FORTY years since the first World Cup was screened in colour, almost 90 households in York are set to watch the 2010 tournament in good old black and white, it was revealed today.

TV Licensing says next Monday will mark the 40th anniversary of a transformation in TV coverage of sport, as Mexico 1970 was broadcast in colour.

But now, as millions across the UK gear up to watch this year’s tournament on some of the latest technology, including Freeview HD, streamlined online and on mobile phone, it says 87 homes in York are among 25,000 across the country who still have black and white TV licences - just as in 1966, when England last won the cup.

John Motson, football commentator since the 1970s, said: “Colour television had only been introduced two or three years before I joined, and many of the techniques that now entail merely the push of a button had not yet been developed. I still have memories of trying to pacify angry viewers in the 1970s who still watched black and white, and saying ‘for the benefit of those watching in black and white, Spurs is in the yellow shirts.’”