BBC victory over Argentina match

THE BBC has pulled off a major coup by winning the TV battle over the World Cup crunch match between England and Argentina.

It is another blow for presenter Des Lynam, who defected to ITV two and a half years ago because he felt the BBC was not committed enough to football.

The Group F match on 7 June in Sapporo will be televised live exclusively on the BBC and be presented by Lynam's replacement, Gary Lineker.

The BBC will also show England's third game, against Nigeria on 12 June.

ITV hopes to offset the loss of the Argentina game by showing England's first match against Sweden on Sunday 2 June. That kicks off at 10.30am and ITV believes this could bring in a massive audience.

The Sunday morning slot is more attractive to advertisers than the Argentina match, which kicks off at 12.30pm on a Friday.

The TV battle over who would show which England match has been a fierce one.

Originally, the BBC wanted to show all the games in a head-to- head with ITV.

Traditionally, World Cup group games involving England had been split between the two companies.

But the BBC did not want to miss out on the Argentina game, clearly the jewel in the crown of the first round matches, as it did at the 1998 World Cup.

Then, ITV had exclusive rights and pulled in a huge audience of 23 million - the biggest ever in Britain for a sporting event.

However, ITV was reluctant to go head-to-head against the BBC for this year's World Cup.

Whenever this has happened in the past with major events, the BBC audience has beaten ITV's by two to one, so a deal was struck.

The BBC will also be delighted that it has won the right to show regular peak- time highlights, another ratings winner.

In return ITV has won the rights for two of the Republic of Ireland's games to the BBC's one.

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