BBC assembles England XI to overwhelm ITV at Euro 2024
Rooney, Lampard and Hart part of corporation’s line-up Spurs manager Postecoglou signs up for terrestrial rivals
The BBC will field a dozen former England footballers as presenters and pundits for the European Championship after announcing Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard and Joe Hart as part of its line-up.
The corporation will send twice as many former England players as ITV to Germany for this summer’s finals, potentially raising questions about value for money for licencefee payers and impartiality.
Joining Rooney, Lampard and Hart as pundits will be major-tournament regular Rio Ferdinand, alongside BBC stalwarts Alan Shearer, Micah Richards, Jermaine Jenas, Danny Murphy and Martin Keown, as well as record England women scorer Ellen White. Presenters Gary Lineker and Alex Scott complete an entire England starting XI plus one substitute.
In stark contrast, ITV has axed one England player from its 2022 World Cup line-up in the shape of Joe Cole, while sticking with Gary Neville, Ian Wright, Lee Dixon, Andros Townsend, Karen Carney and Eni Aluko.
The BBC has hired just one former Scotland player in co-commentator James Mcfadden, although they have recruited fellow Scot David Moyes, the recently departed West Ham United manager, as one of its pundits.
ITV has just one ex-scotland player in Graeme Souness, who is reunited with former Sky Sports colleagues Neville and Roy Keane.
In terms of current Premier League managers, the BBC has landed Brentford’s Thomas Frank, with ITV securing Tottenham Hotspur’s Ange Postecoglou.
Elsewhere, Cesc Fabregas will be back in the BBC punditry chair along with Ashley Williams, while ITV’S line-up will include Sheffield Wednesday manager Danny Rohl and refereeing analyst Christina Unkel. Laura Woods is set to resume presenting duties for the latter network following the freak accident that forced her to miss TNT Sports’ coverage of Oleksandr Usyk’s undisputed heavyweight title triumph over Tyson Fury on Saturday.
ITV’S Euro 2024 coverage will be anchored again by Mark Pougatch.