ESPN’s ex-top exec describes how soccer’s World Cup was lost

Feb 21, 2023, 4:08 PM | Updated: Feb 22, 2023, 9:09 am
Former ESPN president John Skipper leaves federal court after testifying in a corruption case, Tues...

Former ESPN president John Skipper leaves federal court after testifying in a corruption case, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023, in New York. The trial in New York City is the latest development in a tangled corruption scandal that dates back nearly a decade and has ensnared more than three dozen executives and associates in the world's most popular sport. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

(AP Photo/John Minchillo)

NEW YORK (AP) — A former ESPN executive underscored how big money corrupted soccer, testifying in U.S. District Court on Tuesday that his company’s bid to televise the World Cup might have been sabotaged by two former Fox executives accused of bribing officials to undermine competing offers.

ESPN’s former president, John Skipper, told a federal court in New York that ESPN and Univision had jointly bid $900 million — with $400 million from ESPN — for broadcasting rights to the two most recent World Cups, including the recently completed one in Qatar.

Prosecutors allege inside information helped Fox secure U.S. English-language rights to the tournament from FIFA.

Government lawyers say millions of dollars in bribes fed a system of clandestine, no-bid contracts that allowed corrupt soccer executives to profit from the scheme and ultimately allowed Fox to air the matches.

New York-based Fox Corp., which split from a subsidiary of international channels during a restructuring in 2019, has denied any involvement in the bribery scandal and is not a defendant in the case.

The company said in a statement that it has cooperated fully.

Prosecutors allege the payoffs enabled the former Fox executives — Hernan Lopez and Carlos Martinez — to get confidential information from high-ranking soccer officials, including those at FIFA. The information helped Fox secure the U.S. English-language rights with a $425 million bid. Telemundo, a division of Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal, won U.S. Spanish-language rights for about $600 million.

“I was disappointed,” Skipper said. “In fact, I was angry.”

Skipper said he had assumed the highest bidder would prevail, but the process turned increasingly complicated when ESPN’s offer was turned down and soccer officials opened a second round of bidding.

Under questioning from a defense attorney, Skipper acknowledged that he did not know if anything illegal was going on behind the scenes.

The trial is the latest development in a tangled corruption scandal that dates back nearly a decade and has ensnared more than three dozen media and soccer executives as well as associates.

Skipper’s testimony was meant to corroborate statements by the government’s star witness, Alejandro Burzaco, who testified over 11 days that he and the former Fox executives conspired to bribe South American soccer officials for TV rights to the Southern Hemisphere’s biggest annual tournament, the Copa Libertadores, and help land broadcasting rights to the World Cup, the sport’s most lucrative competition.

Lawyers for Lopez and Martinez have asserted that the former executives are being framed, with one defense lawyer accusing Burzaco of masterminding the bribes.

Burzaco is a former business partner of Lopez and Martinez, and headed an Argentinian marketing firm. He has cooperated in previous soccer corruption investigations since being arrested in 2015 in a bribery case. Critics contend he’s cooperating to avoid prison.

Burzaco has pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and other charges. He testified in 2017 that all three South Americans on the FIFA executive council took million-dollar bribes to support Qatar’s bid to host the 2022 World Cup.

Skipper said ESPN initially bid $250 million in 2011 for U.S. English-language rights to the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. The company upped that to $400 million in a second round. Coupled with Univision’s proposed contribution, the total came to $900 million.

“We wanted to blow the bid away,” he said.

ESPN held U.S. broadcasting rights for the World Cup from 1994 until 2014, first airing soccer’s premier sporting event before it caught on with U.S. audiences. FIFA previously had to buy air time to get the tournament broadcast in the country.

As the sport’s audience grew, so did the World Cup’s financial cachet.

ESPN paid $100 million for the rights to broadcast the sporting event in 2010 and 2014.

The dramatic hike spoke to the sporting event’s increasing importance, Skipper said.

December’s World Cup final in Qatar, where Argentina prevailed over France in a dramatic title-clinching shootout, was the most-watched soccer match in the United States, according to television audience estimates.

As a courtesy for helping FIFA develop a rise in soccer viewership, Skipper had hoped soccer officials would allow ESPN to match or beat competitors’ proposals but was not approached to do so.

