Star Soccer
The Central Years

Central Television
ATV was replaced by Central Television on 1st January 1982. The new station was more of a name change than a brand new company, although they were now obliged to be more locally orientated. ATV had been based in Birmingham but they had held onto premises in Borehamwood (a remnant of ATV's London franchise era), Central would cease producing programmes from Borehamwood and build a new studio in Nottingham from where they would provide a separate local news service for those in the East of the region. Central retained the Star Soccer brand for their football highlights programmes but the 1982/83 season saw a change in commentator when Hugh Johns was replaced by Peter Brackley. Bob Hall could now often be seen presenting the programme but sadly this would be Star Soccer's final season.

Here's the "TV Times" entry for the 30th December 1982 edition (10:35-11:35pm).... "Gary Newbon and Jimmy Greaves head Star Soccer's team, with another fast moving Saturday night's soccer show. The Central cameras bring you coverage of a top Second Division match with commentary by Peter Brackley, while there are highlights from two other top matches - both from the First Division. Nick Owen's news spot rounds up the day's main football stories. Editor - Trevor East, Producer - Sid Kilbey, OB Director - Stuart Wilson"
 
 
 
 

Season 1981/82
"Star Soccer" was produced by Central Television from January 1982 and the programme continued to be shown on Sunday afternoons....
02/Jan     Birmingham City 2 (Worthington, Curbishly) Ipswich Town 3 (Wark, Brazil 2) [FA Cup 3rd Round]
05/Jan     Notts County 0 Aston Villa 6 (Richards(og), Shaw, Geddis 3, Cowans(pen)) [FA Cup 3rd Round] *Nick Owen commentated
09/Jan     Nottingham Forest 2 (Ward, Wallace) Birmingham City 1 (Worthington) *complete show archived +Y/G
16/Jan     Notts County 1 (Christie) Aston Villa 0  *complete show archived +Y/G
23/Jan     Showed TVS coverage of Gillingham 0 WBA 1 (Statham) [FA Cup R4] *archived. Hereford 1 Leicester 0 was apparently recorded but not shown
30/Jan     Aston Villa 0 Liverpool 3 (Rush, McDermott 2)
06/Feb    Leicester City 2 (Lynex(pen), Lineker) Derby County 1 (Emson) *complete show archived +Y/G
13/Feb    Coventry City 4 (Thompson 2, Hateley 2) Oxford United 0 [FA Cup 5th Round] *Shrewsbury v Ipswich was also covered, Martin Tyler commentated
20/Feb    Birmingham City 0 Aston Villa 1 (Withe)
27/Feb    Walsall 1 (Penn) Millwall 1 (Tagg)
03/Mar    Dynamo Kiev 0 Aston Villa 0 [European Cup QF 1st Leg] *Villa won 2nd leg 2-0
06/Mar    West Bromwich Albion 2 (Regis, Owen) Coventry City 0 [FA Cup QF] *complete show archived. +X/G
13/Mar    League Cup Final *Networked highlights
20/Mar    West Bromwich Albion 1 (Robertson) Birmingham City 1 (Evans)
27/Mar    Derby County 0 Luton Town 0 *complete show archived, one source says Coventry City 0 Wolverhampton W. 0
03/Apr    Leicester City 0 Tottenham Hotspur 2 (Crooks, Wilson(og)) [FA Cup SF] *at Villa Park.
10/Apr    Nottingham Forest 0 Wolverhampton W. 1 (Gray)
17/Apr    Wolverhampton W. 1 (Gray) Birmingham City 1 (Harford)
21/Apr    Anderlecht 0 Aston Villa 0 [European Cup Semi-Final 2nd Leg] *Villa win 1-0 on agg, ighting between rival fans, Martin Tyler comm.
24/Apr    Birmingham City 2 (Broadhurst, Harford) Swansea City 1 (Walsh) *complete show archived
01/May   Leicester City 1 (May) Norwich City 4 (Deehan, Barham, Bertschin, Leet(og))
08/May   Stoke City 2 (Watson, Maguire) Notts County 2 (Christie(pen), Richards)
15/May    Coventry City 0 Birmingham City 1 (Harford)
26/May    Networked LIVE coverage of the European Cup Final - Aston Villa 1 (Withe) Bayern Munich 0

