Jim White: 'It's fantastic to know people are hanging on your every word'

Published on Friday 10 October 2008 23:24

Saturday Interview: Former Scotsport host is back in Glasgow to celebrate ten years of Sky Sports News

HOW old can you be and still have boyish enthusiasm as your default setting? Jim White may be a shade more sedate now than when he started off as a cub reporter with STV, but at 51 he is as ebullient and enthusiastic as ever.

For so long a fixture with Scotsport, White has now been a whole decade with Sky. This weekend finds him back home in Glasgow to present today's World Cup qualifier between Scotland and Norway, but his main role with the satellite company is as one of the presenters with Sky Sports News.

The channel is about to celebrate ten years of broadcasting. It first went on air on 14 October, 1998, and he has been there from the start, watching and participating in its growth.

From outsiders at least there was a certain scepticism about its chances, as White acknowledges, but he also recalls the belief in the project expressed by many people within Sky. He is convinced that belief has been vindicated, and is proud of the pre-eminent position it has achieved.

"I was speaking to a lot of people who were around at that time who were very enthusiastic about it and confident that it was sustainable," he says. "In the early days there was doubt from some people – would it wipe its face? It actually has. It has and more. It's become an absolute institution now – everywhere you go, it's on.

"I get people telling me how I was on at Glasgow airport when they were boarding a flight to Tenerife, then in Tenerife they went to a Scots bar and I was still on. It's incredible how widespread it is, and it's become so watched, it's really great to be involved in it now.

"It's almost unmissable. I went down to Portsmouth recently, and over reception there was the biggest plasma I've ever seen, beaming out Sky Sports News at everyone.

"Or I was at the Football Association headquarters in Soho Square the other day. Sky Sports News on every plasma. I suppose they watch it to see if we're breaking anything about them."

While some of his colleagues may err on the earnest side, White prefers a humorous approach. His off-the-wall one-liners may work at times and fall flat at others, but he and his employers believe they set the right tone for the show. "I started (at Sky] with that kind of attitude and they liked it," he says. "I never try and overdo it, but some level of humour is appropriate. The fact that the other presenters do it straight works in my favour. I just like doing funny ad libs, delivered with a bit of a glint in my eye.

"I take time off to think about funny things I might say. There's definitely a place for it, but as I say, when appropriate. We are first and foremost sports reporters, and I'd never let the humour get to the stage where all people expected of me was a string of one-liners."

The one thing most viewers expect of White and of the channel as a whole is swift reaction to news, and he enjoys becoming involved in stories rather than simply presenting them. "When I'm presenting Sky Sports News, it's with a mobile on my desk," he says.

"If a story breaks, and if I feel in a three-minute, 40-second commercial break I can enhance it, or get more information about it, I'll be on my mobile and pile in. The way Sky want it, it's all about pace and vigour, accuracy and balance."

Those qualities are put most strenuously to the test on transfer deadline day. Although he does not claim 100 per cent success, White is convinced that he and his colleagues pass with flying colours. "The last one (at the start of September] was very hard to beat. I had a feeling that night that it really was going to rumble.

"We went on air at ten, so you think 'The deadline is midnight, we've only got two hours of semi-bedlam to cope with'. But we did four hours – till two in the morning – and it seemed like 20 minutes.

"We had people everywhere. We had someone at Tottenham, people in Manchester for Dimitar Berbatov, people in Manchester – luckily – for Robinho.

"We really were ripping it up that night, and it was great. It felt fantastic being involved in it, because you just knew everyone was hanging on your every word. And thankfully everything we said came about and was accurate."

Well, not entirely everything. They got one story wrong, but White maintains that was because they went with the only information they had, which no-one was contradicting.

"There's only one we got slightly wrong, and I don't mind admitting it, because you have to go with what you're told. I was assured and reassured that Carlo Ancelotti was virtually nailed on to take over from Avram Grant at Chelsea.

"We couldn't get Chelsea to confirm it or deny it, but there was big talk it was going to be Ancelotti and we got information that his advisers were all but in agreement. And then quite left field Ancelotti himself came out in Milan and said 'No. I'm staying. I'm not going anywhere'. And then (Luiz Felipe] Scolari came in and the rest is history.

