Football Partnerships

By Alex Kotler

Sufferin’ Becks-a-tash

AC Milan, LA Galaxy and England international midfielder David Beckham is out of the 2010 World Cup.

The global sports icon sustained an injury to his Achilles tendon in a match this Sunday, costing him a place on the English National Team for this summer’s tournament. Although considered more of a bit-part player at this stage in his career, his experience - both on the field and in front of camera - will be missed by his teammates.

A surgery performed today in Finland will determine the extent of the injury, which will almost certainly close the door on his international competitive career. What also remains to be seen is how and whether the injury will impact his endorsement deals, some of which may have World Cup clauses or activation initiatives.

What do you think? Will his commercial arrangements take a massive blow?

Read more Beckham’s injury

Barber puts his Whitecap on

Paul Barber, former Executive Director at Tottenham Hotspur and current CEO of USSF Division II side Vancouver Whitecaps, was officially introduced at a press conference last Wednesday in British Columbia.

The two-time guest on the Football Partnerships podcast counts the opportunity as his third dream job - the first being his role as Marketing & Communications Director at the FA and the second at his boyhood club of Spurs.

We wish him the best of luck in his new post.

Read more and watch the press conference video

Put a cap in it

Outgoing chairman of the Football League, Lord Brian Mawhinney, posits that a salary cap is inevitable.

According to an interview by the BBC, as reprinted in the Guardian, Mawhinney said that “the business model of professional football in [the UK] doesn’t work, it’s broke and you see that reflected in the administrations and all the rest of it.”

UEFA president Michel Platini also champions restrictions on spending throughout European. Meanwhile, in the United States, Major League Soccer - which imposes a salary cap - is involved in mediation proceedings with the MLS Players Union over a collective bargaining agreement which threaten to derail the start of the season in two weeks.

Which position is preferred? A system with limitless spending or one that imposes fiscal responsibility measures at the expense of globally competitive salaries?

Read more from Mawhinney

North Korea take home field advantage in South Africa

The North Korean National Team will apparently have home field advantage when they take on the Ivory Coast on June 25th at Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit.

According to the JoongAng Daily, North Korean workers are raising much needed capital for the rogue state by helping to build this 43,500-seat stadium and others.

“[An estimated 1,000] North Koreans have been put to work on four to five stadiums that require renovation, including Soccer City stadium in Johannesburg, where the opening and closing ceremonies, plus the final will be staged,” said one source said.

What are your thoughts?

Read about it in the JoongAng Daily

Assauer lets comments out of the closet

Former Schalke boss Rudi Assauer has gone public with his opinions that gays have ‘no place’ in football.

The outspoken German went on to say: ‘If a player came to me and said he was gay I would say to him: “You have shown courage.” But then I would tell him to find something else to do.’

Despite rumors and whispering, there are zero openly gay footballers in England and Wales - out of 4,000 total players. Assauer’s opinions do little to encourage any to step forward.

Should Assauer ‘find something else to do’?

Read about it in the Daily Mail

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

US stays goo-goo over Gulati

Football Partnerships is pleased to congratulate Sunil Gulati on his re-election to another four-year term as president of the US Soccer Federation. Approved unanimously at the governing body’s annual general meeting, Mr. Gulati is an established multi-tasker who wears many hats, also including that of board member to the US Bid Committee for the 2018/2022 campaign to bring the FIFA World Cup to the United States, member of Columbia University’s economics department and soccer dad.

Some of us have our hands full taking out the rubbish and talking on the telephone.

Taking the game out of the show

Chinese CCTV 5 channel, owner of 85% of the nation’s sports television market, abruptly suspended the broadcast of the East Asian Championship tie between China and Japan last Saturday evening. Instead of the match again China’s fierce rival, viewers were treated to European gameshow Jeux Sans Frontier.

While no comment, nor recognition of the 0-0 result, has yet been offered by CCTV 5, it is suggested that this is part consequence of accusations against several Chinese soccer officials for match-fixing.

It appears that the solution is to punish fans for the alleged wrongdoings of members of the establishment. Fair or foul?

Read more from the original source

Where the knowledge flows like wine

According to the Belfast Telegraph, Burnley FC has unveiled a plan to redevelop its Turf Moor ground to include the nation’s first ‘football university’.

Referencing the club’s increased global visibility, courtesy of its current status as an English Premier League team, Clarets chief executive Paul Fletcher said: “The trick now is getting people here. The university would do that and allow students from across the world to learn about every facet of the business side of the biggest sports industry in the world.”

Regardless of where Burnley FC is positioned in English football this time next year, it’s safe to say that its executives have much homework and study ahead of them.

Read more from the original source

First time deal for region and category

FIFA have announced the signing of a sponsorship deal with Yingli Green Energy of China, the first time for a renewable energy company - and one from China - to support the World Cup.

As part of the agreement, Yingli will provide solar panels to assist with FIFA’s ‘Green Goal’ in South Africa. On Yingli’s part, the company will receive ticket, media and perimeter-board advertising rights and will get a chance to display and demonstrate its products in FIFA fan zones during the competition.

The best question is: Will the deal, like the energy, be renewable?

Read it and re-read it to save energy

Three’s Four’s a charm

English Premier League club Portsmouth FC have made headlines again, with Hong Kong businessman Balram Chainrai taking control to become the fourth owner of the club this season.

As quoted by Kevin McCullagh in Sport Business, Chainrai has “zero interest in buying Portsmouth” and has only acted to confiscate the shares of the previous owners. Wallowing at the bottom of the Premier League table, the club look likely to be relegated regardless of whether its enters administration.

Any guesses as to how long this scenario will last?

If football were an epidemic, we would all be catching the bug right now, what with all this exposure!

As excitement about Zimbabwe hosting the Cosafa Senior Challenge Cup tournament reaches fever pitch, along comes news that a new strain of the soccer bug is already being spread by the Coca-Cola Company, and sanctioned by international football body Fifa.

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