Americans want to know more about soccer.

"Soccer is not only part of the history of so many Latin Americans and Europeans," said Francescoli. "It's a sport that has exploded in the U.S. and now, so many Americans want to know more about soccer."

Nearly two years and 5 million viewers later, GolTV has become one of the most popular channels on the Dish Network satellite system. The Miami-based channel airs its own soccer news updates and reports from soccer matches around the world. Programming is in Spanish, but GolTV provides real-time English translation through the SAP option on most television sets.

Next month, GolTV will launch a new initiative to attract younger viewers by sponsoring youth league events around the country and airing instructional shows produced by the famous English team, Manchester United.

In addition to the Dish Network, GolTV is available on Comcast, Adelphia and several independent cable systems. Francescoli and Constantino Voulgaris, GolTV director of business development and information technology, say they expect to sign a deal with other systems, such as DirecTV, by the end of the year.

"We expect to have 8 million viewers by the end of the year," said Voulgaris. "The interest in soccer has been bigger than even we anticipated."

GolTV started out as a six-person operation in 2003. Today, the company employs 100 people in its Miami offices and has freelancers in Europe, Mexico, Central America and South America. For millions of Hispanic soccer fans frustrated with U.S. sports channels that focus mostly on European leagues, GolTV provides matches and news updates on Latin American as well as European leagues.

"It's good because they have a diverse lineup," said Enver Peck, vice president of the Palm Beach Soccer League. "Fox only shows soccer in England, but these guys show Brazil, Uruguay and lots of different countries."

Voulgaris says GolTV is not modeled specifically after an existing channel, but does follow the mold of other niche networks such as the Golf Channel and the Tennis Channel. Voulgaris said getting picked up by the Dish Network, one of the larger satellite systems, was essential to GolTV's success.

"They realized soccer is growing fast, and instantly we had 3.5 million viewers," he said. "In a smaller cable market, that would take years to build."

The Dish Network added GolTV to its Latin American package in February 2003, but soon added the channel to its English-language sports package.