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By Bill ThomasInteresting times ahead for the Premier League and its TV rights, particularly on the domestic front, as Sky, the company that has dominated that scene for 25 years, is starting to feel the pinch.Throughout the game there has been general amazement as the UK TV deals have escalated contract on contract, Sky throwing its money around to destroy competitors, something it has done rather successfully – remember Setanta and On Digital for starters? Exactly.But over the last few years, a bigger competitor has come in – BTSport, an arm of the mighty British Telecom corporation.
They dwarf Sky and appear to have conceived a strategy that’s going to do to Sky what they have done to others, a bit like pulling a shark backwards to drown it.It’s not about football, it’s about the broadband market. Once Sky, whose business was almost entirely reliant on football, started to dip its toes into broadband, BT were on the alert.
Realising that sport, especially football, was both Sky’s USP and its Achilles heel, they went after their markets, taking the Champions League from them, grabbing the FA Cup, slowly suffocating the big player.Sky responded the way they always have. They wrote the Premier League a bigger cheque, but it turns out, it’s too big. They are getting rid of senior staff all over the place as a consequence, whilst 21st Century Fox is now hovering over them in takeover mode.But that isn’t the end to the Sky problems because more worrying yet is the fact that football audiences are starting to go through the floor. In part, that’s because they are still asking a premium price for a product that is being undermined by the ease and availability of high quality illegal streams online.
Just as the music industry was decimated, so too is football viewing. Why pay when you can get it for nothing?But there are other things at work here too. The deals that BT have struck for FA Cup and Champions League were brilliantly innovative. On a matchday, you can watch the goals from all the games pretty much as they go in. That’s a switch that overnight made Sky’s flagship Soccer Saturday with famous faces sitting in the studio with headphones on, watching games the viewer can’t see until later that night, look positively Dickensian.What happens to Sky matters very much to the Premier League because the two have enjoyed a virtuous circle of partnership, the success of one inflating the other.
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If BT were to break Sky, then think of the next TV deals. Sky desperately, desperately needed football, it was its core business. BT doesn’t really need it all, especially if there is no direct broadband competitor offering it. Even then, because of the overseas fascination in the Premier League, it will continue to bring in the big money for the foreseeable future from beyond these shores, but the domestic market might become less and less important.That then offers up another interesting issue. If the Premier League are more beholden to China, the USA, South Africa, what does that do to supporters on the ground in England.
And does Game 39 return to the agenda?Price aside, Sky’s other big problem is that they have killed the goose that laid the golden eggs. There is simply too much football on television, full stop.
Who really wants to watch a game every single night of the week, and then half a dozen over the weekend? The fans of those clubs aside, who really cares about Ipswich v Rotherham? Who wants to set aside their Friday night for that?Television has dictated fixture dates and times increasingly over the last few years, much to the annoyance of fans, but at least there has been the consolation of being able to watch the game at home or in the pub if you cant get to it. But what if Sky dropped out, if the money from the Middle East or Japan started to be the funds that start to dictate? What if the demands of Tokyo or Shanghai mean it’s better to start to play our games at 10 on a Friday morning for example, a game that wouldn’t be screened in the UK perhaps?He who pays the piper and all that. Tim Hall’s View From 101On Sunday, just a few hours after and about 100 miles away from the New York Red Bulls officially securing the regular season Eastern conference crown and the number one seed in the playoffs through the conference final, there was another game under the flag of Red Bull Global Soccer, this time in the American home office of Harrison, NJ.
And this game was far more important with far more ramifications and far greater intrigue than the MLS league match happening down the road in Pennsylvania.The non-succinctly named New York Red Bulls II were in contention to complete the United Soccer League double. Having finished the regular season as overall winners, it was down to a one game final against Swope Park Rangers to name USL Cup Champions. The opening minutes of the contest were, as we’ve come to expect over the years in cup finals, tense and tight, but NYRBII managed to break the game open and get out to a 2-0 lead before halftime. Rangers managed to halve the deficit midway through the second half and it looked for all the world that the last few minutes would be a sizzling finish, but New York managed to do what they’ve done all year: press high and hard, step into channels, force turnovers, start breakways and score. A few dogpile goals later and RB2 lifted USL Cup with a 5-1 win.It was a grand accomplishment for not only the players on RB2 but the franchise as a whole.
