''Match of the Day'' (abbreviated to ''MOTD'') is a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

highlights programme, typically broadcast on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

on Saturday nights, during the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

season. The show's current presenter is former England international striker Gary Lineker. It is one of the

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's longest-running shows, having been on air since 22 August 1964. In 2015, ''

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

'' recognised it "as the longest-running football television programme in the world." The show's theme tune was voted the most recognised TV theme tune in a 2010 poll conducted by the PRS.

History

1960s

Although the title was first used by the

for its

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

highlights programme in June 1964, the first football-related edition of ''Match of the Day'' was screened on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

on 22 August 1964, and showed highlights of a game between

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

and

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

Anfield Anfield is a football stadium in Anfield, Liverpool, Merseyside, England, which has a seating capacity of 53,394, making it the seventh largest football stadium in England. It has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since their formation in 1892. ...

. The programme's audience was estimated at only 20,000, less than half of the attendance at the ground. ''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. Following the success of the England team at the

1966 FIFA World Cup The 1966 FIFA World Cup was the eighth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in England from 11 July to 30 July 1966. The England national football team defeated West Germany 4-2 in the ...

, the programme was moved from BBC 2 to BBC 1 for the start of the 1966 - 1967 season. The first

colour Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...

edition of ''Match of the Day'' on BBC 1 was shown on 15 November 1969, where it featured a game between

and West Ham United. However, the very first

edition was shown on 2 November 1968, when the programme moved back to

BBC 2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

for one week, and a game between Chelsea and

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

was featured (BBC 2 was transmitted on

625 lines 625-lines is a standard-definition television resolution used mainly in the context of analog systems. It was first demonstrated by Mark Iosifovich Krivosheev in 1948. Analog broadcast television standards The following International Telecommunic ...

capable of showing colour).

1970s and 1980s

Slow motion replays were first introduced in 1969. 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 or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

(ITV had originally won exclusive rights, but a ruling from the

Office of Fair Trading The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) was a non-ministerial government department of the United Kingdom, established by the Fair Trading Act 1973, which enforced both consumer protection and competition law, acting as the United Kingdom's economic ...

ordered that the rights be split). ''Match of the Day'' was moved to Sunday afternoons for the 1980–81 and 1982–83 seasons. In 1983, the programme reverted to being shown on Saturday night, although that year four broadcasts were lost due to industrial action. The season 1983–84 also saw the first ''Match of the Day Live'' broadcasts of First Division matches, beginning with

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

on 16 December – a Friday evening fixture. This came some two months after the start of

's '' Big Match Live''.

1990s and 2000s

League football highlights were not available to the

from 1988 as ITV had exclusive rights, though the programme remained on air for the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

as ''Match of the Day: The Road to Wembley''. League football returned in 1992, for the start of the

era. Sky's emergence made the TV rights market more competitive, with the BBC losing

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

matches after

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

's revamping as the Champions League in 1992, although it did broadcast the 1994 final between A.C. Milan and

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football. Founded ...

. In 1997, the BBC lost all live rights to the

meaning the programme's live coverage was restricted to the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

and Cup Winners' Cup matches, the latter competition becoming defunct in 1999. However, the BBC were still able to show Saturday evening highlights of FA Cup games. A significant change occurred in 2001 when the Premier League awarded highlights rights to ITV in a three-year contract. Between 2001 and 2004, the ''Match of the Day'' brand was used for the BBC's live football coverage and the network had earned some consolation in losing by managing to regain live terrestrial coverage of the FA Cup and

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

internationals for that period. Rights for

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

qualifiers, which are held by the home team and fall outside the rights for the competition proper, were obtained on an ad hoc basis for English teams in this period, which is currently the case for the BBC with Scottish and Northern Irish teams. Both legs of Manchester United's 2002–03 third round qualifying matches against Zalaegerszeg were shown live on the BBC. From the 2004–05 season, Premier League highlights returned to the BBC in a revived ''MOTD''. In addition, '' Match of the Day 2'' was launched, which showed highlights of the increasing number of Sunday fixtures, and was initially presented by

Adrian Chiles Adrian Chiles (born 21 March 1967) is a British writer and television and radio presenter. He has co-presented both ''The One Show'' (2007–2010) and '' Daybreak'' (2010–2011) with Christine Lampard. He was also the chief presenter for foo ...

. The BBC's broadcasting rights were renewed in 2009, allowing them to continue showing ''Match of the Day'' until 2013.

