Keep Music Evil!

It's really kind of messed up when it come to the player's salaries and who owns them. I am not 100% on this, but I believe that all contracts are owned by the league. A draft is held each year for teams to select players from US colleges, and each team is allocated, I believe, three international signings total, on the team. When Beckham came, for the short time that he did, the "Beckham Rule" was created so clubs could spend a certain amount on a star/key/big time player and it wouldn't count against the salary cap that he team has in place. It's a really confusing model, but I knd of understand why it's in place. The league is really in it's early/growing stage, and the president of the league is trying to create some sort of financial stability. There is also a weird rule as far as who is next in line for a key player. For instance, Toronto had the rights to Brian McBride, but he wanted to play in Chicago and Chicago wanted him, so Chicago had to trade a player and $$ to move up in line to get McBride. It's very strange, and I don't fully understand it. At one point Andell Holdings owned 50% of the teams, so if he had decided to call it quits, the league would have been done. They know own only 1 or 2 teams, I believe. Sorry if it all sounds confusing.

I'm confused....

But yeah, as shybox said...it is still in its infancy over here. BUT, we are at least trying to one day be able to compete with European teams.

Who knows, maybe we will.

I doubt it. Most European clubs can't compete with Barca, Real Madrid, Chelsea and Man Utd.

Man Utd have the biggest debt in world football, yet sign £30 million players every summer. Real sign whoever they want for ridiculous amounts then get their debt written off by the king of Spain.

Nine years ago, when we managed to stay up in the premier league, by beating Liverpool on the last day of the season, our chairman went insane for six weeks. Carbone came in on £49,000 a week plus a merc and a £1m house. Collymore came in on £20,000 a week. Ashley Ward £20,000 a week. It was total madness. We got relegated. We went bust. We were saved by a consortium of businessmen. We got relegated again. We went bust again. We were saved again. We got relegated AGAIN. Now we can't afford to pay transfer fees and pay a maximum of £1000 a week.

Its sheer lunacy. I don't think the US model would work here, but something must be done.

Sky News are reporting that Chelsea just offered £73 million to Milan for Kaka. Thats just to buy him. He will get £10 million a year AFTER tax.

Galliani has denied making that offer though (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/8082147.stm) and it's still dwarfed by the £100m + £500,000 per week Man City were supposed to have offered in January.

That said, Kaka going to Real for £56m doesn't seem that much more reasonable.

I wonder if this will be one of those transfer sagas that run on and on. I'm still amazed Gareth Barry has actually moved club for once.

Championeees.

Why are the NFL playing a league game in London this weekend??

This is the third year (I believe) of NFL games being played in Wembley. It is the NFL's way of TRYING to get more international interest in the sport. There will be at least a couple games each year in different countries (Canada and England but I think also Mexico City may soon be involved). There is even talk of a future Super Bowl being played in Wembley AND (get this shit) a London and a Toronto expansion team!!! Yea, I know...we already tried it in England and it didn't work the first time around, so what's the point?

So, before you say it, YES it is crap and for many reasons.

A. We know the English do not like the sport.
B. it's all about money, money, money (greedy asses).
c. MORE IMPORTANTLY, fans of at least one of the teams involved in the regular season matches are already being robbed of at least one home game a year. Keeping in mind that there are currently only 16 regular season NFL games in the season making 8 regular home games and now 7 if your team is playing in London or Toronto that year. If the league is dead set on playing in Wembley or Toronto it would make more sense if teams played their meaningless pre-season games over there but kept their regular season games in this country.

The idea of the Super Bowl being played in Wembley is also very controversial to American football fans. Would they ever play the FA Cup over here? NO! Would you want them to? NO!

Also, I understand tickets to the Super Bowl are not cheap but by moving it to foreign soil you make it even more expensive for the true fans who dream of seeing their team in the Super Bowl. Thus, cutting off a large section of the population who are fans of the game and fans of the two teams who might be playing in it.

Trust me, all of us over here think the idea is just as bad as the English do.

Ironically, this article was on Yahoo Sports this morning:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_ylt=AmYCTgEUAZwWjuDnf6AOhSI5nYcB?slug=ap-london-goodell&prov=ap&type=lgns

>>>"Staging a Super Bowl abroad, however, “is not something that is under active consideration,” Goodell said."<<<

Hmmm...maybe because when that idea was leaked to the media, tens of thousands of American football fans signed active petitions and wrote angry letters to the Commissioner denouncing the idea!

Yea, it's bullshit. Yet again, dollar and pound signs are the driving force behind this idea.

Thanks for the info!

There was talk about our Premier League teams playing an extra league game abroad. Again, its all about money. But, seriously, how many people in, say, LA would turn out to see the delights of Hull City v Stoke City??

I would, but then again I don't live in LA

Apropos of nothing - York City are still in the FA Cup after beating Crewe Alexander 3-2!!!

We were beaten 2-1 by Notts County. Still, we can concentrate on the league now.

Haha. I say that every season. Yorkshire clubs have gone to the dogs recently. The fact that Hull are the only Yorkshire team playing in the highest tier makes me weep. No matter how badly York were doing in the past I always had Middlesbrough. Now that's turned to shite as well.