FIFA World Cups

Posts Tagged ‘Commentary Team’

England fans hoping to watch this weekend’s World Cup qualifier in Ukraine on Saturday are going to be unhappy that it is going to be shown exclusively live to subscribers on the internet who will pay around £5.00 for the privilege.

Kentaro, the agency appointed by the Ukrainian Football Federation originally sold the UK rights for the game to Setanta, but after the pay-TV firm collapsed, digital sport specialist Perform was appointed to stream the match online. The match will be shown on the website www.ukrainevengland.com and viewers will be able to subscribe to it using PayPal.

It’s believed that none of the traditional broadcasters were willing to pay the asking price to screen the game which kicks off at 5.15pm on Saturday. ITV has the rights to England home games and has taken over Setanta’s broadcast rights for away friendlies. However their deal does not cover away qualifying games, and neither the BBC, ITV, Sky nor Channel Five made a successful bid for the match.

Peter Silverstone, MD of Kentaro, said: “You will watch as you would any other streaming on the internet, like YouTube or the BBC iPlayer”, “There will be a pop-up player that will show the match in a very good quality stream.”

A “top commentary team” has been promised for the game, which is understood to include Notts County Director of Football Sven-Goran Eriksson (but probably not Sol Campbell!)

Odeon cinemas will show the game live at 11 venues around the country, including the flagship cinema at Leicester Square, but the match will not be available in pubs, so another traditional venue for England’s supporters is out of the window.

Football Association spokesman Adrian Bevington said his organisation “would obviously like to see the game broadcast to as many people as possible” but insisted the matter was out of the FA’s hands.

England have already qualified for the 2010 World cup in South Africa by winnning all 8 of their games

However you like to watch your England games, there’s a huge range of England souvenirs, and gifts for football fans of all ages, at affordable prices available at footballbits football souvenirs