Match of the Day at 50

50 years ago, the first communications satellite,

Telstar, was already up there.

Television was going into space.

Football 50 years ago was rooted firmly in the ground.

Wary of television, worried it might fracture the bonds between fans

and their teams, kill the passion for the people's game

and leave the soaring monuments of the urban landscape empty.

50 years ago, a new programme was launched.

Wherever television was heading,

this show was not going to threaten football.

It was to make the bond stronger, a half century of Match Of The Day.

It's like going to church, you know, it's a religious thing.

The perfect playing partner for the national game.

A great service to the football in this country.

Football for all.

For some, more than that.

It provides the narrative of how football is perceived.

Special memories, an amazing programme.

Telling the story since 1964 of the 11 clubs to have won

the league title, their successors, and more.

Match Of The Day - the best on the best.

COMMENTATOR: Best. It's a goal!

-Cantona.

-Kevin Keegan, man.

What a great goal!

-Gerrard, Lampard...

-Gary Lineker.

Bale!

Ian St John, Emlyn Hughes...

-Paul Scholes.

-Zola.

Match Of The Day has it all.

It's your memories of football, that music coming on,

and mithering your parents to stay up late to watch it.

My earliest memory of Match Of The Day is watching it as a kid

and thinking, "How great is that?"

It was one of the things I was always allowed to do by my parents,

they always let me watch Match Of The Day.

I used to look forward to it like...

like you'd never believe.

What I love now about it is, if I've been to the game,

I love coming home and watching it, because you can reassess

your thoughts, see if you were right, see if you were wrong.

Something special about it, when I was younger, even now,

Saturday night, I'll stay at home. I'll watch Match Of The Day.

It is THE iconic football programme and I think it always will be.

It's the story of English football week in, week out.

You can watch all the live football in the world,

but to get that fix in an-hour-and-a-half of everything

that happens on that day, it really does work.

COMMENTATOR: Keegan with a chance - and he has scored!

COMMENTATOR: And a good shot and what a goal! What a goal!

-COMMENTATOR:

-It's Gascoigne, it's a brilliant goal.

And that's what he can do.

-COMMENTATOR:

-What a finish.

COMMENTATOR: Oh, and it's an unbelievable goal from Wayne Rooney!

The televising of football is now such a massive business.

But 50 years ago, how suspiciously the cameras were viewed.

The FA Cup final and some international matches were

shown live, but that was all.

Until a new channel was launched.

Good evening. This is BBC Two.

BBC Two planned to appeal to all levels of brow,

but also to do things that no other network did.

I am a communist and I'll tell you why.

Some of those brows were furrowed when a place was found on this

new channel for Saturday night highlights of one football match.

At that time football was haunted by the prospect of television -

or the regular exposure of football on television -

resulting in very reduced attendances.

BBC Two managed to persuade the FA to let it do it,

on the grounds that nobody watched BBC Two.

Which was more or less true, because it was only visible in

a small part of the country - London and Birmingham.

And it had a tiny number of viewers.

So here it was, this new highlights show,

football coming into the nation's homes under the radar.

I remember very vividly a friend of mine said,

"Come back to my house, there's a new football programme starting."

And it was Match Of The Day,

and the first game was Liverpool against Arsenal with Ken Wolstenhome

on the pitch, the time of The Beatles and all that business.

Welcome to Match Of The Day,

the first of a weekly series coming to you every Saturday on BBC Two.

22nd August, 1964.

COMMENTATOR: Hunt... It's a goal!

It wasn't long before Match Of The Day was switched

from BBC Two to BBC One.

COMMENTATOR: Oh, a great goal!

Technology was advancing, into the age of colour.

Lawler - that's it!

The BBC didn't reveal which match was to be covered,

allaying those fears about a drop in attendances.

What had began quietly was now a Saturday night institution.

The pubs virtually closed at ten minutes to ten

so that people could get home to watch Match Of The Day.

It was an extraordinary thing really.

We used to go to the pictures on a Saturday night.

The pictures didn't come out until ten past,

five past ten or something like that, and we had to

leave before Match Of The Day started to get home to watch it.

My wife complained for many years that she'd missed the

last ten minutes of every film she'd ever watched.

You always wanted the thrill of not knowing a score,

because then you'd be replicating the thrill of a game.

You didn't want somebody to say, "Oh, you had a good win today",

and you'd think, "Ohhh, don't tell me!"

When I was a kid growing up that was our highlight,

watching a bit of Match Of The Day.

We had a nine-inch television with a three-inch magnifying glass

you strung over the front of the television to make

it into a 12-inch black and white.

And we used to sit there waiting for that to come on on a Saturday night.

And on these Saturdays, Match Of The Day wasn't a stand-alone show.

It was an essential part

a package on THE night of the week.

The BBC chose to make Saturday night its big ratings night

and they put every big show they had into Saturday night,

and we used to get decimated.

Didn't he do well? Whoa!

It worked, the controller loved it,

and Match Of The Day used to get an audience then of up to ten million.

The players became stars, they became

part of the entertainment world as well as the sporting world.

If I knew the cameras were there, I'd do things to try

and make people laugh.

To me, it was theatre, and always has been.

And I wanted to act up in front of the people, and they loved it.

You go to the pictures to see

the famous actors and actresses, don't you?

But you can stay at home and see the great footballers,

and you can see those in your house, with a cup of tea

and a sandwich, dressing gown, pyjamas.

-COMMENTATOR:

-And Jimmy Greaves has done it again.

-Charlton - oh, what a goal!

-Keegan!

Gray! What a fantastic goal.

Match Of The Day has been a constant, going with football

through the good times, sticking with it in troubled years.

Lifelong allegiances haven't always been

so openly declared as they are now.

You're going down - big time.

We're going to beat the Gooners!

