“Next Wednesday is one of the most important days of the next decade for soccer in the United States. That’s when bids are due in Zürich, Switzerland, for the U.S. broadcast rights for World Cups ’18 and ’22. ESPN, NBC and Fox are expected to bid for the English-language rights, while Univisión and NBC-owned Telemundo are expected to be in competition for the Spanish-language rights. After the bids are submitted on Wednesday — there will be no formal presentations, as there were for the Olympic rights bids earlier this year — the FIFA executive committee will meet on Thursday and could reach a decision on the winners as soon as that day.” SI