Previous Articles: International event on 3rd-party player ownership | Korea's LG pours money into European football | English FA and Player's Agents still in dispute | Sanjeevan Balasingham appointed to FIFPro Asia | One EPL player's salary equal to half gate income | Yeung still processing Birmingham City deal in HK | US military criticised for donating soccer balls | Australian anti-doping tribunal suspends Lazridis | Ghotbi on Asian Cup and South Korean players | Indian regional club aims for national respect | Breaking News: [HOME]

International event on 3rd-party player ownership

Latin American lawyers will speak alongside sports lawyers from South Africa and Europe on third-party ownership of players at ‘The Global Game: Ownership of Football Clubs & Players’, a World Sports Law Report event, sponsored by sports law specialist Clintons, on 25 September at the Selfridge Hotel in London. Such ownership contracts are commonplace in Latin America, but have caused widespread concern to national football organisations, clubs, fans and the media about who controls clubs and players.

The English Premier League’s Rule U18 bans clubs from entering contracts that allow third parties ‘to acquire the ability materially to influence its policies or the performance of its teams’. This created problems for West Ham United in signing Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano and for Everton in attempts to sign Manuel Fernandes, and has resulted in club executives, such as Manchester United Chief Executive, David Gill, suggesting that FIFA should clarify its rules on third party ownership of players.

However, FIFA has no rule expressly prohibiting third party ownership of players and in Latin American countries, third party ownership of players is common.

Miguel Remmer of Estudio Beccar Varela in Argentina, Jose Carlos Meirelles of Pinheiro Neto Advogados in Brazil and Agustin Mayer of Ferrere Abogados in Uruguay, will explain exactly how football transfers involving third parties work in practice. Michael Murphy of South African firm Garlicke & Bousfield Inc will highlight the issues surrounding the transfer of players from Africa into Europe, while a separate session will tackle Asian player transfer issues.

Essential to football transfers globally are football agents, who are becoming increasingly regulated by football’s governing bodies. The English Football Association has recently passed new regulations governing the use of player agents, and FIFA is to revise its player agent regulations by 1 January 2008. We will examine possible areas of conflict between the international and national regulation of player agents.

Concern has also been expressed over control of clubs and their finances, prompting the EPL and English Football League to defend their ‘fit and proper persons’ tests, which govern who can own a football club. UEFA’s Manager of Club Licensing, Andrea Traverso, will explain how UEFA’s Club Licensing System addresses these concerns.

For more information, visit www.e-comlaw.com/GlobalGame, or call Jit Jaswal on +44 (0)20 7012 1383 or email kamaljit.jaswal@e-comlaw.com.

Korea's LG pours money into European football

LG Electronics, South Korea’s second-largest electronics maker, is promoting an aggressive premier marketing campaign from mobile phones to LCD TVs in Europe in a way to intensify its brand image. "Sports marketing seems another must-win card for LG to raise its brand recognition in European markets," observed Kim Yoo-chul in The Korean Times. In July, the company signed a three-year shirt sponsorship agreement with English Premier League club Fulham. The move is in line with the company’s continued effort to step up its marketing drive in Britain where LG’s monthly sales had exceeded $100 million last year. "The multi-year sponsorship agreement will offer us an important opportunity to strengthen our premium marketing in Britain," said Na Young-bae, an executive for LG’s British business.

The electronics maker also held the friendly football "LG Amsterdam Tournament" in Ajax stadium, the Netherlands, from 2 August bringing together Ajax from the Netherlands, Arsenal from England, Atletico de Madrid from Spain and Lazio from Italy. LG said the one-time show helped the firm raise its brand image to European football fans.

English FA and Player's Agents still in dispute

The English Football Association will introduce itsnew agents regulations on Saturday despite protests from the Association of Football Agents that player's agents still hadn't been properly consulted. "It's extraordinary that the FA intend to hold a press briefing to explain their new regulations this week when they have made such little effort to consult the agents concerned. It's a disgrace that the FA have never sat down and discussed their reforms with a union representing well over 25 percent of agents," Mel Stein, spokesman for the AFA, told the Daily Mail. However the newspaper reported a response from the FA that it had "engaged in an extensive consultation process with all sectors of the game, including players, clubs and agents" and the AFA had "been consulted on an ongoing basis over the past 18 months."

The agents have four main areas of dispute. These are the tax ramifications of all payments to agents representing a player having to be made by the player himself; the threat to agents of players, under contract to an agent, still being allowed to represent themselves; agents not having to be paid money relating to a former contract if a player signs a new deal without them; and agents acting for a player having to wait for a year before subsequently representing a club over the same player.

Sanjeevan Balasingham appointed to FIFPro Asia

Sanjeevan Balasingham has been appointed as General Secretary of FIFPro Asia. His background in football is extensive and was the Director of Legal Services of the Asian Football Confederation and has been a leading executive with the AFC for 7 years. He will work closely with Brendan Schwab, Chairman of FIFPro Asia and will be based in the Professional Footballers Association office in Melbourne, Australia.

The PFA will be hosting the FIFPro Asia Mini-Congress on 20 and 21 October 2007. Delegates from FIFPro, AFC, and Asian/Oceania countries including Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China and Singapore will congregate for a two day congress to ensure further development in the player voice continues in the Asia region.

One EPL player's salary equal to half gate income

Steve Gibson, Chairman of English Premier League club Middlesborough has explained the relationship of his club's match-day gate income with payments to players. Very little, it seems. Referring to the salaray request by the club's former striker Mark Viduka, Gibson claimed the player's agent had said Viduka would go to the highest bidder. "Mark Viduka is 32 on his next birthday and he was asking for a three-year contract and asking for a figure which, over a year, would equate to over half of our gate income," Gibson said. Viduka now plays for Newcastle.

Yeung still processing Birmingham City deal in HK

Hong Kong businessman Carson Yeung has assured David Sullivan, his fellow major shareholder of English Premier League club Birmingham City that he is confident of soon buying full control of the club. Sullivan had publicly expressed concern that the club's stability would suffer if a deal wasn't concluded by the end of September. "I don't know enough about the Chinese psychology. But, for the sake of the club, it needs to be sorted out," he told media. "I appreciate that Mr Sullivan wants to ensure the stability of the club as soon as possible," Yeung's representative, Sammy Yu, told The Times.

"We have no bad feelings about what was said in the week. But sooner or later it will happen. At the moment we are making sure we satisfy the regulations that all listed companies in Hong Kong have to abide by. We are definitely coming to Birmingham though and, from Hong Kong, we are monitoring all that is going on at the club. It won't take long and Mr Yeung stands by what he said in Birmingham last week. He feels that he could take control in a month or two so by October he could be the owner. A lot of things we need to do with the stock exchange in Hong Kong have been done already. We understand the concerns of the club and the supporters but we do not see there being any problems. It's just that we are not based in the United Kingdom and there are many small details that need to be completed which just take time," he said.

US military criticised for donating soccer balls

The United States military reportedly issued a statement regreting it had handed out soccer balls emblazoned with the name of Allah as part of a public relations exercise in Afghanistan. At least one of the balls - which were dropped by helicopter to children in Khost province in eastern Afghanistan - carried a small picture of the Saudi Arabian flag. The flag features in Arabic script the Islamic declaration of faith, which contains the words Allah and its Prophet Muhammad. Khost Governor Arsalah Jamal said villagers were upset and angry when they saw the ball. He also said the US military told him they bought the balls in a market in Kabul and they were made in China.

"The distribution of soccer balls was done in the spirit of goodwill, something that we hoped would bring Afghan children some enjoyment, " Sgt. Dean Welch said as reported by AP. "We regret any disturbance that was caused in this case," he said. "If we hurt one person, that is one too many."

Australian anti-doping tribunal suspends Lazridis

Football Federation Australia’s Anti-Doping Tribunal has handed down a decision in the matter of Stan Lazaridis. The Tribunal held that an Anti-Doping violation had occurred and ordered the player ineligible to play for 12 months, backdated to the date of his positive test on 27 November 2006. The decision was handed down on 6 August 2007 but in accordance with the FFA Anti-Doping By-law could not be made public until the period for lodgement of any appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport had expired. That period had now passed with no appeal being lodged by any of the parties with appeal rights (including the player, FIFA, the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority and the World Anti-Doping Authority).

FFA also confirmed that the Professional Footballers’ Association is pursuing another legal avenue on behalf of Lazaridis. This involves an application for a retroactive Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE). In fact the FFA’s Tribunal had, at the request of the PFA, stood over earlier delivery of its judgment pending the decision of Australian Sports Drug Medical Advisory Committee on this retroactive TUE application. ASDMAC had denied the application and the PFA is appealing this decision. Lazaridis’ suspension stands while this process continues.

FFA Chief Executive Officer, Ben Buckley, noted that there were particular circumstances in Mr Lazaridis’ case and encouraged interested parties to read a copy of the judgment to gain a full appreciation of the case. Buckley commented that the case illustrated the critical importance of athletes complying strictly with the regulations and procedures governing anti-doping. “The Tribunal made certain express findings regarding Stan’s good character which FFA welcomes. In particular it found that Stan had not taken the prohibited substance to mask a performance enhancing drug but for legitimate therapeutic purposes as prescribed by his doctor. The problem related to the processes which is why it is so important for all athletes to be vigilant” he said.

A-League club Perth Glory has been formally advised that Lazaridis will be unavailable to train with or play with the club until round 15 this season. The club has supported its marquee player throughout the process and CEO Scott Gooch said the club was content that the findings of the FFA Anti-Doping tribunal expressly indicate that Lazaridis’ use of Finasteride was for a legitimate therapeutic use. “The findings recognise that Stan has a legitimate medical condition and any suggestion to the contrary is completely off the mark,” he said.

According to the Professional Footballers’ Association, the case "serves to highlight the inadequacies surrounding the mandatory penalties under the WADACode' as Lazaridis "faces the risk of a lengthy period out of the game despite not cheating." The PFA strongly feels such regulations constitute an unreasonable restraint of trade of professional athletes, especially footballers who compete weekly. The inability of the WADA Code to take into consideration the surrounding circumstances when deciding penalties has been questioned by sporting federations and athlete bodies around the world. This has been recognised by WADA which has proposed significant changes to the WADA Code specifically addressing this area. The PFA is hopeful that the changes will be implemnented early next year, the PFA said on its website last month.

Ghotbi on Asian Cup and South Korean players

Afshin Ghotbi recently left his position as South Korean assistant coach to take over Iranian club Persepolis. Born in Iran, the 43 year-old left his homeland for America in 1977 and went to the 1998 World Cup with the United States and the 2002 and 2006 World Cups with South Korea. He spoke to John Duerden of goal.com (extracts):

Practical problems of the 2007 Asian Cup:

First of all, you have four different countries, four different kinds of politics and different logistics. There are only 16 teams, it makes no sense to have four teams in each country and then have them travel around in the knockout stage. I can give you some examples – when we arrived at the training ground in Jakarta, the training pitch was worse than any amateur pitch. We went to the stadium before any game had been played and it looked like there had been a full season of games played on it. It was very bumpy with different kinds if grass growing on it, maybe five different kinds. They’ve cut it where one stripe as one height and the next stripe is a different height so television cameras could see different colours and that makes absolutely sense for the players because the ball is changing speeds as it travels through the grass at different levels.

Then we were supposed to have a closed training session but there were a 1,000 people watching. Having four teams in the same hotel makes no sense. Then we traveled to Malaysia and then realized that some of the coaches and staff didn’t have enough rooms. So then they had to move us to a different hotel and a two-hour day turned into a 14 hour day for the coaches and a 12-hour day for the players. With only a three-day break between games, this doesn’t help the players.

Having referees referee us for two or three games creates awkward situations. In the Iran and Korea game, having a referee from UAE, this makes no sense as some Iranian players play there and can speak Arabic, so they can influence. We’re playing Iraq with a Kuwaiti referee. These are recipes for questions.

The AFC has to do a better job of managing these tournaments. The sponsorship was fantastic and they did a great job of finding sponsors but what happened to selling tickets? For a top player playing in an empty stadium, it doesn’t motivate them so much. I think pitch conditions, logistics, empty stadiums and the decisions taken with referees needs to improve. If Asia is to be the future of football then we need to be a lot more responsible. The game against Indonesia was fantastic and we need more of those kinds of games but the semi-final in Malaysia, most of the stadium was empty. If you have the tournament in one country, it’s easier to build energy, if we put the tournament in cities attractive for tourists. Our 3/4 place play-off against Japan in Palembang and with all respect to Palembang it was in the middle of nowhere. The players had to fly from Malaysia to Jakarta and then take another flight to Palembang and then take a bus ride through farmland – it makes no sense.

On the South Korean national team:

I feel we have planted a fantastic foundation for the future of Korean football and 2010. The fruit of what we have done will be seen in 2010. We have introduced players that were unknowns – players like Kim Chi-woo, Kim Jin-kyu, Oh beom-seok and Kang Min-soo were fantastic. Son Dae-ho was introduced and he is not very young but based on his experience, you can see a bright future in international football for him in the next 5-6 years.

The Korean team was a young team and achieved much more than people gave them credit for. They played Japan, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq – the top four teams. We didn’t lose a game. With a little bit more luck, more sharpness and innovation in attack, it was a tournament that we could have won. But for the fans and the media, it is difficult to get excited about a team that scores only three goals in six games … We all wanted to score more goals but the reality is who is scoring goals in the K-League? The reality is which Korean player is consistently scoring goals at the top level? As long as in the K-League the best strikers are foreigners, as long as Korean strikers abroad are sitting on the bench, it’s very difficult to produce top goalscorers for the national team when you are getting two, three day and two-week preparations before major tournaments and try to compete with the best teams in the world and Asia.

Take Shin Young-rok as an example. He’s been a very promising striker since he was 16 and I met him at Suwon. It is very difficult for him to get in the first team. If Suwon really have the player’s greatest interest at heart and the development of Korean football at heeart, they can take some decisions to help him –either give him as many opportunities as possible in the first team or loan or sell him to a different club where he can start. I can understand this, they want to make the deepest squad and win things and they think ‘why should we give a good player away to another team?’

We have to use more innovation and ingenuity in attack. It starts at the youth level and the selection of players that are youthful and creative. It starts with a training environment where they are given chances to take decisions. I have worked in the K-League and they are trained to be mechanical, they are trained not to take risks, not to make decisions, follow orders and that is a reflection of the society. Those are things that Hiddink started talking about in 2001, trying to break down the heirachy in football and the relationship between older players and younger players.

Indian regional club aims for national respect

India's north-east states like Mizoram, Meghalaya, Manipur and Nagaland have provided many footballers to the senior and junor national teams but do not host a major league football club. However Lajong SS&CC from Meghalaya has come close to achieving promotion to the Division One of the NFL and is looking to develop to generate more interest among fans as well as corporates. The club is professionally managed and receives private funding from Shillong-based Centre Point Group.

“It’s been a tough road, yet we have managed to achieve our targets,” Larsing M, Vice President of the 25-year-old club, told Aabhas Sharma of the Business Standard. "The initial idea was to make the club big enough, first in the region and then take it to the national level. Lajong has done the initial part and is now on the cusp of the latter stage."

Coach Herring Shangpliang knows that this is the right time for the club to announce its arrival on the national stage in a big way. “Last season, we came close to clinching promotion to compete with the big boys of Indian football and the aim is to be there in the next two years.” Shangpliang, who is one of the few coaches in India to have the AFC pro coaching licence, is happy with the talent at his disposal and is keen to harness more youngsters in his scheme of things. “That old cliche, nothing succeeds like talent and hard work, is true in our case,” he said.

India's World Cup and AFC Cup schedule clash

India's national football team will train in Dubai for ten days before its first round qualifier match for the 2010 World Cup against Lebanon scheduled for 8 October. The Indian team's camp in Dubai will start on 25 September, a day after Mahindra United play Lebanon's Al Nejmeh in the quarterfinal of the Asian Football Confederation's AFC Cup. Six Mahindra players will join the national squad immediately after the game.

"The time gap is too small. It will hamper our preparation. What will we do if a player gets injured? There is just not enough time to prepare," India's coach, Bob Houghton told media. "If we win against Lebanon then we play Tajikistan sometime in November I think, and if Mahindra also win their first AFC Cup match, there is a possibility the dates might clash again," he warned.

EPL changes Asian football television programming

The sports media landscape in Asia changed dramatically on the weekend of 11-12 August as the English Premier League dropped from the schedules of many of its last remaining major free-to-air terrestrial television broadcasters. Promoters, who'd paid the EPL most of the record £625 million it received from foreign rights for 2007-2010, began to recoup their investment. In some markets, even Pay-TV stations were churned in the search for higher returns. In others, licensees are using the EPL as Rupert Murdoch's proverbial "battering ram" to lead fans to support new Pay TV operations.

