This is supposed to be part of a Nike Ad.Cesc Fabregas dresses up in a silver fireproof spacesuit and then the whole thing literally goes to the blazes.He juggles with a football which is on fire and he himself catches fire and I can't imagine Nike telling anyone to "Just do it" at the end of it all.
Video - if you are interested - can be viewed here...
The complete ad can be seen on the nike website here..
I like the Adidas one better.
Adidas's new global ad campaign features personalities like David Beckham, Steven Gerrard and José Mourinho, visiting some of the world's smallest footballing nations, including the Isle of Scilly's two-team league.Mourinho does the speaking in the video basically telling youngsters to dream big and follow their dream.Can't argue with that.
Did you know that UEFA EURO 2008 has an official balloon shaped in the form of the Henri Delaunay trophy ?Well its true and the trophy shaped balloon is flying over the international Hot Air Balloon Festival in Geneva between 3 and 6 April.
The balloon is accompanying the EURO Experience Tour, which is visiting 13 cities in Switzerland and Austria from late January to the end of June in order to get fans and residents in the mood for UEFA EURO 2008. By the end of its journey, the 34.5 metre-tall hot air balloon will have travelled a total of 30,000km. Pretty good for a balloon I guess.You can follow that story here..
Richard Scudamore's plan has a caveat. Asia's millions know Man U, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham, and possibly Man City. The EPL is a global brand because of these clubs. If you really want to humiliate clubs like Reading or Wigan, send them out to these countries and watch them disprove the popularity of the EPL brand. No offense meant to either club but they have problems attracting an audience at home. How about we start here?
On FSC Super Sunday, Max Bretos came all fired up taking the CAF to task for organizing the ACN at a bloody inconvenient time with all the important European league matches during this period. The solution should be to push the two yearly tournament to the summer. European leagues with many African players in their clubs have also asked for a change. Fair enough.
The CAF's contention is that the unbearably hot African summer will be hard to take by the players.
Bretos dismisses it as a reason. The heat might be a factor since he has never experienced an African summer. But here is where Bretos goes for the anal probe. The CAF's reasoning is suspect. He bases his observation on the exorbitant broadcasting fees that the CAF is charging for the ACN matches due to which some African countries have refused to air them. It is riddled with nepotism and inefficiency. There are problems with ticketing and transportation. It is time to listen to the European grown ups. The CAF should swallow their pride and move the ACN up.
Look, Max, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. The CAF is making a good point when it says that the weather is unbearably hot. They live in Africa and they should know better. The first ACN was held in 1963 much before the EPL was organized and before the present exodus of African players took place to the European leagues. So it is not pride that keeps them from changing but a genuine problem. Much of Northern and Equatorial Africa bakes in the sun at 115 to 120F in the summer. As this article shows, players found it hard to play in the heat with temperatures reaching the mid 90s at the 1996 ACN organized in SA, a relatively cooler country.
Here is a thought for you, Max. These players play despite the ACN not being shown in 200 countries because the tournament is a showcase for nascent African talent and there is enormous pride in winning the cup, as badly organized as it maybe. The CAF is doing its bit by ensuring the players show up to play in good health. Because in the African summer, dehydration and cramps take their toll. A sunstroke in 115F heat becomes a possibility.
Of course, when that happens, then Bretos will be blaming the CAF for being bone headed AND inefficient and corrupt. The more realistic club managers already have contingency plans to deal with the cyclical loss of African players which makes much more sense to me.
Fox Soccer Channel has a special on Arsenal's greatest moments starting at 1 PM today. I can't think of a better Xmas present. Well, I can but its complicated.
Thierry Henry contemplates the crystal ball and sees Barca
Bolivian president Evo Morales makes his case for high altitude soccer
Iraq celebrates its win and Sunnis, Shias, and Kurds alike loft their silverware
Nani defies gravity as Fergie tries to keep him earthbound
Some really great pictures. For more Reuters pictures of the year (these were the soccer ones) >>
Kaka won the FIFA best player award as he beat out Ronaldo and Leo Messi. Maybe he deserved it but it is no secret that Sepp Blatter and FIFA heavily weight CL and the Club World Championship titles above domestic and regional titles. The CWC is a championship that one rarely watches but the current edition is Sepp Blatter's brainchild, restarted after five years with 7 teams representing their respective conferences. In some warped way it represents his ambition to see lightweight conferences achieve some sort of parity with the heavyweight conferences. So far the David Goliath feel good factor has been missing.
Go to the website where glowing recommendations like "Kaka does the honours", "Kaka soars above the competition", "Milan lights up Yokohama", "Dominant Milan rule the world" and you realize that the FIFA best player award is a foregone conclusion. It does not make a difference that the player who actually led Boca to the CWC, single handedly winning the Copa Libertadores title was not even there. He is in the midst of a contract dispute with Villareal.
Ronaldo might be responsible for winning the Premiership for Man Utd but the Red Devils did not win the CL and if they had then we would have seen Ronaldo's name substituted for Kaka's and he would have been crowned king on the basis of two matches. Leo Messi might have actually played for Argentina in the Copa America, the competition that Kaka cried off citing fatigue and led them to the final. They did not win. End of story.
Its a simple formula really - win CL, win CWC, win best player award. The website really does that best.
Derek Richey has developed a system to rank clubs. It takes into account both domestic and international matches played by the club in 2007. Only the first 100 are included in this list. Some eye openers as Bossman points out, AC Milan is ranked 28th with Hamburger and Bordeaux ranked above it. I wonder if league strength is something that Derek looked into similar to the BCS rankings that rate college football in the USA. The Bundesliga and Ligue1 is consistently rated lower than the Serie, so the AC Milan ranking would be an outlier even though they are well off their pace.
