Sports World Rips Fox Sports’ Amateurish Euro 2024 Coverage, Decision To Put Games Behind A Pay-Wall

Fox Sports

Some soccer fans will contend that the European Championship as the most prestigious international competition in the world. Yes, even more than the World Cup.

The argument is — and frankly, as a massive soccer fan myself, I’m not exactly sure which side of it I fall on — that while the World Cup might be the better cultural experience, the level of competition in the Euro is higher, thus making most of the matches competitive.

This year alone, all of France, England, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Spain, are thought to have legitimate chances at winning the title. That’s 8 of the 24 teams participating in the tournament — 33%! And that’s not even mentioning the potential for upsets (as I’m typing this Slovakia just took a 6th minute lead over Belgium). Comparatively, the 2026 World Cup is going to have a record 48 teams — in addition to those eight team, the addition of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay brings that total to 11 (about 23%).

Given the Euro’s prestigiousness, you’d think the network that paid hundreds of millions of dollars for the right to broadcast the tournament would treat it with the utmost respect. And you’d be wrong, because unfortunately for American soccer fans, Fox Sports are the ones who landed this year’s Euro rights.

Not only is the long-time placement of Alexi Lalas as a fixture of the broadcast team something that most American soccer fans have been lamenting for a decade now (if not longer), but Fox Sports also decided to actually *not* broadcast some games, instead sublicensing them out to Fubo.

“Fox Sports is by far the worst license holder for sports properties in the US. Not having streaming and then putting European Championship games on a 3rd party streaming service that is $80 is f—— criminal,” vented one fan in a viral tweet.

Making matters worse is that to watch the games on Fubo, your only choice is to sign up for the $80/month subscription. And then, if you do choose to sign up,  the games on Fubo are so minimally produced that they don’t even feature a scoreboard or clock (a scorebug). Even the scorebug on the Fox broadcasted games is poorly made, as they foolishly decided to make a graphic saying “10 players” instead of just using the traditional Red Card symbol (a literal red square).

The inclusion of Lalas in the broadcast team also appears to be a thorn in the side of soccer fans, as one tweet with over 335,000 views “blamed him exclusively for the game not growing in America.”

“Alexi Lalas on the Fox halftime show with two euro winners, bro is a DEI hire,” joked another footy fan.

Unfortunately for fans, Fox Sports also has the rights to this year’s Copa America and the 2026 World Cup, which will be held in North America, with the final is being played at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.