ITV has snatched the rights to show live FA Cup games and England's home football internationals away from the BBC and Sky in a £425 million deal, the Football Association announced today.

Brian Barwick, the FA Chief Executive, revealed that new rights deal — which also includes the Irish channel Setanta Sports — would take effect from next season.

The contract is a significant coup for Michael Grade, the new ITV executive chairman, after the BBC and BSkyB, which operates the Sky Sports channels, won the rights for the last seven years.

“Our position is now substantially enhanced as the leading terrestrial free-to-air sports broadcaster," Mr Grade said. “The FA has run an intense bidding process and we are delighted to be the winners with Setanta. It is a great deal for all of us.”

Mark Sharman, ITV’s director of news and sport, added that the move should pull in "valuable mass audiences" to the channel.

“We’re looking forward to bringing a fresh perspective to coverage of one of the world’s greatest cup competitions and following the story of England’s journey towards European Championship and World Cup qualification,” he added.

The deal provides a huge cash windfall for the FA, English football's governing body, as the £425m price-tag is a huge hike from the FA Cup and England package's previous value of £125m.

The FA pledged to reinvest more than £100 million per year back into football as a result of the deal.

“We are delighted to have concluded a four-year deal with the two companies. It is a deal that starts from August 1, 2008, and is worth in the region of £425million," Mr Barwick said.

"It is an increase on our current deal of £125m and a 42% increase on that previous deal. It means a £31m increase for the FA, which gives us chance to invest in the game again in a bigger way.

“We will have in excess of £100m a year to put back into football.”

The BBC — still the most popular sports broadcaster in Britain — now faces a battle to ensure that Gary Lineker, Alan Hansen and other sports presenters stay with the corporation when there will be almost no live matches for them to present.

ITV, whose football faces include Steve Ryder and Andy Townsend, is likely to consider poaching top BBC talent, as it did when it brought Des Lynam over from the corporation a decade ago.

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