How Arsenal blazed TV trail, jostling for airtime with cartoons and smut | Scott Murray

Arsenal’s match against Dinamo Zagreb goes out on the 78th anniversary of their involvement in the first ever live match, one of several initial false dawns before football’s TV ascendance

Arsenal are on the telly on Wednesday night. Some things never change. As the Gunners take to the airwaves to play Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League, it is 78 years to the day since they took part in the world’s first-ever live televised football match. Happy anniversary, everyone.

The BBC’s selection of Arsenal as the first team to feature on its newfangled Television Service was a simple matter of geography and convenience. The newly refurbished Arsenal Stadium was the closest ground to the BBC’s Alexandra Palace HQ – Highbury had been the venue for its first-ever radio commentary, too, a 1-1 draw with Sheffield United 10 years earlier – and there was a ready-made gantry for cameras in the state-of-the-art East Stand.

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