Logan was ‘demoted’ by her former boss (Image: Getty)
revealed that she once feared her television career was doomed after being unexpectedly “sidelined” by a former boss. With a storied career spanning nearly three decades, Logan has solidified her position as a leading figure in sports broadcasting, recently being appointed as one of the new hosts of , alongside her role as the face of the coverage.
However, her ascent to the top was far from seamless. The 51-year-old presenter confessed that she faced a tumultuous period in her early thirties, which left her questioning her future in the industry. During the 2006 Football World Cup, Logan’s former boss made the decision to “demote” her, stripping her of her role as presenter for group stage matches against Sweden and Trinidad and Tobago.
Instead, she was relegated to hosting secondary matches, a move that significantly eroded her confidence. The situation worsened when, after planning a brief return home during the tournament, she was abruptly dropped from the coverage and instructed not to return.
Reflecting on this challenging period during an appearance on Kate Thornton’s podcast, Logan shared: “I think I had a rough ride in my early thirties in my career, and I can’t believe that’s nearly 20 years ago. At the time, I thought it was going to be the end of my career.
“When I was leaving ITV and given another chance by the … because even in my early 30s, I felt I’d already had this really long career and I’d done loads of great stuff. I’d been at Sky to start off with and went to ITV and did loads of brilliant things.”
However, she felt a career shift might be necessary due to a boss who wasn’t supportive and wanted to demote her, even removing her from covering the World Cup in 2006.
Logan detailed the incident, saying: “My kids were a year old and I was flying off to Germany, leaving my babies behind, going to the World Cup. [But] in the middle of the World Cup, he kind of sidelined me, and I came home with my tail between my legs.
“I was due to do so many knockout games and he said, ‘oh, just don’t come back’ basically. Go home and don’t come back because I was due to go home for a few days. In between the end of the group stages and the knockout stages, there’s always a couple of days off and I was going to go home because it was only Germany and the kids were a year old.
Gabby Logan on Champions League duty. (Image: Getty)
“I remember being at home – we were doing up a house at the time, so we were renting a house in Barnes. It was a lovely day, it was gorgeous and the river was looking beautiful and the sky was blue.
“I just remember walking around the garden thinking ‘Oh gosh, I love doing up houses, I’m just going to shift and go into property because that’s what my mum does’. I was maybe 33 at the time and I thought maybe my law degree wasn’t out of date and I could upgrade and go to bar school. I was really contemplating what to do next.”
Despite the initial disappointment, Logan shared how the turn of events was serendipitous as she transitioned from ITV to the later that year, where her career truly began to thrive.
She recounted the fresh start: “I was given an opportunity to go to the , where I really felt I had to start again in quite a lot of ways. It was like I was going to a new school, in terms of proving yourself to the teachers and the other kids.
“When I look back now, how much more misogynistic the angles were to these articles and how always whatever I was wearing or looked like was talked about with regard to my performance. I was never it was never the same for a male colleague, they wouldn’t talk about his suit.
“There was a lot of that to deal with, and I think it definitely fortified me. Once I got that second chance, as I saw it at the time – somewhere that I’d always hoped I might work because of the having the long history with doing the Olympics and various other things that I really wanted to work on – I felt really grateful, and also that I was going to not let this opportunity go.”
This article first appeared on .