Talking Travel: Steve Wilson

The BBC’S Steve Wilson spent five weeks travelling around Russia to cover the World Cup this summer. He tells Andy Hoskins about his time in the country

You might not recognise his face, but you may well be familiar with his voice, for Steve Wilson spent the summer in Russia commentating on the World Cup for BBC television.

He is one of the corporation’s key commentary team and criss-crossed Russia to cover ten matches for live TV broadcast, typically moving hotels every two nights.

“Just call me Dr Trivago,” he jokes, before highlighting the “fantastic” job the BBC does to meet his challenging travel requirements. “They book everything – flights, trains, hotels – but they can only plan for the group stages in advance because you don’t know who will be playing where after that,” says Wilson.

“It was the sixth World Cup I’ve commentated on and it was a brilliant experience – probably the best I’ve covered from a football point of view but also for enjoyment. The people were welcoming and there were some really surprising places I’d barely heard of.”

The first game Wilson commentated on at the tournament was the thrilling 3-3 draw between Portugal and Spain on the second day of the tournament, while he also covered Croatia’s 3-0 thrashing of Argentina, Russia beating Spain on penalties, and England’s loss to Belgium in the third-place play-off match, among others.

“The routine was more or less doing a game one day and travelling the next. We were never anywhere long enough to make it worth unpacking, and it was also difficult to get your laundry done!” he says.

“The travel team have to be massively adaptable because stuff changes all the time but also because of the size of the country. When evening games were kicking off at 9pm in Moscow it was 4am in Vladivostok.”

Wilson continues: “The number of flights and trains we took were both into double figures. The 14-hour overnight train from Moscow to Rostov on a really Soviet-style train was certainly an experience!”

Hotels included mid-market brands such as Hampton by Hilton and Days Inn, says Wilson. “The BBC is very careful about the way they spend money. We all fly economy class and stay at mid-market hotels. They look after your license fee!”

The irony, he says, is that he saw none of the BBC coverage himself until he returned to the UK in mid-july: “People imagine you’re sitting there watching every game that you’re not commentating on but a lot of the time you’re travelling and the rest of the time you’re watching the Russian TV coverage.

“I always go prepared on all 32 countries in the tournament and particularly those you know you’re covering in the group stages. But you also need to know enough about the others in case you’re thrown a curve ball and get Saudi Arabia with 24 hours notice!”

Travelling with a producer, sound technician and a translator, the group’s itinerary took him to Moscow (“several times”), St Petersburg (“a beautiful city”), Sochi (“a strange, surreal place”), Rostov, Kaliningrad and Nizhny Novgorod, while culinary highlights included “plenty of great Georgian and Azerbaijani food”.

“Moscow is fantastic. We managed to get out and see the Kremlin, Red Square, Novodevichy Cemetery, and the metro is incredible – chandeliers, mosaics, marble – real palaces for the people in the Soviet days,” says Wilson.

“But the place that really surprised me was Nizhny. It used to be a closed city because it had a lot of heavy industry, but it’s absolutely beautiful, set on a hill overlooking the confluence of the Volga and Oka rivers. The town centre there has its own fortified Kremlin and everybody who went there loved it. It’s a real hidden gem.”

Wilson’s career as a football commentator has taken him to destinations as far-flung as Brazil, South Africa, Japan and Korea, but covering the African Nations Cup in Mali in 2002 was his most eye-opening experience.

“It’s an incredibly poor country. You see beggars begging from people who have nothing. You don’t forget stuff like that,” he says. “But we stayed in a lovely, basic familyrun hotel. They couldn’t do enough for us.

“We were flown around the country on a plane borrowed from Armenia Air to transport teams and media and I covered a game in a town called Kayes. It’s the most out of the way place I’ve ever been and at 7pm in the evening, in the shade, it was 44 degrees – truly sweltering. It’s supposed to be Africa’s hottest town and having been there I wouldn’t argue with that!”

The routine was more or less doing a game one day and travelling the next. We were never anywhere long enough to unpack!”