Zambrotta, Thuram to Barca
Barcelona have won the race to capture Juventus defenders Lilian Thuram and Gianluca Zambrotta following the Italian club’s relegation...
Category: Soccer Business
Zidane and Materazzi: Fines and match bans
Zinedine Zidane has been banned for three games and fined £3,260 for head-butting Italy’s Marco Materazzi during the World...
Buffon deal hots up: Arsenal and Man U frontrunners
Apparently Juventus has been spurned by AC Milan in their quest to get Christian Abbiati plus a hefty sum...
The Euro attitude: South Africa not ready to host 2010 World Cup
It had to come sooner than later. The elation that swept through South Africa and the African continent after...
Arsenal interested in Gianluigi Buffon?
One of the most intriguing news was that Gianluigi Buffon of Juventus was being pursued by Arsenal. Which leads...
The economy gets a boost with a World Cup win
The World Cup win for Italy means many things to that country. A morale booster to citizens who are...
Thanks, Malcolm Glazer: It just became harder to see a Man U game
Man Utd – Results 2005 Total turnover £157m Pre-tax profit £11 Matchday revenue £66 TV revenue £48m Wage bill...
Juve, Lazio, Fiorentina Relegated to Serie B
and AC Milan survives, but loses 15 points and is kicked out of the Champions League. Wow. Juventus were...
Goodbye, Bruce Arena
In the end, Arena was almost as bad as the Brazilian coach (see previous post). U.S. Soccer President Sunil...
Roberto Donadoni: New coach of the Azzurris
Roberto Donadoni- Azzuris new coach With Marcelo Lippi stepping down, the job at the helm has gone to Livorno’s...
Zidane speaks: But will Pedro and Jose include him in their teams?
Zidane speaks Asked what exactly Materazzi had said, Zidane would only offer that it was “very personal and concerned...
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...
Video: Lehmann’s Cheat Sheet
Gotta hand it to the Germans. Their use of business intelligence in the World Cup should make companies sit...
Evidence supports Zidane: He was subject to racism
From the Daily Mail: Football was awash with competing theories, but with the help of an expert lip reader...
FIFA’s World Cup selection is too Eurocentric: Where is Steven Appiah?
The 2006 World Cup: Just another version of Euro 2006. FIFA should now seriously start looking for World Cup...
The Serie scandal: Politicians pull the amnesty card
Massimo Moratti, Inter’s CEO; Silvio Berlusconi, Forza Italia and AC Milan’s CEO One of the clubs in danger of...
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...
T&T goalie Shaka Hislop signs up with FC Dallas
Great news! Shaka Hislop, Soca Warriors goalkeeper and their hero in that goalless draw against Sweden, keeping sharpshooters Freddie...
The Three Lions: A new canvas to paint on, Steve McLaren
Theo Walcott, Steve McLaren, Aaron Lennon John Terry, Darren Bent The one thing that you learn through all this...
Sign the FIFA petition: Lets make soccer truly the beautiful game
Sick of the flopping and diving. The bad calls. The matches decided on other factors other than how well...
IRS: Youth soccer leagues are big business
The Internal Revenue Service is targeting youth soccer leagues around the country, as they have grown in size, and...
Arena in hot water with the MLS for speaking the truth
Bruce Arena, the coach may deserve all the brickbats that he got following the US debacle. But on this...
Simon Kuper: Don’t you have a life beyond the World Cup?
Simon Kuper in today’s FT, has travelled 18 days and slept on 15 different beds. He is sleep deprived...
The Italian squad: Will victory be too pyrrhic?
Gianluca Pessotto, Juventus official and ex-player The Italian media is full of how Gianluca Pessotto, Juventus manager and a...
Coaches and their national soccer teams: Is there a trend to success?
With the Socceroos bowing out albeit in a unfortunate way, the quarterfinals now has no team that is coached...
Will England Beat Scolari?
Not likely, says Portuguese star Pauleta. “We’ve got every chance of beating England. We’re all pulling in the same...
The Netherlands vs Portugal match: England is the beneficiary
Some invisible hand must be guiding England. They have managed to get through their matches with some of the...
