Former Tottenham managers Ange Postecoglou and Thomas Frank will go head to head in the TV studio this summer as rival World Cup pundits. The Guardian has learned that Frank has signed a deal with BBC Sport as one of their main analysts, with Postecoglou having agreed to work for ITV.
The BBC is also understood to have added former Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud to their regular punditry panel that includes Wayne Rooney, Joe Hart and Alan Shearer, with ITV recruiting Andros Townsend to join Gary Neville, Ian Wright and Roy Keane.
Frank has not spoken publicly since being sacked by Tottenham in February so his first appearance on the BBC should make compelling viewing, particularly for the club’s fans. The 52-year-old won 13 out of 38 games in charge at Spurs after seven successful years at Brentford, with his win ratio of 34.2% the worst of any permanent manager in the club’s history, although the dismal record of his successor Igor Tudor, who lost five and drew one match in 44 days as interim manager, has put the Dane’s struggles in context. Postecoglou has also kept his silence since a disastrous 39-day spell at Nottingham Forest ended with his dismissal just 20 minutes after a home defeat by Chelsea in October.
The BBC and ITV share UK rights for the World Cup, although the only game they will both broadcast live will be the final on 19 July. Following pre-tournament negotiations with their rivals, the BBC has gambled by opting to have more first-pick games in the knockout stages, giving ITV guaranteed coverage of England games earlier in the tournament.
ITV will show England’s first game against Croatia on 17 June and their final group game against Panama, as well as their quarter final if Thomas Tuchel’s side reach that stage of the competition. The BBC will have live coverage of England’s second group game against Ghana and their knockout fixtures in the last 32, last 16 and semi-finals, as well as two of Scotland’s group matches against Haiti and Brazil in their first World Cup appearance since 1998. The BBC will broadcast 54 games and ITV 51, with all of the tournament’s 104 matches available live.
As a commercial broadcaster, ITV’s budget for the tournament is believed to be far greater than the BBC’s, as is demonstrated by the fact that they have booked a studio in Brooklyn with views of the Manhattan skyline for the duration of the tournament. ITV will be basing all of its World Cup coverage, to be presented by Mark Pougatch and Laura Woods, from its New York studio, whereas the BBC team of Mark Chapman, Gabby Logan and Kelly Cates will be in their Salford studios until at least the quarter-finals.
The BBC’s decision to stay in the United Kingdom was based on a combination of financial and environmental factors, with the corporation committed to limiting air travel in an attempt to reduce its carbon footprint. The expansion of the World Cup to 48 teams and 104 matches, from 32 and 64 respectively, and Fifa’s decision to stage it in the United States, Canada and Mexico have significantly affected cost and travel logistics, playing a big role in the BBC’s thinking.
The BBC historically achieves better ratings than ITV when the two go head-to-head, gaining a peak audience of 15 million for the 2022 final between Argentina and France, compared with ITV’s 4.3m.
The BBC and ITV both declined to comment ahead of planned launches of their World Cup coverage next week.
