Match of the Day
{{Infobox Television
| bgcolor = #D6D6FF
| show_name = Match of the Day
| image = File:BBC-MOTD Logo.PNG
| caption = Match of the Day's Internet logo
| format = Sports
| camera =
| picture_format =
| audio_format =
| runtime = Variable
| creator =
| developer =
| executive_producer =
| starring = Gary Lineker
Alan Hansen
Mark Lawrenson
John Motson
Alan Shearer
Ray Stubbs
Gabby Logan[[Jacqui Oatley
| narrated =
| opentheme =
| endtheme =
| country = 
United Kingdom
| network = BBC One
| first_run =
| first_aired = August 22, 1964
| last_aired = present
| num_episodes =
| website = http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/match_of_the_day/default.stm
| imdb_id = 0135733
| tv_com_id = 17000
}}
Match of the Day (sometimes abbreviated as MotD) is the BBC's main football television programme. It is shown on BBC One every Saturday evening during the English football season, showing highlights of Premiership (formerly Division One) matches. There are also some midweek editions, showing highlights of weekday evening games. Match of the Day also screens FA Cup and England international matches, either live or as highlights. It is one of the BBC's longest-running shows, having been on air since 1964, though it has not always been aired regularly.
History
1960s
The first edition of Match of the Day was screened on BBC2 at 6:30pm on 22 August 1964, and showed only one match: highlights of the First Division game between Liverpool and Arsenal at Anfield; Liverpool won 3-2. As BBC2 was available only in the London area at the time, the programme's audience was estimated at only 20,000 [1]; less than half of the attendance at Anfield stadium. However this soon expanded; on 3 December new transmitters were opened in the Midlands and the number of people with access increased to over two million.
However, the BBC had been showing live games before MOTD, the first being an FA Cup semi-final game between Fulham F.C. and Manchester United in 1958. Although Match of the Day primarily screened First Division matches, under the BBC's initial contract with The Football League, they had to screen three Second Division games per season as well. The following year it also extended its coverage to Third Division matches, and started showing highlights of FA Cup matches. Additionally, in its inaugural season, Match of the Day screened a Fourth Division match between Oxford United and Tranmere Rovers, though it would not do so again until 1978.
Match of the Day was not universally welcomed in the football world; in 1965 several clubs attempted to block a renewed deal with the BBC in fear of a drop in gate attendances at matches. Eventually a compromise was reached where the BBC agreed not to reveal which match was to be shown until after the day's play had concluded, an arrangement that remained until 1983. The show moved to BBC1 the same year, though occasionally in later years highlights of FA Cup matches were screened on BBC2. The first colour edition of Match of the Day was shown on November 15, 1969, between Liverpool and West Ham United.[2]
By then, Match of the Day was not the only football highlights programme on English television; the BBC faced competition from 1967 as ITV started to show highlights on a regional basis on Sunday afternoons; London Weekend Television's The Big Match, which later became the programme for the entire ITV network, was first broadcast in 1968. Match of the Day responded by increasing the number of matches to two per programme.
1970s and 1980s
During the 1970s, Match of the Day became one of the BBC's most successful programmes, with audiences peaking at over 12 million. The "Goal of the Month" and "Goal of the Season" competitions were introduced in 1970; slow motion replays followed a year later.[1] However, at the end of the decade the BBC lost a significant share of matches, with a new four-year deal in 1979 splitting the rights between the BBC and ITV (ITV had originally won exclusive rights, but a ruling from the Office of Fair Trading ordered that the rights be split[2]). Match of the Day was moved to Sunday afternoons for the 1980-81 and 1982-83 seasons,[3] but as consolation the number of games per programme went up to three.
In 1983, the rights came up for renewal again; once again the BBC had to share with ITV. For the first time, league games were shown live, on Friday evenings. Additionally, programmes reverted back to Saturday nights and shirt sponsorship was allowed for the first time on the non-commercial BBC. Industrial action by BBC staff hampered coverage that season,[1] but the first live league match shown on Match of the Day was on Friday 16 December 1983, with a Manchester United 4-2 win over Tottenham Hotspur.
