Experienced British commentators have talking points prepared on advance. But they're a brief sentence, not the first chapter of a novel. Like the Cabo Verde center-back is from South Dublin and was "discovered" by the national team when they found his linkedin profile from when he was a mortgage salesman.
Our English commentators have talked for at least two minutes straight about the Kansas City Chiefs, pausing only to talk about the Royals.
Now the idiots in the booth can't stop crying about how hot it is. It is Kansas City in July, what the heck did the expect? They should be calling he match not crying about the heat.
Jenny Taft's interview with Infantino yesterday was something straight out of North Korean state TV. These weren't softball questions they were teeball. First one was asking him to talk about how amazing this world cup was. His answer was to drone on about how amazing it is that people from all over the world have come here, of course leaving out that people from multiple competing nations weren't allowed in. Second one asked why "consistency" is so important in terms of hydration breaks. Just absolutely pathetic. Not a great look for the people trying to say that Fox has nothing to do with the hydration breaks. If not why are they working so hard to justify them? Speaking of hydration breaks been interesting to hear the announcers spouting talking points as we go into them now. Very much feels like the word has been passed down from on high to promote them. Finally still speaking of hydration breaks, yeah I'm still pissed about them, FIFAPRO came out today and said that they did NOT request them at every match, and don't see the need for them when it's not hot. So yeah if the closest thing football has to a players union wasn't asking for them who was?
I muted him after that in punishment. You come at the King, you best not miss. Of course, that dork Strong was probably trying to quote Machiavelli.
Quite a few people watched and attended the Club World Cup in the US last summer. One of the major talking points was the oppressive heat in the US during those games, and how that would make this summer's World Cup unplayable....... So in typical FIFA fashion, they came up with having hydration breaks in every game due to the heat (even though a high number of games have been played indoors or in Canada). It's also the rainy season in Mexico. Plus they played all of the games at night in Monterrey, making the game time conditions much better. Yes, FoxCorp took advantage of the ~3 minute Hydration breaks to sell more adds, because, well...... Fox is gonna Fox. They're a greedy corporation afterall. Plus they still have some especially dirty dirt on FIFA surrounding the 2018 and 2022 WC's, so FIFA doesn't really have any way of preventing/stopping Fox from airing ads during the hydration breaks. Now, the cynic in me wants to believe that the breaks were put in to appease Fox...... IMO, it's just a coincidence. Weren't their Hydration breaks in Qatar in 2022??? These things aren't going away either. They'll be utilized in 2030 and 2034 too. It's well over 100 degrees in Spain this time of year. Saudi Arabia? C'mon folks. Yes, broadcasters are going to take advantage of this too. They're paying BILLIONS of dollars for the rights to broadcast the games after all. Well...... not Fox for this edition, that got a sweet discounted no bid deal as a make weight for the 2022 edition being moved to November.
I think the 3 minutes was a Fox thing. You can rehydrate in 30 seconds. If the hydration breaks had been 30 or 60s most fans wouldn't have an issue.
Clearly, the commentators have been instructed to speak to first time or new soccer audiences. I for one am pleased that they are separating Wallace from the other three main studio hosts. Something about his entire demeanor just doesn’t fit with the other three. I don’t know what he was expecting. But you can’t act like the alpha “last word authority” guy in that foursome and expect to get away with it.
I could maybe back your theory of the case except that both Fox and FIFA are vigorously defending them now, and trying to make a case that they should be a normal part of the game going forwards. Plus add the fact that they are three minutes, and FIFA are allowing commercial breaks leaves me with the impression that something else is going on. Here's my theory, we all know that soccer isn't as lucrative for the tv broadcasters as other American sports because there are no in game commercial breaks. The money people in the sport have always looked jealously at American sports tv contracts. I believe at some point there were discussions between FOX and FIFA. FOX is FIFA's biggest right's payer, and the US their most important market. So it's not crazy that they are talking and coordinating, you would have expected them to be talking just as normal practice for an event that's this important for both. At some point the numbers for how much FOX are able to charge are shared. and FIFA realizes how much more valuable a possible US tv deal becomes with these breaks. I admit it feels a little tin foil hattish, but the other alternative is to believe that FIFA naively stumbled upon this mechanism that makes their TV contracts more valuable, purely by accident with their only intention being player safety. Call me a skeptic.
There's little doubt that FIFA knows they can charge a lot more with commercial breaks. I'm sure that when well meaning people pointed out that hydration breaks would be needed, Infantino saw an opportunity and went with it.
To be fair there are about a million quotes from that masterpiece anyone can misquote or blank out on.
Fox is just so terrible at it you can't treat the World Cup like it's an NFL Sunday game... Dr. Joe Machilink (whatever his name is) is such a waste of air time just let the play by play man explain it... it's stupid even when the NFL has some rules guy who chimes in during ref replays. It's not 1994 anymore and most people have the internet and subscribe to leagues across the world we don't need to everything explained to us like we just learned the sport existed 3 days ago.
Come out and ref some youth soccer games and listen to the coaches. They don’t get the Laws of the Game in the least, let alone the latest thinking in how to apply them.
I couldn't stand JP Dellacamera for years but he lets the game flow now and barely interrupts during a match. John Strong calls our matches like a kid who just discovered fire for the first time.
To me, the best, greatest, most clever Easter egg for parents watching a show with their kids was when iCarly referenced Snoop’s death. I lost it.
If you compare the ratings for the Cup to the ratings for those leagues from around the world, yeah, we do.
We have 3 or 4x as many kids playing soccer as we had in 1994, which means a lot more soccer moms and dads, and millions of them will have played soccer growing up. We also have a lot more immigrants from soccer playing countries. It's not 1994.