England’s ‘ITV curse’ defined as Three Lions face worst-case Euro 2024 destiny

England are poised to secure a favourable Round of 16 match against one of the top third-placed teams at Euro 2024 – if they can overcome both the ‘ITV curse’ and Slovenia.

The Three Lions are heading into Tuesday night’s (June 25) Group C climax in pole position after racking up four points. Despite facing criticism for lacklustre performances against Serbia and Denmark, Gareth Southgate’s squad have already secured their spot in the tournament’s knockout stage following favourable results on Monday.

A win in Cologne against Slovenia will set England up against a third-placed team in the next round. However, if England end up in second place, they could face host nation Germany in their subsequent match.

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To add to the drama, Tuesday night’s crucial game will be broadcast on ITV – a channel that has historically been unlucky for England in major tournaments.

According to The Sun, since 1998, England has only managed to win seven out of the 30 matches aired on ITV. This includes 13 draws and 10 losses, one of which was the quarter-final defeat to France at the 2022 World Cup, reports the Mirror.

In contrast, England has a stellar record on the BBC, who also cover the tournament. The Three Lions have triumphed in 20 of their 29 matches shown on the BBC during the same period, including the recent 1-0 victory over Serbia.

The Rest is Entertainment podcast has given fans a behind-the-scenes look at how the BBC and ITV divvy up coverage of the Euros. Co-host Marina Hyde revealed: “ITV and the BBC share out games at the Euros and, in fact, all tournaments. They take it in turns to pick matches but this time around it was ITV’s turn to pick first.

2You can choose anything right from the start, it’s like a draft. But they thought, ‘Okay, we’ll do semi-final pick one because we think England will do well in this tournament’, so when the semi-final line-up is decided, ITV will get to choose the first choice of that, hopefully with England in it.”

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“So, the BBC then counter with their next pick – and this is what happened in the room, we’re giving you the inside track here – they countered with quarter-final pick one.

“So then ITV are like, ‘Right, what’s next? Honestly, it’s like game theory.

“So then [ITV] go, ‘We’re going to do the Round of 16 first pick because that’s not a risky choice, England’s group is manageable and they’re going to get out of it so this is worth it’.

‘”The BBC then go, right, England v Serbia, that is 8pm Sunday night, maximum possible audience, we’ll have that.

“ITV next, England v Slovenia. That’s also a peak-time game but that’s the third match in the group, so if England have already qualified it could be dead.

“It could really be a knockout if England haven’t done well so really they’ve got to have that. Then the BBC took the one remaining England game, that was 5pm on a Thursday.

“But then the big dilemma: ITV could have had the second semi-final at this stage and are sitting there thinking, ‘What do we do’, because the BBC will be sort of shut out for the final week of the tournament until the actual final. But if England have already gone then the interest level is gone.

So ITV then said we’ll have game one of the whole tournament, which is Germany against Scotland, a home nation, which is peak time on a Friday night. That paid off brilliantly for them because so many people watched that”.