Ford Monday Night Football

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ford Monday Night Football (or MNF) was a programme on Sky Sports which broadcast live English football (generally from the Premier League) between August 1992 and May 2007. Richard Keys presented the show from its inception, but stepped down in the beginning of the 2003/04 season. Ian Payne soon took over, a year after leaving the BBC, and Jeff Stelling was the presenter during its final season. The show ended after the 2006-2007 season, as the package for liver Premier League action on Monday's was won by Setanta Sports during the most recent bidding process.

[edit] Formats

The show had a number of different formats after its launch. The first change led to the merging of Andy Gray's Boot Room format into the show; analysing the previous weekends football matches utilising the latest computer technology. As the UEFA Champions League gained in importance for Premier League clubs, the number of games played on Monday night declined. Sky Sports then reverted to a format similar to that of Ford Super Sunday with a presenter (Jeff Stelling) and studio guests.

In 2004-05, the analysis section was then incorporated into an additional programme shown after Ford Super Sunday called Ford Super Sunday: The Last Word.

[edit] After MNF

Following the loss of exclusive Premier League live coverage, Sky was faced with gaps in its schedules. The Saturday early evening kick-off match was replaced with Saturday Night Football showing a match from the Championship and Monday Night Football was replaced with Monday Night Live which featured speedway instead of live football for the first few weeks of the 2007-08 football season.