Gabby Logan: 'A football match on Christmas Day might be going too far'

Frivolity is for other people. For football people, Christmas is deeply, unforgivingly serious. All the Premier League clubs play four games in a fortnight, including Boxing Day for most. By the time the decorations are down and the thank you letters written, the league table could have taken on a whole new complexion.

Christmas has been like that since childhood for Gabby Logan, who will be presenting the Premier League games on Boxing Day and the day after for Amazon Prime Video, and also hosts their Champions League coverage. Her father was Terry Yorath, a terrific footballer, mostly for Leeds United and Wales.

"Christmas was always somewhat truncated," she says. "Often we'd have Christmas in a hotel. I was a child, I didn’t know any different. Mum was very good; she always made it an adventure. And most of my working life it’s been the same. On Boxing Day I’ll be at Anfield for Liverpool against Leicester City. I’ll have done most of my prep by Christmas Eve, but I’ll still be thinking about it. I might have one glass of wine on Christmas Day."

Not that she’s asking for pity, and is quick to point out that emergency workers and people in essential services are doing something that actually matters. “People sit down to enjoy sport after the madness of Christmas Day. And sport over Christmas is lovely. Families go together – I love going to live sport.

“That’s partly because Christmas is the pivotal point of the season, the time when promising teams fall away – and as a Newcastle fan I know all about that! That glut of matches really gives the league a different shape. But it all comes with a certain lightness. The match is serious, but afterwards, there’s a relaxed atmo-sphere, you can have a nice conversation. You’re all in a club doing something that people are going to enjoy – so you don’t begrudge it at all. I’ll get home late and be off again early the next day for Arsenal versus Ipswich. I like that back-to-back thing.”

This unexpected jollity behind the seriousness is a reminder that football is only pretending to be important, and the reason we have professional sport is because it is fun.

How does Logan see the run of festive fixtures for the current league leaders, Liverpool? "They look as if they’re going to run away with the title, never mind winning it. But I wonder how they are they going to cope with that pressure. They also have contract issues with their key players Mo Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold – how will that affect them?"

Boxing Day sees one of the other title contenders, Manchester City, in action against Everton, and the next day Logan will be back at work presenting Arsenal v Ipswich, which means a chance to watch Arsenal's Bukayo Saka. "He's great, and a lovely young man as well," says Logan. "You can feel the love for him in the crowd."

Football is part of Christmas for everyone who has a taste for the game. Sometimes managers who are used to a winter break – standard in most other European countries – complain about the Christmas rush, but they’re fighting an entrenched tradition. There was once a full programme of football on 25 December, but the last big Christmas Day match in England was Blackpool v Blackburn Rovers in 1965. Brentford scheduled a game against Wimbledon on Christmas morning 1983: “We hope to revive the old tradition of the husband going to football while the wives cook the turkey,” said one Brentford official back then. The match was brought forward to Christmas Eve after fan protests.

“A Christmas Day match might be going too far,” Logan says. So she will have a proper family gathering, though her son Reuben, who plays rugby union for Northampton Saints, has training the next day. “I’m living the life I grew up with,” she says.

Spoken like a true professional…

The Christmas double issue of Radio Times is out now – order your copy here.

Gabby Logan will present Liverpool v Leicester on Boxing Day and Arsenal v Ipswich on 27th December, both on Amazon Prime Video at no extra cost – try Amazon Prime Video for free for 30 days.

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