1 Real Madrid SPA 106
Internazionale ITA 106
3 FC Barcelona SPA 104
4 Manchester Utd ENG 102
5 Arsenal ENG 101
6 Chelsea ENG 99
7 Olympique Lyon FRA 98
8 Villarreal CF SPA 96.5
9 Santos BRA 96
AS Roma ITA 96
11 Bayern München GER 95
Boca Juniors ARG 95
13 Hamburger SV GER 92.5
14 Werder Bremen GER 92
15 FC Porto POR 91
16 Girondins Bordeaux FRA 90.5
17 Atlético Madrid SPA 89.5
18 São Paulo FC BRA 89
Liverpool ENG 89
20 Flamengo BRA 85
AS Nancy FRA 85
22 Valencia CF SPA 84
23 Bayer Leverkusen GER 82.5
24 Juventus ITA 82
PSV Eindhoven NED 82
RCD Espanyol SPA 82
Osasuna SPA 82
28 AC Milan ITA 81
29 Grêmio BRA 79
Fiorentina ITA 79
Toluca MEX 79
CF América MEX 79
33 Getafe CF SPA 78.5
34 Manchester City ENG 78
Udinese ITA 78
Racing Santander SPA 78
Benfica POR 78
Sevilla FC SPA 78
39 Everton ENG 76.5
40 Celtic SCO 76
RCD Mallorca SPA 76
Schalke 04 GER 76
43 Lanús ARG 75
Portsmouth ENG 75
Le Mans FRA 75
46 Karlsruher SC GER 74
Real Zaragoza SPA 74
48 Galatasaray TUR 73
49 Aston Villa ENG 72
50 Rangers SCO 71
51 Tigre ARG 70
Valenciennes FRA 70
Atalanta ITA 70
Santos Laguna MEX 70
Guadalajara MEX 70
Ajax NED 70
57 Slavia Praha CZE 69
Blackburn ENG 69
Athletic Bilbao SPA 69
Fenerbahçe TUR 69
61 Houston Dynamo USA 68
62 VfB Stuttgart GER 67
63 Fluminense-RJ BRA 66
Hannover 96 GER 66
Sampdoria ITA 66
66 OGC Nice FRA 65
Feyenoord NED 65
Vitória Guimarães POR 65
Sivasspor TUR 65
70 Banfield ARG 64
Atlante MEX 64
72 Cruzeiro BRA 63
West Ham ENG 63
74 Rennes FRA 62
75 Besiktas TUR 61
N England Revolution USA 61
Sporting CP POR 61
78 Argentinos Juniors ARG 60
Newcastle ENG 60
Hertha BSC GER 60
SC Heerenveen NED 60
Hibernian SCO 60
UD Almería SPA 60
84 Napoli ITA 58
Real San Luis MEX 58
SK Brann NOR 58
87 Palmeiras BRA 57
Birmingham ENG 57
Sporting Braga POR 57
Real Valladolid SPA 57
Chivas USA USA 57
92 Eintracht Frankfurt GER 56
DC United USA 56
94 Club Brugge BEL 55
Internacional BRA 55
FK Teplice CZE 55
Tottenham ENG 55
AS Monaco FRA 55
FC Twente NED 55
Vitória Setúbal POR 55
Harry Redknapp was arrested by anti corruption police as the investigation by their economic crimes unit into alleged bungs swung into overdrive.
Redknapp confirmed that he had been arrested and said: 'They have to arrest you to talk to you, for you to be in the police station. I think that's the end of it, it didn't directly concern me.'
No, Harry the police don't have to arrest you to talk to you. Not unless they feel that you are withholding information and they want you to sing like a canary.
Also arrested were the chief executive of Portsmouth, Peter Storrie, and Milan Mandaric, the Serbian businessman who owned Portsmouth until September last year and is now chairman of Leicester City. A total of five individuals were arrested by the police. The multiple arrests follow Tottenham defender Pascal Chimbonda being taken in for questioning on similar conspiracy to defraud and false accounting matters in September.
Redknapp was in the running for the England job but with the prosecutors planning to indict him it will essentially rule him out of the race. Anyways, just as well because I don't see anyone other than Jose Mourinho doing justice as England's manager.
Birgit Prinz and Sandra Smisek scored hat tricks in an 11-0 smashing of Argentina. Vanina Correa had a nightmare debut in the Argentine goal and scored two own goals.
The Germans have lost a few key players from the 2003 campaign as Maren Meinert their playmaker retired but they have Renate Lingor and Kirstin Garefrekes.
A brain eating zombie entity called Net Results is removing the You Tube video clips of the matches we are posting for alleged copy right violations. I guess not too many people are buying Setanta and FSC for their soccer fix.
And I thought the "internets" was free. Apologies, readers.
While talented MLS players will always be a target for European clubs, there has been very few players who have singled them out so avidly like Freddy Adu. It is telling that Adu reserved his best for the U20 squad and came to the attention of Benfica following his stellar tournament. But his MLS career turned out quite humdrum. First with DC United where he ran afoul with disciplinary issues under Peter Nowak and then at RSL, where he frankly looked like he was sleep walking. One goal in 900 minutes of play. You could see where his priorities lay and it was not the MLS.
