Jim Rosenthal to front Channel 5 football coverage

Channel 5 has replaced Colin Murray with Jim Rosenthal as the new face of its football coverage. Rosenthal, best known as the former presenter of ITV's Formula One programmes, will front Channel 5's Europa League coverage, with his first game set to be Liverpool's match against Steaua Bucharest tomorrow. He takes over from Murray, who left the broadcaster to replace Adrian Chiles as host of BBC2's Match of the Day 2 . Channel 5 is in the second year of a three-year contract giving it the first choice of live matches for each round of the Europa League and exclusive rights to the final. Live coverage of Fulham's Europa League final defeat last year helped the network to its best weekday audience share for more than seven years . The match averaged 4.7 million viewers, peaking with 6.1 million. Rosenthal said: "I've covered many different sports throughout my career but football has always been my first love so it's tremendous to be back covering the game at the highest level. "5 has an innovative and inclusive approach to its coverage which really excites me and with Liverpool and Manchester City in the tournament, alongside some of the biggest names in European football such as Juventus, it promises to be a thrilling campaign." Rosenthal began his broadcasting career in 1980 at ITV and has presented football, boxing and athletics among other sports, and covered eight World Cup finals since 1982. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email [email protected] or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. • If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".