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.