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CommentaryNews

Play Up, Pompey

October 22, 2010 — by Sean

Click to buy!

Sad news out of the south of England today as it looks like struggling club Portsmouth FC may be forced to shut its doors due to massive debt. Perhaps I wouldn’t have cared at all except for the book Bloody Confused, tracking the american author’s journey toward football appreciation by way of Pompey’s ’06-’07 premiership campaign (I think that was the season). From the Mirror (Gaydamak is a Russian-Israeli arms dealer whose son owned Portsmouth, and his legal problems had caused issues with extensions of loans for the club before it was sold to new owners):

“Unfortunately, despite the new owners fulfilling all the requirements of the Football League and the creditors, and agreeing and signing up to the required terms of the purchase of the club, at the 11th hour the goalposts have been moved by Mr Gaydamak and this has now made the deal impossible to complete.

“Put simply, despite being offered full payment for the secured part of his debt in accordance with the financial plan approved by the Football League, this morning Mr Gaydamak has demanded a very significant up front cash payment in order to allow the deal to proceed by releasing his security.

The statement added: “It appears likely that the club will now be closed down and liquidated by the administrators as they are unable to support the continued trading of the club.”

CommentaryNews

Rooney Settles Back Into Ferguson’s Nest

October 22, 2010 — by Sean

Break up to make up

This week’s episode of the Wayne Rooney show is all wrapped up, with the mighty pumpkin resolving his differences with coach and teammates, and scratching his X onto a new contract that keeps him at Old Trafford until 2015. There’s no doubt that he acted poorly over the last few weeks, though you have to put some blame on his greedy bastard of an agent. From the Guardian:

Rooney has become the best-paid player in the history of the club by agreeing a deal thought to be worth as much as £180,000 a week in a move that will inevitably invite allegations that he and his agent,
Paul Stretford, have been guilty of cynical greed to get
the best deal possible.

He won’t be thrown right back into the fray though, as he’ll be out for the next three weeks nursing an injury to that ankle he assured the press wasn’t actually injured a week or so back.

Lest we forget, Rooney first suggested he didn’t want to stay at United because the management wasn’t adding world class players at the top of the salary scale. Must we point again and again to Lyon, consistent French champions who develop young players on the cheap before selling them at immense profit all while winning and winning and winning? Anyway, here’s Wayne’s “apology”:

“I’m delighted to sign another deal at United. In the last couple of days, I’ve talked to the manager and the owners and they’ve convinced me this is where I belong. I said on Wednesday the manager’s a genius and it’s his belief and support that have convinced me to stay. I’m signing a new deal in the absolute belief that the management, coaching staff, board and owners are totally committed to making sure United maintains its proud winning history – which is the reason I joined the club in the first place.”

News

Europa League Action

October 21, 2010 — by Sean

Lots of action happening today in Europe’s second most awesome club tournament. I’m sure you can find the rules that deposit teams into this tournament instead of its big brother, the Champions League, but here’s a very general overview:

Teams not reaching the Champions League threshold at the end of their respective domestic seasons are pushed into the Europa League, to be joined by Champions League castaways after the group stages. Each domestic league has a defined number of Champs and Europa League slots. There are some playoffs before the tournaments start, but ultimately you’ve got what are supposed to be the best club teams in Europe (+ Israel, Turkey, Russia – point of discussion here) playing each other for some trophies. Most importantly, more games means more television revenue, and these big sides with heavy salary demands need to get into these tournaments each year or they’ll dip quickly into the red.

Click through for today’s matchups ––––>

Video

Colombia

October 13, 2010 — by Sean

Well the US played another toothless game against mediocre competition last night, but I don’t care because this evening I’m going to a showing of The Two Escobars at Tribeca Cinemas. Ah when Colombia was producing great soccer and plenty of cocaine. Well there’s the later…

Video

Henry Video Interview

October 11, 2010 — by Sean

Thierry sat down and answered some questions asked by a slightly scared looking TIME reporter, mostly simple stuff though he was asked about the now infamous handball vs Ireland that knocked them out of the 2010 World Cup. The Red Bulls star is a media pro, and always comes off a smooth operator.