This summer’s World Cup will have a notable absence in the form of the USA.

To the rest of the world, the US may not seem like biggest nation when it comes to football, but it has a population of over 300 million and is very much a part of the World Cup’s landscape: their failure to qualify is already one of the biggest upsets of a tournament which will also be without Italy, Chile and the Netherlands. It also represents one of football’s most important future markets.

The US has a burgeoning relationship with the game and plenty of young fans, who won’t switch off just because their country isn’t playing. Just like Scotland and the Republic of Ireland, they’ll sit back and enjoy the show which will feature so many familiar faces lighting up the stage.

But for a large Hispanic population in the country, there’s still plenty of pride to play for: Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama have all qualified, whilst the South American nations will be there, too.

To that end, there will be a lot for World Cup broadcasters in the US to tap into. Spanish language broadcaster Telemundo has recognised this, and will aim to boost its digital reach by bringing Copa90 on board to create the sort of fan-led content in Spanish that’s been a staple of football’s digital presence in Europe over the last few years.

Telemundo will start its search for fan content creators who are bilingual in Spanish and English, and who can create compelling content for the channel on social media. The broadcaster is calling this “El 12” – a reference to what we might call the 12th man in English.

“It represents for us a brand new push into fan-focused sports coverage and while we’re kicking it off with the World Cup, it’s not limited just to the World Cup. We’ll be looking across the board on how we can shine a light to an increasingly vibrant Hispanic fan culture of soccer in the U.S.,” said Peter Blacker, Telemundo’s EVP of Digital Media and Emerging Business.

“Fandom of soccer is some of the most intense fandom that exists around the world, but ironically it hasn’t been focused as much in the U.S. Hispanic market, so we chose partner with Copa90 that specializes in that global fandom experience and they’re working with us to develop this program…right in time for what will be the most digital World Cup ever in the history of World Cup.”

World Cup summers come but once every four years, and they are probably the most important events in the lives of fans who essentially measure their lives using World Cups as milestones. That just shows the importance to broadcasters, brands and even the sport itself of getting it right.