Television, Sponsorship & the Commercial Era
The History of Football
Chapter 8 · Television, Sponsorship & the Commercial Era
Football's First Real Broadcasts
The 1937 FA Cup Final, between Sunderland and Preston North End, was partially televised by the BBC on 1 May 1937. The first football match televised in full was a specially arranged friendly between Arsenal and Arsenal Reserves at Highbury, on 16 September 1937. The first FA Cup Final broadcast in full came the following year — Preston North End against Huddersfield Town, on 30 April 1938.
1966 and the Real Limits of Early Broadcasting
England's own 1966 World Cup Final victory at Wembley was watched by a huge television audience — but entirely in black and white. Colour television didn't reach British screens until BBC2 launched Europe's first scheduled colour broadcasts on 1 July 1967 — with championship tennis from Wimbledon, not football. The first colour football coverage came over two years later still: Match of the Day's first colour broadcast, presented by David Coleman, covered Liverpool against West Ham United on 15 November 1969.
The Real First Shirt Sponsor — and the FA's Awkward Response
Non-league Kettering Town became the first British club to wear a sponsor's name on their shirts, taking the field against Bath City with "Kettering Tyres" branding, under a real deal with a local tyre company. The FA immediately objected, ordering the wording removed. Kettering's own real workaround was to shorten it to "Kettering T" — with the club claiming, not entirely convincingly, that the T simply stood for "Town." Backed by lobbying from Bolton Wanderers and Derby County, the FA's own ban on shirt sponsorship was formally lifted in June 1977.
Liverpool and Hitachi, 1979: A Real, Honest Correction
Liverpool signed English football's first top-flight shirt sponsorship deal in the summer of 1979, with Japanese electronics company Hitachi — a partnership that lasted three seasons and coincided with two league championships, a European Cup, and two League Cups.
Questions to Sit With
Colour football coverage arrived over three years after colour television itself launched in Britain. What does that gap suggest about how new broadcast technology actually reaches a specific sport, rather than becoming available everywhere at once?
Kettering Town's real "Kettering T" workaround was a fairly transparent attempt to dodge a rule without breaking it outright. Do you think that kind of creative compliance helped or hurt their real case for getting the ban lifted the following year?
This chapter is the fourth in this course to find a real gap between who gets popular credit and who the historical record actually supports. Does noticing that pattern change how you'd want to verify any new "first" claim about football history you come across in future?
Quick Reference — Television, Sponsorship & the Commercial Era
- The first fully televised football match was Arsenal v Arsenal Reserves, 16 September 1937; the first fully televised FA Cup Final followed in 1938
- The 1966 World Cup Final was broadcast in black and white — colour football coverage in Britain didn't arrive until 15 November 1969
- Kettering Town's real 1976 "Kettering Tyres" shirt deal was banned by the FA, forcing the "Kettering T" workaround, before the ban was formally lifted in June 1977
- Liverpool signed English football's first top-flight shirt sponsorship (Hitachi, 1979), but Everton were actually first to wear a sponsored shirt in an official league match
What's Next
Next chapter: The Premier League Era & Modern Football's Globalization — the real 1992 breakaway that reshaped English football's own economics for good.