To mark her new role as one of the anchors of the UEFA Champions League, the award-winning sports presenter and alumna Seema Jaswal talks to Jessica Jonzen about her journey to the top, her memories from Royal Holloway, and the very personal reason why sport is so important to her.
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2021 has been quite the year for sports presenter and Royal Holloway alumna Seema Jaswal. Not only did she host the Euro’s for ITV in the summer, but she has recently taken over from Gary Lineker as one of the anchors of BT’s coverage of the UEFA Champions League. “I had an amazing summer, that’s for sure,” says Seema.
“I was at Glasgow airport doing some duty free shopping after I’d finished hosting Scotland v Croatia at Euro 2020 and my agent called and said BT had been in touch about some opportunities. I had no idea it would be the Champions League,” she says. “Hearing the Champions League title music playing when I was hosting for the first time was a real ‘pinch myself’ moment.”
Seema, who read sociology at Royal Holloway and graduated in 2007, has joined an elite group of sports presenters on the show, including Jake Humphrey, Darrell Currie and Lynsey Hipgrave, along with pundits including Peter Crouch, Owen Hargreaves and Rio Ferdinand. It’s a role richly deserved after a career which has seen 36-year-old Seema presenting for a number of different broadcasters, including the Premier League’s global Match-Day Live coverage, ITV’S International football, the World Snooker Championship on the BBC , motorsport on Channel 4 and the Indian Super League.
“I’ve hosted live football now for a long time so it’s been a nice opportunity to share what I do with a UK audience,” says Seema. They’ve seen me on the Euros and with ITV sporadically but the UK audience doesn’t get to see the Premier League’s global coverage so to share my passion for the sport with them has been such a lovely experience. It feels like all this hard work has been worth it – now my family and friends can tune in.”
With diversity in football still such a vital issue, Seema’s appointment as the first Asian woman to host the UEFA Champions League sends out a powerful message. “I think we’ve come a long way and the industry has changed dramatically in the last five or six years, but there’s always more to be done,” she says. “You always see more change when there’s change at the top – so if you see women or diversity across the board in decision-making positions it can only filter down. I think that’s what we need to see a bit more of.”
Seema credits female sports presenters including Clare Balding, Kirsty Gallacher, Gabby Logan and Hazel Irvine as the pioneers who set the stage for her own success: “I’m quite lucky because since I’ve been in the industry, it has been really changing and I think I’ve been part of that,” she says. “I was offered opportunities left, right and centre; it was a whirlwind. I think that is credit to those women who came before me who I would watch on Sky Sports News and who I bought teas and coffees for each day when I was a runner who really broke down the barriers for people like me to come through.”
Seema didn’t feel that she faced obstacles as she was starting out in her career. “I don’t feel like I experienced any barriers because I’m a woman or because I’m Asian because the opportunities came along so quickly,” she says. “That’s not to say that those attitudes didn’t exist, and don’t still exist today because there are colleagues of mine who have experienced it very differently,” she adds.
Does her position as both television host and role model feel like a big responsibility? “I’m enjoying the responsibility now,” she says. “I’m at this stage where I am quite excited to pass on what I’ve done and what I’ve learnt to the next generation. When you climb the ladder in any industry, if you pull it up behind you then what’s the point? The whole point is to bring up the next generation.
“You’d be surprised by how many parents message me on Instagram saying ‘I’m an Asian father and I’ve got two kids and I just want them to enjoy what they do – what did your parents do?’ It’s just lovely and that’s when the reality of what I’ve achieved hits me because there are people watching me, sending me these beautiful messages telling me that I’m their kid’s role model and that’s really special and makes it really worth it.”
Sport has always played an important role in Seema’s life. As a teenager, she represented Richmond Borough in tennis, netball and table tennis, and it was this enthusiasm and passion for sport that helped her land her first role in television on CBBC’s Sports Round and Match of the Day Kickabout.
But when Seema was 16, her life was turned upside down when she contracted Meningitis. “It was absolutely horrific for my parents – it’s every parent’s worst nightmare, but I managed to pull through it. The doctors at the time said that if it wasn’t for the fact that I was so sporty and fit and healthy, it might have been a different outcome. So, we have that link to sport – we feel grateful to have sport in our lives.” Seema is now an ambassador for the charity Meningitis Now.
Having made a full recovery, Seema chose to study at Royal Holloway “When you drive through the gates and you see Founders, how can you not fall in love with it? It’s just stunning,” she says. “I knew it was for me. I loved the area, I knew I wanted to study Sociology and Politics and that the department was really good for that, and I liked the fact that it was all on one campus,” she adds. “It was also the first time for me that I was in an environment where there were so many people from so many different backgrounds. We had a lot of Chinese students, Asian students, Arabs, English – there was a really nice community feeling.”
Seema holds fond memories of her Politics lecturer Dr John Mattausch: “He was the funniest person – he was always full of beans and great as a human. I loved my lectures and seminars with him. I also met one of my best friends there – it was a very happy time in my life.”
Seema’s advice to students who are looking to forge a career in sports presenting is to apply for runner jobs, where you assist the production team with everything from printing scripts to getting cups of tea for the presenters, directors and producers – just as she did when starting her career. “When you’re working as a runner, you’re surrounded by people who can make decisions, or who know people who can and so doors can open for you. There’s never a straightforward path – it’s about creating a good network and then doors will open for you.”
Next, knowledge is power. “You have to know your subject really well. If you’re going into sports presenting in a field you’re unfamiliar with you’ve got to work hard because you have to be credible. I didn’t know anything about snooker but I really did my research so I understood the sport inside out. Finally, be brave, be bold and be nice to the people you work with. Live television can sometimes go wrong and can be a bit stressful and people have a lot of different jobs but if you’re nice to work with it goes such a long way.”
See Seema Jaswal presenting the UEFA Champions League on BT Sport, ITV’s coverage of the FA Cup and the Snooker on the BBC this season.
