This reporter was surprised to turn around and find two of Manchester United’s most cherished players behind her as she chatted with a friendly Nike representative, but pressing her as well was the bag that Berbatov is carrying.

Is this a dopp kit dear readers? This is our best bet. We just aren’t going to declare it a man bag, or a man purse, or anything of the sort. Dimitar’s attitudes and arm tattoos simply don’t allow for such metrosexual hypothesis.

We deduce that, as it was a known fact the players were arriving to the launch from a hot and humid training practice at nearby Toyota Park, home of the Chicago Fire, dopp kit it must be. That still begs the question though, what is in this bag? Razor? Moisturizer? Presumably deodorant and a comb for his coif? And why was he carrying it along? Place your thoughts and comments below.

Photo courtesy of Eduardo Cordon, taken at the Manchester United 10/11 Shirt Launch Event at Niketown Chicago, hosted by new Manchester United shirt sponsors Aon.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

When American soccer players discover they have the athletic prowess to play overseas, they go, and we encourage their choice. But when American soccer fans choose to ignore MLS, its considered to be detrimental to the success of American soccer.

As has been stated before in the New York Times, the biggest hurdle MLS has right now is that better quality soccer is incredibly accessible to existing American soccer fans, making MLS even less desirable. Soccer certainly has an uphill battle to fight here in the States, and while lack of a strong fan base may be part of the problem, MLS really wasn’t helping their plight by creating a league that is incredibly anti-competitive.

To begin, Major League Soccer legally owns every single MLS team. The teams are not members of the league; rather, they are products that are still largely controlled by the league. While each team has investors and co-owners, it is the league that makes the biggest and final choices.

Structurally, Major League Soccer is unique in that it is a limited liability company (LLC), retaining significant centralized control over league and team operations, including the intellectual property rights of the teams (logos, etc.), tickets, equipment, and negotiates all stadium leases. The league assumes all related liabilities, pays the salaries of the referees and other league personnel, and controls player employment at a premium.

MLS’ choice to organize itself as a LLC is also different from most soccer leagues, like the Premier League, which is organized as a corporation. Jason Kilborn, professor of law at the John Marshall Law School in Chicago, Illinois, states that MLS’s choice in the LLC form allows for more flexibility with their business decisions. “My bottom line is that the business structure of this organization has little to do with what’s it’s trying to accomplish. One could have this odd reverse ownership structure with a corporation, too, though the LLC form makes governance a bit more flexible (and less expensive).”

MLS also recruits the players, negotiates their salaries, pays those salaries out of league funds, and determines largely who goes where, and when. The league has a draft where the eligible players are all corralled and portioned off which, while it may work for gridiron football, is entirely foreign to what American soccer players know and love about the global game. Further, the control that the operators and investors have in selecting the players for their teams from the draft, or otherwise, are negligible.

The operating agreements, as of 2002, provided that the operators and investors would not bid independently for players against the league to ensure league control. Also, no team may exceed the maximum player budget established by the MLS management committee, and MLS may terminate any operating agreement with an operator/investor of one of MLS’s teams on its own initiative, or by a two third vote of the board, if an operator/investor is deemed to have failed to act in the best interests of the league. In short, it feels like a monopoly, but legally, it isn’t.

This structure is not without its existing critics but the U.S. courts have already disposed of any legal criticism in 2002, where the First Circuit Court of US Appeals upheld a lower court finding that MLS was acting legally despite player complaints. Fraser v. MLS involved eight MLS players who filed a class action lawsuit, arguing that the league’s single entity ownership was as sham to suppress player salaries, and that MLS conspired with the U.S. Soccer Federation to eliminate competition.

According to the players, “MLS centrally establishes and administers rules for the acquisition, assignment, and drafting of players, and all player assignments are subject to guidelines set by the Management Committee. As a result, the league as a whole determines who plays where and how much they get paid.” The legal claims the players charged the MLS and its operators- investors were antitrust in nature, essentially arguing that the MLS monopolized or attempted to monopolize the market for professional soccer in the U.S. Both judge and jury disagreed with the players, in part because there was competition with the premier leagues in Europe and Latin America, and from the lower level leagues in the US like the USL, to make any sort of monopoly impossible.

But compare MLS with the Premier League, where the clubs owns the league, and not the reverse as in MLS. Per the Premier League’s official website, the league is owned by 20 shareholder member clubs, whose membership in the league depends on how well they do in the season play. The shareholder clubs meet quarterly, and are each entitled to one vote. The FA is a special shareholder, with veto rights in the areas of appointment of chairman and chief executive, and promotion and relegation, but otherwise have no say on other aspects of the league.

Any criticism or questions surrounding MLS’s business decisions often involves a harkening back to the NASL days, when soccer was not nearly as global. But to put some things in perspective, NASL largely failed because of over expansion to an otherwise uneducated American public, and more subtly, perhaps because it attempted to change the format of the game.

During the NASL years, a countdown clock was used for games (working its way back from 90 minutes to zero), any match that ended in a draw required a shoot out, and the league brought in imported, past their prime, but still major, players. There was not a lot of homegrown talent, and thus, not a lot of homegrown interest. Despite this, MLS is borrowing from some of the NASL’s biggest mistakes – attempting to Americanize a sport by making its league similar to other American sports leagues (read: the use of a draft, and the simple existence of the MLS Players Union due to the lack of player autonomy), seemingly forgetting that soccer has universally found a way to succeed without America’s input on how it should be run.