It's rivalries like Arsenal Spurs, United Liverpool excite

Match Of The Day viewers, excite us as fans.

My dad and me, my son, we'll get in the car afterwards,

we'll all be shouting at each other. Match Of The Day reflects that.

-How old were you when it launched?

-About 16.

-14?

-You weren't even born yet.

-I wasn't.

I was born up the road in Stamford Hill,

and you either was an Arsenal fan or a Tottenham fan.

My father, my brother, my uncle - everybody,

we were all Tottenham fans.

We used to lean on the rails before all this stuff came in,

and my dad used to hold me on there.

-Were you the mascot, or...?

-Not at that time.

And yeah, I remember, that was the first game I remember being at.

I remember mine. Arsenal Manchester United, April 1972.

All I remember is the excitement of going to a game

and then coming back and watching Match Of The Day,

it's like this great place where every fan in the country can...

He's going, he's after a job on the BBC!

TUNING OF CLASSICAL INSTRUMENTS

Duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh, duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh.

THEY HUM MATCH OF THE DAY THEME

Oh, God, he's tone-deaf and all.

Yeah, it's just, like, the greatest music.

They'll never change that music, will they?

They can't, can they?

THEY PLAY MATCH OF THE DAY THEME

There is nothing more enduring than this.

Yes, the great constant.

Except...it isn't.

If you listen to that song the thing that comes immediately to you

is Match Of The Day.

Soon as that came on you drop what you're doing - boom,

sat down, eyes glued to the TV.

Every kid knew it, and you knew there was a game of footy

going on in the streets soon as you heard that, so...

It's just a tune that stays in your head and allows you to have

so many memories.

A lot of people don't realise that wasn't the original tune.

ANNOUNCER: BBC Two.

It was a band sound.

HE HUMS ORIGINAL THEME

When the Match Of The Day tune came in there were a lot of people who

said, "Oh, no, you can't change it." But this time, they stuck with it.

MUSIC: "Match Of The Day" by Barry Stoller

That takes me back. That's amazing.

Hello, good evening.

We hope you like the new music, and we hope too you'll like...

We have to go back to the summer of 1970.

What came into my mind actually was the fanfare.

Duh-duh-duh-duh, bam-bam-bam!

It's those last few notes.

They represent gladiators,

footballers in the arena.

They're the people, that's everything.

And so from that moment,

I knew that the piece had to be played completely

by trumpets.

It's becoming synonymous with,

I don't think just Match Of The Day itself,

but with football.

I also personally prefer the lounge version.

It's a much more relaxed version.

I don't know whether the band can join in here.

Let's try.

LOUNGE VERSION OF MATCH OF THE DAY THEME

CHRIS EVANS: Oh, yeah!

All right!

I'm not into football at all!

I know, it's crazy,

but...

it's the truth!

I have to say, that's not my favourite.

My favourite version of Match Of The Day is the Jewish folk song.

KLEZMER VERSION OF MATCH OF THE DAY THEME

Hey!

Do you remember, they tried to change it once, didn't they?

"Don't change that!

"Oi, you've changed that!"

Now to reveal the subject that's provoked a lot of gentlemen

and even more ladies

to write pleading letters to the programme in recent weeks.

It's simply this...

NEW MATCH OF THE DAY THEME PLAYS

It lasted about six weeks and everyone went,

"No, we want to hear it the way it's always been!"

Bob and I share the view of most of you.

We like the old music better.

They nearly burnt Television Centre down, the people.

So we soon went back to the old signature tune.

The Match Of The Day theme tune is the soundtrack to my childhood

and my early life.

It's the most instantly recognisable theme

throughout the country and I'm really humbled by that.

-MICHAEL GRADE:

-When I was asked to do Desert Island Discs,

I rather regret not taking the Match Of The Day theme tune with me

to the desert island. It's so evocative.

It just cheers you up.

I suppose it does, even if you've lost... No.

No, it doesn't.

It's football, it's people, it's Match Of The Day.

In the 50 years of Match Of The Day,

generations of football fans have witnessed

some of their most cherished moments.

But can you choose just one?

I suppose the goal which was quite pleasing

cos I scored it against Pat Jennings when I lobbed him.

I think there were about three or four defenders in front of me

and I figured the only way to get out of it

was to put it over all their heads.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Beautiful!

-COMMENTATOR:

-Is this the moment for Ian Wright?

There was a goal that Coventry scored

where he flicked it up with his heel

and the other fella volleyed it in.

COMMENTATOR: Hunt!

Oh, what a goal!

-COMMENTATOR:

-Phillips.

Good try! Brilliant!

-COMMENTATOR:

-What's he done?

Not my penalty, I did not touch that ball.

Robert Pires, I'm not involved in nothing of that.

Robert Pires messed it up. Yes, Robert, you did.

He can blame me. Yeah, of course, because it's...

Because it's my fault, yeah.

Terrible fault.

Do not associate me to Robert Pires when he missed that penalty, please.

-Please!

-Sorry for the fans.

I think it's one of the finest moments in the Premier League.

JOHN MOTSON: This is extraordinary.

Dalglish. Oh!

David Beckham scoring from the halfway line.

JOHN MOTSON: And Beckham saw Sullivan off his line!

Oh! That is absolutely phenomenal!

I'd have to say it's my most memorable goal

and I remember scoring that goal and thinking,

"I can't wait to watch Match Of The Day tonight."

Appearing on Match Of The Day is like walking into my own dreams.

You all right? It's like tearing a hole in the matrix

and sort of stepping inside something.

Do you mind if we do something stupid?

-AS GARY LINEKER:

-Hello and welcome to Match Of The Day,

and what a day it was in the Premiership,

with over 30 goals. Here's a feast for all of us.

Joining us tonight is Alan Hansen.

-AS ALAN HANSEN:

-Terrible defending. Terrible defending.

You cannae get away with defending like that.

