UEFA Euro 2012

Might be a UEFA thing. I guess it more enhanced the MOTD rather than their coverage of the tournament.

The MOTD branding I think came into play from 2002 when the Premiership rights were lost. I guess it isn't so required now.

(I do wish though they'd revive the Olympic Grandstand branding for the Olympics - if TOTP can air every Christmas why can't they use the Grandstand name every couple of years!)

I'll correct you before Steve Williams does.

Ah - but the Match of the Day branding was only used for the highlights shows in 1998. The live matches were billed as World Cup 98 Live

My apologies then. There is a Euro 2000 one with the MOTD logo on it as well. Not sure if it was used on live games or just the highlights.

Yeah . . . it was used on live games as well during Euro 2000. Although ISTR you could hardly make it out.

I always thought things like 'World Cup 2002 Match of the Day Live' was a bit of a mouthful, even though it was only really referred to as such in listings magazines.

I wouldn't be surprised if the word Match of the Day is in the titles, unless there is some new UEFA guidelines to prevent it.

I guess by Euro 2000 it had probably been announced the BBC would lose Premiership Highlights after the following season, so it might have been a last minute branding exercise.

Well I know it was ahead of the Beeb's final season, so that may be the case. The set for that tournament was used for the next season's Match of the Day, can't find any footage of it though.

Grandstand and Football Focus were also in that set for a while, after the Sydney Olympics until everything changed in August 2001.

ISTR the announcement that the BBC were losing Saturday-night Match of the Day came mid-way through Euro 2000 - Gary Lineker referred to it at the end of one of the live matches. I suppose the BBC may well have had a 'heads-up' beforehand though.

Actually I think the highlights programmes that year might have actually been branded as MotD@Euro 2000.

Ah, the good old @ sign - feels so #retro now.

They were indeed. The announcement they'd lost the rights came on the Wednesday of the first week, they had a live match that day and Gary Lineker announced it at the start like a concerned doctor. It took the Beeb by surprise as well, they thought they'd won it before ITV offered £20 million more the night before. Of course the Beeb's studio was in Amsterdam but you're right to say they used the same set for their football coverage that season. I wondered why they bothered to change it for one season.

It is still billed as Match of the Day on the EPG.