''The Football League Show'' is a

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

football television show, primarily hosted by Manish Bhasin. It features match highlights from the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

and League Two. It began on 8 August 2009, at 11:45 pm and immediately followed ''

Match of the Day ''Match of the Day'' (abbreviated to ''MOTD'') is a football highlights programme, typically broadcast on BBC One on Saturday nights, during the Premier League season. The show's current presenter is former England international striker Gary ...

'' on Saturdays. Similar to other

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC television, radio and online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside flag ...

studio shows, UK-based users of the BBC website could watch a live simulcast of the programme. The programme was made in Studio C at IMG studios, London. Football League highlights moved to Channel 5 for the 2015–2016 season, thus ending the BBC's version of the programme.

Format

The programme had a similar format to ITV's '' Championship Goals'', with a featured match receiving full highlights and all the goals from the other matches (thus repeating Match of the Day's format used in the early to the mid-90s). There could also be extensive highlights of any matches covered live by

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

or the BBC itself. The programme was studio-based. The first ever episode featured

Steve Claridge Stephen Edward Claridge (born 10 April 1966) is an English football pundit, coach and former professional player. He was a pundit for BBC Sport football shows including ''Football Focus'' and ''The Football League Show'', until 2014 when he beca ...

and

Ian Holloway Ian Scott Holloway (born 12 March 1963) is an English professional football manager, former player, media personality and television pundit who was most recently the manager of Grimsby Town. A midfielder, he notably played in the Premier League ...

but from the second episode onwards only featured Claridge as pundit or on some occasions former Torquay United and Brentford manager Leroy Rosenior. Occasionally both Claridge and Rosenior have appeared on the same programme offering analysis of matches. When there were only Championship or League One and League Two matches played, the show was pre-recorded from the stadium of the featured match, rather than being live from the studio. These shows were often shorter than the regular ones. On 23 March 2013, the show was only 20 minutes long, this being the shortest show in the series and the first not to have a featured matches.

Presenter, commentators and reporters

The presenter of the show was Manish Bhasin, who left

Football Focus ''Football Focus'' is a BBC television magazine programme launched in 1974 covering football, normally broadcast live on BBC One on Saturday lunchtimes during the football season. From the 2009–10 season to the 2020–21 season Football Focus ...

to present. Whenever Bhasin was unavailable, the programme was hosted by Mark Chapman, Mark Clemmit, Damian Johnson or

Jason Mohammad Jason Mohammad (born 17 September 1973) is a Welsh radio and television presenter currently working for the BBC. He is the current host of ''Final Score'' on BBC One on Saturday afternoons. Personal life Mohammad was born and brought up in Ca ...

. During each season, a number of reporters provided match roundups from the three divisions of the Football League. Regular reporters included Dave Beckett, Nick Halling, Paul Walker, Dan O'Hagan, Dan Mason, Tony Lockwood, Chris Maughan, Mick Conway, Sue Thearle, James Richardson and Jonathan Legard. Commentators on featured matches included John Roder, Martin Fisher, Tony Gubba, Kevin Keatings, Jon Champion, Jonathan Pearce, Guy Mowbray, Simon Brotherton and Steve Wilson. BBC Radio 5 Live's Mark Clemmit was the roving reporter, who visited a ground to spend the day with a team each week. This was similar in style to Kevin Day's reports on ''

Match of the Day 2 ''Match of the Day 2'' is a Premier League football highlights programme. It is a companion show to Match of the Day, usually broadcast on BBC One on Sunday evenings, thus facilitating coverage of the respective week's PL matches that were playe ...

''.

Interactive

There was also an interactive email segment where fans expressed their points of view. These emails were read out by one of the BBC's sports news presenters, mainly

Jacqui Oatley Jacqueline Anne Oatley (born 28 December 1974) is a leading English broadcaster. She is a football commentator for Sky Sports, calling Premier League and FA Women's Super League matches. She is a sports presenter on Quest TV channel, covering ...

or Lizzie Greenwood-Hughes. This feature was dropped from the start of the 2011–12 football season.

Other programmes

The BBC's rights deal with the Football League also included the Football League Cup, where the programme was rebranded as ''The Football League Cup Show''. Highlights of the Football League Trophy final were also shown on the BBC, where the show was simply branded as the ''Football League Trophy Final''. Rather than being broadcast live from a studio, it was recorded pitchside from

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 2002 to 2003. The stadium ...

, the venue of the final. Highlights from the earlier rounds were available on the BBC Sport website up until the 2011–12 season. A regional spin-off programme, '' Late Kick Off'', launched on Monday 18 January 2010, broadcasting weekly from January until the end of the season.

End of the programme

In 2015, the BBC lost the rights to the Football League to Channel 5 beginning in August of that year, with Channel 5 offering the same money that the BBC paid for the previous three years but promising to show highlights at 9 pm, rather than after ''Match of the Day'', which had been the traditional home while on the BBC. The last ''Football League Show'' aired on 25 May 2015, with highlights of the Championship play-off final from

between

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

and

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

. The final few editions of the Football League Show featured memories and highlights from the past six seasons and featured credits naming all who worked on the show. Channel 5 showed highlights from the Football League's competitions on its own programme, '' Football League Tonight'' until August 2018 when they showed the highlights on Quest titled '' EFL on Quest''.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Football League Show, The 2009 British television series debuts 2015 British television series endings 2000s British sports television series 2010s British sports television series English Football League on television BBC Television shows BBC Sport