Match of the Day Running Order

Every week people are always complaining about the match of the day game slots. If you are a fan of Norwich, of course you want to see Norwich play first, however how likely is this going to happen unless they have had a particularly exciting game?

It must be very difficult to chose the order of the games as do they make the show as if it were to be played to a complete neutral, or do they show 'bigger' teams such as the Manchester's, Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs, Liverpool first as these teams, like it or not, have a much larger following. Do they show a boring 1-0 win that has a huge significance on the title or relegation or a 4-3 victory from one mid table team over another that has absolutely no significance on anything. The tricky part is, different people are going to have very different opinions.

Here is what I feel the most important choices should be:
1. Number of goals (entertainment value) - this is what football is all about, even if the game didn't have much significance, we watch the show as we love football and we love goals.
2. Title clash - Secondly, games that have a big impact on the title such as a clash between two highly placed teams or an upsetting of the big team.
3. Six pointers - similar to the above but here I am referring to relegation battles. They may not be between the 'big' teams but they are usually very exciting.

I would not take in to account whether the team were the champions last season or how many fans they have, although often the big teams are the ones involved in the title clashes which is probably why many people complain that Manchester Utd. are "always shown first." However, this season they have still often been shown first despite the fact that they are 14 points off the top, not a team you would say who were challenging for the title, so perhaps the BBC do look at how big the team is and how many of their viewers are Utd. fans.

Looking at purely the fixtures over the next two days and taking in to account my points 2 and 3 as point one would obviously have to wait until after the games, the order would be something like:

1. Tottenham V Manchester City
2. Liverpool V Everton
3. Southampton V Arsenal
4. Sunderland V Stoke
5. Swansea V Fulham
6. Palace V Hull
7. Manchester Utd. V Cardiff
8. Aston Villa V West Brom
9. Chelsea V West Ham
10. Norwich V Newcastle

The actual results could change a lot in my order however, such as if West Ham upset Chelsea, that game would go straight up much nearer the top or if the Norwich V Newcastle game finishes 4-4 that would be far higher up. Similarly if the potentially exciting clashes of Spurs V City and the local Merseyside derby actually end up being dull, they could slide much further down as well.

Many people would not agree with the order I have given now without even seeing the results such as Newcastle, Chelsea or Manchester Utd. fans, this shows just how difficult it must be to chose the order every week and why people will still be complaining about the running order for a long time to come.