Fox analyst Alexi Lalas is refusing to bow to European pressure to use the term ‘football’ during the 2026 World Cup.
The 56-year-old rose to prominence in the sport in the United States as a defender for the national team during the 1994 World Cup and has covered multiple international tournaments for Fox.
However, despite his experience in the game, it appears the word ‘football’ isn’t in his vocabulary. Not when it comes to soccer anyway.
A fan took issue with Lalas using the term soccer during the network’s coverage of this year’s tournament, which is being co-hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico.
They argued on X that Lalas should attempt to ‘bridge the gap’ out of respect for the global game.
They argued that even the USMNT’s players are referring to the sport as football in their interviews with overseas outlets ‘out of respect.’
Fox analyst Alexi Lalas is refusing to us ethe term ‘football’ during the World Cup
Lalas (top, third left) is an icon of the US men’s national team and played 96 times for his nation
However, the American analyst wasn’t caving. He fired back at the fan, claiming switching to ‘football’ would make him a ‘weak poser.’
‘Yeah…that’s not gonna happen,’ he wrote quote-tweeting the fan’s post on X. ‘I call it soccer. I own it proudly. I never apologize for it.
‘If you grew up calling it soccer and changed out of insecurity or some misguided belief it makes you more authentic/credible…it doesn’t. It’s cringe. It makes you look like a weak poser.’
Of course, while the majority of the rest of the world refers to the sport as football or a variation of the word in their native languages, the United States has adopted the term ‘soccer.’
The term is derived from late 19th-century England as a slang abbreviation for ‘association football’ used by Oxford students to distinguish it from rugby union.
Lalas seemed to have no issue adopting a very British phrase earlier in the tournament, however.
The former defender found himself in hot water on just the second day of the World Cup when he shockingly called James Corden a ‘w****r’ on live television.
During the build-up to the day’s first game between Canada and Bosnia, main Fox host Rebecca Lowe steered the crew towards a promo for Corden’s new late-night World Cup show After Hours.
The analyst stopped the Fox broadcast in its track with a shocking slur at James Corden
Lead host Rebecca Lowe and analyst Thierry Henry couldn’t believe what Lalas had said
‘Can we talk about James Corden for a second?’ she asked the panel, which comprised Lalas and two soccer legends, Thierry Henry and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Lalas was the first to chime in, but it’s fair to say nobody expected the comment he then produced in front of millions of TV viewers.
‘Oh! What do you guys call them?’ Lalas began, before adding: ‘Full kit w****r right?’
All three of his colleagues were immediately stunned by the comment, with Henry staring down the camera in shock.
Lowe, sensing the need to steer the conversation back to normality, then replied: ‘Okay… lucky we’re on American television, because the W word on British TV…’
The host, who also fronts NBC’s Premier League coverage in the US, is correct that foul language is more accepted on American shores. The clip quickly went viral on social media across the globe.
Lalas’s comment referenced a derogatory British slang phrase that refers to someone who dons a full kit despite not playing in a match.
Lalas has continued to appear to be somewhat of a divisive figure on the Fox panel with many fans convinced his colleagues, Henry and Ibrahimovic, dislike him.
Fans are convinced that Lalas’s Fox colleagues, Henry and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, don’t like him
After a number of awkward moments between the trio in the early days of the World Cup, Lalas traveled to Seattle for the USMNT’s second group game against Australia on Friday afternoon.
Lalas was joined by anchor Rob Stone and fellow US soccer legends Clint Dempsey and Carli Lloyd outside Lumen Field, while thousands of fans gathered around the set before kickoff.
That left Henry and Ibrahimovic in the regular Fox studio in Los Angeles with anchor Lowe.
And when Lowe announced that Lalas ‘has left us,’ Zlatan quickly replied: ‘America, you’re welcome.’
That moment set social media ablaze and fans watching on from home claimed the pair looked overjoyed to be without Lalas.