"Then we had to regroup and get out of that journalistic cul-de-sac. It didn't end in tears for anyone, and at the end of the day Chelsea were pleased with the guy they got. Yeah, there was a bit of misdirection in the middle of a very busy day, but no-one was particularly caught with their journalistic drawers at their ankles."

The two major advances in White's career to date came about at two World Cups, in 1986 and 1998. It was at the former tournament that he moved to sport full-time with STV, having worked with the channel in a more general news role before then. And it was in France ten years ago that he first learned of Sky's interest. "Life kind of changed for me after the World Cup in Mexico in 1986," he remembers. "I was out there for about six weeks, and when I came back it was suggested that I move to sport full-time, then when Arthur Montford stood down that I would take over Scotsport.

"So I was Arthur's sidekick for a while with Sally McNair, sitting beside the great man. I didn't quite wear as dodgy jackets as Arthur, but I did my best.

"It was a brilliant experience for me working with Arthur. He was immensely likeable right from the word go – no agenda, no side to him, no nothing.

"That was terrific. Then when he retired I took over as anchor of Scotsport, and I did that for the best part of a decade."

In his time in Scotland, White dealt with all the major players in Scottish football, but the one about whom he reminisces most fondly is probably Dick Advocaat, with whom he struck up a good relationship even before the Dutchman became Rangers manager.

"When it was announced that Advocaat was to take over at Rangers – it was only March but he was to take over at the end of the season when his tenure at PSV Eindhoven ran out – we were told he would not speak. Don't waste your time going to Holland, he will not speak.

"I thought I'm going to do this, no matter what, but Advocaat was like naw naw naw, if you come you're wasting your time. I will not speak. So I then said 'You're playing in a cup game on Thursday night at Den Bosch'. He said 'Yeah, we are'.

"I said 'Can we not do a deal? Stick a carrot in front of me and I might bite'. Advocaat says: 'OK, if you come and we lose, no interview. If you come and we win, I speak'.

"Den Bosch-PSV is like St Mirren against Rangers, but you saw what happened last weekend. Anyway, it was a cup game and it went to the golden goal, and Freddy van der Hoorn, who used to play for Dundee United, hit the underside of PSV's bar and it stayed out. PSV got the winner through a Brazilian called Claudio, and Advocaat's over: 'Come, you win. You get the interview'. And he only gave me about five minutes, but it was enough."

That was in the spring of 1998, and it was a few months later that White learned of Sky's interest. He signed a deal to present their SPL coverage at first, then broadened out after a while. Yet, for all that he now deals comfortably with English football and a number of other sports as well, there are still a lot of people in his native land who think his full name is Rangers Supporter Jim White.

"The bulk of folk have surmised that I am a Rangers fan," he accepts. "But at the end of the day if the Old Firm play – and I mean this, hand on heart – it doesn't bother me one way or t'other.

"For a long time I was very friendly with John Hartson and Neil Lennon, so they're great mates, and nothing would put me off socialising with them publicly in Glasgow. A few times people have come up to me and said: 'You're Jim White, what are you doing with them?' And I just say why shouldn't I be? They're great lads.

"The first ever game I went to was Rangers against Dundee United and Kai Johansen got the winning goal. But thereafter my dad would maybe tell me on a Saturday morning 'Right, we're going to Celtic Park today' – I remember he took me to Celtic-Aberdeen, Bobby Lennox scored a controversial goal, and I always remember hearing afterwards that (Aberdeen goalkeeper] Bobby Clark had thrown his boot through the dressing-room window.

"My dad would take to me to Firhill too, and watch Partick Thistle. We'd go there more than anywhere else, really. And we occasionally went to Boghead, because he'd been born in Dumbarton."

Whatever the misconceptions about his club allegiances, there are no doubts about his support for the national team. He is desperate for Scotland to get to the finals of a major tournament, and, although aware how difficult it will be this time round, hangs on to that youthful enthusiasm which typifies his style of presentation.

"It really is a must-win game," he says of today's match. "I think (Scotland manager] George Burley is right to say we've got to get into this winning mentality.

"So I really am looking forward to it, and the win would be the perfect result. Whether they do it or not I'm in two minds, because Norway have got some decent players. But it's achievable.

"I hope we can do it. I think we will. The group is very tough. If they qualify it will be one of the greatest ever achievements by the Scottish team. I'm hopeful. Not hugely optimistic, but hopeful."