And Alan Shearer - "Yeah, all right." And Russell Brand.

I don't care how that programme goes -

I'm giving this to myself as a 12-year-old kid.

"Here you go, mate.

"Have that, 12-year-old Russell."

I'm on Match Of The Day.

It's the game we gave to the world

and we're taking it back today on Match Of The Day.

Interesting.

Match Of The Day to me means I can have an understanding

'of what's going on in top-flight football

'without having to devote my entire life to it.'

Oh!

'I'm going to go on there for serious analysis.

'I ain't even going to try to be funny.'

I'm on Match Of The Day.

Russell, welcome, first and foremost, to Match Of The Day.

Where do you stand on the two goals?

I think that David Beckham's goal is a very beautiful and iconic goal.

Also, he did it with a better barnet.

What I think West Ham are lacking is support for Andy Carroll,

a player to hang around the six-yard box,

similar to yourself, there, Gary.

Did you see me there analysing?

-ALL: Fantastic. Very good.

-Leave that out.

Somebody on Match Of The Day has to play up front,

out here, set slightly apart from the rest of the team,

on his own, or her own.

But the programme likes a lone striker

who's in it for the long haul.

BBC has had some wonderful football presenters

that have hosted Match Of The Day - Kenneth Wolstenholme, for example.

If anybody is still trying to tell you that football was far better

10, 20, 30, 40 years ago,

just very politely say to them, "Nonsense".

Good evening. This is the season in which soccer moves into the '70s.

When anybody says Match Of The Day, I see David Coleman,

because that's what was new and impressive in those first years.

In those early years,

Match Of The Day was the only highlights show,

Kenneth Wolstenholme and David Coleman - pioneers, groundbreakers.

But by the end of the 1960s, ITV had The Big Match,

and by the early 1970s had unearthed a different kind of frontman.

Jimmy Hill had done just about everything in football -

player, union leader, manager and now television presenter.

But not before turning out as a linesman.

Over the speaker came, "Is there anybody here with qualifications?"

And then the next minute, everyone went, "He's here, he's there,

"he's every...where,

"Jimmy Hill!" And he came running on!

And was the linesman for the rest of the game.

Jimmy Hill, who had done everything,

but now the specialist in the presenter's chair

at Match Of The Day.

Nothing from now on would be the same.

-PRODUCER:

-Ten seconds.

-SECOND PRODUCER:

-Stand by, Jimmy. Stand by, studio.

Good evening and welcome to Match Of The Day

for the start of the 1973-4 season.

CREAKING Sorry about the noise.

There was only one Jimmy Hill.

You couldn't be sure quite what he was going to say next,

but that made it even better, cos it was so unpredictable.

Working with him was an absolute pleasure,

because he just made me laugh.

He'd have opened up his options for Fowler,

because Fowler was in the best position...

Jimmy, be quite, will you?

EXPLOSION

Also, Collymore could break through the Spurs defence.

LAUGHTER

You won't get it better than that

if you have it 109 times.

He was very good for the programme, he was very different.

In 1988, Jimmy went back into the pack,

a pundit now, with Des Lynam stepping up to be the frontman.

Good evening. I suppose it's back to the future tonight -

Match Of The Day returning on a regular basis

after a gap of four seasons, and 28 years after the very first programme.

I don't remember it.

I worked in radio for years

and done quite well and enjoyed it and was relaxed on it,

then I went to television and thought,

"What's that thing looking at me? What's that all about?

"I don't like that at all."

He soon got the knack of it.

..Harry the haddock.

I did one programme and I thought, "That wasn't too bad."

So 30 years later, I was still doing it, I guess.

And we'll see you next Saturday. Good night.

Des had that kind of effortless charm.

It's why... He made women watch Match Of The Day,

because he was very good-looking, very charming,

and he made it very approachable.

Good afternoon. Shouldn't you be at work?

Listen, I'm with you - how could you miss this?

Smooth as silk.

So smooth.

This is quite a monumental day for me.

I've been with the BBC for 30 years.

In 1999, Des did a reverse Jimmy and left the BBC for ITV.

Who better to fill a gap up front than the best in the business?!

COMMENTATOR: Lineker!

Can the England captain finish? Yes, he can!

Lineker uses him by not using him...good try, he's scored!

When Des left, I thought, "No, this ain't going to work. Gary Lineker?

"You are joking!" But he's done all right, hasn't he?

He'd always wanted to do it. I mean, Gascoigne used to call him "Des"!

That was a dream start for Shearer, wasn't it?

Fantastic, the only problem is he's set his standards

so high, they'll be expecting that every week.

He was watching very carefully and learning the ropes,

coming along and I could see he was going to be good, very good.

Hello there, we're on the finishing stretch

of the Barclays Premier League and boy, is the tension mounting!

I think he's pretty natural.

You forget that he's an ex-footballer now, you just see him

as a presenter, which is the best compliment you can give him really.

You have that certain trust in him that he's been through it all

and he knows what he's talking about.

He's gone from a player to a pundit to a presenter.

Erm, player, pundit, presenter, all the Ps.

On the day of Match Of The Day I come in, we have a bank

of screens where we can watch all the games live as they happen.

I'll flick around, I'll watch the early game, the late game,

I'll be writing words and scripts and stuff.

Just looking for major incidents, big goals,

talking points that we might need later.

Then about five o'clock stick my head together with the editor and decide

on the running order...the much maligned running order, on occasions.

Twitter goes mad, it's like, "My team's first on Match Of The Day."

It's like a big achievement!

As a United fan, I've never had an issue really.

I'm like, "Your team ain't coming on till the end, well,

"My team's on, so it's all good!"

The game was a stinker, before we start,

I cannot believe it's on third.

I thought it would definitely be on last.

We're always on last, every week, sick of it!

Well, I don't mind it too much,

cos I get a few more drinks in the pub but it's

unless we're getting a hammering, we're on first, from a big team.