The victory Sunday was not merely a validation of a season of hard work, but a proof-of-concept of a decade of labor. Even stretching back to the days of the MetroStars, one of the major points of emphasis for this club has been establishing a quality youth program, even when there wasn’t specifically a clear way to funnel those young men into players for the first team.One of the amazing things that Major League Soccer and US Soccer have done over the years is to play the long game.
Yes, they’ve gone for short-term attention grabbers like the David Beckham Experiment, but that was like going out and grabbing a pizza while also having crops growing in the back yard. And now those young players who have come up through a system and a structure and have not in their lifetimes known a world where they do not have a top-flight league in the States can be harvested. Criticize the powers-that-be of the game in this country (and we have), but they’ve got that one right at long last, and deserve credit.The championship was also a vindication for New York Red Bulls head coach Jesse Marsch, who made a point when taking the job that he wanted to unify all levels and age groups of the team under one overarching strategy, and it was the one that ultimately paid off in the final: high pressure, high energy, quick passing. Fortunately for the Baby Bulls, when they needed a goal to see off the game, they got one (and two more to go with it), which has at times been a problem for the first team. Hopefully the players that rushed back from Philadelphia to watch the USL final learned a trick or two.And it is important to point out that, while the name on the crest would indicate that this was merely a reserve team, New York Red Bulls II was mostly academy players who have come up through the system together. Sure, along the way in their season a few of what you’d consider first team players have popped down to rehab from an injury, but by and large this was done without anyone from the top trying to game the system with a curious loan or two. The boys would have to stand or fall on their own, and in the end they stood true.But what comes next?
Good, talented, young players will only cool their heels in the second- or third-division of American soccer for so long before it’s time to fish or cut bait. Many of the players are ready for the bright lights of the big time, but there’s simply no room for them on the proper Red Bulls roster as is now set up. The RB2 captain Ryan Meara was thought to be the starting goalkeeper of both the present and the future, but an injury gave the spot to Luis Robles, who has only gone on an ironman run of 140 straight games and counting, with an MLS Goalkeeper of the Year award for good measure. Brandon Allen scored a hat trick in the final on his way to man of the match honors and is on the short list for both 2016 USL Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player, but the system as it is now calls for only one forward, and that position is currently held by the most prolific goal scorer in team history.Derrick Etienne Jr. Is getting calls from the Haitian National Team, but would be hard pressed to crack a star-studded and successful midfield.
Similar things could be said for Tyler Adams or Dan Metzger, quality players who need to know that the future of the MLS club belongs to them, or may start looking elsewhere for opportunities, and then all that work and investment may be a boon for US Soccer and the national team, but a waste of time for the Red Bulls.Time will tell what happens in the offseason once contract talks begin. A successful postseason run for the Red Bulls could spell another year of wait-and-see for the RB2 boys. On the other hand, a desire to cash in on a good campaign by one or two current starters could open up a spot on a payroll that management likes keeping low.But as much as the players for New York Red Bulls II have quite literally gone as high and as far as they can go in USL, and as for as much as we the fans are intrigued by the addition of new, young, exciting prospects into a system that they are already familiar with, bringing players up the ladder too soon can have bad side effects. Having players like Etienne or Allen sitting on the bench not getting meaningful minutes would be deleterious and detrimental to their progress as professionals.Remember the title “The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades” sounds very nice until you remember that the song is actually about the brightness of a nuclear explosion, and Red Bull risks blowing up the happy Baby Bulls family for minimal gain. The temptation to grab and gorge on the talent they’ve been growing all this time is great, but so close to reaping the rewards, they will have to show patience now more than ever. However for now, the slow-and-steady approach of RBNY, MLS, and US Soccer is starting to bear fruit. By Paula MarcusWhilst many Premier League teams may feel relegation to the Championship is the end of the world, it’s nothing compared to relegation to League One.
That’s has nothing to do with the level of the football, but it is a result of how difficult that division is to get out of. Relegated teams tend to struggle as the size of the club and the cash available do little to aid in promotion.In fact, the three teams promoted this season have all spent considerable time in League One and none of the teams relegated the year before finished above tenth place, with Yeovil suffering a second successive relegation. A quick look at the division below shows last season’s inductees have also had a very mixed year. So in what is probably more ‘A View from League One,’ what do the bottom teams this year likely have to look forward to?Well obviously the first issue they have to face is that extra relegation place. Not generally considered much of an issue, it is certainly something a struggling team from this year has to face. Failure to adapt quickly to the new division can easily result in a long, hard season looking over your shoulder.First up are Charlton Athletic who are looking more and more like Blackpool as the season progresses. Last season, Blackpool FC managed to make all the headlines before a ball was even kicked and technically before players even managed to reappear for pre-season training, mainly because they had just eight first team players report back for the club in July.
