Millions of England fans will miss Ukraine World Cup qualifier

Only one in 20 England football fans will get to see Saturday's match with Ukraine - and they'll be forced to shell out up to £12 for the privilege.

Millions will be unable to see the World Cup qualifier which will be the first England game to be streamed live over the internet.

Media group Perform said yesterday it would limit the number of subscribers to one million.

That compares with typical TV audiences of up to 20 million for big England games.

The game will not be shown in pubs, although it will be screened in some Odeon cinemas.

But experts fear even fans who get a "ticket" run the risk of being left frustrated by the experience.

Subscribers will need a fast internet service in order to watch the match and listen to pundits, including former England manager Sven Goran Eriksson.

But only 60 per cent of households have a broadband connection according to Ofcom - excluding millions of fans, particularly in rural areas.

For those who have the technology, the worry is that a big surge in the number of people logging on will cause connections to freeze or keel over.

A report last week said England was behind Latvia in terms of broadband speeds.

"This is going to be a big headache for a lot of people," said one industry expert. "Some fans simply wont have a fast enough internet service to watch.

"The worry is that even those who do in theory will find it breaks up or crashes when so many people are online at once.

"It could lead to a grainy picture, the action freezing or the link breaking altogether.

"Even for people paying for really fast internet connections it isn't going to be a great experience huddling around a PC or laptop."

The decision to show the match online follows the collapse earlier this year of pay-TV company Setanta which had been due to show the game.

After it went bust the rights were snapped up by Swiss company Kentaro.

It sold the rights to Perform after failing to strike a deal with ITV, BBC or Sky.

Perform, which claims to show 15,000 live sports events online each year, will charge fans £4.99 if they sign up by Thursday evening. After that the price increases to £7.99 and then to £11.99 on Saturday.

Peter Silverstone, managing director of Kentaro, backed the decision to limit the number of subscribers to one million as this was a "safe number to stop at to ensure the optimal broadcast", he said.

Perform's chairman, Andrew Croker, said: "The world is changing...this is a classic example of it.

"It's exciting. Anyone who wants to come on a journey with us should sign up - they will enjoy it."

But England fans are furious with the decision to show the game online only.

Mark Perryman, of the England Fans' Supporters Group, said: "It's an outrage. Watching football is a social thing. To force fans to pay to sit in front of a small computer screen is just not on.

"The internet is fine for watching highlights of games ,but not something like this.

"England began their campaign with a row over games only being shown on Setanta. Now we are ending with a row over games being shown on the internet. Yet agian, it's fans that will suffer."

A spokesman for the FA said: "We would obviously like the game to be broadcast to as many people as possible, but it's not in our control."