ROY KEANE and Gary Neville are among the stellar names set to feature as part of ITV’s coverage of the Euros this summer.
The broadcaster will be showing live games and highlights packages on ITV and ITV4, and announced its punditry line-up today.
A press release confirmed: “Led by main presenters Mark Pougatch and Seema Jaswal, as well as Reshmin Chowdhury, ITV’s Euros squad will offer a wealth of insight, expertise and opinion from a punditry line-up of Ian Wright, Roy Keane, Gary Neville, Patrick Vieira, Graeme Souness, Ashley Cole, Eni Aluko, Robert Earnshaw, Emma Hayes, Nigel de Jong, John Collins, Joe Ledley, Nadia Nadim, Scott Brown and Andros Townsend.
“Commentary will come from Sam Matterface, Clive Tyldesley, Joe Speight, Seb Hutchinson and Tom Gayle, supported by co-commentators Lee Dixon, Ally McCoist and John Hartson.
“ITV will once again employ a referee analyst with former elite referee Peter Walton on hand to explain and clarify key decisions.
“Reporting during the tournament, which is uniquely hosted in 11 cities across the continent, will be Gabriel Clarke, Michelle Owen and Raman Bhardwaj.
“ITV will exclusively show 27 live games in a packed schedule beginning with a group stage that includes the two evening England group stage games – the hotly anticipated clash with Scotland at Wembley in a re-match of the memorable Euro 1996 match, as well as the final group match against the Czech Republic.
“The first weeks of the Euros on ITV will also bring viewers the showdown between world champions France and Germany, Wales v Italy, Scotland’s final group game v Croatia, current European champions Portugal v Germany as well as matches involving European giants Spain, the Netherlands and many people’s favourites, the star-studded Belgium side.”
Take a look at @ITV's team for Euro 2020 🙌⬇️
— ITV Football (@itvfootball) May 24, 2021
Rival broadcaster the BBC, meanwhile, confirmed their punditry team for the tournament last week, with Cesc Fabregas, Thierry Henry and Alan Shearer among those set to feature.
However, Irish broadcaster RTE has yet to officially announce who will be part of their line-up.
The Euros will take place this summer, starting on 11 June and finishing on 11 July.
BBC – Thierry Henry, Fabregas and Alan Shearer -an absolute snooze fest
@Ronan O Connor: Fr. Stone had also been lined up for the knockout stages!
@T Dawg: Fr Stone. Blast from the past. Lol.
Can’t wait for Roy Keane to sow it into England after they go out in the quarter finals
@Eoin Fitzgerald: i preferred it the first 5 times he did it. His rants can be funny but he’s poor pundit in my opinion, Little tactical insight, overly negative and its obvious he doesn’t do much research. On the flipside Neville’s forensic analysis of everything to the enth degree can get a bit old too. There’s a great interview with Brian Clough about pundits from the 80′s and robbing people of their ability to form their own insights and opinions about the game. I’m beginning to agree with him more and more as time goes on. Most of them are at best boring, at worst infuriating, and very few justify not going out to make the tae at half time.
@Fred spins kdb: I get the impression that there is no such thing a good pundit for you. If they’re analytic that’s not good. If they speak their mind, that’s not good either. I must say I like roy Keane as a pundit. I actually enjoy listening to what he has to say. Speaks the truth whether people like it or not.
@Eoin Fitzgerald: maybe you are right. I think Carragher is good.Neville is way too preachy and believing of his own hype these days for me. I get the sense he believes he is the man who single handedly took down to the super league, as if working for sky sports is no way connected to gouging money from the everyday football fan. I think Roy can be a good listen to at times, but he doesn’t have much to offer in terms of genuine insight, he kind of lost me with his ‘everyone who can trap the ball is an international these days’. Tearing the back off players becomes kind of less edgy and more boring and predictable if you are doing it all time.
@Eoin Fitzgerald: think Brian Kerr is good aswell. Unreal knowledge and engaging speaker.
I’m guessing RTE still has all the euro games yeah?? Even though we didn’t qualify
@Aidan: Yeah they do with Richie Sadlier, Kevin Doyle and Damien Duff.
@Eoin Fitzgerald: what a bore ! ITV for me
@Gary O: RTE panel hasn’t been the same since Liam, Johnny and Dunphy left (Didi too, hopefully he can back after pandemic)
@Eoin Fitzgerald: agreed 100%