LOS ANGELES (AP) — Fox will hire British play-by-play commentators for six of its nine announcer teams this year. world cupIan Darke, Derek Rea and Jackie Autry, plus Ian Crocker, Darren Fletcher and Mark Scott.
Fox announced on Wednesday that it will have an all-British staff of four, and 10 of the 18 booth voices will be British. The tournament was held in the United States, Mexico and Canada from June 11 to July 19, and the number of participating countries expanded from 32 to 48, with the number of matches increasing from 64 to 104 countries.
John Strong, JP Delacamera, and Tyler Terens are American play-by-play announcers.
UK analysts include Warren Burton, Robert Green, Owen Hargreaves and Danny Higginbotham, while US analysts include Landon Donovan, Maurice Edu, Stu Holden, Cobi Jones and Lori Lindsay.
When Fox took over U.S. English-language television coverage from ESPN for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, only two of its six staffers, Ray and Burton, were British voices. Fox has increased the number of British voices to six of its five-member crew for the 2022 Qatar Games.
The Foxes will call all games locally, as they did in Qatar four years ago. In the 2018 tournament, the Foxes called 33 games on-site, including all but one match during the knockout rounds.
The 2022 tournament will feature 69 games on Fox and 35 on FS1, up from 34 games on Fox and 30 on FS1.
Strong and Holden will be joined by two other staffers returning from Fox’s 2022 coverage on Fox’s core team. Dirk will be paired with US top scorer Donovan, while Autry will be paired with former England international defender Barton. Autry will become the first woman to broadcast a men’s World Cup match on a U.S. network in 2022.
Starting in 2022, Fox’s other two live broadcast stations will return with new partners. Dela Camera will use Lindsey instead of Jones to replace the former U.S. national team midfielder, while ESPN’s Bundesliga mainstay broadcaster Ray will use Green in place of retired U.S. national team midfielder Allie Wagner.
At the 2010 World Cup, Green deflected a long-range shot from America’s Clint Dempsey between his arms, allowing the United States to tie the game, and the United States ended in a 1-1 draw with England in the opening game. Green teamed up with Fox’s Ray for the 2024 European Championship.
Fletcher will be paired with former England midfielder Hargreaves, another team he worked for the Foxes at Euro 2024. Fletcher, a longtime British broadcaster who worked for Fox during the Yankees-Red Sox game in London in 2019, is not Hargreaves’ former Manchester United teammate.
Crocker, who is Sky Sports Scotland’s lead commentator, is paired with former Premier League defender Higginbotham, who is part of NBC’s EPL overage squad.
Scott plans to call the match with Jones and Tellens, who worked for FOX during last year’s CONCACAF Gold Cup, and Edu, a former U.S. national team midfielder who served as a studio analyst for FOX’s Euros and Copa America coverage in 2024.
Reporters include Alex Aljo, Natalie Guedra, Katie Shanahan, Jeff Shreves and Jenny Taft. Tom Rinaldi as the main commentator. Former EPL referee Mark Clattenburg and former U.S. national team goalkeeper and coach Joe Machnik will serve as rules analysts.
NBC’s Premier League presenter Rebecca Rowe will be one of the studio hosts, along with Rob Stone.
Studio analysts include Thierry Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Clarence Seedorf, Javier Hernández, Carli Lloyd and lead analyst Alexi Lalas.
Dempsey, who like Donovan has scored 57 goals for his country, is also expected to participate in the Fox coverage.
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