''Soccer Night'' is a regional television football programme on ITV in United Kingdom between the 1990s and 2008.

Early history

The programme concept began in 1990 on

Granada Television ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire but only on weekdays as ABC Weekend Television was it ...

North West England North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, administrative counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of ...

. ''Granada Soccer Night'', which was shown late on a weekday night, presented by

Elton Welsby Roger Elton Welsby (born 28 May 1951 in St Helens, Lancashire) is an English television sports presenter who works under the name Elton Welsby. Welsby is a fan of Everton Football Club, and St Helens R.F.C. The ITV years Welsby began his broad ...

as a replacement opt-out from the networked ''Midweek Sports Special''. Granada's head of sport Paul Doherty had been unhappy with the network coverage of Oldham's run to the Littlewoods Cup Final in 1990, and took the initiative to launch their own regional programme. Central Television also chose to launch their own show at the same time. It showed highlights of midweek football matches, particularly

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

games. In its earliest years internationals and European club games were also a regular part of the show.

Clive Tyldesley Clive Tyldesley (born 21 August 1954) is an English television sports broadcaster. He was ITV's senior football commentator from 1998 until 2020. In that role, he has led the ITV commentary team at four World Cups and four European Championships ...

was the lead commentator at launch in 1990, often being sent outside the Granada region to cover matches of North West interest covered by other companies.

Alistair Mann Alistair Mann is a freelance football commentator and TV sports presenter. He was born in Salford and attended Manchester Grammar School. He trained as a journalist at the department of Journalism, Media and Communication, University of Centra ...

was also part of the original team, making his commentary debut in 1991. Rob Palmer, John Helm and

Gary Bloom Gary Bloom is a Welsh clinical sports psychotherapist and a sports broadcaster. As a commentator, Bloom has provided his commentary mainly in the World Cup and the Olympics. For many seasons, Bloom was a commentator on the ''Football Italia' ...

also had spells as the main voice of the programme.

Rob McCaffrey Robert Andrew McCaffrey, 1963) is a British television presenter. He is most notable for presenting shows such as ''Goals On Sunday'' and ''You're On Sky Sports''. McCaffrey also replaced Jeff Stelling as presenter of ''Soccer Special'' (the midwe ...

, James Cooper and Peter Stevenson had spells as programme host. Featured studio guests included north west players and managers, as well retired professionals and coaches. The show's iconic theme tune was "Shall We Take A Trip" by Manchester band,

Northside Northside or North Side may refer to: Music * Northside (band), a musical group from Manchester, England * NorthSide, an American record label * NorthSide Festival (Denmark), a music festival in Aarhus, Denmark * " Norf Norf", a 2015 song by Vi ...

''Soccer Night'' (2004-2008)

By 2004 following multiple mergers and the formation of

ITV plc ITV plc is a British media company that holds 13 of the 15 regional television licences that make up the ITV network (Channel 3), the oldest and largest commercial terrestrial television network in the United Kingdom. ITV plc is listed on th ...

, versions of the original programme were developed for all ITV regions in England and Wales - a late night magazine show, focusing on

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

clubs, was introduced for the 2004–05 season to replace the long-standing Sunday afternoon highlights programmes owing to cutbacks at ITV plc. The theme tune used was "

Beautiful Day "Beautiful Day" is a song by Irish rock band U2. It is the first track on their tenth studio album, '' All That You Can't Leave Behind'' (2000), and was released as the album's lead single on 9 October 2000. The song was a commercial success, ...

" by Irish band U2, which was at the time used by ITV as the theme for all their football programming

Regional variations

Wales Soccer Night/Soccer Sunday

''Wales Soccer Night'' (produced by

ITV Wales ITV Cymru Wales, previously known as Harlech Television and HTV Wales, is the ITV franchise for Wales. The new separate licence began on 1 January 2014, replacing the long-serving dual franchise region serving Wales and the West of England. L ...

) was axed in December 2005 in response to high viewer demand for the return of a full highlights programme on Sundays as opposed to the magazine-based format on late Thursday nights. ''Soccer Sunday'' returned on 15 January 2006 with extended highlights of

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a ...

, Swansea and

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the county ...

matches, presented by

Jonny Owen Jonathan Tudor "Jonny" Owen (born 4 July 1971 in Merthyr Tydfil, Mid Glamorgan) is a British producer, actor and writer who has appeared in TV shows including ''Shameless'', ''Murphy's Law'' and ''My Family''. Owen won a Welsh BAFTA in 2007 for ...

(a local actor and assistant producer at

) with match commentary provided by Bob Symonds and Phil Duffell. The programme was extended to an hour in February 2007 and incorporated goals from all other Football League games.

ITV West ITV Wales and West, previously known as Harlech Television (HTV), was an ITV franchise area in the United Kingdom until 31 December 2013, licensed to a broadcaster by the regulator Ofcom. There is no channel, past or present, named "ITV Wales ...

sports editor Jed Pitman presented the newly expanded programme. The new format was dropped at the end of the 2006/7 season and ''Soccer Sunday'' returned to its original format. Pitman left the programme at the end of the year and was replaced by

. ITV Wales lost the rights to show highlights of

's matches when the club was relegated to the Blue Square Premier league at the end of the 2007/8 season (a result of

Setanta Sports Setanta Sports is a sports television company based in Dublin, Ireland broadcasting throughout select Eurasian. The company was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events to international audiences. The company previo ...

possessing exclusive rights to the

Football Conference The National League (named Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons) is an association football league in England consisting of three divisions, the National League, National League North, and National League South. It was called th ...

leagues). In September 2008,

BBC Wales BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Wales. It is one of the four BBC national regions, alongside the BBC English Regions, BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Scotland. Established in 1964, BBC Cymru Wales i ...

gained secondary rights to screen highlights of Wrexham matches for their now-defunct Saturday afternoon results programme, ''Wales on Saturday''.

Hancock's Half Time

''Central Soccer Night'' and ''London Soccer Night'' were replaced in 2006 by ''Hancock's Half Time'', a pan-regional show produced from

Central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known a ...

's studios in Birmingham and presented by

Nick Hancock Nicholas John Hancock (born 25 October 1962) is an English actor and television presenter. He hosted the sports quiz '' They Think It's All Over'' for 10 years. He also formerly presented '' Room 101'' (1994–1999) on TV, as well as its earlie ...

& Sarah Jane Mee. The programme was axed during the 2007/8 season and replaced by a revival of ''Central Soccer Night'' in the Midlands.

ITV London ITV London is the on-air brand name used by ''ITV Broadcasting Limited'' for two broadcast franchises of ITV, Carlton Television (weekdays) and London Weekend Television (weekends) in the London ITV region. Its terrestrial digital signal is t ...

chose not to produce a replacement programme.

Demise

All ''Soccer Night'' programmes in England were axed in May 2008 as part of further cutbacks in ITV's regional output. The Welsh ''Soccer Sunday'' continued for a further six months with coverage of

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Caerdydd) is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1899 as R ...

and

Swansea City Swansea City Association Football Club (; cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Cymdeithas Dinas Abertawe) is a professional football club based in Swansea, Wales that plays in the Championship, the second tier of English football. Swansea have played their ...

for the first half of the 2008/9 season but that programme was axed in December 2008. Goals from local Football League matches are featured in ITV regional news programmes during the 2008–09 season, after which ITV lost the rights to show

highlights to the BBC from the start of the 2009/10 season.

References

{{Reflist 1990 British television series debuts 2008 British television series endings English Football League on television ITV Sport Television shows produced by Granada Television 1990s British sports television series 2000s British sports television series English-language television shows