True, but Tyldesley did not make reference to the new law and surely he would have if he'd been aware of it.

EDIT: But I agree it should have been a yellow card.

There was one other reason for that, of course, because it meant that they could have football on Thames and they would be able to show some live football and enjoy the advertising revenue. In those days they would often faithfully split stuff between weekdays and weekends so both Thames and LWT would have programmes of equal quality - if you look at when the Bond films premiered in the seventies and eighties, for example, they almost exactly alternate between weekdays and weekends. Obviously with football most of them were going to be on weekends, but any opportunity to show one on a weekday, they'd take.

8th December 1990 also the day of course where they took that famous photo of Motty in the snow at Wycombe. I also remember that day because it was also the hundredth episode of Going Live, a show I loved and watched intently every week, and they were doing a live outside broadcast from the Clothes Show Live at the NEC and hardly anyone turned up because of the snow. Vividly remember the shot of the outside of the NEC, covered in snow. Funny the things, eh? http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules...don/1990-12-08


Very droll. Of course, it's almost exactly a decade since Gabby went to the Beeb, I remember it being announced in the papers in October 2006, I think her last appearance on ITV was in December and then she made her debut on the Beeb in January 2007. I think she works really well on the Beeb too, I didn't always like her that much on ITV but I think she's really good now.

Also around that period they were easing Terry Venables back in after he left to make a hash of managing Leeds, and there was a period where he would pop up in a BT-style box during a match with "COACHES' VIEW" on top of it.

Not been mentioned here but Channel 4 have outbid the BBC to show the Women's Euro 2017 championships next summer.

Left field to say the least. Only early worry so far is that they've 'guaranteed' the Scotland & England matches will be live with at least one semi-final and final. I'd hope(d) all matches would be live across C4, More 4 and even E4 with the growth of the game.

http://www.channel4.com/info/press/n...80f263db586d99

Goodness time flies. I remember being a fan of Gabby back in her ITV days - thought she was watchable and thought it was a bit of a shame she was sidelined for Steve Ryder. Ryder was/is of course regarded as a very capable host but just felt a shame to see a woman given the role of lead football host on one of the main channels and than sidelined.

Moving to the BBC has worked out well for Gabby - though I find these days I feel I enjoy more on some programmes and coverage more than others.
I think she's very accomplished when presenting things like live football or rugby and actually I really enjoy her when she stands in for Gary on MOTD (she works well with the pundits and is more than capable for the role - it's a shame there are often the usual comments by Twitter neanderthals when she appears).
However, I'm not as impressed when she does stuff like the Athletics or light entertainment.



That said it really didn't take a genius to work out that it might not work in football. Rugby crowds are often different to football and most could've told them that. For BT to have thought otherwise would've been worryingly naive.

There's the old thing too that the camera is a great magnet for idiots and so broadcasting outside means you're bound to attract one or two.

It always seemed a bit pointless to me too. I still don't understand what they thought they gained from it compared to say broadcasting in a studio. In fact, it's arguable the pundits would end up having to miss part of the game they're actually meant to be watching to get there in time.

Monday 14th November - BT Sport 1

Under-21 International
France Under-21s v England Under-21s - Peter Drury and Kevin Davies, with Andy May conducting interviews

I didn't catch coverage of this game live, so I don't know if BT Sport 1 had any studio presentation. If they did, it would have been from their London studios I'm sure, but then as coverage began at 7.30pm for a 7.45pm kick-off I think it's entirely possible that the commentary team handled the pre-match, half-time and full-time links.

Tuesday 15th November - ITV

International Football: England v Spain

Mark Pougatch presented the live coverage from Wembley Stadium alongside Ryan Giggs, Ian Wright, Aitor Karanka and Lee Dixon

Jacqui Oatley presented the highlights from Wembley Stadium alongside Glenn Hoddle and Lee Dixon

Commentators: Clive Tyldesley and Glenn Hoddle

Reporter: Gabriel Clarke

The highlights show didn't include action from any of the night's other friendlies. Also, to correct my post from yesterday, ITV's full highlights show covering the latest round of European Qualifiers for World Cup 2018 was broadcast on ITV4 rather than the main channel.

Chile v Uruguay- John Roder
Peru v Brazil- Dan O'Hagan

BBCtv sport would state its still on UK free tv which is good

I hope Channel 4 uses only women football pundits in rtheir coverage

what was the point of having gavin peacock and michael gray as pundits on bbctv's coverage in the past

Does anyone know what the determining factors are for whether BT show a game in 4K UHD or not?

For example, it would seem that tonight's FA Cup tie won't be but tomorrow's will.

In the case of the game held at Merstham the other day, it was billed as also being shown in ultra HD... but it wasn't.

A bit more info on this (as it's very much my era); Gary Lineker did co-commentate on a couple of games early in the following season: Arsenal v Austria Vienna in September 1991 and Aston Villa v Leeds in the November, but then his young son George was diagnosed with leukemia and he took a brief break from both playing and broadcasting. While he returned to playing a few weeks later, he didn't do any more games for ITV. His next TV work was as a pundit for Match of the Day at the start of the following season, as he waited to start at Grampus Eight in Japan.

The reporter at the Nottingham Forest v Liverpool game, by the way, was Clive Tyldesley.

To confirm the details for you, Lynsey Hipgrave hosted from the studio, alongside Jody Morris and Dean Ashton.

I remember Lineker came out with a "Goodnight Vienna" pun as Arsenal thrashed Vienna - a sign even 25 years ago that he liked to play on words when broadcasting.

Interesting to see Dempsey commentating on this game, must be his first FA Cup match commentary for BT if i'm correct?

Very good game for BT to pick up tonight, shame the same can't be said about the commentary.

I groaned when I realised Paul Dempsey was the commentator, but i've actually enjoyed his commentary tonight. Suited to this type of occasion, none of the usual condescending cliche ridden nonsense you would get from Tyldesley and the like. Only spoilt (as usual) by Virgo!

In this next block of Champions League matches the games on BT Sport Showcase are Sporting Lisbon vs Real Madrid and Sparta Prague vs Southampton

I dont think that Arsenal have had a free to air match on Showcase yet. so I would assume that that Basel vs Arsenal during the final round of group matches will be on Showcase. All other British teams have now had match free to air game.

Reshmin Chowdry is the reporter.

I wish Sky would stop this recent trend of giving big games a name - Man U v Arsenal is now "ReUnited".

FFS, what is this all about? Can't the game sell itself now?

If Gerrard gets the MK Dons games, they'll be on Sky all the bloody time!

Thanks.

In The Times article on Gerrard/MK Dons, it says he will be appearing on BT in the coming weeks, no surprise there

Agreed, it is getting irritating.

But their marketing department will have convinced them that it is a great idea and they are running with it. Expect it for the rest of the season.

Not only the cringey naming of games, but they are giving it the big build-up as if it is an end-of-season title decider with a countdown clock on Sky Sports News all week. It is just another Premier League game.

Am I missing something but why the 'reunited' is it aimed at Man Utd v Arsenal in which case they play twice a year or Jose v Wenger in which case they last met last season? I just don't get it!!! Could understand if not played for years but just pathetic.

Still trying to figure it out myself. Of all the ones so far, this one makes the least sense.

Mourinho missed out on a grand total of one match against Wenger by being sacked last season so apparently that justifies calling it a reunion after 14 long months apart.