In China, the change to Pay-TV had been well announced. "It's time to say goodbye to those TV channels that provided Premier League games free of charge," said WinTV Chief Executive Song Zheng in February after successfully bidding a reported US$50 million for PRC market. Song, whose station had just 40,000 subscribers, said he was confident of winning over viewers. "I know that most Chinese people have been getting used to viewing soccer matches on free channels. It will be difficult to change this habit in the beginning, but I believe that more and more people will choose pay-TV in the future." And yet, at kick-off for the new EPL season, subsidiary contracts with regional cable TV operators in major regions, including the largest city Shanghai, had yet to be concluded. A boon to a few companies offering live games via the internet, it was a scenario feared by some of England's biggest clubs who were reportedly "furious" that "limited Pay-TV audience may restrict the dynamic growth of English football in the world's most populous country."

In Indonesia, the change came as a shock. The week prior to the start of the EPL season, it was announced that ESPN-STAR Sports' arrangement with national FTA broadcaster Trans7 would not be continued. Trans7 said it "wouldn't be able to cover the cost of buying the rights even if we sold all the advertising spots, combined with other income from sponsors." But the hundreds of thousands of subscribers used to watching English football on the two ESS channels on established Pay-TV services Kabelvision and Indovision found they too would miss out. Paralleling the exclusive deal ESS made with Astro Supersport for the Malaysian market in 2001, Astro's brand new Indonesian subsidiary was suddenly announced as the new EPL sub-licensee for Asia's third largest nation for an undisclosed amount. "Our basic idea by bringing EPL into the country is to give Indonesian people access to watch the league," vice president for corporate affairs at PT Direct Vision's Astro Indonesia, Halim Mahfudz, confusingly told The Jakarta Post.

Last-minute brinkmanship also occurred in Japan where Pay-TV J Sports signed an exclusive three-year contract with Sportfive - after the first 10 games of the new Premiership season had been concluded. The Japan Times anticipated that fans would be forced to test the quality of internet transmissions or to watch illegal displays at pubs and bars and discovered venues would be tapping into a South African channel for their customers. This did not appear to concern the rights-holders. "The deal we agreed with J Sports represents a continuation of our excellent partnership in the past", said Sportfive executive vice president Robert Müller von Vultejus. EPL CEO Richard Scudamore praised the process. “We are very satisfied with the result of Sportfive’s distribution of our rights [and] welcome J Sports to the circle of partners of the English Premier League,” he said.

The manoeuverings show the formidable market power of the English Premier League throughout Asia but also provide a window of opportunity to competitors. The free-to-air broadcasters and non-EPL Pay-TV networks are filling their programming with other European football, notably Spanish, Italian and German and, increasingly domestic and regional competitions. But the EPL's competitors have significant weaknesses. How much better for La Liga marketing in Asia if Real Madrid and Barcelona collaborated? How much better for SerieA if it had a clean image for punters? How much better for Bundesliga if it hand-fed media with in-depth data and statistics?

As for domestic beneficiaries, the recent Asian Forum on Sports Innovation (www.asianfosi.com) had two messages on competing for fan loyalties with English and European football.

Claire Kenny Tipton, the Asian Football Confederation's Director of Marketing and Media and Communications pointed out that 61% of all football revenues in Asia goes to the English Premier League and, in South East Asia in particularly, the English Premiership is the most supported football product. She argued, however, against the proposition that the overwhelming broadcasting of European football somehow got fans involved in local football. “One of the problems in these countries, Indonesia excepted, is that fans don't go to stadiums. A generation of latent fans has been created. They've never been to a live football game. They don't play football. They don't have a passion for the game. They watch it on TV. They get together with their mates next door or in a coffee shop. They say they support Man United or Liverpool or Real Madrid but they'll buy the shirt and that’s it. That's where it begins and where it ends, “ she said.

The Asian Cup was brought to South East Asia “at great expense” so the Asian Football Confederation could say: “Malaysia, you can one day be as good as Japan if you put Malaysian football first; if you create a platform for domestic football. Same in Thailand and in Vietnam,” she said. It was easiest to attract spectators in Indonesia and Vietnam and difficult “as expected” in Malaysia and Thailand. But what was astonishing is that while the opening games of the group stages in Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok were very poorly attended, the domestic TV ratings - with RTM in Malaysia and Channel 7 in Thailand, were huge. “The Thai matches on 7 were bigger than the World Cup ratings or the European Champions League ratings or the FA Cup final ratings,” she said.

This indicates “a culture of people who demonstrate their passion for the sport by watching it on TV,” she warned. “In South East Asia the numbers attending club matches has not increased, it has decreased. The number of children playing football has not increased. If anything in certain countries it has got worse. The commercial revenue has decreased and the television coverage has virtually disappeared.” So rather than inspiring local football, the foreign broadcasting “presses it down,” she said. .

Dez Corkhill, Director of internet content at ESPN-STAR Sport spoke of football in Asia as “fabulous” product with some as “good as anywhere in the world.” Even in Malaysia, he said, the highest rating live telecast in the past year had been an ASEAN Football Championship game between Malaysia and Singapore. “It out-rated anything from Manchester United Liverpool, Arsenal or Real Madrid … So there’s a product here. There really is.” However of the top nine highest rating games, the other eight were all English Premier League. “That's the reality facing sports organisations at the grassroots level. You've got to somehow work out a way to get into our market,” he said. “We deliver sports to the fan. Whatever sport will give us our best ratings. That’s because it makes us money and we are a business.” His advice to domestic competitions is to produce a professional product, with a clear message and with strict scheduling. “People are captivated by good audio, good video and good sport. Liga Indonesia, for instance, is great but needs to be packaged better and smarter,” he said.

Myanmar to host 2007 ASEAN Women's Cup

Myanmar will host the 2007 ASEAN Women's Championship for the first time during 6-15 September. The South East Asian participants are Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam in Group A and Myanmar, Laos, Singapore and Thailand in Group B.

Adelaide Utd attracts mining company sponsor

The Adelaide United Football Club has announced Exact Mining Services as the club’s new ‘front of shorts’ sponsor for the 2007/08 Australian A-League season for an undisclosed amount. “What Adelaide United has achieved in such a short period of time is a great success story for South Australia’s up and coming sporting profile. It is an achievement which we are all proud of at Exact Mining Services and our commitment to Adelaide United as shorts sponsor will be a rewarding partnership as a key supporter in their future success. A special mention should go to Johnny Johnson for introducing us to the club and for enabling us to have the opportunity to partner a great sporting organisation,” Greg Rhodes, Managing Director of Exact Mining Services said.

Lahore beats Afghans in Pakistan women's final

Sports Sciences Club of Lahore won Pakistan's 3rd National Women’s Football Championship after beating Afghanistan 1-0 in the final at the Jinnah Stadium. Ace striker Ayesha Akram netted the winner in the 26th minute of the first half to help her team lift the coveted trophy. "The winners gave no chance whatsoever to all out attacks of Afghanistan in the second session and kept their slender lead intact till the end. Afghanistan’s main striker Hadesa missed an open chance in the second half when the goalkeeper of the winning team, Nabeela Raza, was alone in front of her," the Daily Times reported. Hidayat Ullah supervised the match while Ejaz Hussain, Yasmeen Zehra and Khalida Perveen performed duty on the touchline as his assistants.

Final positions: 1: Lahore’s Sports Sciences Club; 2: Afghanistan; 3: Karachi’s Diya Club; 4: Balochistan; 5: Islamabad; 6: Pakistan WAPDA;
7: Sindh; 8: Pak Punjab; 9: Young Rising Star Red; 10: Lahore Women’s Club; 11: Young Rising Star Blue; 12: Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s Pilot FC; 13: Higher Education Commission; and 14: Mardan Club.

The visiting Afghanistan team will now play a two match friendly series against Pakistan on 26 and 27 August at the Punjab stadium, the first ever women's football event between the two countries. Bank Alfalah will be the sponsor of both games and entry to the stadium will be free.

Fox Soccer USA teams with Vividas to stream EPL

UK/Australian technology company Vividas has reached a three year agreement with Fox Soccer Channel to video stream English Premier League matches in the USA every week using Vividas VivStream PPV technology. It is intended that the service will be add live streaming of other top-tier football events including FA Cup fixtures and UEFA Cup matches as well as select European Championship Qualifiers. As part of the EPL subscription packages, viewers also will be offered the ability to view classic matches from the English Premier League archive. The agreement follows successful streaming trials of 10 live matches from the 2007 Copa Libertadores (the South American equivalent of the Champions League) and European Championship qualifiers. Users were able to view full matches in high quality full screen resolution.

A-League "has better players and better coaches "

At the start of the new Australian A-League season, football writer Michael Cockerill noted that, in its third edition, the competition "has better players and better coaches than ever before." While Nick Carle, David Carney, Dario Vidosic and Adrian Leijer "have demonstrated in the off-season, ambitious, mainly younger Australian players will continue to seek their fame and fortune abroad," six former or current Socceroos, Craig Moore, Danny Tiatto, Paul Agostino, Tony Popovic, Hayden Foxe and Ljubo Milicevic, have returned home to play alongside emerging stars like Nathan Burns, Mark Milligan, Bruce Djite, Kristian Sarkies, Stuart Musialik, Danny Vukovic and Ben Griffin.

"Sydney FC, and to a lesser extent Adelaide United, proved during their recent Asian Champions League campaigns that the standard of the A-League is better than it is given credit for," which was enough for Frank Culina and Aurelio Vidmar to secure their coaching jobs respectively. That means, this this season, "five of the eight coaches in the A-League were either born at home or schooled in the game at home. Compared to the inaugural season, when only John Kosmina could be regarded as home-grown, it is a welcome development," he wrote.

"The perception that playing standards are improving seems to have been embraced by those that matter. Last season, the A-League became the 21st most watched professional sporting competition [average crowd 14,042] in the world. Audiences on Fox Sports were up 38 percent on the first season, with a total of 2.6 million viewers, a figure that doesn't include pubs and clubs. With memberships increasing by 15 percent across the eight clubs, there is every reason to believe supporters will watch the A-League in even greater numbers," he wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald. On the financial side, Central Coast Mariners has received an investment boost from former Sydney FC director Peter Turnbull and Football Federation Australia has "been able to sell its shares in Perth Glory, Melbourne Victory and Wellington Phoenix."

'Chinese psychology' concerns Birmingham owner

David Sullivan, co-owner of English Premier League club Birmingham City wants Hong Kong-based businessman Carson Yeung to make a full offer for the club by the end of September. "I have to admit that I am concerned that this is all dragging on too long. It is not in the best interests of the club. Mr Yeung is a very nice man, he is very enthusiastic and he clearly likes his football. He has got some great ideas to expand the club and the brand in China and the Far East. But I genuinely don't know whether he is going to see it through. When he was here, it seemed as if some days he definitely would, others you weren't so sure. I wouldn't think it is a publicity stunt for him because he has spent £15 million already and he is doing an audit at the moment, which he needs to do to justify what he's bought to the Hong Kong stock market.

"Different countries have different rules and he might have a different way of doing things, I don't know enough about the Chinese psychology. But, for the sake of the club, it needs to be sorted out. By the end of September we really do need to know," he told the Birmingham Mail.

Sir Bobby's visit "not enough" for Cambodian youth

English football legend Sir Bobby Charlton's visit to Cambodia last month did "not enough to contribute to the development of football in Cambodia," national coach, Scott O'Donell said. While agreeing that actvities such as Charlton conducting a coaching clinic for around 80 footballers all under the age of 13 at the Olympic Stadium in Pnom Penh were positive, O'Donell said the country needed to "improve the basic infrastructure" as "then only we can improve the standard of the game" in Cambodia. "We need to have a good youth development program and school tournaments in place. There are lot of problems the country but football is one way in which way we can bring the whole of Cambodia together," he told Abhishek Roy of IANS.

Charlton toured the South East Asian nation as part of a mission to raise awareness for the country's continuing land mine problem. An estimated 4-6 million mines and other pieces of unexploded ordinance remain buried in Cambodia after more than three decades of armed conflict. "We are going to try to teach young people how to recognise the dangerous mines that are still around," he said on behalf of Spirit of Soccer, a UK/USA charity which helps children in land mine affected areas of the world through football. The former Manchester United and England player has previously toured Bosnia in Europe for the same mission.

Cambodia, ranked 173rd in the FIFA rankings, were thrashed 6-0 by India in the current Nehru Cup series but then forced Kyrgyzstan to scrape through by 4-3. Against Bangladesh also, Cambodia came from behind to secure a 1-1 draw. "The standard of the game in Cambodia is very low as we don't have good leagues. There is lack of professionalism and the intensity of the game in the local league is also very low. At this age I can also go and play in the first division league as the pace of the game is very slow," said O'Donell, an Australian, who was coach of the Geylang United club in Singapore's S-League before taking up his current assignment.

During his nearly two years in the country, O'Donell said the Nehru Cup was the only tournament that his team has played, which is also a bad sign for the development of the game in the country. "This is the first tournament Cambodia is playing in the last two years. We played one international friendly against Singapore and that too after they agreed to fly down to Phnom Penh. If we have to improve our game we have to play more international tournaments. That is the reason why this tournaments is important for us," he said. He added there are only two coahes in the country with the Asian Football Confederation's 'A' license and one of them is himself.

Iraq and North Korea confirm Thailand King's Cup

North Korea and the reigning Asian Cup champion Iraq have confirmed their participation along side Thailand in the annual four-nation King's Cup tournament played in Bangkok. According to Football Association of Thailand President, Worawi Makudi, a European team will probably be given priority for the final place in the event which will be palyed between 23-29 December. "Only one place remains vacant and we will reserve it for a European side. We would like to invite a leading team and the likes of Sweden and Bulgaria fall in our category," he told The Nation.

"The two countries are among the region's well-regarded teams, particularly Sweden who have many stars playing in the world's leading leagues. The date of the King's Cup tournament gives itself extra allure as the event happens during the winter break of Sweden's domestic league. So, there is a possibility that we would see a strong-looking Sweden squad," Worawi said. If no European team accepts the invitation, FAT will look to ASEAN nations, with Indonesia and Vietnam already showing interest.

EPL rights sales policy is "just the hghest bidder"

Phil Lines, Head of International Broadcasting and Media Operations at the English Premier League recently spoke to the Economic Times of India on EPL policy (extracts):

On leveraging interest in the Premier League beyond TV broadcasting: "Its honestly up to our partners. We usually sell our rights, and the partner takes over. We don’t do any marketing and promotion, as the broadcaster who buys the rights usually does that job for us."

How do you decide who gets the rights? "Whoever gives us the most money. That is clearly the brief. Not money and exposure, but just the highest bidder."

How important is the Asian market? "If you remove the UK from the equation, we make a total of £700 million in terms of revenues from all our markets. More than 50% of that comes from Asia. However, in Asia, our top three markets are Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. India, right now, is probably in the bottom half of the top ten."

AMI extends English Premiership clip rights

AMI has secured the exclusive new media mobile and internet clip rights to the English Premier League. The deal covers a range of territories within central and eastern Europe and central Asia broadcast territories. It covers three seasons commencing with the current season which kicked off earlier this month. Rob Pickles, managing director UK-based rights holders AMI, said: “We are delighted to expand our relationship once again with the FAPL and look forward to working with them for another three years since we started our cooperation at the launch of the Premiership back in 1992.”

Indonesian League Board welcomes AFC input

Representatives of the Indonesia League Committee (BLI) of the Football Association of Indonesia (PSSI) met Asian Football Confederation General Secretary Dato Paul Mony Samuel today at the Hilton Hotel, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. The meeting discussed changes to the Indonesia professional league structure, particularly the new Super League that will commence in 2008. “We see that Indonesia did so many things lately and also their effort to build a professional league,” said Dato Paul, as quoted by the PSSI website. BLI Executive Director Andi Darusalam, Chairman Rugandi Soemadipraja, Competition Director Joko Driyono and Financial Director Kokoh Afiat "welcomed every input" from the AFC. “We think every suggestion from Dato is important to us – moreover BLI is trying to do lot of positive thing in holding a competition,” said Darussalam.

Yeung confesses his love for City of Birmingham

Hong Kong businessman Carson Yeung has revealed he wants to complete a takeover of English Premier League club Birmingham City by the end of 2007. "I think we may be able to take over by the end of the year, maybe earlier than that," he told told Sky Sports News. Yeung also said that a love for Birmingham is what is motivating him in his bid. "I came here before. I love the city," Yeung added. "I know many people here. Karren Brady [managing director] is nice and David Gold [Chairman] is very kind. Steve Bruce is also a very good coach and has given me a lot of support. We talked for a very long time and he has so many ideas and we can do well. I wouldn't want to get involved in team affairs. I'm a businessman, I'm not qualified in football management. I love the team, they have a lot of experience and do very well. It is my dream to make Birmingham the best team in the world. I can try my best."

