Messi's Feet by Adidas
Blue Suede Shoes? Nope, it's adidas' new F50i!
May 26, 2009
Champion's League - mind games from Reebok
Giggs and Henry try to psyche each other out before the finals as Reebok plays mind games with cash strapped consumers who were not thinking of buying a new pair of shoes to wear while watching the game.Not exactly subliminal advertising but it'll most probably work anyway.
May 22, 2009
Zidane:It only takes a moment of magic...
Adidas and Zidane in search for the perfect beginning for a perfect team.
May 21, 2009
Lionel Messi: Is it the Shoes?
Six days to the CL Final and adidas gives us a peek at the next gen of TUNiT boot technology called the F50i which Lionel Messi will debut on Wednesday in Rome.
Do shoes make such a difference? Any player will tell you they do. Nano-seconds count, when it's all about performance.
Plus there's always the psychological factor. Not to mention protecting the metatarsals - just ask Wayne Rooney!
Let's look at shoe architecture for a second. I'd say adidas' philosophy of modular design is pretty impressive. It's like, er, what's the phrase I'm looking for? ... German engineering. Performance and aesthetics.
So what's Messi's shoe going to look like? The previous model of the F50 was pretty cool: players customize the boot according to personal preferences and weather conditions. This includes choosing the color of the upper. Prevailing weather conditions on the day of play also affect the choice of upper. There are five colors and three different materials to choose from. The first material is an easy-care, durable and non-absorbent synthetic. The second is a soft leather and the third the ultralight and breathable material.
As a next step, the player chooses between two different chassis. The chassis forms the interior of the shoe and holds the studs. The tuning options are a lightweight standard chassis for perfect stability and optimal distribution of stud pressure as well as an ultralight competition chassis for maximum flexibility in the forefoot and optimum breathability in combination with the breathable upper.
The selected chassis is then inserted into the upper and the studs can be screwed in from the outside. Three stud systems ensure a perfect hold and a good grip, whatever the conditions on the pitch. The patented adidas studs ensure optimum contact on all kinds of hard and artificial turf, as well as on various hard and soft natural turfs.
Finally, the player selects the insole to determine the boot’s degree of comfort and breathability. The premolded, soft and slightly cushioned insole as well as the somewhat thinner, perforated and thus extremely lightweight, breathable sock liner offer real comfort.
Heck, if they made a modular street-sole I'd clip it on and wear it to work! Cleats 2.0 - we've come a long way from this
Until Wednesday, then!
The CL Final could become the Battle of the Boots! Personally, I think CR has already lost that one.
May 20, 2009
The Aussies are looking for a slogan..
A $1 crowdsourcing exercise .....
The task is to invent a tagline (with fewer than 100 characters) for Australia's 2018 Soccer World Cup Bid.
The tagline should summarise why Australia should be selected to host the World Cup. View some of the creations submitted so far here.
The objectives of this experiment are:
1) To demonstrate the power of the crowd;
2) To estimate how much creativity each $1 of crowdsourcing spend can generate; and
3) To come up with a pitch that will help Australia to win the World Cup in 2018 .
Look it up here ...
May 16, 2009
12th man videos..
Adidas is promoting its new kit designs with a series of "Every team needs a 12th man" videos from various Premier League training grounds.This video of Michael Ballack wearing Chelsea’s new home shirt was going around a week or so ago.Features him riding around on a bicycle.
and here's another one in which Xabi Alonso parades Liverpool’s new away outfit -while practising (practicing?) the perfect free kick..
May 13, 2009
Sounders seating to be increased
The Seattle Sounders are the hottest team in the MLS right now.
The club is accommodating the demand for tickets by increasing seats by 4000. This increases the total capacity for MLS games to over 32,000. The Sounders also play Chelsea and Barca in the summer and Qwest will open up all its sections to increase seating to 67,000.
For more info on how other clubs are faring >>
May 8, 2009
SPL's hand forced by Setanta's crucial exposure
Setanta is now negotiating a lower contract for the TV rights to the SPL matches as a way of moving away from financial fragility.
The SPL will probably have no choice but to accede because the Irish broadcaster's payment for TV rights injects crucial cash into the clubs. Even with lowered rates the SPL stands to pick up about £100m.
There also appears to be no other sports broadcaster in the horizon to telecast the SPL package, with Sky Sports only showing interest in the Old Firm rivalry, the most followed of all league matches, with the highest attendances. If the SPL decides not to re-negotiate the contract, then the league maybe in a fight for its survival.
April 21, 2009
What economic recession? FIFA sets record TV deal
FIFA's TV rights will net R25 billion or $2.7 billion for the 2010 World Cup.
This is more than the combined total of the two previous World Cups from which FIFA earned R22 billion or $2.4 billion.
March 29, 2009
Tata to AIG
This could be the new logo on Man Utd's jerseys after AIG's sponsorship ran into trouble with the US government proof of yet more wasteful expenditure. Yes, its Tata which was recently in the news for introducing Nano, the cheapest car in the world.
Can't wait for Cristiano Ronaldo to model for the Nano when they introduce it in the UK. Well, he might be gone to Real by then.
March 19, 2009
Where else is AIG wasting money ?
On Manchester United apparently.AIG will give $28 million to Manchester United to complete its sponsorship deal through 2010, according to CityFile.
February 13, 2009
Video:Nike pull off great ad inspite of budget cuts and all..
Reports coming in from Chicago suggest that Nike, one of the world's biggest sports marketers, could send shock waves through the industry this year by cutting its marketing budget as part of a push to reduce expenses.In the meantime they have come up with another great ad starring C Ronaldo,Tevez and Fabregas - using up whatever money was left at the bottom of the barrel....
November 9, 2008
Video: The VW Routan soccer mom
Just a trifle better than Sarah Palin. The guy is so not looking forward to this journey. The VW road to the MLS Cup. I would not be too sure of soccer's popularity or Routan sales after this.
October 21, 2008
Shinawatra's conviction shows the EPL in a poor light
Some decisions for the EPL following the Shinawatra sentence. Since the proper and fit test applies only to convicted criminals and not to ongoing investigations, this should mean that Shinawatra gives up his minority stake in Man City, steps down as honorary chairman, and his surrogates yield their board positions.
But on a larger level this conviction is also an embarrassment of sorts to the EPL whose desire to make the league the centerpiece in the world makes it overlook obvious warning signs. It is fortunate that the ADUG came to the rescue within a heartbeat as Shinawatra found his economic position untenable. This conviction will undoubtedly further fuel Lord Treisman's desire to introduce reforms and seek changes to the 'fit and proper' test.
The British government will unlikely grant him asylum because he was given every occasion to show up for the trial, skipped bail, and is being charged for tax evasion and fraud. Since it is a government padded with Shinawatra cronies, his life as such is not being threatened on political or religious grounds. The tolerance for economic offenders is very low right now and Britain's reputation for welcoming criminals on the lam sends the wrong message. The EPL should be wary of becoming a conduit for rehabilitating such careers.
Shinawatra is also in danger of forfeiting $2.2 billion in assets which Thai prosecutors have asked the Supreme Court to seize and place in state coffers which will happen if he does not return. The prosecutors might be willing to work out a compromise if he does jail time.
October 3, 2008
Mark Hughes for Spurs job: Deja vu all over again
Remember last season when Spurs boss Daniel Levy went behind Martin Jol's back and claimed that he had not offered Juande Ramos the job even as the Sevilla manager contradicted his statement that the club had made a "dizzying" offer. Jol left with a bad taste in his mouth.
Looks like the Spurs have the shiv out for Juande Ramos.
It is happening again. All of this does nothing except reflect poorly on the club. Ramos was Comolli's choice. If Ramos goes then Comolli should be thrown out on his ear too. His acquisition of Darren Bent for a mind boggling £16.5 million now appears to be a criminal waste. Levy has said that he will hold Comolli responsible if Ramos did not work out. It is time for Levy to put up or shut up.
Spurs seems to be going Newcastle's way of never being satisfied with their managers.
October 2, 2008
Steven Wells makes the case for referees: Points against
"The referee is a useless, interfering, grandstanding bastard. "
Steven Wells lays the guilt trip. Not all referees are as described above. But some certainly are. I have seen some matches (good or otherwise) overshadowed by heavy handed or incompetent refereeing. Cue Graham Poll or Valentin Ivanov.
But the article misses the point. If you want to make the case for human error do not imbue the referee with a messianic complex.
The actual philosophy should be; the referee is right unless proven otherwise. We need to establish that burden of proof. Wells is certainly correct when he says that referees are pure of motive but they are not free from pressure exerted by certain managers and players adept at gaming the situation. They are also not free of parallax.
Contrary to Wells assertion, there has been no drop off in excitement or spontaneity in NFL games where video reviews have been used. Apart from Norv Turner who was was rightly steamed in a post match interview with a call that cost the San Diego Chargers the game, the NFL has been relatively free of officiating controversies, allowing coaches to correctly focus on player performances or coaching tactics.
