A set of quotes purportedly from Jürgen Klopp, eviscerating the World Cup’s commercialized hydration breaks, deluged social media on Friday and were picked up and aggregated by several outlets.
There’s one problem: the former Liverpool manager never said any of it.
The invented remarks portray him delivering a withering indictment of FIFA’s decision to let broadcasters monetize the tournament’s mandatory three-minute breaks, calling football “held hostage by executives ensconced in air-conditioned offices,” dismissing the interruptions as “a golden cage built for sponsors,” and warning that the sport risks degenerating into “background music for an advertising show.”
The quotes were attributed to an appearance on the German broadcaster ZDF, but Klopp has spent the tournament working with Magenta, the German telecommunications company that secured domestic streaming rights to the World Cup, The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand previously reported that Fox pursued several high-profile names for its World Cup studio before landing on Zlatan Ibrahimović, among them David Beckham and Klopp himself, with Klopp at various points appearing close to accepting before ultimately choosing Magenta instead.
So Klopp is working as a broadcaster at this tournament, just not the one the quotes were attributed to, and not for the network at the center of the controversy.
There’s one problem: the former Liverpool manager never said any of it.
The invented remarks portray him delivering a withering indictment of FIFA’s decision to let broadcasters monetize the tournament’s mandatory three-minute breaks, calling football “held hostage by executives ensconced in air-conditioned offices,” dismissing the interruptions as “a golden cage built for sponsors,” and warning that the sport risks degenerating into “background music for an advertising show.”
The quotes were attributed to an appearance on the German broadcaster ZDF, but Klopp has spent the tournament working with Magenta, the German telecommunications company that secured domestic streaming rights to the World Cup, The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand previously reported that Fox pursued several high-profile names for its World Cup studio before landing on Zlatan Ibrahimović, among them David Beckham and Klopp himself, with Klopp at various points appearing close to accepting before ultimately choosing Magenta instead.
So Klopp is working as a broadcaster at this tournament, just not the one the quotes were attributed to, and not for the network at the center of the controversy.
4 months ago
