Former ESPN president John Skipper admits it “stings” to have to flip on Fox to watch the World Cup.
Skipper’s frustrations are justified on a personal level. The ex-ESPN president ushered the Worldwide Leader through coverage of three World Cups in 2006, 2010, and 2014, only to, in his estimation, lose the broadcast rights for subsequent tournaments due to a corrupt bidding process spearheaded by FIFA. Skipper would testify to that end in federal court, but the damage was already done. Fox kept broadcast rights for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments, and was subsequently granted rights for the 2026 edition via a no-bid contract after FIFA was forced to move the 2022 tournament in Qatar out of its traditional summer window and into November and December to avoid the desert heat.
But it’s not just the World Cup departing ESPN for Fox that has Skipper upset. It’s that he believes the quality of coverage on ESPN was superior to what Fox is currently putting out.
“Does it bother me that I put on the television and I have to watch Fox in order to see the World Cup? Yeah, **** yeah, it bothers me,” Skipper said on a recent episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out. “Somebody asked me how they were doing in production, and I finally found the right answer. It’s the second-greatest production of the World Cup ever. So they’re doing okay. But it’s not the greatest production of the World Cup ever.
“I take pride in the fact that we at ESPN were right about this, that George [Bodenheimer] supported me, we went out and did it. We built the World Cup in ’06, ’10, and ’14. We celebrated the event, we spent a boatload of money doing stories. …Wright Thompson went into the favelas to do reports, in South Africa Sal Masekela took us inside Soweto, we had Hugh Masekela do the music. We did stories, we did documentaries, we had shoulder programming. We had studio shows that lasted overnight. I watched Netherlands-Morocco the other night, what a game, and it’s over. They go to like nine hours of commercials, and I think James Corden is coming on for some reason. …I wanted to watch five hours of commentary, to listen to people break the game down.”
Skipper’s frustrations are justified on a personal level. The ex-ESPN president ushered the Worldwide Leader through coverage of three World Cups in 2006, 2010, and 2014, only to, in his estimation, lose the broadcast rights for subsequent tournaments due to a corrupt bidding process spearheaded by FIFA. Skipper would testify to that end in federal court, but the damage was already done. Fox kept broadcast rights for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments, and was subsequently granted rights for the 2026 edition via a no-bid contract after FIFA was forced to move the 2022 tournament in Qatar out of its traditional summer window and into November and December to avoid the desert heat.
But it’s not just the World Cup departing ESPN for Fox that has Skipper upset. It’s that he believes the quality of coverage on ESPN was superior to what Fox is currently putting out.
“Does it bother me that I put on the television and I have to watch Fox in order to see the World Cup? Yeah, **** yeah, it bothers me,” Skipper said on a recent episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out. “Somebody asked me how they were doing in production, and I finally found the right answer. It’s the second-greatest production of the World Cup ever. So they’re doing okay. But it’s not the greatest production of the World Cup ever.
“I take pride in the fact that we at ESPN were right about this, that George [Bodenheimer] supported me, we went out and did it. We built the World Cup in ’06, ’10, and ’14. We celebrated the event, we spent a boatload of money doing stories. …Wright Thompson went into the favelas to do reports, in South Africa Sal Masekela took us inside Soweto, we had Hugh Masekela do the music. We did stories, we did documentaries, we had shoulder programming. We had studio shows that lasted overnight. I watched Netherlands-Morocco the other night, what a game, and it’s over. They go to like nine hours of commercials, and I think James Corden is coming on for some reason. …I wanted to watch five hours of commentary, to listen to people break the game down.”
4 months ago
