Football Partnerships

By Alex Kotler

Putting the ‘no’ in technology

Football and technology do not mix, at least not while FIFA is stirring.

Following the Annual General Meeting of the International Football Association Board (IFAB) last Saturday in Zurich, FIFA announced that goal-line technology would not be explored further.

Seen as a gateway to inviting technology into other areas of the sport, FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke commented: “If we start with goal-line technology then any part of the game and pitch will be a potential space where you could put in place technology to see if the ball was in or out, whether it was a penalty and then you end up with video replays.”

Supporters of technology need only to point to the weekend’s match between Birmingham City and Portsmouth when Liam Ridgewell’s scoring chance was ruled as save.

What are your thoughts? Sound decision? Bold move? Unfair to the victims of human fallibility?

Read about it from FIFA

ESPN makes an accented choice for World Cup broadcasts

Sports network ESPN has selected a star-studded starting lineup for its US broadcasts of the 2010 World Cup: Ian Darke, Adrian Healey, Derek Rae and Martin Tyler.

The move has drawn ire and support, as some take issue with the lack of American accents in the mix and others argue that the quality of the play-calling will outshine any sentimental or patriotic decisions.

Perhaps it’s all the more reason for the USMNT to show up on 12 June.

Read Jack Bell’s coverage in the Goal blog as well as the comments

Putting the clamp on South Africa

Extensive measures are being taken to ensure security at the 2010 World Cup.

According to SoccerexBusiness Daily, Interpol - the international criminal police organization - will send its largest-ever team to help with security from June 11 to July 11. Further, the South African government will spend approximately $173 million on security, including the training of 44,000 police personnel.

The news comes amidst reports that up to 40,000 sex workers will enter South Africa during the tournament.

Will the World Cup be safe for visitors? Will the world see an aggressive spread of HIV? What are your thoughts?

More on prostitution in South Africa

Putting the clamp on South Africa

The first lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, participated in a free youth soccer clinic for kids in Washington, DC last week, promoting soccer as a way of fighting childhood obesity.

The event marked the partnership between the US Soccer Foundation and the National Alliance for Hispanic Health. A 25-city tour will follow, providing free health screenings and contacts for families to connect with local soccer programs.

Read about it in the Wichita Soccer Examiner

Keeping it Real

According to Deloitte, which recently published its annual Football Money League, Real Madrid sit atop the earnings table, having generated annual revenue in excess of $543 million dollars.

To put it into perspective, that would account for over 152 million McDonald’s Big Macs, as priced at $3.57 in February of 2008. Current pricing for Big Macs are unavailable and would further make such tabulations less ridiculous in principle.

Read more in Soccer News

By Alex Kotler

Staying at the table

Despite postponement and building tension, the Major League Soccer Players Union and the league, Major League Soccer, continue negotiations.

Jimmy Conrad, MLSPU executive board member and Kansas City Wizards defender, intimated that a work stoppage is possible: “We feel like we’ve made a huge effort to be reasonable, to propose things that are within the confines of the single-entity structure. At this point they’re not even humoring us with something tangible.”

The president of MLS, Mark Abbott, released a statement Saturday, saying: “To characterize the league as not taking the players’ concerns seriously is just factually incorrect. What we have not made a proposal on and what the league is not prepared to do is to have free agency within the league. The league created its structure after really studying other efforts to launch professional soccer leagues in the United States, which unfortunately failed.”

Is the conflict rooted more in money or control? Or something else?

Have your say and read more in David Falk’s compilation in the Examiner

That’ll fix you!

Two Chinese football teams, Guangzhou GPC and Chengdu Blades, have been relegated to the second division from the top flight after club officials were found guilty of match-fixing and gambling.

Readers will recall CCTV 5’s recent blackout of the East Asia Cup match between China and Japan, said to be in part due to this scandal. Over 20 officials have been either arrested or detained, including the Chinese FA’s former chief, Nan Yong.

As noted by SportBusiness, Chengdu is owned by English Championship side Sheffield United.