As the 1980s progressed, Match of the Day focused more and more on the First Division. The final Fourth Division game to be on the programme, between Blackpool and York City, was shown on February 4 1984. Coverage of the Second and Third Divisions dwindled until it was finally dropped in 1986. However other competitions were shown; the League Cup Final was covered live for the first time by the BBC in 1985.
In 1985, the rights for League football came up again, but an ongoing wrangle between the TV companies, Football League's TV Negotiating Committee and a rebel group of clubs led by Oxford United chairman Robert Maxwell meant the first half of the 1985-86 season was not televised at all;[3] some clubs even tried negotiating individually with their local BBC and ITV regions. Eventually, in December 1985 a deal was agreed and Match of the Day resumed for the second half of the season.
After the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico, the BBC and ITV signed a new deal which left screening of highlights at the broadcaster's discretion; the BBC decided to suspend the regular weekly highlights apart from a couple of FA Cup Saturdays, instead showing basketball highlights in its slot. However, in the following season highlights of league football were reintroduced, though this was only occasional and not as often as before as the main focus was still on live games and the top teams.
In 1988, an even more competitive scramble for TV rights meant that the BBC lost all rights for League football to ITV, although they retained rights for FA Cup and England matches, shared with satellite channel BSB. For the next four seasons, Match of the Day only appeared on FA Cup weekends. However, ITV's negotiating stance and poor quality match coverage proved unpopular with the clubs. With the breakaway of the top clubs in England to form the FA Premier League in 1992, the BBC regained highlights of matches (though Sky gained exclusive live rights), and regular Match of the Day programming resumed with highlights of three main games, and for the first time all the goals from the other games played that day.
1990s and 2000s
Although the BBC lost highlights of European Cup matches after its revamping as the Champions League in 1993, apart from the final in 1994, the joint Sky/BBC bid was renewed in 1996. However, the BBC lost all rights to the FA Cup in 1997, so Match of the Day's live coverage was restricted to UEFA Cup and Cup Winners' Cup matches. To make things worse for the BBC, in 2001 the Premier League awarded highlights rights to ITV in a three-year contract.
Match of the Day did not totally disappear; the same year the BBC regained FA Cup highlights, and live coverage of England's World Cup qualifying matches, as well as retaining UEFA Cup coverage. ITV's league highlights programme, The Premiership, fared poorly (especially after being forced to reschedule from 7pm to the traditional late-evening slot) and, in 2004, Premiership highlights returned to the BBC. Since 2004, the programme has shown highlights of all the matches on that date, with Commentators at every ground. With more matches played on Sundays, a sister programme, Match of the Day 2 was launched on BBC2 on Sunday nights. this show was closer in style to the old style Match of the Day with up to ten minutes of action from the normal two games played that day, plus a round-up of Saturday's goals. In addition to Saturdays and Sundays, the programme airs on any weeknight in which at least six matches are scheduled, or negotiates specially with the Premier League and/or match broadcasters.
As of 2006, Match of the Day screens Premiership highlights and live coverage of FA Cup and England's home matches and highlights of England's away matches; it also sometimes has rights to matches or highlights from other Home Nations. In 2006, the BBC agreed a new deal with the Premier League which means that league highlights coverage will continue on Match of the Day until at least the end of the 2009-10 season.[4] However, ITV did win rights to the FA Cup and England games starting in 2008, thus limiting the BBC's live coverage to the tournaments proper (shared with ITV) and any Home Nation matches they might acquire in the future.
In 2005-2006, a Save of the Season competition was introduced with the inaugural winner being Tomasz Kuszczak.
