"We showed what we had," Coleman later recalled, "and then I said 'this is the man who scored five' and showed a still picture of him."Still, those were exciting, pioneering times. By 1967, Match of the Day had acquired the action replay, and then came the greatest change of all. In November 1969, Liverpool vs West Ham became the first match to be shown in colour, an innovation which 11 years later enabled commentator John Motson to drop his celebrated clanger: "For those of you watching in black-and-white, Spurs are in the all-yellow strip."Ah, Motty. Motty in his ankle-length sheepskin coat, once found commentating, as one wit observed, "on Wolves in sheep's clothing". Motty with his Saturday night trivia, and Barry Davies with his poetry ­ what a heritage it is that expires tomorrow evening.

And what a shock it was for all of us, and indeed for all of them, when the news emerged that the BBC had lost the rights to show Premiership football. For Niall Sloane, the genial Irish editor of Match of the Day, it was something of a JFK moment. "Where was I when I heard the news? I think I was in my bedroom at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Brussels, where I got a call from the acting Head of Sport Richard Sambrook, and I think it was 5.05pm on June 4, 2000," he says. Ironically, I think.Sloane and the BBC team were in Belgium for Euro 2000.

"I knew that the announcement was due that day, and a pigeon had dumped on me about two hours previously, which I took to be a good omen," he says. Moreover, they had been assured that the BBC was almost certain to retain the rights. So when Sloane broke the bad news to pundits Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson, they thought he was having them on. "Eventually he convinced us," Lawrenson recalls, "and Gary Lineker was next out of the lift. We saw Niall talking to him, and Gary mouthing the words 'you're joking'.