The broadcaster has secured the rights to England's qualifying games in Liechtenstein and Slovakia, adding to its previous acquisition of the coverage of the away game in Macedonia. It already has a deal in place with the Football Association for all of the national team's home games during the campaign.
The two new rights contracts, signed with the respective national football governing bodies of the hosting nations, means that the only game of England's qualifying campaign for the 2004 European Championships not to be screened by the public broadcaster will be the away game in Turkey for which pay-TV platform BSkyB has won a deal.
The issue of TV rights for qualifying games has become contentious in recent weeks with the English FA expressing its concern that it had no control over the sale of such rights for away fixtures.
Current legislation decrees that the host football association of each game sells the rights - a scenario that has allowed BSkyB to break up the BBC's domination of coverage of the England games despite the latter being the chosen partner of the FA.