Who is Valentin Ivanov?
He is the referee who officiated the controversial semi-final match between Arsenal and Villareal in their semif0inal match in...
Is the English League providing the most impact in this World Cup?
The first round of the World Cup is over, 16 countries have made it. But which of the big...
Let the Rumors Begin: Klinsmann Replacing Arena!
Fox’s Nick Webster is saying it’s a done deal. Apparently Boris Inanici at WDR told Webster that Jurgen Klinsmann,...
Eric Wynalda says that Bruce Arena should step down
You know the ESPN pundits must be reading Soccerblog. In our discussions we discussed the issue of sending talented...
Rudi Gutendorf: Soccer ‘s rolling stone
From the NY Times, June 21 The person considered to be the ultimate coaching nomad is Rudi Gutendorf, a...
Spike Lee calls it football and weighs in on Ronaldo
Spike Lee and his son, Jonathan are Gunner fans and good friends of Thierry Henry. He is a great...
World Cup coverage: ABC’s Dave O’Brien and Marcelo Balboa muddle through
Dave O’Brien on the Italy- USA match must have repeated “Italy is a powerhouse in the soccer world” and...
The Financial Status of MLS
There is a great article in the current ESPN Magazine written by Peter Keating on the current business of...
Referee Jorge Larrionda was suspended for the 2002 World Cup
Wikipedia’s entry says that Larrionda was suspended for 6 months by the Uruguayan football federation after being selected for...
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...
The World Cup referees: Who are these guys?
David Beckham being sent off by Luis Cantalejo The quality of refeering can influence any sport, and soccer is...
Halftime: Tunisia 1 Saudi Arabia 0 (Fulltime: Tunisia 2 S.Arabia 2)
Brilliant side volley by Ried Jaziri to put Tunisia through. The one opportunity, and Jaziri scored. The Saudi Arabians...
Two beleaguered coaches: Two different responses from their teams
A tale of two coaches: Raymond Domenech (L), Jurgen Klinsmann (R) Both Jurgen Klinsmann and Raymond Domenech have gone...
Let’s focus on improving soccer standards: In the MLS and National teams
I think as Steve points out, enough with the doom and gloom of soccer ever supplanting the big three...
The US vs the Czech Republic: A win will put us in the big league
1990. Tomas Skuhravy and the Czechs destroyed the USA, 5-1. Bruce Arena, then the University of Virginia coach, travelled...
ESPN’s World Cup coverage: Good job done, folks!
Tommy Smyth- ESPN analyst Its gotten to the point that I now look at who is broadcasting the World...
What Productivity? Soccer @ Work
Based on an average hourly wage of £12.50, the law firm Brabners Chaffe Street calculated that during the tournament,...
Ho-hum: England 1, Paraguay 0 at halftime (Fulltime: England 1 Paraguay 0)
Carlos Gamarra scores an own goal from a wicked bender from David Beckham within the first 10 minutes. And...
Ecuador 1 Poland 0 at halftime [Update: Ecuador wins, 2-0]
Poland’s defence looks pretty ragged, giving the Ecuadorian attack many looks. And the Edwin Tenorio and Augustin Delgado duo...
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...
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...
Soccer Blogging in the Main Stream Media
I must say I’m excited about the MSM getting into soccer blogging. Here are the top MSM soccer blogs....
Injury update: Gennaro Gattuso to miss Italy opener against Ghana
OK. This World Cup just got a wee bit more interesting for the Group E teams. Ghana, Italy, USA,...
Soccer divers beware: The fans are adopting a zero tolerance policy
As the videos below show how diving has become an artfrom, and we can now laugh at these outrageous...
Interesting World Cup statistics
* Since the beginning of group play in 1950, teams that have won the first games have advanced to...
Soccerblog analysis: The US vs Italy match up in the World Cup
VS The US meets Italy on 17 Jun at Kaiserslautern at 9 PM German time (3 PM EST). USA...
Why the US doesn’t love soccer: A few more thoughts
I came across Chicagoland’s Dave Eggers (his novel ‘You Shall Know Our Velocity’ was a great read ) tongue...