In 2007, she became the first female commentator on the flagship BBC One football highlights programme Match of the Day,[2] which she also presented once in March 2015.
Her late father Gerald was the managing director of a large gas appliance company, and her mother Sonja is a retired nurse who was born and brought up in South Africa, where her parents were Norwegian missionaries.
Oatley passed her A-Levels at Wolverhampton Grammar School,[2] and studied at University of Leeds, graduating with a degree in German in 1996.
She then gave up her intellectual property management job as well as her flat, spent a summer sleeping on friends' floors whilst doing journalism work experience full-time.
[13] Her subsequent interview with UEFA President Lennart Johansson became an international news story due to his controversial comments on women's football.
[18] Oatley became the lead play-by-play commentator for FA Women's Super League (WSL) matches on Sky Sports in the UK in September 2021.
[19] She stepped down from that role at the end of the 2022-2023 WSL season in May 2023 after she was hired by CBS Sports (USA) as the lead television main commentator (play-by-play) for the NWSL in March 2023.
In 2022, Fox Sports hired Oatley as a main play-by-play commentator for United States broadcasts of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, becoming the first woman to serve in that role for the tournament's U.S.
[20][8] In March 2023, Oatley joined the play-by-play commentary team for the National Women's Soccer League on television in the United States,[21] commuting for the role from Surrey.
[citation needed] She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to broadcasting and diversity in sport.
In September 2016, Oatley was made an Honorary Doctor of Letters at the University of Wolverhampton for her contribution to sports broadcasting.