ESPN FC (formerly ESPN SoccerNet) is a website and a U.S. television studio program covering
soccer that is broadcast daily over the streaming service
ESPN+. ESPN FC's origin was a website owned by
ESPN Inc. Originally established in 1995 as SoccerNet, the website was acquired by ESPN in 1999. The domain ESPNFC.com now redirects to soccer news coverage on ESPN.com.
History
Originally titled SoccerNet, the website was established by Greg Hadfield and his then-teenage son Tom in 1995, initially providing live score updates, tables and news articles. Greg, at that time, worked for the ''
Daily Mail
The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...
'' and in order to gain capital, effectively rescinded ownership of the site to his bosses in return for £40,000 and a revenue sharing scheme.
In 1999,
Buena Vista Internet Group (BVIG) acquired a controlling interest of 60 percent in SoccerNet from the
Daily Mail and General Trust
Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) is a British multinational media company, the owner of the ''Daily Mail'' and several other titles. The 4th Viscount Rothermere is the chairman and controlling shareholder of the company. The head office is ...
for £15M.
Television program
ESPN eventually launched a U.S. television studio program on
ESPNews,
ESPN2
ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%).
ESPN2 was initially ...
,
BT Sport
BT Sport is a group of pay television sports channels in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe and BT Group, they first launched on 1 August 2013. The channels are based at the former International Broad ...
,
ESPN Australia, and
TSN
TSN may refer to:
Science and technology
* Translin, DNA binding protein involved in microRNA function
* Taxonomic serial number, a stable and unique taxonomic serial number issued by the Integrated Taxonomic Information System
* The Science Netwo ...
dedicated to soccer, also known as ''ESPN FC''. The program originally aired on weekday evenings at 6 PM, with a weekly recap show airs on Sunday nights. The program has a mostly British cast. Dan Thomas works as the lead host with
Adrian Healey, Sebastian Salazar, and Kay Murray filling in.
The studio analysts at the
Bristol, Connecticut
Bristol is a suburban city located in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, southwest-west of Hartford. The city is also 120 miles southwest from Boston, and approximately 100 miles northeast of New York City. As of the 2020 census, the ...
studio
are:
Craig Burley
Craig William Burley (born 24 September 1971) is a Scottish former professional footballer and sports television pundit and co-commentator for ESPN.
As a player he was a midfielder from 1989 until 2004, notably playing in the Premier League f ...
,
Steve Nicol,
Shaka Hislop,
Kasey Keller, and
Alejandro Moreno. The rest of the crew joins from London and Europe, and on occasion, in the studio, and includes:
Steve McManaman,
Stewart Robson,
Julien Laurens,
Gabriele Marcotti,
Don Hutchison,
Danny Higginbotham,
Frank Leboeuf,
Jan Aage Fjortoft,
Sid Lowe
Simon James "Sid" Lowe (born 21 June 1976) is an English columnist and journalist. Born in Archway, London, and based in Madrid, he covers Spanish football for many publications, websites, television channels, radio stations, and football-rela ...
,
Ian Darke,
Derek Rae
Derek Rae (born 1967) is a Scottish association football commentator and presenter who currently works for ESPN and ABC in the United States for the English-language coverages of Bundesliga, DFB Pokal, and La Liga and Deutsche Fußball Li ...
,
Jürgen Klinsmann,
Alessandro Del Piero, and
Santiago Solari
Santiago Hernán Solari Poggio (born 7 October 1976) is an Argentine professional football manager and former player who played as a left midfielder.
He spent the better part of his 16-year professional career in Spain, amassing La Liga total ...
.
Taylor Twellman, and
Herculez Gomez contribute to MLS segments. Former presenters and pundits include:
Raphael Honigstein Raphael Honigstein (born 1973) is a German journalist and author.
Early life
Honigstein was born in Bavaria to a Jewish family. In 1993, Honigstein moved from Munich to London. He studied law before becoming a journalist.
Journalism career
In the ...
,
James Horncastle
James Horncastle is an English sportswriter and a broadcaster. Specialising in European and Italian football, Horncastle frequently covers football for BT Sport.
Horncastle speaks fluent Italian having formerly lived in Rome. Horncastle start ...
,
Martin Keown,
Glenn Hoddle,
Roberto Martínez,
Kevin Keegan,
Rebecca Lowe,
Max Bretos,
Alexi Lalas
Panayotis Alexander "Alexi" Lalas ( el, Αλέξης Λάλας; born June 1, 1970) is an American retired soccer player who played mostly as a defender. Lalas is best known for his participation with the United States men's national soccer t ...
,
Andrew Orsatti, and
Darrell Currie. Also, the now late
Paul Mariner used to work as a studio analyst.
ESPN FC also has additional programming like ''The Gab and Juls Podcast'', which has become a TV programme, and the ''
John Dykes Show''.
In April 2018, the program moved exclusively to the supplemental subscription service
ESPN+, though occasional specials will still air on ESPN2.
Controversy
In November 2013, a favorable story about
Qatar
Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it ...
's preparations for the
2022 FIFA World Cup on the site was met with backlash for author
Phil Ball's dismissal of
allegations of abuses toward migrant workers by the Qatari government. ESPN later apologized and removed the story from the website, saying that it did not meet their "journalistic standards".
References
External links
* (US edition, redirect from )
* (Global edition)
* (UK edition)
* (Australia edition)
* (Mexico edition, in Spanish)
* (
ESPN Deportes edition, in Spanish)
{{ESPN
Internet properties established in 1995
Fc
Association football websites