A-League targets 50,000 club members in 2007-08

Australia's 8-team A-League is seeking a substantial club membership hike in its coming third season and an overall rise in crowds following double-digit growth in attendances at the Pre-Season Cup. "Membership will become a vitally important ingredient in growing the game in the next number of years," Football Federation Australia CEO Ben Buckley said at the season launch. "I can report that current participants have somewhere between 10 and 15 percent growth so far versus last year and, pleasingly, Melbourne continues to set the pace with something like 16,000 members ... We are targeting 50,000 members and we are hoping that in the opening rounds of the season, we can certainly get them."

Last season eventual champions Melbourne Victory topped the crowd graph in a growth season, with average gates of 30,000 at Telstra Dome. "That momentum has continued to build throughout the pre-season. We have had record crowds in the pre-season of a little over 20 percent. We have played in venues all around the country to introduce new supporters to the league. There were over 8000 in Geelong and in Launceston, while matches were played in Darwin and Christchurch," he told Michael Lynch of The Age.

Birmingham City has "only 13,700" ticket holders

David Sullivan, Chairman of the holding company of English Premier League club Birmingham City claims most of the team's supporters are 'armchair fans' who only come to St Andrews for the biggest games. 24,898 fans attended Birmingham's first Premier League game of the season against Sunderland and the figure only increased slightly to 24,981 for the visit of West Ham at the weekend. St Andrews has a capacity of 30,000 but only 13,700 fans are season ticket holders.

"Many clubs in the Championship get bigger gates than us and the other promoted clubs, Sunderland and Derby, have 32,000 and 28,000 season ticket holders respectively," he said. "Our season ticket prices and match day admission prices are the second lowest in the division."

Sullivan and his partners, David and Ralph Gold, have sold 29.9 percent of the club to a Hong Kong company controlled by Carson Yeung but Sullivan told Lewis Rutledge of Sky Sports he and the Golds will only relinquish power if they feel someone can take the club forward. "I know some people are concerned about what is going on with the club's shareholding and I want to assure them there have been no changes," he said. "The club is being run by the people who have done a great job for the past 14-15 years and therefore the club is in good hands. We welcome the investment of Carson Yeung's company Grandtop. David Gold and I will only cease to be majority shareholders if we think someone can do a better job of running Birmingham City than we have."

FIFA's Blatter dishes on the state of the game

FIFA President Joseph S Blatter recently sat down to chat with Keir Radnedge of World Soccer about the future of the game [extracts]:

What is the most important issue facing FIFA? Social responsibility. Throughout the world, football has become such an important phenomenon that we need to demonstrate our sense of responsibility towards society at large. That starts with players and includes clubs, leagues, referees, national associations and continental confederations, who work on behalf of football and on behalf of the important role it plays now in the world.

What are the other key issues at the moment? An issue of utmost importance for me is that we continue training our referees. We have invested $14 million in referee-training programs over the next four years. The pressure on referees is increasing all the time, and we need to make sure that they are up to standard. We are on the same track here as UEFA, which is interested in seeing if it can help with a system of four assistant referees instead of three. We have tested the system here in Zurich to see if this is something which, in the future, can help the referee exercise better match control.

What about violence in soccer? First of all, this is a reflection of the violence in society at large. Football is sometimes in danger of being taken hostage by this violence. However, we are also aware of our responsibilities and we have to do all we can to ensure safety and security even if, above all, this is a responsibility of government. But there are lessons we can learn about the safety and comfort of stadia. In the United Kingdom, which used to be the home of hooliganism, they showed that the use of all-seater stadia means you can reduce hooligan violence to almost nothing. So in this way we can show that football knows it can live up to its responsibility, as does society at large.

When you became president, FIFA had a deficit of $12.2 million; now it is $614 million in credit. Why does FIFA need so much in the bank? Five years ago many people criticized FIFA for bad financial behavior and now we are criticized for having too much money. But we have to have enough reserves to protect us just in case something goes wrong -- for example, with a World Cup. Also, people often overlook the fact that we distribute 70 percent of our revenues to the national associations through our various assistance programs.

How has football changed during your term as president, and how have you changed? Football has changed immensely in becoming an economic power, though this has a downside because in many leagues too many teams have as their ambition not winning titles but merely avoiding relegation. What has not changed enough is that there is still too much amateurism in football administration. How have I changed? That is really up to other people to say but I don't think I have changed much. When I played football I was a No. 9, an attacker, and sometimes I was seen more in a game and sometimes less. I think it's still the same.

EPL broadcasts in Japan started 10 games late

Pay-TV broadcaster J Sports has signed an exclusive three-year contract with Sportfive to show live English Premier League matches in Japan until the end of the 2009-10 season. This follows competitor Sky Perfect dropping EPL because of increasing costs and leaving fans wondering whether there would be live coverage in Japan this season. The J Sports deal did not conclude in time for the opening weekend, forcing many fans to watch the first round of games via the Internet or through illegal displays at pubs. This was anticipated by James Mulligan of The Japan Times who wrote last week that the lack of live satellite coverage "could cause difficulties for businesses such as pubs and bars that depend on live soccer coverage for attracting customers. There are some ingenious ways around this, though. Some bars will no doubt try to show games using Internet coverage. In Tokyo, Mark Spencer, owner of the Hobgoblin pubs and Legends Bar, will use a South African Internet channel called Supersport to show live Premier League games in his pubs and bars and said the picture quality is high."

Sportfive owns the EPL rights in Japan and was the party negotiating with broadcasters for the highest bid that ended up not including the first 10 games of the season. "The deal we agreed with J Sports represents a continuation of our excellent partnership in the past", said Sportfive executive vice president Robert Müller von Vultejus. EPL CEO Richard Scudamore also praised the system. “We are very satisfied with the result of Sportfive’s distribution of our rights. We welcome J Sports to the circle of partners of the English Premier League. We are looking forward to working together in the future,” he said.

Australian A-League added to EA's FIFA08 game

Football Federation Australia has signed a licensing partnership with Electronic Arts, the world's leading independent developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software through the FIFA 08 football video game. “This is the first time that the Hyundai A-League will feature in an official EA Sports videogame and as a result more than 20 million people globally will be directly exposed to Hyundai A-League clubs and players during the next 12 months,” said FFA CEO, Ben Buckley. “It also gives me great pleasure to announce that Qantas Socceroo and Melbourne Victory striker Archie Thompson will be the face of FIFA O8 in the region, featuring heavily in the promotional campaign for the game.

The A-League will join a group of around 30 football leagues from around the globe to feature in this game. EA Sports have undertaken strong research to accurately capture the skills/abilities and traits of A-League players to place them into this global videogame. FIFA 08 will be available for purchase from the 27 September 2007.

Opening of ASEAN U-17 Championship delayed

The opening match match of the 3rd ASEAN U-17 Football Championship in Pnom Penh, Cambodia, was postponed from Sunday afternoon to Monday morning due to heavy rain. Thousands of fans in raincoats stayed in the Olympic Stadium, until the decision to delay the game between Cambodia and neighbouring Thailand was announced. "I spent one dollar to buy a ticket but it was very sad because the match can't be played," said Nen Nat. "It is an international match and I want to watch it. I can't wait until tomorrow because I won't have time on Monday. Tomorrow I will go back to work," he told Xinhua news agency.

"The Cambodian government accepted our proposal to host this event, although the Olympic Stadium has limited facilities and structures. It is pride for Cambodia," said John N. S. Koh, a senior member of the ASEAN Football Federation, the Asia Football Confederation and the FIFA. All South East Asian nations except the Philippines are participating.

Selected Asians to access Italy SerieA on internet

SerieA.tv will offer fans of Italian football in selected Asian countries the opportunity to watch a broad range of Serie A matches live and on demand on the internet from the new season kick-off on 26 August. The program is produced and managed by Infront Advanced Media Solutions, a division of the Swiss-based sports marketing company Infront Sports & Media, in cooperation with the MP & Silva agency, the Italian league’s media distribution partner. The matches will be offered as high-quality video streams (up to 400k) “liveand on demand”, together with various highlight programs. In addition to match coverage, SerieA.tv will also feature daily video news programmes and two weekly TV magazine programs available each Monday and Friday. The online service will be further embellished by the latest news and statistics from all 20 Serie A clubs. The entire platform is being presented in English language wih most of the matches available with dual commentary, Italian and English. The user can chose from three flexible subscription models to access the content. Single matches can be purchased for US$6.95, while the season package is available for US$109.95. There is also a monthly subscription, set at US$14.95.

Infant club plans to be Asian football powerhouse

Geoff Lord, the Chairman of Australian A-League champion club Melbourne Victory intends to build the biggest sporting club in Australia and a powerhouse in Asian football. "I have always been passionate about building something Melbourne can identify with … to give something back which in 20, 30, 50 years' time becomes an icon would be a way of putting something back, not just in sport, but for the city," Lord told Michael Lynch of The Age. A former President of the famously successful Australian Rules AFL team Hawthorn Hawks, he admits he is still learning about soccer. But he knows a good sports business deal. In 2005, when Football Federation Australia was desperate for investors to help bankroll a Melbourne A-League club, and few were prepared to step forward, Lord provided enough capital, "reportedly $250,000", to become Chairman of the Victory board. He and his management team put together a five-year plan to cover sponsorship, members, revenue and crowds resulted in such exceptional revenue growth for the infant club that it had to revamp projections. Its membership, for instance, is now more than 15,500 and rising.

"Our full-year sponsorship number for 2007-08 is already ahead of schedule at A$2 million," Lord said. "We would try to grow that to $A3-$4 million a year over the next couple of years. "When you compare that to AFL clubs it's not an unreasonable objective. For every 100 people who follow AFL in this city, 50 follow soccer, probably more. For every 100 AFL people in Melbourne you have to divide them by 10, which is 10 per club. But if you have 50 people following soccer you just have to divide it by one as there is only Victory. So in sponsoring Victory you reach 50 people, not 10. So why shouldn't logic say that in time Melbourne Victory should be bigger than any Melbourne-based AFL club ... we are working on a business plan approach which will take us to those levels."

Lord's focus this season is also on increasing its off-field revenue. Lord and his management team wants to build the Victory brand so that irrespective of the team's on-field performance it can still make money. "We have also opened a merchandise store in Swan Street. If it works out we may then roll out a couple more. The one thing we haven't covered is gate receipts. We won't know those until game days and that depends to a large extent on being a successful team on the park," he said. "Our aim is to build up non-football related income, to have it regardless of our performance on the field. Gates are totally dependent on on-field success, and sponsorship and marketing are very dependent on it."

Lord also believes Australian business will catch on to the global market place that soccer, and A-League clubs in particular, can deliver. "As we go to Asia and play the Asian Champions League games, any Australian company with Asian affiliations is getting an added benefit of exposure in massive marketplaces. That's something that AFL can't deliver," he said. "I am informed that 120 million people watched the A-League grand final in 70 countries. My personal objective is to see if we could have all the A-League games being beamed live into Asia to boost audience ratings across different time-zones and give greater exposure to our game, the league and club sponsors."

Organising sporting trips and travel is something else on the Lord agenda. "We have registered the name, the Victoryans, which would be a bit like the Fanatics hopefully. By the time we get to the Asian matches we will be packaging trips. You could go to the next World Cup; we will be involved in that. We also want to do other sporting events, like cricket or tennis or whatever. "Longer term we will look at coaching academies which we are keen to do, coaching players in a live-in environment. It may include buying land and putting up accommodation."

Melbourne Victory kicked off its 2007/08 season by launching the Samsung “Kick for a Million” promotion which will see 10 supporters receive the chance to kick for A$1 million at Melbourne Victory's final home game for the season at Telstra Dome on 11 January 2008.. To enter, fans need to purchase any Samsung Mobile Phone from a participating Telstra Shop or Telstra Dealer and connect to the Telstra mobile network, or any other Samsung product, excluding LCD monitors and printers, from participating consumer electronics retailers nationally and enter online at www.samsung.com.au.

Man Utd U-19s beat Juventus 1-0 in first CYC final

England's Manchester United youth squad clinched the title at the inaugural Champions Youth Cup beating Italy's Juventus 1-0 in the final at Malaysia's National Stadium in Bukit Jalil. Febian Brandy scored the solitary goal when he outplayed two Juventus defenders and fired a left foot grounder that beat Juventus' keeper Giorgio Merlano in the 50th minute. Manchester United, the runner-up in Group C, collected six points from two wins and lost one. And, at the knock-out stages, they demolished Spain's Barcelona 1-0 (quarter-finals) and Brazil's Flamengo 2-1 (semi-finals). The tournament's runner-up, Juventus who were also the runner-up in Group B collected five points from one win and two draws, while at an all-Italian affair knock-out stage matches, Juventus beat Inter Milan 2-0 in the quarter-final and AC Milan 2-1 in the semi-final matches. Brazilian side Flamengo beat AC Milan of Italy 3-1 for third placing.

The CYC was initiated by the G-14, a lobby group of Europe's 18 most powerful football clubs, as an U-19 competition for members. However, after objections by the world football body, FIFA, CYC 2007 was expanded to include five non G-14 clubs and national teams, Boca Juniors, Flamengo, Chelsea, Qatar and hosts Malaysia. The tournament was organised by the secretive UK firm Gifted Group Ltd and the Malaysian Sports and Tourism ministries were the main sponsors, having paid RM17 million (approximately US$5 million) to stage the event as part of the country’s 50th Independence Day celebrations.

Malaysian talent spotted by PSV during CYC

Malaysia U-19 footballer Mohd Asraruddin Putra Omar caught the eye of Netherlands club side PSV Eindhoven during the Champions Youth Cup and have offered him the opportunity to attend a two-week stint at the club with the possibility of joining the club’s youth program. “We saw player No. 3 play against us and the match before and we came away impressed. We would like to take him to PSV for a few weeks and see more of him in action,” PSV coach Peter Dekkers told The Star. Asraruddin, a leftback, was vice-skipper in the Malaysian squad and took over the captain’s armband from the injured Bunyamin Omar in the match against PSV. In the absence of Bunyamin for the PSV game, Asraruddin moved into the centre back position and handled himself well. A former student at the Bukit Jalil Sports School Asraruddin played a crucial role in helping Malaysia qualify for the AFC U-20 Championship for the first time in over 20 years.

UAE takes Asian title in World Cup Beach Soccer

The United Arab Emirates has won the Asian Zone qualifiers for the 2007 World Cup Beach Soccer with a 4-3 win over Japan in the final of the series played at Mamzar Beach in Dubai. Iran finished third with a crushing 6-0 win over defending Asian champion Bahrain. UAE, Japan and Iran now will particiapte in the World Cup to be held 2-11 November in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Malaysian FA discusses officials and league teams

Candidates for the position of General Secretary of the Football Association of Malaysia will be discussed during the FAM Council meeting today. The position became vacant when Datuk Seri Dr Ibrahim Saad decided to relinquish the post after his two-year term ended on 15 August. Among the candidates being considered are FAM disciplinary committee Tan Sri Aseh Che Mat, FAM referee’s board chairman Datuk Azzuddin Ahmad, FA of Penang secretary Datuk Mohd Junid Mohd Noor and FA of Selangor secretary Hamidin Mohd Amin. The meeting will also name the replacement for national football coach Norizan Bakar. The two front-runners are Selangor’s Dollah Salleh and Kedah’s Mohd Azraai Khor, reported The Star.

Another main issue for discussion is the number of teams who are to participate in the M-League next season. The current format has 13 teams in the Super League and 11 teams competing in the second-tier Premier League. The FAM competitions committee will be seeking the approval to increase the number of Super League teams by one and Premier League from 11 to 14 teams. If the proposal is approved then the two losing semi-finalists of the FAM Cup – KL City Hall and Felda United FC of KL – will get to take part in the Premier League. Beverly FC of Sabah and Proton Selangor – the two finalists of the FAM Cup – will replace the demoted Kuala Muda and KL Plus, who finished as the bottom two teams of the Premier League this season.

Afghan women conclude first international friendly

The Afghanistan national women's football team has completed its first ever international match abroad competing in a club tournament in Pakistan. The squad of 20 female players and two female coaches faced neighboring Pakistan in a friendly on Saturday. They were beaten 2-0. Although there are now 500 registered women players across Afghanistan, the game has had to develop in a cautious way given the conservative society. "At the beginning we had lots of problems. Most families didn't want their daughters to play football. We kept being in contact with the parents to try to convince them there was nothing wrong with it," said Coach Abdul Saboor Walizadah.

Earlier, players told media of their passion for the game. "When I was a child I always wanted to be a good football player," the 18-year-old captain of the women's national football team, Shamila Khostani, told the BBC. "We don't care if we lose or win, but we try. But, unfortunately under the period of the Taleban I couldn't play football or any sport ... when the Taleban went I found the opportunity and started playing soccer. We wanted to show that girls can also play football like boys," she said. "Some people don't like girls playing soccer because they believe girls should not play soccer. But it is the wrong idea from these people. It's ok, good to see girls playing football," Hadisa Wali, told NDTV. "In Islam, we should wear the veil,but it is ok if we can wear cap, not veil. Cap is also good. It is perfect to wear cap because it cannot disturb while playing soccer," she said. Palwasha Daud played football growing up in Pakistan. "When I returned home to Afghanistan I played football during school sports classes. After that, when football teams were created, I wanted to register," she said.

