Fox's World Cup coverage will have a distinctly British flavor this year, with six of its nine play-by-play commentator teams hailing from the United Kingdom. The network announced on Wednesday that Ian Crocker, Darren Fletcher, and Mark Scott will join Ian Darke, Derek Rae, and Jacqui Oatley in the booth.
British Dominance in the Booth
In total, there will be four all-British crews, and 10 of the 18 booth voices will be British. This marks a significant increase from previous tournaments. For the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Fox used just two British voices—Rae and Warren Barton—among its six crews. That number rose to six British voices among five crews for the 2022 tournament in Qatar.
The tournament, which runs from June 11 to July 19 in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, has expanded from 32 to 48 nations, increasing the number of games from 64 to 104. Fox will call all matches on site, as it did in Qatar four years ago. For the 2018 tournament, Fox called 33 matches onsite, including all but one during the knockout rounds.
American and British Analysts
American play-by-play announcers include John Strong, JP Dellacamera, and Tyler Terens. British analysts include Warren Barton, Robert Green, Owen Hargreaves, and Danny Higginbotham. American analysts are Landon Donovan, Maurice Edu, Stu Holden, Cobi Jones, and Lori Lindsey.
Fox's lead team of Strong and Holden returns, joined by two other crews from Fox's 2022 coverage: Darke paired with Donovan, and Oatley with Barton. Oatley made history in 2022 as the first woman to broadcast a men's World Cup game for a U.S. network.
New Pairings and Returning Voices
Fox's two other play-by-play broadcasters from 2022 return with new partners: Dellacamera will work with Lindsey instead of Jones, and Rae will be paired with Green rather than retired American midfielder Aly Wagner. Green is known for allowing Clint Dempsey's long-range shot to slip through his arms during the 2010 World Cup, resulting in a 1-1 draw between the U.S. and England. Green and Rae previously worked together for Fox at the 2024 European Championship.
Fletcher is paired with Hargreaves, another team that worked for Fox at Euro 2024. Fletcher is a longtime British broadcaster who also covered the 2019 Yankees-Red Sox games in London. Crocker, Sky Sports Scotland's lead commentator, is paired with Higginbotham, a former Premier League defender and part of NBC's Premier League coverage. Scott will call games with Jones and Terens, who worked for Fox at last year's CONCACAF Gold Cup, with Edu, a former American midfielder who served as a studio analyst in 2024 for Fox's coverage of the Euros and Copa America.
Additional Coverage Details
Sixty-nine games will air on Fox and 35 on FS1, up from 34 on Fox and 30 on FS1 for the 2022 tournament. Reporters include Alex Aljoe, Natalie Gedra, Katie Shanahan, Geoff Shreeves, and Jenny Taft. Tom Rinaldi will serve as an at-large commentator, and former English Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg and former American goalkeeper and coach Joe Machnik will be rules analysts.
Rebecca Lowe, NBC's Premier League host, will be among the studio hosts along with Rob Stone. Studio analysts include Thierry Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimović, Clarence Seedorf, Javier Hernández, and Carli Lloyd, alongside lead analyst Alexi Lalas. Dempsey, who like Donovan scored 57 international goals, will also be part of Fox's coverage.
