Ray Stubbs has carved a successful career in sports broadcasting having initially played professional football with Tranmere Rovers FC.

A local lad, he joined Tranmere straight from school and was on their books for five years before switching to an administrative role with the club. He then spent three years with BBC Radio Merseyside as a reporter and presenter.

In 1986, Stubbs moved to BBC Manchester as an assistant producer, working on the coverage of sports including snooker, darts and bowls, and on A Question Of Sport.

He also worked as a producer, reporter and presenter on BBC TWO's investigative sports series On The Line, which took him to Italy in 1990 to report on England football fans at the World Cup Finals.

Later that year, Stubbs began working as a reporter on Grandstand, Match Of The Day and Sportsnight. He reported from the Irish camp during the 1994 World Cup in America, and was the BBC's reporter-in-residence in the England camp during Euro 96 and the 1998 World Cup in France.

At the start of the 1998-99 season he hosted two editions of Match Of The Day Extra. Stubbs co-hosted coverage of the 1998 Winter Olympics, co-presented coverage of the 1998 Commonwealth Games, and has reported for BBC-1's on side.

Stubbs is part of the Grandstand presentation team and took over as the regular presenter of Football Focus for the 1999-2000 season from Gary Lineker. He is also an occasional presenter of Match of the Day, and hosted programmes during the BBC's coverage of Euro 2000.