Read slightly more about it in SportBusiness

Lowering ticket prices to raise attendances

According to Australia’s Herald Sun, FIFA is slashing World Cup ticket prices for South Africans as a means of ensuring full stadia during matches.

Up to 900,000 tickets, priced at approximately US$100, were reduced to less than US$20 and made available for purchase by local residents. Sources say that FIFA is concerned, particularly on the heels of the episode with the Togolese team at the African Cup of Nations, that attendences will be low.

What do you think? Should FIFA be concerned? Does the price reduction impact foreign ticket sales?

Read the original report (in Australian)

Seeking a Silva lining

MP & Silva, rights holders of the Italian Serie A and Serie B leagues, have retained IMG Media to cover rights distribution in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Netherlands, Turkey, Russia and the countries that were part of former Yugoslavia, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia.

The agreement will last through the 2012 season.

Who controls the rights where you live? How does this affect you?

Read about it in euFootball.BIZ

“__________” Stamford Bridge

Soccerex Business Daily reports that English Premier League side Chelsea FC has offered naming rights to Stamford Bridge stadium to Petrobras, Brazil’s public oil company.

It is understood that the firm has previously been approached by Manchester United and flirted with Real Madrid, however - as in the case of Chelsea - it has declined the offer.

How it may have all been different if the Robinho deal had gone through…

By Alex Kotler

How Revolting!

Manchester United supporters, outraged by the club’s spiraling debt load, have recruited Keith Harris, a football finance specialist and broker, to lead a possible takeover bid.

“You sense that the momentum is gathering and this time these fans truly mean it,” he told the BBC in a recent interview. A United fan for 50 years, Harris is known for the sale of Chelsea FC to Roman Abramovich and Aston Villa FC to Randy Lerner.

The most important question, though, Harris pointed out explicitly: “What you don’t know is whether the Glazers can be made to listen.” Can they and should they?

Watch the Keith Harris interview

LA Sol eclipsed

After one year of operation, Women’s Professional Soccer club and 2009 runner-up LA Sol folded, following failed attempts by the league to sell the team.

Apparently, two original ownership groups pulled out mid-year, leaving LA Galaxy owners Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) to run the team until season’s end.

As the league heads into its second term, in which two new teams will join - the Atlanta Beat and the Philadelphia Independence - one cannot help but remember the fate of the now defunct WUSA. Surely we mustn’t let players like Marta find other leagues in which to flourish, right?

Read Nick Green’s take

But what I meant to say was…

The oft-criticized president of FIFA, Sepp Blatter, has clarified comments which seemed to point to Europe as the preferred choice and likely destination for World Cup 2018.

“I said it’s a possibility only if other associations do not bid. It is not a decision for the executive committee to change that right of every association to bid for a World Cup,” Blatter was quoted by news agency Reuters.

Perhaps, like the fans of Manchester United, we should all revolt against the conspiracy of the misquoting media.

Lubing up for 2010

Castrol has reached an with UEFA to be an official sponsor of UEFA EURO 2012, set to be jointly hosted by Poland and Ukraine.

Awarded with a worldwide rights package for the duration of the tournament, Castrol will provide insight into performances via the Castrol Index, a system that uses playercam technology to analyze and compare the performance of each player throughout the competition.

Grease your wheels in euFootball.biz

The ridiculosity of it all

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) announced that Togo will be banned from the next two Africa Cup of Nations and fined $50,000 due to the team’s withdrawal from this year’s tournament held in Angola.

Readers will remember that the Togolese team was attacked at gunpoint and fired upon. Three people died during the affair, and more were left injured and shaken.

Such a ban is more ridiculous than even the word ridiculosity.

Read more in the Epoch Times

Football’s world governing body FIFA announced yesterday that Chinese state-broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) has acquired the rights to all FIFA tournaments, including the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cups.

Read the rest of the article

Kenya football faces another dispute about who runs the game Kenyan football could face another crisis after a new dispute over who runs the sport in the country broke out.

World governing body Fifa recognises Football Kenya Limited (FKL) but a rival faction, known as the Kenya Football Federation (KFF), is supported by the government.

Read the rest of the article