Otherwise, I'm just used to seeing us at the end of the schedule.

I don't know, I don't know how you do it,

cos you can't please all the fans, can you?

So, you have to go...you have to make the decision

and we have to put up with it. I really think that.

Good evening,

the final day of a magnificent Barclays Premier League Season...

If you're playing in football,

it's probably a dream to play in a World Cup.

If you're a presenter of football,

you want to present Match Of The Day.

So, to have done both is like two dreams come true, really.

-I think Lineker's a very good presenter.

-Oh, he is, he's good.

I think he's been brilliant as the link man for that.

I mean, he's very opinionated on Twitter

but I think his job as a presenter is more to anchor the pundits.

Des told me once, he said, "I never say, joining me tonight,

"I always say, joining us tonight."

They're not joining you, they're joining us.

They're joining the programme and your pundits

and everybody else in the background...join us, we.

Until we meet again, good night.

Over here there's more safety in numbers

but this can be the dark side.

Here sit the pundits and from them come opinions and praise

and criticism.

This is where the scalpel of analysis must be held firm,

to reveal the less obvious secrets of the game.

They said, "Well, that's enough.

"Thank you very, we're now rock bottom

"And we don't need your services any more."

Scoring goals is going to be a problem for them, though.

And you're trying to get them to play something which is

different from the sort of method that they use every week.

The referee has to be 100% certain that he's dived there

and he could not have been because that was a blatant penalty.

The pundits alone separate it, they don't hold back.

They let you know, sometimes they say something and I was

thinking that, I want to go and sit there, I want to say that.

It feels good, it feels good.

Even as a player, you sit there and obviously there's

people on the sofa you respect as footballers as well, in the industry.

Sometimes, I used to sit there and think,

"How dare he speak about me like that!

"Someone get me his number so I can call him."

You've got to give your opinions and you're going to upset some

people throughout the season but that's the way it is.

That sometimes becomes part of your fuel

for next week and the week after.

So, I ain't going to get embarrassed on Match Of The Day!

In Match Of The Day they don't like

very, very much the Chelsea blue.

They don't like very much, they are more red, they love the reds.

Gary likes the blue but the blue from Everton.

There are more reds than blues but I respect that.

To be honest, I'm disappointed with some of the comments about myself,

when I used to be sent off quite often.

If you raise your hand and swing it, then the law says that you go off.

It's a view and I think people have a different opinion.

I'm not joking!

-Not tonight, I don't think...

-Why not? The ball was the same!

-They haven't got time!

-There's no-one between them.

They've got to get it away quickly!

They argued all the time and it wasn't a staged argument,

they actually did see the opposite point of view about everything!

It was an absolute certainty that they would slip up today.

I was thinking, "I want to be one of the pundits on Match Of The Day!"

I kept thinking that throughout my career.

Well, what can you say!

I remember when I first went on, you know what I mean,

it was a proper...like when people go and pay homage at Graceland.

That's why I said it to Des.

-This is my Graceland!

-Your Graceland?

Yeah, I love it here, Match Of The Day, man!

I don't know where that leaves me but there we are!

One pundit dug deeper than anyone before him

but strangely for one so sharp, not by desire.

Covered by Alan Hansen.

I fell into television,

erm, when I retired from Liverpool, I never knew what

I was going to do, thought I'd get lots of offers, got none

and decided I have to do something.

So, I phoned up the television companied,

they never phoned me up, I phoned them up.

Alan, cos he'd so recently been a player, fitted in perfectly.

He brought a new edge to it, a new insight into a player's

point of view.

He's been a stalwart of the programme for all those years.

He was the first man really, Alan, to not just talk you through a goal.

He goes down the right wing, he heads it,

he crosses us in, we can all see that for ourselves.

He started to look at tactics a little bit more.

Things that you couldn't easily see for yourself

and that's the key to good punditry. It's not that easy either.

It's the worst defending I've ever seen in my life...bar none!

They've got to take a long, hard look at themselves.

I mean, centre-back players should always be in contact,

so if the ball goes over the first one's head the second one's

-there to mop up and vice-versa.

-Is that why you two are so close?

Look how close he's sitting to me, because if it goes past me...

This is the closest we ever were, I can tell you that much!

-Carry on.

-If it goes past me there, he's there.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah...

-In your dreams. Anyway...

What I like about Al is he's just like, "Well, you know..."

But like, he's so good!

Ian Wright is worth gold dust at the moment!

There can't be a more valuable player in the league!

I remember scoring a nice goal against Everton

when I flicked it over his head,

flicked it over Neville Southall's head, into the goal...

This is route one football,

Everton won't be too pleased about the defending.

Alan Hansen said it was bad defending.

I was so disappointed, I was so disappointed.

For me, that was the best goal I've ever scored.

He was a great player and reading the game very, very well.

So, I think he brought all of that to the pundit area.

His knowledge, his passion, erm, he's a good-looking guy.

Knowing so much more than most, perhaps he knew best

when it was time to leave,

May, 2014.

Nearly 20 years after delivering his most famous line.

I think they've problems. I wouldn't say they've got major problems.

Obviously, three players have departed,

the trick is always buy when you're strong. So, he needs to buy players.

You can't win anything with kids!

COMMENTATOR: Taylor scores!

Draper!

It's a scoreline which asks serious questions of Manchester United!

You can't win anything with kids!

I'll never forget that moment he almost ruined my life that

night, watching Match Of The Day.

We'd just been beat at Aston Villa and I came home,

watched on the telly with my mum and dad.

He really did write us off!

And probably rightly so at the time.

He wouldn't have been the only one!

There was uncertainty on our part about what we were going to do.

We weren't sure, we'd never been in that position before.

You just think, "Will it go right, will it be OK?"