So here we have Beckham who is brought in as a symbol of a resurgent MLS, whereas Freddy Adu is backpedaling as fast as he can to Europe. Another example of a mixed message.
There is a reason why Carlos Tevez is perceived as a £20m striker. Every time the Blades reinstate and subsequently lose their appeal to get West Ham relegated, it serves as yet another reminder to every club's manager the grievous harm Tevez did to the Blades chances of staying afloat in the Premiership. A feat that was merely heroic has passed onto the realm of myth, a feat of Herculean proportions. The Blades are now taking the Tevez case to the British High Court.
These appeals hide the fact that in the last couple of games, the Blades had a great chance of staving relegation but they lost badly to Villa, 0-3. But everything was not lost when they met up with Wigan for the final match. In fact, the Blades were overwhelming favourites to retain their Premiership position. It was the Latics that were in deep trouble. All Sheffield needed was a draw as Wigan was 3 points behind. Instead they lost as David Unsworth converted a PK that doomed Sheffield Utd. In a twist of fate, the Blades transfered Unsworth to the Latics in January 2007 as the centre back did not feature in Neill Warnock's plans.
For your Copa America fix, go check out The Onion Bag. They have loads of stuff on the Copa including a competition featuring beauteous babes from each of the participating countries like Aida Yespica, Adriana Lima, Jessica Alba. Yespica is my choice. Muy caliente! Viva Venezuela!
For more Aida Yespica and the accompanying physiological changes (errr..... not workplace safe) >>
That's the one benefit of coming to the USA. Any thing and everything can become a reality show including people with halitosis. So it is with Posh who has a one hour NBC special airing in July. Victoria Beckham: Coming to America (mercifully pruned down from a 6 part serial). For that we have to thank Beckham's recall to the England squad.
NBC's one hour gushfest will show Posh's sunnier alter ego and not her handbag swinging one. Posh stalkers can check out her website and see how these simple folk live.
Soccerblog had made the prediction that Real would try and buyout Beckham back from the LA Galaxy at the end of the season. This is what exactly happened. Becks is staying in LA for now and honour his commitment but my feeling is that he will start missing hanging out in the Real locker room with the rest of the Galacticos. I don't think one can also understate Beckham's desire to continue to play and play well for England. For that to happen a sustained level of exposure at the highest levels of soccer is desirable. When I say sustained I mean not just in terms of skill and the intensity of the game but also in its cultural impact.
Becks and Posh will be a novelty act in LA, an endless source of material for the paparazzi but in Europe, Becks found out that Sir Alex and Ramon Calderon were less impressed by his lifestyle. Becks will no doubt attend celebrity photo shoots with Tiger Woods, Michael Strahan, and Tony Parker but soccer in the US still has this incidental feel. The US is 5-8 time zones away from Europe depending on where you live but in soccer terms it would be larger. Just as an example, the NYT with a daily circulation of 1.2 million, published in the largest metro and an MLS club, the Red Bulls, and substantial numbers of Central, Latin American, and European expats and immigrants, gives a measly 8 lines to the UEFA, CONCACAF Gold Cup coverage, and a weekly roundup by Jack Bell. You have to read El Diario to go beyond the AFP blurb.
For Alexi Lalas, Beckham would be a financial windfall once Real and the more moneyed Premiership clubs come knocking on his door once again. He is easily worth twice his signing amount (LA paid 10 million dollars) and he will bring in money through ticket sales. LA will profit handsomely. Becks also stands to earn a projected 50 million dollars every year in advertising and merchandising. But I am not convinced that this will be inducement for him to stay. He is in his legacy mode: Beckham the soccer player, not the metrosexual icon, or the richest athlete, or the next Brit villain in Hollywood. This legacy began and will end in Europe.
You'll soon see Gazza in movie halls in a sci-fi horror movie called Final Run. And no, its title is misleading because it is not about Gazza's return to White Hart Lane to fight the aliens who have taken over Robbie Keane and Mido and rescue the Spurs bizarro season.
Troubled ex-soccer player Paul Gascoigne is attached to star in "Final Run," a $2.5 million budgeted horror actioner being set up by London-based production company SjB Imperial Film. SjB topper Stephen James Bland helms the pic in which Gascoigne — or Gazza as he is affectionately known by the Brit public — will play a survivor of an alien invasion.
Bland describes the project "as something akin to 'Aliens' meets 'Black Hawk Down'," stressing that it is "character-driven and no mindless shoot-'em-up."
Gazza will get pally with Lois Winstone, the daughter of Ray Winstone, who acted in the finest movie out of England since The Life of Brian.
And Vinnie Jones who knows Gazza up close and personal continues his successful movie career with Rush Hour 3 alongside Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, due summer 2007.
Vinnie has also agreed to play Arkan, the notorious Serbian warlord and onetime soccer hooligan whose fascist ideology was honed in the terraces of Red Star Belgrade. Watch out for him in the Filthy War.
India's overheating economy along with China's is the topic du jour nowadays in the global economy. Overnight, the IT revolution and outsourcing has created the world's biggest nouveau riche group, India's middle class of more than 300 million people. To many investors, this represents potentially millions of new customers clamouring for everything, from cell phones to cheap air tickets. India's FDI now tops more than $70 billion a year, an increase of 116% over last year. Factories in India are finding it hard to keep up with demand. There is now a waiting period for cars and motorcycles. The Indian economy has seen an impressive almost double digit rate of growth in the last decade or so. Deregulation in the early 90's has led to the global market immersing itself in the Indian economy.
