We’re close to the June 14 kickoff of the FIFA Club World Cup, and we now know who will be on the broadcasts. The English-language U.S. broadcasts come from a joint venture between DAZN (which won the global media rights for the 32-team event in December and will stream all matches for free globally) and TNT Sports (which will produce the matches, and which will air 24 of the 63 matches on their linear networks). The companies announced their lineup of match and studio broadcasters for those English-language U.S. broadcasts Thursday.
That commentator lineup will include play-by-play voices Luke Wileman, Tony Husband, Andres Cantor, and Kevin Egan, as well as match analysts Brian Dunseth, Steve McManaman, and Brad Guzan. Guzan will also appear on studio coverage of matches, as will Juan Pablo Angel, Mo Adams, Melissa Ortiz, Conor Coady, Kei Kamara, Lutz Pfannensteil, Pellegrino Matarazzo and BJ Callaghan. Studio hosts will include Alex Scott, Lauren Jbara, and Katie Witham. Special guests will join the studio coverage throughout the tournament, which will take place from June 14 to July 13 in 12 venues across the U.S., culminating with the final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
DAZN agreed to pay a reported $1 billion for global media rights to this tournament in December, with that coming after wide reports of limited interest from other companies FIFA had targeted. TNT Sports came on board as a partner in March, and this adds to their increasing lineup of soccer content, including selected USMNT and USWNT matches (they have two USMNT clashes coming up Saturday and Tuesday). Of the aforementioned commentators, Wileman, Dunseth, and Ortiz in particular have already done notable work on TNT Sports’ U.S. Soccer coverage.
The Club World Cup will begin in Miami on June 14, with Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami (a controversial inclusion) taking on Egyptian side Al Ahly. However, ticket demand appears to have been scarce for that match and some others. Adam Crafton of The Athletic reported earlier this week that there were “tens of thousands” of unsold tickets for that opening fixture, and that FIFA was slashing ticket prices for it and some other matches in response to that. We’ll see what kind of interest the event winds up drawing, in person and on these broadcasts.
About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.