I think the younger players, being inexperienced, as they were,

felt quite intimidated by that remark.

It acted as kind of a motivational theme throughout the season

really and from that day onwards we improved

and managed to prove him wrong.

COMMENTATOR: Beckham's up on the right...

Giggs shoots, oh! Well, that has settled it.

They've won the Championship now without any doubt at all!

"Not winning anything with kids",

I'm sure he's heard that so many times.

I'm sure he's so fed up of hearing it

but I have to say it one more time before he leaves.

We did win the double that year.

So, you do win something now and again with kids

but it was a special crop of kids.

You have to say that and, erm, Alan wasn't to know.

The thing I got wrong there was the five Man United kids

were like superstars.

Erm, you'll never have five kids like that coming along ever, ever

again because the five of them went on to become five greats!

That shows you how right Hansen is a lot of the time.

If "you win nothing with kids" can stay in the public imagination for

so long, cos I suppose it is such a declaration and it was,

as it turned out, you can win everything with kids!

If you're going to be right, be right, if you're going to be wrong,

don't be wrong somewhere in the middle of right and wrong.

Be dramatically wrong!

There's no future in only being marginally wrong!

The most famous football programme in Britain will no longer be

screening the best weekly football in Britain.

We were envious of Match Of The Day, another immovable block of

mass viewing on a Saturday night, which was a key battleground for us.

It was a real thorn in our side.

Having been the only show in the early 1960s,

suddenly in the late '70s Match Of The Day was no show!

London Weekend Television won the rights to show

highlights on ITV, "The Snatch Of The Day!"

I was approached by the chairman of the Football League

and he said, "Would ITV be interested in Match Of The Day?"

I said, "You bet!"

There then followed secret, clandestine negotiations and

meetings and we closed the deal and there was consternation at the BBC!

The BBC cried foul and the case went to The Office of Fair Trading.

The ref's decision, shared rights.

Match Of The Day was pushed around the schedules,

ending up sometimes on Sunday afternoons.

We've kept you out of the late summer sunshine,

I don't think you'll be disappointed.

It was very competitive because, of course, there was no Sky.

It was all BBC or ITV and it came to a head really on Cup Final day

when it was very competitive, who could get on who's team coach.

-You looking forward to it?

-Yeah, it should be good, enjoyable.

Competition is great because, for the viewers,

it means everyone ups their game and we get better quality.

You had to be on your toes

because you wanted to be better than the other lot.

The assumption that you would be I think was very misguided.

The battle for the rights to show football highlights

on terrestrial television went on.

The BBC had them in the '90s and they went to ITV in 2000.

It was quite a responsibility,

it was very exciting.

It felt like an honour that we

were taking over this slot which

had belonged to the BBC.

Little did we know we were only going to have it for three years

and little did we know they were going to show it at seven o'clock.

But at that moment it was a huge breakthrough for us at ITV.

ITV wanted the show to be something!

Anything it hadn't been...but what?

I don't think they really understood what to do with it, where to put it.

It just didn't work, the audiences weren't there in numbers.

We tried to innovate, Tactics Truck and so on.

I think the mistake we made was that we bought the wheel

and we tried to re-invent it.

I was part of the Premiership when it went briefly to ITV.

We tried to reshape the wheel and went on at seven o'clock

and that didn't work and there's a reason for that.

And I think you don't make those mistakes twice!

I was involved both times.

I was involved in pinching them when I was at ITV and losing them

when I was at the BBC.

But you look, does anyone remember those times

when it disappeared from the BBC? No!

Good evening, welcome back.

Now, where were we before we were so rudely interrupted?!

The interruption had been a rude three years.

It came back and everybody battled on and as I remember,

erm, there was still only one Match Of The Day.

Goal of the Month, just watching the great goals,

I just loved goals and quickly!

Bang, bang, bang! I just love that!

-COMMENTATOR:

-Jones...a great goal!

Sharp, what a fantastic goal!

Oh, what a great shot!

Oh, what a goal!

There's no question if you scored a goal on a Saturday,

then you'd be watching Match Of The Day at night.

I used to rewind other people's goals, Robbie Fowler's goals,

Shearer's goals.

I got one or two, I can't remember how many I got

but I did all right in that department!

Shearer scored this goal against Everton, a volley.

COMMENTATOR: Shearer!

I caught it sweet and as soon as I caught it, I knew it was going in.

COMMENTATOR: Absolute pile-driver from Alan Shearer.

Wow, man! What a goal!

Mickey Walsh scoring for Blackpool against Sunderland,

it won goal of the season and it was an absolute pile-driver,

I can see it now. Hit from distance and curling in to the top corner.

Trevor Sinclair overhead kick.

COMMENTATOR: Oh...magnificent!

It's quite unlikely that any of my goals, being

the amount of tap-ins that I scored were ever going to be up there!

COMMENTATOR: Oh, what a drive, it's Paul Scholes!

Henry, brilliant!

Andy Cole against Chelsea, September, 1994.

Controls it with his head, edge of the box, left foot, passed

that Russian keeper who used to wear the trackies and the curly hair.

No chance, didn't get anywhere near it!

For me, trying to pick my own top three...my mates will be like,

"That one, that one's first." We'd have our own debates

and fall out with each other to see who's better.

Di Canio's volley against Wimbledon, yeah, it was an amazing goal!

The technique to get that on target

and get it go in the back of the net is incredible.

That day was magnificent, beautiful.

So, still the best goal ever!

-COMMENTATOR:

-Great touch by Bergkamp...oh, it's unbelievable!

There's been a lot of great goals over the years

but one man burst onto the scene, in particular, in the mid '90s.

AFRICAN TRADITIONAL MUSIC PLAYS

And this is where he's from, the land of the goal of goals.

Hello, I'm Tony Yeboah.

I grew up in Ghana here.

I used to watch English football on Ghana telly.

