FA Cup final presenter Laura Woods stood up for football supporters and fended off sexist trolls to become media superstar
Manchester United and Manchester City have stars galore in their two respective teams but one person might outshine them all.
talkSPORT’s Laura Woods has been given the honour of hosting ITV’s coverage of the FA Cup final on Saturday and it is no surprise considering her rising stardom.
Woodsy is now a household name across all sports when it comes to presenting, not just the football.
She has covered a range of other shows including darts, boxing and even the NFL and is well-known for her talkSPORT Breakfast Show with Ally McCoist, listened to by millions every week.
And as a devout Arsenal fan, she has even had to put up with Jamie O’Hara, talkSPORT’s resident Tottenham supporter, who she has dispatched frequently and hilariously.
Her bubbly personality, hilarious banter and in-depth knowledge of sports has made her a favourite among viewers and listeners.
And as well as being a talkSPORT superstar, she has been ITV’s go-to person in recent years – even going to the World Cup in Qatar over the winter.
Building up a rapport with Ian Wright and Roy Keane, the FA Cup final could not be in safer hands.
In a world dominated by toxic masculinity, it has not been an easy ride for Woods, who has had to battle vile internet trolls.
But she has dealt with the misogynists like everything else in her career – with excellence and determination.
She often leaves sexist Twitter accounts looking foolish with her biting replies that has fans rolling with laughter.
“I accept that as presenters we are putting ourselves out there; we’re essentially targets,” she told i.
“I’m learning to live with it because that’s part of our job. You’re never going to please everybody.
“It would hurt me a lot more if I took it all to heart, so I take it with a pinch of salt now as much as I can.
“The people with something bad to say will always shout the loudest, so I have learnt to care less about the reaction.”
In 2020, talkSPORT gave Woods the Breakfast Show gig alongside Alan Brazil and her status has grown ever since.
As well as buddying up with McCoist and O’Hara, there has been talk that she could replace Jake Humphrey as the face of BT Sport when it becomes TNT Sport next season.
Fans have also called on her to step in for the legendary Jeff Stelling on Soccer Saturday, while she has always sided with the average supporter trying to watch their beloved teams.
As rising costs in subscriptions continue, five men were recently jailed for illegally streaming football matches.
Woodsy was quick to point out it is wrong for the average fan having to foot such an extraordinary bill for their beloved sport.
“Sky Sports £34.99 a month, BT Sport £29.99 a month, Amazon £8.99 a month. Total £73.97 a month,” Woods read on air.
“Other streaming platforms – Viaplay is £14.99, DAZN is £19.99, Apple TV is £14.99.
“If you want things on top of that like Netflix, that’s just gone up.
“These are things we can live without but we learned in COVID how important sport is to people.
“Some of the sentences these guys got for illegally streaming and look, it was a lot of money.
“If you look at how much money they were making they made a lot of money off the back of this.
“If you’re dealing with a really premium product that other people make money from and it’s their golden goose, then you better believe the authorities are going to come down hard.
“How do you go about saying the consumer needs a break?
“How do we bring these prices down because these prices don’t necessarily look like they’re going to change any time soon?”
So add a woman of the people to her growing resume and who knows where she will end up next, as long as it includes ribbing O’Hara more over Spurs.
