Setanta has secured the live rights to England's match against Ukraine in 2009, it was confirmed today.

The pay TV sports broadcaster has already acquired the rights to show all of England's World Cup 2010 away qualifiers, including the match on Saturday against Andorra and Wednesday's fixture against Croatia.

According to The Guardian, Setanta has not reached a highlights agreement with any terrestrial broadcaster for the two upcoming matches, resulting in the total absence of the games from free to air channels. The channel's director of sport, Trevor East, told the paper that the BBC and ITV were attempting to use "emotional blackmail... to leverage valuable rights out of us for a fraction of their value".