2026 World Cup Thread (General)

Fox dodged a bullet when, during the Mexico/South Africa game, they returned the game to air ten seconds after play had resumed because they ran long on their commercial and chose to cut the game play rather then chop the ad short.

But their contract stipulates severe financial penalties for not airing every second of play live.

And since the video feed is from FIFA (broadcasters only supply the commentary) there is no make-up possible. In the end, FIFA chose to forgive them rather than levy the severe financial penalty which is called for.

But we can be certain that they won\t do it again.

 

Havent seen it happen since.

 

What does FIFA do with all this money? This is just USA tv rights! I know, I already know/don’t wanna know the answer but that is such a preposterous amount of money that we don’t even bat an eyelid at.

 

It's worse than that. Fox is getting away with highway robbery.

Back in 2014, FIFA's old Executive Committee, the worst bunch of thieves and grifters ever, were getting uniformly rather old, and wanted to grab as much loot as they could before riding off into a gold plated sunset.

They were supposed to award the TV rights to the 2018 tournament, but Sepp Blatter said "Hey, why don't we also award 2022 and get twice the bribes?"

Fox outbid ESPN for both, with a bid of $450 million per.

But then Qatar won 2022, and everybody admitted that a summer tourney in the desert wasn't good, so they decided to move it to late Fall.

Problem was, Fox had bought a summer World Cup. The last thing they wanted was something that competed with American football, particularly the NFL playoffs. So they threatened to sue and would have surely won. Fox had a contract, FIFA had decided to ignore the terms.

So to keep from losing their pants, Blatter & Co. agreed to award, without bidding, the 2026 tournament to Fox for the same $450million that they were paying for Qatar 2022.

But today, most industry experts, including John Skipper, the former soccer guru and VP at ESPN, have said that 2026 is easily worth $1.5 billion, probably more, possibly much more.

So Fox is already cleaning up. Getting the rights to a US World Cup for maybe a third of what they ought to cost is a broadcasters dream come true.

Sucking up all that lovely hydration break money, which nobody could have anticipated back in 2014, is simply icing on the cake.

 

I hope to God that ESPN buys back the rights after this, if for no other reason than to get national embarrassment Alexi Lalas off of the coverage. Fox is awful.

 

My all time favorite WC broadcast remains 2014 Brazil. The sets, setting, vibes still haven’t been beat imho.

 

He'd probably just find his way to ESPN like a cockroach.

 

He would, 100%.

Fox is terrible with soccer, has been for years.

 

I’ll be at that game.

 

He could always switch back to ESPN. Alexi used to be on ESPN and switched to Fox when they got the World Cup rights.

EDIT: Already mentioned above twice.

That said, I really like the Fox One app. All the games, 4k, full replays, long-form highlights, short highlights. Not sure if it costs $, I get it included with my Spectrum account.

 

World Cup in 4k has been fantastic. It looks better than MLS which I think is pretty darn good. The tv presentation and announcers have been great. It’s easy to watch. No painful cringe moments ala Taylor Tellmann.

 

I hope we have his discovery rights.

 

Interestingly, it seems the old Iraq flag has been allowed (or at least not removed).

 

Unlike the old Iranian flag which *is* banned.

 

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/world-cu...s-drinking-all-of-the-beer-in-boston/6514187/

Scottish soccer fans are drinking Boston dry. One bar tripled their sales from St. Patrick's Day.

Columbus soccer fans already know, whether it was O'Shaughnessy's in 2005 or 2006 or Claddaugh in 2010.

 

Isn't that who Issa was thinking of when he mentioned scouting players at the World Cup?

 

Messi with the hat-trick…. Oh, and now currently tied with the record for most World Cup goals.

 

There is a Ric Flair "to be the man, you have to beat the man" vibe with Argentina.

Going to be a very tough out.

 

https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/49088664/england-play-mls-side-mid-world-cup-friendly

England may play Sporting KC on Thursday.

May God have mercy on SKC's souls.

 

Also in Boston.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZqGaTavO7I/?igsh=NGtoYW9reHVyb2ht

World Cup is the greatest event known to man.

 

Moreira got a 3.0 from Kicker (on a 1 (best) to 6 scale).

 

Question for those who have attended a game. Do you have to login to the app and get the code in your email every time?? That seems like a pain in the neck to have to go back and forth between the app and an email.