Even further, MLS has had an effect on how other new leagues are formed. The Australian A-League shares with MLS the same sort of franchising elements, lacks the competitive promotion and relegation system, and uses salary caps and marquee/designated player exemptions to control player wages.

To those that have problems with the sky-high salaries of most top footballers, and the amount of money that is utilized in other leagues, MLS is a dream, but maybe not the best option for the state of the global game as it is today. Platini can talk all he wants about the error in paying such high transfer fees for players like Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo, but those major leagues reflect an economical confidence in the game to make such expenditures possible.

As stated on NPR last week by Steven Goff, Real Madrid likely doesn’t have the $220 million dollars on hand that it paid to acquire Kaka and Ronaldo, but Real Madrid is good for it. Goff argued that clubs like Real Madrid are institutions, and no bank wants to let it collapse no matter how much debt it has. Real Madrid will likely recoup its investment via its TV rights, jerseys, and team sponsorships.

As stated before, there are some criticisms that some “American style” measures are needed, like revenue sharing and salary caps. While that might seem prudent in our troubled economic times, it’s probably not needed. Real Madrid did this sort of astronomical purchase spree once before with the first round of Galacticos, and they’re doing it again now. Their first foray didn’t seem push the club to insolvency, but it has perpetuated the culture that, whether greedy or not, tends to create competitive and fascinating soccer.

Time will tell if major clubs with loads of debt collapse American bank style or not, but MLS has not given itself or its teams the ability to catch up with the global market they participate. Regardless of how the NASL tried to do American soccer before, soccer has changed. It has become more of a global game, and allowing the teams that compose MLS more autonomy does not mean that it will doom American soccer as it once did.

MLS and its teams should have been given the chance to remedy the mistakes of America’s younger soccer years independently, instead of being boxed into such a paternal league that makes decisions for its teams, and its fans, so unilaterally.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

In part one, I looked at the differences between German and American youth training methods. In part two, I look at the different ways American youth training can be improved and what needs to be done in terms of investment and changing mindsets.

Are American Youths Getting Proper Training?

The biggest problem for American youth training, according to Jim Dower, co-founder and executive director of Urban Initiatives, and coach of the Wilmette Wings, is that, despite that there are hundreds of kids playing soccer on the weekends, it’s impossible to know if any of the kids engage in proper skill training.

Dower himself played AYSO (American Youth Soccer Organization) soccer, and Dower described the training as, “some guy looking in a book, trying to do a drill, not really understanding what the point of it is, and really can’t give the little coaching technique tips — paying attention to the part of the foot you use, or the amount of touches you have on the ball. Building up from doing this exercise, and building up to a bigger exercise, then building it into a structured semi-game play, and then sort of a full or small sided game, and working into a larger field game.”

Dower’s proper training began when he trained with a coach who had actual professional experience with Sheffield United. “I didn’t understand the real important shifting and shape aspects of soccer until I got to high school, and trained with a guy who trained in Europe, and knew how to teach these concepts to kids. I’m not saying there aren’t Americans who don’t know how to do that but they’re definitely in much shorter supply.”

Dower’s personal experiences are indicative of how Americans are catching on to the trend and employing people who, while probably having played competitively, probably also have a British accent.

“Nowadays, you go to any travel competitive soccer club in the Chicagoland area, and there is at least one foreigner who is part of the curriculum development team or part of the head coaching staff, so they make sure those types of training exercises are incorporated.”

Simply having a foreigner with an accent, though, doesn’t guarantee successful training technique.

“I went down and watched a practice downtown, and there were some British guys there who knew soccer but by the way the training session was run, I was appalled.

Because I have been around it and seen what a good session looks like, I think, ‘wow, if I was a parent paying $1500 for this, I’d be upset.’”

Tom Dunmore of Pitch Invasion, agrees that sometimes a top price will not equate the top technical skills necessary to become a talented player; it may just be the money necessary to keep the clubs in business. “Chasing trophies to justify high fees is necessary for independent travel clubs, but fortunately, MLS academies can change this as they will have less imperative to win youth trophies, and more need to just develop technique and skill for the future.”

The MLS youth academies are new, so it’s yet to be seen how successful they will be in training and attracting younger players.

“It’s only very recently (within the past year or two for all but one MLS club) that MLS teams have started really investing in youth academies, and even more recently that MLS changed the rules so that clubs must have a youth academy and can sign two players per year direct to their roster (rather than the players having to go through a central dispersal draft),” said Dunmore.

“This will change things dramatically. Clubs are offering these academies for free, and so can attract the best players who previously played for expensive ‘travel clubs’ or those who could not even afford to play for local teams due to their fees. They may never be as good as Europe, but I see them as becoming far more important.”

The Impact of Mass Interest and Money

Hamburg SV’s goal for its youth academies is just as the MLS’s – to get the younger players into the senior team, and if not Hamburg, another professional club that they have existing relationships with. Still, the differences are stark between the two – the competition is still not as advanced as that in Germany, and the salaries in the MLS still pale in comparison to the other major American sports, let alone other European soccer players.

“MLS is earning more respect in American sport, which will help, but salaries are still too low to attract many of the best athletes, who see the riches available in other sports more easily,” said Dunmore. Not all of this is the MLS’ fault, but the product of years and years of soccer taking a backseat to other major American sports.

