Football fans fear England could fall victim to the ITV curse tonight as they battle to reach the Euro 2020 finals against Italy.
The channel has a curious history of showing the Three Lions being dumped out of big tournaments, with only six wins broadcast on ITV since Euro 1996 compared to 17 on the BBC.
Millions are expected to tune into ITV at 8pm tonight as Gareth Southgate’s men face Denmark at Wembley in what could be England’s biggest game since 1966.
But superstitious football fans believe the Three Lions have already been given the kiss of death from ITV, despite the BBC’s terrestrial rival showing a 1 – 0 victory over the Czech Republic earlier in the tournament.
One man said on Twitter: ‘Oh well, it was fun while it lasted #CurseofITV.’
Another added: ‘If the bosses at ITV and Boris Johnson really care for the England team, they will announce that the semi-final will be shown by BBC and Gary Lineker.’
Football fans fear England could fall victim to the ITV curse tonight as they battle to reach the Euro 2020 finals against Italy. Pictured: Gary Lineker during England vs Germany
Millions are expected to tune into ITV (above) at 8pm tonight as Gareth Southgate’s men face Denmark at Wembley in what could be England’s biggest game since 1966
A third simply replied ‘We’re doomed’ when Lineker announced he was ‘passing the baton’ to ITV for the semi-final, saying: ‘I’m sure you’ll do your customary excellent job. Take us to the final.’
Others warned Britons ‘Nobody mention the #CurseofITV’ after it was announced England’s clash with Denmark will be exclusively shown on the channel.
Viewers attempting to watch an earlier France vs Switzerland game were previously left in the lurch after ITV Hub was hit by several technical issues.
Fans were met with ‘Page not loading’ and other error messages as they tried to load the stream, with others claiming play was frozen on a corner kick for 10 minutes.
Coverage of the Euros has so-far largely been screened on the BBC, with England securing wins over Croatia, Germany and Ukraine.
Should Gareth Southgate’s men dodge the so-called curse and reach the finals against Italy, the clash will be broadcast by both the BBC and ITV.
England’s ITV curse stems from the 1998 World Cup, when the Three Lions crashed out of the tournament against Argentina in Saint-Etienne, France.
Superstitious football fans believe the Three Lions have already been given the kiss of death from ITV
ITV has since screened slightly more World Cup or Euro clashes, yet it has a vastly inferior win record when compared to the BBC.
Losses broadcast by the terrestrial channel include England’s Euro 2000 loss against Portugal, and the devastating Croatia defeat in the 2018 World Cup semi-final.
ITV also showed the Euro 2016 clash with Iceland, which England lost 1 – 2.
Overall England have lost nine matches on ITV and drawn 11. In comparison to the BBC, England’s record reads as Won: 14 Drawn: 3 Lost: 3.
This gives England an impressive 70 per cent win rate on BBC, whereas on ITV it is a paltry 16.67 per cent.
Lineker and other BBC commentators celebrate a goal for England in the clash with Germany
Others warned Britons ‘Nobody mention the #CurseofITV’ after it was announced England’s clash with Denmark will be exclusively shown on the channel
It comes as England fans across the country are getting ready for tonight’s blockbuster Euro 2020 semi-final against Denmark at Wembley.
Gareth Southgate’s men face the Danes at 8pm with the winners going on to face Italy in the final on Sunday.
The nation is behind the Three Lions, with millions expected to tune in on TV, as well as 60,000 at the stadium.
Top tier tickets for the clash are being re-sold for up to £6,500 each on ‘touting’ websites, MailOnline has found.
However, the Danes are expected to provide a stern test, with the team riding a wave after the heart-wrenching collapse of Christian Eriksen in their first match.
And one Danish paper made reference to the Vikings this morning, writing: ‘We plundered you before, we’ll do it again.’
Are England cursed on ITV? Since World Cup ’98 the Three Lions have won just SIX of 25 tournament matches screened by the broadcaster
Sportsmail sifts back through the years to look into England’s screen time with ITV, and how the results have fallen…
Early dismay
Winding back to the 1998 World Cup, ITV got off to a bad start when it came to screening the Three Lions.
Hope, as always, was sky-high going into a tournament.
Regardless of the shape England find themselves in, the rosy-eyed hopefuls always have the lingering belief that football is, of course, coming home.
So, when World Cup ’98 rolled around, fans were happy to see a nice steady 2-0 win over Tunisia on the BBC get the ball rolling.
Times were good, and one strong result would topple into another, right? Wrong.
The Three Lions squared up against Romania, with the ITV cameras whirring away, and lost 2-1 under a cloud of uncertainty.
Since the 1998 World Cup, ITV have broadcast only four wins in tournament competitions
Morale had taken a hit and negativity had crept in oh so very quickly. So it was a welcome relief when the national side quickly returned to winning ways with a routine 2-0 victory over Colombia, screened on BBC.
As has become very common now in international tournaments, the bipolar nature of England on the big stage suggested another upset was in the offing. Despite things clicking into place, a hiccup was ready and waiting.
Passions were stirred as England came up against familiar old foe Argentina, with raw emotion willing the side on to do something special.
England would ultimately lose the game on penalties, as hope was swatted away at the death. The broadcaster for the match? You guessed it, ITV.
Big game bottling
Like all good broadcasters should, ITV are always keen to get the biggest and best England matches on their service for the nation to tune into.
That is what they’re in the industry for, of course, yet England always seem to come unstuck and add to what has become a rapidly mounting ITV record.
One only has to flick back through the various tournaments since France ’98 to pick out big matches and highlight England’s woes.
Take for example Euro 2000; ITV went straight in by getting their mitts all over England versus Portugal.
A nice tasty fixture which would cause a wave of hysteria if England got off to a sizzling start… yet a 3-2 defeat soon put paid to this.
The 2002 World Cup would offer an opportunity to make amends, yet the ominous record continued at full steam.
The Japan and South Korea World Cup, with its strange time-scheduling for UK viewers, saw the BBC take more than the lion’s share of fixtures.
In fact, ITV claimed only one match of England’s run… which happened to be a highly underwhelming opening 1-1 draw with Sweden.
A hugely important win over Argentina was beamed to the world by the BBC, along with a convincing victory over Denmark.
It seems that when ITV get the big games – either the stature of the opposition or the status of the game itself – England happen to bottle it.
At Euro 2004 ITV had the displeasure of showing the nation England’s 2-1 humbling by France, despite excitement being at an all-time high because of a certain mercurial teenager named Wayne Rooney.
Two years later, at the 2006 World Cup, the ITV hoodoo carried yet another draw with Sweden, this time 2-2, along with a goalless stalemate between the Three Lions and Portugal – which would see England eliminated on penalties.
ITV hosted England’s drab 0-0 against Scotland and will also show the Denmark clash
Two very tame and underwhelming draws followed at the 2010 South Africa World Cup under ITV’s watch, against the USA and Algeria respectively.
When the stakes were high at the 2014 World Cup, England wilted against Uruguay as ITV producers squinted from behind covered faces.
The small matter of Iceland at Euro 2016 – the one game England were absolutely certain to win, yet didn’t – naturally happened to be on ITV’s platform. The broadcasting giants could be forgiven for questioning what they had ever done to anger the sporting gods.
So, to make amends and ensure that the wins could start to stack up nicely, ITV went all out at the 2014 Brazil World cup to get England on the TV screens of the nation by taking on four matches.
Belgium, Colombia, Croatia and Belgium once more (in a third-placed play-off). Just one win – on penalties – and plenty of heartache.