FOX announces TV coverage plans for Copa America Centenario

As we reported last night, FOX Sports has acquired the US English-language TV rights to Copa America Centenario, which will be played in stadiums throughout the United States this summer.

FOX Sports is planning on televising all 32 matches live across 10 venues nationwide from June 3 to June 26, with matches appearing on FOX broadcast network, FOX Sports 1 and FOX Sports 2. In addition, FOX Sports expects to offer pregame, postgame and shoulder programming over the month-long tournament. Digitally, all games are available on FOX Sports GO and FOX Soccer 2Go.

The tournament begins with a round-robin stage featuring four groups of four teams, with Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and the United States the top-seeded teams in each group.

The rest of the groups, comprised of eight more South American teams (Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela) and four more teams from the United States and Mexico’s CONCACAF region (Costa Rica, Haiti, Jamaica and Panama), are to be decided at the Copa America Centenario Official Draw to be held in New York City on February 21. The top two teams from each group advances to the quarterfinals of an ensuing single-game knockout phase.

The U.S. Men’s National Team opens the tournament on Friday, June 3 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., with the final set for Sunday, June 26 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

FOX reports that they expect Lionel Messi, Neymar, Chicharito and Michael Bradley to play in what is the biggest soccer tournament hosted on American soil since the 1994 FIFA World Cup.