England supporters' spokesman Mark Perryman has blasted the decision to screen England's forthcoming World Cup qualifier in Ukraine exclusively on the internet. Following the collapse of Setanta no mainstream broadcaster in the UK met the Ukrainian federation's asking price to screen the match.

Perryman said: "I find it outrageous. FIFA and UEFA should make it a condition of entry to World Cup and European Championship qualifying campaigns that games must be sold only free-to-air, both to the home market and the away market.

"Where England fans are being sold short is not in this instance by their own FA, but by foreign FAs selling the game to the highest bidder, and in this instance it's an internet outfit.

"Arguably Ukraine away was the second-toughest of the away games of the campaign and they certainly didn't expect us to beat Croatia 5-1 in the preceding game and go through automatically.

"At 5.15 on a Saturday night, most of the England fans I know will not want to be sitting in front of a computer, even for an England game.

"A computer screen isn't really something you can sit around on the sofa with your family and mates, so I think the viewing figures are going to be low."

"There's certain businessmen concerned with world football who want us to pay for every game we can watch," he said. "There are lots of fans who don't want that to be the future.

"Every single sport that is transferred to pay-per-view or satellite, or this kind of development, narrows the audience, and that cannot be good for the future of the game."

Individual subscriptions for Saturday's match are limited to one million, and prices will rise on an incremental scale from £4.99 for those who sign up before Thursday, to £11.99 for those who subscribe on the day.