So far, more than two dozen people have pleaded guilty and two people have been convicted at trial in connection with a U.S.-led investigation into tens of millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks at soccer’s highest levels. Four corporate entities have also pleaded guilty. Four other companies were charged but reached agreements with the government to avoid prosecution.

Soccer governing body, FIFA, has said it was not involved in any fraud or conspiracies and was a mere bystander as the scandal unfolded.

Nevertheless, the scandal thrust the organization under worldwide scrutiny. It has since sought to polish its tarnished image.

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


              Former ESPN president John Skipper leaves federal court after testifying in a corruption case, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023, in New York. The trial in New York City is the latest development in a tangled corruption scandal that dates back nearly a decade and has ensnared more than three dozen executives and associates in the world's most popular sport. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
            
              Former ESPN president John Skipper leaves federal court after testifying in a corruption case, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023, in New York. The trial in New York City is the latest development in a tangled corruption scandal that dates back nearly a decade and has ensnared more than three dozen executives and associates in the world's most popular sport. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
            
              Former ESPN president John Skipper leaves federal court after testifying in a corruption case, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023, in New York. The trial in New York City is the latest development in a tangled corruption scandal that dates back nearly a decade and has ensnared more than three dozen executives and associates in the world's most popular sport. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
            
              Former ESPN president John Skipper leaves federal court after testifying in a corruption case, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023, in New York. The trial in New York City is the latest development in a tangled corruption scandal that dates back nearly a decade and has ensnared more than three dozen executives and associates in the world's most popular sport. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

AP

(Facebook Photo/City of San Luis, Arizona)...
Associated Press

San Luis authorities receive complaints about 911 calls going across border

Authorities in San Luis say they are receiving more complaints about 911 calls mistakenly going across the border.
6 days ago
(Pexels Photo)...
Associated Press

Daylight saving time begins in most of US this weekend

No time change is observed in Hawaii, most of Arizona, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Marianas.
14 days ago
Mexican army soldiers prepare a search mission for four U.S. citizens kidnapped by gunmen in Matamo...
Associated Press

How the 4 abducted Americans in Mexico were located

The anonymous tip that led Mexican authorities to a remote shack where four abducted Americans were held described armed men and blindfolds.
14 days ago
Tom Brundy points to a newly built irrigation canal on one of the fields at his farm Tuesday, Feb. ...
Associated Press

Southwest farmers reluctant to idle farmland to save water

There is a growing sense that fallowing will have to be part of the solution to the increasingly desperate drought in the West.
21 days ago
A young bison calf stands in a pond with its herd at Bull Hollow, Okla., on Sept. 27, 2022. The cal...
Associated Press

US aims to restore bison herds to Native American lands after near extinction

U.S. officials will work to restore more large bison herds to Native American lands under a Friday order from Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.
21 days ago
Children play in a dried riverbed in Flassans-sur-Issole, southern France, Wednesday, March 1, 2023...
Associated Press

Italy, France confront 2nd year of western Europe drought

ROME (AP) — Bracing for Italy’s second consecutive year of drought for the first time in decades, Premier Giorgia Meloni huddled with ministers Wednesday to start mapping out an action plan Wednesday, joining France and other nations in western Europe grappling with scant winter rain and snow. Meloni and her ministers decided to appoint an […]
23 days ago

Sponsored Articles

(Desert Institute for Spine Care in Arizona Photo)...
Desert Institute for Spine Care in Arizona

5 common causes for chronic neck pain

Neck pain can debilitate one’s daily routine, yet 80% of people experience it in their lives and 20%-50% deal with it annually.
...
Fiesta Bowl Foundation

Celebrate 50 years of Vrbo Fiesta Bowl Parade magic!

Since its first production in the early 1970s, the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl Parade presented by Lerner & Rowe has been a staple of Valley traditions, bringing family fun and excitement to downtown Phoenix.
(Desert Institute for Spine Care photo)...
DESERT INSTITUTE FOR SPINE CARE

Why DISC is world renowned for back and neck pain treatments

Fifty percent of Americans and 90% of people at least 50 years old have some level of degenerative disc disease.
ESPN’s ex-top exec describes how soccer’s World Cup was lost