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Cohen is out

Joe Le Taxi

By Joe Le Taxi,
in FF - Football Forum

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Joe Le Taxi Veteran

Joe Le Taxi

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Wynalda replaces Cohen on Fox Football Fone-In

 

Posted 7/29/2009 7:44 AM EDT

 

Eric Wynalda is back in broadcasting.

 

The Hall of Famer and former ESPN commentator will join Fox Football Fone-In, Fox Soccer Channel's Monday night call-in show, when the show's sixth season starts Aug. 10 at a new time of 7 p.m. ET.

 

"I enjoyed covering the games," Wynalda says. "But being a commentator, following the game around and throwing rocks at your friends isn't necessarily a dream job. It's something that I fought with week-in, week-out.

 

"I'm still a fan of this game. I still love it. When this opportunity came along -- this is more of a dream job. It's once a week, it's right in my backyard, I don't have to travel, and I still get to do what I love, and that's talk about the game."

 

Wynalda replaces Steven Cohen, an English-born radio host who recently drew protests from Liverpool fans and the club itself for comments saying unticketed fans were a major factor in the 1989 stadium disaster in which 96 Liverpool fans died. U.S. fans of the club led an effort to convince sponsors to distance themselves from Cohen's shows. Cohen apologized (audio, including foul language), claiming he had received death threats.

 

Neither Wynalda nor Dermot McQuarrie, FSC's senior VP of production and programming and assistant general manager, would comment on Cohen or the Liverpool controversy.

 

Wynalda has faced controversy in his broadcasting career, being suspended by ESPN after comments he made about radio host Jim Rome surfaced on the Internet. He will be counted on for candid opinions.

 

He agrees with FIFA President Sepp Blatter that MLS should switch its schedule so players can be available for international transfers and tournaments, though he sees the need for a winter break. He says Landon Donovan played well in the Confederations Cup but is not "an every-game player" who should be counted on to lead the team and excel against all opponents.

 

"I don't think it's going to be everyone agreeing with each other," McQuarrie says.

 

Wynalda likes the idea of exchanging opinions with callers.

 

"When you're a commentator, everybody talks about you and has a problem with you," Wynalda says. "If people want to talk about me or have a problem with something I said, now they have the opportunity to just pick up the phone and call me. I like it. It's a great forum."

 

Hiring Wynalda does not mean the show will abandon European commentary and stick to the U.S. game. Wynalda, who played in Germany for a couple of years and briefly in Mexico, says he keeps in touch with his European contacts for insight into the major pro leagues there.

 

Co-host Nick Webster, who remains on the show, works with FSC's English Premier League coverage and will be a producer on Fox's prized acquisition, Europe's Champions League. With that in mind, Fox Football Fone-In will likely maintain a balance between European and American action.

 

"I think it will be about the same," McQuarrie says. "With having the Champions League now, you've got another aspect to add to it."

 

Wynalda even has some experience on the lower rungs of the U.S. soccer pyramid, before and after MLS launched.

 

"Eric's never played for the women's professional soccer league, but that's probably the only league that he hasn't played for that we're looking at," McQuarrie says.

 

blog post photo

 

He's also a soccer dad with four kids -- 4, 7, 10 and newborn.

 

"We spent this past weekend at my daughter's soccer tournament -- being there, being able to be a part of it, not being the guy that's on the phone calling his daughter asking how her game went," Wynalda says. "That's a huge component of my life. I love my kids, I like being around them.

 

And at his daughter's games, Wynalda shows restraint.

 

"I have the mute button," Wynalda says. "I've tried really hard to help other parents understand the importance of that as well. As parents, we tell our kids 'no' all the time. Soccer is a great way for them to go find themselves. That's their time to be them and find their own personalities. … This is a time for the kids. So I'm very quiet on the sidelines."

 

Well done to everyone who played a part to get him out.

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The Chief Mentor

The Chief

Posted
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Let's hope everyone in broadcasting hears about this and nobody gives the snivelling little cunt a job ever again. Actually he shouldn't he's a know nothing little wankstain who only got away with his limited knowledge of football cos it was in the states.

 

Good riddance you turd.

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23_Carra_Gold Mentor

23_Carra_Gold

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I'm actually fucking delighted.

 

I think the lads doing the boycott got a bit out of order toward the end though and despite him being a horrible cunt and deserving everything he gets I don't think we done ourselves any favours in the media with the anti-semitism.

 

Still, fuck off you absolute cunt!

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