In contrast, referees making a bad call in many Premiership matches in an otherwise well refereed match become the target of a manager's tirade in the post match wrap up. This lets off players who might have played badly. In the Bolton match, Fabrice Muamba missed an absolute sitter that should have tied Bolton but Megson latched onto Styles "catastrophic cock-up." Styles decision also does very little to dispel the notion that the big four come off better against smaller clubs when it comes to officiating controversies.
So yes, lets not forget the invaluable service of referees to the game. In fact, their role has been used as an analogy for better regulation of the financial world, for those who argue against less. But lets not get carried away. If the players are God, the owners are God, the managers are God, and the referees are God, then what are we as fans? Chopped liver?
September 29, 2008
Deep thought: RBS financing of LFC in jeopardy?
The Wall St financial bailout collapsed today and amongst the banks that could be hit hardest is Royal Bank of Scotland who would have been amongst the largest beneficiaries. The bailout would have allowed RBS to offload billions of dollars of toxic assets and loans. This year itself RBS wrote down $10 billion in losses from worthless subprime securities. Its ill timed and expensive buyout of ABN Amro with other partners led to a loss of $21.7 million. Today's 777 point drop on the Dow pushed RBS stock prices to $2.75, an 80% drop from its peak.
Given its dire straits, the basic question is whether RBS has the funds to refinance the loan in 2009 for the stadium. Tom Hicks and George Gillet are offloading the repayment of the first $600 million loan on to the club, which costs it a staggering $50 million in interest alone every year. LFC supporters are asking the bank to stop financing the owners.
The two owners have very little collateral which I would hazard a guess have been further eroded by Wall St's huge losses. The club's finances lie on shaky grounds and it could default on its loan repayments. The financial bailout even if it comes through, carries with it considerable oversight provisions which could mean that it may not be in RBS hands to give out another loan even if it so desires.
What does this mean for Liverpool? Finding an owner who is independently wealthy to buy out the club as soon as possible, assume the debt and repay the loan, have enough funds to finance the stadium and player transfers, and earn the confidence of the fans who are tired of ownership that sees their club as a cash register.
Update: RBS share prices further plummeted after Fortis their partner in the controversial and ill timed ABN AMRO takeover was nationalized.
August 2, 2008
Video: New MLS Adidas ad - without Beckham.
Adidas' latest effort at promoting soccer in USA.Website.Beckham conspicous by his absence. Website here...
Dream MLS from Jason Zada on Vimeo.
July 8, 2008
Nike Video :Rooney shares his skills
It's called What Wayne Knows and its been around for awhile......about a couple of months...
July 7, 2008
Nike Ad;The unedited version
Take it to the next level at the unedited level.
July 6, 2008
The English League falters in its Euro impact
I always think that international competitions like Euro or the World Cup provide much needed correctives.
Fernando Torres muscled his way past Philip Lahm in one of the more indelible images of Euro 2008 to provide Spain's winner. The Liverpool striker was one of the heroes in his country's win against Germany. However his Premiership compatriots Cesc Fabregas and Michael Ballack had a more muted final as the players from the Bundesliga and La Liga provided the most highlights. The final showed Iniesta, Xavi, Senna, Silva, Ramos and Marchena at their sparkling best as they ran over Germany who relied once again on Podolski and Schweinsteiger to spare the blushes.
When you compare the big four contribution to national squads, La Liga and Serie contributed 38 apiece and the Bundesliga topped out with 59 players with the largest numbers going to their own teams. The English league even without England's participation provided 47 players, far ahead of La Liga and Serie. Squads with large representations included Portugal and Netherlands, who despite their bright start could not take their game to the next level. This in some aspects is a reprisal of the 2006 World Cup where the English league found its influence on the wane as the tournament went deeper despite the FA touting publicly the maximum number of players to the national squads.
One wonders why this is so? The English League is overwhelmingly the largest in terms of viewership and revenues. With many of its clubs under the control of deep pocketed ownerships, it doles out the biggest chunk of change for the best talent and the largest overseas contingent of players is evidence of where the sport has shifted. Their clubs took three semifinal spots in the CL cup this year.
But all this is for nought because once again as demonstrated in the Euro it was the other leagues that provided the impact players when national pride was at stake.
One of the biggest differences between the English league and other leagues is the intensity of scheduling and the amount of recovery time it gives its players. The English league with its packed domestic fixtures and international obligations for revenue reasons does not give a winter break to its players, a month which finds other leagues enjoying a breather and players recuperating from niggling injuries. This is especially crucial in years when international competitions take center stage with little lag from the end of the league season. For elite Premiership clubs playing this year's CL, recovery gets even more abbreviated. Players from Man U and Chelsea hyperventilating from the grueling CL final literally flew into Klagenfurt or Geneva from Luzhniki Stadium the next day to start their Euro campaign. Fatigue is cumulative and fresher legs do count for a lot more.
The other reason is more controversial and insidous. The English League's combative attitude frequently pushes players to choose club over country. Jose Mourinho was so incensed by Michael Ballack's ankle surgery peformed by German doctors that he was seriously considering shipping Ballack off. Jogi Low had to eat humble pie. Everton's David Moyes threw a fit when he said that witch doctors were trying to force Tim Cahill's recovery for Australia's World Cup 2006 opener against Japan. Sir Alex considered a lawsuit against the FA if Rooney came back as damaged goods from the World Cup. Obviously such measures are protective in nature and serve the club's self interest but they also sub-consciously create conditions where players have to choose between their bread and butter and abstractions such as national pride. Doubts like these can lead to fluctuations in motivation and performance as can levels of fitness and fatigue.
Factors such as these are partly responsible for England's failure on the international level apart from a whole horde of tactical shortcomings and perceived lack of talent. But all these factors put together also affect English League overseas players when they play for their national squads.
May 21, 2008
Nistelrooy Coke Ad's for Euro 2008 and earlier
This coke ad for Euro 2008 shows a baby Nistelrooy growing up drinking coke.
and this earlier one shows him fooling around with a coke can in a garden in 2004
May 4, 2008
Nike fire Fibregas
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...
April 30, 2008
Nike: Take it to the next level
The complete ad can be seen on the nike website here..
I like the Adidas one better.
April 23, 2008
New Adidas "Dream Big" Ad
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.
April 4, 2008
It's a bird,it's a plane- it's the UEFA Balloon
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..
March 20, 2008
No Bull: Cristiano Ronaldo's Fuji-Xerox Ad
February 12, 2008
Scudamore's problem: EPL popularity is not monolithic
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?
January 27, 2008
Deep thoughts by Max Bretos on the ACN
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.
December 25, 2007
Soccerblog wishes its readers Merry Xmas
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.
December 24, 2007
Reuters: The year in pictures
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) >>
December 18, 2007
Kaka's achievements reveal FIFA bias
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.
December 14, 2007
Derek Richey's club list: Debate on!
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
November 29, 2007
Harry Redknapp, Pascal Chimbonda nabbed
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.
September 11, 2007
Watchout Team USA, here come the Germans!
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.
August 12, 2007
A killjoy entity called NetResults is removing YouTube clips
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.
August 5, 2007
Adu's departure should serve a cautionary tale
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.
July 6, 2007
Blades are now taking their case to High Court
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.
June 27, 2007
The Onion Bag has the goods on the Copa
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) >>
June 17, 2007
Victoria Beckham has her own reality show
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.
June 11, 2007
Becks for now remains with LA: He will go later
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.
February 22, 2007
Gazza to star in sci-fi horror movie
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.
February 14, 2007
In today's India, soccer finds no place
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?
February 8, 2007
Real Madrid richest club: Spain reigns on England's parade
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
January 25, 2007
More countries see the Premiership than are in the UN
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.
January 12, 2007
Ronaldo Out at Real
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?
Brand Beckham Comes to Hollywood for $320 million
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.
December 18, 2006
ESPN acquires TV rights to air Euro 2008
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.
December 4, 2006
Premiership drought in goals: Not the stingy defense
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.
November 30, 2006
Soccer and Politics: As usual the NYT screws up
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!
November 26, 2006
Third party ownership: Is the English League ready for it?
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.
Saburo Kawabuchi: The man behind Japan's resurgent football
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.
September 15, 2006
Video: I like this Adidas ad.
Captures the univeral joy of the game, don't you think?
Mein Herz schlägt für Fußball
The ad is not very impressive, but the message against racism is good to see.
July 31, 2006
Reggie Rockstone celebrates the Black Stars
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.
July 13, 2006
Soccer Branding: Who's Going to be the Next Beckham?
"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.
