Sky Sports, Lead Senior Football Director
Sarah Cheadle is the Lead Senior Football Director at Sky Sports UK. Her career started there in 1998 as a runner and by 2001 she had joined the football department as an AP. One of her first assignments was in Munich for England’s famous 5-1 victory over Germany. It was a positive sign of things to come. After VT-coordinating hundreds of football games, Sarah started match directing in 2009 and has directed over 1000 matches since.
Every week she works on the biggest English Premier League games. She has also directed many Champions League games, Internationals, the English Football League including Play-Offs finals, and League Cup matches including 5 showpiece finals. Other notable directing credits include the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France, UEFA Euro in 2020 based in Bucharest, Women’s UEFA Euro in 2022 and she was one of only six directors at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
As a pioneer in her field, Sarah is acclaimed as being the first female football match director at Sky Sports – she is also the first female to direct at a men’s UEFA and FIFA showcase event.