“The biggest downfall is the perception of the game (even if it’s not really true), that it’s mainly a white, suburban sport for soccer moms to give their kids a safe sport to play in. Its biggest strength is that ultimately, there is a huge youth soccer movement, and massive resources to invest in it — it just needs to be funneled into the right kind of training and infrastructure,” says Dunmore.

Adam Spangler of the blog This Is American Soccer would probably agree that there is a disconnect between the youth soccer movement and massive resources that need to be better organized. Spangler cites as an example China, who just came off of a fantastic run as hosts of the Olympics, and he believes they set an example of how putting their mind and resources toward something with the world’s biggest population really translated in athletic strength, as they topped the U.S. in gold medals. Money-Resources-Implementation is what Spangler believes to be most controlling in growing soccer in America.

Still, China possesses many differences that set it apart from America, and the concept of throwing money at this problem is difficult because of the MLS’s limitations with salaries and club independence, and also because China seemed to take a great interest in seeing their country succeed as a whole, whereas the majority of Americans still can’t be bothered with soccer.

Recreating the emphasis that Americans have with other sports and making soccer a priority sport is necessary to grow soccer in America but the task is difficult. “Its just American culture. Of course the sport would grow should kids choose soccer over American football or basketball or baseball, but as a development rule, we can’t depend on that or think we can change it in any foreseeable time table,” believes Spangler.

Dower agrees that the fact that soccer is not ingrained in the American fabric is a problem for soccer’s expansion. “People who coach in Wilmette, their families have a much better understanding of their kid becoming a great basketball or baseball player, and that’s definitely from a parent perspective what I see come out. They say, my kid is a great athlete, I know baseball or basketball more than soccer, so I push my kid in that direction so I can be more involved.”

What Can Be Done?

It appears the difference between American and German youth training can be summarized as a lack of popularity in the sport. The lack of soccer knowledge, and the fact that there is still a majority of the population complacent in the unknown of soccer, has manifested itself into some drawbacks: a lack of advanced, soccer specific coaching techniques, a misunderstanding among those who play soccer about what the best coaching for American soccer should be, a lack of a competitive top league for youth players to aspire to, and a lack of encouragement from parents and the public in funneling support to the sport.

These are issues that countries like Germany have never had to encounter, at least not as recently as America has. Every passing year will see these problems lessen, but for now, a time frame just cannot be accurately set. “I don’t think 5 years is enough time to see any big changes,” says Spangler. “The changes will come, if they come at all, in 25-50 years, no sooner than 10. Its incremental changes that are hard to quantify and measure.”

Dower believes that exposing Americans to top notch soccer overseas, rather than the MLS, is the key to attracting more interest. “I had friends who went and studied abroad and really got into soccer,” said Dower. “When they were here, soccer wasn’t a real sport to them but after seeing a top league they really got into it.”

America has decades of catching up to do if they’re trying to mold their youth programs and professional players into what countries like Germany already have. “It would be naive for any individual or group to think they can change soccer in this country quickly,” said Spangler. “Culture isn’t changed from outside, it is an inward reaction to the outside. So you change the outside and hope the culture comes around. In the end, all the money and marketing in the world may never make American soccer equal to its international competitors.”

Spangler may have a point, but it’s the small steps that can help this inward change move outwards. Soccer has already grown in popularity in the last 10 years, in part because of the strong youth programs that American kids participate in at a young age. The establishment and growth of the MLS, the popularity of the World Cup and other major competitions in American viewership, and the exposure that the sport has gained may not be enough, but it’s a start.

The more kids who begin to play on their own, on the streets, from an organic love of soccer is what will begin to change the sport from inside out, and begin to force the existing soccer industry to change. Taking cues from what other countries like Germany have done indicates that America isn’t that different — what is different is the inherent love and interest in the game, which is also most frustrating as it cannot be taught. But if soccer lovers in American keep trying, it could possibly be learned.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Despite the fact that on any given weekend Americans drive through the suburbs and see lush green fields spattered with kids playing soccer, the popularity the sport has with America’s youth remains stubbornly slow to translate to American adults.

As most soccer fans know, this is not the situation for other countries. Soccer there is known as football, and it is played as religiously as Little League is in America. So as the world begins to play their World Cup qualifying games, while we can hopefully expect to see in 2010 a strong American team, it will still probably lag behind countries like Germany, in part because America has not caught up to their counterparts and the gaps begin with America’s youth.

In this two-part series, I take an in-depth look at the present and future of American soccer at its youth levels, and in part one, I take an example from German club Hamburg SV and compare some of their youth training methods with those in American youth soccer.

Breaking Down the Differences

Hamburg SV youth academy director Markus Hirte, when asked about how Germany differs from other clubs, stated that his club plays “a little smoother, and a little more coordinated. In Germany, teams have a lot of discipline and technique which makes up our power in soccer.”

No one will dispute that Germany’s professional squads are more coordinated and more technically gifted when compared to America’s professional players, but the heart of the question still remains why.

For Hamburg SV, the youth training can begin when the players are 8 or 9 years old, when they are scouted and invited to try out. A lot of the players are scouted from around Germany but are not necessarily local, so once scouted and invited to train and play, they stay at a boarding house. Hamburg SV has an entire staff that is employed at this home away from home — a cook, a house mom, and tutors.