2010s

From the 2011–12 season, a web-only ''Match of the Day 3'' programme was launched on Monday mornings as a light-hearted addition to '' Match of the Day 2''. Although broadcast as a separate programme, it is recorded immediately following the conclusion of ''Match of the Day 2'' on Sunday night. In November 2011, ''Match of the Day'' moved from London to a brand new studio in

Dock10 Dedicator of cytokinesis protein 10 (Dock10), also known as Zizimin3, is a large (~240 kDa) protein involved in intracellular signalling networks that in humans is encoded by the ''DOCK10'' gene. It is a member of the DOCK-D subfamily of the D ...

MediaCityUK MediaCityUK is a mixed-use property development on the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal in Salford, Greater Manchester, England. The project was developed by Peel Media; its principal tenants are media organisations and the Quayside MediaCi ...

as part of BBC Sport's relocation north, this allowed the programme to be recorded in high-definition. At the start of 2012–13 season ''Match of the Day 2'' moved to

. Upon regaining the

rights in 2014, highlights from the early and later rounds of the competition were given their own separate programme instead of being broadcast on an extended ''Match of the Day'' straight after the

highlights, as it was before the BBC last lost the rights in 2008. Highlights of the latter rounds occasionally sequence from the Premier League highlights, as they did until the previous decade, but both segments are considered separate programmes.

2020s

During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

and the postponement of the

2019–20 Premier League The 2019–20 Premier League was the 28th season of the Premier League, the top English professional football league, since its establishment in 1992, and the 121st season of top-flight English football overall. The season started on 9 August 2 ...

season, ''Match of the Day'' split into a televised podcast called ''Match of the Day: Top 10 Podcast'' in which Gary Lineker and the pundits discussed and ranked certain roles from the start of the Premier League in 1992 (such as Top 10 Goalkeepers) and ''Match of their Day'' which featured a pundit picking three of their favourite Premier League matches. Upon its resumption, the BBC broadcast four games live.

Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...

versus Crystal Palace became the first Premier League game shown live on one of the five main terrestrial channels, and the BBC's first live top-flight English football match since 1987–88. A further eight games were shown live during the 2020–21 season.

Studio

The Programme was broadcast from TC5 at BBC Television Centre from 1964-2012 Ahead of the

season,

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC television, radio and online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside flag ...

upgraded the studio that ''Match of the Day'', '' Match of the Day 2'', '' Football Focus'', and '' Final Score'' broadcasts from. The facility uses a " 4K UHD ready virtual reality studio." It uses Epic Games' Unreal Engine 4 rendering technology. Filming is located at the

studios at

in Salford.

Presenters, analysts, and commentators

Despite the programme's long running status there have only been five regular main presenters: Kenneth Wolstenholme (1964–1967), David Coleman (1967–1973),

Jimmy Hill James William Thomas Hill, OBE (22 July 1928 – 19 December 2015) was an English footballer and later a television personality. His career included almost every role in the sport, including player, trade union leader, coach, manager, director ...

(1973–1988), Des Lynam (1988–1999) and Gary Lineker (since 1999). Lineker had worked as an analyst during his predecessor Des Lynam's tenure. Mark Chapman,

Gabby Logan Gabrielle Nicole Logan (''née'' Yorath; born 24 April 1973) is a Welsh presenter and a former international rhythmic gymnast who represented Wales and Great Britain. She hosted ''Final Score'' for BBC Sport from 2009 until 2013. She has also p ...

, and Dan Walker have stood in for Lineker. The predominant analysts for the 2021–22 season are

Alan Shearer Alan Shearer CBE DL (born 13 August 1970) is an English football pundit and retired football player and manager who played as a striker. Widely regarded as one of the best strikers of his generation and one of the greatest players in Premie ...

, Jermaine Jenas,

Martin Keown Martin Raymond Keown (; born 24 July 1966) is an English football pundit and former professional footballer who played as a defender from 1984 to 2005, notably in the Premier League for Arsenal, where he made over 400 appearances for the club a ...

, Danny Murphy, Micah Richards, and Ian Wright. Each live show typically features three analysts; highlights shows usually have two analysts. ''Match of the Day'' uses a selection of

and

freelance ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

commentators Commentator or commentators may refer to: * Commentator (historical) or Postglossator, a member of a European legal school that arose in France in the fourteenth century * Commentator (horse) (foaled 2001), American Thoroughbred racehorse * The Co ...

