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.
“The World Cup and its competition and the attention of the world upon it can withstand every corrupt, incompetent, silly, pompous move that FIFA makes.”
—Ex-ESPN president John Skipper on the “sting” of having to watch the World Cup on Fox pic.twitter.com/QljzFToqdx
— Pablo Torre Finds Out (@pablofindsout) July 2, 2026
“Does it bother me that I put on the television and I have to watch Fox in order to see the World Cup? Yeah, hell 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.”
Fox has certainly faced some scrutiny over its coverage choices for the World Cup, though there are also some clear bright spots for the network’s coverage. The Netherlands-Morocco game Skipper cites was particularly unfortunate, with the 9 p.m. ET game going to a penalty shootout that ran until nearly 12 a.m. ET, when Corden’s show is scheduled to come on. However, Fox would’ve been well within its right to push back Corden’s show to allow for more postgame analysis, but chose not to do so. For a game as exciting as that, it was a disappointing decision.
It’s clear that, at least in Skipper’s view, Fox and ESPN have different approaches to covering an event like the World Cup. Whether one is superior to the other is a matter of opinion. With broadcast rights for the 2030 tournament still up in the air, we could be having a similar conversation about a third broadcaster four years from now.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.