NEW YORK—A former ESPN executive underscored how big money corrupted soccer, testifying in U.S. District Court on Tuesday, Feb. 21, 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 New York federal court that ESPN and Univision had jointly bid $900 million—evenly split between the two TV behemoths—for U.S. broadcasting rights to the two most recent World Cups, including the recently completed one in Qatar.
Despite ESPN’s hefty bid for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments, FIFA awarded U.S. English-language rights to Fox, which bid less….