Have Soccer Fans Had Enough of Fox’s Alexi Lalas?

Have sports TV viewers—and Fox Sports—outgrown Alexi Lalas?

Lalas has been a constant and polarizing TV presence on Fox and ESPN’s World Cup coverage for 20 years. But less than two weeks into Fox’s coverage of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, criticism of the network’s lead studio analyst seems to be reaching unprecedented proportions.

In a savagely hilarious takedown, The Guardian ripped the outspoken Lalas as the “All-American Idiot” and Fox’s “House Clown,” who’s worn out his TV welcome.

“For Fox to turn a man as partisan, bullying and unlikeable as Lalas into American soccer’s figurehead is the media equivalent of getting John Wayne Gacy to perform at a children’s birthday party,” wrote The Guardian’s Aaron Timms.

Former American star Jermaine Jones asked on X/Twitter if the brash Lalas was finally getting a “taste of his own medicine” from new Fox colleagues Thierry Henry and Zlatan Ibrahimović.