Alan Green (born 25 June 1952) is a Northern Irish former sports commentator, mainly on football but also on golf, rowing and the Olympic Games. Green was one of BBC Radio 5 Live's most senior football commentators and was a winner of a Sony Radio Academy Award for Sports Broadcaster of the Year. He is noted for his forthright style of football commentary and has been involved in several controversies and disputes with managers including Alex Ferguson and Sam Allardyce. He also worked briefly in the MLS as Atlanta United play by play lead announcer for Fox Sports South and Fox Sports Southeast. Career Alan Green was born in Belfast, and attended Methodist College Belfast. After gaining an honours degree in modern history from Queen's University Belfast, he worked in local newspapers until he moved to the BBC in 1975 as a news trainee with the ambition of becoming a TV news producer. Green presented current affairs on both radio and television in Northern Ireland, before he moved to Manchester, joining BBC Radio's sport department. Green's first World Cup as a BBC commentator was in 1982, and in 1986 he made his debut covering the FA Cup Final as the junior commentary partner to Peter Jones. He returned to the Cup final in 1988, and following Jones' untimely death, he covered every FA cup final from 1990 to 2016, missing only 2010 due to ill health. In 1989, Green was present at the Hillsborough disaster with Jones. In a 2009 radio programme marking the 20th anniversary of the disaster, he spoke of his bitterness that justice had been denied for the 96 people who died at Hillsborough. Green's forthright commentary style has often divided opinion among radio listeners. He has won the admiration of some listeners for his honest assessments of football games and for his uncompromising opinions. Green has disputed the notion that the English Premier League is the greatest in the world. In 2013, he wrote an article in which he said: "The Premier League I see week in, week out, isn't remotely as good as it thinks it is." In the article for the Belfast Telegraph, Green criticised what he called "woeful defending", "selfish, oafish behaviour" and "the underwhelming, overpaid footballers that populate the Premier League." In an interview with The Observer in 2009, Green said of his career as a sports commentator: "Apart from one time