Laura Woods hits back over TNT Sports controversy after Champions League final | Football | Sport
Laura Woods presented the Champions League final on TNT Sports (Image: Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)
Laura Woods has dismissed claims that TNT Sports shouldn’t have allowed her to present their coverage of the Champions League final due to her Arsenal allegiances. Woods fronted the broadcaster’s output as the Gunners succumbed on penalties to Paris Saint-Germain following a 1-1 stalemate after 120 minutes.
Woods, 38, is a self-confessed Arsenal fan and has made no attempt to disguise that fact on social media. She was joined by pundits Martin Keown, Owen Hargreaves and Steven Gerrard in Budapest on Saturday. Arsenal were competing in their first Champions League final since their meeting with Barcelona in 2006, with Mikel Arteta‘s men seeking to secure the double on the back of their Premier League crown.
TNT Sports’ coverage for their UK viewership centred heavily on Arsenal, as the English team, though many fans took issue with the approach.
An article in the Telegraph stated: “Saturday’s broadcast was all Arsenal, all the time, thanks to fan presenter Laura Woods and a pundit roster loaded lopsidedly in favour of the north Londoners at the expense of PSG balance.”
That remark evidently irked Woods, who hit back on X (formerly Twitter).
“Can’t really help it if my team makes the final and I’m contracted to work that show,” she wrote sarcastically.
Another fan lamented the absence of broadcaster, journalist and PSG fan Julien Laurens once the match had got under way.
“We’d never invite him to commentate, he’s not a commentator or a footballer to offer match punditry,” Woods responded.
Woods was joined by Steven Gerrard, Owen Hargeaves and Martin Keown (Image: Chris Brunskill/Getty Images)
“Post match we interviewed Luis Enrique, Nasser Al-Khelaifi and a number of PSG players. Gerrard and Hargreaves were also part of the whole show. Honestly this is tiresome.”
Woods, who is set to work for ITV Sport at the forthcoming World Cup, had a further message for her followers: “Wait until they see how ‘biased’ the World Cup coverage on both ITV and BBC is. Hint. It’ll be mostly English.”
The presenter will be joined by the likes of Roy Keane, Ian Wright, Gary Neville and Karen Carney as pundits, while Emma Hayes, Patrick Vieira and Ally McCoist will also contribute analysis for ITV throughout the tournament, which gets under way on June 11.
TNT Sports’ broadcast of the Champions League final drew an audience of roughly seven million viewers on Saturday evening, with viewing figures peaking at around 26.6 per cent of the total viewing population.
However, The Guardian has reported that an estimated 16.2 million viewers across the UK watched the match through illegal means.