In this context it is not surprising that India's new rich has turned to golf as their choice of sport. Literally, thousands of school going children are taking lessons in New Delhi's dozen golf courses. Indians golfers Arjan Atwal, Daniel Chopra, Jyoti Randhawa, and Jeev Milkha Singh, have found success in the PGA and Asian tourneys inspiring many budding golfers to emulate them. And beyond them, we have a bonafide star in Vijay Singh, whose Indian roots are a
source of pride. Golf is a sport with bountiful prize monies, attracts hundreds of sponsors and endorsements, can be played well past retirement age, and at the end of the day requires less physical fitness than most sports. Moreover, golf is increasingly an essential part of a business profile, an attractive add on that enhances your marketability. In short, golf embodies the new individualistic and corporatist India.
Soccer's origins smack of Nehruvian socialism in this new India. The ascendant days of Indian soccer in the '50s and '60s were partly due, in fact, to the large PSUs (Public Sector Undertakings), the industrial behemoths like SAIL, BHEL, Indian Railways, who were in position to invest in soccer infrastructure, had teams as did the defense forces. In those days, soccer was primarily played to keep unruly states, newly integrated, in the Indian union. The quaint anachronism that is the Santosh trophy reflects those past vicissitudes. In today's context the Santosh trophy assumes that there is a visceral attachment to an abstraction such as statehood, when clearly we have moved on, as evinced in the empty stadiums that bear witness to matches between W.Bengal and Punjab, or more recently Manipur. In England a player is beholden to his club and country, not county. Fans gravitate to a more local affiliation, the club, which in many cases was started by a group of them, reflecting a historical and societal dynamic. We see it in the Bengal and Goa clubs (a wonderful history of Indian soccer can be read in Goalless, the Story of a Unique Footballing Nation). Unfortunately, this part of Indian soccer has woefully languished beyond the usual power centers of W.Bengal, Goa, Punjab, and Kerala, which is where most of these clubs are located. The Santosh trophy reflects Nehru's policy of the primacy of the state and its enterprises, creating an elitism, that has done little to enhance the development of soccer but preserves the bragging rights of exactly four states.
This is not to say that the advent of globalization has not touched Indian soccer. On the contrary, it has led to the formation of the National Football League (NFL), provided the players enough money, sponsored kits and equipment, and made the NFL rich many times over with lucrative TV and merchandising rights. Indian soccer is rolling in the money. But globalization cuts both ways. The airing of Premiership, La Liga, UEFA cup, the Euro and the World Cup, means the average Indian soccer fan can watch his favourite player, Ronaldinho in action and follow his favourite proxy team which unsurprisingly happens to be Brazil. The long dry spell in Indian soccer has left no soccer heroes that this generation of fans can look upto. Gone are the days of Sailen Manna, Chuni Goswami, Shyam Thapa, Prasanto Bannerjee, Neville D'Souza, and Peter Thangaraj, their exploits etched in history while being supplanted by European and Latin American soccer stars in the new global India. Even a bonafide star such as Baichung Bhutia enters the twilight of his career, his considerable talent inadequate to carry India on his back, without the tangible support of the rest of the players. The NFL has been unsuccessful in creating any indigenous heroes while it has become a magnet for third tier Nigerian and fourth tier Brazilian players. It has also failed to carve out an existence beyond the big Indian metros and its average attendances artificially inflated by the Kolkata club derbies, in actuality show a decline. The NFL is simultaneously, a beneficiary and a victim of globalization. Enriched by it but abandoned by an audience that has many choices, including golf.
What we need is a Gandhian approach to developing soccer and this means getting soccer out from the urban centers to the smaller cities in the hinterland. We can derive inspiration and ideas from how Japan managed to make soccer the number one sport in their country. The J-League after a fast promising start in 1992 also faced the same dilemma, with dwindling audiences after the first few upbeat years. But the J-League was blessed with visionaries who saw that circumscribing soccer in the confines of the big metros was surely its death knell, and they took to developing the secondary and tertiary centers of soccer in smaller cities and towns who built these clubs successfully from the grass-root level, leading to the formation of the J2 League. The J. League designated the core activity areas of each club as that club's home town. What this means is that the J. League expects each club to develop as an integral part of its community and engage in the promotion of football and other sporting activity within it (J. League Regulations, Article 21).Clubs from towns like Oita, Kofu, Sendai, Omiya, and Niigata formed the initial nucleus of J2 clubs, which has now grown to 13 clubs. The development of the J2 league is the prime reason why soccer has flourished in Japan.
India does have a NFL second division of six clubs. The premier cup competition in India, the Federation cup is open to 16 teams, ten in the first division and six in the second division of the NFL. Out of the 16 teams, four come from Kolkata, five from Goa, 2 from Kerala, 2 from Maharashtra, and one each from the Army, Karnataka, and Punjab. Sixteen clubs represent the soccer aspirations of a country over a billion strong. Even more shocking, these six second division clubs again represent that tiny group of states that have a traditional lock on Indian soccer. The NFL has introduced a fledgling 3rd division and if this succeeds then more clubs in other regions of India will get a chance to compete. However it appears that these teams are mostly from the para-military and other state organizations, whereas, the NFL 3rd division should be concentrating on developing coomunity based clubs. Compare this to the English FA Cup which invites not only the Premiership clubs and other Football League division clubs but also non-league clubs. The 2006-2007 season saw a record 687 entries. Lower clubs go through preliminary qualifying rounds to get to the next level. This egalitarian exercise involves the whole nation and its clubs, both professional and amateur, through the football season, and in the past had produced some of the most thrilling upsets of the more storied clubs. Amongst the more memorable ones, in 1991, 4th division Wrexham beat 1st division Arsenal, 2-1 and more recently in 2003, 3rd division Shrewsbury Town beat Premier League Everton, 2-1.