Yeung & friends talk of Birmingham's China mission

Hong Kong businesman Carson Yeung insists his friends Steve McManaman and Christian Karembeu are unlikely to have any direct influence on football policy at English Premier League club Birmingham City once his publicly-listed company Grandtop completes its buyout. According to Colin Tattum in the Birmingham Mail, Birmingham City manager Steve Bruce is "intrigued by the pair's involvement" but Yeung and his associates, who gave an impromptu press conference at St Andrew's yesterday, said too much was being read into the duo's presence. "We have a big plan for China, and they are part of it," said William Chan, Yeung's right-hand man, speaking on his behalf. "They have been good friends of ours for many years. They have an important mission to build an image. They are very welcome and famous people in China. They have time to go around the cities one by one, which is a good promotion for us. A lot of press are guessing why Steve McManaman has appeared. But it is just to help us and promote our expansion, our China plan."

McManaman was made an executive director of Grandtop just before it launched its successful bid to buy 29.9 percent of the club from curremt directors, making it the club's largest single shareholder. The former England winger was joined on the board by French World Cup winner Karembeu at the start of this month. "They are more like international icons to technically support our development of the club. Perhaps you might be thinking that they will affect Steve Bruce in some way - they won't. They are helping Mr Yeung as a friend and are helping Birmingham City to develop at an international level," Sammy Yu, chief operating officer of Grandtop, said. "We would like to work as a team, no matter who the people are," Yu added. "Christian, Steve, Mr Yeung, Steve Bruce - everybody. We know that to become an international club, we need talent. All of the talent will work together to make it happen."

Yeung revealed his hope that he would assume full control of Blues "immediately, in a couple of months maybe". His people are undergoing due dilligence at the moment, he said. Tapping into the huge Chinese market to boost Blues revenue streams was a key strategy, he said. He also has plans to set up a series of football academies in 10 cities initially which, in time, could provide Blues with the best players China has to offer. "I have confidence we can do very well for Birmingham in China. We have the support of the Chinese government, and we have a very good plan which will allow our idea to help promote Birmingham and turn it into an international club," he said. "You will find the name of Mr Yeung in the newspapers in Hong Kong and China every day," said Chan. "The whole of China will want this club to be successful now." Yeung added: "Next year, Birmigham could become the fifth most popular team in China."

Brandscore seminar highligjhts Indian opportunities

Brandscore, a sports marketing forum organised in India by ESPN-STAR Sports and media agency Mindshare, aimed to study successful international sports brands and sports marketing trends that will help the Indian sports marketing community. "The sports marketing genre is gaining ground in this country,” said Sundar Raman, Manging Director of Mindshare India. “More and more brands are hooking on to sports as a media vehicle to reach out to their target audience. The sports forum is about understanding how and what we can do learning from these leading brands and corporates." ESPN Software India Managing Director, R C Venkateish added, "The perception that cricket is the only sport is slowly but surely changing. Look at the deliveries of the English Premier League and Formula One and you would know that consumption of various forms of sports is steadily on the rise."

According to Mindshare Performance Asia Pacific Managing Director Mike Rich and Marketing Director Jamie Lord, four myths of sports advertising are (1) women do not watch sports; (2) sports cannot be measured; (3) sports is expensive and (4) there is no emotional quotient for brands that associate with sports. They told forum delegates that Mindshare's 3D database shows that while men watch sports, women also do. In a survey 43 percent of women expressed an interest in football and women also watch badminton and golf, so clients should not completely ignore women in their sports campaigns. They said here are three areas where measurement of sports is occuring: media evaluation, quantifying the exposure of brands in a broadcast environment; effectiveness tacking; and econometric modelling. Regarding sports being expensive, they explained that what really counts is return on investment (ROI). On sport not giving a brand emotional visibility, they gave the example of Tiger Beer in Singapore. Earlier the brand had been associated with golf but that proved to be a "waste of money" in terms of getting to the TG so the agency shifted the brand's focus towards soccer. It created the platform Tiger At Sea and worked with ESPN Star Sports to get brand good visibility with EPL. "Sports is not the only solution for advertisers. However, if you decide to use the platform, then embrace it completely. The sports theme needs to be introduced in all communication channels," they said.

Phil Lines, the English Premier League's Head of International Broadcasting and Operations told forum delegates that the best advice to sports federations hoping to run a strong business was to invest well in the clubs and have a strong relationship with a broadcaster that works like a partnership. He said the EPL now receives 1.7 billion pounds from UK Pay-servoces Sky and Setanta and around 700 million pounds from overseas TV services, half of which came from Asia. However, the starting point was in 1989 when English soccer reached its lowest point when 100 fans died in a tragedy during a FA Cup semi final. At that time the stadium facilities were poor, hooliganism was rife and English soccer took a long hard look at itself. It realised that it needed a more professional structure. It was decided that a Premier League would be established and the clubs signed rules governing the league. It was also decided that the league would negotiate its own broadcast and sponsorship terms. The EPL came into existence in 1992 which was also the year Sky Sports launched and Lines gave credit to Rupert Murdoch for his vision. "Sky revolutionsed how soccer is covered in the UK with features like close ups. Due to their investment, the clubs are able to spend money on facilities and infrastructure as well as getting in top overseas players. This is something that Sky understands which is why it pays us more each time the deal comes up for renewal, although it has successfully managed to keep competition at bay. We have had trouble with the regulators on several issues including the fact that soccer should not onl6y be on free TV. The fact though is that earlier when it was on free TV not many matches were shown live," Lines said.

The league has 341 overseas players compared to 1992 when there were less than 100. EPL is now being seen in 200 countries. "We are seeing Japanese, Korean players participate in the league and I am hopeful that Indian players will also take part in the future. The game has over the years become more fast and masculine. A lot of matches are played in front of capacity crowds," Lines added. What has also helped the league has been the fact that English clubs started doing well in European competitions after the EPL was established. For instance Liverpool won the UEFA Cup. Sky paid 617 million pounds in 1997. In 2001 the figure crossed one billion. In 2001 the league added 40 pay per view matches and in 2004 it was decided to consolidate this and have 138 matches. The league has also benefitted from the fact that new platforms have come up. Telecom firms now compete with traditional broadcasters for EPL rights. Untill 2003 the PL used an agency to sell rights, now it sells directly to the broadcasters. The league sells clips of matches in a separate deal. In order to be a solutions provider, it also does shows. A new one added this year is called Premier League World. Barclays has been sponsoring the league for nine years. The production unit IMG has been with the league for several years now. This has contributed in a big way to the solid ground on which the league stands today, said Lines.

Indian advertisers who want to leverage sport beyond just cricket, need to look at more than just eyeballs. They should look at being associated with a unique platform which will grow in scale as it gets repeated from year to year was the major point of the 'Sports And the Indian Advertiser' panel session with Globosport India VP Anirban Das Blah, Harit Nagpal, GroupM CEO India and COO South Asia Vikram Sakhuja and HUL GM media services Rahul Welde. In India the fact is that only a few brands like LG and Pepsi have sports as the central part of their marketing plan. At the moment apart from cricket, brands are also flirting with sports and testing the waters. Brand managers need to realise that sports gives authenticity to a brand. The trouble with getting on to a unique platform and then seeing the fruits of it as it grows from year to year is that advertisers want immediate returns. Therefore there is always the temptation to simply run after the low hanging fruit. Advertisers argue that they do not have the time to wait for a sports brand to grow. They look for some amount of scale right off the back - and that in India comes from cricket.

The session pointed out that the advantage of investing in another sport though is that you can own it. Cricket has now become too expensive to own. The days of the 1987 Reliance World Cup are long gone. The Mumbai Marathon is a good example of how a brand - Standard Chartered - used sport as a platform effectively in a way that goes beyond eyeballs. But it is important that the event gets repeated year after year or else it and the brand will be forgotten. Brands can also look at leveraging an existing passion for a sport.The common belief in soccer is that interest in EPL and Spanish league come from soccer states like Goa. However, Anirban argued that there is growing interest in those leagues from affluent pockets of Mumbai like Bandra where a lot of water cooler conversation happens around it. Once that has been identified, then a brand can think of doing initiatives around the event like contests and thus tap into the aspirations of the fans. It would be more effective for a brand to hook onto a sport at this level as opposed to a grassroots level.

Future Brands CEO Santosh Desai dwelt on the relationship between sports and the Indian consumer in another session. He noted that there is a tenuous relationship between what sports people play and what they watch. A lot of people would have played table tennis but how many watch it? Sport allows us to embark on a symbolic quest for perfection. Therefore there are rules, it is very fair. Sport, he noted, is the ultimate in reality TV as the storylines are unscripted. "We are also seeing the emergence of the spectator owner in cricket. Here fans feel that they are entitled to a good performance from the team," Desai said. Addressing the forum to offer a ratings service provider's point of view, Tam CEO LV Krishnan says that sports as a genre needs to move from a commodity to an engagement arena. Drama is essential for sports to get good viewership. This drama could, maybe, come from a good batsman versus a bad batsman. It is important that sports broadcasters think of new ways to create drama. Krishnan gave the example of the Shaz and Waz show on ESS back in 2004 when India toured Australia. Drama can even be created around a local hero which was the case when Kartikeyan was driving on F1. The FIFA World Cup coverage in print last year was huge and the cricket that was being played at the same time paled in comparison.

The world's biggest brands are in sports marketing

Sean Jefferson, CEO Europe of MindShare Performance, WPP’s sports and entertainment marketing division, is a veteran of sports and entertainment-led brand marketing. He shared his views and experiences with the Economic Times on how the global sports and entertainment marketing landscape is changing. [Excerpts]

How would you define sports marketing — is it marketing sports (game or event) or consumer brands using sports as a media? It is both – the marketing of sport and the marketing of brands through sports – and a bit more. It can include non-consumer brands, for example, you might have a B2B brand that has a sports marketing programme. I would also add athletes to your definition of sports – individual endorsements and campaigns can be very powerful.

What exactly do you do for your client’s brands? Essentially, we help our clients build their brands and their businesses through sport, entertainment and partnerships. The aim is to influence consumer attitude and behaviour. But so much of sports marketing – especially sponsorship – can work tremendously well as a B2B platform. At Performance, our team of consultants, creatives and commissioning editors develop global sponsorship strategies for the likes of BP, negotiate and manage sponsorship and content campaigns for Ford (Champions League), manage the sponsorship activation of Vodafone’s sponsorships with Champions League and McLaren in Formula One, commission and distribute branded content for Unilever, develop and embed content for Nike. Again in football, for Castrol, we provide strategic sponsorship consultancy, negotiate the brand’s sponsorship of Euro 2008, manage the integration of the sponsorship into their operating companies, lead their other marketing communications agencies’ contributions to the sponsorship and integrate the sponsorship into communications planning.

Sports marketing is restricted to product endorsements and sponsorships in India. But internationally even content generation is becoming a part of sports marketing. Yes, across the globe, more companies are funding the creation, rather than the sponsorship, of content – a TV show, an event or a website. This is driven by a number of factors at a macro level – cost, clutter, control and cash. The cost of sponsoring major properties – the London 2012 Olympic deals are being done for £80-million – can be prohibitive. Sometimes a sponsorship offers presence in a highly cluttered environment – just watch a Formula One race or an Italian football match and count the brands. Creating content places you earlier (ahead) in the supply chain, you tend to be more in control of the published content, so should be able to communicate key messages more clearly. Lastly, cash, it can be more cost-effective to fund or co-fund content, than to sponsor a smaller portion of the end-product. But more importantly, content generation offers IP opportunities that can be monetised. While this may seem like a new development, and it is certainly a growing trend, it actually takes us back to the founding of commercial TV where many of the first shows were funded by the sponsors, hence the term soap opera.

Is sports & entertainment marketing becoming fundamental to brand management for increasing number of brands? It is very difficult to calculate how much is invested by brands in content overall as it is often bundled up in advertising, promotions or public relations spends, but if we look at sponsorship, the latest estimate from WPP is that at $33-billion sponsorship equates to about 8% of the global advertising market. However, that spend might not equate to the value and importance of sports and entertainment, notably to those brands that use it as a core component of their marketing efforts. Think of the world’s biggest brands, and you tend to see them in this space – Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Budweiser, Ford et al. Fundamentally, if the consumer and customer of the brand are very interested in a particular type of sport or entertainment, then so should the brand be and not just from an advertising point of view, but from a genuinely engaging, associative marketing perspective.

African communicators to spread World Cup news

More than 300 marketers and communicators from across Africa gathered in Johannesburg, South Africa, to discuss the best ways to harness the FIFA World Cup 2010 to project a new image of Africa to the world. The second annual National Communication Partnership Conference, hosted by the International Marketing Council of South Africa and the 2010 National Communication Partnership task team was organised under the theme Africa's time has come! “To make this a truly African World Cup there is a need for linkages and partnerships amongst communicators across the continent and the diaspora. This year’s Partnership conference is a step in that direction,” stressed Chairperson Nkenke Kekana. “The 2010 World Cup will be an opportunity to build African solidarity and to foster a climate that contributes to making the world think differently about us; because we are going to deliver a World Cup experience that will be hard to match”, added Yvonne Johnson, CEO of the IMC.

"Africa's time has indeed come. The entire continent must work together and consolidate African solidarity around this project, the African showpiece," Dr Makhenkesi Stofile, the South African Minister of Sport and Recreation, told delegates. He urged all Africans to unite and share what he called "the broader responsibility that transcends the borders of the African continent." Dr Ben Egbuna of Nigeria, the President of African Union of Broadcasters, concurred. "Regardless of our political complexion and national ideology, preparation for this tournament has to be an 'everybody's' undertaking. Let's foster and strengthen the inter-country competitive spirit and build synergy among the various media organisations on the continent. It is a challenge for Africa and in particular African media to use this opportunity to counter the wrong perceptions of Africa and project the positive image and values of the continent," he said.

According to Danny Jordaan, CEO of the South African Football Association-linked Local Organizing Committee, stakeholders are "quite comfortable" with progress being made for the tournament. Five new stadiums were being built, one was receiving a major upgrade and there were already four existing ones. "Four of the stadiums can be used to host the FIFA World Cup tomorrow," he said. "We are convinced that all these stadiums will be ready for 2010. If we do it on deadline we will be the first host in the world to complete all its stadia on time," he said. Efforts were also being made to ensure that the tickets, of which there would be about 3.5 million available, would be affordable. He said the preliminary draw, the first official event, will be held in Durban on 25 November with the highest number of countries ever had entered for the event.

World Cup 2010 Government Unit Director-General Joe Phaahla said the South African Government was planning to prevent major electricity outages normally experienced during its winter months during the World Cup. "We will not want to see blackouts during the tournament. We as government are cogniscant of the fact that the games will be held in winter, and it is during the time when we experience a major demand in electricity. We are working with Eskom and the Department of Minerals and Energy to make sure that all the stadia are powered by generators in terms of the FIFA agreement," he said. "The is receiving urgent attention and there is nothing to worry about," Phaahla said.

"A joint effort of communicators from across the continent is necessary to promote African solidarity, the continent's beauty and create a positive communication climate to promote development and expand opportunities in marketing our continent," said Thabo Masebe of the South African Government Information Services. While Tim Modise, spokesperson for the LOC, said the idea was not to "twist" the truth about Africa, but "the way the story is being told. It is not like we are going to do away with typical problems that we know are there, but to show the world that there is more to Africa than what people are used to," he said.

"We need to take advantage of the opportunity to create a positive image of our continent to the world. The World Cup in Africa is more than just soccer alone. It is also about growth and development of our continent," Nkenke Kekana concluded. "We want to propagate a common vision and objectives for communication and leverage the event as a means to strengthen Africa's capacity to market itself internationally, and reinforce communication on 2010-related developments at country and continental level." The delegates resolved to use the NCP to exchange ideas and suggestions on how to define the continent's image and reputation in the world.

Salary Cap: How Australian clubs lose to overseas

Australia's A-League, just about to start its third season with eight foundation clubs, hopes to build a sustainable competition in a competitive sports market by using a player salary cap. According to Scott Lowe, the cap has two main purposes: "to keep costs down for clubs, and to ensure fair competition. On the first count, the cap hasn’t fared all that well in Australia. Sydney FC reportedly has suffered losses of up to A$ 6 million in two years, with the rest of the A-League clubs reporting losses of around A$ 10 million. This is coupled with the fact that the New Zealand Knights had their license revoked because of a financial crisis. On the second count, while there have only been two seasons, we have not seen any team dominate and most teams have had chances to do well and recruit good players."

