Football on 5

''Football on 5'' is the principal football programme on Channel 5 in the UK. The show first ran from May 1997 until July 2012. The show returned in August 2015 under the name ''Football League Tonight''. For the 2016–17 Football League season the ''Football on 5'' name was revived with the highlights show now called ''Football on 5: The Championship'' and ''Football on 5: Goal Rush'' being broadcast from 9pm-10.30pm on a Saturday with a repeat on Sunday morning. The show itself was initially sponsored by Wilkinson Sword, and would eventually be sponsored by Soccernet.com, Peugeot and SEAT, among others.

First match

Channel 5's first live football match was in May 1997, shortly after the channel launched. It was a 1998 World Cup qualifying match between Poland and England in Chorzów.

International football

From 1997 to 2007, Channel 5 showed many away qualifying matches involving the home nations. England were shown playing in Poland (twice), Luxembourg, Bulgaria and Albania. In fact, the first game against Poland brought in the highest number of viewers the channel has ever seen to date. This was the high point of Football on 5's early coverage as they showed all the qualifying campaign for Euro 2000 for England but these qualifying matches have since transferred to the BBC and Sky Sports from 2001 to 2008 and ITV since 2008.

They also showed Scotland games which included their crucial final qualifier for 1998 FIFA World Cup at home to Latvia, plus trips to Lithuania, Faroe Islands, Czech Republic, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Estonia, Latvia, San Marino, Croatia and Belgium. They also showed the second leg of their Euro 2004 play-off with the Netherlands. These qualification matches are now on Sky Sports.

Many Ireland away matches were shown in qualification for the 2002 World Cup, these included the away matches against the Netherlands, Portugal, Cyprus, Andorra, and Estonia. This stopped in 2002, but was resumed with Ireland's away match in Israel in 2005. They showed the second leg of their Euro 2004 play-off with the Netherlands. These matches are now on Sky Sports.

Wales' Euro 2000 qualifiers away to Italy and Bulgaria were and they showed the first Wales football match at the Millennium Stadium against Brazil in 2000. They also covered a Northern Ireland's match in Moldova which was their only match on the network. These matches are now on Sky Sports.

Channel 5 won the terrestrial UK rights for the FIFA Confederations Cup in 2001, 2003 and 2005, showing a selection of matches including each final. Channel 5's coverage of the FIFA Confederations Cup ended after the 2005 tournament, as BBC Sport won the rights and covered the event on BBC Red Button or BBC Three.

Scottish football

Between 2002 and 2004, they showed live matches from the Scottish League Cup, including the two finals; Rangers v Celtic in 2003 and Livingston v Hibs in 2004. Channel 5 usually showed one match per round usually on Thursday nights keeping with the tradition of UEFA Cup matches. Steve Scott was still the host at this time and Jonathan Pearce commentated. These matches have since transferred to BBC Scotland who usually show a match per round and the final.

Italian football

For the 2007–08 season, Channel 5 won the rights to broadcast a live Serie A game on Sunday afternoons, presented by Radio 1 DJ Mark Chapman and Laura Esposto. Games were also shown on sister channel Fiver and a highlights show was broadcast on Saturday afterwards, named ''Football Italiano''. Channel 5 announced in July 2008 that they would not be continuing to cover Italian football for the 2008–09 season. These rights have since transferred to ESPN UK and BT Sport.

Chapman maintained a relationship with Channel 5 when he hosted a UEFA Cup match in 2008 between Portsmouth and Milan and deputised for Colin Murray whenever he was unavailable. His ties ended when, in 2009, Chapman presented Match of the Day for the first time (with ex-Northern Ireland manager Lawrie Sanchez and Martin Keown) in a friendly International between Northern Ireland and Italy in Pisa, which Italy won 3–0. He has since been seen deputising on Final Score on the BBC whenever Gabby Logan has been unavailable or due to her covering other sports.

Friendly matches

Channel 5 covered pre-season friendly games and have done since 1998. Two games from Liverpool's pre season tour were shown in July 2008 with Channel 5's UEFA Europa League at the helm. Occasional charity games, such as those featuring a team of England Legends, were shown on Channel 5. They showed The Carlberg Belfast Challenge in 1998, which Liverpool were in, The Gelderland Tournament the same year with Chelsea and Dennis Bergkamp's testimonial and anything else they could grab in the early days.

