- On the Ball
"On the Ball" refers to two
football (soccer) relatedtelevision shows, one in the UK & the other inAustralia .United Kingdom
"On the Ball" is the weekly Saturday lunchtime football round-up shown as part of "World of Sport" on
ITV for many years until1985 . It was initially fronted by Brian Moore and later byIan St John andJimmy Greaves , who fronted a continuation of the show under the titleSaint and Greavsie until1992 . The show then disappeared but ITV occasionally broadcast a Champions League show at Saturday lunchtimes.The show was revived from the beginning of the 1998/99 season, presented by
Gabby Logan , initially co-presented byBarry Venison . The programme was quietly dropped whenITV Sport lost the rights to Premiership highlights toBBC Sport .The show was long-term rival to
Football Focus on theBBC , which has also been a long-running Saturday lunchtime preview and round-up show.Australia
In Australia, this was a talk show that aired from around
1984 until2002 on SBS when it was replaced with "The World Game ". It was mainly hosted by Les Murray &Johnny Warren , but were often joined by other hosts & analysts, includingStephanie Brantz &Francis Awaritefe amongst others. It was well-known for promoting the game of football in Australia & endorsing candidates for the Socceroos coaching job & for the board ofSoccer Australia (since replaced by theFootball Federation Australia ).References
* [http://www.tv-ark.org.uk/sport/sport-itv.html On the Ball at tv-ark.org (incorporated into the "World of Sport" feature)]
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