However the salary cap has become an issue in Australia as clubs are finding it hard to recruit Australian players back from minor European leagues and even harder to hold onto their more talented players once they have made an impression on the league. "The case that brought the cap into focus was Fred. A Brazilian recruited by Melbourne Victory on a one-year contract worth around A$ 80,000 (US$ 63,000) he lit up the A-League with dazzling displays of skill and talent,. He became one of the leading players of the competition and helping Melbourne Victory to a 6-0 win in the A-League Grand Final. When it came time for the 27-year old to renew his contract, American side DC United swooped in with a reported offer of US$ 222,000 per year. Melbourne simply could not match this offer because of the restrictions of the salary cap. Fans were furious that because of ‘bureaucracy’, one of their star players had been lost."

Lowe told goal.com that while it was sad to see Fred go "his case is not the symbol of a major problem. The salary cap is just a part of an overall effort to make sure clubs survive the initial years of the new A-League. Clubs need to be established first and have the mainstream support of their community before they can start paying the sort of wages that will bring them to parity with Asian clubs."

South Koreans regain 'World Cup' fever - for U-17s

World football body FIFA has announced that over 600,000 tickets have already been sold for the U-17 World Cup being played in South Korea during 8 August - 9 September. Local organisers are hoping to beat China’s record total attendance of 735,000 for the competition which was set on its debut as an U-16 tournament in 1985.

Telekom Malaysia signs TSM for sports marketing

Telekom Malaysia has appointed Total Sports Asia as its sports marketing agency. TSA will be supporting TM’s sports and sponsorship strategy and activities in areas related to TM’s title sponsorship of Liga Malaysia and various other involvements in sports, including the hugely successful College Caged Futsal tournament. TSA will provide TM with a full range of sports marketing services, ranging from consulting, content development to below-the-line execution.

FIFA reactivates gambling "early warning" system

FIFA is extending its betting detection system for monitoring sports betting to take in the preliminary competition for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Early Warning System GmbH, a company founded specifically for this purpose with its own staff and offices in Zurich, was contracted to undertake this task and started the relevant work on 1 July 2007. FIFA's actions are intended to prevent sports betting from having any negative impact on football matches and, at the same time, raise awareness of this problem throughout the entire football community. FIFA will immediately sign contracts via the company with bookmakers and betting organisations, under which the latter will be required to report any irregular betting activities.

The ever-increasing range of sports bets now available, largely as a result of advances in new media and internet technology, is having a growing influence on football at national and international level, Soccer Investor reported. Article 15 of the FIFA Code of Ethics forbids officials, players and players' agents from taking part, either directly or indirectly, in betting, gambling, lotteries and similar events or transactions connected with football matches. It also prohibits these persons from having stakes, either actively or passively, in companies, concerns, organisations etc. that promote, broker, arrange or conduct such events or transactions. While any transgressions of this code are to be sanctioned in accordance with the FIFA Disciplinary Code, the passing of sanctions for illegal betting activities and match rigging and the battle to eradicate such activities remain the responsibility of government authorities.

Why Barcelona selected V-League's Dong Thap

Spanish Primera Liga club Barcelona, is considering a tie-up with Vietnam V-League club Dong Thap for youth training, Joshua Thomson, Barcelona's marketing director, revealed to Thanh Nien during a visit to Ho Chi Minh City to meet Dong Thap officials. He said the club had been chosen because he had heard it had a good youth training program. "We have requested Dong Thap team send us all relevant information like recruitment, training methods, management style, infrastructure and facilities, as well as their problems," he said.

Thailand hosts Asian Students Football tournament

The 35th Asian Students Football Championship will take place in Thailand between 28 August and 5 September.

Pay-TV hunts Asian bars illegally showing sports

Three bars in Hong Kong have settled copyright infringement suits with the world football body FIFA and Pay-TV operator Hong Kong Cable Television's i-Cable for illegally broadcasting during the FIFA World Cup 2006 held in Germany. Carnegies, the Bridge and the Coyote Bar & Grill, made out-of-court settlements, agreeing to pay “substantial compensation” for the copyright infringement and covering the plaintiffs’ legal costs. All three also have to publish formal apology letters. Two additional Hong Kong bars, The White Stag and Devil’s Advocate, still have outstanding copyright claims against them.

Welcoming the decision, Simon Twiston Davies, the CEO of the Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia noted: “The Hong Kong courts have once again emphasized the importance of intellectual property laws for broadcasters and the community at large. We certainly hope this message is clearly received and there is a full understanding that TV broadcasts of all kinds are protected by copyright. This outcome, in particular, delivers a clear message to the food and beverage industry that copyright must be determinedly respected at all times. Without such support the entire media and entertainment industry—a vital pillar of Hong Kong’s economy—is under threat.”

CASBAA also “remains committed to tracking down and prosecuting the suppliers of illegal Pay-TV equipment in Hong Kong . While the unauthorized display of Pay-TV services in public venues for commercial gain is of the greatest concern to the industry, the traders in illegal decoders are at the head of the supply chain and, as in previous cases, ‘will not be allowed to operate without sanction’.”

Reuters launches English-football-focussed website

Global news agency Reuters will provide extra coverage of football via a website launched this week. The website, reuters.co.uk/football, is to provide in-depth coverage of the English Premier League, Championship, Leagues One and Two and the FA and Carling Cups. It will also include the latest football news from the major leagues and cup tournaments in Europe, North and South America, Africa and Asia. The new site will combine breaking news and photography from Reuters and Action Images with in-depth match and team information and commentary. It will also feature football news feeds from publishers, web portals, bloggers and companies across the internet via aggregated feeds from real-time online information service provider Moreover. “This site will bring together the reliable and authoritative reporting of Reuters specialist football correspondents and enable football fans to enjoy a wealth of information that should satisfy even the most avid of supporters,” Reuters sports editor Paul Radford said.

VODone teams with Goal TV for China channel

Internet video company VODone has teamed with the pan-Asian football network Goal TV to launch an online channel in China delivering coverage of a host of European football leagues. The online service is promising coverage of French, Scottish and Dutch leagues, as well as 200 hours of original programming, including behind-the-scenes access to Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Barcelona. There will also be football entertainment programs, including news, interviews, pre- and post-match analysis, delayed and archived matches, bilingual commentaries and a fans' forum. The services can be accessed for RMB 10 per month or RMB 1 per match. VODone has set an initial target of 2 million subscribers.

Osim's strikerless 12 man call-up causes concern

Japan national men's football coach Ivica Osim has triggered concerns by his bare-bones squad of 12 players - and not one striker - for the 22 August friendly against Cameroon. "I don't think a half-baked selection is necessarily a good thing," Japan Football Association technical director Kozo Tajima reportedly commented. Osim responded cryptically to questions about why he opted not to include a single striker in his provisional squad. "We'll see what happens in the J-League games," he said, jabbing his ball-point pen at his inquisitors. "Scoring goals is important but we have to think of other things too."

Vietnam gets foreign male coach for womens team

The Vietnam Football Federation has hired a Chinese male coach to lead Vietnam's national women football team for six months. Chen Yun Fat, 52, will help the team defend its title at the 24th South East Asian Games (SEA Games) slated for December in Thailand, local newspaper Pioneer reported. The team is scheduled to have a 10-day training session in Shanghai, China starting on 21 August and participate in the South East Asian Women's Championship 2007 to be held on 4-16 September in Myanmar.

Malaysia hosts 39th Merdeka football tournament

The 39th Merdeka football tournament sponsored and organised by the Football Association of Malaysia will be held from 20-29 August and will feature five teams from South East Asia, two from Africa and one from South Asia. Myanmar, Laos, Lesotho and host Malaysia U-23 are in Group A and Bangladesh, Indonesia U-23, Singapore and Zimbabwe are in Group B. The tourmament, starting in 1957 to commemorate the independence of Malaya (later to merge with Sarawak and Sabah in North Borneo to form Malaysia) is the oldest in the ASEAN region. Myanmar is the defending champion of the tournament, triumphing in the 38th Merdeka football tournament at the Shah Alam Stadium in Malaysia in August 2006 after beating Indonesia 2-1 in the final.

Sportsfest Macao postponed

The Sportsfest Macao 2007 will not take place this year as planned, following discussions with various sports media industry stakeholders including guest speakers, media platforms and content distributors and has been postponed to a future date.

India's showcase tournament resumes after decade

Host India will face Cambodia in the opening match of the five-nation Nehru Cup International Football Tournament that starts in Dehli on 17 August. The tournament, revived after a gap of 10 years, was initially a six-nation tournament but the last-minute pullout by Iran forced the All India Football Federation to stick to India, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Syria and Kyrgyzstan for the 13-day evenr at the refurbished Ambedkar Stadium. The final is scheduled for 29 August. The total prize money of the tournament is $100,000. The champion team takes away a prize of $40,000, the runners-up receive $20,000 while the third place team will be richer by $10,000. The winning team of every match will get $2,500.

The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation is sponsoring the event and produced a completely new model of the trophy as the original model, won in 1997 by Iraq, was not available. "ONGC is supporting soccer at the grass root level so that young footballers bud into professional players at an early age. The Nehru Cup tournament will help India take a big leap in international football," ONGC Director (Human Resources) A.K. Balyan told IANS.

Launched in 1982 by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi , the Jawaharlal Nehru Gold Cup ushered in the modern era of Indian football, bringing world stars like Enzo Francescoli (Uruguay), Laszlo Kiss (Hungary), Jorge Luis Burruchaga (Argentina), Euzebiusz Smolarek (Poland), Rinat Dasayev and Alexei Mikhailichenko (both Russian) to showcase their talent on Indian soil. Hosts India never made it to the final of the tournament but for 15 years the tournament remained the showpiece of Indian football. An annual event till 1989, the Nehru Cup was forced to become a biennial event due to paucity of funds until 1997 when it was last played in Kochi.

Year Winners Runnersup Score

1982 Uruguay China 2-0
1983 Hungary China 2-1
1984 Poland China 1-0
1985 Soviet Union Yugoslavia 2-1
1986 Soviet Union China 1-0
1987 Soviet Union Bulgaria 2-0
1988 Soviet Union Poland 2-0
1989 Hungary Soviet Union 2-1
1991 Romania Hungary 3-1
1993 North Korea Romania 2-0
1995 Iraq Russia 1-0
1997 Iraq Uzbekistan 3-1

Source: News Post India

Vietnam to play Barcelona in Hanoi in May 2008

Vietnam may play a friendly match against Spanish Primera Liga club Barcelona in Hanoi next May, Vietnam Football Federation’s media department told Vienam News. VFF Chairman Nguyen Trong Hy met Barcelona’s marketing representative, Joshua Thomson, in Hanoi last Sunday to discuss future co-operation between the two sides. During the meeting, Spanish representatives announced they will assist the VFF with coach training. Hy, who is the newly promoted Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, invited the Spanish club to send its best stars to a friendly match against Vietnam in mid-May next year.

Thanh Nien News further reported that reported that Thomson told VFF that Barcelona would "tap the Vietnamese market" and suggested organising a friendly match in mid-May between the Vietnamese national team and a Barcelona squad. Leaders of the two sides also discussed the possibility of opening a football academy in Hanoi under technical and professional assistance from Barcelona. /div>

Australia outlines blueprint for more football reform

Football Federation Australia Chief Executive Ben Buckley has outlined to Tom Smithies of the Daily Telegraph his blueprint to give football a national structure from U-5s right through to the Socceroos and defined four key areas that the FFA had to address as national teams, A-League, football development and major events.

Covering both the national teams and the much-vaunted talent identification program, Buckley said: "We'll continue to seek excellence at national level and improve areas such as sports science and scouting. It also includes the elite player pathway and the technical direction offered to the best young players as they come through the ranks." As well as driving the expansion of the league, Buckley wants to offer a central resource to the A-League clubs from marketing to sports science that can defray costs across the existing teams. "We have to aim to improve the level of the existing eight clubs on and off the field," he said. "Part of that is an expansion strategy of the league. Over the next six months we want to decide when and where we expand. If you look at population centres where we haven't got a base, there's the Gold Coast and also western Sydney. North Queensland are in the mix and there's interest in a second Melbourne team."

Buckley insisted that having a national strategy for developing the game below the A-League and the national teams was the key to the game's long-term success. "We need a unified approach to developing the game at junior level, and as part of that changing some of the elite development pathways," he said. "The FFA and the entities that came before didn't have a national approach and we're very keen to work with the states and territories to develop that. The resources and the governance model haven't been there before. With Rob Baan as technical director, he can be the champion for reform and provide the content that gets developed into these pathways - what does our coach education program look like, what does a competition program look like for five and six year olds, what should an academy program look like for our best kids. The goal is a consistent technical approach that is consistent with the world's best - you can't do that with a fragmented approach, whether it's competition formats, coach education or club development."

A specific department will now look at the acquisition of major tournaments, preparing bids, executing the FIFA Congress. "That's going to be an ever-increasing part of what we do," Buckley said. "We know we can put a very powerful proposition forward for an Asian Cup. Events like the the AFC Awards (in Sydney in November) are important - you have all the decision makers, we can show them the infrastructure and facilities. Everyone's aware of Australia's track record at hosting major events but when you see it in the flesh it really is impressive."

New stadia deliver revenue boost to English clubs

English football clubs that move to a new stadium see turnover increase by an average 66 percent in their first season at the new ground, a study by accountancy firm Deloitte has suggested. The two thirds increase in earnings does not take into account income clubs make from their share of media broadcast rights. English clubs have spent £2.2 billion on new grounds since 1992/3 of which about £500 million was invested by clubs outside the Premier League, such as Hull City and Stoke City.

Higher attendances and greater income from corporate hospitality are the main drivers boosting revenue, the report said but it warned that without a good performance on the pitch the "new stadium effect" often wore off quickly. "The club's performance on the pitch has to measure up to the quality of the new facilities to maintain attendance at the new, higher, levels particularly among the recent converts to following the club live," said Mark Roberts, senior consultant at Deloitte's Sports Business Group.

Deloitte said average attendances increased by an average of 51 prercent when teams moved to a new ground. Middlesbrough made the most of its switch to the Riverside Stadium with crowds surging by 146 percent when it first moved. Arsenal and Manchester City are among the teams that have recently moved to new grounds, while clubs including Sunderland and Wigan Athletic have also uprooted in the past 10 years.

The catalyst for building new all-seater grounds came from the Taylor Report, commissioned in the aftermath of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster. But while this had provided the impetus, the levels of revenue growth "illustrate the fact that stadium investment can deliver significant element of a successful club business strategy," Roberts said but warned it was important for clubs to research proposed developments fully to ensure that there was a genuine need for a new stadium, and that the move would generate a financial return.

"Unfortunately, we have seen some clubs press ahead with stadium development plans without the evidence to substantiate the proposed development," he said. "In these cases development plans often tend to come unstuck when funding for the plans is sought, or, worse still, a white elephant is born."

HOW STADIA BOOST REVENUE

Increased attendances
More room for corporate hospitality
Better experience for fans
More areas for retail and catering
Non-match day facilities including hotels, conference facilities, fitness centres
Giving club positive momentum - creating a "feel good factor"

Source: Deloitte

Japan wins International U-17 Youth Championship

Japan won the Toyota International Youth Football Championship for U-17 youths played in Japan, beating the United Arab Emirates 4-0 in the final. Earlier Japan thrashed the USA 3-1 in Group A while UAE beat South Korea 3-0 in Group B on the second day of the tournament. Australia's Joeys reportedly finished fifth.

Asian Beach Football debuts on Dubai's Al Mamzar

Six sides split into two groups will clash over five days at the Al Mamzar Beach in the 2007 World Cup Beach Soccer qualifiers for the Asian Zone tomorrow. The teams are hosts UAE, Gulf champions Bahrain, Japan, China, Iran and debutants India. "The two finalists and the winners of the third-place match will be the Asian Zone representatives at the finals to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil later in November," Salah Tahlak, acting Secretary General of the Dubai Sports Council, told Hisham Al Gizouli of Khaleej Times. The competition is being organised by the Dubai Sports Council under the patronage of its Chairman, Shaikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. "Beach Soccer is part of our sports culture and the people of the UAE used to practice it along the Gulf beach during the sixties and early seventies before the construction of the modern stadiums and playgrounds," Tahlak said.

Flavio Danilias, head of FIFA Beach Soccer, praised the initiative of the Dubai Sports Council to support the qualifiers pointing out that beach soccer is a new game and this support is very crucial to its growth. "The Asian zone qualifiers represent one of the six qualifier events around the world to determine who will qualify alongside hosts Brazil for the global showpiece on Copacabana Beach. Solomon Islands from the Oceana, Nigeria and Senegal from Africa, USA and Mexico from the Caribbean in addition to Argentine and Uruguay from Latin America have already being granted trips to Rio de Janeiro," he said. "It's going to be a very tough competition this time in Asia, " he said.

