Football Feature: MOTD vs Football First

BBC's Match of the Day versus Sky Sports' Football First

I grew up with that intro music of Match of the Day making or breaking my weekend - depending on the results of course. Since 1964, it was the only chance for football fans to see the action of the weekend - the goals, the fowls, the decisive bloopers and 

errors that make you cringe and the darn refs that can't do their job right to save their lives. 

Then throughout the 90s, Sky established itself in the sports and football world, showing more and more live games. Since 1992, Gillette Soccer Saturday is always a fun to watch, with Jeff Stelling reeling off the facts and stats of the matches and the other experts on the panel - consisting of former players like Phil Thompson, Chris Kamara, Matt Le Tissier and Charlie Nicholas - discussing, analysing and reporting on the matches and goals and their reactions keeping the viewers entertained as well as updated. 

But BBC was still the only one to show highlights of the action on the same day - until Sky Sports News was launched in 1998 and they showed highlights on the same day, after ten pm, too. Then, with the start of the 2004/2005 season, Sky Sports introduced Football First. The programme goes on air Saturday nights from 8.25pm showing the full 90 minutes of selected matches from that afternoon. That gave fans and views the chance for the first time to see the full action and complete match on the fixture day. It was the first time it wasn't BBC who showed the action highlights of the day.

So, more and more, Match of the Day drifted into the background of all the full and live action on Sky. For a couple of years, from 2001 to 2004, BBC lost its rights to show Premiership action, but it wasn't successful and didn't last long with ITV. Now again, it's strong as ever.

I love Sky just as much as I do BBC. As a student, the only chance I get to watch Sky Sports is at my parents. Obviously, my holy freeview box gives me the opportunity to watch Sky Sports News and I love it for that. But I still appreciate and enjoy Match of the Day just as much. At the end of the day, when I come back from work, it's the perfect summary of all the day's action. Football First I probably couldn't sit through end of a long day anyway, I just want the main parts, the juicy bits of the action of all the matches, not just one, then I'm happy. And for its history, I feel, Match of the Day belongs to every football fan's diary. It is the mother of all football programmes, if Sky like it or not.

(Match of the Day picture taken from BBC website)

(Sky Sports picture taken from truelovemusic website)