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Weekly Brief - 2008-01-18 The Weely Brief, highlighting recent soccer industry stories from around the World is provided to San Francisco Seals Fans courtesy of FMMInternational See below for more information regarding FMMInternational. * New American Women’s Soccer League Unveiled
The founders of Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS), which will start in 2009 expressed optimism that this league would succeed where WUSA failed. The President of the league’s Chicago franchise, Peter Wilt claimed WPS would have ‘a different business model,’ including more conservative budgets, that it would take advantage of ‘synergies’ with SUM and MLS, sharing stadiums with Chicago, LA, DC, and possibly Dallas. On top of that, ‘teams are integrating themselves much more in their local soccer communities’ through partnerships with youth teams and local leagues, and Wilt also said that another problem with WUSA was that ‘the owners were disengaged.’ Meanwhile, Hellenic, LLC has announced the formation of the Tampa Bay Hellenic. The club, which is joining the USL’s W-League, will begin playing in 2008 as a member of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. Source: USsoccerplayers.com & USL
Released Letter Reveals Pennsylvania’s Commitment To MLS Franchise
In response to requests made by the Capitolwire news service, Pennsylvania’s Governor’s office released a ‘funding commitment letter’ dated February 27th, 2007 identifying the various grants and low-interest loans that could be obtained from nine government sources to raise $50m to lure an MLS franchise. Governor Ed Rendell's offer included: $20m in savings achieved through low-interest, long-term loans from the Pennsylvania Economic Development Funding Authority; $15m from the state capital budget, contingent upon approval by the legislature; and $10m in a grant from the Delaware River Port Authority. Source: The
Rumours Linking Zidane and MLS Surface, Again
Zinedine Zidane has admitted that he is keen for a return to top-level soccer, and Yahoo! reports that sources close to him have indicated that were he to come back as a player - as opposed to a coaching, ambassadorial or administrative role - then a move to MLS and specifically the Red Bulls would be his number 1 option. Source: Yahoo! Sports
MLS Stadium For
The city of
JumpTV Acquires North American Rights To WC Qualifiers
JumpTV acquired the exclusive North American online and mobile rights for the 70 remaining 2010 South American World Cup qualifying matches and up to 40 associated friendlies from SCP Worldwide. JumpTV also acquired an unspecified equity stake in SCP's overall broadcast rights for this content, and indicated that it and SCP have secured distribution deals for this content with ESPN and other entities. Source: sportbusiness.com
MLS Rejects
Preston North End's pursuit of New England Revolution’s Taylor Twellman ended after MLS rejected a transfer deal worth more than $2m. A frustrated Twellman claimed the deal would have been worth more than $2.5 million with incentives and
* G14 Disbands After Achieving Primary Goal
The G14 group of
Dispute Between Owners and Board May Lead To Liverpool
Despite official denials, the Independent reports that Liverpool's American owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, have agreed in principle to sell the club for $700m because they and the club's board could not resolve a dispute over whether to laden the club with massive debt to build a new stadium. The potential buyers most consistently linked with
EPL Derides Blatter And Platini
EPL CEO Richard Scudamore renewed his criticism of UEFA president Michel Platini and FIFA’s Sepp Blatter plans to limit the number of foreign players per team. "The problem with Blatter's logic is that you can get yourself into a difficult, jingoistic, almost racist debate about who can and who cannot play for your country. Why are Blatter and Platini wasting their energy and huge influence on this issue when they know that European law will not budge?” Source: The Independent
UEFA Launch Media Rights
UEFA announced the launch of the media content rights sales process for the 2009 -12 cycle of the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and the UEFA Cup. The sale, which will be conducted by TEAM Marketing AG, includes an increase in the total number of matches and content rights on a platform neutral basis, meaning that successful bidders for live match rights will benefit from exclusivity across all media platforms (including television, Internet and mobile) throughout the entire live match. Source: UEFA
Capello Assures FA He’s Innocent Of Tax Evasion
Argentina-Scotland Friendly Canceled
The Herald reports that negotiations between
Blades Owner’s Bid To Buy Hungarian Club Bloacked
Sheffield United chairman Kevin McCabe’s Scarborough Holdings company will not be buying the famous but financially troubled Hungarian club Ferencvaros. There were no other bidders and McCabe has already set-up a working association between Ferencvaros and The Blades, but, according to Hungarian sources, there are political reasons why the takeover has not been pushed through. Source: Sky Sports
Polish Giants Sentenced To Relegation
Polish top-flight club Widzew Łódź were sentenced to relegation at the end of the season after being found guilty of bribing referees on 12 occasions in 2004 and 2005. Widzew president Boguslaw Sosnowski responded, “We see the penalty as excessive and we will appeal.” Source: Soccerrnet
Coventry was given the go-ahead to re-enter the transfer market after a Football League embargo, that was placed on the club in October last year following non-payment of an instalment of Leon Best's transfer fee to Southampton, was lifted. In a similar story, Swindon Town have had their total transfer embargo downgraded to a flexible embargo, which means they can only sign and loan players with approval from the Football League, following Tuesday's successful takeover by Andrew Fitton's consortium. And Bottom of the Football League Bournemouth, which has debts of around $8m, are seeking advice from Accountants BDO Stoy Hayward in a bid to stave off the threat of administration. But chairman Jeff Mostyn stressed in a club statement that “the club is not in administration and it is not a foregone conclusion that it will be.” Source: BBC
* Rest of the World * Everton Sign Asian Deals
Everton has agreed in principle to a 3-year deal with the Indian Football Association to deliver a grassroots football programme in the state of
Blatter Proposes That ANC Begin In June And July
In an attempt to unify the international calendar and appease European clubs, FIFA president Sepp Blatter has told the BBC that the African Nations Cup must be held in June and July by 2016. However, the Confederation of African Football insisted that the competition will continue to kick off in January when the weather in most of
* The Weekly Brief is published every Friday and delivered free via e-mail to registered users.
* FMMInternational is a London-based soccer consultancy with offices in * Interested in using the Weekly Brief for Press/Media Releases, then please contact us via info@fmminternational
* The information contained herein is believed to be correct, but should not be relied upon as such. All financial figures should be seen as indicative only as they may have been converted from another currency.
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