You don’t need to be a sports TV programmer to predict Fox Sports executives’ dream for this month’s UEFA Euro 2024 and Copa América 2024, both of which will be broadcast on the Fox Sports networks.
But we still decided to ask one.
Zac Kenworthy is the vice president of production for Fox Sports and one of the leaders of football presentation on the network. He naturally dreams of a long participation of the United States men’s national team in the Copa América – the largest men’s soccer tournament for South American national teams, as well as additional guests from the Americas – as well than a team celebrating their way to the Euro final. — the quadrennial men’s tournament for European national teams.
Friday marks the start of one of the most ambitious periods in Fox Sports football history: the Euros will take place from Friday to July 14 while the Copa América will take place from June 20 to July 14. Fox owns both properties.
“I think when the U.S. men’s national team is doing well, the public registers, and I don’t just mean the sports public, but the public in general,” Kenworthy said. “We saw it in 2015 with the incredible numbers the U.S. Women’s National Team put up for this prime-time World Cup. A final between the U.S. and Argentina would be a gold medal for us. or if I could dream.
“On the euro side, I have everything mapped out to know who can go where, but there are so many iterations. I won’t focus on any one match in particular, but it’s obvious that the power of the England national team is huge for us. The power of Kylian Mbappé (in France) is something to behold. I also think there is something to be said for a host country ending up in the final. What we found with the American public is that an environment like Germany in the summer, when the weather is nice, the beer gardens, all that kind of stuff, creates a real sense of FOMO. You wish you were in Berlin.
Ian Darke, the main broadcaster of Fox’s Euro coverage, added: “Football from sunrise to sunset, 78 games from two massive tournaments taking place more or less simultaneously, starting on Friday with Germany and Scotland,” Darke said. “It will be a treat if you follow and love this game like us.”
Most of us won’t be in Berlin, so watching Darke and Co. on TV will have to do. If you live in the United States and want to watch two of the biggest soccer tournaments in the world, here’s what you need to know.
Christian Pulisic and the United States men’s national team will open the Copa América on June 23 against Bolivia. A massive presence in the United States would be good news for Fox. (Gregg Newton/AFP via Getty Images)
When do the games start?
Euro 2024 coverage begins Friday at 2 p.m. ET on Fox for the pre-match (kick-off is 3 p.m. ET) with host Germany versus Scotland. The Copa América begins June 20 at 7 p.m. ET (kick-off is 8 p.m. ET) on FS1 when Lionel Messi leads Argentina against Alphonso Davies and Canada.
Who will announce the games?
Fox says four broadcast teams will work on site for Euro 2024. Darke will partner with Landon Donovan to form the main broadcast team. They will call the opening match of the Germany-Scotland Euro from Munich. Other broadcast teams include Derek Rae and former England goalkeeper Robert Green; Jaqui Oatley and Warren Barton; and a fourth team making their debut on Fox Sports – Darren Fletcher and former England midfielder Owen Hargreaves. (Fletcher received rave reviews for his MLB call-up for Mets-Phillies London.)
Tom Rinaldi and Geoff Shreeves will provide on-site reporting from Germany. Michael Timbs will report on fan festivals in Germany.
“The reason you would say the Euros are a lot more popular now and a lot more people will watch it is because there is so much soccer on TV in America,” Donovan said. “There are so many players that the American public knows about that they would never have known about before. They won’t know every player from Hungary or Switzerland or Austria, but there will be players in those teams where someone goes, oh, I saw him play for Arsenal or Liverpool or he plays for Real Madrid. This brings intrigue.
John Strong and Stu Holden will call all matches in the U.S. men’s national team’s group stage and beyond for the Copa América. Journalist Jenny Taft will be with the USMNT for as long as she participates in the tournament. Strong and Holden will also be in the stadium for Argentina’s games along with reporter Ana Jurka, who is making her Fox Sports debut as a reporter assigned to the Argentine powerhouse.
The other broadcast teams consist of JP Dellacamera and Cobi Jones and Luis Omar Tapia with Maurice Edu. Dr. Joe Machnik and Mark Clattenburg serve as rules analysts for both tournaments. Kenworthy said the aim was to hold as many Copa matches at the venue as possible. Dellacamera and Jones will sometimes travel and also call some games from Fox Sports headquarters in Los Angeles.