This started a long season for the club as the fans tried in vain to remove Chairman Karl Oyston.Whilst Charlton owner Roland Duchatelet may not quite be at the level of Oyston, he is obviously reading from the same manual. He has removed key players from the club without replacing and seems completely oblivious to any protests the fans have made. He, and his team, seem unable to make a statement without putting their foot firmly in their mouths due to a complete lack of understanding how football in England works.
One of the most organised fan movements has failed to have any effect though, other than distracting fans from a season that’s gone from bad to worse,This season things have not improved on or off the pitch for Blackpool. The club is just one place and one point from a double relegation and attendances are at a ten year low. An impressive 90% of fans have apparently stated they will not go to games next season no matter which division the club is in. It has even got to the point where ex-player Brett Omerod has snubbed the clubs offer of Bloomfield road for his testimonial this season as the club is ‘too toxic.’ Part of his decision came from the fact large numbers of Pool fans are actually banned due to comments made on social media.The second to bottom team in the Championship last season were Wigan Athletic. It might seem like Bolton Wanderers have far more in common with last season’s Blackpool than Wigan, but that really isn’t the case. Ok, so there are a few big differences. Bolton Wanderers have had one of those years where the fans probably wish they could just erase it, coming perilously close to a winding up order.
But, like Wigan, they have had a lot more off field issues to deal with that ultimately will have resulted in their relegation and have little to do with money.The hiring of Malky Mackay last season brought an abundance of the wrong kind of attention due to his infamous sacking at Cardiff for making racist comments. They had a squad still containing some Premier League big earners and ended with Dave Whelan stepping down as chairman. Aside from the obvious ownership issues Bolton have had this season, they have spent far too much time in the news for the wrong reasons this season. Their inability to have the funds necessary to remove manager Neil Lennon, despite some questionable incidents, captured many headlines at a time when the club didn’t need them.One of the biggest advantages to a season in League One is a chance to rebuild. The teams that use relegation to rebuild and remove ‘dead weight’ are generally the ones that make the quickest, and most successful, returns to the Championship. Over the past few years this has included Wolverhampton Wanderers, Leicester City and Leeds United (pre-Cellino).
Currently Wigan sit in second place, on a more even financial footing than 12 months ago. Whilst third place Walsall may have some games in hand, Wigan’s impressive +30 goal difference should see them through.The final team relegated last season were Millwall, one of the favourites at the start of the season for relegation having spent the previous few seasons stuck firmly in the bottom pack. This is very much like the Rotherham/MK Dons/Whoever else gets relegated situation. After narrowly avoiding relegation last season (admittedly not helped by a points deduction), Rotherham were one of the bookies top picks for bottom three, whilst MK Dons recent promotion and low spending also put them in the same bracket.This is usually the hardest team to predict how they will cope after relegation. Their fate is usually not known until the very end of the season so they have little time to adjust after spending a whole season fighting to survive. In the case of this season, Millwall had a pretty slow start, losing four of their first ten games.
But results have improved over the season and, since the start of the year, they have lost just two games. They are currently in fifth place and are one of the top scoring teams in the division.So relegation isn’t necessarily the worst thing that can happen at the end of the season, and this season looks like bucking a trend when it comes to quick exits from League One (although Blackpool are looking the wrong way). However, that will be little comfort to those currently at the bottom of the Championship.to Paula’s latest Championship podcast at Premier Punditry. By Bill ThomasFor something that we choose to do in our spare time and which we often lavish daft amounts of money on, it seems as if all that football does, especially at the top level, is make us miserable.Every now and then a club will overachieve, beyond even the ludicrous expectations that we supporters have of our squad of journeymen, and for a while, we will bask in some rare sunlight. Leicester City are this season’s case in point, a land where all is milk and honey, though let’s come back in 12 months time and see if everyone is still in the throes of ecstasy shall we?Beyond that, all seems to be doom and gloom. At Manchester United, you have Louis Van Gaal waking each morning to headlines that tell him he’s about to be sacked.
Roberto Martinez gets roundly booed at Goodison as often as not because his side aren’t in the top six. Arsene Wenger seems to be perpetually on a tightrope with the Arsenal fans.It isn’t just managers either. Plenty of players have turned off the twitter account given the abuse they get after games while Albion’s Chris Brunt took a coin in the face last weekend, thrown by his own supporters, after they were beaten in the FA Cup at Reading.Wherever you go, crowds seem to be full of people who are either angry or looking for something to get angry about.
The Premier League in particular has become a melting pot for dissatisfaction, presumably brought about by the relentless hype that surrounds the league and the hefty ticket prices they have to pay to gain admission to this velvet world.The trouble is, with professional sport, especially when you are watching as a partisan and not a neutral, the cash to rewards isn’t that simple. In the arts, the bigger ticket price you pay, generally the bigger the star, the fancier, the spectacle. But when Springsteen walks onstage, he hasn’t got a bloke standing opposite trying to take his guitar off him or trying to make a different, louder sound to drown him out.The Premier League crowd, understandably perhaps at those prices, wants its cake and something to eat it with. Football doesn’t work that way. It’s a competition. Competition, in whatever sphere – and pay close attention to this in a political season when candy floss heads would have you think differently – means winners and losers.
And the darker truth in sport is that generally, there are a lot more losers than winners.The idea of losing has become such anathema to that Premier League image of wins, goals, celebrations, that it cannot be tolerated. Even the most hardened football fan is lulled into this illusion that they are going to the game to watch a riot of success when as often as not, they will end up defeated.Time was that they presented a useful life lesson to us all, because life is full of those ups and downs. But not any longer. Now our football teams have to win and, if they don’t, there has to be a reason, a scapegoat. It’s a microcosm of a society that says where there’s blame, there’s a claim.Just wait for the day when someone takes Jurgen Klopp to court for making the wrong substitution, losing a game and cause someone terrible psychological distress.
It won’t be far away. By Bill ThomasAmid the usual anti-climax of the English transfer deadline day last week, a few disturbing seeds were sown in the minds of those at Premier League HQ. The North American Soccer League (NASL) and New York Cosmos today announced the 2016 Season schedule. The Cosmos’ 2016 season opener will take place at home on Sunday, April 3 against Ottawa Fury.The Cosmos will play 10 matches during the 2016 Spring Season – five games at home and five games on the road, while taking on each team in the league once.
In the Fall Season they will play 11 games at home and 11 on the road, playing each team twice.Cosmos 2016 home schedule – Spring Season. Cosmos vs. Ottawa Fury FC (Sunday, April 3 – 6pm). Cosmos vs. Jacksonville Armada FC (Sunday, April 10 – 6pm). Cosmos vs.
Carolina Railhawks (Sunday, May 1 – 6pm). Cosmos vs.
Tampa Bay Rowdies (Sunday, May 22 – 6pm). Cosmos vs. Rayo OKC (Saturday, May 28 – 7pm)Cosmos 2016 home schedule – Fall Season. Cosmos vs. Ottawa Fury FC (Saturday, July 2 – 7pm). Cosmos vs.
Jacksonville Armada FC (Wednesday, July 13 – 7,30pm). Cosmos vs. Puerto Rico FC (Saturday, July 30 – 7pm). Cosmos vs.
Rayo OKC (Sunday, August 7 – 5pm). Cosmos vs. Tampa Bay Rowdies (Saturday, August 13 – 7pm). Cosmos vs. Carolina Railhawks (Saturday, August 27 – 7pm).
Cosmos vs. Indy Eleven (Wednesday, August 31 – 7,30pm). Cosmos vs. Minnesota United FC (Saturday, September 10 – 7pm). Cosmos vs.
FC Edmonton (Saturday, September 17 – 7pm). Cosmos vs. Ft Lauderdale Strikers (Sunday, October 2 – 6pm). Cosmos vs.