Dick Advocaat tipped to be next coach of Australia

Former Netherlands and South Korea football coach Dick Advocaat will take charge of Australia's national men's team, the Socceroos, later this year, Australian newspapers have reported. The unconfirmed articles stated that Football Federation Australia concluded negotiations with Advocaat who will take up his new role when he completes contract commitments to Russian club Zenit St. Petersburg in November. Advocaat, who led the Netherlands to the quarterfinals of the 1994 World Cup and coached South Korea to its first away win in the World Cup finals in Germany last year, would succeed Australia's caretaker coach Graham Arnold. Arnold took over from Guus Hiddink, who guided Australia at the 2006 World Cup after having coached his native Netherlands to the '98 World Cup semifinals and South Korea to the semifinals in 2002.

Yeung gets Birmingham City Gold's approval

David Gold, Chairman of English Premier League club Birmingham City is reportedly convinced new major shareholder, Hong Kong businessman Carson Yeung, will not interfere in team affairs if he takes control of the club. "From all the indications and meetings I've had with him, I believe he will work very well with the existing regime at the club. Mr Yeung would be fully aware that interference in clubs is not taken too kindly in the Premier League," he said. "He and his companies are in the super-wealthy league. There's no doubt that wealth plays a big part in the future of your football club, and the more wealth you can bring in, the greater the likelihood that you will be a successful club. If you want to challenge the very best in the Premier League, you need all the funds you can bring together, and Carson Yeung will be a great asset to us. And yes, I am sad if that will ultimately mean I'm no longer with the club.

"At present he has 29.9 per cent of the shares, the Golds and David Sullivan collectively have 50 per cent, so in effect we remain in control. We will wait to see whether Carson Yeung carries on and fulfils his requirement for buying the rest of the club. Purely from a personal point of view I really don't mind either way what happens. But I would like to remain at the club in some way because it is in my blood. I am currently the chairman, but most of all I am a fan, so I'd like to retain that connection in some way," he told the BBC.

According to ESPN, should Gold be ousted he will remain in football, although whether that would be another Premiership club, or more likely a cheaper Championship team, remains to be seen. But he added: "It gives me something, an adrenaline rush, that no other business has ever given me. If I end up leaving Birmingham City there's a possibility I would end up moving to the south and see if there's a club looking for a young chairman to join them. I'm not saying who. That would be inappropriate because my whole life revolves around the success of Birmingham City Football Club."

J-League's Niigata recruits Oceania teenager

A young Oceania Football Confederation player has made a rare breakthrough in the big money world of the Japan J-League with 18-year-old Micheal Fitzgerald being offered a professional contract with third-placed J-League club Niigata Arbilex. Fitzgerald, who hails from Auckland, New Zealand, has been in Japan for nearly three years and playing for Seiritsu High School Soccer Academy as a scholarship player. After being spotted by a Niigata scout, he was invited to the club for a week's trial. He joined in first team training for a week and was then offered the professional contract. Fitzergald is a graduate of the Wynrs academy, a football school in Auckland run by ex-All White and Oceania player of the century Wynton Rufer, the first New Zealander to play in the J-League.

Pakistan firm makes world's largest football

A leading football manufacturing firm in Sialkot, Pakistan, has unveiled the world’s largest handmade football, measuring 34.7 feet diameter and weighing 800 kg. The huge ball took 50 stitchers over two months to complete the required 22,000 stitches. Ahsan Naeem, Chief Executive of Vision Technologies, said the football had been manufactured in record time on the request of MPM Telephone Company of South Africa and will be displayed in South Africa as part of the preparations for the 2010 World Cup. "It will be dispatched to South Africa on a special chartered flight to ensure its safe landing," he told Pakistan Times.

UK fans select Europe's best football stadiums

Old Trafford, home of English Premier League Champions Manchester United, has been voted Europe’s best football stadium by the UK’s travelling fans while Liverpool’s Anfield boasts the best atmosphere of any European club. A UK property consultancy, Drivers Jonas, commissioned the survey to better understand what fans want from their stadia. In the study fans were asked to rate the European clubs they had visited, other than their own, in terms of the facilities, view of the pitch, and access to and from the ground. It followed a similar study in 2005 where fans voted Hull’s KC stadium the best with Old Trafford the fans favourite. This time Old Trafford topped the league followed by Arsenal’s Emirates stadium, Barcelona’s Nou Camp, Newcastle’s St James’s Park and Manchester City’s City of Manchester stadium.

However, fans also voted unanimously that the single most important thing that makes a top quality football stadium is atmosphere and none do that better than Liverpool fans at Anfield, according to visitors to the ground. Celtic Park came second for atmosphere followed by Portsmouth’s Fratton Park, which beat the Nou Camp into fourth place with Newcastle’s St James’s Park propping up the top five.

Security at football stadia on mainland Europe has been in the headlines this year, an issue borne out in the survey results. Barcelona’s Nou Camp was voted the best ground for security in Europe while Rome’s Stadio Olimpico being the worst by far. But overall fans are more likely to feel safe when visiting a German club than those of any other European nation, although Bayern Munich is the only German club to make the top five for safety. Travelling fans are best placed to judge how easy it is to get to and from a football ground, and the majority of them voted Spurs’ White Hart Lane the worst club in Europe for its transport – while half the top ten best stadia for transport are foreign – Barcelona’s Nou Camp, Ajax’s Amsterdam Arena, Bayern Munich’s Allianz Arena, Real Madrid’s Bernabeu Stadium and Milan’s San Siro – perhaps highlighting fans’ frustration at Britain’s troubled transport system compared to those of Europe.

“Atmosphere is the most important criteria for fans when assessing the quality of the stadium but the view of the pitch, quality of seating, ease of access and the standard of the facilities provided are also important. It’s about getting that mix right as well as providing top quality football that clubs have to consider when building or developing their stadia and this survey shows we’re more successful at that than clubs in Europe as far as British football fans are concerned,” Geoff Aucock, Partner at Drivers Jonas and head of the company’s sports division, said. “The study clearly shows that fans’ enjoyment is not just measured in terms of the quality of the football, it’s about the whole match-day experience. Fans appreciate good stadia facilities, ease of access and most of all, a fantastic atmosphere. With Wembley now open for business it will be interesting to see if this magnificent stadium can steal the top spots in future and whether Liverpool can replicate the atmosphere of Anfield within their new stadium development plans,” he said.

Picking winners and losers amongst EPL owners

As the English Premier League kicks off today Simon Goodley and Mark Kleinman of The Telegraph examined the new club owners and why they have invested in the rash of takepvers that sees 11 of the current 20 EPL clubs with foreign ownership or major shareholdings. "It is true that it's structurally easier to buy an English club than one in any other of the major European leagues. In Germany there are rules restricting individuals from snapping up teams, and it is much the same in France," they wrote. "Meanwhile, Italy has had issues of corruption and poor facilities to contend with and there are fewer major clubs in Spain to attract investors, with last season's La Liga runners-up Barcelona being controlled by its members. So the Premiership is where it's at and American investors in particular reckon now is the time to attack."

According to Paul Rawnsley, a director of accountant Deloitte's sports business group, "there are probably four reasons for all this takeover activity. The first is the increase in television money. The second is that of all the big five European leagues, the English Premier League has most global appeal. Third, English clubs have a tradition of changing hands fairly regularly and fourth there is momentum, or what you might call a bandwagon." Steve Norton, a senior consultant on sport for HSBC Private Bank noted that "the Americans run the business of sport very well and they have recognised that there is an opportunity. In the US they have a huge market but it's not global. They know all about brands; football is the world's most popular game and they are keen on globalisation."

The type of opportunity that the Americans see is demonstrated by studying sporting revenues. Gridiron's National Football League is the richest game by that measure with sales of about £3.3 billion in 2006, according to Deloitte. Major League Baseball is the runner up with £2.7 billion, the National Basketball Association third on £1.8 billion and then the Premier League is fourth at £1.3 billionn. The price each team commands, naturally reflects those figures. "Even with the dollar to pound exchange rate, Premiership clubs are still pretty cheap compared with the franchises in the States," said Norton. "There will be more takeovers and there should be plenty of opportunities. There are a lot of clubs that are ripe for acquisition."

But there are others that don't believe the US pitch. "Anyone who thinks you can apply American marketing methods to English football is mistaken," said Keith Harris, chairman of Seymour Pierce who advised on the sale of Chelsea to Roman Abramovich. "American sports do make money, but not a huge amount. What they don't do is lose it. The likes of NFL operate in a bubble where the structure is designed so that each participant makes money." And, as for English football which operates without a safety net for owners? "Clubs' turnover is growing substantially," Harris said, "but the players and their agents know this. What I can see happening is clubs growing quieter revenues: internet, mobile, sponsorship - things which are less public."

Meanwhile, Philip Long, head of corporate recovery at PKF and a football specialist, told Goodley and Kleinman, "there are clear warning signs that the football economy is overheating. The fact that about two thirds of Premier League clubs have increased their overdraft will be ringing alarm bells at the banks. Meanwhile, Philip Long, head of corporate recovery at PKF and a football specialist, told Goodley and Kleinman, "there are clear warning signs that the football economy is overheating. The fact that about two thirds of Premier League clubs have increased their overdraft will be ringing alarm bells at the banks. Television money has increased but the banks will be worried that the money is effectively bypassing the clubs to be spent on buying and paying increasingly expensive players."

No EPL broadcast deal yet signed for Indonesia

Indonesian fans of the English Premier League will no longer be able to watch games on Free-to-Air television or even through exisiting Pay-TV accounts on the countries established but limited cable television and satellite delivered systems. Instead, the games will only be able to be viewed on channels carried by Pay-TV newcomer Astro from Malaysia. "We have a business deal with EPL's rights holder and we have no authority to resell the rights to local TV stations. Everything business-wise must be in line with the contract," Vice President for Corporate Affairs at PT Direct Vision's Astro Indonesia, Halim Mahfudz, told The Jakarta Post.

Astro on Tuesday was granted the right to broadcast Premiership matches in Indonesia. Through ESPN, Star Sports, Goal TV1 and Goal TV2 channels, it will broadcast all 370 matches. "We will run most of the matches live but we will have to delay some due to parallel fixtures. We will also repeat some interesting matches for those who miss them. Our basic idea by bringing EPL into the country is to give Indonesian people access to watch the league. That's why we are also thinking about how to give Indonesians more chances to watch EPL matches through various programs, such as nonton bareng," Mahfudz said, referring to special events organized by the rights holder where groups of football fans can watch matches on a giant screen.

Local TV stations will still be able to air matches from other European leagues. Trans7, for example, will begin airing Italian league matches starting later this month. Trans7, previously TV7, had held the rights to broadcast the EPL since 2003. "We didn't take it (the EPL rights) as the price was simply too costly for us," Trans7 communications manager Anita Wulandari told the Post. "We wouldn't be able to cover the cost of buying the rights even if we sold all the advertising spots, combined with other income from sponsors."

No EPL broadcast deal yet signed for Shanghai

With just a day to go before the new English Premier League season kicks off no television broadcasting deals are yet in place in China's biggest city, Shanghao. Wintv Digital TV Development Ltd, which holds the Premier League rights in China for the next three seasons, has yet to agree on cooperation terms with the Oriental Cable Network Co. Ltd, the city's main cable TV service provider. In February this year, Wintv outbid ESPN and five other rivals with a US$50 million offer to clinch the rights to broadcast in China from 2007 to 2010. For the last five years, ESPN had the Premier League rights for Asia and then entered into separate deals with various Free-to-Air domestic channels. In Shanghai, fans were able to watch EPL games on CCTV-5 and G-Sports at no cost.

According to Wintv, fans now must subscribe with their local cable TV operators watch the games. The monthly charges are 188 yuan (US$25) or 388 yuan for six months or 588 yuan for a year. On Wednesday, Beijing Huage Cable TV sealed a deal with Wintv, thus becoming the 58th city to televise the games in China. Guangzhou, Dalian, Qingdao, Tianjin, Kunming, Nanjing, Hangzhou are among the other cities to reach similar deals.

The matches will be however available on the Internet on Sina.com or TV.QQ.com, or on the cellphones from 3G.net.cn. Chinese fans can avail of the sina.com package for 380 yuan for a year or 38 yuan per month or 3.8 yuan per match. TV.QQ.com charges 28 yuan for a month's service or 280 yuan for a year. 3G.net.cn service for cellphones is available at 50 yuan for 2 months, 150 yuan for 7 months or 200 yuan for a year but is limited to Mandarin or Cantonese commentary only.

Barcelona beats Hong Kong side 4-0 in Asian tour

Spanish Primera Liga club Barcelona ended its Asian commercial tour with a 4-0 win against a Hong Kong side. Goals came from Xavi, Eto’o, Henry and Giovani dos Santos in a match which was delayed because of a typhoon.

Indonesian FA slammed as 'corrupt or incompetent'

In his Op-Ed article for today's The Straits Times in Singapore, Nathaniel Myers observed that the Indonesian national team had failed to qualify for the AFC Asian Cup 2007 final played in the national stadium in Jakarta, even though it "had played admirably - energised by enormous home crowds [and] displayed talent well above its 127th-place international ranking, even defeating Bahrain in its opening match." It raised the "natural question" he wrote, "With a potential talent pool of 230 million citizens and a national passion for the sport, why is Indonesia unable to produce 11 players capable of competing on the international level?"

He then went on to slam the Football Association of Indonesia (PSSI) as an "organisation described charitably as disorganised, but more often as corrupt or incompetent. Critics frequently point to it as the reason for Indonesia's football struggles, accusing it of squandering Indonesia's sporting potential by failing to develop a national programme to cultivate the finest players from across the archipelago."

The Assistant Program Officer for Aceh Programs at the Asia Foundation in Jakarta then argued that "Indonesia's football problem is not, in short, one of limited resources - it's one of management and administration. Or, to put it in different terms, it's about the quality of governance - a problem with repercussions far beyond the soccer pitch. The way that mismanagement, incompetence and corruption have undermined the development of Indonesia's national football team offers an instructive reminder of how development - whether in sports or economics - is as contingent upon organisation as it is on resources."

English Premier top four's "unhealthy" domination

"Breaking into the top four. That is the quest, nay, the obsession, of the Premier League's middle reaches. Muscle into the quartet which dominates English football and, so the theory goes, you, too, can be part of the elite. Barcelona and Milan will be regular visitors, every kid in China will want the replica shirt, and Samuel Eto'o's agent will be on the phone. This is the promise that seduces millionaires and billionaires from America to Iceland, Thailand to Hong Kong. Never before has so much money been spent in an attempt to finish fourth," wrote Glenn Moore in the Independent.

In the two other countries which send four clubs into the UEFA Champions League, Spain divided their places among nine clubs, Italy seven. But the English big four dominate their football to an unprecedented and unhealthy extent. In the last five seasons only six clubs have finished in the top four, Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United every year, Liverpool three times. Everton and Newcastle made one appearance each, and both failed to take the extra, lucrative, step and qualify for the group stage. Compare this hegemony to the last five seasons of the Football League, then 11 clubs finished in the top four, none of them every year. Among them were clubs of limited resources such as Norwich and Crystal Palace. Diversity used to be a strength of the English game. In that same period (1987-92) only seven different clubs finished in the top four in Spain, eight in Italy.

"And what was the situation 50 years ago, when Wolves' floodlit triumphs against the likes of Real Madrid, Dynamo Moscow and Honved began the process which led to the European Cup, then the Champions League? Between 1952-57 a dozen clubs finished in the top four of the old First Division. Not that anyone except the champions celebrated. In those days fourth really was nowhere. Now, for much of the Premier League, it represents Nirvana," Moore concluded.

Has EPL totally overwhelmed Germany football?

According to ESPN STAR Sports commentator John Dykes, you will never find him saying the English Premier League is the best league in the world in terms of football skills "but how to argue with the fact that even the Bundesligais now being stripped of its assets by Premiership clubs ... What started as a drip (Jens Lehmann anyone?) has now turned into a flood of top Bundesliga stars turning their back on inferior wages and exposure" compared with the EPL?

Last season, Michael Ballack was Germany’s most high-profile defector, with Thomas Rosicky (Borussia Dortmund) and Dimitar Berbatov (Bayer Leverkusen) continuing the trend. This summer has seen Owen Hargreaves (Bayern Munich), Santa Cruz (Bayern), Andriy Voronin (Bayer Leverkusen), Claudio Pizarro (Bayern) Steven Pienaar (Dortmund) and Kevin-Prince Boateng (Hertha Berlin) make the move.

“The young lads in Germany now are different to those of 10 years ago," said Boateng's agent, Karel van Burik. "They know everything about English football. Kevin thinks that if he can play in England he can show everyone in Europe that he is the best. The Premiership offers that stage. The players are also drawn by the passion of the crowds and the super mentality of English football."

