Laura Woods is ITV’s main presenter for Euro 2024, but fans will be hoping they stay away from England’s fixtures (Photo: Getty)
England kick-off their Euro 2024 campaign tonight against Serbia, as the quest to bring football home begins.
As per usual, the BBC and ITV are showing every game from the tournament live over the next month, with the former getting things underway for the Three Lions in Gelsenkirchen.
This will be a relief for fans as over the years it has been noted that the national team perform way better when on the Beeb as opposed to their advert-heavy rivals, with some even claiming that ITV’s coverage is cursed.
But is there any logic behind this? Metro has crunched the numbers and worked out that Gareth Southgate’s side should indeed avoid Laura Woods and Mark Pougatch at all costs…
ITV’s England record
Since the 1998 World Cup, 30 England matches at major tournaments have been broadcast live on ITV and shockingly, only eight on them have ended in victory for the Three Lions.
This gives the broadcaster a win-percentage of just 26.6%, with the remaining results being 10 draws and 12 losses.
Many of the country’s lowest moments were shown on ITV, including the heartbreaking defeats to France and Croatia at the last two World Cups and the humiliating Euro 2016 exit to Iceland.
England’s humiliating Euro 2016 exit was live on ITV (Photo: Getty)
Going back further, they brought us the World Cup penalty shootout losses to Portugal and Argentina, both of which occurred after England’s star player was sent off – Wayne Rooney in 2006 and David Beckham in 1998.
BBC’s England record
The Beeb’s form when it comes to England games is far, far better with 19 wins out of 27 over the same time period.
That’s a win-percentage of 70.3% for Gary Lineker and co. who have overseen just one draw and seven losses.
Both broadcasters showed the Euro 2020 penalty heartbreak (Photo: Getty)
It’s not all good news though, with the BBC still showing some terrible results over the years including the embarrassing 4-1 defeat to Germany at World Cup 2010.
Both broadcasters showed the Euro 2020 final defeat to Italy on penalties.
Which England games will the BBC and ITV show at Euro 2024?
The BBC will show England’s opening two games against Serbia on Sunday, 16 June and Denmark on Thursday, 20 June.
It’s then over to ITV for their final game of Group C against Slovenia on Tuesday, 25 June.
As ever, Gary Lineker will front the BBC’s coverage (Photo: Getty)
Additionally, ITV broadcasted the opening game of the tournament last Friday between hosts Germany and Scotland, while the BBC will show the rest of the Tartan Army’s Group A fixtures against Switzerland and Hungary.
As for the knockouts, ITV have first dibs on what games to show in the round-of-16 and semi-finals, so history dictates that one of those will likely spell the end for the Three Lions, while BBC will get priority on the quarter-finals.
As ever, both will show the final in Berlin on Sunday, 14 July.
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