The AIFF can introduce a limited version of the FA Cup by increasing the number of clubs playing the Federation Cup, outside of the NFL and from other states, develop multiple regional venues that can host these games, get sponsors to provide kits, transport, and equipment, and get extensive media and TV coverage, market the event extensively, and truly make soccer a sport that touches millions of Indians. Imagine for a moment, the folklore history created by an unheralded club from Rajasthan, the Khetri Copper Mine Soccer Club that beats Mohun Bagan, the giant Kolkata club, and how powerful this giant killing feat could be in developing soccer outside the metros, in small cities and towns, perhaps creating an audience that is still unspoiled by the vagaries of globalization. In the Dominican Republic, lies the small town of San Pedro de Macoris, a sleepy sun soaked paradise known for its beaches and sugarcane. It is also legendary in the world of baseball for producing some of its finest players, including Sammy Sosa, Alfonso Soriano, and Robinson Cano, to name but a few. Who knows which small town will turn out to be India's San Pedro De Macoris in producing soccer stars?
Spain and Sergio Aragones put the kibosh on the Three Lions, 1-0 and Steve McLaren had to hear it from the crowd.
Meanwhile Deloitte's Football Money League shows that Man Utd has slipped to fourth place in the world's richest clubs. Real Madrid still ranks first, with Barca behind, and Juventus rounding up the top three. There are eight English clubs in the top 20 but only Arsenal moves ahead in the current rankings. Hamburg, West Ham, Celtics, and Benfica make it to the list this year.
More highlights:
* The Deloitte Football Money League shows the total revenue of the world’s Top 20 clubs is now over €3.3 billion
* Real Madrid stays ahead of the competition with total revenue of £202m (€ 292m),
* Barcelona are this year’s biggest movers, up four places to second place completing a top two for Spanish clubs.
* Manchester United, who had headed the first eight editions of the Deloitte Football Money League, is the highest of eight Premiership clubs in the top 20.
The reasons why La Liga has taken the lead:
In the case of Barcelona and Real Madrid, it’s the big TV deals particularly help. They’re able to sell their TV rights individually, they don’t sell collectively with the league. But those clubs have also done very well on other areas of their business, so Real Madrid and Barcelona both had new presidencies in the last few years. Real Madrid have taken a Galactica strategy, recruiting high-profile players, developing their commercial revenues. Barcelona have taken a more rounded approach, developing income across the business.
The rich list
05-06 04-05
1 (1) Real Madrid €292.2m €275.7m
2 (6) Barcelona 259.1 207.9
3 (4) Juventus 251.2 229.4
4 (2) Man United 242.6 246.4
5 (3) Milan 238.7 234.0
6 (5) Chelsea 221.0 220.8
7 (9) Inter 206.6 177.2
8 (7) Bayern M 204.7 189.5
9 (10) Arsenal 192.4 171.3
10 (8) Liverpool 176 181.2
11 (15) Lyon 127.7 92.9
12 (11) Roma 127 131.8
13 (12) Newcastle 124.3 128.9
14 (14) Schalke 04 122.9 97.4
15 (13) Tottenham 107.2 104.5
16 (n/a) Hamburg 101.8 n/a
17 (17) Man City 89.4 90.1m
18 (n/a) Rangers 88.5 n/a
19 (n/a) West Ham 60.1 n/a
20 (n/a) Benfica 58.8 n/a
Previous place in parentheses
202 countries.Yes, that is right, 202 countries see Premiership matches. That is ten more than the total member nations of the UN. So how many people watched Saturday's game between Arsenal and Man Utd? The Independent estimates 160 million people.
Up to six million people watched the match live in the UK, with an in-home peak on Sky of 3.4 million - high for pay TV - and an estimated two million more in 40,000 pubs and clubs. But it was also possible to watch live in 201 other countries. The Premier League has a global "reach" into 613 million homes, and estimates a typical live audience for a single match of around 79.5 million. With Sunday's fixture such a pivotal occasion, featuring big clubs, it is estimated it could have drawn double that.
Just phenomenal.The Premiership is now the sports brand of the global game.
Looks like Ronaldo's days at Real Madrid are over as well. Rumors have it he's looking into a 7-10 million Euro offer in Saudi.
I'm sure that's all changed with Beckham's new$.
New York, are you listening?
Shourin got it right earlier, Beckham is coming to America.
But it's not about soccer in the end. It's about branding.
Let's see if brand Beckham can spark product extensions in:
a) Hollywood movies
b) TV advertising
c) a sitcome
d) a talkshow
e) a candy bar
and oh,
f) America's MLS
The Guardian tells us:
"British media went cash crazy on Friday as they toyed with the figures David Beckham will earn after he moves to LA Galaxy and a new life.
The Daily Express said the 31-year-old former England captain had signed "the most mind-boggling contract in global sport".
The Sun quoted Jonathan Woodgate, a former England and Real Madrid team mate of Beckham's, as forecasting the midfielder's move would open up the floodgates for other top players. The paper said Beckham aimed to tempt former Real team-mates Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo and Luis Figo to join him in the U.S.
It devoted eight pages to the player's move, including the front which calculated that his estimated 128 million pounds ($247.6 million) five-year deal would work out at 50 pounds ($96) a minute.
The Daily Telegragh said the deal would help put Beckham's earning power on a par with the biggest names in American sport.
The Star forecast the former Manchester United man would become bigger than Pele who also played in the U.S. after coming out of retirement in 1975.
The rags don't get it. This is not about football.
It's about milking a brand. Image rights. Movies. Advertising.
Great news for all those fans of European soccer!
European soccer governing body UEFA has announced that ESPN International has acquired exclusive media rights in the U.S. and Canada to UEFA Euro 2008, the European soccer championship.
All 31 matches of UEFA Euro 2008 will air LIVE in the U.S. in English, with 2 matches to be broadcast over-the air on ABC and the other 29 matches to air on either ESPN, ESPN2, or ESPN Classic. A comprehensive highlights show will air on each match day during the competition.
ESPN Deportes will air all 31 matches in the U.S. in Spanish.
ESPN has also acquired radio and new media rights to UEFA Euro 2008.
Paul Wilson has a post on the decrease in goals seen this season in the Premiership. Of course, the usual suspects are the foreign coaches led by Jose Mourinho, Rafa Benitez, and Arsene Wenger, who have brought a tactical level to the game hitherto unseen in English football. Their method is to emphasize stingy defense and an attack that relies on scoring first, then shutting down shop. If all else fails, then play not to lose. The result is that the Premiership is averaging 2.14 goals per game and at this rate a total of a bit more than 800 goals would have been scored by the end of the season.
Contrast this with the Dutch league which averages over 3 per game, the Bundesliga with 2.75, and even the Serie A has 2.5. The last is a eyebrow raiser. The Serie A is scoring more than the Premiership? What happened to all those Italian defenders? The ones that can stifle any attack and induce benumbing boredom in every match.
What really comes through is that coaches are less willing to take risks. Their jobs are not only on the line but there is also an economic penalty to pay when the club gets relegated and loses out on the 20 million payout as part of the revenue sharing that comes with Premiership TV rights.
However this year's drought of goals can't be blamed entirely on coaches tactics and stingy defenses. That is where I differ. I think a lot of what we see is due to under-performing strikers and injury depleted attacks. A number of these strikers are also struggling with a new league altogether. Andriy Shevchenko has scored 3 goals in 13 appearances. With AC Milan he had 19 goals in 28 appearances the previous season. Similarly, Carlos Tevez has yet to score in his West Ham debut. In the 30 matches he played for Corinthians he scored 24 goals.
Under-performing strikers include Thierry Henry who has scored 6 goals in 12 appearances. This is well off his 2005-2006 pace when he scored 27 goals in 32 appearances. Robbie Keane has disappeared, 13 appearances have yielded just a goal for the Spurs. Liverpool has scored just 19 goals in 16 appearances. 4 of them came against Wigan this weekend in a veritable explosion. Gerrard and Luis Garcia, normally reliable scorers have combined for a paltry pair of goals compared to 17 last season.
Newcastle's attack has disappeared with injuries to Michael Owen and Shola Ameobi who are lost to the season. Damien Duff and now Scott Parker are not expected back for another month. At this rate Roeder cannot expect the fantastic climb back in the second half of the season that helped them to 7th position this year. Having these players around would have definitely helped them to score more than the anemic 9 goals in 14 matches.
The Premiership is also suffering from inertia. Man U and Chelsea have widened the gap at the top with 41 and 35 points respectively, to virtually ensure that other clubs have very little chance winning the title. Arsenal and Liverpool have had no traction, and are 16 points behind Man U. 7 clubs are within a point of each other. There is very little incentive to score goals because clearly some clubs have given up and are looking for other measures of success.
Contrast this with the Italian Serie A which finds itself in an interesting position. And I wager that this year's scoring is up because of the scandal that relegated Juventus to Serie B and led to point handicaps for Lazio, AC Milan, and Fiorentina. The flux that this has created has given a great opportunity to clubs with hitherto little chance to make their mark in Serie A, especially against the northern clubs, and in international football. AS Roma is in a dogfight with Inter for a great chance to take their fourth Scudetto and play the European Cup next year. Totti has been on fire with 9 goals in 14 appearances. Meanwhile, Fiorentina is trying to shoot its way out of relegation with Toni and Mutu combining for 12 goals. Another factor in the increased scoring is that the Serie A teams do not have to play the stingy Juventus defense. The trio of Cannavaro, Zambrotta, and Thuram have departed for the more salubrious climes of the Liga.
It would be interesting to study the influence that TV viewership has on the Premiership. The league is the most watched in the world with TV, merchandising, and advertising revenues generating 1.3 billion pounds. This is 43% more than the second placed Serie. The market is only going to grow with more money available for the 20 elite clubs. This rather than coaching tactics, stingy defense, or sub-standard attack will dictate the nature of the Premiership. I predict that the Premiership will continue to grow more and more conservative as coaches will become increasingly loath to come on camera to explain why their team lost. It can make that much of a difference in T shirt sales. Of course, such a trend will result in a course correction but I don't expect that to happen in the next five years. By then, the only goals will come through the ultimate set piece, the PK.
The NYT has an article on the PSG fan dying at the hands of a policeman, during a melee that broke out after a match between PSG and Hapoel Tel Aviv, in a humiliating loss for PSG, 2-4. The policeman shot one of the notorious PSG Ultras, when a group of them surrounded a French fan, who is Jewish. An incident that is shocking and highlights racism as an overt part of many football leagues around the world.
The Ultras in PSG have always had a terrible reputation of being racist and anti- Semitic, just as the thugs in Beitar Jerusalem have a equally horrible reputation of being racist and anti- Arab, even though there are a number of Israeli Arab players, playing for Israeli clubs like Abbas Suan who nearly got Israel qualified for this year's World Cup. This story will never see the light of day in the NYT.
France has the largest Muslim population in Europe, many from its former colonies, many who are unemployed, have never properly integrated, and are frequently at odds with a substantial minority Jewish population. A few years ago, a number of synagogues were burned down. And as the NYT in the article points out that France has far rightwing politicians like Jean Marie Le Pen, running for French president for almost a decade, who has frequently chastised the French football team for not being "French" enough. The NYT has always singled out France as a poster child for racism and anti- Semitism.
Before the 1998 World Cup, Mr. Le Pen called the French team “artificial” because of its ethnic and racial makeup. Last June, before the World Cup, he said France “doesn’t totally recognize itself in this team,” because there may be too many “players of color.”
So yes, in France there is a problem of racism and more relevantly for the NYT, one of anti-Semitism. I vehemently oppose the uniform civil code that Nikolas Sarkozy, the interior minister has put into place. Despite all of this, Le Pen has never been voted to power. As for anti-Semitism, prominent US politicians have indulged in it. And even now, a lot of Americans have a subliminal aversion to Jews.
However this is what Elaine Sciolino reporting for the NYT concludes in her article. Quote "Certainly, the message of Mr. Le Pen, who faced Mr. Chirac in a runoff in the 2002 election, resonates in France. In a poll published in Le Monde last week, 17 percent of the respondents said they intended to vote for the 78-year-old for president."
What???
Is France a single issue country? I guess Chirac's incumbency does not count, his spotty record on the economic front, or his government's support of labor laws that hire and fire at will. No, what matters is that Gaul is being replaced by hordes from Algeria.
Lets put this into perspective. Our favourite racist, Tom Tancredo calls Miami a `Third World country.' Tancredo, who has been mentioned as a potential presidential contender, criticized President Bush in the interview for Bush's push for comprehensive immigration reform.
''He is going to do what he can to create a place where the idea of America is just that -- it's an idea,'' Tancredo said. ``It's not an actual place defined by borders. I mean this is where this guy is really going.''
George Bush's approval ratings are in the early 30's. If I were to extrapolate Elaine Sciolino's conclusions, then I would say "Certainly, the message of Mr. Tancredo, a potential presidential candidate resonates in the USA. In a WSJ poll last week, 31 percent of the respondents approved the job that George W Bush was doing." Forget the war on Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, the social security fiasco, or the economy.
The NYT's problems are not just Jayson Blair or Ricky Braggs!
Pini Zahavi, agent extra-ordinaire
Pini Zahavi is the super agent who has his hands in all the deals involving player transfers and club takeovers. He was pivotal in the deal that bought Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano to West Ham. The two Argentinians are owned by a private company, Media Sports Investment (MSI), in which Kia Joorabchian, till recently was a partner. The company owns a 100% holding in Tevez while MSI and Globo (A Brazilian media company) split 50% each on Mascherano. Thus, West Ham did not have to pay for the transfer of both players except for £5m in agent fees.
The practice of players beholden to private companies rather than clubs is nothing new in South America, as Zahavi claims, it has been going on for more than 25 years and will become so here 'if English football is to survive'.
Why is this happening? According to Zahavi, "Supporters don't care who owns the club. They care only how the team is doing. This is the same in Japan, Korea, Argentina, Colombia, Africa, everywhere."
The practice of third party ownership is akin to body shopping, the practice whereby, scores of Indian software programmers were brought to the US, UK, and Germany, through private companies who contracted them out to tech companies like IBM and Hewlett Packard. These programmers were brought to IBM for a particular project, and when completed they would move on to another company. Some got bought out by companies they worked in. In the middle of the IT crash, many engineers found that they were out of jobs and in violation of their visa status. Many returned to India in the early 2000's. The demand for a ready supply of programmers was fueled by the shortage of tech personnel produced in US universities. At that time the USA was going through the IT boom many companies wanted to cash onto. Silicon Valley was Irrational Exuberance. The 2000 dot com crash saw the carcasses of many companies with basically no worthwhile product to sell, only fancy buzzwords. The ones that survived and are doing well are the ones who had solid products, invested heavily in R&D, and cut their dependence on bodyshopping.
The problem with the Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano type of third party transfers is that it further curtails the abbreviated period of time allotted to player development that clubs are already moving away from, in the peer pressure world of having to attain instant success. Implicit in all this, is that it further reduces the club's responsibility of evaluating whether the player is needed at all. In fact, Tevez and Mascherano were bargaining chips in Kia Joorabchian's renewed bid for the control of West Ham. There is a feeling that Kia Joorabchian was pinning his hopes that Alan Pardew would build the Hammers attack around them, conveniently forgetting that West Ham actually already has a perfectly respectable team and that Pardew was committed to them. It has Nigel Reo Coker, the Hammers captain at the tender age of 21, who should be a regular fixture in the England squad in a few seasons. The Hammers had a great 2005 season with this very team, and there was every reason that they could do better this season. When Pardew made clear that he was not in the business of placating players, it was obvious that Kia Joorbachian and his business partner, Eli Papouchado would have his head if they had succeeded in the takeover. A more pliant coach was already being sought out.
