Roy Keane, Lee Dixon, Adrian Chiles... and not a woman among them

ITV has defended its decision not to include any female presenters in its line-up of on-screen talent at this summer’s World Cup.
The broadcaster yesterday unveiled its team of presenters and pundits who will travel to Brazil to present coverage of one of the world’s biggest sporting event, which is expected to attract millions of viewers per game.

Former Daybreak host Adrian Chiles will head a 16-strong team which includes regular ITV pundits Roy Keane and Lee Dixon as well as a host of other former players such as Ian Wright, Glenn Hoddle and Gordon Strachan.

They will be joined by reporter Gabriel Clarke, presenter Matt Smith and commentators Clive Tyldesley and Sam Matterface, who will all help present coverage of the 34 live games being broadcast by ITV during the month-long tournament.

Last week the BBC unveiled its own line-up of presenters and pundits for the World Cup, which includes two women; long-time sports presenter Gabby Logan and Tina Daheley.

Sky also include several high-profile female presenters on its football coverage, most notably on its rolling news channel, Sky Sports News.

However, a spokesman for ITV defended the move on Tuesday, saying it had assembled the best team for the job.

They said: ‘We have an established and experienced on screen presenter and reporter team who have led our broadcasts throughout England's qualifying campaign as they will in Brazil.

‘In line with sport coverage across all media, our pundits tend to be drawn from key figures currently or formerly involved with the game at the highest level and we believe we have a first class World Cup line up from a range of backgrounds.

'Whenever opportunities arise to bring in new people for ITV Sport, our aim is always to get the best we can.’

During the last World Cup held in South Africa in 2010, ITV employed reporter Kelly Cates to help present its coverage. However, the broadcaster will only take one reporter to this year’s event.

Speaking at the launch of ITV’s World Cup team of presenters, Chiles said of the lack of female reporters: ‘It is a fair point, but the BBC are taking four reporters. We are not taking any because it comes down to cost.

‘If we did have four reporters I am sure we would have a women on the team. But we are not we are taking one who is Gabriel [Clarke] who will be with England. It comes down to numbers.

‘Who are you going to take off our panel? I think it is difficult. If we had a bigger team there would definitely be female involvement. Some of our biggest operators behind the scenes are women. The head count tells a different story. It is not sexist business as far as I am concerned.

'Most of the Albion fans I watch the game with week in week out are women.

‘I don't know if you'd call it a boys' club, we have got a lot of our key players behind the scenes are women actually.’