer.[2] After a period presenting in Ulster, he moved to radio and commentating in Manchester.[2]
Green was present at the Hillsborough disaster as a commentator.[3]
Green describes Macclesfield Town as his adopted home team,[4]
Green is known for his outspoken views which occasionally places him in dispute with football clubs, figures and authorities. He has an ongoing "feud" with Sir Alex Ferguson, the manager of Manchester United, and the pair have not spoken for years. Green said in an interview[5] that the feud dates back to an incident in which he said on air that he was "learning not to believe the propaganda that comes out of the Manchester United manager's office" after he claims he had been given inaccurate team news by Ferguson before a game. In the same interview Green defends his professional impartiality: "I'm supposed to hate Man United, but listen to my commentary on the 1999 European Cup final in Barcelona and try telling me I hate Man United. It's garbage."
In February 2006, Green was banned from the Reebok Stadium (home of Bolton Wanderers) after accusing the team and its manager Sam Allardyce of playing "ugly" football which he wouldn't pay to watch. Following Allardyce's departure to Newcastle United, the club and replacement manager Sammy Lee invited Green back.[6]
In 2005, Green had a dispute with Everton fans, with an article he wrote for the Irish Examiner entitled Wake up and smell the coffee, David! [7] The article, suggesting the club manager David Moyes should be 'dampening expectations, not feeding them', after finishing in 4th place - ahead of Liverpool- in the previous season. Green even received death threats over the article.[5]
Green is reported to have had an ongoing rift with former fellow BBC broadcaster Mark Saggers, that surfaced in on-air exchanges. The Guardian cites an occasion in which Green refused to share a flight with Saggers on the way to cover England's World Cup 2010 qualifier against Belarus in Minsk, 2008. Saggers left the BBC to join rival Talksport at the end of the 2008/9 English Football Season.[8]
Green was censured by Ofcom in October 2004 after he made a comment deemed in breach of the regulator's Code on Standards live on-air about Manchester United's Cameroonian midfielder Eric Djemba-Djemba, implying he may be speaking pidgin English with the referee.[9][10]
He had previously described Manchester City's Chinese defender Sun Jihai as wearing shirt "Number 17 -- that'll be the Chicken Chow Mein, then" during a live radio broadcast.[11]
In January 2007, Green was again in hot water on Merseyside over comments made on Five Live during the Everton v Reading match at Goodison Park. Film star Sylvester Stallone was paraded on the pitch, and Green quipped as to whether Stallone's limousine would still have wheels when he returned to it. This prompted an official complaint to the BBC by Liverpool City Council, upset at his stereotypical views about the city being a hotbed of car crime.[12]
Green provided the commentary for the PlayStation football games Olympic Soccer, Soccer '97, and most recently, PlayStation 2's Let's Make a Soccer Team.(2006) by SEGA.
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