The Sports Agents

Michael Jordan returned to TV screens across America last night for the launch of a new NBA season that had fans all over the world giddy with excitement. Here in the UK the sport is in chaos... again, after the GB men’s team was banned from global sport . Gabby & Mark are joined by Prof. John Amaechi - psychologist, author and also the first Brit to make it to the NBA to discuss how the civil...

From General Franco to Johan Cruyff , and from a pig's head to the Messi v Ronaldo rivalry - Spanish football journalist Guillem Balague joins Mark Pougatch and Paul Hayward to explain how El Clasico became the biggest club match in the world. And it's not all about fascism versus socialism, underdog versus serial winner...You might think you know the story but believe us, there's a lot of myths t...

Gabby and Mark are joined by the Premier League's fifth top goal scorer of all-time and winner of eight major trophies with Manchester United, Andy Cole . Was Andy surprised to see Ruben Amorim become the first Man United manager to win at Anfield since 2016? With the focus on set pieces despite a transfer window dominated by big striker moves, are strikers taking too long to settle in? And as a m...

British Gymnastics has been on a journey of root and branch reform since the damning 2022 ‘Whyte Review’ exposed systemic abuse and cultural failings. We are now three years into its "Reform 25" plan, which was designed to "create safe, positive and fair experiences for all in gymnastics by 2025" by implementing the Whyte Review recommendations. So as the World Artistic Gymnastic Championships sta...

You might have spotted the world’s best sumo wrestlers riding around on Lime bikes and posing for pictures on Abbey Road - that's because for the first time in 34 years, the thunderous spectacle of Grand Sumo is back in London. At the Royal Albert Hall , toilets and seats have been reinforced to take 200kg, spectators in the front row have been warned they could be crushed, and they’re getting thr...

In the 1980s English football was at an all time low. Attendances down, stadia crumbling, hooliganism all too prevalent, and then three horrific disasters - Bradford, Heysel and Hillsborough. Then almost out of nowhere Bobby Robson and his band of characters came within the width of the post of reaching the World Cup Final . England might have lost the semi-final against West Germany but they won...

Gabby and Mark are joined by Andy Farrell , who led the British & Irish Lions to a series win this summer and guided Ireland to world number one. From his Wigan rugby league roots when he had his son and ex-England captain Owen Farrell at just 16, to managing at the top of rugby union and where he sees the future of the two codes. (8 mins) We react to Cape Verde making the World Cup , Thomas T...

Gabby and Mark answer all of your questions from building their 'dream athlete' and their favourite Match of The Day moment so far, to England winning a home Rugby World Cup and the Ryder Cup crowds. Plus, we look back at this week on The Sports Agents. Double Olympic champion and Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas joined us in the studio to talk about how recent pro-Palestinan protests might ch...

Did Sir Jim Ratcliffe 's clunky Amorim vs. Arteta comparison make sense? Is England manager Thomas Tuchel right to put team cohesion ahead of individual talent in a World Cup year and could you win a point against a pro tennis player? Double Olympic gold-medallist Geraint Thomas - who calls Ratcliffe a personal friend - is now looking to move into INEOS management. So what's it like behind the sce...

"This race was an incredible exhibition of sprinting brilliance and power, but only because it came from a drugs bottle." In the scorching heat of Seoul during the 1988 Olympic Games , the world watched as two titans of track and field prepared to battle for gold in the men’s 100m final. Carl Lewis , the outspoken American, faced off against Ben Johnson , the quiet Canadian powerhouse and world re...

Russell Martin gone after 123 days, Ange Postecoglou on thin ice after 7 games - Right now at the top of Premier League clubs the pressure is on to be perfect straight away. So today Gabby & Mark are joined by former AFC Bournemouth chairman, Jeff Mostyn , who rescued the club from liquidation, helping Eddie Howe guide them from League Two to the Premier League to talk about the lost art of 'p...

Three-time Wimbledon champion Boris Becker joins Gabby and Mark on The Sports Agents to talk about his time in prison. The former world number one was sentenced to over two years in jail after going bankrupt. So how did he go from tennis glory to prison? What was it like living with murderers and drug dealers? And how did he feel watching Wimbledon from a jail cell? Plus, we look back at the best...

Premier League managers are more heavily scrutinised than ever. Those 20 jobs are among the most coveted in sport but with two sackings already this season, what’s the secret to keeping one? In an era where tactical identity and club politics collide, the role has never been more complex: Will you lose a dressing room if you break from your philosophy? Do managers even have time to actually c...

