The programme was presented by Des Lynam, with Gabby Logan as a stand-in and Ally McCoist, Ron Atkinson, Terry Venables, Barry Venison and Andy Townsend frequently serving as pundits.
Match of the Day, the BBC's long-running football programme, was in its eighth year of terrestrial Premier League coverage and about to start a record ninth in 2000.
[5] To reflect the supplementary changes on the network, ITV extended their lunchtime football show, On The Ball to an hour and introduced The Goal Rush, which was billed as the fastest and most comprehensive results service in the country.
In order to cut back on the department's resources,[citation needed] ITV decided to send four of its commentators, Clive Tyldesley, Jon Champion, Peter Drury and Guy Mowbray, to the high profiled matches of the weekend.
bemoaned that what should have been the featured game, Bolton Wanderers' 5–0 drubbing of Leicester City at Filbert Street, only got the briefest of autodubs by Gabriel Clarke and analysis from the studio which lasted for about two minutes.
The overuse of football technology to support the decisions was also controversial in spite of praise by top league managers such as Arsène Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson.