Fútbol de Primera (radio network)

• 1. Introduction

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  Fútbol de Primera is an American radio network that has been the voice of soccer for Spanish-speaking listeners across the United States since August 1989. Its daily show, hosted by Andrés Cantor, has run continuously for over three decades, making it the longest-running nationally syndicated Spanish-language radio program in the country. Reach into that number for a moment: 115 affiliated stations in the U.S., with additional signals flowing through Central and South America, plus a global audience on YouTube and Twitch. How did a network built around a single underserved audience grow into the home of the World Cup, the Gold Cup, and the Copa América? And who are the people who made it happen?

• 2. Built for an Unmet Need

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  Alejandro Gutman founded Fútbol de Primera in August 1989 with a clear-eyed diagnosis: Spanish-speaking soccer fans in the United States had no place on the radio dial that matched the quality of the sport they loved. The network's early leaders recognized that the existing landscape of AM and talk radio could not carry soccer to the audiences it deserved. Their answer was ambitious. They worked with affiliates to push soccer onto FM dial stations formatted for music, running it as special broadcasts when major matches demanded it. The strategy held. Powerhouse matches over the years have reached national audiences without interruption, and what started as a calculated expansion of the dial became the foundation of the network's national reach.

• 3. Andrés Cantor and the Daily Show

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  Since 1989, the daily program anchored by Andrés Cantor has been the heartbeat of Fútbol de Primera. Cantor also serves as co-chairman of the network alongside Gutman, a dual role that ties the editorial voice of the show directly to its leadership. Joining him on air are Sammy Sadovnik, Jaime Gallardo, and Rosa Beatriz Sánchez. Together, they cover the daily headlines of Mexican, Latin American, and European football, offering in-depth analysis of the stories that matter most to their listeners. The daily show, and every game broadcast, can be heard beyond the 115 U.S. stations, both through affiliates in Central and South America and on the network's official YouTube and Twitch channels.

• 4. Broadcasting the World Cup

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  Fútbol de Primera has broadcast the FIFA World Cup since 2002, including the 2022 edition in Qatar. The network's most celebrated broadcasts span the 2002, 2006, 2010, and 2014 tournaments. For each World Cup, the network recruits former players, coaches, and soccer scholars to join the broadcast panel. Among those who have contributed are Carlos Valderrama, Bora Milutinovic, Steve Sampson, Javier Castrilli, and Mariano Closs, alongside a roster of analysts and former players from across Latin America. The depth of that assembled panel, including figures who have played and managed at the highest levels, gives the World Cup coverage a perspective that the network's producers describe as among the most knowledgeable in Latin American soccer broadcasting.

• 5. A Record Eight Gold Cups

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  Beyond the World Cup, Fútbol de Primera has broadcast a record eight consecutive CONCACAF Gold Cups. The network also carries Mexico's national team games, CONCACAF World Cup Qualification, the FIFA Confederations Cup (from 2003 through 2017), the Copa América in 2015 and 2016, and a range of club competitions including the FIFA Club World Cup, the EFL Cup, the DFB-Pokal, and a weekly Game of the Week drawing from Serie A, Ligue 1, and the Bundesliga. Correspondents stationed in El Salvador, Honduras, Guadalajara, Monterrey, Mexico City, and Spain feed reporting back to the central broadcast team, giving the daily show a genuinely continental scope.

• 6. The Player of the Year Award

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  In 1991, Fútbol de Primera launched the Fútbol de Primera Player of the Year award, recognizing the best player in the United States men's national soccer team as voted by U.S. media. For twenty years, the award was sponsored by the American Honda Motor Company. The prize gave the network a civic presence in the soccer community, positioning it not just as a broadcaster but as an institution shaping how the sport's contributions were recognized and remembered in the country.

• 7. A Network with Roots Across the Country

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  Fútbol de Primera is headquartered in Miami, with offices in New York City, San Francisco, and San Antonio. Its 115 affiliated stations stretch from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Seattle, Washington, from Ponce, Puerto Rico, to Twin Falls, Idaho. The network's signal reaches markets large and small: major cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston sit alongside Bend, Oregon, Monett, Missouri, and Rankin, Texas. María Antonieta Collins, a renowned Mexican journalist and author, hosts "Casos y Cosas de Collins," a one-hour weekly show produced by the network, a reminder that Fútbol de Primera's programming reaches beyond match coverage into the broader Spanish-speaking cultural conversation. The 2022 FIFA World Cup broadcast stands as the network's most recent major tournament production, carried across all of those stations and into the global stream.