Talk:Match of the Day

PRIME MINISTER
remember when Blair took his post on MOTD as a pundit and did particularly well?! it must be added!

Copyright violation
The whole history section has been copied from a BBC article, and has been moved here Match of the Day/History. ed g2s • talk 05:58, 30 March 2006 (UTC)


 * I wrote/re-wrote much of this section not long before it was deleted and I can assure you nothing I wrote was copyrightten, I referred to a book about the show, which I will add as a reference in the near future, nothing was 'copied' directly however. I can see that some of what was there was copied from that page but not the bit I wrote. I've just reverted it back into the article (not seeing what you wrote at the top because there was no heading), I'll remove it again but it should be re-written rather than deleted, I spent a while writing the 80s/90s stuff and it's a shame to see it wiped because someone else violated copyright. Jimbow25 19:54, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

Goal Of The Season
I'm trying to compile a list of all of the MotD Goals Of The Season (possibly with a view to creating an article, if I can find enough information on each); can anyone help out? I've identified 94-95 (Matt Le Tissier v Blackburn), 96-97 (Trevor Sinclair's bicycle kick against Barnsley), 98-99 (that Ryan Giggs goal), 99-00 (Paulo Di Canio's scissor kick against Wimbledon), 01-02 (Dennis Bergkamp turning Newcastle inside out) and 04-05 (Wayne Rooney's thundering volley against Middlesbrough). Kinitawowi 14:19, 3 April 2006 (UTC)
 * Stuff it, I've started one anyway. (Got a couple more goals too, thanks to some thorough use of the Google and Youtube, of all things...) Kinitawowi 22:16, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

Theme tune
I was surprised to see that the music was specially composed for Match of the Day (and, having checked, all sources seem to agree on this). I had always thought the music was an adaptation of Robin Hall and Jimmie McGregor's song "Football Crazy". Am I alone in seeing the similarity between these tunes? Bluewave 21:41, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

Other Music
Does anybody have a full list of the backing music used in the shows when introducing the highlights from each match? The few that I know are: MRW77 (talk) 04:55, 11 November 2008 (UTC)
 * 1992-199? "The Life of Riley" by The Lightning Seeds
 * 199?-199? "Step Into My World" by Hurricane #1
 * 200?-200? "Half Life" by Athlete

Supposed copyright violation
The lengthy show history section was deleted, according to the description because of "copyvio". I wrote/re-wrote much of this section not long before it was deleted and I can assure you there was no violation of copyright, I referred to a book about the show, which I will add as a reference in the near future, nothing was 'copied' directly however. Please can this claim be clarified/backed up with evidence, as there is no reason for a useful part of the article to stay deleted. Jimbow25 19:43, 1 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Err, compare:
 * MOTD's monopoly on televised football was challenged in 1968 with the arrival of ITV's Sunday afternoon show The Big Match, presented by Jimmy Hill and Brian Moore, formerly a BBC Radio football correspondent.
 * with:
 * But MOTD's monopoly on televised football was challenged in 1968 with the arrival of ITV's Sunday afternoon show The Big Match, presented by Jimmy Hill and Brian Moore, formerly a BBC Radio football correspondent.
 * Not much of a rewrite. ed g2s &bull; talk 19:49, 1 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Thank you for the sarcasm. I was just correcting myself and remove what I wrote there as you wrote that (see top of page), I wasn't expecting a reply that fast since the original edit was weeks ago...see above. Jimbow25 19:55, 1 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Sorry, if there is an original version in the history then we can use that. ed g2s &bull; talk 14:36, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

I have been working on a orginial history for a couple of weeks now as you know, I hope to bring it right up to date over the next few days/weeks.

Scottish league matches
As a child in the 70s, I have hazy memories of Scottish fixtures being shown on rare occasions when I was allowed to stay up to watch. Am I wrong? And before you ask, I lived in London. Dweller 11:45, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Cleanup needed
This article is very poorly written, for several reasons:


 * It is far too long. The average reader does not need to read a blow-by-blow account of every single season; I stopped reading after mention of how many Third Division matches would be shown in 1967-68 - this is just trivial and best saved for books on the subject.
 * Details of individual matches are not needed, especially the tedious recounting of the time a match was snowed off (oh, shock horror!). Truly exceptional matches (biggest scorelines etc.) could perhaps be included in a list of records in a separate section.
 * Similarly, rather than say, e.g. "Jimmy Hill started/stopped being a pundit this season in the main text", the show's presenters/pundits/commentators should be in a table in a separate section, with their tenures alongside; this would be a much more effective way of communicating the same information.
 * The tone is full of POV and unencylopedic prose. Examples:
 * ...the whole 90 minutes was shown. Pity it ended 0-0.
 * In one of the greatest ever FA Cup ties of all time...
 * There was little sympathy for ITV. The main news was that a regular Match of the Day was back.
 * There is a lot of text about ITV, BSB, various deals and negotiations - these are not relevant to the programme of MoTD and should addressed in a different article such as English football on television.
 * There are lots of spelling mistakes, and the prose is generally clunky; far too many incorrect uses of the word "would"
 * Oh, and the article needs lots more references, properly formatted.

