As a lifelong soccer fan I have always said Americans enjoy the game, but it has to be played at the highest level. England’s Premiership, Italy’s Serie A, Spain’s La Liga or Germany’s Bundesliga are just a few of the elite leagues that American’s can watch on cable and broadband each week.
Saturday at 2:30 p.m. on FOX, Bayern Munich will face Inter Milan in the UEFA Champions League final at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid. I spoke to FOX Sports Networks Chairman & CEO David Hill about the broadcast and his networks commitment to soccer.
Hill on the UEFA Champions League final » We are very excited about being the first broadcast network in the United States to ever air the game. We know there is an audience for soccer in the United States and — other than the World Cup — it does not get any bigger than the UEFA final. You have the best 32 clubs from Europe’s top professional leagues playing in a tournament that starts in September and ends each year in May. We aired the entire tournament on Fox Soccer Channel and now we will be able offer our fans Bayern Munich and Inter Milan on FOX .
Hill on the sophistication of the American soccer fan » If someone from Mars landed in Los Angeles on a Saturday morning they would think that soccer was the country’s top sport. There are soccer fields everywhere with both boys and girls of all ages playing the game. Each year we see the top international teams from Europe come to the United States and play friendlies in front of sold-out stadiums in New York, Washington, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Seattle and Los Angeles to name a few cities. FOX Soccer Channel has become home for America’s soccer fans and while we know the game will never be on the same level as the NFL or Major League Baseball there is plenty of room for soccer to thrive in this country.
Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this!