The European Cup was brought back to England for the 6th successive season, this time it was Aston Villa who were crowned champions of Europe thanks to a 1-0 win over Bayern Munich. Villa were also the highest placed Midlands club in the league despite finishing a lowly 11th, Manager Ron Saunders had resigned in February (unhappy with the Chairman) and it was Tony Barton who oversaw the European triumph, by which time Saunders had taken over rivals Birmingham (on 22nd February) and the Blues finished 16th. Forest were 12th, Coventry (with Dave Sexton now in charge) were 14th, Notts County 15th, West Brom (with Ronnie Allen in charge for this one season) were 17th, Stoke (now managed by Richie Barker) were 18th, but it was a miserable campaign for Wolves who were relegated in 21st with John Barnwell sacked in January and replaced by Ian Greaves (who in turn was out before the start of next season). 2nd tier Leicester reached the FA Cup semi-finals but lost to Spurs and finished 8th, Derby sacked Colin Addison on 25th January and replaced him with John Newman who lasted until 11th August after finishing 16th, Shrewsbury were 18th. In the 3rd tier, Lincoln just missed out on promotion in 4th,  Jim Smith took over at Oxford in March and they finished 5th, Walsall were 20th and Swindon dropped into the 4th division to join Port Vale (who finished 7th) and Hereford (10th).

Season 1982/83
"Star Soccer" was on Saturday night's for what turned out to be its' final season. The Central TV commentator was now Peter Brackley.
28/Aug    Coventry City 1 (Whitton) Southampton 0
04/Sep    West Bromwich Albion 3 (Bennett, Eastoe, A.Brown) Manchester United 1 (Robson)
11/Sep    Wolverhampton W. 2 (Humphrey, Eves) Barnsley 0
18/Sep    Nottingham Forest 2 (Walsh, Birtles) Watford 0 *man dressed as a clown invaded the pitch
25/Sep    Stoke City 4 (Berry 2, Bracewell, O'Callaghan) Luton Town 4 (Stein 2, Walsh, Donaghy)
02/Oct    West Bromwich Albion 1 (Cross) Aston Villa 0  *complete show archived
09/Oct    Birmingham City 2 (Langan(pen), Brazier) Luton Town 3 (Stein, Walsh, Moss)
16/Oct    Oxford United 4 (Shotton, Whatmore, Fogg(pen), Brock) Walsall 2 (Beech, Buckley)
23/Oct    Stoke City 1 (Thomas) Liverpool 1 (Lawrenson)
30/Oct    Wolverhampton W. 2 (Palmer(pen), Gray) Derby County 1 (Wilson)
03/Nov   Aston Villa 4 (Shaw 3, Walters) Dynamo Bucharest 2 (Multescu, Iordache) [European Cup R2 L2] *"Midweek Sports Special"
06/Nov    Birmingham City 2 (Dillon(pen), Blake) West Bromwich Albion 1 (Eastoe)
13/Nov    Derby County 0 Bolton Wanderers 0  *complete show archived +S/G
20/Nov    Aston Villa 2 (Shaw, Withe) Manchester United 1 (Stapleton)
27/Nov    Nottingham Forest 3 (Young, Birtles 2) Manchester City 0
04/Dec    Leicester City 2 (Buchanan, Lineker) Fulham 0
11/Dec    Stoke City 2 (Watson, McIlroy) Tottenham Hotspur 0
18/Dec    Aston Villa 2 (Shaw, Withe) Liverpool 4 (Hodgson, Dalglish, Kennedy, Rush)
01/Jan     Shrewsbury Town 2 (Stevens, Brown) Chelsea 0
08/Jan     Derby County 2 (Gemmill, Hill) Nottingham Forest 0 [FA Cup 3rd Round] *complete show archived +L
15/Jan     Birmingham City 1 (Dillon(pen)) Manchester United 2 (Whiteside, Robson)
22/Jan     Aston Villa 1 (Shaw) Manchester City 1 (Harford)
29/Jan     Showed LWT coverage of Tottenham Hotspur 2 (Crooks, Gibson) West Bromich Albion 1 (Whitehead) [FA Cup 4th Round]
05/Feb    Nottingham Forest 1 (Wilson) Aston Villa 2 (Withe 2)
12/Feb    Coventry City 4 (Melrose, Hateley, Gillespie, Hunt) Manchester City 0
19/Feb    Aston Villa 4 (Shaw, Morley, Gibson, Cowans) Watford 1 (Blissett(pen)) [FA Cup 5th Round]
26/Feb    Leicester City 5 (Lynex 2, Smith, Lineker, Daly) Wolverhampton W. 0
05/Mar    Notts County 3 (Hunt, Chiedozie 2) Tottenham Hotspur 0
12/Mar    Showed two FA Cup QF's, neither involving Midlands clubs
19/Mar    Lincoln City 2 (Shipley 2) Chesterfield 0
26/Mar    Nottingham Forest 1 (Hodge) Southampton 2 (Armstrong, Wallace)
02/Apr    Showed Anglia coverage of Ipswich Town 1 (McCall) Aston Villa 2 (Shaw, Withe) *Peter Brackley commentated for Central viewers
09/Apr    West Bromwich Albion 1 (Jol) Watford 3 (Barnes, Callaghan, Lohman) *complete show archived
16/Apr    FA Cup SF *Peter Brackley commentated for Central viewers even though no Midlands club was involved (Brighton v Sheff Wed)
23/Apr    Nottingham Forest 2 (Swain, Proctor) Notts County 1 (Lahtinen)
30/Apr    Leciester City 0 Bolton Wanderers 0
07/May    Birmingham City 2 (Halsall, Harford) Tottenham Hotspur 0
14/May    Leicester City 0 Burnley 0 *The last ever "Star Soccer", the main match was LWT coverage of Derby County 1 (Davison) Fulham 0 with Brian Moore comm.