Join us to uncover a mystery that's still yet to be solved.  We're revisiting this episode of How It All Played Out, where Mark Pougatch and Paul Hayward travelled to the home of Head Groom Jim Fitzgerald on a stormy night in County Kildare in the Republic of Ireland to investigate one of the most shocking stories from the 1980s: the kidnapping of prize racehorse Shergar.  This story inv...

When Team Europe won the Ryder Cup in Rome two years ago, Rory McIlroy pledged that they would go to Bethpage in New York and win it away from home - something neither team had managed since 2012. Despite a torturous final day, as the Americans attempted to stage a miracle comeback, Team Europe held on to win. Chappers is live from New York alongside Iain Carter (The Chipping Forecast) the morning...

It's once in a lifetime, watching England win a World Cup on home soil - in any sport. The Red Roses have delivered history. The defeats in the last two World Cup finals are forgotten. What they will always remember is the noise of the 82,000 world record crowd at Twickenham , cheering for women's rugby.  This was the grand finale in a summer of women's sport after the Lionesses lifted t...

Gabby is joined by Ruby Tui - the nation has fallen in love with this World Cup winner and Olympic medallist over this Women's Rugby World Cup. She tells her story, from calling King Charles "bruv", to escaping domestic abuse, and getting 40,000 fans to sing a Maori folk song after winning a home World Cup. Ahead of Saturday's final, Ruby says it's an honour to witness this moment in sporting hist...

As the Women's Rugby World Cup reaches its conclusion, a new domestic men's rugby season begins - it's got a new name & big investment from Red Bull - but will it be enough to fight off the threat of Mike Tindall 's breakaway 'R360' league? England’s most capped men’s player, Ben Youngs, joins Gabby & Mark in the studio to discuss. Ben also reflects on his incredible career, opens up on ma...

Ball tampering, fans storming the golf course, bringing in the military... this is the story of how the Ryder Cup rivalry changed forever. Can you believe that it was once a quiet, civilised exhibition between the UK and America? The War by the Shore and Battle of Brookline transformed all that. So how did the Ryder Cup become the commercial juggernaut of colour, cash and controversy that we're se...

It may have been Great Britain's worst World Athletics Championships in over 20 years but Gabby and Mark are joined in studio by one athlete who lit up Tokyo, Georgia Hunter-Bell . She beat her training partner and Olympic champion, Keely Hodgkinson, to an 800m silver medal. How did she manage it after 5 years out of the sport and only going full time for this season? What went wrong for GB? And h...

Eddie Hearn sits down with Gabby & Mark to talk about the evolution of Matchroom from a £100 sports promotion company, formed under under the staircase of the Romford Snooker Club, to a billion pound global behemoth. Eddie speaks openly about still trying to impress his Dad, Matchroom founder Barry Hearn , planning for life after Anthony Joshua and his pain at how much more profitable the dart...

Gabby & Mark are joined by the former Premier League defender Danny Mills , who's just landed in Tokyo to watch his son - GB's George Mills - try to win gold in the 5000m at the World Athletics Championships this weekend. Danny talks openly about both the pride and agony of following his son's athletics career and marvels at the extreme level of dedication it requires in comparison to football...

"It was a f**k up from beginning to end. Every mistake you can make in the 800 I made. Too far off the back, too wide, too diffident, no logic that day" - Seb Coe From the late 1970s to the mid-1980s, Britain ruled the world of middle-distance running. At the heart of this golden era stood two legends: Sebastian Coe, the Yorkshire-born record breaker, and Steve Ovett, the tough competitor from Bri...

Gabby & Mark celebrate the life of a true British sporting icon, “The Hitman” Ricky Hatton . A ferocious fighter who turned boxing into spectacle for an army of fans at a time when the sport seemed lost. A superstar and a proud Mancunian who you genuinely felt like you could go for a drink with and talk about the football, or Oasis. When he descended on Las Vegas to face Floyd Mayweather , it...

A special interview today with a sprinter - who ironically - is living proof that it’s NEVER too late to start! Eugene Amo-Dadzie has shot to stardom as ‘ The World’s Fastest Accountant ’, literally balancing spreadsheets with sport until he was 26 years old! Last month he tied his hero Linford Christie ’s 100M time and became the joint second-fastest British man over 100m (9.87). It’s an amazing...