Fox Sports’ coverage of the UEFA Nations League began Wednesday, but they’ve now added a new voice to it. That would be referee Mark Clattenburg, particularly known for his Premier League work from 2004-17 and his FIFA/UEFA work from 2006-17; he went on to work in Saudi Arabia and China after that. Clattenburg (seen above in 2016) worked quite a few notable matches in his time in Europe, including the UEFA Champions League Final in 2016. He’s also been a prominent voice on TV over the last few years, particularly as a studio analyst on ESPN’s various platforms. Now, he’s joining Fox, and will be working with them throughout the year:
Thrilled to welcome former referee Mark Clattenburg as he joins @FOXSoccer as a rules analyst! @Clattenburg1975 makes his debut on @FS1 today for the UEFA Nations League match between Netherlands and Belgium and will contribute to @FOXSports soccer coverage throughout the year. pic.twitter.com/ompZtXhB6a
— FOX Sports PR (@FOXSportsPR) June 3, 2022
Clattenburg’s move to Fox for in-match contributions is just the latest expansion of the rules analyst role on television. Fox has been a key broadcaster there, bringing in Mike Pereira for NFL and college football rules analysis way back in 2010 (and even contemplating adding baseball to his responsibilities at one point before MLB shot that down) and adding Dean Blandino in 2017. In soccer, they’ve previously used Dr. Joe Machnik as their main rules analyst, with him contributing to their World Cup and national team broadcasts. Fox has also experimented with rules analysts in some other sports, adding Andy Petree to that role on their NASCAR coverage in 2015 (that only lasted one year, though) and further contemplating MLB rules analysts in 2019 (although they didn’t actually make that addition). And other networks have also gotten heavily into rules analysts, particularly in football and basketball, and Clattenburg’s previous studio work for ESPN is another way this has been done. But it’s certainly notable to see him heading to Fox for this Nations League coverage.
From June 1 to June 14, Fox is broadcasting 44 UEFA Nations League matches across their various properties (FS1, FS2, Fox Soccer Plus, the Fox Sports app, and Tubi). They have the rights there thanks to a wide-ranging UEFA deal struck last November. They have also sublicensed 60 other matches to fuboTV, which is using a pay-per-view model (for non-subscribers) for some of what it’s carrying. The full Fox and fubo schedules through June 14 can be seen here and here respectively.
[Fox Sports Press Pass, Fox Sports PR on Twitter; image via Biser Todorov on Wikipedia]
