Match of the Day has been a staple of football coverage in England for decades. Millions of football fans have tuned in to watch football highlights on the show for many years. So when did the show start?
When was the first Match of the Day? The first Match of the Day was shown on the 22nd of August 1964, shown on BBC Two. It showed highlights of the game between Arsenal and Liverpool.
The story of the very first Match of the Day shows how far the show has come. The name Match of the Day was actually first used by the BBC to show Wimbledon highlights. Just two months after that they showed Match of the Day. When the very first show was aired, it only showed highlights from one game.
They showed highlights from the Liverpool vs Arsenal game that happened at Anfield. At the time of the first show, there were only 20,000 people watching. This was half of the number of people who actually attended the game. When it was first shown, Match of the Day was in black and white and was certainly not as popular as it is today.
Why was Match of the Day almost cancelled at the start?
When Match of the Day was created there was a big chance that the show would not be successful and it could have stopped in its first few years. Match of the Day almost did not become the iconic football show that it is today.
The issue that Match of the Day faced in its first few years is that there were quite a few clubs that did not want the show to exist. This is because these clubs felt that showing the highlights on TV would lead to a drop in the number of people coming to see the games live, hurting the revenue of these teams (what an arcane view looking back!).
They were so concerned about this that several clubs attempted to block the BBC from renewing their deal to show highlights of games. Seeing as the clubs that were trying to block the renewal were the ones that Match of the Day were trying to show, they had to find a compromise to keep the show alive.
The compromise that the show and the clubs reached was that the games that would have their highlights shown on Match of the Day would not be announced until after the games had taken place.
This meant that fans still had to attend the games if they wanted to see the games played as they could not guarantee that the game would be on Match of the Day. This was a deal that worked for both sides as it did not hurt the gate revenue of clubs and allowed Match of the Day to still show highlights from some of the best of English football.
Who presents Match of the Day?
A lot of English football fans will know Gary Lineker as the host of Match of the Day. He has been in that position since the late 1990s, but younger fans may not realise that he is one of the best English players in football history with some incredible achievements.
Growing up in Leicester, Lineker is a massive Leicester City fan and came up through the academy of his hometown team. Having helped his side reach the top division of English football, Lineker looked to better his career with a move to Everton for the 1985-86 season.
His single season in Liverpool was one of his best, with Lineker scoring 38 times in one season with Everton. He finished that season by going to the World Cup with England. Despite England losing in the quarter-finals to eventual champions Argentina, Lineker finished as the tournament’s top scorer and won the Golden Boot.
This helped Lineker to finish second in Ballon d’Or voting for 1986. It also helped him secure a move to Barcelona. His time in Spain did give Lineker his first experience of European football, scoring 21 goals in his first season including an iconic hattrick in a 3-2 victory over rivals Real Madrid.
With Barcelona Lineker won the Copa del Rey and the European Cup Winners Cup, leaving as La Liga’s highest-scoring British player before being overtaken by Gareth Bale. He returned to English football with Tottenham, playing excellently in his three seasons with the North London club.
Lineker was crucial in the team winning the 1991 FA Cup, playing all 120 minutes of the final as Tottenham beat Nottingham Forest in the final. He played his final two years with Japanese side Nagoya Grampus Eight but struggled to stay healthy during his time in Japan.
Having retired in 1994, Lineker quickly moved to media work and by the late 1990s, it was decided that he was the perfect man to replace Des Lynam as the host of Match of the Day. Since then he has held that position, even presenting the show in his pants after Leicester’s incredible Premier League title win in 2016.
Match of the day 2 Presenter
Match of the Day 2 is certainly not as well known as the original show and it usually only shows the matches that take place on Sunday, which is usually far fewer than the number of games on Saturday.
Mark Chapman is the main present of Match of the Day 2, which is a position he has held since August 2013. Chapman has been a sports broadcaster for more than 25 years, beginning as a continuity announcer for the BBC before becoming a cricket correspondent for the BBC North East radio.
He started his work on football as the main stand-in presenter on Final Score and Match of the Day 2 between 2009 and 2013, before becoming Match of the Day 2’s permanent host from 2013 onwards.
Outside of his football coverage, Chapman has also done broadcast work for the Masters’ Tournament, the Super Bowl, The Olympics and the NFL show. He also hosts Sports Report on BBC 5 Live radio.