Mourinho – I miss English football

March 31, 2010

Inter Milan’s former Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho admits he still misses managing in the Premier League…

View full post on Chelsea Football Club RSS news from Football.co.uk

Why is The English Premier League the Most Followed in the World?

March 10, 2010

I have followed European football closely for nearly two decades, but I get an extra buzz each time I see the English Premiership or discuss its football. I have noticed the same passion among soccer fans who show more excitement when the discussion or viewing shifts to the Premiership.

What are the reasons for this keen interest in the football played in England?

My research has revealed the following facts:

The Pace
The pace of the English game is fast, fluid and furious, and it therefore makes viewing it more attractive than say, the Serie A which is more tactical and thus less entertaining to watch. The variety in play of the different Premier League teams also makes for attractive viewing as Arsenal’s breathtaking passing style contrasts with Bolton’s gutsy style as well as Manchester United’s pacy and sleek counter attacking approach.

The Fans
The average English fan is extra- passionate about the game and would show it in his singing on and off the stands. He has a song for his team, the players, and some for each opposing team and player. He wears his club’s colors proudly (I am not saying that other leagues don’t. But in England it is different!), and his entire family is clad in it.

In England the stands are fuller than anywhere else in Europe, even with the exorbitant ticket prices.

Television Coverage
Television coverage is detailed, with cameras covering the action from as many as 20 angles in some cases. The players are shown up-close, and their reactions, emotions as well as that of the fans are well captured for the viewer. I have seen rabbits run across the pitch at half time, and cameras follow it with interest.

Figures show that in the U.S many fans religiously get up each weekend at 4:30am PT to watch the early kick-off.

Marketing
The Premiership is well marketed, and it is common place to hear commentators describe it as “the best football league in the world” When a product is that described it sticks in the mind and is soon believed.

With the variety of stars in the Premiership from all over the world it also naturally draws followership from fans who want to follow the progress of their countrymen or favourites.

Success
In the past 5 years, England has presented more clubs in the final stages of the European Champions League than any other European country, with Manchester United and Chelsea playing the final in Moscow in 2008. This followed Liverpool’s victory in 2005 against AC Milan.

It is difficult to detach one from the English Premier League after these facts.

Alfred Biosah
www.soccerxtra.net

English Premier League – the Continuing Saga of Manchester City

March 9, 2010

Teams like West Ham United who were reported to have placed all its players up for sale but giving manager Gianfranco Zola the option to keep players that he chooses  and Portsmouth are said to be sufferring from dwindling resources forcing their respective managements to sell some of their best players to keep them afloat financially.

I personally wonder about Manchester United’s shirt sponsorship with AIG. With the American parent company now under government hands because of the bailout plan that the Bush government issued to the firm, isn’t it only fair that AIG’s sponsorship be stopped because I find it odd that a company which almost collapsed but was saved by tax payers’ money is actually siphoning some of it to pay United’s stars with astronomical amounts of cash? I can’t remember just how much the contract was worth or the terms of payment but isn’t it something that is a conundrum to you in the spirit of fair play? I  do not claim to be a business insider but all I’m asking is that will somebody from AIG or even Manchester United shed some light on this?

Recently, Manchester City which was formerly owned by ousted Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was then sold to Arab group Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment (ADUG) with Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan as the owner. Its mission statement is to make Manchester City the biggest club in the Premier League and to finish in the top four of the current season. Its first shocking signing was when they got Robinho from Real Madrid for a record fee in Britain of 32 million British Pounds after Robinho’s wish to join Chelsea was turned down by Real.

For the January transfer window, the Soccer team signed left back Wayne Bridge from Chelsea for US$15 million and is now in the process of formalizing the deal with unsettled West Ham United striker Craig Bellamy for US$21 million. Mark Hughes has also finalised a deal with Bundesliga team Hamburg for the services of  Dutch midfielder Nigel de Jong. The transfer fee hasn’t been agreed to yet but it was reported that Manchester City may be willing to pay as much as US$27 million for de Jong.

But the transfer story of the year is whether or not AC Milan’s prized Brazilian playmaker Kaka joins the team with the club having offered a more than US$150 million for his services plus a record breaking salary. It was also reported that Kaka’s father, who also acts as his son’s agent is scheduled to visit Manchester City and continue negotiations for his son’s interests.

There are a lot of things that I am not aware of about this story. First is that is Kaka’s contract with AC Milan about to expire? If not, is the record breaking financial offer a way for City to entice the Brazilian to be unsettled and therefore turn his back to Milan? Is there really such an offer forwarded to Kaka’s camp of such a high sums of cash?