If, after the time expires, Hamburg doesn’t feel that the player fits with their squad but has talent to sustain him to another club, they will try to find other clubs for the player to go to. “In Hamburg, we educate the players for our team, our professional team, but not all of them can reach that level. Some of them go to other clubs at a smaller level. Our target — our goal — is to always train players from youth allotment into the professional team,” says Hirte.

Approximately 120 players make up the Hamburg SV youth program, and the teams are separated by age (Under 19, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, and 12). This is one of the first differences of German youth training compared to American training. Hamburg separates their youth players into teams based on age, and doesn’t necessarily adhere to the A and B squads that American sports are so fond of. Hirte says, “Good individual players, good skills, but you always need a team. A good player is nothing without the team, but the individual player is the base for good football at the high level.”

Jim Dower, coach for the Wilmette Wings and co-founder and executive director of Urban Initiatives, believes that the A vs. B team mentality is a detriment.

“From my understanding, in England there is no A or B or C team until you’re U-12, whereas in the U.S., with 8 or 9-year-olds, you’re told ‘you’re the best so you play with the best, you’re the worst so you play with the worst.

I think you can often see a 9 year old who isn’t as great at 9, but by the time they are 11 or 12, they have grown into their body. If you don’t place them in a situation to be pushed as much as they could, and treat them with the same level of attention as you give really good players, you aren’t giving them the right opportunities.”

In developing skills and technique, Tom Dunmore of Pitch Invasion, thinks that part of the problem may be America’s style of play.

“There has for too long been an over-emphasis on athleticism and organization rather than flair and ingenuity in coaching kids.

But, this is as much a cultural as a technical problem, though one has many exceptions to the rule, especially with the growing Hispanic influence.”

With the multiple layers of culture in America, it may be hard to pin down a style to train American youth players in. “Americans play a style often referred to as athletic, but is a bit of all the world’s styles, just as our culture is. The melting pot is the cliché thrown around in regards to both our nation and our soccer. This means untechnical to a lot of people, but that’s not necessarily so,” says Adam Spangler of the blog This Is American Soccer.

Skill training is the biggest demarcation between America and German youth development. Hirte stresses that each player must possess good skills and good technique, that the players must be able to play very fast and have good strength, one on one. Hamburg institutes a battery of tests for each player when they begin playing and will revisit those skills to gauge improvement, and to see what players need to work on individually. There is a 5 meter sprint, a coordination test, a speed test, a head—ball handling test. These tests are done every year, in part to determine if the players are getting better or not. It also gives the coaching staff a base for each player.

Hirte says, “If the guy is slow but good technically, he’s no good if he’s too slow.”

The second thing is good discipline and tactics. Technique is the most important thing, because you can learn tactics all over, so in youth teams, technique is most important. As the player gets older, tactics will get better.”

Part Two: How can we help American youth training?

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

For the past week, Chicago has been peppered with pint-sized footballers from around the globe here to compete in the World Sport Chicago International Cup tournament from July 24-27.

The under-15 club teams include Germany’s Hamburg SV, Sockers FC, Mexico’s Centro de Formacion Cuauhtémoc Blanco, 36 Lion from Nigeria, the Chicago Fire Academy squad, and the under-15 U.S. National team.

Hamburg SV has won this tournament three times before (2004, 2006, 2007), but they don’t think that a fourth victory is in their hands just yet. “The tournament has grown and grown, and the competition gets better each year,” said Markus Hirte, the youth academy director for Hamburg SV. Hamburg may have an edge, as they have experienced tough competition in Europe already. “The competition here is different. In the tournament here, there are always one or two good matches with good teams, but in Europe its every match.”

Hirte is, however, looking forward to seeing the Mexican and African teams compete, acknowledging that those teams are typically “very good technically, very skillful, and very fast,” but maintains that his team tends to be a bit “more powerful, a little bit more smooth and coordinated” than the other teams competing. “In Germany, the teams have a lot of discipline and technique and power,” said Hirte. Despite his comments, Hirte isn’t prepared to make a prediction on how Hamburg will fare in the tournament this year. “We have played no matches yet, so I can’t speak to anything about the other teams.”

Chicago Fire’s Cuauhtémoc Blanco is also bringing a team plucked from his academy in Mexico. This tournament will be Centro de Formacion Cuauhtémoc Blanco’s inaugural U.S. competition. Blanco brought the best team available, chosen from a pool of player tryouts in Mexico City. “The kids work really hard. I want them to have a good time in Chicago and have a good game. They will work hard to represent Mexican soccer well,” said Blanco.

Blanco founded his academy a year and a half ago, and when he has time away from the Fire, he goes back to Mexico to train with the team and get acquainted with the players. “I wanted to start an academy so the players can be learning to become professionals,” he said. Though Blanco hopes that his team wins the tournament, it is not his primary goal. “The most important part is that they’re working hard, and they’re learning the game.”

Co-hosted by Illinois Youth Soccer (the official representative of both U.S. Youth Soccer and the United States Soccer Federation in Illinois) and World Sport Chicago (WSC), an Illinois not-for-profit that works to enhance the image and participation of Olympic sports across the Chicago community, the tournament will bring a total of eight teams to the Chicagoland area to compete. While this is WSC’s first time co-hosting, the organization is already looking ahead, hoping to bring in more elite youth teams to compete in future tournaments.

Founded in early 2007, originally to bolster Chicago in the domestic phase of the Olympic bid process, WSC has been working to spread the popularity of Olympic sports for the past 18 months. Though Chicago is now one of the four finalists to host the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games, whether or not Chicago is awarded the bid is of no consequence to WSC’s mission. “We’re committed to promoting the Olympic spirit. In my mind, it’s a commitment to sport as an integral part of developing the total person: fair play, pushing the limits, striving to be better. Not being best, but being the best you can be,” said WSC’s executive director Scott Myers. “Regardless of whether Chicago wins the Olympic bid, the organization will continue after the Olympic games.”

Myers acknowledges that it isn’t just this tournament, or any one event, that WSC believes will extend a lasting international influence on Chicago’s youth. “We want to get kids involved with loving sports, to get them involved for their lifetime,” said Myers. “We’d like to create youth exchange programs.”

The tournament will be a lively showcase of the future of global soccer, and readers in the Chicago area should make an effort to come out in support. With plenty of U.S. youth playing against formidable competition from Germany, Mexico, and Africa, the tournament will provide a prime opportunity to see firsthand how the U.S.’s youth development programs stack up.

2008 World Sport Chicago International Cup Competition

Group 1:
U.S. National Team #1
Olympic Development Program Select Team (Region 2)
Sockers FC
Hamburg SV

Group 2:
U.S. National Team #2
Centro de Formación Cuauhtémoc Blanco
Chicago Fire
36 Lion (Nigeria)

Tournament Schedule

July 24
@Univeristy of Illinois at Chicago (UIC):
4 p.m.: U.S. National Team #1 vs. Hamburg SV
6 p.m.: U.S. National Team #2 vs. Centro de Formación Cuauhtémoc Blanco
@Loyola:
4 p.m.: Sockers FC vs. ODP
6 p.m.: 36 Lion vs. Chicago Fire

July 25
@Lake Forest:
4 p.m.: U.S. National Team #1 vs. ODP
6 p.m.: U.S. National Team #2 vs. Chicago Fire
@Loyola:
4 p.m.: Centro de Formación Cuauhtémoc Blanco vs. 36 Lion
6 p.m.: Sockers FC vs Hamburg SV

July 27th
@Lake Forest:
8 a.m.: U.S. National Team #1 vs. Sockers FC
10 a.m.: U.S. National Team #2 vs. 36 Lions
@Loyola:
10 a.m.: Centro de Formación Cuauhtémoc Blanco vs. Chicago Fire
12 p.m.: ODP vs. Hamburg SV

For further details about the event, please visit www.illinoisyouthsoccer.org/InternationalCup.html

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Within the last week, the roar around the Chicago Fire’s Cuauhtemoc Blanco and D.C. United’s Clyde Simms incident has swelled and is finally subsiding.

For those who have yet to catch wind of the fracas, reports indicate it took place during the U.S. Open Cup match between the Chicago Fire and D.C. United, beginning with Blanco taking what appeared to be nearly a full swing at Simms’ ribs, who was holding the ball at the time.

Other D.C. players indicated that shortly thereafter, Blanco also gouged Simms’ eye. Naturally Blanco was red carded, as was D.C. United defender Marc Burch, who had come to Simms’ aid. However, Blanco didn’t head straight for the locker room, instead focusing towards the bench. When instructed to change his course to the locker room by a D.C. United employee, Blanco head butted the employee.

“He came up and swung as hard as he could,” Burch told reporters. “He tried to hit the ball and hit Clyde in the stomach. He thinks he can do whatever he wants. I pushed him. I didn’t hit him. I didn’t go after him. I just pushed him down. He’s not going to do that to my teammate. He stood up and tried to poke Clyde in the eye and cut his eye open.”

The other side of the story, as told by the Fire, is that Blanco’s actions were misinterpreted. Fire spokesman Gregg Elkin told Chicago Sports that Blanco wanted to get the ball back in play. The game was in overtime, the Fire was down a goal, and Blanco thought Simms was stalling. Blanco also denied gouging Simms’ eye. As for the alleged head butt, Elkin stated that Blanco was not trying to disobey the red card requirements. As reported by Chicago Sports, “[Blanco] stopped by the bench to pick up his gear,” said Elkin. “He wasn’t stalling or yelling at the official. The situation was under control, but the D.C. person got in his face and yelled at him to leave the bench.” Elkin also took issue with the D.C. United employee entering the Fire’s restricted area, and denied that Blanco head butted anyone. “Blanco turns to walk by the guy and grazed his cheek with his forehead. It was completely accidental.” Elkin later told Goal.com. “[Blanco] stopped on the side of the field to pick up his things, then, when he was turning around, his forehead did make contact with the guy’s cheek or jaw area.”

The federation’s disciplinary committee will meet soon to determine what punishment fits Blanco’s crime, outside of the usual one-game suspension. Elkin stated the Fire will await the federation’s ruling before taking any action. “The federation has asked for video that D.C. apparently has and then that’s up to them.”