I supported Liverpool, I'm a Liverpool fan.

You know, John Barnes was my hero!

I started playing youth football for Asante Kontoko.

I never heard of Leeds before but that's my dream to

play in England, so I went to England and played.

I knew that it was not going to be easy but everything is

determined and you have to dedicate yourself and believe yourself.

So, that made me make it in England.

During the warming up I saw John Barnes, I saw Ian Rush, I saw

these and thought, "Today, I have to do something!"

COMMENTATOR: Yeboah...oh, yes, it's in!

It was fantastic, I knew my job.

I'm a Liverpool fan and I play against Liverpool.

You know, and I scored against them!

It was something you always dream for!

I've never seen you enthused so much about a goal, Trevor, to be honest.

Well, I was off my chair, I have to say. I mean, it's exciting, Des.

Whenever he gets the ball, I'm not sure what he's going to do.

COMMENTATOR: Oh, look at that...oh, look at that!

That's twice the goal he scored against Liverpool in my book!

I became a hero in Leeds because my performance there was fantastic!

The wonder goal he scored he thinks was better than

the goal of the month last month, what do you think?

Well, definitely!

I won it three times. So, I knew everything already.

You know, when you are in top form, sometimes you do something

and you can't imagine what is happening.

So, that time it was fate,

I was top and I can do everything with the football.

COMMENTATOR: That is wonderful!

That's Tony Yeboah!

Liverpool against Nottingham Forrest, in an FA Cup semifinal

to be played at a neutral ground, the home of Sheffield Wednesday...

Hillsborough.

I had the telly on and there was all this stuff going on

and you just felt, "What's happening, what's going on?"

Match Of The Day was right in the middle of it, we were sitting,

erm, on the gantry, in the Sheffield stadium.

Jimmy Hill and I had done some links at the show for the

following day, I think it was, we were going to put the match out.

Then, of course, all the terrible, dreadful happenings occurred.

We couldn't really make head or tail of it.

At six minutes passed three the referee abandoned the match.

From where I was sitting,

I had no idea of the enormity of the tragedy at first.

Erm, I could see people running across the pitch.

There was nothing we could do.

We were hamstrung up there...

It was just so frightening.

One minute I was commentating on a football match and the next minute

I was a news reporter updating people on what was happening at the ground.

All of which, I couldn't be sure about from where I was.

When I went downstairs and realised what we were witnessing, it was in

all my years in football, the worst moment in terms of football tragedy.

96 Liverpool fans lost their lives.

Back at base they said, "You've got to get back and do the programme."

What sort of programme are we going to do?

It's been a black day for football.

On a sunny afternoon at Hillsborough, Sheffield, no fewer

than 93 football supporters died.

On a day of such momentous tragedy

our sympathies go to the families of those concerned.

It was certainly the worst Match Of The Day I had to play a part in.

Awful, awful day and repercussions going on till

this day, almost.

A couple of days later, I went with some of the Brookside cast

and crew, and we took flowers down to that display, you know,

at Anfield on the pitch.

It was heartbreaking. Heartbreaking.

There was the sort of before-Hillsborough

and there's the post-Hillsborough.

And you sort of have to think how important is it, you know, football?

So many people lost their lives,

and so many people...

..now have paid tribute to those people,

you know, they've become part of the history of the club.

25 years on,

football across the land stopped to remember Hillsborough.

The sound of Anfield would now be more than just

an anthem to the players of Liverpool.

FANS SING

Thankfully, it is at all other times the role of Match Of The Day

to serve up what it was born to supply.

It is a highlights show, and we all have our moments to savour.

But can they be refined into one single memory?

I find it difficult because there's so much of it.

I'd pick a goal by Fashanu,

not particularly brilliant commentary,

but it was a heck of a goal.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Fashanu...

Oh, what a goal! Oh, that's a magnificent goal!

When I presented Match Of The Day for the first time,

I was so nervous because it felt like a huge responsibility to hear

the Match Of The Day theme tune come on and then say good evening,

because we've all sat there every Saturday night on the sofa

as the person about to enjoy that programme,

and there I was, about to open that programme up,

so it was just massive, massive responsibility as opposed to pride.

And then, later on, a real pinch yourself moment.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Oh, it's there!

They've done it! Luton Town have survived!

-COMMENTATOR:

-Oh, he's hit the bar.

My favourite goal was the Barry Horne one against Wimbledon.

-Needed to win last game to stay up.

-'Marvellous shot!'

We ended up winning 3-2.

Glenn Hoddle turning and scoring for Spurs against Watford

with a chip over poor Steve Sherwood.

COMMENTATOR: What a magnificent goal by Glenn Hoddle!

Football is about structure and rules and, somehow,

within that structure and rules, you've got to create magic,

and, like, it takes a player like Paolo Di Canio to break

a lot of those rules.

COMMENTATOR: And Di Canio has pushed down, flattened the referee.

It was a mistake, but it wasn't violent conduct.

It was stupid conduct.

"Alcock, you're going down!"

It's how he caught the ball as well.

-COMMENTATOR:

-And Di Canio, sportingly, has caught the ball.

Cantona...

He's done it!

John Motson's sheepskin.

I sat next to him at Upton Park. He was wearing a sheepskin coat, and it weren't even that cold.

It was so thick, wasn't it? Massive old thing. It was beautiful.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Oh, and didn't he drive it well? It went straight in!

Oh, it's two, and it's absolutely magnificent.

Lampard... that could be the championship!

I'd say anything I saved from Ian Wright was absolutely brilliant.

And I enjoyed every second of that.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Wright. Great save by Peter Schmeichel.

Stan Collymore... Oh, yes!

This is Bent, and Sunderland have the lead!

Now, did a red balloon

have a part to play in that goal for Sunderland?

Radford again.

Oh, what a goal! What a goal!

Radford the scorer, the crowd are invading the pitch.

