rights to top flight English football, Helm was a regular voice of live football. For the following four years he covered live matches for Yorkshire TV, London Weekend Television and Granada as they carried coverage of the lower leagues. He also continued his network commitments covering live and recorded European football in the early years of the Champions League. Other networks Helm had a minor role at Euro '96 in England, and the arrival of Peter Drury in 1998 meant that he had no part to play in the network's coverage of that year's World Cup in France. From there on his ITV work was restricted to recorded highlights in the Yorkshire region, but Helm branched out as a freelancer. International audiences heard him regularly on broadcasts of both the Premier League and the Champions League. He also featured briefly on British Eurosport. In 2002, FIFA recruited him as one of their commentators for the World Cup in Korea/Japan, and he covered 39 of the 64 matches. He reprised the role at the tournament in Germany in 2006 and South Africa in 2010, and several other FIFA events. In addition to this, Helm was five's chief football commentator, reporting on UEFA Cup ties and the occasional international. Helm has been employed by CBC as a commentator in the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup in Germany and the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. He has also been employed by TSN and CTV as a commentator in the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, the 2008 UEFA European Championship, the 2012 UEFA European Championship and the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. Helm has also commentated for Radio Robins and Alty TV who cover Altrincham FC games. References External links "'The best job in the world'" John Helm profile piece, FIFA.com "Describing the beautiful game" John Helm profile piece, Sportstar English sports broadcasters English association football commentators Living people 1942 births People from Baildon English rugby league commentators