Blanco’s anger management issues are far from new. Two weeks prior, reports surfaced that Blanco and Fire teammate Wilman Conde were in an altercation that was described as a “fistfight.” In 2003, Blanco sucker punched a TV Azteca reporter, David Faitelson, who had criticized him, and in 2004, Blanco elbowed a rival player on Brazil’s Sao Caetano team, which spurred a fray between the two clubs. After that incident. Blanco was suspended from playing in South America for a year.

Then, to add insult to injury to some angered MLS fans, the video footage of the recent incident went missing from Youtube. Some fans argued that the MLS had no right to take the footage down, as the U.S. Cup was a non-MLS game. Some conspiracy theories surrounding the MLS surfaced, ranging from the MLS wishing to shut down any other U.S. competition, to taking illegal actions in sending Youtube (who originally aired the footage) an illegal Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMC) take down notice.

MLS fans have generally been unforgiving of Blanco’s actions. On a Big Soccer message board thread, some called for Blanco to be arrested, while some called Blanco a “pathological bully.” On a Section 8 messageboard, Fire fans’ reactions ranged from agreeing that Blanco was out of line who needed at least a 1-2 game ban, to others ignoring it as an overblown incident, to a few who just seemed to believe Blanco’s reaction was indicative of the frustration of the entire team.

While no one should be arguing that Blanco’s actions were acceptable, there does seem to be a degree of overreaction. To begin, there is at least one explanation for what happened with the mysterious Youtube video disappearance. MLS owns and controls all trademarks, copyrights, and other intellectual property rights that relate in any way to the league or any of its teams. (Law for Recreation and Sports Managers, Doyice Cotten, John T. Wolohan, Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 2003). Thus, because the teams playing were part of the single-entity MLS structure, wherein teams are controlled by the league, MLS apparently still retained its control over any material that flowed from the game. Thus, MLS was fully within its legal authority to ask the video to be removed. While it certainly soured many fans who wished to replay the incident, it also perpetuated the overreaction by making the footage unavailable, leaving it to be interpreted by secondhand description alone.

The upset over Blanco’s behavior, however, cannot be so tidily summarized. It’s difficult to dispute, even without seeing it, that Blanco was out of line, but that’s the more obvious conclusion. The bigger picture, so to speak, is that every other international league has already seen this sort of behavior, albeit not in this context. Who can forget Roy Keane’s performance in the 2001 Manchester derby (doubtful that Alf-Inge HÃ¥land does)? More recently in the 2006 World Cup, Zidane’s infamous head butt, and Wayne Rooney’s alleged crotch kicking to Ricardo Carvalho?

Sure, an eye gouge is irresponsible and out of line. But head butts we’ve seen before, and although non-players are typically out of bounds, that didn’t stop Eric Cantona’s kung fu kick. And Joey Barton, who is currently in jail for assault (punching an individual over 20 times), has a string of antics over the past few years that make Blanco’s actions pale in comparison (see: inciting the Doncaster Rovers — Manchester City brawl after his hacking foul on John Doolan, Barton putting out a cigar on Jamie Tandy’s eye, attacking a 15 year old Everton supporter, attacking and possibly detaching former team mate Ousmane Dabo’s retina, etc.)

Maybe it can all be chalked up to the MLS and its fans refusing to tolerate bad behavior, which is perfectly fine. But both the fans and the MLS seem to have overreacted a bit (calling for Blanco to be arrested, MLS in removing the video). It may be indicative of the MLS’s infancy, as this is one of its first, if not the first, incidents of a player behaving badly and not apologizing for it. Yes, Blanco seems to have an anger problem but so do other players who have been red carded for reacting badly. There’s no argument that Blanco’s actions were both unprofessional and wrong, and if the investigation shows that Blanco truly attempted to punch Simms, gouge out Simms’ eye, and then purposefully head butt a D.C. employee, he should be disciplined further.

Blanco’s actions are nothing to be proud of, but outrageous fouls tend to occasionally come part and parcel with professional soccer, which, despite what some critics will tell you, is exactly what the MLS is.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

A few weeks ago, the U.S. economy was rocked with the downfall of $20 billion company Bear Stearns. Americans hear worrying news reports on the state of the economy on a seemingly hourly basis, but Bear Stearns seemed to be surprising.

It was merely a span of a few days from the time Bear Stearns went national with assurances that the company was secure, to the news that J.P. Morgan had bought out one of its largest competitors. Confidence, some analysts stressed, is a large factor in driving the success of any economy or company. Bear Stearns lacked that confidence; they panicked, and the result was nearly a full collapse.

So with FIFA recently admitting that they are preparing a £400m contingency fund in preparation for the possible collapse of the 2010 South African World Cup, confidence seems, to say the least, to be a bit shaky. The governing body has at last looked in the eye some of the concerns that soccer fans have been outlining all along — a lack of solid infrastructure, shoddy safety for the players and the spectators, inadequate stadiums, and a lack of tourism appeal and hospitality to make this more developing country seem as alluring as the lodgings of the more recent Cups — Germany, the United States, Japan and Korea, and France are all considerably more developed than South Africa.

But that is certainly part of the allure of a South Africa World Cup. The world undoubtedly seems to hold their breath during the tournament, and to envelope the competition in a part of the world that is less traveled to the majority of the spectators and players changes the tenor of the tournament; away from the more commercial and familiar setting, to a backdrop that many of the smaller or less developed nations — whether recognized or not by Fifa – can identify with.

