Laura Woods is set to present Champions League coverage for the first time this season, as Arsenal return to the competition for the first time in half a decade
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Laura Woods has admitted that presenting during a Champions League final at Wembley involving Arsenal will make her fraught with emotion.
Speaking exclusively to FourFourTwo, though, the presenter suggests she'll find it extremely difficult to contain her emotions should Martin Odegaard lift the Champions League trophy at Wembley on June 1.
"I like to say that I will be 100 per cent an impartial professional, but I will be dying inside if that happens," TNT Sports presenter, Laura Woods told FFT.
"Wow imagine - and it's Wembley as well!"
Woods does suggest that, with everything going on in the stadium and with the talk from the producers in her ear, it might be more manageable than she expects, however.
"It's actually easier than you think to be impartial on TV. And the reason is, you're trying so hard to do your job properly. With TV, you've probably got three different voices at once: in your head, behind the scenes, and then you've got your guests as well. You've also got things [adverts, features] you've got to go to and it all gets quite complicated.
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Watching Odegaard lift the Champions League trophy at Wembley would have Woods "dying inside" (Image credit: Getty Images)
"People think it's hard to be impartial, but you just want to do your job really well first and foremost, and get all of the knowledge that you've researched into the show somehow and get the best out of your guests, too."
Woods is certainly looking forward to the opportunity to cover the Champions League for TNT Sports, especially with one or two familiar faces among the cast of pundits and co-commentators...
"It's a little bit daunting, actually, but also really exciting to be named the presenter. I like the idea of taking on a project from the beginning, and just making it your own, it's always quite nice to do it that way.
"I'm really happy to have Ally, I'm buzzing about that! Everyone thinks it was part of my contract, but I swear it wasn't!"
Laura Woods and Ally McCoist have joined TNT Sports ahead of the new season, rebranded from BT Sport (Image credit: Getty Images)
Woods also explains that having to cover Tottenham Hotspur won't prove as much of a problem as people might expect, should they return to the Champions League in the coming few years. Pointing to Spurs reaching the final in 2019, she highlights the respect she felt for the squad and manager on a personal level.
"When you work in football, and you get to interview footballers and managers all the time, you actually form a different sort of relationship with those clubs. For example, when Spurs had Mauricio Pochettino and they got to the Champions League final, I didn't want them to win as an Arsenal fan.
"I didn't want them to win because I thought, 'I cannot as an Arsenal fan live with that', and it would have been awful. I know that for a fact. But, I was happy to see them do well and get there, because I had so much respect for Mauricio Pochettino and for a lot of those individual Spurs players as well.
Sometimes you like to see the individuals doing well, because you've formed bonds with them, and you think they're great interviewees and great players, and you can respect them individually."
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Woods highlights the respect she has for former Spurs boss Pochettino, despite not wanting Tottenham to do well (Image credit: Getty Images)
Ryan is a staff writer for FourFourTwo, joining the team full-time in October 2022. He first joined Future in December 2020, working across FourFourTwo, Golf Monthly, Rugby World and Advnture's websites, before eventually earning himself a position with FourFourTwo permanently. After graduating from Cardiff University with a degree in Journalism and Communications, Ryan earned a NCTJ qualification to further develop as a writer while a Trainee News Writer at Future.
