Kelly Cates is set to leave Sky Sports at the end of the season to join the BBC’s new three-person presenting team for Match of the Day, according to reports.
It comes after the show’s long-time presenter Gary Lineker confirmed he will step down from presenting the show at the end of the Premier League season after 25 years at the helm.
Cates, the daughter of Liverpool legend Sir Kenny Dalglish, joined Sky in 2016 and has gone on to become one of the company’s most well-known presenters.
But, according to the Daily Mail, that relationship will come to an end at the end of the season when Cates moves over to the BBC.
Cates already has a working relationship with the corporation having previously hosted football phone-in show 606. She is also a regular host on Radio 5 Live.
While not officially confirmed by the BBC, it is expected that Cates will be joined by Mark Chapman and Gabby Logan as part of a new three-person presenting team to replace the outgoing Lineker.
The trio are likely to share the presenting duties for both Match of the Day and Match of the Day 2.
Chapman, who is the current regular host of Match of the Day 2, had been seen as the early frontrunner to replace Linker on his own.
He also anchors Sky Sports’ coverage of the Carabao Cup and has been presenting the new Champions League highlights show launched by the BBC this season.
Logan, meanwhile, is another familiar face at the BBC having anchored the channel’s coverage of huge sporting events such as the Paris 2024 Olympics and Women’s European Championships.
Only last month, Cates had seemingly hinted that she was content to stay at Sky Sports despite her name being linked with the Match of the Day vacancy.
‘Do you know, and you never want to say this, but at the moment I’ve got a really lovely mix of everything,’ she told The Independent in November.
‘I’ve got TV, live matches, radio, and when it gets towards the end of the season I do live Champions League games too.
‘I could be at an Olympics or a World Cup during the summer so the balance of everything feels really nice. But I’m not tempting fate.’
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