On Match Of The Day,

there are those that are seen a lot,

and those that are seen fleetingly, but whose voices are heard,

part of the soundtrack of football.

You remember the lines, and you remember the commentators,

and you can hear the voices.

You know, I grew up listening to Barry Davies, to John Motson,

to Tony Gubba, to David Coleman, to Gerald Sinstadt,

to these great names of commentary.

And I can hear every one of their voices now.

David Coleman's voice was very...

It sticks out in my mind. His voice was fantastic.

-DAVID COLEMAN:

-Clarke...

1-0!

Always a huge fan of Barry Davies. Never a man to overdo the words.

Old school, if you like. But, you know, hugely eloquent.

And with some brilliant lines of commentary.

I just caught the right moment when I realised

he was going to have a crack at goal. And I said, "Interesting."

-BARRY DAVIES:

-Interesting.

Very interesting! Oh, look at his face!

And then my voice cracked as I said, "Just look at his face," for a second time.

-VOICE CRACKS:

-Just look at his face!

It's among the things that people seem to remember.

It was an ambition achieved. I had arrived where I wanted to be.

And then wanted to compete against the best around,

who were all at the BBC.

I mean, I was working with David Coleman, and Kenneth Wolstenholme.

I remember my dad being totally impressed with Kenneth Wolstenholme

because he said he had the gift of letting you watch the game.

-KENNETH WOLSTENHOLME:

-Here comes Charlton.

Oh, a great goal.

That was a goal good enough to win the League, the Cup,

the Charity Shield, the World Cup, even the Grand National.

-JOHN MOTSON:

-And there it is, the Crazy Gang have beaten the Culture Club.

If ever there was a nerd about football, it's John Motson.

He knew everything. He had every fact.

I've sat next to him when he's doing it. It's unbelievable.

When somebody can keep going that long,

and retain that knowledge, it's priceless.

You've got to have a decent voice.

You've got to have a sense of timing, you've got to know when to talk

and when not to talk, but I think you've got to try

and get across essentially what the viewer can't experience

at home, which is the excitement in the crowd,

something that you might spot,

which the cameras are just about to reach

that still hasn't become apparent.

You are the eyes and the ears of the viewer.

We do have a fantastic noise coming from the left-hand end here

at Selhurst. They never stop throughout the game.

Holt rushes in,

off the line!

Goodness, I don't think Speroni would have got that.

And he's done it again!

I still get the same kick and challenge as I did 42 years ago.

If I wasn't commentating on a Saturday or a Sunday,

I don't quite know what else I'd be doing.

We've had so many great commentators at the BBC, that, you know,

it's become a real trade now,

there's so many good commentators coming through.

JONATHAN PEARCE: Wilshere, goes for the one-two, Giroud, off to Wilshere

back to Giroud, into Wilshere, oh, that is simply magnificent!

It's nice to hear them talk as fans of the game as well.

It makes it more exciting.

For a long time, it was a man's world,

but as the show broke new ground, it also broke a few ceilings

when Jacqui Oatley went behind the mic.

There wasn't an announcement, as such.

The Wednesday before, there was the full-page spread on

"Should she be allowed to do it? Should she not?"

Some positive voices saying, "Well, of course, why not?"

And other people saying "It's a disgrace. Everyone in football's against it."

And then it became a sexism story rather than

there's going to be a female who will be the first person to do this.

It was just bizarre and very much over the top.

Jason Roberts makes his third start in a row...

I remember looking down, and seeing a whole row of photographers

all looking up at me. I looked back,

and I turned to my floor manager and went,

"Oh, my goodness. That's very surreal."

I just remember trying to focus on the football

because that's what it was about.

One of the most important games at the Cottage for years.

Only a win will do for Fulham.

I think it's great for the game,

especially for the women's game, anyway.

I kind of think that women's opinions on the game should be

valued as much as the men's, and Jacqui's done a done a great job,

and, hopefully, that will stand her in good stead for the future.

Women watch Match Of The Day.

So women need to know that there are women

involved in Match Of The Day, whether they are producers,

directors, reporters, presenters ,or commentators,

it's really important that we don't send out a message

to the many millions of viewers who enjoy Match Of The Day

that this is a man only club you can't join

because that's absolutely not the case.

I'm very proud to be the first female commentator on Match Of The Day.

It's a case of getting that first one out of the way.

I've done several more since, and there's been nothing like that kind of scrutiny.

It's only a matter of time before we hear more female voices

in football commentary. We hear it on the radio.

And, you know, if they're able,

it doesn't really matter which sex they are.

The words that go with the goals,

the sound that will go with the pictures into the memory bank,

it is a team effort. A team of strangers, maybe, but still a team.

When a commentator is singing the song,

and he's doing all the right things, hits all the right notes,

then it becomes part of the game,

and you cannot watch a game without that.

Stepping back into 2012,

the last minute of the last game of the season, the main ingredient?

The player, a language apart from the commentator.

The scorer, and the one who set it up.

I think home supporters here came absolutely at their wits end

thinking, this is City, this will all go wrong.

GUY MOWBRAY: Coming in is Mackie! Queens Park Rangers have the lead!

It's all going wrong for the Blues of Manchester.

Tears were meant to be of another kind.

When QPR lead 2-1, and the message came that Manchester United

were winning at Sunderland,

I think people actually thought, "Well, there you go, we knew that would happen."

Very nervous.

GUY MOWBRAY: Manchester City are level but they need one more.

The tiniest bit of hope.

It's the hope that's been killing them for years.

We're almost dealing in seconds rather than minutes.

I actually heard somebody sitting just about there, who,

I actually heard a voice say, "Typical. Typical."

Almost made it worse by getting ever closer but still missing out.

And, then... Then it happened.

Aguero.

It didn't have any build-up. It just...

