Gus Johnson To Call 2018 World Cup: Best Idea Ever Or Worst Idea Ever?

Gus Johnson will call the 2018 World Cup for Fox Sports, SI.com reports.

Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated broke the news on Tuesday that the former CBS broadcaster will call his first match for Fox Soccer this weekend. He will continue to call a series of significant soccer matches, including the finals of both the FA Cup and the Champions League. If everything goes according to plan, Johnson will announce both the Women's World Cup in 2015 and the men's tournament three years later.

"This is not something that is temporary," said Fox Sports president Eric Shanks. "This is something we are going to work at. It isn't an Olympic assignment where he does the luge for two weeks and then we don't hear from that announcer for the next four years. This is something we are serious about and something we will continue to work at. Based on the radio games and the practice games Gus has done, I think this is going to work."

As Awful Announcing notes, this move is somewhat of a risk for FOX, considering Johnson has little experience covering soccer on television. ESPN tried using a novice soccer announcer during the 2006 World Cup, with disastrous results. Dave O'Brien then called out his critics in an interview with USA Today, claiming that soccer fans are part of a "petulant little clique" and did not even give him a chance.

However, there may be a plus side to this decision. As USA Today notes, Johnson's calls are consistently entertaining. While die-hard soccer fans may be disappointed by Fox's choice, Johnson's name may cause casual viewers to watch the network's World Cup coverage when they would not have done so before.

For the record, Johnson is not a complete novice when it comes to soccer matches. As Bleacher Report notes, the 45-year-old broadcaster has done radio play-by-play for several San Jose Earthquakes games. You can listen to some of those calls for yourself below.