Some more World Cup 2010 facts for you

The FA has released the timeline of England’s World Cup preparations.


Capello will name what’s expected to be a 28 man provisional squad on May 16th, for a training camp in Irdning, Austria, why Austria? I’m not 100% sure, but my guess would be some sort of altitude acclimatization.
There will also be two friendly games: England vs Mexico at Wembley, possibly May 24th, plus: England vs Japan in Graz, Austria on May 30th. The actual England 23 man World Cup squad will then be named on June 1st before the squad travels to South Africa on June 2nd.

Here’s the timeline:

Sunday 9 May – Final day of the Premier League
Saturday 15 May – The FA Cup Final
Sunday 16 May – Austria squad announcement
Monday 17 May – Players meet and travel to Austria
Saturday 22 May – Champions League Final
Monday 24 May – England v Mexico, at Wembley Stadium
Date TBC – Squad will travel back to Austrian training camp
Sunday 30 May – Japan v England, 2.15pm, UPC-Arena in Graz. Following this match, squad returns to England
Tuesday 1 June – World Cup squad announcement
Wednesday 2 June – England players and staff meet and travel from London to South Africa
Thursday 3 June – England team arrive in South Africa

ITV to show first two England matches in South Africa

ITV and BBC have carved up the World Cup matches between them, and have come to an interesting agreement. ITV will show England’s opening two matches (as well as the opening match of the World Cup alltogether) in exchange for the first two knockout round matches (should England progress that far) which will be shown on BBC.


So basically, ITV have taken the guaranteed ratings over the potential goldmine of ratings that a Last 16 or Quarter-Final could produce.

Should England make the Semi-Final both sides will show the game, and both sides will show the final, regardless of who makes it.

 As a general rule, I don’t think there is much to chose between the coverage of the two sides – it depends on who they get in to do the punditry. In the past BBC have had the brilliance of Leonardo and Gordon Strachan, but they’ve also had Alan Shearer and Ian Wright. Meanwhile on ITV, they’ve had Terry Venables and Bobby Robson, but they’ve also had Teddy Sherringham and Ian Wright.

So we’ll have to wait and see. But it does make the WC feel closer already.




'Charo'
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