The instigation of this contingency plan stems from the insecurities of insurers, which led to indecisiveness in whether they will provide coverage for South Africa. At this point, a full commitment from the insurers is lacking. Because insurance is so essential to such a massive event, FIFA is smart to set aside a Plan B fund, but its not helping put anyone at ease.

The insurers are not simply hedging their bets. As told to The Guardian, Munich Re, the German insurance conglomerate who insured the 2006 World Cup, remains concerned about the actual physical progress of the stadiums. “The situation is quite difficult and fluid,” said a spokesman for Munich Re. “The problem is they need 10 stadiums and some of these are rugby grounds that are run-down and in a very bad condition.”

The Guardian also spoke with a Fifa insider who stated that security, transport infrastructure, and the local political climate were also of concern to the insurance companies. However, the most feasible feat at this point are the stadiums first, and the rest after. Remaining silent at least for now on the safety and the infrastructure, without the necessary stadiums, there is no place for the tournament to take place, making anything else simply icing on a hollow cake.

In a recent press release, Fifa stated they were working at making certain the money would be available so that a 2010 World Cup could take place — presumably in South Africa, but at this rate, anything appears possible. Fifa’s confidence is clearly shaken and while Bear Stearns was able to be bought out, there is no one but Fifa to help themselves – even if that means moving the tournament elsewhere, or pouring in £400 million of their own funds to make sure it happens.

South Africa is not static, however, and they maintain that their rehabilitative and construction plans for the stadiums should ensure they are ready by 2010. They have also initiated anti-crime initiatives in Johannesburg to promote more security. The country still intends to stage the Confederations Cup scheduled to take place in 2009, which is essentially a World Cup primer, but as told to The Guardian, its possible that, despite its projections, the country may still be unprepared. A Fifa spokesperson, however, insisted there were no internal concerns over the World Cup. Confidence, Fifa appears to be stressing, is key. In the longer run, however, Fifa’s decision about 2010 will undoubtedly impact insurance for future Cups, including Brazil in 2014 and possibly even England in 2018.

Hopefully South Africa will be worth all the trouble.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Instead of churning out another David Beckham soccer academy, Goldenballs has decided to go bigger and better with the creation of David Beckham’s World of Sport, set to be complete by 2010.

The location this time is in Brazil and the setting is luxury resort Cabo São Roque, located 20 miles north of Natal, the capital of Rio Grande do Norte. The digs are basically the standard trimmings for luxury resorts (indoor/outdoor pools, two golf courses, tennis courts) but Brand Beckham adds a special tourism niche.

To answer the obvious joke, no, David Beckham is not trying to teach the Brazilians how to play football. What separates this from his usual Academies is Beckham’s hopes to use the facility for a scholarship program for Brazilian children, with active outreach to local and regional schools to attract said children. “I don’t want to teach [Brazilians] to play soccer,” Beckham was quoted as saying by the Agencia Estado news service, “I want to offer a safe place for kids to develop their abilities.”

This resort is not just a safe place, its pretty much football paradise. Beckham’s World of Sport will top the resort with eight pitches (two of artificial turf), accommodations for resort guests, individual players, and teams, as well as a stadium that can seat 10,000 (presumably to also host some of Brazil’s 2014 games).

Outside of that, the resort will also include a professional go-kart track and four-wheel driving facility created by Brazilian Formula One driver Ruben Barrichello. This area of the resort is appropriately titled, “the Rubens Barrichello Driving Experience“, and will offer another scholarship program for the younger Brazilian set, in the aims of discovering the next Formula One driving champion. Said Barrichello in a statement: “I’m in this project with my name and my experience and I’ve bought the whole idea. It’s an honor to share a partnership with a great name like Beckham, who has done so much to so many children who needed help. This development will certainly open new frontiers here.”

Beckham and Barrichello are not venturing just their own capital in this creation. Brazil Development Investimentos Turisticos Ltda (BDIT) is the business head of this monster, setting forth plans to build a resort that breaks the mold both in sport and in design. Cabo São Roque is being touted as an ecologically friendly resort, and their design team has been consulting with environmental agencies to ensure that the resort preserves its natural surroundings.

Besides the resort lodgings, the grounds will contain 1,350 private freehold residences built throughout this gated community. Naturally Beckham and Barrichello have already committed to purchasing their own homes on the property, with a variety of ecologically-conscious models to choose from.

“We are delighted with the fantastic support of both David Beckham and Rubens Barrichello within Cabo Sao Roque and will be making periodic announcements regarding our Phase One hotel partners, vacation home sales representatives and additional alliances with leading sports icons and governing bodies,” commented Torben Franzten, resort development president of BDIT. “Over time, we believe that the outstanding array of accommodations and the professional quality athletic complex to be built at Cabo Sao Roque will attract major sporting teams to train here, as well as draw some of the world’s most prestigious events to select the resort as a host location.”

The development group is also planning to invest in the existing surroundings, to upgrade the infrastructure of nearby fishing village Maxaranguape, in effort to improve the local economy and Brazil’s overall tourism industry. Included in these planned upgrades are the construction of a new hospital, a new school, and a purported influx of employees to staff the resort and its improved surroundings.

“I am honored to be associated with this incredible project which will build world-class sporting facilities in Brazil, hopefully having a major impact at a local level and internationally,” Beckham said in a statement.

Sources:

NY Times, PR NewsWire, ESPN Soccernet, Easier.com.