Miami FC (Saturday, October 22 – 7pm)To view the full schedule visit. The New York Cosmos announced this week the signing of forward Jairo Arrieta pending a physical examination.Arrieta, 32, arrives in New York having made 27 appearances and 15 starts for D.C. United during their 2015 MLS campaign. He scored five goals and picked up two assists in 1,264 minutes on the field, helping his club reach the Conference Semifinals of the MLS Cup Playoffs. Prior to D.C., Arrieta played three seasons for Columbus Crew, tallying 17 goals and nine assists.First called up to Costa Rica’s senior national team in 2011, Arrieta won the Golden Boot at Copa Centroamericana in 2013 as the tournament’s top goal scorer. La Sele captured first place with a 1-0 win over Honduras in the final.“Jairo comes to us with great experience and is a goal-scoring threat,” said Cosmos Head Coach and Sporting Director Giovanni Savarese.
“His addition to the team builds on an already strong core of players returning for the upcoming season.”“I’m really looking forward to this opportunity,” Arrieta said. “The coaching staff has a great reputation and I believe I can score goals in their system.”Arrieta’s senior career began in his home country with Brujas F.C., where he made over 100 appearances from 2003-06.
He then moved to Saprissa, Costa Rica’s most decorated club, before transitioning stateside to MLS. By Michael OttolenghiWith half of the season gone, the first verdict is in: Napoli are “winter champions”, their 5-1 home win over Frosinone propelling them two points above Inter and Juve, who are tied for second place. Fiorentina are a further point behind. And while the title is technically meaningless, it has a psychological importance in Serie A, and an extra edge for Napoli, as the team who has finished top after the first half of the season has won the league in each of the past 12 seasons, and the last time Napoli were winter champions was in 1990, the last year they won the title.Napoli have much to be pleased about. The most obvious symbol of the partenopei’s resurgence under manager Maurizio Sarri has been Gonzalo Higuain, who has scored 18 goals in 19 games and is the league’s top scorer. But Serie A’s best attack is not just Higuain, as Marek Hamsik, Lorenzo Insigne and Jose Callejon have all got in on the act, while the defence is the second best in Serie A.Napoli’s traditional problem over the past 5 years of relative success has been a combination of over-enthusiasm and a lack of consistency.
Sarri can do little about the former, as even Diego Maradona has now climbed on the bandwagon, claiming that he would be in Naples to celebrate the scudetto in person. But the manager can address the inconsistency, starting with this weekend’s game against Sassuolo at the San Paolo. This is precisely the type of game that Rafael Benitez’s Napoli would have stumbled on, and Sassuolo are now pushing for a European place, especially after a famous 1-0 away win against Inter at San Siro last Sunday. As all the other title contenders this season, Napoli have previously failed to push on when they had the opportunity to cement their position at the top of the table, so a win against Sassuolo is key to holding off the challenges of Inter and Juve.And with Inter spluttering, Napoli are mostly worried about the resurgence of Juventus, who recorded their 9th consecutive win at the weekend in a 2-1 victory over Sampdoria.
Sarri has reminded anybody who will listen that despite their slow start to this season, Juve are still the four time defending champions and therefore the favourites for the title. They have certainly been playing that way in recent weeks, with Sami Khedira adding steel to the midfield, Paolo Dybala finding his creative feet and the back of the net and Alvaro Morata and Mario Mandzukic lessening the void left by Carlos Tevez.
Juve have recovered 9 points over Napoli over the past 3 months, and will hope to keep up the pressure in Sunday’s game against an Udinese side who have lost all their fixtures against this season’s title contenders.Inter for their part will travel to Bergamo to face Atalanta on the back of that shock 1-0 defeat to Sassuolo, which came just two games after their home loss to Lazio. Roberto Mancini is preaching calm, although there is a sense that the tide has finally turned for his team, and that their inability to score, dressing room issues and the incompatibility of forwards Mauro Icardi and Stefan Jovetic has cut them out of the title race. But then again in this season’s Serie A that can all change in a week, particularly with the transfer window open and rumours linking all sorts of players to Serie A (from the endless Ezequiel Lavezzi to Inter stories to the possible return of Ciro Immobile and Alessandro Diamanti).Finally, while we have already discussed the fairytale of tiny Carpi’s first season in Serie A, last weekend saw another chapter in that story. Lorenzo Pasciuti scored his first goal of the season in Carpi’s 2-1 win over Udinese and became the first player to score for the same team in all of Italy’s top four divisions, as he joined the club when they were in Serie D. Carpi are second bottom in the table and are likely to be engaged in a tough relegation battle in the second half of the season, but sometimes even Italian football has moments of magic, and Pasciuti’s incredible achievement is one of those. Napoli’s Gonzalo Higuain celebrates beatingFrosinone 5-1.
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