Former ESPN President John Skipper Takes Shot At FOX's World Cup Coverage

Former ESPN president John Skipper didn't hold back his thoughts on FOX's coverage of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Skipper, who was named senior vice president at ESPN in 1997, ripped FOX during a recent episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out. He said it bothers him that FOX has the rights to the ...

by Chris Rosvoglou

Jul 2, 2026

John Skipper talks about the World Cup.

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Former ESPN president John Skipper didn't hold back his thoughts on FOX's coverage of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Skipper, who was named senior vice president at ESPN in 1997, ripped FOX during a recent episode of "Pablo Torre Finds Out." He said it bothers him that FOX has the rights to the biggest soccer tournament in the world.

"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, via Awful Announcing. "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."

Skipper then argued that ESPN's coverage of the World Cup in previous years was far superior to FOX's work in 2026.

"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."

July 1, 2026; Santa Clara, California, U.S.; Folarin Balogun of the U.S. celebrates scoring their first goal. Mandatory Credit: Phil Noble-Reuters via Imagn Images

The action at the World Cup has been undeniable.

While people can debate whether or not FOX's coverage of the World Cup has been subpar, fans can't argue over the quality of the matches.

In just the past three days we've seen Morocco shock the Netherlands in a penalty shootout, England defeat DR Congo in a 2-1 comeback, and the United States defeat Bosnia and Herzegovina 2-0 despite being down a man.

The Round of 32 will resume this Thursday with these matches: