The story about the battle between Fox and ESPN over World Cup coverage has potentially sparked a world media war.
On Tuesday, Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports wrote that “[s]ome Fox executives are frustrated” by the perception that ESPN is downplaying the international soccer tournament being mostly hosted on American soil.
On Wednesday, ESPN pushed back via a statement issued to Drew Lerner of Awful Announcing.
“Our sole focus is providing fans with the most comprehensive coverage of sports across platforms daily,” ESPN executive Mike Foss told Lerner. “While World Cup footage that can be utilized by non-rights holders (as is the case in the U.S.) is severely limited, ESPN is delivering world-class analysis, journalism, and context in spite of those restrictions.”
Also on Wednesday, Fox issued a statement denying the FOS report.
“This is simply not true,” Fox said in a statement issued to Andrew Marchand of The Athletic. “We are focused on our own coverage of the biggest event in the world, not on what others choose to air. And frankly, it’s insulting to ESPN to suggest they would pass on covering it. This is all absurd.”
In his tweet setting up the Fox statement, Marchand fired a shot at FOS in explaining Fox had “hit a boiling point” regarding the “false story” about network frustrations.
Then, McCarthy said in response to Marchand’s tweet: “Good for you. I stand by my story.”
Later, Marchand said this: “Fox Sports executives are producing the most important sporting event in the world right now, but spending most of their time watching First Take, Get Up and SportsCenter. Come on, people.”
To summarize, FOS says Fox has beef with ESPN. Fox says it doesn’t, but it may have beef with FOS. Which may now have beef with The Athletic. Which has beef with FOS.
It’s becoming a World Cup of banal pettiness. Which begs the question: Who’ll get the Peace Prize?
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