Imagine the excitement of those invited by the BBC to work as pundits on their coverage of this summer’s World Cup.“Where will I be based? LA? Vancouver? Guadalajara?”“Eh, no – Salford.”The Beeb, of course, can never win. If they’d shipped their entire crew to one or all of the three host countries for the duration of the five-and-a-half-week tournament, there would have been blue murder over the cost of the operation.But on hearing they would be based on the banks of the River Irwell in Greater Manchester for the first month or so, their knockers gleefully pointed to the fact ITV will set up home in Brooklyn, with views of the Manhattan skyline over their shoulder.Even Gary Lineker, who was to host the BBC’s coverage of the tournament until they opted to part company last year, had a little dig. “I would have been in Salford in a green box – now I’m going to be in New York City overlooking Times Square with lots of great guests.”And for that privilege, he’s being paid €16 million by Netflix who will host his The Rest is Football video podcast during the tournament, his usual muckers Alan Shearer and Micah Richards joining him, along with a string of guests.The Rest is Football crew - Micah Richards, Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer - are off to New York. Photograph: Netflix Now that the world and its mother have podcasts, Shearer and Richards will be among several World Cup telly folk double-jobbing through it all. BBC presenters Kelly Cates, Mark Chapman and Gabby Logan also having their own podcasting duties to attend to.Which of that trio, who took over from Lineker as hosts of Match of the Day, will get to front the BBC’s coverage of the final, and the bigger games along the way, has yet to be decided, but they will at least get to leave sunny Salford and head for the States for the final week.Thanks to the Czech Republic leaving our hearts in smithereens, we, of course, will be mere observers of the summer’s footballing festivities – a condition with which we should be well accustomed seeing as it’s a whole 24 years since we made it to the party.RTÉ, then, will largely be confined to the banks of the River Dodder in Donnybrook, their hosting duties shared between – deep breath – Joanne Cantwell, Peter Collins, Marie Crowe, Jacqui Hurley, Clare MacNamara and Tony O’Donoghue. Which of them has drawn the shortest of straws, resulting in them being asked to present the games between 2am and 5am, remains to be seen.And because Fifa was unkind enough to award the hosting of the tournament to non-Europe for the fourth time out of the last five, dedicated viewers in our neck of the woods are going to be highly discombobulated by the time all 104 matches, across 39 days, are played in 16 cities spanning four time zones.In all, there will be 13 different kick-off times, the only ones sympathetic to those Irish who have to get up early in the morning, those between 5pm and 10pm. At least the semi-finals and final – all at 8pm – have a kinder scheduling. Mind you, if you work nights, and can sneak away from your duties, you’ll have no complaints at all about games kicking off after the witching hour.Roy Keane will line out for ITV at the World Cup. Photograph: Visionhaus/Getty Images There are plenty of familiar faces in RTÉ’s list of pundits, including Richie Sadlier, Didi Hamann, Kenny Cunningham, Niamh Fahey, Kevin Doyle, Shay Given, Áine O’Gorman, Alan Cawley and Stephen Kelly, with James McClean making his World Cup punditry bow. There’ll be more names added to that roster. Ray Houghton and Ronnie Whelan will be among the co-commentators – Ronnie guaranteed to complain incessantly about the heat, even if he’s working from Montrose.[ Irish soccer fans – who are you supporting for the World Cup?Opens in new window ]The BBC and ITV’s array of pundits reads like a list of sacked Spurs managers – well, two anyway: Thomas Frank (BBC) and Ange Postecoglou (ITV). Mark Pougatch and Laura Woods will be ITV’s main presenters, and they’ll have some characters for company who you might have heard of – Roy Keane, Ian Wright and Gary Neville. Patrick Vieira and Juan Mata will add a continental touch, while Duncan Ferguson will be a neutral observer of Scotland’s games.Shearer, Richards and Wayne Rooney have star billing on the BBC’s punditry list, with Scott Brown, Rachel Corsie and James McFadden adding a Scottish hue, while Olivier Giroud, Gaël Clichy and César Azpilicueta will provide an entirely non-UK perspective.There’s no end of talk about how the conditions will make this an especially testing tournament for the players. Never mind that, if we viewers are still of sound mind come July 19th, we’ll be doing mighty well.