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News imageSporting Witness, Sporting Witness, The BBC's first female football reporter

Sporting Witness

Sporting Witness

The BBC's first female football reporter


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26 December 2019

9 minutes

Available for over a year

In 1969 the BBC caused a sensation by allowing a woman to report on football on air for the first time. The reporter was Mary Raine, who covered a first division match between Chelsea and Sunderland that year, as well as the 1970 FA Cup final. She talks to Simon Watts about being the first woman to enter the all-male press box.

PHOTO: Mary Raine in Goal magazine in 1969 (BBC)

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