July 6, 2006
The Serie scandal: MLS should use it as a recruitment drive
With Juventus, Lazio, Fiorentina, and AC MIlan to be relegated to the second division following the Serie scandal, the MLS should seriously go after these players who will no doubt be looking for new clubs. Players like Gianluigi Buffon, Fabio Cannavaro, Luca Toni, Alessandro Nesta, Andrea Pirlo, Patrick Viera, Lilian Thuram, Dida, Kaka, Emerson, Cafu, Dario Simic, and Pavel Nedved, amongst others. Four clubs with more than 90 of the top players in the world. Getting a few to come over will be quite a coup. So MLS cough up some big transfer bucks and get Nike to make branded shoes. The Pirlo Freekik, the Luca Airborne, the Dida Save.
Well, we can dare to dream, can't we??
Take a look at the present Juventus squad and drool.
1 GK Gianluigi Buffon
2 DF Alessandro Birindelli
3 DF Giorgio Chiellini
4 MF Patrick Vieira
5 MF Cristiano Zanetti
6 DF Robert Kovač
7 MF Marco Marchionni
8 MF Emerson
9 FW Zlatan Ibrahimović
10 FW Alessandro Del Piero (captain)
11 MF Pavel Nedvěd
14 DF Federico Balzaretti
16 MF Mauro Camoranesi
17 FW David Trézéguet
18 FW Adrian Mutu
19 MF Gianluca Zambrotta (vice-captain)
21 DF Lilian Thuram
22 GK Landry Bonnefoi
23 MF Giuliano Giannichedda
24 MF Ruben Olivera
25 FW Marcelo Zalayeta
27 DF Jonathan Zebina
28 DF Fabio Cannavaro
32 GK Christian Abbiati
June 29, 2006
Video: Stand Up, Speak Up!
Reminds me to "Get Up, Stand Up! Never give up the fight!"
Lemme go find that video!
June 28, 2006
Spare a thought for Ninemillion.org
Ninemillion.org is trying to make a difference for the nine million refugee children worldwide.
Here's the site itself. Why they designed it to be so cool is beyond me. That's a real problem with these ad agencies - they shoot themselves in the foot with their over the top Flash designs...
Here's how you can help:
$50 can provide a refurbished computer to a refugee school helping to power a child's education and learning.
$100 can help children affected by war to overcome their trauma through sport-based peace education programs.
$275 can train new teachers for refugee camps, providing crucial role models for their communities.
$500 can cover the cost of 25 sports equipment kits for health programs that use sport to reach young people with life-saving HIV/AIDS awareness and critical health information.
$1000 can help to build sports fields and playgrounds in refugee camps that empower children to learn and play - building happier and stronger communities.
Video: Ronaldo - The Early Years (OK, it's a Nike Ad)
It seems appropriate to play this now. He really was spectacular. If he lost 10 kilos, he'd score 10 goals this World Cup.
June 27, 2006
ESPN's Dave O'Brien and Marcelo Balboa: The horror continues
Dave O'Brien loves the words "clean sheets', he repeats it ad nauseum. Marcelo Balboa loves "fresh legs" and repeats that ad nauseum. Between the two of them they could start a laundry and a poultry farm. O'Brien loves reminding his viewers that this is the knockout stage which means if you lose you get knocked out of the tournament and go home. Got that children. See here we call it elimination.
O'Brien does not know his players either and he is a step too slow in calling the plays because he is busy listening to the feedback from his sonorous voice. The game has gone on about 20 paces ahead and the ball switched between the feet of about 5 players by now. His commentating is a mixture of eulogies and platitudes. In between he will ask Balboa questions like, "What makes Ronaldinho great?" Yep, the right time and the right person to ask these existential questions.
For O' Brien Appiah becomes Pappoe, Gyan becomes Mensah, Cafu becomes Juan. They are all victims of identity fraud and they do not know it.
Marcelo Balboa still talks as if everybody is hard of hearing. I wonder why these two are still calling the games. We can't get FIFA to change their atrocious refeering but do we have to listen to this garbage too?
John Harkes and JP Dellacammera don't know their players but they seem to know the sport of soccer a bit better. They make themselves look like geniuses compared to O'Brien and Balboa.
June 22, 2006
Work abstinence: Watch the Ghana vs USA game at work
You know where to go!
June 21, 2006
What Freddy Adu is Doing During Tomorrow's US -Ghana Game
A PR company sent me this... does Adu drink organic or polluted milk I wonder?
A pity young Adu missed the World Cup this time around. He'll have plenty to think about watching USA-Ghana tomorrow... Arena and gang will be heading home tomorrow, unless they put on the game of their lives.
June 17, 2006
Good news! ESPN's World Cup ratings are up
The World Cup is being seen by more and more Americans. The TV ratings on ESPN 2 have more than doubled in the first 14 games of the 2006 World Cup as compared to four years ago (2006: 1.3, 2002: 0.6).
The daytime scheduling helps more viewers to see this World Cup as compared to the 2002 WC matches which was aired in the US in the middle of the night because the tournament was held in Japan and South Korea.
This is good news for soccer fans who want to see the game progress in this country. However, there is considerable scope for improvement in soccer outreach as the NBA finals between the Heat vs Mavs in Game 2 drew an average rating of 8.0
However thanks to secondary sources of information like cellphones and PC live streams there is wider dissemination of World Cup information.
A more significant cultural barometer of U.S. interest in soccer may come in the next few weeks, when Ivins said comScore plans to measure how many people are monitoring Cup matches during office hours.
Indeed, there is no quicker way into an American sports fan's heart than by enabling them to avoid work and go online for the latest score. Surreptitiously watching the Cup at work will become easier between June 26 and July 9; that's when anybody with a high-speed Internet connection can watch all the matches (except the ABC-broadcast contests) online for free at ESPN360.com.
For $15 a month, Verizon Wireless customers with a V-Cast-enabled phone can see video clips of the match as soon as 30 minutes after halftime. On the first day of the tournament, 29,000 video clips of the match between Germany and Costa Rica were downloaded, according to Verizon Wireless spokeswoman Heidi Flato, and that number has remained consistent through the Cup's first few days.
June 10, 2006
Beckham's Blue Suede Shoes
Beckham's new Adidas' +Predator DB Lion shoes have something like England’s three lions logo on the blue boots- except there are 5 of 'em.
I just hope he doesn't hurt himself... We've had enough metatarsal fun already.
June 9, 2006
A few thoughts on the Germany- Costa Rica opener
As Zach points out- that Adidas ball can fly. It is going to be a goalkeeper's nightmare but it also requires much more control from the strikers. The number of goals scored will only be good for this game, as then many in the US will discover that you can score in bunches in soccer. It will be easier to deconstruct soccer and make it more palatable.
Also notice the absence of fouls and dives in the first game. I think the referees are on it. I hope this continues and they play Jogo Bonito as it is supposed to be played. And mitigate soccer's image as a 'floppers' game in the USA.
This World Cup might be the best advertising for the future of soccer in this country.
Poland and Ecuador next at 3:00 PM (EST) at Gelsenkirchen in a Group A encounter.
For Soccerblog's analysis of the Poland-Ecuador matchup go here
Good luck to both teams!!
ESPN's coverage of the World Cup: A tip of the hat
ESPN's pair of experts Eric Wynalda and Julie Foudy worked well together in the opener. It's a good team as Foudy is a very well respected player in the soccer world and an icon for all women soccer players. Plus, she has started her own Julie Foudy leadership academy which mentors budding soccer players. Eric Wynalda is MLS alltime scorer.
ESPN put together a nice profile of US Soccer just now- with the Paul Caliguiri shocker against T&T to the present day squad with Oguchi Onyewu.
I Want My World Cup TV: The Schedule
Here's a list of the games from FIFA. And here's a handy wallchart from the BBC.
But where do you watch the game? Just turn on your TV. Any any other country except the US, this is true.
In the US football, er soccer, is a side show, and you'll have to do some channel surfing to find the games. Pick your channel from ESPN2, ESPNCC, RDS, Setanta USA, Sportsnet All, Sportsnet Ontario, TSN, TV5, and Univision. Not all games will be shown, so pay attention! Here's our best advice if you're in the USofA or Canada:
1) Visit LivesoccerTV.com for all the listings.
2) Watch the Copa at work (on your PC). The livefooty people are showing every game. Blatter's media police can't get to them, apparently.
Have you been waiting 4 years for this? Let the games begin.
UPDATE: Forgot to mention the NYTimes' flash schedule.
See also Google's live score service >>
June 5, 2006
Hungry for Soccer, Yet?
Ball History: Which Ones Have you Kicked?
I never have kicked a TELSTAR - I like its classical looks. Its the design I like the most- the traditional soccer ball!
UPDATE: Great minds think alike- Soccer Bob has a post on exactly the same topic!
June 2, 2006
Video Ad: Pepsi Sumo Soccer - Aaaargh
This one made me groan... Roberto Carlos and David Beckham actually agreed to do this?!
May 28, 2006
Video Ad: Maradona's Nightmare
This ad is far superior to The Mastercard ad, Humberto. And funnier!
