THE BBC’s 240-strong presence at this summer’s World Cup finals will be more than three times larger than the entire England set-up in Germany.
The FA is sending about 75 people, including the 23 selected players, Sven-Göran Eriksson and his coaching team, medical staff, scouts and executives.
The BBC has been criticised this week for spending £12 million of licence fee-payers’ money on the month-long tournament. ITV, which shares the rights to the World Cup, is sending 70, prompting suggestions that some BBC staff are relishing the prospect of a publicly funded junket.
About 160 people will be part of the sports production crew behind Gary Lineker and the match commentators, with an additional 60 drawn from online, national and regional news and radio. They will be joined by 20 senior BBC executives.
The extent to which the BBC can throw resources at the World Cup is excessive, given that it was forced by Kirch, the German media group, to split a £160 million bill with ITV for the rights to the 2002 and 2006 tournaments. It was the most paid by British broadcasters for the World Cup.
The BBC will even rival the German World Cup organising committee, whose full-time employees number 250. It will employ a further 15,000 volunteers.
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But the biggest presence will be Host Broadcast Services (HBS), a subsidiary of Infront Sports & Media, a Swiss company, which will have 1,800 people covering the tournament. HBS, though, is producing the feed for the entire world and must cover every ball kicked at every match.
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