European club football

The backbone of Channel 5's football coverage consisted of UEFA Europa League matches, which it had shown throughout its existence, and The UEFA Cup. This was Channel 5's longest running football commitment showing matches from this every season since 1997–98 starting with Arsenal back in 1997 until the end of the 2011–12 season. They showed Aston Villa and Rangers a lot in the early days but would only cover the tournament to a point as BBC or ITV would usually have the rights from the quarter finals onwards. Usually Channel 5 showed matches on an ad hoc basis covering sometimes three games in a day from early afternoon to late evening if there were many British clubs playing. For the three seasons starting in 2009–10 season, Channel 5 was the UK's lead network for Europa League coverage, winning rights to first choice matches in every round and exclusive coverage of the final. They previously held second choice matches and had no final coverage. Matches not covered by Channel 5 were shown on ITV4 or ESPN UK. When they became the main broadcaster they just picked one match usually at 8pm on a Thursday night.

Channel 5 showed three Europa League Finals as first choice broadcaster, before losing the rights to ITV Sport;
* 2010: Fulham 1–2 Atlético Madrid
* 2011: Porto 1–0 Braga
* 2012: Atlético Madrid 3–0 Athletic Bilbao

In the early days, Channel 5 had matches involving Chelsea and Newcastle United in the last two seasons of the now-defunct UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. They showed the Cup Winners' Cup in the early days of Channel 5, they showed virtually every Chelsea match in 1997–98 and 1998–99 and also Newcastle when they were in it in 1998

At the start of the 21st century, Channel 5 would occasionally cover Champions League qualifiers involving British teams. They showed qualifiers of Newcastle in 1997, Liverpool in 2001 and 2004 and Manchester United in 2005.

Channel 5 also occasionally covered the UEFA Intertoto Cup during its existence, including Aston Villa in 2000 and Newcastle in 2001.

They showed the FIFA World Club Cup in 2008, which Manchester United won, with commentary by Dave Woods and Stan Collymore with the usual UEFA Cup team presenting.

End of Football on 5 (2012)

Football on Five was Channel 5's longest-running non-news programme, airing from 1997 to 2012. However, Channel 5 lost the contract for the Europa League to ITV Sport between Atletico Madrid and Atletico Bilbao in May 2012 and their last live match was in July 2012 when they had pre-season friendly coverage between Southampton and Ajax on 28 July (Jim Rosenthal presented alongside Ken Monkou, with Dave Woods and Stewart Robson commentating and Dave Beckett reporting).

Revival (2015-2018)

Football on 5 had been off air for three years when in May 2015 Channel 5 won the rights to broadcast Football League highlights from the 2015–16 in a three-year deal, in a new programme called ''Football League Tonight'', taking the coverage away from the BBC after six seasons. The highlights show is broadcast at 9pm, typically an hour and a half before ''Match of the Day'' is broadcast on BBC One, much earlier than when the BBC used to show ''The Football League Show'' which followed ''Match of the Day'' and usually started at 11:45pm. The promise of a mid-evening broadcast slot was believed to have been the tide turner, also in the contract were the highlights of the Football League Trophy. Channel 5 revived the ''Football on 5'' banner, prefixing the ''Football League Tonight'' name. The format of the show changed midway through the 2015–16 season and split into two segments, called ''Football on 5: The Championship'' and ''Football on 5: Goal Rush''. Together, they are broadcast from 9pm to 10:30pm on a Saturday, with a repeat on Sunday morning.

The show was presented by George Riley and Kelly Cates for its maiden season, followed by George Riley and Lindsay Hipgrave for the 2nd season and Colin Murray from 2017 to 2018 season, Colin previously presented all of Channel 5 UEFA Cup, Europa League and other football coverage from 2006 to 2010 leaving to join the BBC and host Match of the Day 2.

Quest acquired the rights after the end of the 2017/18 season, signing a four-year contract, ending the run of three years for Channel 5.

Presenters

Channel 5's football coverage has had a number of presenters over the years. Brough Scott famously presented their first big match - famously remembered due to the sports bar set-up and the inclusion of fellow Channel 5 personalities, including the cast of Family Affairs. After that it was Jeremy Nicholas for a short period until ITV News presenter Steve Scott, brother of ITV Sport

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