Paul Andrew Francis Dempsey (born 16 March 1960) is a British former footballer and current TV and radio sports presenter and commentator now chiefly employed by TNT Sports where he covers football and boxing coverage, as well as TV host and commentary on Indonesian Djarum's multiplatform Mola TV. After 18 years working for Sky Sports (from late 1988 to August 2006), followed by 7 with the Dublin-based channels of Setanta Sports, Dempsey was signed by BT Sport prior to their UK launch in summer 2013.
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Early life
Paul Dempsey was born in Marylebone, London on 16 March 1960. He lived in Leicester, England between 1966 and 1978. during which time he attended St Joseph's School and then City of Leicester Boys' School; it had a notable record of success in football, with England strikers Gary Lineker and Emile Heskey among its products.
He then went up to St. John's College, Cambridge, where he read English Literature between 1979 and 1982. He won two Blues and captained Cambridge in the annual football Varsity match against Oxford at Wembley in December 1981.
UCD A.F.C.
In January 1982, he applied to enroll in University College Dublin's Sports Scholarship system, and the signing was confirmed on 10 March, by which time his family was living in nearby Blackrock.
In July, he was almost immediately selected by general manager Dr. Tony O'Neill as a member of the UCD squad who embarked on the annual pre-season tour of Australia and Asia. He then played football for its soccer team as a defender or midfielder during the 1982–83 League of Ireland season. He wore the captain's armband for UCD's first League of Ireland Cup Group A match, a goalless draw against Bohemians on 12 September 1982. Thirteen days later, when the Students were trailing 4–0 at half-time to Shamrock Rovers in their last group match, he first met a future broadcaster colleague of his: Jim Beglin (one of his opponents, but the midfielder who would sign for Liverpool the following summer and go on to represent the Republic of Ireland 15 times before his early retirement in 1991).
On 14 November, Dempsey scored for UCD's B team in their 2–1 victory over Dublin University in the League of Ireland B Division. On 2 January 1983, he ended his long absence from the first team with an appearance against Bohemians at Dalymount Park, the first since the match away at Waterford United on 17 October.
He made 13 League of Ireland appearances for the Students, the last in which came off the bench at home to Limerick United on 20 March 1983, four days after his 23rd birthday. He also came on as a substitute in UCD's FAI Cup 4th round tie against Limerick United on 6 February.
He additionally won the Collingwood Cup during his time at Belfield Park.
One notable teammate during that season was Peter Lorimer (former Leeds United and Scotland striker), who played three matches in the latter part of the season while on loan from Canadian NASL club Vancouver Whitecaps before eventually returning to Elland Road for a second spell.
Later stints as footballer
Dempsey later played football in France and Switzerland before deciding to fully commit to a broadcasting career.
Radio career
After a summer job opportunity at the Irish News in Belfast, he joined BBC as a graduate Trainee in late 1984. On his very first day in that job, he made tea for American boxing icon "Smokin'" Joe Frazier. After spells in BBC Radio Sport and BBC Radio News, he joined the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation, based in Bern, where he worked on radio between June 1985 and October 1987. Upon his eventual return to London, he freelanced at ITN and Channel Four News while launching Capital Radio's sports coverage with Jonathan Pearce.
Television career
At Christmas 1988, Dempsey was invited to audition for the launch of Sky News, which went on air in February 1989. Dempsey was one of the first presenters to be seen on screen and became a regular presenting sports news bulletins, simultaneously establishing himself as one of the lead commentators on Sky's initial sports channel, Eurosport. He covered the 1990 World Cup working alongside Ian Darke and Peter Brackley and the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. After the merger of Sky and British Satellite Broadcasting, Sky Sports became the new dedicated subscription sports channel for the network and Dempsey made his name covering football and boxing alongside other regulars, Richard Keys and Andy Gray as part of a multi-award-winning team. When Sky captured Premier League rights for the first time Dempsey presented Sports Saturday, later Soccer Saturday, with Sue Barker. He co-created the format for the show, which has remained unchanged for over 20 years, with Senior Producer Rik Dovey, a lieutenant of then Sky Sports chief David Hill. From the mid-1990s Sky boosted their boxing coverage by signing up most of the biggest names in Britain and the United States and Dempsey fronted all of the major shows either on regular subscription or Pay Per View Channels. His main analysts were former world champions Barry McGuigan, Jim Watt, Glenn McCrory and former commonwealth champion Nicky Piper.
For a period Sky enjoyed a near monopoly on the sport's biggest names including Lennox Lewis, Evander Holyfield, Mike Tyson, Nigel Benn, Chris Eubank, Steve Collins and Naseem Hamed. Dempsey also became known to a wider international audience through regular commentary work for international agencies CSI Sports and TWI who relayed live Premier League, FA Cup, European and International football to a Worldwide audience.
He was a mainstay of their football coverage and commentated on the final day of the 1994–95 season as Blackburn Rovers clinched the title at Anfield against Liverpool and again in 1997-98 as Arsenal beat Everton at Highbury on the last day to become champions.
For 10 successive years Dempsey hosted the prestigious PFA Player of the Year Awards show from the Grosvenor House in London.
In 2002, he was a commentator for SBS covering the FIFA World Cup.
Personal life
Dempsey married wife Jill in 1996 and has two daughters born in 2000 and 2002.
In addition to his native English, he speaks French and German, both in which he acquired proficiency during his time working in France and Switzerland during the mid-1980's. He also has fluency in Spanish and Italian.