ITV Sport has unveiled its squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia along with its plans for covering the tournament, featuring a star-studded on-screen line-up of some of football’s biggest names ahead of the big kick-off.
Joining lead presenter Mark Pougatch on the plane to Moscow to lend their experience and expertise to ITV’s coverage will be former England defender Gary Neville, alongside regular pundits Ryan Giggs, Roy Keane, Ian Wright and Lee Dixon.
Joining the ITV team for the duration of the tournament will be England women’s striker Eniola Aluko, former French international Patrice Evra, Celtic and Sweden legend Henrik Larsson, Republic of Ireland manager Martin O’Neill, former Croatia and West Ham boss Slaven Bilic and Euro 2016 final referee Mark Clattenburg.
Live TV coverage of the tournament in the UK begins exclusively on ITV with the opening ceremony at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, followed by the opening match between hosts Russia and Saudi Arabia on Thursday, 14 June.
ITV will have a studio base overlooking St Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow’s Red Square, where it will broadcast its live games and regular highlights shows, bringing home to fans the impact of the tournament in front of one of Russia’s most iconic backdrops.
The team will also criss-cross the vast expanse of the country to deliver build-up, live coverage and analysis of some games from in and around the stadia in the various host locations to give viewers a taste of the tournament.
ITV has launched its promotional trail for the tournament, which encourages fans to ‘forget the past’ reflecting on the victory in 1966 and subsequent tournament failures which have both burdened with expectation and haunted the England team and fans for decades, and their preconceptions, and to focus on the potential for glory this time.
A number of mouth-watering fixtures from the opening stages of the tournament will be shown on ITV, including all three of Brazil’s group games, as well as England’s final group match against Belgium.
ITV will have first and second pick of the round of 16, with England’s match set to feature among those selections should they qualify, and first pick of the semi-finals.
Both ITV and BBC, who will share live coverage of all 64 World Cup matches, will show the final.
In total, ITV Sport will broadcast 23 matches from the group stages live on ITV and ITV4 and 32 games in total will be broadcast by the free-to-air commercial broadcaster during Russia 2018.
Fans can watch all of ITV’s live games and on the go via the ITV Hub, online via itv.com/hub or on the app, and keep up to date with all the latest tournament news, video and match highlights on ITV’s 2018 World Cup website – itv.com/worldcup.
Viewers will be able to watch and engage with ITV’s World Cup coverage at any time with ITV Sport’s digital offering, which is bigger and better than ever before.
For the first time, ITV has teamed up with global social influencers with a combined reach of more than 17 million followers, The F2, to recreate some of the tournament’s iconi cmoments, including great goals, pieces of skill and famous celebrations that can be seen on our social channels in the lead up to the big kick-off in Russia.
The F2 will then recreate some of the best moments from the 2018 World Cup during the tournament.
An ITV World Cup podcast will also be available throughout the tournament. Ten episodes will be made available, each of them will be hosted by presenters Mark Pougatch and Jacqui Oatley who will be joined by special guests, including ITV pundits and leading football journalists.
ITV’s Twitter account @itvfootball will feature all the goals and key moments of our live broadcast games just seconds after they happen and viewers will be able to watch short highlights of every match on ITV’s dedicated FIFA World Cup site –itv.com/worldcup– which will also include all the latest news and stats.
There will also be a short-round up video on every match day, including all the goals, funny moments, comments from our pundits, more action from The F2 and classic moments from previous tournaments. If you missed anything from any day at the World Cup then this show has you covered on the ITV Hub and on the official ITV Sport YouTube channel.
Commenting on ITV’s World Cup coverage, Niall Sloane, ITV Director of Sport, said:
“Excitement is building for what we hope will be a great World Cup.
“We have put together a terrific team of pundits who will provide their expertise, insight and unique perspective to bring the tournament to life for our viewers.
“Our coverage, which kicks off with the opening game, will bring you the very best action and analysis from Russia.”
Which channel will be showing which World Cup matches? Full details of the ITV Sport’s live matches on ITV and ITV4 can be found below, or visit SOTB’s dedicated FIFA World Cup listings page for the full BBC and ITV match schedule.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorised as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyse and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
