Goooooooooooooooootcha! The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) says it has closed down one of the biggest illegal live soccer streaming rings. That comes only a couple of weeks before the FIFA World Cup — soccer’s version of that other football's playoffs and Super Bowl — which begins November 20 in Qatar.

ACE says the shutdown affected futbollibre.net and televisionlibre.net as well as more than three dozen additional associated domains.

It says that the shuttered domains collectively had received a staggering 300-plus million visits in the past six months alone, with most of that traffic coming from Argentina. Those domains are now under ACE's control and visitors are being redirected to its site, Watch Legally, which as its name suggests, informs them where content can be legally accessed.

According to ACE, Futbolibre (literally “free soccer”) has had a reputation for illegally streaming live matches from leagues including UEFA Champions League, La Liga, and the Argentine Professional Soccer League.

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“The successful takedown of this major sports piracy ring marks significant progress as ACE expands its live-tier operations and efforts to combat illegal sports piracy,” said ACE head Jan van Voorn, executive VP and chief of global content protection for the Motion Picture Association.

ACE board members comprise Amazon, Apple TV Plus, NBCUniversal, Netflix Studios LLC, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Paramount, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures and Warner Bros. ■

The U.S. men’s soccer team failed to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, a development that is likely to put a crimp in the ratings and revenue Fox Sports will be able to generate in its first effort at broadcasting the tournament.

Fox Sports is reportedly paying between $450 million and $500 million to FIFA for U.S. video rights to the World Cup. In 2011, Fox won the bidding for the 2018 and 2022 Cups, replacing ESPN, and was later awarded the 2026 Cup.

Fox had been rooting for the Americans to qualify for the competition, as the team has for the past 30 years. But the U.S. lost to Trinidad and Tobago Tuesday night, while Honduras and Panama won their games, leaving the U.S. on the outside looking in.

Interest in both men’s and women’s soccer has been steadily growing over the year but without a home team to root for it will be difficult for Fox to attract viewers who are not already fans of soccer to tune in.

Fox Sports said it remained upbeat about the World Cup despite the U.S. team's failure.

"Last night’s World Cup qualifying results do not change Fox Sports’ passion for the world’s biggest sporting event. While the U.S. was eliminated, the biggest stars in the world from Lionel Messi to Cristiano Ronaldo stamped their tickets to Russia on the same day, and will battle teams ranging from Mexico to England that have massive fan bases in America," a Fox Sports spokesperson said. "The World Cup is the greatest sporting event on earth that changes the world for one month every four years, and Fox Sports remains steadfast in our commitment of bringing the games to America for the first time in 2018 and will continue to support the U.S. Soccer Federation as they look ahead to the 2022 World Cup."

The World Cup will be held in Russia June 14-July 15, 2018.

Fox has already signed up a number of sponsors for its World Cup coverage. Last month it announced that Verizon will sponsor the half-time shows of matches and that Volkswagen will be the sponsor of post-game shows.

At a World Cup kickoff event in New York, Fox said more than a dozen advertisers have signed up and that the network was in advanced discussions with FIFA partners including adidas and Coca-Cola.

Fox Sports is planning to air 350 hours of World Cup programming during the month-long tournament.

Its daytime and late night studio coverage will originate from Red Square in Moscow. The network has built a two story broadcast complex with two sets, a main anchor desk and an interview room that will be used for its World Cup Live morning show; World Cup Today, a highlight program; and World Cup Tonight, which will recap each day's play.

Fox’s coverage will include digital content including 15 original series on Fox Sports Go and programming using virtual reality technology.

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Fox Sports is also working with 21st Century Fox sister company National Geographic, which is creating multiplatform coverage from Nat Geo’s photographers, videographers and journalists.

Twenty years ago, Fernando Fiore was best-known as the co-host of the weekly Univision travel program Fuera de Serie, alongside a Colombian runway model named Sofia Vergara.

Today, Fiore, now a sportscaster, hopes to follow Vergara’s crossover lead, thanks to a new multiyear deal with Fox Sports.

Starting Feb. 10, Fiore — who hosted Univision’s weekly sports show República Deportiva for 16 years — will serve as a co-host and general contributor for the English-language sports network’s diverse slate of soccer programming.

Fiore’s hiring at Fox Sports was widely expected. He’d been given an audition of sorts when Fox Deportes hired him as a contributor to a 90-minute pregame show ahead of October’s U.S.-Mexico soccer match and on Fox Deportes’s Fox Deportes en Vivo.

Fiore’s new deal with Fox Sports will put him behind the microphone for the 2016 Copa America Centenario, a highly anticipated tournament involving men’s national soccer from throughout the Americas. The June 3-26 event, marking 100 years of the tournament, is the first Copa America to be held in the U.S.

Fiore will also appear on Mexico national team telecasts during the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup, and throughout Fox Sports’s coverage of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

“Fernando Fiore is one of the superstars of Spanish-language broadcasting in the U.S., and we are delighted to welcome him to the FOX Sports family,” David Neal, executive producer of the FIFA World Cup on Fox, said. “Fernando's vast experience and unique perspective will be valuable additions to our coverage of the Road to Russia and the 2018 FIFA World Cup."

In prepared comments, Fiore noted that he was honored to bring his experience and Latin flavor to Fox Sports. “The wonderful thing about sports is that there is no language barrier,” he said. “Whether the fans watch fútbol or soccer, we’ll be presenting coverage of the biggest world-class soccer events. After all, the passion for soccer and the sound of a ¡GOOOOOL! need no translation."

In addition to his years in sports at Univision, Fiore is also an author. His first book, The World Cup: The Ultimate Guide to the Greatest Sports Spectacle in the World, was released in 2006.