Presenters and commentators
Match of the Day's first match was presented by Kenneth Wolstenholme, who also commentated, alongside Walley Barnes as co-commentator. A number of different presenters rotated in the role, but by 1970 David Coleman had established himself as the programme's main anchorman. Jimmy Hill took over the role in 1973 after moving from ITV,[1] although Coleman continued to feature as a commentator. One of the show's most famous presenters, Des Lynam joined the programme in 1979 as a commentator and took over from Hill in 1988 (Hill was retained as a pundit). Current presenter, former England captain Gary Lineker, joined as a pundit in 1995 before becoming backup to Des Lynam; Lineker became main presenter after Lynam's departure in 1999.
As well as Hill and Lineker, other long-running pundits on the show include Alan Hansen, Trevor Brooking, Mark Lawrenson, Terry Venables, Peter Schmeichel and Ian Wright. New pundits to have joined the football coverage on the BBC, for example, on Match of the Day, are Gavin Peacock, Lee Dixon, Mark Bright, and Alan Shearer. The show also frequently uses prominent managers such as Martin O'Neill. Gabby Logan, one of the first women football presenters on television has recently joined the BBC from ITV, a leading commercial television network, as the BBC have the rights to a lot of FA Cup and Premiership matches, whereas ITV only have rights to some UEFA Champions League and UEFA Cup matches. Logan currently hosts some editions of the show, while Adrian Chiles hosts the Sunday night edition. Although Sky Sports are generally regarded to have the best coverage of English football, the BBC is seen as the traditional home for football fans in England.
In the early years, the programme's most regular commentators were Kenneth Wolstenholme and David Coleman. The longest-running commentator is John Motson, who made his first appearance on October 9 1971 and continues to feature on the programme to this day. Barry Davies was another longstanding commentator, featuring on the show between 1969 and 2004. Other noted commentators include Stuart Hall, Alan Weeks, Alan Parry, Gerald Sinstadt, Tony Gubba, Harry Carpenter, Clive Tyldesley, Jon Champion, Guy Mowbray, Dan O'Hagan, Paul Mitchell and Jonathan Pearce. Co-commentators such as Lawrenson and Peacock are often used for FA Cup and international matches.
On 21 April, 2007, history was made when Jacqui Oatley became the first woman to commentate on the programme when she covered the 1-1 draw between Fulham and Blackburn Rovers.[5]
Theme music
- The show's theme tune is called "Match Of The Day" and was written especially for the programme in 1970 by Barry Stoller, and has become so ubiquitous in British culture that it is associated not just with the programme but football in general. It is often incorrectly labelled with the title "Offside", which was actually the name of an alternative commercially-released version in 1970, which was conducted by Mike Vickers. [2] The tune has four beats in a bar, played on a bass guitar.
- The original theme tune to MotD was written by Major Leslie Statham, the band leader of the Welsh Guards and was entitled 'Drum Majorette' (He also wrote the popular Guards regiments' march Birdcage Walk). This remained the theme tune from 1964 until 1971 when the current tune by Barry Stoller replaced it. At the time Major Statham wrote his original works using the pen-name 'Arnold Steck'.
Trivia
- The record scoreline in match shown on Match of the Day is 9-0, which has occurred twice: a Second Division match between Tottenham Hotspur and Bristol Rovers in 1977, and a FA Premier League match between Manchester United and Ipswich Town in 1995.
- Genesis honoured the program with their song "Match of the Day" in 1977, on the "Spot the Pigeon" EP.
- The programme was commissioned by Sir David Attenborough during his time as controller of BBC2.
- The youngest presenter in the show's history is Jake Humphrey who hosted MotD in January 2007.
See also
Footnotes
- ^ a b c d "History of Match of the Day". BBC Sport.
- ^ a b c "MOTD through the ages". BBC Sport.
- ^ a b "Blackout". World of Sport.
- ^ "BBC keeps Premiership highlights". BBC Sport.
- ^ "Match of the Day gets first woman commentator". Reuters.
References
- Motson, John (1992). Match of the Day - The Complete Record since 1964. ISBN 0-563-36406-8.
- Smith, Martyn (2004). Match of the Day - 40th Anniversary. ISBN 0-563-52181-3.