Match of The Day - 1960s

1960s

The first edition of Match of the Day was screened on BBC2 at 6:30pm on 22 August 1964. BBC2 had been launched in April that year with Michael Peacock as controller (Sir David Attenborough took over in spring 1965) but the programme's primary purpose was to train up BBC cameramen and technicians so that the BBC could fulfil its duties as host broadcaster to cover every match at the forthcoming 1966 World Cup in England.

The first edition showed only one match; highlights of the First Division game between Liverpool and Arsenal at Anfield; Liverpool won 3-2. As seen in Liverpool's "100 Greatest Moments of the Kop" film, footage of a pitch invasion was caught by the MOTD cameras. It was a black cat.

As BBC2 was available only in the London area at the time, the programme's audience was estimated at only 20,000; less than half of the attendance at Anfield stadium. However this soon expanded; on 3 December new transmitters were opened in the Midlands and the number of people with access increased to over two million.

The BBC had been showing live games before Match of the Day, the first being an FA Cup semi-final game between Fulham and Manchester United in 1958. Although Match of the Day primarily screened First Division matches, under the BBC's initial contract with The Football League, they had to screen three Second Division games per season as well. The following year it also extended its coverage to Third Division matches and started showing highlights of FA Cup matches. Additionally, in its inaugural season, Match of the Day screened a Fourth Division match between Oxford United and Tranmere Rovers, though it would not do so again until 1978.

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, an arrangement that remained until 1983. The show moved to BBC1 the same year, though occasionally in later years highlights of FA Cup matches were screened on BBC2. The first colour edition of Match of the Day was shown on 15 November 1969, between Liverpool and West Ham United.

By then, Match of the Day was not the only football highlights programme on English television; the BBC faced competition from 1967 as ITV started to show highlights on a regional basis on Sunday afternoons; London Weekend Television's The Big Match, which later became the programme for the entire ITV network, was first broadcast in 1968. Match of the Day responded by increasing the number of matches to two per programme.