Football Partnerships

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 Partnerships is proud to present TWEET! Blowing the Whistle on Social Media tonight at Major League Soccer headquarters.

Our featured panelists include: Greg Lalas, Editor of Goal.com Magazine, Chris Schlosser, Director of Digital Strategy at Soccer United Marketing, Chris Toy, Creator of football comic Studs Up and Amanda Vandervort, Web Coordinator at WPS. Alex Kotler, Founder of Football Partnerships, will serve as moderator.

Football Partnerships thanks the European Football Group, Soccer Interactive and Upper 90 Soccer + Sport, as well as Major League Soccer, Soccer United Marketing and Nelson Rodriguez.

All proceeds from registration will benefit Grassroot Soccer.

By Matt Cutler

The English Football Association will today announce an eight-club women’s Super League commencing in the summer of 2011.

The FA hopes the Super League will stop England players crossing the Atlantic to play in the US Women’s Professional Soccer League where they play as full-time professionals. Presently only 19 women in England are on full-time central contracts, all with the national team and paid around £16,000 a year, the equivalent average weekly wage of a mid-table men’s Premier League player.

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By billy witz

Whether Women’s Professional Soccer succeeds will not be determined for some time.

Attendance – several thousand per game - was about what might be expected for a high school football game (outside Texas, anyway). And no teams came close to making a profit.

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By Eric Young

Some Women’s Professional Soccer teams lost as much as $2 million during the just-concluded inaugural season, but the league remains on track to expand and add new sponsors, its top official said Tuesday.

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