Whatever it is that Mark Hughes thinks that his club is actually doing the right thing in pursuing Kaka, I personally cannot swallow the fact that they seem to be flaunting their money as a bait for these established stars. If they do succeed in getting him, who is next, Lionel Messi?

Live soccer match scores at ScoresPro.com/soccer.

More Premier League Stars Leaving English Premier League!

March 9, 2010

When football fans around the world saw that three of the four semi-finalists in last Champions League were from England, they realized why English Premier League was regarded as, not ‘one’ of the best, but “THE BEST” in the world of football. Though the eventual champions were not one of those English teams, football fans around the world were left in no doubt as to which football league dominated the world of football.
English Premier League has been host to many football greats, both from within England and outside. Football stars from Brazil, Argentina, Italy, France, Spain and many other nations have graced the stage of English Premier League. More recently however, more foreign stars have been found leaving English Premier League than joining it. Here I look at the last few transfer windows and try to tell you how the exodus of the number of stars has exceeded the number of incoming stars into the English Premier League.

After the Italians lifted the football World Cup trophy, people were expecting quite a few number of World Cup stars to join the English Premier League for the huge revenue it offered. However, none of those Italian footballers eventually came to the Premier League. During the last few Premier League transfer windows, names such as Ronaldinho, Riquelme, Adriano, Villa and many others were tipped to come to England. Again the end result was that these players were not ready to leave Spain and Italy.

In 2006 Ruud van Nistelrooy, a success story with Manchester united switched to a mediterranean climate when he joined Real Madrid of Spain as the biggest signing of the transfer window. Along with Van Nistelrooy, Arjen Robben of Chelsea and Gabrielle Heinze of Manchester United also left the premier league for the Spanish city of Madrid for Real Madrid football club.

During this year’s transfer window, Christiano Ronaldo, probably the greatest striker Manchester united has ever produced, said ‘’bye bye’’ to English Premier League. Once again, his destination was not at all surprising, real Madrid of Spain

Thierry henry, at the peak of his game at arsenal, left the English Premier League for Barcelona. Henry however, does open the admit that were it not for the arsenal manager Arsene Wenger and a great platform for football like English Premier League, he would never have been the player he is today.

English Premier League – Is It Losing Its Midas Touch?

March 8, 2010

For several years, the English Premier League was widely acknowledged to be the richest football competition in the world. Not only did they have the greatest television deals in place for greater revenue, but they also have clubs with far reaching brands. These included Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and many more.

The Premier League clubs would enjoy high attendances and consistently did well in European competitions. This in turn brought in more revenue from gate receipts and merchandising. The combined financial rewards with broadcast rights led to the clubs attracting better quality players both home and abroad, thus giving them further opportunities to improve both on and off the field.

This would appear to go on and on in a neverending cycle of wealth. However, the latest money rankings of European clubs have indicated otherwise. There are now no Premier League teams in the top two richest football clubs in Europe. Instead, previous leaders like Manchester United and Chelsea have fallen short and slid down the rankings. The only improvement was seen from Arsenal and Manchester City, both clubs having benefited in different ways. Now, the top two Spanish football teams of Real Madrid and Barcelona have outstripped their English rivals which have prompted more opinions that English football is again on the decline.

Is it true then that being overtaken on the money list truly points to the demise of wealth and success in English football? Such an accusation would require proper analysis and discussion of the true state of the various Premier League club involved. Are they suffering from a drop in revenue and thus faring worse in other areas as a result of that?

One would first have to determine the change in ownership of several of these clubs. Teams like Manchester United and Chelsea have gone from being largely British owned in the past to foreign owners or being run like commercial entities. Some of these new owners took over the clubs and used them as debt equity wagons thus causing them to be saddled with debts on the books. It does not reflect a true drop in the revenue streams for the clubs.

However, with these debts, many of which require large interest payments for many years, the bottomline of these clubs have thus taken a serious hit. Their revenues might have increased with success, but they are disproportionately less than the large amounts of debt that were transferred to their accounts. This is something that is not necessarily clear on first look with recent money rankings.

Not all the English club are also facing the same debt problems. For instance, Arsenal are perhaps the club with the healthiest bottomline of all the major Premier League clubs. They have a steady positive turnover, the club enjoys good success on the pitch and they embark on sound commercial ventures that do not take on too much risk. Manchester United might have reported a high level of debt, but the club’s business has probably the highest revenue generated of all English football clubs.

With these few reasons alone, it is enough to disprove the media’s accusations that the English Premier League is facing financial disaster and losing out to their rivals from other European leagues. While it is definitely true that they face ever higher levels of risk due to debt undertaking and spending on famous players, the clubs still report good profits from various businesses related to them and football in general. And as long as they perform above average in competitions, there will be opportunities for further expansion worldwide which only helps to improve bottomlines across the board.

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