Meanwhile in England, the FA Cup quarterfinals took center stage with Wigan the first to book a place in the semifinals with a comprehensive 3-0 win over Everton at Goodison Park.
The broadcaster has a joint contract with ITV to show the FA Cup and England football internationals.
Losing that during Euro 2000 while simultaneously securing the FA Cup and England deal was the worst working day of most of our lives.
One thing we believe, and sincerely hope to be true, is that we've done a good job with the FA Cup and England rights we've had since 2001.
And, much as we've loved working on the FA Cup and England live, we do have the comfort of the Premiership highlights contract until 2010 - and the World Cups in 2010 and 2014.
It runs 24 England teams and 11 competitions, including the FA Cup, and developed the new Wembley Stadium where it is now based.
In England's premier cup competition, the FA Cup, there were replay wins for Premier League sides Wigan, Queens Park Rangers, Stoke and Fulham, though Sunderland succumbed to second tier Bolton.
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And with the FA Cup final between Chelsea and Portsmouth to be played at the venue on 15 May - as well as three Football League play-off finals, the Blue Square Premier play-off final, FA Trophy and FA Vase finals and England's World Cup warm-up match against Mexico during the month - Wembley Stadium announced on Sunday that work had begun on a new surface.
Wembley will host a rugby union game between Guinness Premiership teams Saracens and Harlequins on Saturday and fears have been expressed that the pitch will again be in poor condition for the FA Cup decider on 15 May and the England football team's World Cup warm-up match against Mexico on 24 May.
Setanta Sports said it would be showing 25 FA Cup matches a year as well as eight England friendlies over the lifetime of the contract.
Alongside their coverage of the FA Cup, ITV will continue to broadcast all England home qualifying matches through until the end of the 2011-12 season as well as home and away friendly internationals (home friendlies were previously held by Setanta).
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The former England Under-21 suffered a cardiac arrest on live television in an FA Cup tie last year.
Gillespie began his career in England as a teenager with Manchester United where he was in the same FA Youth Cup-winning team as David Beckham and Ryan Giggs.
In the 1980s Johnston played in England for Middlesbrough and Liverpool and remains the only Australian to have scored in an FA Cup final, as Liverpool beat Everton 3-1 in 1986.
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Add to the mix 10 England caps, two Uefa Cup runners-up medals and one each for the FA Cup and the European Cup Winners' Cup and Parlour can reflect on a glittering career at the top.
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He also managed Ipswich Town for more than 13 years between 1969 and 1982, winning the FA Cup in 1978 and the Uefa Cup in 1981, and guided England to the semi-finals of the 1990 World Cup.
Spain, by comparison to Germany, has only a two-week winter break, as does Italy, while England sits at the opposite end of the spectrum: Between the Premier League and the FA Cup, the holiday season is extremely congested, making it a traditional make-or-break-point for many campaigns.
In 2005 Beckham played a part in helping London win the right to stage the 2012 Olympics and the FA is hoping he can have a similarly galvanising effect in persuading Fifa to allow England to stage the World Cup for the first time since 1966.
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