A live television broadcast at the World Cup was interrupted by two fans exchanging punches in the middle of the street. The 23rd edition of the biggest competition in football began on Thursday with co-hosts Mexico beating South Africa at the magnificent Azteca Stadium.
An electric atmosphere carried El Tri to a 2-0 win with fans arriving up to five hours early to get the World Cup party started, back on home turf for the first time in 40 years. While the football took centre stage, there were sporadic clashes between protesters and security leading up to kick-off.
Broadcast Interrupted
During the course of the evening, a Fox Sports Mexico segment was briefly halted as two men cut across the shot brawling. The broadcaster’s reporter was stood face to camera, in conversation with his colleague Christian Tibu Elgeura live from the studio. Unbeknownst to him, two fans were trading punches right over his shoulder with the live feed cutting to black. One of the individuals involved in the scrap was wearing a Mexico jersey.
Seeing the funny side, Elgeura shared a snippet of the incident on his social media feeds with the caption: ‘Fox Sports Out Of Context.’
More Viral Moments
With the competition barely a day old, there have already been a few viral moments collected from studios around the world. South Africa created their own problems in the game that also saw three players sent off. Goalkeeper Ronwen Williams and midfielder Yaya Sithole’s attempts to play out from the back directly led to Julián Quiñones’ opening goal, much to the bemusement of pundits back home.
Appearing on Sporty TV, former Premier League stars Quinton Fortune, Aaron Mokoena and Benni McCarthy sat in stunned silence at full-time. Sensing the awkwardness, the presenter leading the coverage attempted to spark conversation, saying: ‘Okay. What do we say? What went wrong in this game?’
Back in the UK, there was an awkward moment during ITV’s pre-match show where presenter Semra Hunter managed to confuse Sweden manager Graham Potter with Gareth Southgate.