Video Ad: Mastercard & Carlitos
This is the Argentinian answer to Guarana Antartica’s "Maradona in a Brazil shirt" ad... The best player in Brazil is Argentine!
May 27, 2006
Video Ad - Ronaldinho, Robinho & Roberto Carlos
OK, it is just an ad, but you get a good feeling from it anyway! I'm ready for the games to begin.
May 26, 2006
Video Ad: U2's ESPN Plug
One of my favorite ads to date:
Not everything about the world cup is as uplifting. For example, cruzeiro always has his mind in the gutter (see previous post)... and what's worse, he's not getting paid anything by that t-shirt company!
May 23, 2006
Philips: "The Simple Game" - Not!
All I can say is why do they bother?
This is the type of "agency-driven" advertising which does nothing for sales.
WSJ: Nike versus Adidas
The Wall Street Journal picks up on the Adidas versus Nike battle [registration required] for soccer supremacy.
Stephanie Kang and Mike Esterl fill us in on the details - apparently adidas is going with the "lock Nike out" approach:
During the 64-game tournament, more than a billion viewers will see Adidas's three-stripe logo on match balls, referee uniforms, outfits worn by volunteers and billboards in and around the country's stadiums. Adidas has also locked up exclusive rights to advertisements during broadcasts of games in the U.S. by ABC and ESPN -- effectively blocking Nike ads from view.
Nike, meanwhile, is doing the celebrity-thing:
Just as its sponsorship of Michael Jordan propelled Nike into the biggest basketball brand in the world, the company hopes pricey endorsement deals with superstars like Brazil's Ronaldinho and the Brazilian team -- the reigning World Cup champions and this year's tournament favorite -- will make it the leader in soccer. Giving its swoosh even greater visibility, Nike for the first time is sponsoring more World Cup teams than Adidas. Nike is sponsoring eight, including the U.S., Mexico and Portugal. Adidas has just six, since several teams it signed failed to qualify for the tournament.
The numbers?
Nike says it is approaching $1.5 billion in soccer-related sales, more than double what it generated in 2002 and a huge jump from the $40 million in soccer goods it rang up in 1994, when the U.S. played host to the World Cup for the first time. Adidas, the longtime leader, is expecting a better than 30% sales jump this year to more than $1.5 billion.
Looks like Adidas has dropped the ball!
Maybe they should just sponsor soccer blog! FYI, For those of you advertising types who understand "intensity of experience" - soccerblog.com had 48 pageviews per user yesterday, compared to 5 pageviews per user for Nike's soccer community - joga.com. Not bad, eh?!
For more insight, see John Hagel's post: Joga.com and the Return of Community.
Thanks also to Britton at Intelligent Economy for sending me the WSJ story.
May 21, 2006
Phorpa:The Tibetan version of the World Cup
It is not just Catholic priests who look to the World Cup to find their raison d'etre. But Tibetan monks too. I saw Phorpa many years ago. And it was a cute little story about these young monks who loved all their spirituality but every four years loved the World Cup a bit more, at least for a month or so. And so they resort to all these tricks to see the 1998 World Cup on TV, without the knowledge of the big daddies. It is a funny clandestine movie that comes out alright in the end because the big Lama turns out to be a sucker for the World Cup too.
Its worth a watch though. Imdb info
May 17, 2006
Hope Springs Eternal!
Give this guy a call if you have a spare ticket!
Going Green at the World Cup
From a press release... At least they're trying:
As global excitement over the 2006 FIFA World Cup reaches fever pitch, members of the Green Goal team met today in Germany to review the projects of the most environmentally-friendly football tournament ever.
Green Goal, set up by the German Organizing Committee and whose squad includes the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Oeko Institute, agreed that environmental messages contained in a short and witty film will be presented on giant screens as part of the pre-match warm up before each and every match.
The film, which is set to be screened for the first time in Berlin next week, ends with the slogan ‘World Champion for the Environment—We are working on it”.
The review of the Green Goal programme was conducted at the Headquarters of the Organizing Committee in the lush suburbs of Frankfurt, within sight of the stadium where the much expected Netherlands-Argentina football drama and other games will unfold next month.
Following a meeting with Wolfgang Niersbach, the Executive Vice-President of the Organizing Committee, the Director of the UNEP Division of Communications and Public Information, Eric Falt – who is responsible for the organization’s sports and environment initiative – said today:
“Environmental considerations will take centre stage in this competition for the very first time, with clear and measurable objectives, and we hope that it will leave a lasting legacy”.
Green Goal, whose stars include German football legend Franz Beckenbauer and former UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer, also put the final touches to the Climate Neutral scheme, which will offset all 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide generated within Germany by transportation, construction and maintenance of the stadia, and the presence of 3.2 million expected spectators.
As part of an environmentally sound transport plan, fans purchasing tickets for the matches in the 12 World Cup venues will be able to use them for free access to local public transportation during 24 hours, as part of the Kombi ticket scheme.
The Kombi ticket commitment alone will cost the World Cup 2006 Organizing Committee some two million Euros, but should save large amounts of greenhouse gases by reducing private car use.
Other energy savings schemes centre around the stadia themselves. For example, the latest high-tech energy management systems have been installed in the Munich Arena and should realize a 20 per cent reduction in electricity consumption on both and match and non-match days.
In addition, the pitch at the Berlin Olympiastadion and other stadia will be watered from a new rainwater harvesting system, and water-free urinals in the mens’ toilets will feature at numerous key locations.
With the issue of waste avoidance foremost on their minds, the organizers have also introduced the reusable “Cup of the Cup”. Fans will pay a deposit of one Euro for the cup which will be the only one sold and used for drinks at the grounds.
Today it was also announced that 300 volunteers, trained to educate fans about the aims and objectives of Green Goal, are to be located inside each of the 12 stadia.
A Green Goal brochure, featuring the logos of supporting organizations, including UNEP, the German Environment Ministry, DBU, FIFA, Deutsche
Telekom, Plastics Europe, Coca Cola, Deutsche Bahn, EnBW and Total, was already made available for fans at railway stations in the 12 tournament cities.
The brochure, a key element for public awareness, was sent this week to 25,000 journalists around the world.
[Now why did they have to kill trees to send this out- every journalist in the world has an email account!]
“Environmental considerations and impacts, including those that add to climate change, are increasingly being factored into important sporting events. The Olympic movement, in which UNEP is an active partner, has in many respects led the way,” said Mr Falt.
“The Organizing Committee for the 2006 FIFA World Cup is keen to bring the same considerations to the football world. We are encouraged by both their plans and their enthusiasm and look forward to working with them and FIFA, and to sound, reliable and verifiable outcomes in areas such as energy efficiency, waste handling and water savings,” he added.
May 16, 2006
Goleo goes Bankrupt
A German stuffed toy manufacturer that has exclusive rights to produce the official World Cup mascot -- Goleo VI, a shaggy-maned lion in a football shirt -- has filed for insolvency because no one wants to buy it.
Ouch. It seems that no one wants a stuffed lion walking around the house without a pair of shorts on. This is another example of weak product design. How could they create a mascot for soccer without soccer gear?
FIFA cashes out at €28 million...
Hey, at Soccer Blog we even tried to juice up the Goleo story - see Part I, Part II, and Part III.
May 15, 2006
Video: Pepsi in the Biergarten
Pass the Hähnchen 'pon the left hand side...
What was the agency thinking?
Escape to Victory: We've come a long way, USA!
Remember schmaltzy Escape to Victory. The soccer movie by John Huston with a beefed up Sly Stallone playing the goalkeeper, Capt. Robert Hatch. It was all about a soccer match between the good old allied prisoners and their jailers, the beastly Nazis. With stakes involved. It helped that the players representing the Allies included Pele, Bobby Moore, and Osvaldo Ardiles. The honor of the Germans were shouldered by ex-players of Ipswich Town. And Max Von Sydow, who by the looks of it has always had problems tieing his shoelaces, let alone kick a beer can.
So of course, the Allied not only kicked ass but managed to escape. The best part was Sylvester Stallone with his lines, playing the Allied goalkeeper underscoring the total ignorance of an American to soccer.
[Just before the football match]
Hatch: Where do I stand for a corner kick?
and
Hatch: This frigging game is ruining my life
Its gratifying to note that contemporary day Americans are much more knowledgeable about soccer than Robert Hatch circa 1944. But then again its Hollywood, so anything is possible including a fantasy about the US winning the World Cup, where they beat the evil and dastardly Iranians in the finals and thereby save the planet from nuclear annihilation. Mahmoud Ahmedinejad played by Art Malik, plots revenge and becomes Shakira in the closing ceremony of the World Cup. But his voice gives him away and he is charged by Sony Music for impersonation and panned by Simon Cowell for the worst rendition of Underneath My Clothes. Which is worse than nuclear annihilation, believe you me. But it rids us of Ahmedinejad, without Bush and Cheney resorting to their Aw Shucks bombing of Iran and the messy democracy to follow amongst the idle Iranians. Lives are spared and FIFA awards the 2022 World Cup to Iran. Taylor Twellman finally makes it to the US team at age 42.
Lest, I get carried away, here is the Imdb info on Escape to Victory. Pele choreographed the whole game and Stallone insisted that he score the match winner. He was gently reminded that it was not what a goalkeeper does.
Pele:The Autobiography
Simon and Schuster, UK has just published Pele's autobiography. We all know Pele, the legend, the player. But in this autobiography, Pele talks about the man, the son, the husband, the parent, and the humanitarian.
A quintessential quandary of any legend is how are his or her children going to react to living with a legend. And that is true for sports too. The primacy is the issue and its balance: Does the game take over or does parenting? With excess the relationship is fraught. Or can you strike a balance? Or in some exceptions ala Richard Dawkins, do we get children who show far more empathy and understanding of the peculiar problems that confront famous parents?
Do they take the fame and talent of their parent in stride and eke out their own niche and identity with their own talent and interest in the same or a different sport (Archie Manning and Peyton Manning in American football or Yannick Noah in tennis and Joaquin Noah, his son with basketball) or do they do something completely different and learn to take their parents fame as a peripheral issue in their lives but try and emulate their parents high standard to their chosen interest (Floyd Patterson in boxing and his son, Floyd Patterson II in music) or do they fall apart with the pressure and expectations put on them. By themselves and their peers. A dysfunctional relationship as seen in Ted Williams, baseball legend and his son, John Henry Williams.
Or in the case of Edson Arantes Do Nascimento aka Pele, and his son Edinho, who became a goalkeeper for Santos (the irony was not lost on Pele). But injuries forced out Edinho and he soon turned his interests onto other things, including an unsuccesful stint in Brazilian motocross which led infamously to a death of a motorcyclist. Soon he was taking drugs and involved in drug trafficking. He was arrested and spent time in jail. Pele went through the most difficult time in his life. After Edinho's release, he joined a drug rehab center and was on his way to recovery. Pele was ecstatic at his son's turnaround. But Edinho again fell foul of the law and was re-arrested. This as late as February 2006. Which means that Pele is still dealing with his son's drug problems.
It should be a fascinating read into the life of a legend that defines the yardstick of an entire sport. Like Donald Bradman, Michael Jordan, or Nadia Comaneci.
Simon and Schuster, UK. Pele: The Autobiography, published by Simon & Schuster on May 15, priced £18.99. Copyright (c) 2006 Edson Arantes do Nascimento
May 13, 2006
Vinnie Jones, soccer player grabs Gazza's attention
One of the well known toughs in movies throughout the world. I saw his film debut in Lock, Stock, and two Smoking Barrels. Now he is gone onto much bigger roles and is playing Zeljko Raznatovic alias Arkan in the new movie "The Filthy War" due for release in 2007.
But Vinnie Jones was also a well known enforcer in English Premier League soccer and holds the record for the quickest booking, 3 seconds into the game. He played for Wimbledon, Leeds United, Sheffield United, Chelsea and Queens Park Rangers. Internationally, he played for Wales, qualifying for that nationality through his grandparents. He played 384 league games and scored 33 goals in his soccer career, most of them with Wimbledon FC.
What made him notorious through the soccer world; he leapt to fame when a photographer at a match snapped him "marking" Newcastle United's Paul Gascoigne by grabbing his testicles. The photo shows Gazza in distinct discomfort.
May 12, 2006
Movie Trailer: Once in a Lifetime
Back in the day. It was the New York Cosmos that brought soccer to America, leading with Pele - the game's biggest ambassador. Joining him were Beckenbauer, Cruyff, Chinaglia, Carlos Alberto and a supporting cast of crazies. Now it's all on film, a documentary due for release on the 19th of this month in the UK.
Visit the film's official site here>>
There's a lesson here for the Red Bulls. The Cosmos may have failed at a business model, but they succeeded as a brand. I bet you Beckenbauer is going to bring some fireworks back to New York after the World Cup.
We just have to wait and see...
May 11, 2006
Celebrity soccer ads - money down the drain?
Not even 10 percent of those surveyed could say that Ballack is a spokesman for sporting goods maker Adidas.
So why do companies spend so much on ineffective advertising?
BBDO executive Zilligen knows exactly how this works. If some ad agency exec has, with great difficulty, actually convinced the marketing director of some company to steer clear of the World Cup, his efforts can quickly be dashed by the wife of the company's CEO, who happens to see a commercial on TV featuring Ballack and his ilk. All she has to do is ask her husband: "Aren't you guys doing anything?" He responds: "I have no idea." And the next day the marketing director will have to explain why they aren't hoping on the bandwagon.
This is just plain bad marketing.
May 10, 2006
Adidas Grows Soccer Sales
From the WSJ:
Adidas-Salomon AG of Germany raised its soccer-related sales outlook ahead of this year's World Cup tournament, after booking a surge in overall profit and revenue for the first quarter despite shrinking sales at recently acquired Reebok.
The sporting-goods company said it expects to generate at least €1.2 billion ($1.5 billion) in soccer-related revenue in 2006 -- up from €900 million last year and €800 million in 2002, the last time the World Cup tournament was held. Management previously estimated sales from soccer would top €1 billion this year.
How many golden balls will they sell?
I still think the Reebok acquisition was a waste of money...
Video: A Better Ad from Nike
To counter Humberto's low-brow ad in the previous post, here's a far better ad from Nike:
Video: Women Don't Understand
Here's an ad for Fox Sports. Funny and disgusting at the same time:
May 9, 2006
Why is soccer good for you? Start your toddler early
In a study done by scientists at Louisiana State University published in Pedatric Physical Therapy (April 2006) it was discovered that soccer was the best sport to promote bone mineral density or BMD in adolescent girls. Succintly put, playing soccer in youth builds strong bones. And it was rated better than weight- lifting and swimming in building bone strength.
"Beyond the basic premise that kids need exercise, our study suggests that weight-bearing exercise with skeletal impact needs to be promoted during youth to preserve future bone health," researcher James W. Bellew of Louisiana State University in Shreveport said in a prepared statement.
The study compared the bone mineral density (BMD) of three groups of adolescent female athletes: 29 swimmers, 16 soccer players, and 19 weightlifters. BMD is a standard measurement of bone strength.
The soccer players had the highest BMD levels, followed by weightlifters and swimmers. Not only is soccer a weight-bearing sport, it also places repetitive impact on the skeleton, which further promotes bone development, Bellew noted.
More on the article
So now we know that kids who hate drinking milk can substitute that by playing an hour of soccer each day. Just kidding! Both are important.
May 6, 2006
Only in Texas: "Name that Cannon"
The Texans can't be without their guns, even at soccer games...
FC Dallas General Manager Michael Hitchcock and Houston Dynamo General Manager Oliver Luck have announced a "Texas style" competition between the two MLS Western Conference opponents.
In the spirit of Texas sports, the teams will play for something other than points in the standings – the winner of the four game regular season series between the teams on I-45 will win a cannon, soon to be named. In the first year of the series, the cannon will travel to each home stadium and be fired as each team wishes. At the end of the 2006 regular season finale between the clubs, the team with the most points will retain the cannon for the entire next season. (wa-hooo!)
You can name that cannon here>>
And don't forget to tell us what you named it... :-)
Gatorade Ad versus reality - videos
Here Gatorade takes us out to the ball-game in this cute advertisement:
And here's the reality:
The beautiful game is not always so beautiful as the advertisements, no?
Video: Zlatan Juggles His Gum for Nike
Ok, I have to admit this one got to me. Gross out!
Video Humor: Coke Ad
Not half bad!
May 3, 2006
Blame it on the boots!
It may not be Nike's fault, but now they're being blamed for the Rooney injury by Liverpool'sCraig Johnston:
"These injuries are a direct cause of the studs sticking when they should be releasing."
Funny thing - Johnston worked on the adidas "Predator" shoes, so I'm not sure he's exactly unbiased.
I know that adidas have had problems with their footwear as well.
April 29, 2006
Ronaldinho to sell computers in China
FC Barcelona have signed an agreement with Chinese computer giants Lenovo to work together over the next six months in a deal that will see Ronaldinho advertise the firm's products.
First Nike, now Lenovo. This is Joga Bonito!
Video: Sexist Soccer Ad?
Christian - now this ad I can tell you, we appreciate in Brasil.
Video: Ronaldo - Not Red Bull
Here's a "red meat" ad for Brahma Beer, the "official beer" of the Brazilian team.
Cruzeiro - tell us - is the beer any good?
I don't put this ad in the same league as the Maradona nightmare.
April 27, 2006
Ciao Italia! The UBS Geeks Predict Italian Victory
The geeks at UBS Wealth Management Research have caught World Cup fever, and have made some interesting predictions about how this year's soccer World Cup will pan out.
Based on a simulation, the analysts have determined that Italy will win. The simulation was carried out using scientific methods comparable to those used by experts to make economic and financial-market forecasts. The model developed by analysts was then tested for reliability by applying it to past football World Cup and European tournaments, with remarkably precise results: the simulation correctly predicted 89 percent of all of the semi-final winners of the previous nine World Cups.
The simulation
According to the UBS simulation, further results will be as follows: Germany will lose to Argentina in the 3rd round and Italy will beat France at the same stage. They will be closely followed by the Netherlands, who will send England home. In the fourth pairing, the Brazilians will dominate the Spaniards. The semi-finals will then be down to the favorites: the Netherlands will draw the short straw against the Brazilians, the Italians will beat Argentina. In the final, the Brazilians will be forced to accept the fact that the Italians are the better team in this tournament.
Many influencing factors
Along with "football fever", the team around UBS Wealth Management Chief Economist Klaus Wellershoff was interested to find out what variables are important in predicting World Cup success. In doing so, they discovered that many things that appear to be obvious are, in fact, not crucial to winning the World Cup. An example of this would be the size of a country's population, which is often incorrectly correlated to the amount of potential athletic talent. The FIFA rankings, which list the top national soccer teams, also prove to be of limited use when it comes to making a prediction: the FIFA list compiles the sporting success of the individual teams but assigns equal value to all wins, no matter how strong the opponent.
Reality wins
The creation of the World Cup prediction was an intellectual change of pace for the UBS analysts, but it also delivered additional insights. The exercise, for example, gave the experts the opportunity to demonstrate the flexibility of their methods outside their typical parameters.
Of course, there are also limits. According to the model, Greece would never have become European champion in 2004. Sports do still follow their own rules - and are more attractive than any simulation.
Question: If Italy loses, will the billionaires take their money away from the managers at UBS Wealth Management?
April 26, 2006
Julie Foudy starts a soccer academy
Julie Foudy, the hard running veteran of women's soccer is starting an academy that will teach soccer skills and leadership to girls from the ages of 12 to 18. The theme is bigger than just soccer and is focused on developing one's outlook towards life taking the lessons learned through soccer. (NY Times, Apr 26)
Remember those glory days of Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy, Brandi Chastain, Michelle Akers, Shannon McMillan and Briana Scurry.
For those interested, you can learn more at Juliefoudyleadership.com
Julie Foudy will be speaking at the Peddie School in Hightstown, N.J. this Friday at 7:30 PM. For reservations call:
(609)490-7550
The most expensive Red Bull ever!
Alecko Eskendrian of DC United after being voted as MLS player of the week was fined $250 yesterday for inappropriate conduct. Eskendrian scored in the 41st minute against the Red Bulls last Saturday, then took a swig of Red Bull from a can and spat it out onto Giants stadium turf. (NY Times, Apr 26)
This is known as product placement
Seriously, what are cans of Red Bull doing on the sidelines? The players don't need to get wired, they need hydration. Out of shape bar and clubhoppers drink vodka and Red Bull so that they can go blotto till the wee hours of the morn.
Video: Roberto Carlos in a Funny Pepsi Ad
We had to go back to the last World Cup to find a funny ad from Pepsi:
Ghana's World Cup Anthem
The official Ghana anthem is 'Faith in the Black Stars' by a six man group called G-Force.
Morons!
The true, 100% authentic anthem for Ghana has got to be "Jammin Nation" by Rocky Dawuni (or perhaps, "In Ghana" - video here).
What is it with the politics of the World Cup that brings out the worst music sanctioned by the soccer bureaucrats from Ghana to England.
April 25, 2006
Another Soccer War: Adidas vs. Puma
This soccer war has endured over six decades: Adidas versus Puma.
A brilliant article by Ruth Elkins of the Independent.
Rudi and Adi Dassler must have fought over a girl, is all I can say.
ADIDAS:
Founded: 1949
HQ: Herzogenaurach, Germany
Employees: 17,023 (2004 figure)
Pre-tax profits in 2005: €768m (£531m)
Sales in 2005: €6.9bn (£4.8bn)
2006 World Cup teams sponsored by Adidas: Germany, France, Spain, Japan, Trinidad and Tobago, Argentina
PUMA:
Founded: 1948
HQ: Herzogenaurach, Germany
Employees: 3,910 (2004)
Pre-tax profits in 2005: €286m (£197m)
Sales in 2005: €2.4bn (£1.7bn)
2006 World Cup teams sponsored by Puma: Saudi Arabia, Ghana, Iran, Czech Republic, Poland, Italy, Ivory Coast, Paraguay, Switzerland, Togo, Tunisia, Angola
I still have my Maradona Pumas in the basement somewhere, along with my adidas Tango!
e- Bay in the news again: Fraudsters are using it to profit
The Germans have printed 3.07 million tickets for the World Cup and it has already been oversubscried 20 times. Fraudsters are finding new ways to dupe soccer fans desperate to make the trip to Germany. The latest involves selling tickets through e-Bay by people that claim that they have won these tickets through Coca Cola promos. They provide the documents online to prove that these tickets are legitimate.
The fans then transfers money only to be told by Coca- Cola that these documents are fake. The German organizers have repeatedly told e-Bay not to sell tickets on the black market but the internet auction portal refuses to comply. There are no laws forbidding this sort of trade," said eBay spokesman Nerses Chopurian.
e- Bay was in the news recently when a court upheld that a fan had bought legitimate tickets through them.
The German organizers have advised all football fans to buy tickets through the official Web site -- www.FIFAworldcup.com -- and avoid all black market channels.
April 24, 2006
MLS All Stars vs Chelsea
The score? Chelsea 5, MLS All Stars 1.
That's my prediction.
But the MLS will make some money and beat their 15,000/game average attendance...
April 23, 2006
The Humiliation: Red Bull Style
The real story is that only 8,475 fans showed up at Giants Stadium to watch DC United demolish the New York Red Bulls 4-1.
Alecko Eskandarian scored a pair for the black and red. Apparently he rushed over to the sidelines after a goal and took a swig of Red Bull, spat it out and shook his head. That's what they call product placement.
Side story: Adu was scoreless. I feel sorry for him right now - he just can't buy a goal. Last week in Houston he was spectacular, but still no goals...
April 21, 2006
Advertising Lunacy: Spiegel Interviews FIFA's Gregor Lentze
Read this and see how messed up FIFA is. This is NOT Joga Bonito as they say at Nike. Incidentally, NIKE is not a FIFA sponsor.
Lentze: ...The cities and stadiums are getting international attention. I don't think they want to be seen surrounded by salesmen, huge banners and posters.
SPIEGEL: When the banners and posters aren't those of the official sponsors, you mean.
Lentze: Obviously, our partners are subject to the same regulations.
Hypocrites.
The e-Bay Ticket Debacle
FIFA messes up again. Why they can't figure out how to didtribute tickets is beyond me.
Now they're up in arms about e-Bay tickets.
Ticketing arrangements for this summer's World Cup were in chaos yesterday after a court ruled that a fan who bought tickets on eBay was entitled to use them, even though his name was not printed on the ticket face.
The tournament's organisers had insisted that the German Björn Kracht had acquired the tickets unfairly, but a Frankfurt court decided against them. Although the court said its ruling applied only in his case, the judgment opens the way for thousands of England fans to try to acquire tickets on the black market.
In my opinion, FIFA's greediness is overshadowed only by its incompetence.
History repeats itself, again and again and again.
World at Your Feet? Verdict: It Stinks
You're the first in my life
To make me think
That we might just go all the way
And I, want you to know we're all hanging on
They'll come and yes they'll try
To break us down
But we know that we'll never lose
If we keep moving forward and don't look back
Is this is the best we can do in England?
Lame, lame, lame- and it's not just the lyrics that suck. Listen here.
The Soca Warriors leave us in the dust.
What a farce. Let's hope we're better on the field than in the studio!
Mastercard, Visa and FIFA: Let the lawsuits begin!
In a lawsuit filed Thursday, MasterCard has asked the U.S District Court in Manhattan to stop FIFA from allowing archrival Visa to sponsor the 2010 and 2014 World Cup events.'
Greedy buggers.
April 19, 2006
Video: The Samba Never Stops in Brazil
Another smart ad by Nike:
Samba 365-24/7 - right, Cruzeiro?
More $ for FIFA: Global Sponsor #6
Emirates Airline said today it has signed an eight-year, $195 million deal to become a global sponsor of FIFA, soccer’s international governing body.
The agreement, which runs from 2007-2014, is the sixth and, per FIFA, final global partner to be signed. The others are Visa, Coca-Cola, Adidas-Salomon, Sony and Hyundai.
Kaching! FIFA just reels in the bucks...
Soccer Models: Giorgio Armani started it all
Christiano Ronaldo models Pepe Jeans
We all know that David Beckham and Victoria Adams have a big empire, with their many creations under the David Beckham Designer Products logo, which is a million-dollar spinner especially in the Far East.
But it was the 'Beckham jacket' designed by Giorgio Armani that gave David Beckham the sobriquet of the sartorial prince of the footy world.
Giorgio Armani, a renowned leader in the fashion world, who recently turned seventy, pioneered the marriage of fashion and football. He understood the real values of such a twinning combination years ago. Armani employs 5,000 people worldwide and his empire has a turnover of 1.3 billion euros a year!. He designed football wear for teams like Chelsea, Newcastle United, and the Italian National team. The present England squad's off field and formal wear is designed by him.
It started in 1995 when Armani brought on David James then of Liverpool, as a catwalk and advertising face. Since then world stars were turned into models!
David James, now Manchester City's goalkeeper models H&M' s tailored spring collection for men in the Swedish company's newest advertisements. 21-year-old Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo who plays for Manchester United is the new face of Pepe Jeans. Brazil's Kaká, is the new star of Armani Jeans. Rio Ferdinand of Manchester United who signed a three-year contract with shirt brand Ben Sherman. Arsenal star Freddie Ljungberg who appeared in sexy underwear ads for Calvin Klein.
Football stars have also turned fashion entrepreneurs spurred by Armani's success. Andreij Shevchenko of AC Milan has opened an Armani franchise in his home city of Kiev, Ukraine. A couple of years ago, Christian Vieri and Paolo Maldini launched their ‘Sweet Years,’ while Francesco Totti and Ilary have their own brand ‘Never without you.’ Japanese player Hide Nakata recently introduced his own stylish tops after establishing a big market of his team’s colours, in Japan when he played for Perugia, Roma and Parma.
George Best was the natty style icon of the 60's and 70's but Giorgio Armani was the first to take the present day soccer stars to a different level of haute couture altogether.
April 15, 2006
Video: The Greatest Pub Team Ever?
Bobby Robson manages a pub football team filled with former England legends, including Bobby Charlton, Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle, in the latest ad for Carlsberg in the run up to this summer’s World Cup.
The star-studded spot, developed by Saatchi & Saatchi, forms part of the £10.5 million World Cup marketing push for the Danish brewing giants, which attempts to “tap into the nation's dreams of victory”.
The full three-minute spot begins with a sleepy Peter Shilton, England’s longest serving goalkeeper, rising from bed in preparation for his Sunday morning game. Peter Reid is seen sipping tea while Alan Ball sniffs his football socks.
Peter Beardsley is shown riding to the match on a bicycle, while Chris Waddle jumps into the back of a van with the rest of the players – but not before driver Jack Charlton teases him by pulling away as he tries to get in.
Terry Butcher then picks up some bacon sarnies on the way, before the scene switches to the dressing room with Stuart Pearce chastised by Robson for answering his mobile phone during the team talk.
The team are then shown playing a real match against lowly pub-standard competition. Despite Jack Charlton getting booked for a shirt pull, the aged yet still skilful legends beat the opposition soundly.
The ad ends with the victorious team sipping pints of Carlsberg in their local pub, “The Old Lion”. A voiceover says finally: “Carlsberg don’t do pub teams. But if they did, they’d probably be the best pub team in the world”.
Carlsberg, a founding partner of the new Wembley Stadium, is embarking on a huge World Cup marketing push in order to capitalise on the tournament. The brand is already the official beer of the England team and a sponsor of the FA Cup.
April 14, 2006
Video: Reggaeton 2006 - Shakira, Soccer and American Idol
This is Reggaeton going global. I wonder how the planet will react when she sings this 10 minutes before the Finals!
Shourin, thanks for giving me an excuse to post this video on the site!
April 11, 2006
Golden Balls - aaaaargh!
The folk at FIFA have no class. Now we have a cheesy golden ball for the finals. Wonder how much adidas paid them for this?
Read the Times story here: "Balls to tradition as Fifa enters sphere of bling"
Will the Glazers rename Old Trafford?
David Gill says "We're not going to rename Old Trafford. We can go on record and say that won't happen. I don't think there's value there and it's not something we, or they (the Glazers), want to do."
Here are some possibilities, based on the American tradition of "branding" -
- ExxonMobil Park
- McDonald's Stadium
- Houlihan's Hooligans
- Nikeland
...you get the picture!
April 8, 2006
Sale: Get a Boca Juniors Coffin!
Soccer is life. Apparently it's after-life as well:
Die-hard Boca Juniors fans can buy their own coffins decorated in Boca colors and symbols for between 2,000 pesos and 2,500 pesos ($650 to $800), a small fortune for many of Boca's working-class followers.
"The coffin lets me express my feelings and show what happened to me during my life. And maybe it will bring a smile to someone's face who remembers when we went to see a match together," said Hernan Marini, who works with a funeral home that offers the caskets to prospective corpses.
Marini, 24, is buying a blue coffin etched with the team's shield on its lid -- the subtlest of three official Boca Juniors caskets made in a factory outside Buenos Aires.
Not exactly a cheerful business model. I wonder if you get to wear a full team kit? And is it home or away?
April 7, 2006
Ballack to Chelsea - Done Deal?
The worst kept secret in the Bundesliga:
The possibility of Michael Ballack securing a summer move to Chelsea increased this week after the German star signed a bumper new deal with sportswear giants adidas, reports SkySports.
Aston Villa Sponsorship Deal with Online Company
According to Reuters, Aston Villa has conditionally agreed a two-year sponsorship deal with internet company 32Red. 32Red will pay Villa a "basic six figure sum per season" and Villa players will wear the company's logo on their home and away shirts starting next season.
The "arrangement" secures initial seasonal payments and a potential share in revenue drawn from 32Red's "online services."
Poor Villa. Just when Man U gets the big one... Not exactly the smartest move, but Villa must be desperate.
April 6, 2006
Ballack and Adidas $$$$
Michael Ballack has renewed his personal contract with adidas, which effectively narrows down the options of his future club to favoured Chelsea and Real Madrid.
Ballack's manager Michael Becker said on Wednesday it was "permissible" to assume that Ballack will play for an adidas-equipped club.
It's interesting: the shoe you wear decides what team you play for... but we should always remember that football is a business.
Shirt Sponsorship: Manchester United and AIG (Updated)
Manchester United have agreed to a British record £56.5million shirt sponsorship deal with US finance giant American International Group (AIG). Not bad, ha?
Quick history: Man U has been "sponsored" by Sharp, Vodafone, and now AIG.
Man U were seen to be in a bind when Vodafone decided to terminate their £9million-a-year deal two years early. The real story here is that United chief executive David Gill and his business team were able to pull this deal off apparently without any hitches...
Frankly, we're not surprised. I mean Juventus nets £15million-a-year from Tamoil, a Libyan oil company. And Chelsea's deal with Samsung is worth £10million-a-season.
So who'll jump into the shirt sponsorship game next? BP? Exxon-Mobil?
Compare this to a FIFA sponsorship, and I think it's a good deal for businesses.
"Music Video" UPDATE:
Let's get Real. Beckham is a bust at Madrid.
He cannot kick with his left foot, he cannot head a ball, he cannot tackle, and he doesn't score many goals. Apart from that he's alright." — George Best
In June 2003, David Beckham was traded from Man U to Real Madrid for a whopping 24.5 million pounds. He was supposed to put teeth into a team that featured superstars Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo, Ronaldo and Raul.
Real which had lost ground to Barca in the last few years were ecstatic. News of Beckham's move to Real Madrid came as a bitter blow to fierce rivals Barca - and new president Joan Laporta in particular.
So did it make any difference? Not Really.
Although Beckham scored five goals in sixteen games, the 2003-2004 season saw Real come in fourth place and bow out in the UEFA quarterfinals. The following 2004-2005 season Real finishied second behind Barca. And so far in the current season Barca is leading Real Madrid by 11 points. In the last match, Real escaped with a respectable draw 1-1 against Barca, although thoroughly outclassed.
How has he fared this season? One goal in 24 matches. And he is injured again.
Adidas Ad for the World Cup
The cutest Adidas ad ever!
So how is Beck's book doing?
David Beckham and Tom Watts wrote Both Feet on the Ground: An autobiography with Tom Watts (Harper Paperbacks; November 1, 2004). Today's Amazon sales rank 168,602
A little perspective.
The top selling sports books on the Amazon top 100 list. No soccer book made it (updated every hour)
27) Games of Shadows: Barry Bonds, Balco, and the Steroids Scandal that Rocked the World by Mark Fainaru-Wada, Lance Williams
35) Baseball between the Numbers by Baseball Prospectus Team of Experts, et al
The top selling soccer books in the Amazon top 100 sports list (updated every hour)
46) Soccerhead: An Accidental Journey into the heart of the American Game by Jim Haner Sales Rank: 2,415
71) Coaching Youth Soccer: A baffled parents guide by Bobby Clark Sales Rank 3,409
77) How Soccer explains the World: An unlikely theory of Globalization by Franklin Foer Sales Rank 3,687
This reviewer seems a bit critical of David Beckham
"It has been many years since this guy stopped worrying about playing soccer, and focused solely in his obligations with sponsors, in posing for photos, etc. He has won absolutely nothing in Real Madrid, a team so engulfed by its millionaire stars that no coach can make it work as an efficient soccer team.
It's useless to read a book about this narcisist (sic) guy."
April 5, 2006
Visa kicks Mastercard out of FIFA - Who Cares?
Visa is to sign a 150-200 million pounds ($260-350 million) sponsorship deal for the World Cup from 2007 as FIFA's new financial services partner, sources close to the deal told Reuters on Wednesday. Out goes Mastercard.
Does anyone care?
April 3, 2006
Music: Dan Maximus' "Fighter"
Video: Brazil - My All-Time Favorite Nike Ad
Remember this from the last World Cup?
Pretty lax security-wise...
Shell Got No Riddim?
The Soca Warriors are coming over the hills, and Shell doesn't grasp the PR opportunity...
According to Bloomberg (hat-tip to Media Orchard):
Royal Dutch Shell PLC has one word to offer on the subject of its musical oil barrels.
"What?" says Shell spokeswoman Alexandra Wright in London.
The World Cup is about to change Shell's tune.
"Oil drum music is infectious," says Sepp Blatter, the president of Federation Internationale de Football Association, soccer's global governing body and organizer of the 2006 World Cup in Germany in June...
More than a few thousand of those World Cup drummers will probably be beating Shell oil barrels...
And therein lies the corporate dilemma of Gerard Mitchell, country head of Shell Trinidad Ltd.
"It's officially against corporate policy for us to hand out oil barrels," the 37-year-old Mitchell frets. "We really don't know what to do about all this."...
The folks at Idea Grove ask: Why doesn't Shell make a separate version of its barrels expressly for the drummers?
No duh!
April 2, 2006
Brand #1: Ronaldinho gives Becks the Boot
Just in time for the World Cup - Ronaldinho kicks Beckham off the branding pedestal.
Full list:
1 Ronaldinho (Barcelona) £32.6m
2 David Beckham (Real Madrid) £31.2m
3 Wayne Rooney (Manchester United) £30.4m
4 Samuel Eto'o (Barcelona) £21.3m
5 Lionel Messi (Barcelona) £21.1m
6 Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Juventus) £20.9m
7 Ronaldo (Real Madrid) £20.4m
8 Frank Lampard (Chelsea) £20m
9 Thierry Henry (Arsenal) £19.95m
10 Michael Ballack (Bayern Munich) £19.9m
11 Steven Gerrard (Liverpool) £19.2m
12 Raul (Real Madrid) £18.9m
13 Zinedine Zidane (Real Madrid) £18.8m
14 Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United) £18.6m
15 Didier Drogba (Chelsea) £18.3m
16 Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus) £12.9m
17 Ryan Babel (Ajax Amsterdam) £12.6m
18 Ruud van Nistelrooy (Manchester United) £12.1m
19 Lukas Podolski (Cologne) £11.3m
20 Andriy Shevchenko (AC Milan) £9.9m
According to brand agency BBDO Germany:
"Mit 47 Millionen Euro verfügt der 26-jährige brasilianische Spieler Ronaldinho über den höchsten Markenwert unter den weltweit erfolgreichsten Fußballern. Auf Platz 2 folgt mit 44,9 Millionen Euro Englands populärster Spieler David Beckham. Platz 3 belegt Nachwuchs-Kicker Wayne Rooney, der 2003 als jüngster Spieler aller Zeiten von Nationaltrainer Sven-Göran Eriksson in die englische Nationalmannschaft berufen wurde."
How you like my German, Gerd?
Frankly, these numbers don't mean anything until after the World Cup. Let's see who's on top in July!
Beckham Has Issues...
The midfielder was rumored to have been approached for a Calvin Klein deal after he revealed he buys 60 pairs of C.K. underwear each month.
I didn't want to hear this, Forbes! Aargh!
Forbes: Soccer Team Valuations
Thanks Forbes!
| Rank | Team | Country | Current Value1 ($mil) | Debt/Value2 (%) | 1-Yr Value Change (%) | Revenue ($mil) | Operating Income3 ($mil) |
| 1 | Manchester United | England | 1,373 | 36 | 10 | 298 | 82.5 |
| 2 | Real Madrid | Spain | 1,012 | 54 | 10 | 334 | 30 |
| 3 | AC Milan | Italy | 921 | 0 | 3 | 283 | 42.5 |
| 4 | Arsenal | England | 841 | 74 | 37 | 207 | 31.6 |
| 5 | Bayern Munich | Germany | 769 | 0 | 23 | 229 | 54.4 |
| 6 | Juventus | Italy | 687 | 4 | -18 | 278 | 82.3 |
| 7 | Chelsea | England | 508 | 0 | 13 | 267 | -11.3 |
| 8 | Internazionale Milan | Italy | 504 | NA | -17 | 215 | 21.5 |
| 9 | Barcelona | Spain | 440 | NA | 13 | 252 | 18.9 |
| 10 | Liverpool | England | 370 | 13 | -16 | 219 | -2.9 |
| 11 | Schalke 04 | Germany | 324 | 0 | 10 | 118 | 27.8 |
| 12 | Newcastle United | England | 302 | 33 | -23 | 156 | 38.3 |
| 13 | AS Roma | Italy | 263 | 5 | 5 | 160 | 31.9 |
| 14 | Manchester City | England | 222 | 75 | -15 | 109 | 6.3 |
| 15 | Tottenham Hotspur | England | 214 | 10 | -28 | 127 | 36.6 |
| 16 | Olympique Lyonnais | France | 208 | NA | 36 | 112 | 7.1 |
| 17 | Celtic | Scotland | 196 | 18 | -28 | 111 | 4.5 |
| 18 | Valencia | Spain | 195 | NA | NA | 102 | -5.1 |
| 19 | Bayer Leverkusen | Germany | 189 | 0 | NA | 95 | 9.5 |
| 20 | Glasgow Rangers | Scotland | 187 | 63 | -17 | 99 | -14.8 |
| 21 | Ajax Amsterdam | Netherland | 171 | 0 | 35 | 81 | 23.2 |
| 22 | Borussia Dortmund | Germany | 141 | 26 | -28 | 91 | -64.6 |
| 23 | Everton | England | 138 | 38 | NA | 108 | 0 |
| 24 | Aston Villa | England | 120 | 0 | -49 | 94 | 10.8 |
| 25 | FC Porto | Portugal | 106 | 59 | -42 | 93 | 24.3 |
March 31, 2006
Get Real FIFA! Stop the Candy Fights!!
FIFA is going too far. They are becoming the language police!
Here's an example from Deutsche Welle:
"The legal row between FIFA and German candy producer, Ferrero over marketing rights during the soccer World Cup in 2006 has now moved to Germany's federal administrative court. The dispute first arose when FIFA -- in a first in World Cup history -- filed for brand protection for the terms "World Cup 2006" and "Football World Cup 2006" and furnished an entire list of products which advertisers couldn't use without FIFA's permission. Ferrero, which is headquartered in Frankfurt and which has been providing small cards of soccer players with its candy -- a popular souvenir among socccer fans -- during soccer World Cups and European Championships since 1982, protested against the rigid conditions and scored a partial victory at the Federal Patents Office in Munich."
And there was this as well!
March 30, 2006
Joga Bonito Advertisement on American Idol
Last night they ran this Nike ad on American Idol. The ad is cool, but the Joga community is fairly boring... Doesn't Ronaldinho's baby smile make you smile?
Extreme Soccer Advertising - The Brazilian ESPN
Cruzeiro, you guys are nuts! Only the Brazilians could have thought this one up (from Ads of the World):
Miniature soccer goals were placed on green urinal deodorizer blocks in several pubs. Moth balls were placed in front of the miniature soccer goals.
The sign above the urinal says:
Soccer is good everywhere, but it is much better on ESPN channels.
March 21, 2006
The World is Round: About Soccerblog.com
"Time is an awkard inconvenience between football matches," said the french existentialist Albert Camus. He should know- he was a goalkeeper! And not just for the team down the street.
As goalkeeper for Algeria, Camus found the missing link between football and existentialism: "All I know most surely about morality and obligations, I owe to football." And went on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Name another sport where the goalie wins the Nobel Prize. I dare you!
That's why we're here. This site is a site about life, or soccer, as we call it.
The history, the players, the teams, the experiences -- the meaning behind the beautiful game.
Join us on our journey. Don't be a stranger!
PS: Tom Friedman -- the word is not flat, it is round.