If Pini Zahavi was hoping for an audition extolling the virtues of third party transfers, he could not have chosen a worse one. As for supporters not caring who owns the club, maybe he should talk to the West Ham fans, who by approving of Eggert Magnusson's ownership showed that they were less than impressed by the haggling of the Kia Joorabchian- Eli Papouchado takeover bid, that would have left very little cash for future transfers and not enough for West Ham's proposed Olympic Stadium takeover after the 2012 Olympics.
It seems as if Japan has been playing football all its life. The reality is that organized football is barely more than a decade old in that country. Japan qualified for the World Cup for the first time in 1998 and then had a breakout year in 2002 when it co-hosted the World Cup with South Korea. They qualified again in 2006. Japan is also the present Asian Cup champion having two titles in a row in 2000 and 2004.
Japan's football revolution has been remarkable considering the only other honour they have had is a long forgotten bronze medal in the Mexico Olympics in 1968. Tied inextricably to their intenrational success is the development of their national league or the J-League. The league was started in 1996 and in these 10 years the J-league, is seeing record attendances averaging 20,000 and over. There are 18 teams with fun names like Kashima Antlers, Sanfrecce Hiroshima, Kyoto Purple Sanga, and Kawasaki Frontale. International stars like Hidetoshi Nakata, Shinji Ono, Shunsuke Nakamura, and Koji Nakata who play for European clubs got their start in the J-League and form the backbone of a Japanese national team that is seeing so much success.
The J-League was the brainchild of a Saburo Kawabuchi, a player in the 1960's national team who never forgot a training tour to Germany. As Sebastian Moffet in a history on Japanese football called Japanese Rules, puts it, Kawabuchi was amazed at how deeply the game was entwined with German communities. Parents coached their children's team, played in adult league games after work, and on weekends, generation of families would head off to the stadium or the nearest TV to watch professional matches. In Germany, football was considered recreation, youth development, and entertainment and was steeped in the way of life. In Japan, sport was being part of being a corporate drone. In Germany, it was part of being a human being.
The years of effort by Saburo Kawabuchi and Kenji Mori, the then JFA president who first proposed the idea of a fully professional league in 1987, finally paid of. On May 15, 1993, the very first J League match in history kicked off in front of a crowd of 59,626 at Tokyo's National Stadium. The opening match was played between Verdy Kawasaki (formerly Yomiuri Verdy FC) and Yokohama Marinos (formerly Nissan Motor FC).
In a quintessentially Japanese endeavour, Kawabuchi with his special committees undertook quite an impressive tour of the world studying what made sports successful in other countries. Jim Frederick in his article on Japan (The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup, Harper Perennial, 2006) writes " From Europe and South America the basic league structure was incorporated. From the International Olympic Committee they learned how to develop corporate sponsorships. From the American football and basketball leagues they learned marketing, television licensing, clothing sales, and other team merchandizing. Following the fashions of the times, most people adopted either a Brazilian style of play or German one." And in what can be the model that the MLS is trying to follow with Youri Djorkaeff a decade ago and Beckham now, the J League also imported legendary players a few years past their peak, Brazil's Zico, Germany's Pierre Littbarski, and England's Gary Lineker.
The revolution that Saburo Kawabuchi brought to his country is eclipsing that of baseball, Japan's most popular sport. Nowadays, baseball is on the wane, with declining attendances. Football is providing Japan with an outlet to shake off its perception as a rigid, strait laced country with legions of excited football fans across the country who come to watch their clubs play, with their faces painted in club colours, singing and chanting, and beating drums.
Last year, the AFC awarded the Diamond of Asia to Saburo Kawabuchi for his yeoman service to the development of the game with the J League well on its way to being considered as one of the top ten football associations of the world.
Captures the univeral joy of the game, don't you think?
The ad is not very impressive, but the message against racism is good to see.
Reggie Rockstone, the singer who originated Ghanian hip hop also called hiplife was so moved by the performance of the Black Stars that he and London based Ghanian musician Yaw Mensa produced Ayekoo, a song celebrating the Black Stars. Ayekoo is a Ghanian salutation in Twi, and depending on the context could mean "Well done,Congratulations, Thank You, or Welcome."
Ayekoo is a jamboree of Twi, Pidgin, and English. I would have loved to have the video clip but the song has just been released and the CDs are only available to a handful of radio stations. Reggie Rockstone's was part of PLZ (Parables, Linguistics, and Zlang) before he embarked solo. He writes politically conscious songs like Mensesa (I won't change), a Pan African paean.
"Head-butting your rival or stamping on their nuts does not do the brand much good," says Nick Brown, group director of the advertising and PR agency Golley Slater.
No duh.
So who's next?
According to the Guardian, the hottest brands in 2010 might be:
Freddy Adu USA, 17
Already bagged the biggest Major League Soccer sponsorship deal with Nike. Needs European move to exploit his image rights fully.
Cesc Fábregas, Spain, 19
Heir to Raúl as the golden boy of Spanish football, a position rarely held by a Catalan. A transfer to Real Madrid would bring other suitors to rival his Nike contract.
Lionel Messi, Argentina, 18
Maradona thinks he will be the best in the world by 2010. Signed £5m six-year Adidas contract in March.
Wayne Rooney, England, 20
Some question him as a role model, though that has not put off Nike, Coca-Cola, Asda and EA Sports.
Ronaldinho, Brazil, 26
Age cannot wither his income from Barcelona, Pepsi, Nike and Cadbury estimated at £33m over the next four years.
John Terry, England, 26
Sponsors flock to the captain but so far he has only King of Shaves to complement Umbro boot deal.