A rewrite is definitely needed. Would anyone else agree? Qwghlm 16:01, 9 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Anything other than an analysis of each and every one of the forty-two seasons so far; this is a sports highlights programme, not an American TV drama. Next to none of the content is encyclopaedic. The season-by-season info mostly pertains to football as a whole, rather than strictly its impact on MoTD; either way it shouldn't be there. Kinitawowi 20:02, 9 August 2006 (UTC)


 * I have made a stab at a rewrite - see User:Qwghlm/MoTD. Comments welcome (but please do not edit the subpage as I intend to delete it). Qwghlm 14:41, 11 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Just taken a look at your rewrite, and it looks good. Robotforaday 01:30, 14 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Proposed article is far better IMO. Also not sure there's a need for a separate article on [Match of the Day2|MOTD 2]].  If the main article dels with both live games and highlights, I think the MOTD 2 stream should be included in the main article Dodge 02:37, 15 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Thank you for your positive feedback; I've now updated the article to include the rewrite. Qwghlm 12:47, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

See you after the break
Would it be worth noting in the trivia section that Gary Lineker's last words on MOTD before Premiership highlights passed over to ITV was "see you after the break" I always remember that, for some reason. HornetMike 18:52, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Last bit of Trvia wrong
The game when Jimmy Hill ran the line happended when he was at ITV and the Big Match. Not Match of the Day. This should be deleted. Hill didnt join the BBC until the season after

Managers' boycott
Would it be a good idea to add some information about the boycott of MotD by various managers due to arguments with the BBC etc. I think that it's Ferguson, Allardyce and Redknapp who don't give interviews.Nev 16:43, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

Cleanup 2012
Just some basic cleanup and improvement things needed here which would improve the article incredibly: Regards. Rafmarham (talk) 18:35, 25 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Combine information into one history section, separated by sub-headings if necessary.
 * Make sure the contents of sections do not overlap
 * Ensure that the article remains relevant with the passage of time.
 * Add a sample of the famous theme music?

Assessment comment
Substituted at 23:25, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

Sentence or section needed: what is the actual content and format of the show?
I have the sense that it's a recap of recent football, but I'm not sure of the details, and this article doesn't help. A sentence in the lede to flesh out "highlights and analysis" would get useful, and a Format section may be warranted. See Match of the Day 2. Some questions that a reader might want to know: does it cover only that day's games, or are Friday/mid-week fixtures included? Is it Premier League (or historically, top-flight-English) only, or does it include Champions League, EFL, Scotland, etc.? Does it run during international competitions? The name sounds like it's about a single game (as in "soup of the day"), and it sounds like that's how it started; does it still feature one or a few games in greater detail than the others, or is it a general broad sweep? I and other ignorant readers would be interested to know these things :) SSSheridan (talk) 09:55, 2 June 2021 (UTC)

Theme Music
The original theme tune, entitled "Drum Majorette", was written by Major Oleen Wrigley, the band leader of the Jade Petherick under the pen-name 'Arnold Stock'.

Much as I detest football, is this vandalism ? Two unlikely names with no links, both unsourced, with the alleged source (10: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/match_of_the_day/3135723.stm) only mentioning Major Arnold Stock.

Oleen is a girl's name, where was she a major ? in the Salvation Army ? What is 'the ' Jade Petherick ( note the article ): A band ? A steamship ? A tin-mine ?

All somewhat odd... Claverhouse (talk) 21:16, 25 January 2022 (UTC)


 * The reference to Major Oleen Wrigley seems to originate here, and, as far as I can see, has no validity. It also contradicts the Wikipedia article about Major Leslie Statham (aka Arnold Steck) - note that it's "Steck" not "Stock" - that typo was copied from a BBC website, but all other sources (including other BBC websites) have the correct verison "Steck". Producer Al (talk) 19:16, 27 August 2022 (UTC)
 * PS - I have corrected the entry, and it now matches the Wikipedia article about the composer. Producer Al (talk) 19:26, 27 August 2022 (UTC)

11th March, 2023 edition
Was it called Match of the Day or Premier League Highlights? I have heard the phrase "Match of the Day" was not in yesterdays opening title sequence.(Fran Bosh (talk) 17:02, 12 March 2023 (UTC))