The final Star Soccer season saw Forest and Villa finish 5th and 6th whilst all the other Midlands' top flight clubs stayed up; West Brom (now under Ron Wylie) were 11th, Notts County 15th again, Birmingham 17th and Coventry finished a single place and point above the drop zone in 19th. Joining them in the top flight next season would be Wolves (now managed by Graham Hawkins) who were runners-up and Gordon Milne's Leicester in 3rd (the emerging young striker Gary Lineker was the 2nd tier's top scorer with 26). Shrewsbury achieved their highest league finish yet in 9th but it was a struggle for Derby who had appointed Peter Taylor as manager at the start of the season -  In spite of a 13th placed finish, the Rams had only just avoided relegation (4 points above the drop), Derby featured in the last ever edition of Star Soccer in a match that emphasised the problems football was now having to deal with, the closing stages of the Derby v Fulham match were played with spectators literally standing along the touchline following a pitch invasion, a nervous referee blew for time two minutes early and the result was allowed to stand despite protestations from Fulham who were hoping to snatch promotion away from Leicester City.  In the 3rd tier, Oxford had to settle for 5th again whilst Walsall improved to 10th. Port Vale won promotion from the Fourth Division in 3rd place, but Hereford finished rock bottom of the 92.

The end of Sunday afternoon regional highlights
ITV began showing networked LIVE league matches from October 1983 which was pretty much responsible for the death of the traditional regional Sunday afternoon highlights programmes, Central News partly compensated by sending a single camera to selected matches for Monday tea-time reports. 1984/85 was an absolute nadir for English football as crowd trouble spiralled completely out of control, this apocalyptic season's hall of shame included Midlands club Leicester City who's January FA Cup tie with Burton Albion had to be replayed after the Burton keeper was knocked out by a large missile thrown from the Leicester end, whilst on 11th May (the same day of the fatal Bradford City stand fire which claimed the lives of 56 spectators) a 15 year old Birmingham City fan was killed when a wall was pushed over by rioting Leeds fans. The 1984/85 season ended with live pictures of crushed corpses being laid outside the venue of the European Cup final between Liverpool and Juventus at Heysel Stadium in Belgium, 39 people were killed after a wall collapsed under the pressure of fans trying to escape from violent clashes on the terraces. English fans were inevitably blamed whilst TV football pundits back home called for the return of National Service. All English clubs were banned from European competitions for the rest of the decade.
With professional football now synonymous with hooliganism and unsafe grounds, attendance's collapsed to new lows. Unthinkable as it is today, football in England in 1985 was thought to be on it's last legs, there were even calls for the sport to be banned altogether. Luton Town, chaired by a government MP, took the drastic measure of introducing a home fans only policy with an ID card required at the turnstiles. Television companies inevitably grew weary and for the first half of 1985/86 there was no televised football whatsoever. A relatively successful and trouble free England World Cup campaign in Mexico during the summer months of 1986 had the desired effect of relaxing the furrowed brow on the face of English football and, as the game began to re-build its' reputation, occasional regional highlights specials popped up throughout the rest of the decade, mostly in mid-week slots - which is where Central Sports Special first appeared*.