“It’s really going to depend on the need and how elevated this game is, whether we’re on the (Big Fox) network or at times we’re on FS1 and the matches aren’t as appealing to an American audience. ,” he said. “We just have to be smart about our resources there. But the aim is to organize as many matches as possible on the field.
Former United States men’s national team player Alexi Lalas returns to Fox’s in-studio coverage for the Euros and Copa América. (Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for Hashtag Sports)
Who will be in the studio?
Fox has deserved the bona fide criticism it has faced for its studio presentation of men’s soccer tournaments. The presentation has always been too US-centric for a global sport, and for anyone who has watched similar coverage in England or Canada, it lacks in-depth discussions of tactics for non-US teams. Euro coverage represents a golden opportunity for Fox as the only discussion on the United States will come with Copa coverage.
Fox’s studio coverage for the Euros features a new lead host (Jules Breach) and a host of new American soccer broadcast analysts: former England national team striker Daniel Sturridge, former Italian national team member Giorgio Chiellini and former Danish goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel. Survivors include Ariane Hingst and Stu Holden.
Alexi Lalas and Edu will work for both the Euro and the Copa América. Copa América’s main studio features longtime soccer presenter Rob Stone, Lalas, Carli Lloyd, Clint Dempsey and former Colombian national team striker Juan Pablo Ángel. Lloyd has been excellent on air since joining Fox.
Regarding the issue of criticism leveled at the Fox studio broadcast during previous men’s tournaments, Kenworthy said Fox Sports officials believed in their presentation strategy.
“I think the way we present the game and what our numbers and our research shows us is that we’re doing it the right way,” Kenworthy said. “People want to be entertained. Yes, they want coverage of the game. But the reality is they want an elevated experience, and I think that’s what we’re giving them with these big personalities. …
“This game continues to grow in North America. …But the reality is that our research shows us that when these major international tournaments are broadcast, the majority of people watching them are not just casual sports fans, but sometimes aren’t even sports fans. So we need to appeal to a broad base and not alienate any group. We need to attract football fans, and we also need to grow and expand this game and provide a pathway for more people to come watch these doubleheaders at Fox.
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Kenworthy said Chiellini is a larger-than-life character who injected himself into the Fox Soccer team with a keen interest in how American sports television works.
“We saw him as a player. The chest hits, the last-ditch tackles, the way he inspired the Italian national team,” Kenworthy said. “It was an obvious first call for us, given that he was based in LA and working with LAFC, there was sort of an instant interest and attraction between him and us. We’re getting a bunch of people together to come talk about world soccer and genuinely some of these people care about television and how we present things at Fox, which I think is pretty cool because we’re all one. few TV nerds here.
Are match announcer assignments defined?
They concern Euro 2024 matches until June 26. Here’s what we currently know about match announcers.
Who has the cover in Spanish?
TelevisaUnivision will broadcast the Copa in the United States, and it’s obviously a huge soccer property for the Spanish-speaking broadcaster and audience. Here is the complete broadcast schedule. Play-by-play commentators for TelevisaUnivision’s U.S. coverage include Daniel Norh, Felipe Sebastian Muñoz, Enrique Bermudez, Jose Luis Lopez Salido, Paco Gonzalez and Ramses Sandoval. The full list of on-air talent is here.
Univision also owns the US rights to the Spanish language on Euro. This will air exclusively (aside from the finale) on the company’s streaming service, Vix.
Audio coverage?
SiriusXM listeners will have access to English-language broadcasts including Fox commentary on all 32 Copa América matches and 46 of the 51 Euro matches, including all matches in the knockout stage. The shows will air on Fox Sports on SiriusXM as well as SiriusXM FC. Games will be available to SiriusXM listeners on their car radios and the SiriusXM app. The SiriusXM FC channel will also offer support programming for tournaments.
How will Fox Sports judge success?
“I think there are a number of factors; it’s easier to say you want (the audience) to be great,” Kenworthy said. “That’s always in the back of our minds. But you want to have the feeling, on July 15, when the tournament is over, that you will miss waking up and going to bed to the media coverage. It’s easy to see the criticism on social media and such, but I think we’ll get a sense if our group unites and comes together. Internally, when we leave a control room at the end of a major tournament, we want to feel like we are delivering the best product possible.
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(Top photo of a giant replica of the Euro 2024 ball, seen on Thursday in Gelsenkirchen, Germany: Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)