Balotelli had the ball, the next minute, Aguero had the ball.

It's Sergio Aguero-o-o-o!

Manchester City win at home!

An amazing, amazing day, the like of which we've never seen!

I think the best moments in sport are things that you can't script,

things you don't expect to happen,

and I suppose if I look back at the big sporting occasions I've been fortunate to be at,

this would have to be right up there.

In your life, have you ever witnessed anything quite like that?

Well, what a season, what a day, what a game.

Nothing can stand still. Not even a 50-year-old model of constancy.

You can even play with that theme tune.

MATCH OF THE DAY THEME TUNE

Here's Lethal Bizzle's version. Hit it.

# Iconic game changer everybody knows you are no stranger

# Top players, top commentators

# That's why all around the world they rate us

# It's time for the time for the match

# Time for the, what? Time for the match

# Time for the, what? time for the match

# Time for the, what? Time for the Match Of The Day

# It's the number one show

# Premier League where all the players want to go

# I'm still comparing players like Eric Cantona

# England megastar Gary Lineker

# Scoring screamers like Thierry Henry

# Alan Shearer who scored the penalty

# Sir Alex no-one knows how he does it

# In Wenger we trust ain't no-one above him

# Iconic game changer, everybody knows you are no stranger

# Top players, top commentators

# That's why all around the world they rate us

# It's time for the, time for the match

# It's time for the, what? Time for the match

# It's time for the, what? Time for the match

# It's time for the, what? Time for the Match Of The Day... #

'Another magnificent goal!

'What a goal!

'What a finish!'

'Superb!'

'Brilliant! brilliant!'

'A quality goal by a quality player!'

# Time for the Match Of The Day

# They think it's all over well, it is now

# Mr John Motson, Mr Jimmy Hill

# Alan Hansen, he don't like much

# Unlucky if you got a diabolical touch

# One of the best, Ian Wright, right

# In front of the goalkeeper it's night-night

# Tony Yeboah, David Beckham, best free kick taker, what do you reckon?

# Time for the Match Of The Day! #

So, what does this 50-year-old do next?

It seems to have started reproducing.

Having offspring, that is.

Match Of The Day 2, originally presented by Adrian Chiles.

A little more informal, a little more relaxed.

It was a bit of a battle behind-the-scenes over what

Match Of The Day 2 would be.

There were those, the more conservative, who wanted it to

be an absolute replica of Match Of The Day on Saturdays.

And then there were others who just wanted to turn it

into a kind of more of an entertainment show.

Like... Like a version of Top Gear for football.

What we ended up with honoured the Match Of The Day brand, I think.

I think Match Of The Day 2 is a great introduction,

particularly with, nowadays, a lot of the big games being shifted to Sunday,

so it needs a different show, and I think it's quite right as well.

It's slightly different style.

Good evening, a very warm welcome to you to a very new show,

Match Of The Day 2.

It is all about the football

but we will strive to make it even more worth your while tuning in.

Two big grudge matches for a variety of reasons on Match Of The Day 2

this evening, and both will have an effect on the title race.

The thing about sport is you can subvert it and have fun with it,

but, at the same time, take it extremely seriously.

The two things have got to operate side-by-side.

I don't think it was a revolution. It was more of an evolution, slightly.

Have a great week, wherever you are, do join us next Sunday. Goodbye.

It was just, sort of, a full stop on the weekend, "Come on, folks,

"let's get through the week, there'll be more football next weekend.

It had that feeling about it.

Extra, extra!

And on it grows.

The name of the full live experience,

Match Of The Day 2, Match Of The Day 2 Extra,

Match Of The Day 3, Kickabout, out and about,

plus the website, social media, BBC iPlayer,

all things for all people,

those at home, those who are going places, talking football 24/7.

Not bad for a programme that crept in under the radar,

a show that wasn't allowed to say where it was going

on a Saturday afternoon.

Match Of The Day, more than an institution.

One of the family.

There's no point having a BBC, there's no point having Premier League football,

there's no point in anything if you haven't got Match Of The Day on Saturday night.

-It's just the way it should be.

-'Oh, great goal!'

I always watch Match Of The Day, my son watches it now,

and it's a great way of watching all the games.

Match Of The Day is as big an institution as the weather forecast, really.

We couldn't live without it, could we?

It's like going to church.

You know, it's a religious thing,

it's part of the culture in England.

As long as people want to watch football,

and they do, then you will have Match Of The Day.

I think we'd be lost without it.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Dalglish has scored!

If you love football, you love Match Of The Day,

and no matter what shows come up, and whatever they call them...

..Match Of The Day will always be number one, I suppose.

Right from the beginning,

it showed everybody else in the world how to cover football.

And I think for the format to survive for 50 years is

because it works.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Sergio Aguero-o-o-o!

If you're trying to build up a picture of what's happened in the day's football

in the Premier League...

Match Of The Day has it all.

-COMMENTATOR:

-The Crazy Gang have beaten the Culture Club.

When I'm at home, I watch it. When I'm not at home, I record it. Always.

-I don't miss it.

-Do you feel proud to have been part of it?

-Very, yes.

50 years old, happy birthday.

And here's to the next half-century.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Here comes Best.

And it's there! Beautiful!

Happy 50th birthday, Match Of The Day.

Happy 50th birthday, Match Of The Day.

You mean the world to me, man.

Buon cinquantesimo compleanno a Match Of The Day.

Happy birthday, Match Of The Day.

Yo, yo. I want to wish a happy 50th birthday

to Match Of The Day, MOTD. Cloud.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Henry. Henry! Brilliant!

Un saludo para...para todo el Match Of The Day por su cinquenta anos.

Happy 50th birthday to Match Of The Day.

Joyeux anniversaire to Match Of The Day.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Gerard! Oh, what about that?

So, happy 50th birthday to Match Of The Day.

Here's to the next 50 years.