, including: Guy Mowbray, Steve Wilson, Jonathan Pearce,

Steve Bower Stephen Robert Bower is an English football commentator, one of the main voices for BBC TV's Match of the Day, culminating in being part of the commentary teams for the 2010, 2014, and 2018 FIFA World Cups. Bower commentated on New Zealand's ...

Simon Brotherton Simon Charles Brotherton is a sports commentator for the BBC, appearing on Match of the Day and BBC Radio Five Live, as well as BT Sport television. Brotherton was still at school when he began his career with BBC Local Radio and developed furth ...

, Conor McNamara,

Vicki Sparks Vicki Sparks is a British sports journalist and football commentator for BBC Sport and BT Sport. She has reported for ''Final Score'' and BBC Radio 5 Live. She also regularly covers women's football for the BBC. In March 2017, after a post-match ...

Alistair Mann Alistair Mann is a freelance football commentator and TV sports presenter. He was born in Salford and attended Manchester Grammar School. He trained as a journalist at the department of Journalism, Media and Communication, University of Central ...

, Martin Fisher, Mark Scott, John Roder, Chris Wise,

Robyn Cowen Robyn Cowen is a British journalist and football commentator. Cowen is best known as being the lead play by play commentator on BBC One during the England women's national football team matches during UEFA Women's Euro 2022, hosted and won by E ...

Steven Wyeth Steven Wyeth is a British football commentator for the BBC and TNT Sports amongst others. Early life Wyeth attended the University of Manchester and commented on Manchester United for Manchester Sports and for BBC Radio Manchester. Career Comme ...

, and Ben Andrews. In 2007,

Jacqui Oatley Jacqueline Anne Oatley (born 28 December 1974) is a leading English broadcaster. She is a football commentator for Sky Sports, calling Premier League and FA Women's Super League matches. She is a sports presenter on Quest TV channel, covering ...

became the first woman to commentate on the programme. Previous commentators have included

Walley Barnes Walley Barnes (16 January 1920 – 4 September 1975) was a Welsh footballer and broadcaster. Whilst playing as a defender he featured for Southampton and Arsenal and captained the Welsh national side. Early career He was born in Brecon to Engli ...

Frank Bough Francis Joseph Bough (; 15 January 1933 – 21 October 2020) was an English television presenter. He was best known as the former host of BBC sports and current affairs shows including ''Grandstand'', '' Nationwide'' and '' Breakfast Time'', whi ...

, David Coleman,

Jon Champion Jonathan Martin Champion (born 23 May 1965) is a British sports commentator currently working as the lead association football commentator for ESPN (US). Champion is a well-established and experienced commentator who has also worked for the BBC ...

, Barry Davies,

Tony Gubba David Anthony Gubba (23 September 1943 – 11 March 2013) was an English journalist and television sports commentator. Life and career Born in Manchester, Gubba was educated at Blackpool Grammar School in North West England. He began work as ...

, Stuart Hall,

John Motson John Walker Motson (10 July 1945 – 23 February 2023) was an English football commentator. Beginning as a television commentator with the BBC in 1971, he commentated on over 2000 games on television and radio. From the late 1970s to 2008, Mot ...

Alan Parry Alan Parry (born 1948 in Garston, Liverpool) is an English sports commentator, concentrating on football and athletics. He has commentated for all four main broadcasters of football in the UK – the BBC, BT Sport, ITV and Sky TV, as well as f ...

Idwal Robling James Idwal Robling (1927 – 9 June 2011) was a Welsh sports commentator, who worked for the BBC in Wales for almost 40 years. Biography Robling was born in Ynyshir in the Rhondda, where he attended the local grammar school. His education w ...

, Gerald Sinstadt,

Clive Tyldesley Clive Tyldesley (born 21 August 1954) is an English television sports broadcaster. He was ITV's senior football commentator from 1998 until 2020. In that role, he has led the ITV commentary team at four World Cups and four European Championships ...

, Alan Weeks, and Kenneth Wolstenholme. As part of the show's 50th anniversary celebrations, Barry Davies returned to commentate.

Criticism

In 2010,

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

' goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann criticised the show for showing bias towards the bigger clubs in the Premier League, particularly

. The punditry has been criticized.

