With a sports broadcasting career that’s known no bounds, Hayley McQueen has paved the way for a new generation of women. As she continues her journey, she shares her path to success.
It’s the dawn of a new era in sports broadcasting.
Over the last few years, women have worked tirelessly to reshape the media landscape — and it’s working. In 2024, the Paris Olympics saw an 80% increase in female commentators compared to 2020, and women’s sports coverage exceeded 10,000 hours in the UK for the first time last year (GSIQ).
The shifts are trickling down to the younger generation, too, with the NCTJ confirming that the percentage of women enrolling in sports journalism courses is increasing year-on-year.
From an outsider’s perspective, it would be easy to assume that women are flourishing within the industry, and they are, but the question remains as to whether visibility equates to ownership. The mic has been handed over, but has the narrative?
It feels pessimistic to admit, but making progress towards a goal doesn’t hide the fact that work still needs to be done. And if anyone’s going to confront that reality, it’s the woman whose been fronting Sky Sports News for 16 years.
“When I first started out, women weren’t given much of a chance on TV,” says Hayley. “It meant working extremely hard and waiting for the opportunity to come.”
The British reporter first appeared on Sky Sports in 2005 — when female presenters were few and far between. Now, she sits down with Living360 to discuss what it means to be in the game today, and why the battle goes on.
Getting the ball rolling
It’s not easy to radiate collected confidence and charm while battling a dodgy wi-fi connection at your mother’s house, but Hayley’s spent enough time on screen and stage with rowdy footballers and intoxicated managers to know how to handle any situation. She’s on Facetime to me while out in the countryside, after working past midnight the night before.
“I remember when I hosted a Manchester United awards dinner, and Louis van Gaal — the manager at the time — took the mic off me and went on a rant,” she laughs. “Meanwhile, I was trying to rein him in and get the interview done.”
A certain level of poise and assuredness is required to be able to deal with live moments like that, and I wonder whether it’s something that you’re either born with or you’re not. But Hayley shakes her head. “It’s experience,” she tells me.
And that she has. Hayley left Sky Sports early in her career to join MUTV — a smaller, club channel that was only broadcast abroad — making the unlikely move so that she could have the opportunity to present on-air, and be taken seriously.
“I really just had to bide my time,” she explains. “I wanted to just listen, learn and soak up everything around me.”
It’s clear that this steadfast patience has significantly contributed to Hayley’s success. Since returning to Sky Sports in 2010, she’s been one of the few female broadcasters to regularly front the Premier League and FA Cup. It also meant that she’s learned to bounce back from criticism faster, but that’s not to say she’s immune to the sting.
“I had thick skin by the time I was presenting and making mistakes. I was old enough to not care about what people said, and I’d been working behind the scenes long enough to know that it didn’t matter.”
But social media has accelerated the process for budding female broadcasters now, which has both its benefits and drawbacks. “Now, you can experiment with your style and reporting, and get feedback in real time,” Hayley explains. “The flipside of that is that you’re in the firing line for criticism more than ever.”
Some view it as a cheat code; others see it as a clever method of carving out your position in the media landscape. Either way, social content has become a vessel upon which people can launch themselves into a career. It’s a whole new ballgame for female sports broadcasters today, and Hayley played a pivotal part in that shift.
“I’m glad to see young women be able to push themselves more than my generation could — where we had to kind of sit back and wait for a tiny gap to appear by a male retiring or leaving their position. When that happened, we had to just hope that they might give a female a chance.”
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Changing the game
But every rose has its thorn, and while men no longer dominate sports broadcasting, the competency of their female counterparts feels overly questioned. So much so that research by Organista and Mazur in 2020 confirmed that female sports journalists felt that they needed to continually prove their capabilities more than their male colleagues due to a perceived lower tolerance for errors.
“Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon to see a woman thrust into a position without the appropriate support network around them,” Hayley explains. “I’d like to see these women protected a bit more, as they’re putting themselves out there for criticism that they may not be ready for.”
Hayley’s aspirations for change go beyond the gender gap. She’s been vocal about her campaign journey with Headsafe Football, a charity that works to regulate heading to prevent chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) — a condition that’s impacted the lives of many — including Hayley’s.
“My dad passed away after suffering from vascular dementia for a long time, which we subsequently found out was CTE. With Headsafe, we’re working to educate people — particularly young people — on the dangers of heading a football. There are guidelines being brought in by the FA, the Scottish FA and the Premier League, but I don’t think people are on top of it as they should be.”
Some argue that heading the ball isn’t as dangerous as it once was due to the lighter balls that are used, but that doesn’t remove the risk. “There are a lot of myths surrounding heading that I want to bust,” she says. “Yes, the balls that were used back in the day soaked up more water and dirt and were heavier, but now balls are more aerodynamic, so they travel faster and are kicked harder.”
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Knowing the score
From regular interviews with Sir Alex Ferguson to reminiscing with Cristiano Ronaldo on her career, Hayley hasn’t missed a beat. She has a unique sense of calmness and control over her career — something that she attributes to her time in the game. For those looking to follow in her footsteps, Hayley encourages women to lean on their female allies.
“I’m part of the Women in Football network, which holds a conference every year where you can mingle and meet others. It’s important to reach out and ask for advice, and if you feel that no one is giving you an opportunity, take it upon yourself.”
Perhaps this is the dawn of a new world order, where budding broadcasters can use the tools of the era to call their own shots. As Hayley took control of her narrative to prove her worth, she’s paving the way for others to perhaps not ask for a seat, but build their own.
Feature image: Hayley McQueen / Will Chamberlin