Will Zidane back Sydney against Beckham's LA?

Australian A-League club Sydney FC's line-up for its friendly against David Beckham and his LA Galaxy may include former French star Zinedine Zidane. According to Tom Smithies in the Daily Telegraph that Zidane's representatives are in talks about a one-off special appearance against his former Real Madrid teammate when FC play Galaxy in Sydney's Olympic stadium on 27 November. "The prospect of two men who were part of the most glamorous club side in the world facing off at will create even more excitement around a game that is likely to be televised across most of Asia and North America," the newspaper said. Tickets went on sale to the general public on Wednesday yet already an unprecedented 45,000 have been sold of the 80,000 capacity.

How a manga comic hero inspired Japan's football

Japanese football fans seem to have been going crazy for their national team since the FIFA World Cup finals were staged in Japan and South Korea in 2002. But an exhibition at the Japan football museum in Tokyo suggests that some of the earliest seeds of interest in football in Japan were sown by a popular football manga series - Captain Tsubasa - a decade before even the J-League was formed in 1992. "Captain Tsubasa, also known as Kyapu-tsuba, is believed to have started helping soccer take root in Japanese society, inspiring star players such as former Japan national team captain Hidetoshi Nakata and Shunsuke Nakamura, who recently led his Scottish Premier League club Celtic to its second straight league title. The comic has even gone on to influence overseas players such as Brazil’s Ronaldinho and Italy’s Francesco Totti," wrote Ikuko Kitagawa in the Daily Yomiuri.

The exhibition, subtitled "everyone was once a Tsubasa", displays enlarged copies of key scenes from the 26-year-long series, comments from professional players who were influenced by him and copies of the comic books translated into various languages including Italian, German and Chinese. The comic, authored by Yoichi Takahashi, is a coming-of-age tale about a schoolboy, Tsubasa Ozora, who moves to Shizuoka Prefecture and joins a football team there. He finds he has to grow up quickly as he encounters teammates with strong personalities and a whole host of rivals. In the series, Tsubasa eventually goes on to make the national team. The series has continued on and off since 1981, and in the most recent series, Captain Tsubasa Golden-23, Tsubasa is depicted playing in Japan’s U-23 side at a fictional Olympic games.

Sports journalist Seijun Ninomiya told The Daily Yomiuri that over the years the comic has helped expand the football population base, including both players and supporters. “Players in my generation definitely were influenced by seeing Captain Tsubasa,” said Masakiyo Maezono, 33, who captained the national team at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and is now a commentator. He recalled that through the comic books he learned a lot from Tsubasa’s playing style and global outlook. Maezono eventually played professionally in Brazil just like Tsubasa does in the manga. “I learned that ‘the ball is my friend’ from the comic. I think Captain Tsubasa has made many people feel close to football said Maezono, who is currently working on the popularisation of youth football. Freelance writer Shuntaro Fukagawa, who wrote Captain Tsubasa no Shorigaku, a book discussing what professional players can learn from characters in the comic, said the way the Japan national team plays reminds him of how Tsubasa’s team plays in the comics. “I think that almost no Japanese players play dirty such as diving elaborately, writhing around ‘in pain’ on the ground or time-wasting. I think in this way Japan’s playing style reflects Tsubasa’s desire to play fair,” Fukagawa said.

A-League wins advertising gold award for launch

Football Federation Australia and advertising agency, Lowe Hunt have collected a "Gold Award" at the 9th Advertising Federation of Australia - Advertising Effectiveness Awards for the "It's Football. But Not As You Know It" campaign that was used to the launch the inaugural Hyundai A-League competition. FFA was one of five gold award winners, from 26 finalists around Australia, with the winning campaigns judged on Return on Investment, lasting effect of the campaign, ability to isolate the performance of the campaign in driving consumer behaviour and perception and the degree of difficulty of the task at hand. "The "It's Football. But Not As You Know It." campaign was a key plank in the re-positioning of football in the Australian sporting landscape through the Hyundai A-League",said Geoff Parmenter, FFA Head of Marketing, Communication & Strategy.

China disappoints against Japan in Olympic friendly

China's Olympic football team is still well shy of the performances it will need in order to fulfill the Chinese Football Association's goal of qualifying for the 2008 Beijing Games semifinals, Chen Xiangfeng reported for China Daily. He wrote the latest blow to the CFA's confidence came via lackluster warm-up matches against Japan and North Korea in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, last week. Despite home-soil advantage, a Chinese referee "who many believed favored the hosts" and its best possible U-22 line-up, China suffered an "ignominious" 0-1 loss to North Korea and scraped a dissapointing nil-all draw against Japan.

Japanese coach Yasuharu Sorimachiy said his heavily depleted side had used the warm-up tournament to give newcomers experience in the international arena. During the match, the well-organized Japanese outfit used pinpoint passing and superior teamwork to frequently beat China's defense, which often resorted to dangerous tackles to stop their opponents. Ironically, the Chinese referee awarded the home team 21 free kicks to Japan's eight. "It is disgusting," famous critic Ruan Xiongfei from Titan Sports wrote on his blog. "We should win by skills rather than by biased whistles. Such kind of official refereeing will not do anything good to the sport's development."

China's SINA announces internet rights to EPL

China internet pioneer SINA Corporation has announced it has picked up the online broadcasting rights for China to English Premier League and Italian Serie A football . Commencing 11 August, , SINA’s broadband service will carry live, online coverage of all 1,140 EPL matches for the next three seasons until 2010. Web users will be able to subscribe on an annual, monthly and per-game basis at Rmb380 ($50), Rmb38 ($5) and Rmb3.8 ($0.5), respectively. In addition, SINA Sport Channel will also feature replays of the most exciting action plays on a free-of-charge basis. The matches can also be viewed on pay TV in China, starting from tomorrow. Separately, SINA has also obtained the rights to provide live, online broadcast of the professional Italian football league Serie A in China.

"We are delighted to be chosen the only online portal in China to offer live broadcasting of both the English Premier League and the Italian Serie A," said Tong Chen, the executive VP and chief editor of SINA Corporation. "These two deals are not only a perfect complement to our already strong offering of domestic and international sports events, but also reaffirm SINA’s position as a preeminent online sports broadcaster in China. Leveraging our unique advantages as a leading online portal and our first-class video streaming technology, SINA is able to provide Chinese soccer fans with enhanced multimedia experiences, integrating comprehensive sports news coverage, timely commentaries and interactive sports communities.”

Nimbus Sports contracts EPL mobile/internet rights

Nimbus Sport has contracted the mobile and internet rights of the English Premier League football for three years and 80 countries. The rights include China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Thailand, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Australia. The rights cover 1140 English Premier League matches that will be played until the end of the 2009-10 season. This was the first time the EPL has offered internet rights separately from broadcast rights, Nimbus Sport CEO Digvijay Singh told PTI.

Nimbus Sport will market these rights together with PA SportEV, a subsidiary of PA Sport.

Disputes may be holding up Vision India in Dehli

Vision India's Dehli project "presents a sorry tale. Precious little has been done so far and a ‘clash of egos’ is threatening to crash the entire system," wrote Arjun Sen in the Hindustan Times. He said Shaji Prabhakaran, the Asian Football Confederation's Director for Vision India was showing "the rosy side" when reporting the project had "successfully conducted a school league last year ... achieved the target of training a batch of coaches in AFC’s C licence program ... [and] also conducted training classes for referees.” According to Sen, the guidelines set by the AFC required Delhi to have a two-division professional local league — an elite league and a city league - but that hasn't.

“There is no infrastructure to work with,” said Umesh Sood, Chairman of Vision Delhi, by way of explanation. “Each and every ground in the city is being renovated for the Commonwealth Games. You tell me how we can conduct a league when there are no grounds?” However sources told HT about a continuous power struggle between the personnel handling the Vision project and the top brass at the Delhi Soccer Association who want to wrest control of the project. “The DSA and those handling the Vision project simply aren’t on the same wavelength,” a source said. "The DSA doesn’t want to be relegated to the background in the scheme of things and keep insisting the project is theirs. This clash has led to a complete standstill in the project’s work. Absolutely no work is being done.”

It is a line of argument Sood simply refused to buy. “Yes, there have been arguments, but nothing major. Anyway, everybody on Vision Delhi’s panel is a member of DSA’s executive committee, if there indeed was a problem, wouldn’t I have been asked to leave,” he reasoned. “We have no problems with anyone. The DSA is fully committed to the Vision and there is no question of it boycotting or stalling the work,” N.K. Bhatia, DSA secretary said. As for the professional league, both Bhatia and Sood said it would be ‘up and running’ next month. “Nothing is impossible, we need the full co-operation of DSA and I am sure we’ll be back on track,” Sood said.

Malaysians send illegal football bookmaker to jail

A Malaysian football bookmaker was sentenced to two years in prison and fined a million ringgit (US$286,000) for accepting bets on European matches. Ong Seh Sen was accused of running an illegal gambling operation on matches played in English, Spanish and Italian football leagues and became the first Malaysian bookie convicted under an anti-money laundering law, the New Straits Times said. The 37-year-old allegedly used a security equipment company as a front for internet and telephone betting schemes, the report said. He falsified 75 company invoices to show money accepted from the bets were part of official income, it said. Ong was granted a stay on his jail term pending an appeal but was ordered by the court in central Selangor state to pay the fine in 10 monthly installments, the daily said.

All forms of sports betting, except horse racing, are against the law in Malaysia but vast amounts are lost each year to illegal bookmakers offering internet betting. Malaysia permits other forms of gambling such as lotto games and casinos, but such activities are forbidden for ethnic Malay Muslims, who comprise some 60 percent of the country's 26 million people.

UK changes help Ladbrokes' international drive

UK betting form Ladbrokes, already active in Asia with the tender for the sports lottery in Taiwan and bidding to run the Vietnamese sports lottery, is also looking at the China market. Britain's biggest bookie has more than 2,500 high street betting shops plus outlets at 47 football clubs and 11 horseracing tracks. It has close to two million customers in over 200 counties that bet with 18 currencies in 12 different languages. According to Chief Executive Christopher Bell, regulatory changes at home will help drive growth in the company's core business in 2008 and beyond. From 1 September all gambling operators in the UK will be required to meet the standards of the Gambling Commission. "Along with increased regulation will come opportunities which will include the all-year round evening opening of betting shops, £500 jackpot machines and the opportunity for broadcast advertising," Bell told Douglas Bence of City Wire. Ladbrokes' net revenue rose to £600.9 million in the six months to 30 June from £502.1 million although what it calls its gross win rose to £624 million from £523.1 million.

HK owner warned by Birmingham City manager

English Premier League club Birmingham City manager Steve Bruce has firmly told the club’s newest and biggest shareholder Carson Yeung that he will resign if he interferes in team selection. Yeung gained a reputation for meddling in first team affairs at his previous club Hong Kong Rangers. Bruce told BBC Five Live "If someone tries to pick your team for you then I don't think that is for me," he said. "He has bought a percentage of the club and by all accounts he will be ready to take over by the new year but you would have to ask him about that because I am a little bit left in the dark," he added. The Hong Kong businessman has already admitted that he hope to bring in Chinese players into the squad if or when he does gain full control.

Young Socceroos getting wiser about playing Asia

Australia's Young Socceroos have returned from a successful trip to China after winning the Weifang Cup but with an angry blast for officials. Coach Steve O'Connor told au.fourfourtwo.com that it was a useful exercise particularly regarding dealing with Asian officials. "They give us nothing," he said. "We've seen it on this trip and we saw it at the Asian Cup and last year when the Young Socceroos played in India. I've told the boys we have to expect it and to work on strategies to deal with it." Other issues include playing in the heat of Kuala Lumpur in October that was made worse by the scheduling of game times."If there is a 4pm and 6pm kick-off, we'll get the earlier start. No one's going to do us any favours," he said. "A lot of people think that Asia is easy because we're Australia. They are wrong," said O'Connor. "Even countries like Vietnam are going to be difficult. This has been a good learning experience."

Vietnam beats Malaysia 1-0 in U-20 ASEAN final

Host Vietnam beat Malaysia 1-0 in the final of the U-20 ASEAN Football Championship. The only goal of the match was scored by captain Duc Nhan in the sixth minute. In the semi-finals, tournament host, Vietnam beat Myanmar 3-1 while the stronger Thailand squad was unexpectedly defeated 1-2 by Malaysia. In that game all three goals were scored in the last minutes of the match.

Vision India accelerates Manipur footballer success

Travel-weary Vision Asia director, Brendan Menton, brightened up when asked about the Vision India's Manipur project by Rajeeb Mukherjee of the Hindustan Times. Showing photographs of football in Manipur on his laptop, the former Ireland Football Association Secretary said he would rate it among the best Vision Asia projects. “It would have been in the top three, with the first two being in China but two projects in Iran too are doing very well,” he told the nespaper at the Asian Football Confederation’s office in Kuala Lumpur. The AFC is so happy with Manipur’s success that president Mohamed bin Hammam sent a special invitation to the All Manipur Football Association to attend the opening of the Asian Cup in Bangkok last month. AMFA President Santosh Kumar, Vice-Presidents R K Nimai and Birendra Singh and General Secretary L Ranjit Roy spent 40 minutes with the AFC chief and AFC sources said Manipur could receive $35,000 as grant for this season.

"So what makes Manipur special? What makes 170 players ply their trade as footballers from their state alone elsewhere in India? What makes them have at least seven players in the national women’s squad for the past decade?" asked Mukherjee. He gave as an example the result of Manipur losing the semi-final of the 2005 Santosh Trophy to Goa. A refereeing blunder allowed Goa to level scores with a minute left on the clock. Goa went on to lift the trophy but Manipur came to a standstill when a bandh was called, perhaps the only time for sport. It needed the All India Football Federation President Priyaranjan Dasmunshi’s intervention to calm things down. “It is like a tribal culture that binds us to the team, be it the state side or clubs. One can compare this to the fierce loyalty the Catalans feel towards Barcelona,” said Nimai, Secretary to the Governor of Manipur and the owner of Eastern Sporting Club. His is one of the 12 clubs that took part in the inaugural state league which kicked off on 3 November last year.

It had its share of problems but was still successful. “The league was supposed to be over by February but we could finish it only in April. This had nothing to do with our deficiencies but rather political problems. Strikes are very frequent here and can go on for days,” said L Ranjit Roy, General Secretary of AMFA. “It was supposed to be a fully professional league but clubs here have a meagre income and can’t afford to pay so much to the players. The highest-rated player here earns around Rs 50,000 a season which isn’t much compared to those playing in other states. Jobs, therefore, are necessary to supplement earnings from football ... We can’t even give cash awards to the winners,” Roy said. Clubs have a meagre budget of Rs 10-12 lakh. Fifty percent goes into maintaining the teams and the rest is spent on infrastructure and youth development. In the absence of corporate sponsorships, clubs are run either by public donations or organising tambolas. “Since the clubs are dependent on public money, we can’t sell tickets. They would feel rather annoyed having to pay again to watch matches,” Nimai added. And with more and more clubs outside the state relying on players from Manipur, the AMFA is now looking for transfer fees from big clubs.

But the AMFA’s real success lies in implementing the Vision program in schools. In its inaugural year, AMFA selected four districts — Churchandpur, Bishnupur, Thoubal and Kakching — for the school project. Each district had eight schools with U-11boys and girls being trained. “It was difficult initially to make the schools see the point, but after they agreed, things became easy. This year we intend to increase the number of students to 2000 from 600,” said Roy. The boys will get trained in schools till 13 and then be picked up by the local clubs where they will undergo further training till 18. Senior division clubs will then pick them up. “What we are trying to do under the project is help students learn the basics,” said Nimai. AMFA also has a well-structured league. “Starting with the U-13 festival for boys and girls (from this year), we have the U-16 and U-19 leagues for boys and an U-17 tournament for girls. Besides, we also have an inter-district league for boys and girls,” said Roy.

Vision Iran launches Isfahan and Fars leagues

The Asian Football Confederation's Vision Iran project is set to take a big leap forward with the launch of provincial leagues in Isfahan and Fars on 10 and 11 August respectively. Top AFC officials including General Secretary Dato Paul Mony Samuel and Vision Asia Acting Director Brendan Menton will attend the launch ceremony. The Isfahan Provincial League comprises 12 clubs and will kick off a day before the Fars Provincial League, which features 14 clubs, gets underway at the Takhti Stadium. Two rounds will be played in both the leagues on the basis of Club Regulations provided by Vision Asia. The criteria to be used for this purpose are the club’s administration, legal, finance, facilities, community links and sporting development capabilities of the clubs.

