Behind The Scenes

ESPNFC officially launches with worldwide soccer coverage

ESPNFC home page.

This summer hasn’t been much of an offseason for soccer.

From EURO 2012 to the Olympics and now the start of the new European league seasons, international friendlies and FIFA World Cup qualifiers all in the weeks ahead.

It is a great time to be a fan of the world’s game, and today it got even better.

ESPNFC officially launched today with 24/7 coverage across multiple languages and platforms around the world. Front Row spoke with senior editor James Martin and ESPNFC Press Pass coordinating producer Steve Palese about what fans can expect from ESPN’s soccer coverage moving forward:

How will ESPNFC cover matches, such as USA vs. Mexico tonight and Arsenal vs. Sunderland on Saturday?
Martin: ESPNFC will be covering the key events of the coming week wall-to-wall. What you’ll see is an added injection of voice and immediacy into the coverage. Jeff Carlisle will be at the Azteca Stadium, blogging live, while we’ll have all angles covered for the start of the Prem. We want to capture the visceral sense of passion of the fans through our coverage, wherever they may be, however they are consuming our content.

ESPNFC Press Pass debuts tomorrow on U.S. television (Thursday, 2 a.m. ET, ESPNEWS). What changes, if any, are planned for the American audience?
Palese: On most days, there will be no differences between the show for the United States and the show for the international networks. It is designed for a global soccer audience and focuses on the biggest teams and players in the game. Based on the growth of the game here and the popularity of the Barclays Premier League, Spain’s La Liga and other top leagues — as well as on the back of the success of EURO 2012 — we believe it will appeal to soccer fans in this country. Sometimes we may do segments just for the U.S. audience when there is something big happening here like tonight with the USA playing Mexico. The show is currently seen in 107 countries around the world and the current format seems to resonate with fans everywhere.

Programming note: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3 and ESPN Deportes will carry six international matches live today, highlighted by the U.S. vs. Mexico match in Mexico City (8 p.m. on ESPN and ESPN3).

ESPNFC Gamecast page
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