Premier League broadcast rights

2019–20 to 2021–22 seasons

In January 2018, the

awarded the UK highlights to BBC Sport. The rights cost £211.5 million and were to cover three seasons from 2019–20. The January 2018 agreement also includes '' Match of the Day 2'', ''Match of the Day 2 Extra'', ''

Match of the Day Kickabout ''Match of the Day Kickabout'' is a British children's television football programme broadcast on CBBC. It was previously presented by Ore Oduba and Radzi Chinyanganya. but in its later seasons it was hosted by Ben Shires, Kenzie Benali, John Far ...

'', '' Football Focus'', '' Final Score'', and ''

The Premier League Show ''The Premier League Show'' is a ''BBC'' magazine television show focusing on the ''Premier League''. The programme started broadcasting during the 2016–17 Premier League season and ran up to the end of 2018–19, it was succeeded by ''MOTD ...

''.

Theme music

The current theme tune for the series is titled "Match of the Day". It was composed for the programme in 1970 by Barry Stoller, and was used for the first time on 15 August 1970. Stoller's brief was simply to write "something good"; the short closing fanfare occurred to him first. "Those fanfare harmonies give the music a gladiator feel," he wrote in 2014, "akin to entering the ancient games arena in Rome with all its expectations." The tune was recorded by him, a trumpeter, and a drummer (Stuart Vincent) in the basement recording studio of his home. In May 2010, PRS for Music revealed that the ''Match of the Day'' theme tune is the most recognisable in the UK. The theme is often incorrectly labelled "Off Side", the group name used by musician Mike Vickers, for an alternative 1970 version of Stoller's tune, which was released as a 45 rpm gramophone single on the Pye label (7N 25534), The original theme tune, entitled "Drum Majorette", was written by Major

Leslie Statham Leslie Statham (18 December 1905 – 28 April 1974), also known by the pen name Arnold Steck, was an English arranger and composer. Statham was born in Solihull. He was initially a soldier in the Welsh Guards regiment of the British Army p ...

, a former band member of the

Welsh Guards The Welsh Guards (WG; cy, Gwarchodlu Cymreig), part of the Guards Division, is one of the Foot Guards regiments of the British Army. It was founded in 1915 as a single-battalion regiment, during the First World War, by Royal Warrant of George V ...

under the pen-name Arnold Steck.

Related shows

*Since 1998, the BBC's coverages of the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

and the

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition is contes ...

have been under the ''Match of the Day'' banner. *Between 1995 and 1999, the BBC broadcast '' Match of the Seventies'' (1995–96), ''Match of the Eighties'' (1997) and ''Match of the Nineties'' (1999). Each series acted as a chronological review of seasons through each decade, presented in a slightly off-beat style, and relied heavily on footage originally included in ''Match of the Day'' broadcasts. Presenters included Dennis Waterman, Danny Baker, Mark Radcliffe, and Marc Riley. *From the 2004–05 season, a second programme, '' Match of the Day 2'', usually airs on the following Sunday. *From the 2009–10 season until 2015–16, the BBC picked up the rights for the Football League highlights and up until 2011–12, ten live Championship games and three live League Cup games. Live games were broadcast under the ''Match of the Day Live'' banner, but highlights were shown on a new dedicated programme named ''

The Football League Show ''The Football League Show'' is a BBC One football television show, primarily hosted by Manish Bhasin. It features match highlights from the Championship, League One and League Two. It began on 8 August 2009, at 11:45 pm and immediately fol ...

'' (or, for League Cup games, ''The League Cup Show''). *From the 2013–14 season, American channel

NBCSN NBCSN was an American sports television television channel, channel owned by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It originally launched on July 1, 1995, as the Outdoor Life Network (OLN), which was dedicated t ...

has broadcast its own version also called '' Match of the Day''. *From the 2016–17 season until the 2018–19 season, ''

'' typically airs on Thursday nights during the Premier League season. *From the 2019–20 season, a spin-off show ''MOTDx'' was launched, focussing on celebrities, music, fashion and culture of the Premier League. It is presented by Jermaine Jenas, alongside Chelcee Grimes, Craig Mitch and Reece Parkinson.

Match of the Day Annual

A ''Match of the Day Annual'' book is also produced.

References

External links

*
Behind the scenes with the ''Match of the Day'' commentary team

Unofficial ''Match of the Day'' fan-website
* {{Association football on television 1964 British television series debuts 1960s British sports television series 1970s British sports television series 1980s British sports television series 1990s British sports television series 2000s British sports television series 2010s British sports television series 2020s British sports television series BBC Sport BBC Television shows Black-and-white British television shows English football on television English Football League on television Football mass media in the United Kingdom Premier League on television