The Archive Hour

Back to Square One - 80 Years of Football on the Radio Just three weeks after the Royal Charter was received in January 1927, the BBC covered its first football match. The Radio Times published a diagram of the pitch which was split into squares so that the commentator could easily let the listener know where the ball was. This is thought by some to have been the origin of the phrase 'back to square one'. Barry Davies delves into the evolution of commentary from that day to this, looking at the changing relationship between broadcasting and football.