*Central Sports Special normally concerned itself with football and boxing, it was first seen in either 1988 or 89 and normally went out late Tuesday/Wednesday nights (the title was also used for very rare Sunday afternoon highlights). The regular football commentator on this show was Alan Parry, Jimmy Greaves was usually involved (either co-commentating or offering his opinions in the studio) whilst the main presenter appeared to be Bob Hall (although Gary Newbon and Tony Francis may have also presented). Most other regions stuck with Midweek Sports Special networked from London and presented by Jim Rosenthal, Granada were one of the other regions who regularly opted out with Granada Soccer Night (they now had Clive Tildesley as their regular commentator).

*The Midlands live show was called The Central Match Live, Alan Parry was the regular commentator and the programme was usually presented by Tony Francis alongside Jimmy Greaves in the studio whilst Gary Newbon could now be seen interviewing managers and players in the tunnel. Regular co-commentators included John Sillett, Trevor Francis and Ron Atkinson. The eight Central teams in the 2nd tier in 1992/93 were; Notts County, Derby County, Leicester City, Birmingham City, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Oxford United, Swindon Town and Peterborough United (the latter two being shared with HTV and Anglia respectively). LWT also regularly screened a match (as they had five teams in the 2nd tier) whilst Tyne Tees had access to both Newcastle United and Sunderland. Granada only had Tranmere Rovers playing in the 2nd tier at the time, so they were probably among the stations who rarely bothered. Central's selection of 2nd tier clubs increased in 1993/94 when Nottingham Forest were relegated from the Premier League and Stoke City & West Bromwich Albion came up from the 3rd.

ITV football, the late 1990's to Today
Regrettably, pay channel SKY SPORTS won live broadcast rights to all leagues from the 1996/97 season and that was the end of free-to-air live league games. Now focussing on the European Champions League, ITV showed little interest in domestic league highlights which, around the turn of the millennium, were aired in the dead of Monday night/Tuesday morning before all regions* adopted their own variation of the lunch time show Soccer Sunday from 2000/01, this was also the season in which ITV snatched highlights of the Premiership from the BBC and gained live rights to the other divisions which ITV would show on their new digital ITV Sport channel. Yet both the Premiership highlights (initially broadcast by ITV at 7pm on Saturdays) and the live matches from the lower tiers (Thursday nights and early Sunday evenings on the new digital channel) failed to attract the viewing figures ITV had anticipated. The Premiership highlights show had to be switched back to a more traditional slot of 10:30pm in November whilst the ITV Sport channel was closed down for good at the end of the season. ITV's reputation among football fans was now in tatters with many lower league clubs soon blaming their financial difficulties on the failure to recoup outstanding payments from Carlton and Granada (the parent companies of the ITV Sport Channel). From 2004/05 season the regional variations of Soccer Sunday were dropped and replaced by a networked show called The Championship broadcast on Sunday mornings which concentrated on the 2nd tier rather than clubs of local interest (ITV Wales were the one exception as they continued to produce their own show)**. By this time the football experience had become almost unrecognisable from the spectacle covered by Star Soccer in the 1970's.

*Back on the 1st January 1993, further changes to the ITV map occurred when Thames lost their franchise to Carlton Television, Westcountry TV took over from TSW and Meridian replaced TVS. Rules regarding cross ownership within the network were then relaxed which resulted in Granada and Carlton swallowing up most of the other franchise holders towards the end of the decade, Carlton even took the decision to rebrand their acquisitions under their own name (including Central). In October 2002 the ITV regions were effectively killed off in favour of rebranding the entire network as "ITV1", a very sad day.

**From 2009/10 ITV were no longer be able to send cameras to any league football match as the broadcast rights switched to the BBC, it was the first season since 1987/88 that BBC cameras were allowed to record league matches from the 2nd, 3rd and 4th tiers.

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