A special thanks to Digital News Agency for the initial story, video and images.

David Beckham’s World Of Sport

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Much has been made about the strength of South Africa’s infrastructure to host a successful World Cup. To that end, South Africa is considering beefing up their capabilities in providing the best World Cup possible by legalizing prostitution.

It was South African police commissioner Jackie Selebi who first proposed the idea, arguing that if prostitution is legalized, it would free up police to deal with more pressing security issues, but last Wednesday, at an Arts and Culture Department meeting on its plans for social cohesion for 2010, the proposal was presented again, this time from ANC MP George Lekgetho. “It is one of the things that would make it [the tournament] a success because we hear of many rapes, because people don’t have access to them [women],” Lekgetho stated during a meeting of the Portfolio Committee on Arts and Culture in Parliament.

Not everyone was as keen on the idea as Lekgetho, some seeing it as a joke, and others as an offense. Lekgetho’s idea is supported by many of the same arguments that have been thrown around before. Theoretically so long as it’s legal, it will be easy to license, regulate, and tax. It would provide money for the country, establish some guidelines and safety precautions for the workers and their patrons, and generally allow the prostitutes more organizational capabilities, providing more safety and empowerment. There is also the issue of HIV. Legalizing prostitution could pave the way for regulations on mandatory testing for HIV and other STD’s, making it safer for both the prostitutes and their patrons. Said Lekgetho, “If sex working is legalised people would not do things in the dark. That would bring us tax and would improve the lives of those who are not working.”

The remainder of the meeting focused on the customer service in South Africa, but the topic of legalizing prostitution for the 2010 tournament was left for further consideration, with another ANC MP, Christopher Gololo suggesting the topic be an issue given to the public to debate. However, DA MP Sydney Opperfman pointed out the danger in “commercializing” the relationship, stating, “You cannot attach a price to the deepest union between a man and a woman and link it to our tax base.”

On the other hand, the issue of human trafficking and abuse cannot be ignored as football fans across the globe flock to the fragile nation for football and all the other accessories that go with the game. Alcohol and sex seem to be as big a part of many fans’ experience as watching the matches itself. Legalizing prostitution may make fans safer, and make their access to prostitutes a little bit cleaner, but South Africa is correct in realizing that their country’s long-term identity will not be defined solely by 2010, and weighing the detriments compared to the benefits of such a drastic policy shift may spell disaster for the country in the long run, if the country isn’t ready for it.

Instead of pondering these profitable but theoretical possibilities, South Africa should look at what they projected they’d be able to produce when they were initially awarded the tournament, and legalizing prostitution was probably not in that dossier.

Its natural for South Africa to refer back to 2006, as Germany served as a fantastic host. The legalized public drinking and prostitution probably helped that along, and to that end, replicating Germany in terms of legalized prostitution makes sense to debate, but Germany also had readied stadiums and roads and transportation. Cart before the horse, really.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Fabio Capello recently offered compliments to England referees when he observed how infrequently they stop the game. Capello praised the match officials, stating:

“The first thing I noticed were the referees because they whistle so little compared to those in the rest of Europe.”

Statistically his inference that the England refs tend to let the game play on more than their European counterparts is correct. The Premier League referees currently allow 25 free kicks per game, the lowest average in Europe. The referees dole out about 3.2 yellow cards a game, also the lowest when compared to the averages in the neighboring leagues: 4.5 a game in Italy and 5.5 per game in Spain.

The English referees are also much closer to the game, staying about 14 meters back from the action, 9 meters less than just two years ago. The English refs run about 7.5 miles per game to stay so close. But these statistics are silent on whether or not the referees are accurate and the introduction of goal line technology could give us those statistics.

But in an effort to further avoid goal line technology, while still providing potentially more accuracy, UEFA proposes introducing two extra assistant referees in the penalty area at both free-kicks and corners. UEFA is still experimenting with placing the extra officials behind the goal line or on the pitch itself. Said UEFA spokesman William Gaillard: “The game’s a lot faster now, it’s hard to keep up with play all the time…Some people say it is better for them to stay behind the goal, others that it is better for them to be inside the penalty area so that things that go on such as pulling and pushing are properly sanctioned.”

UEFA got the green light from the International FA Board to test this option starting with youth tournaments, and depending on those results, two more referees could be introduced at the professional level as an alternative to goal line technology. These extra refs would act as the linesman does now, communicating their observations and opinions to the referee via radio.

This development is illustrative of UEFA’s awareness in safeguarding the game from erroneous calls, but UEFA may simply be stalling an inevitable change in the game, choosing instead to add more of the same than something completely different. Yet if football has to change, adding two more officials is counterproductive if the goal is to give the player’s fairness and accuracy.

Adding two more referees has its own problems. It adds another layer of human error and inconsistency that will alter the flow of play. It still changes the traditional form of the game, a change that opponents of goal line technology decry. It will add costs to the game for the clubs and the league, and in the long run may be more expensive than the technology. It requires two more competent referees for every game.

It also adds two more bodies to the pitch for the players to work around. And while in theory it gives the referees more help, it also adds two more points of view that will inevitably at times be at odds, leaving fans to ask why there isn’t a video available for all three on field referees to refer to.

Sources:

English refs are Europe’s most lenient
Capello quotes

From Soccerlens.com - Football News