Match Of The Day

“Welcome to Match of the Day, the first of a weekly series on BBC Two. This afternoon we are in Beatleville…” And so a legend was born. These words were uttered by Kenneth Wolstenholme as he began broadcasting the first ever Match of the Day on Saturday 22nd August, 1964, which showed the Liverpool versus Arsenal match, being played at Anfield.

The first show only attracted an audience of 20,000 people, which was less than half of the actual spectators at the stadium, but the prominence of the 1966 World Cup coverage, meant that Match of the Day (or MOTD as it’s fondly known) bagged itself a new slot on BBC One. The following year, 5 million viewers watched Alan Ball score twice for Everton when they played against Manchester United on the opening day.

MOTD was challenged in 1968 by the arrival of ITV’s Sunday show The Big Match, presented by Jimmy Hill and Brian Moore, formerly of the BBC Radio.

The BBC’s response to this new upstart show was to launch a new theme tune and Arnold Stock’s ‘Drum Majorette’ was replaced by the now familiar tune we hear blasting from TVs all over the UK.

The first colour broadcast in November 1969 saw Liverpool triumph over West Ham at Anfield and a record 20 million people watched the 1970 FA Cup final between Chelsea and Leeds.

A blow was struck in 1978 when ITV secured an exclusive deal with the football league for future coverage of their matches, and even an intervention by the Office of Fair Trading couldn’t prevent the BBC from being forced to alternate their Saturday night football coverage with ITV. Both channels were allowed to screen seven live matches from 1983. ITV chose Sunday and the BBC tried out a Friday evening slot.

The new Millenium brought a revamped highlights show and popular presenter Des Lynam to ITV, but Match of the Day lives on, with former England striker Gary Lineker fronting the live FA Cup and England matches.