The leagues are expected to provide a high level of competitive football for the clubs in Isfahan and Fars. The format of the competition is home-and-away and the clubs have to employ coaches holding at least an AFC ‘C’ certificate. “These two leagues will create opportunities for football players in Isfahan and Fars to play at a higher standard,” said Menton, as quoted by Persian Football. “Iran is full of football talent and I am sure concentrating on the Vision Iran program will provide a higher platform for players, clubs, coaches, referees and officials to be successful.” To help the grassroots and youth segment, an U-11 Schools Leagues will be launched in October this year. Prior to this, AFC will organise a grassroots and youth workshop, introductory coaching and Class 3 refereeing courses.

Thaksin accused of "injudicial killings" in Thailand

In Thailand, the military and political opponents who overthrew former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatrais in a coup d'etat, have been joined in human rights actions against him by international NGOs investigating policies which led to the deaths of allegedly 2,500 people in police anti-drug actions authorised by his government. The new owner of English Premier League club Manchester City is even accused by a villager of knowlingly being involved in the public gunning-down of her mother.

As reported by the Sunday Mirror, "Nongkran, 30, has tried in vain to find out why her mother was killed that day. 'I wrote to Mr Thaksin. I wrote to the interior ministry,' she says. 'But they never even bothered to reply. I don't understand those people in England who want him to run their football club. Is money all they care about? Maybe someone in England can provide the answers. How can he do these sort of things to his own people?'"

The family's story has been looked at by Pradit Charoenthaitawee of the military government-backed Thai Human Rights Commission, which is investigating deaths during the drugs war launched by Thaksin in February 2003. Dr Charoenthaitawee said: "I will bring the charges myself privately if need be. We have strong evidence in 400 or so cases. Many of these injudicial killings were carried out in daylight in front of witnesses and many had nothing to do with drugs.It was a massacre. Many innocent people were on the blacklists. And nobody got a trial. It was policemen who carried out these killings."

Thaksin's lawyer, Noppadol Pattama, said the allegations against him are unfounded. "As far as I am concerned, he has never instructed any public officer to execute a drug dealer. We will be able to prove his innocence after the general election when we are sure our client will get a fair trial. We just tried to solve the drug problem in Thailand by getting tough with criminals. But he has never issued any instructions for shoot-to-kill policies. I hope Manchester City fans and British people are fair-minded. They should suspend their judgment before deciding Thaksin is not fit. He is a fit and proper man to run the club," he told the newspaper.

KBS contracts South Korean TV rights for Brazil

South Korea's state-owned broadcaster, Korean Broadcasting System, has agreed a deal with the Traffic Sports Marketing and Total Sports Asia agencies for the rights to broadcast all nine of Brazil’s home matches of the 2010 South American World Cup Qualifying Tournament. The matches are held over a period of three years starting with the first match on 17 October 2007. The deal covers all media platforms. “Since we have a plenty of experience airing the Brazil’s qualifying matches for 2006 Germany, we strongly believe that this will be another precious chance to meet the expectations of Korean audience“, said Young Moon Park, Head of Sports Business Team of KBS.

EPL clubs undertake community engagement

English Premier League clubs have launched a new initiative to increase their support for community projects and charities. From research by Deloitte the ‘creating chances’ enterprise will increase clubs’ spending on community issues to £122 million next season representing a 50 percent increase since the last research was taken in 2003. The central part of the scheme is entitled ‘Places for Players’ will involve 200 players sponsoring projects and raising awareness for the charitable organisations, over 400 good causes will benefit.

"Community engagement is now woven into the fabric of football and the size and scope of that commitment today really is something of which the Premier League, our clubs and the players can be extremely proud," Richard Scudamore, Chief Executive of the Premier League, said as quoted by Soccer Investor. “Football clubs have a unique position in their communities. They are now helping to raise standards of education, working with police to cut crime and anti-social behaviour and also re-investing millions of pounds into football facilities for the public," said James Purnell, the UK's Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.

Two city views on Indian Pro-League prospects

In Kolkata, India East Bengal FC General Secretary Kalyan Majumdar and Mohammedan Sporting’s former football secretary Mohammed Qamaruddin believe the All India Football Federation's new professional league will lead to clubs recruiting professionals to run the organisations. Majumdar accepted that the National Football League started with similar aspirations but little changed in 11 seasons. Will the Professional League also go the same way? “We have to wait and see. But this is definitely a welcome move. Infrastructure-wise there would be some limitations but we will have to go ahead,” he told the Hindustan Times.

However, in Goa, the view is pessimistic. “It seems [AIFF] announced the Professional League just to please FIFA president Sepp Blatter who visited India recently,” Goa Football Association Secretary Savio Messias said. “A professional league has to be run by professionals. We still don’t know whether the same NFL committee will run the show or a separate professional body will be asked to conduct it,” he said. “The pro league would make the club accountable and that is the most heartening part of it. But that’s not enough,” added Salgaocar Sports Club Secretary A J Gomes. “They are speaking about pro league and making clubs accountable. But the AIFF is mum over whether they will share any advertising and TV revenue with the clubs,” Sporting Clube de Goa Vice-President Victor Gonsalves said.

Barcelona beats Yokohama 1-0 in Asian tour

Spanish Primera Liga club Barcelona defeated Japan J-League club Yokohama in the second game of its Asian commercial tour. Brazilian substitute Giovanni Dos Santos struck the decider in the 75th minute after replacing new signing Thierry Henry.

World Cup matches force India to modify program

The All India Football Federation is hoping its Lebanon counterpart will assist in modifying the the pre-World Cup 2010 draw issued by the Asian Football Confederation. With Round One of the pre-qualifiers scheduled for the middle of India's overcrowded domestic football calendar, the AIFF has sent a message to Lebanon asking them to agree to play an advanced return leg preferably within one week of the first leg which is slated to be played on 8 October. Originally scheduled for 28 October, India has asked Lebanon to agree to play the second leg at least a fortnight earlier, as that would not set back by a great deal the start of the inaugural I-League which was originally slated to begin on 30 September. The Asian draw has even caught Lebanon by surprise. Should they manage to beat India, they will meet the winners of the North Korea and Mongolia game on 18 November (second leg). The slight logistical problem here is that Lebanon are already due to play a pre-Olympic tie a day earlier.

The AIFF told Times of India it had asked national coach Bob Houghton what dates he preferred. Houghton reportedly suggested that playing within a week of each other was the best solution as the team too would be in fine fettle. Whatever the changes in the dates for the double-leg knockout qualifier, the start of India's first professional league stands postponed due to the 8 October first leg match and a bout of heavy rain which held up the second round of the the ongoing Goan League. "Whatever Lebanon’s decision, definitely the league will be postponed by almost a month," Savio Messias, secretary of the Goan Football Association told the newspaper.

World Cup matches force UAE to modify program

The United Arab Emirates Football Association will be forced to make changes in the fixtures of the new season due to the new schedule of the World Cup qualifiers in October and the Arab Champions League next month. After the FA sent the new season UAE League and President's Cup programs to the clubs, they "came suddenly" upon the Asian Football Confederation draw for Asia's World Cup qualifiers in which the UAE will meet Vietnam in home and away matches in October. The Al Shaab club is also meeting Al Faisaly of Jordan in the Arab Champions League on 21 September in Sharjah and 16 October in Amman. According to Sayed Ali of Gulf News, the FA's technical committee is in countact with UAE coach Bruno Metsu to adapt the program for the national team for the matches against Vietnam and the tournaments committee will have to postpone the League matches set for 6 amd 7 October and the pre-quarterfinals of the President's Cup on 27 and 28 October. The third week of the League matches on 19 and 20 October also have to be postponed due to a friendly match against Tunisia on 17 October.

Pakistan welcomes Afghan women to championship

The 15 local teams participating in the Pakistan Women’s Football Championship in Islamabad (16-24 August) are set to welcome the Afghanistan women's national team. “It will be historic because Afghan women competing in Pakistan will be great for the relationship of these two countries,” Pakistan Football Federation spokesman Akbar Wahidi told AFP. "The team’s involvement “will promote football on either side of the border,” he added. Both Pakistan and Afghanistan are fledgling nations in women’s football. The Pakistani women’s only international exposure was in May 2006 when they featured in an event in Amman, Jordan.

Afghan women players follow a stricter dress code than their Pakistani counterparts. In addition to wearing long trousers like the Pakistani women, Afghan players also wear baseball caps covering their hair. Football is fast regaining its popularity in war-ravaged Afghanistan after suffering badly under the Taliban regime, Afghan coach Walizada said. “We have very good women footballers of international standard and we hope they will do very well in the future. Football has regained its popularity and it will go further up. The government is trying to break social taboos in sport, especially women’s sport, imposed by the former Taliban regime.”

Local and foreign sponsors for Sydney FC shirts

Australian A-League club, Sydney FC, has signed a major sponsorship deal that will see Bing Lee and JVC on the front of the club’s shirts for the next seasons. Local electrical retailer Bing Lee becomes the club’s principal sponsor, with its logo on Sydney FC’s shirts for home matches and on the club’s shorts for away games. Japanese international electronics company JVC’s logo will appear on Sydney FC’s shirts for away matches and on the club’s shorts for home games.

Staab: Women's football is "trendy" in Pakistan

German football coach Monika Staab has commented on the healthy state of Pakistan women's football. “I have come to know that women football in Pakistan is at an early age and the game was kicked off only three years ago due to the personal interest of Pakistan Football Federation President, Faisal Saleh Hayat,” she told Pakistan Times. "The main thing is that the ladies football is trendy in Pakistan and there is a lot of activity going on to attract girls to take up football as a sport”, she added. “I noticed in first two phases that girls in this part of world have a love, commitment and eagerness for the game. It’s a healthy sign keeping in view the cultural barriers as a Muslim nation”, she said.

An example is the Lahore Sports Sciences Women’s Club whose President, Prof Dr Shahida Haider, announced a 26-player squad for the 3rd National Women’s Football Championship commencing 16 August at Islamabad’s Jinnah Stadium. The team includes Punjab University women’s sports wing teachers and students who have hired the services of Pakistan Olympic team’s head coach Muhammad Rasheed.

“It will be maiden appearance of our team in the event and we are thankful to Pakistan Football Federation President Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat for giving us a berth in country’s premier annual women’s football show. We are also lucky to have sport-loving lady Shahida Haider, wife of federal Minister for Sports and Culture Mian Shamim Haider, as our club’s president,” SSWC’s media manager Salma Shaukat, told Daily Times.

UEFA's Platini concerned about EPL club viability

The influx of foreign investors in English football could result in mass insolvencies among clubs, according to dire warnings from Michel Platini, the President of UEFA, Europe's continental football body. Eight English Premier League clubs are foreign-owned, with several others the objects of interest from abroad and Platini has said that he would be concerned if the same happened in his native France. “I would be worried if I were English because of all the foreign ownership,” he said, as quoted by Nick Szczepanik of The Times. “They could be rich people coming to help English football and develop it, but they may just want to make money. I fear your clubs will lose identity. If it was in France, I would fight it.”

More English clubs face Leeds-style melt-down

Football clubs in the English Premiership and Championship are increasingly risking insolvency as the game’s economy begins to overheat, according to an in-depth survey of football club finance directors published by the Football Industry Group of PKF, a leading UK firm of accountants and business advisers. The report emphasises that increased Premiership television revenue has "piled the pressure on the clubs" in England’s top two leagues without adding to their bottom line profitability as clubs spend more on players’ wages in a bid to win or retain Premiership status. Mindful of the dramatic decline at Leeds United, the report shows that banks are applying more pressure to top clubs seeking to increase their borrowing and increasingly demanding personal guarantees for debt from club directors.

“There are clear warning signs that the football economy is overheating. The fact that 62 percent of Premier League clubs have increased their overdraft will be ringing alarm bells at the banks. Television money has increased but the banks will be worried that the money is effectively by-passing the clubs to be spent on buying and paying increasingly expensive players," Philip Long, head of corporate recovery at PKF and a football sector specialist, said. "The banks’ attitude suggests that, with player costs spiralling, not enough money is going towards the clubs’ balance sheets. The upcoming campaign is being financed through extra borrowings in an attempt to secure the rewards of a successful season but there is growing pressure on the clubs which don’t win. The excessive spending that brought Leeds to its knees is in danger of being repeated and could end with more clubs facing administration and ultimately insolvency.

“Backers like Roman Abramovich have taken the need for profitability out of the financial equation for a few Premiership clubs. But while they can spend money on new players almost at will, other clubs without the same financial muscle are being driven to borrow and spend more - potentially more than they can afford. The pressure is worse for Championship clubs seeking promotion as the pressure to spend is as great but the available resources are so much less.”

According to the report, 69 percent of clubs on the English Premiership expect to make a pre-tax profit in their next accounting period. However, 62 percent of clubs have increased the level of their overdraft in the last 12 months and 31 percent of finance directors said they were under more pressure from their banks. 69 percent of Premiership clubs will be spending more on first team wages this year with the remainder maintaining the same level. 54 percent of clubs are increasing their transfer budget and 23 percent maintaining the same level.

“The increasing importance of competing for lucrative places in Europe and the financial implications of poor performance is fuelling demand for key players. The combination of increased funding from wealthy owners, higher value sponsorship and media rights deals and the ease with which Premier League clubs can access finance is driving up player costs. But there is little indication that clubs are becoming more profitable as a result," PKF partner Stuart Barnsdall said.

PKF argues that the second-division Championship has become the "football pressure cooker" with the research showing 78 percent of clubs – the highest of any league - not expecting to make a pre-tax profit and 77 percent of finance directors coming under pressure to allow greater spending than the club can afford. No Championship respondents had increased their overdraft facility suggesting the leagues’ bankers are not keen to increase their exposure. When it comes to player costs, the Championship appears polarised. A third anticipated increasing the size of the first team squad and 44 percent said they would spend more on wages. However 56 percent were looking to reduce its size and the cost. Only 22 percent will be increasing the transfer budget for the coming season.

“The top half of the Championship is increasing spending, undoubtedly incentivised by the financial rewards of winning promotion. However the results suggest that more than half of Championship clubs either believe their squad does not have the capacity to win promotion or, more likely, are not prepared for the financial consequences of mounting a serious but ultimately unsuccessful challenge. Ultimately this is the league where the biggest risks may be taken. The gamble is how much you can afford to spend to win promotion and some gamblers may spend more than they can afford. If they succeed, the gamble will be worthwhile but the price of failure could be very high," Stuart Barnsdall commented.

PKF’s Football Industry Group commissioned an independent research company in May 2007 to undertake structured telephone interviews with finance directors of football clubs. A total of 59 interviews were completed with finance directors in the English Premier League, Football league Championship, Football Leagues One and Two, Scottish Premier League and Scottish First Division. All responses were recorded anonymously to ensure the confidentiality of the respondent.

Australia accelerates global search for new coach

Australia's national men's football team, the Socceroos, will play five home matches in the next ten months as their 2010 World Cup qualification campaign kicks into gear. Football Federation Australia CEO Ben Buckley said with Argentina and China already confirmed, a search was underway for another friendly opponent to play in May 2008 during the FIFA Congress in Sydney, while Australia would also host legs of their opening World Cup qualification matches in February and June. He said FFA had written to overseas-based Socceroos to notify them of the hefty schedule, but expected full strength line-ups for the upcoming friendlies. "We've got no reason to expect that we won't have a full team ... We've written to the players over the past few days just outlining the schedule over the next six to 12 months and we'll be in discussions with them about their own individual programs," he told AAP.

Buckley said caretaker coach Graham Arnold was likely to still be at the helm for the two friendlies, but said the FFA's "global search" for a new coach to replace Guus Hiddink had been accelerated. "At this stage Graham Arnold will be in charge of the team for both the game in September and October," he said. "But as we've said we'll undertake a global search, that has accelerated in the past few months or so. We now understand what the program is and the sooner we can have a decision on that obviously the better it is from a planning standpoint ... I'm always reluctant to put times around these sorts of things because it creates some false expectations, but we've been in discussion with a number of people in recent times and we're hopeful of concluding it shortly."

A host of names, including Dutchman Dick Advocaat and Asian Cup-winning Iraq coach Jorvan Vieira, have been linked to the position, though Buckley on Monday denied Vieira had been approached by FFA. "We haven't had any direct discussions with him," Buckley said. "If he was interested in coming to Australia in some capacity down the track I'm sure we'd be interested in talking to him. He's got a lot of experience working in various parts of Asia and no doubt he might be able to bring something to Australia."

Barcelona launches its Chinese-language website

Spanish Primera Liga club Barcelona has launched a Chinese-language version of its official website and will soon unveil editions in Arabic and Korean. The club, currently on a three-game tour of China and Japan, had up until now made its internet site available in Spanish, Catalan, English and Japanese. Barcelona set up an experimental version of its website in Chinese three years ago which contained only the translation of a few items. The new site offers all the news and historical information regarding the storied Catalan club available in the other languages as well as specific information directed at the Chinese market, Barcelona said on its website. Barcelona said last week that it had over 100 million fans in Asia. The number of its supporters in China went up six-fold in the last three years in China and seven-fold in the same period in Japan, it said.