By Scott Cooper
May 28 2002

The Football Fan Unions "Can The Commercial" plea is going to continue through the World Cup. You can help and your task is very very simple. The Football Fans Union is taking the ‘Can the Commercials’ campaign to the World Cup finals.

With widespread support from fans of Premiership clubs right the way through to the Unibond League, Can the Commercials is calling on all football supporters to boycott ITV adverts in protest against Carlton and Granada’s role in the ITV Digital fiasco.

En masse, fans have the power to shape the outcome of the ITV Digital dispute by switching off the ITV adverts during the biggest tournament in the world, therefore targeting Granada and Carlton’s main source of revenue.

Round 5: The World Cup Dream

As Can the Commercials continues to gather momentum, it hits the World Cup trail to increase the pressure on the two broadcasters. Following the timetable in Japan and Korea, the campaign’s schedule kicks off to coincide with the opening match, and then every match covered by ITV involving England and the Republic of Ireland, as well as the knockout stages. The games are as follows:

· France v Senegal, May 31.

· England v Sweden, June 1.

· Germany v Ireland, June 5.

· Saudi Arabia v Ireland, June 11.

The message is simple – just turn off ITV for a couple of minutes, put the kettle on or grab a can from the fridge!

With support from the Football League and backing from various footballing authorities including the PFA’s Gordon Taylor, the LMA’s John Barnwell and various club chairmen, as well as support throughout the footballing media, including BBC Radio 5 Live’s Mark Pougatch, Teamtalk’s Jamie Broadbent and the Mail on Sunday’s Patrick Collins, fans in their thousands have signed up to back the campaign.