Fans On A Wing And A Prayer For The World Cup
by (Article | Financial Times - December 5)
Football fans were on their phones to travel agents yesterday asking for information about accommodation and flights to South Africa next June following the World Cup draw that pitted England in a first-round group consisting of Slovenia, Algeria and the US. more details | go to article
Never Mind The Soccer, Listen To The Chatter
by (Commentary | Financial Times - February 20)
“Ferguson: Get Mourinho”; “Fergie mocks Mourinho mind games”; “Master baiter Mourinho prepares for war with Manchester United”. These are some of the old headlines that will be dredged up before Inter Milan (coached by José Mourinho) play United (coached by Sir Alex Ferguson) in the Champions League on Tuesday. Millions of people will waste portions of their lives reading this sort of thing. Far fewer people will bother watching the match itself. more details | go to article
Beckham Must Woo US Soccer Moms
by (Analysis | Financial Times - July 6)
One evening last year, I found myself sitting beside a lake in Norway with the two foremost experts on US suburbia. Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of South Park, the brilliant cartoon send-up of the suburbs, were attending the same conference as me. At one point we talked about soccer in the US. Yes, this really happened. more details | go to article
EU Labour Movement Rules Threaten Football, Says Platini
by (Profile/Interview | Financial Times - May 21)
Michel Platini, Uefa president, says competitive football is under threat in Europe unless sports are exempted from EU rules on free movement of labour in order to counter the recruiting power of the richest clubs. more details | go to article
Man Utd Deal Cuts Interest Payments
by (Article | Financial Times - July 17)
Manchester United has finalised a new £660m ($1.2bn, €958m) debt package that cuts its interest bill and strengthens the Glazer family’s grip on the English football club. more details | go to article
Cannavaro Makes His Mark Again
by (Commentary | Financial Times - July 12)
Holding the World Cup aloft is the highlight of a life. But Italian captain Fabio Cannavaro was a world champion long before Sunday. more details | go to article
Soccer Scores In The TV Rights Game
by (Analysis | Financial Times - May 19)
The announcement that British Sky Broadcasting will pay about $800m a season for the right to broadcast 92 English Premier League soccer games will have raised eyebrows among owners of National Football League teams in the US. more details | go to article
Italian Football Rocked By Match-Fixing Scandal
by (Analysis | Financial Times - May 12)
A suspected match-fixing scandal is threatening to engulf Italian football less than a month before the World Cup. ADVERTISEMENT More than 40 people – including two senior officials from Juventus, the country’s most successful club – have been placed under investigation mostly for “suspected criminal association for the purpose of sporting fraud”. more details | go to article
BSkyB To Face New Fight For TV Football
by (Article | Financial Times - June 10)
British Sky Broadcasting is set to face stiff competition for coverage of Premier League football from Setanta Sports, after the Irish TV group offered a key job to one of the architects of BSkyB's successful sports strategy. more details | go to article
Crowd Pleasers
by (Analysis | Financial Times - May 27)
Jacques Herzog, the Swiss architect, sits in a leather armchair looking out over the Munich football stadium he has just built. Thin and shaven-headed, Herzog exudes nervous energy as he scours the grey stands. more details | go to article
Team-Mates From Mars And Venus
by (Commentary | Financial Times - April 15)
Several minutes after arriving to study at a US university, I signed up for mixed soccer. Soon afterwards my team won our university's mixed soccer league. I had not known such a league existed, and we had barely played in it, but apparently we had turned up for matches more often than any other team. more details | go to article
Can Boston's Messiah Deliver Reds?
by (Profile/Interview | Financial Times - January 21)
Robert Kraft resuscitated the New England Patriots. Could he restore Liverpool's former glories? If the New England Patriots are once again dousing themselves in champagne two weeks from now, city officials in Boston might just want to clear some space for a monument to team owner Robert Kraft. more details | go to article
Man Utd To Seek Return Of Director
by (Article | Financial Times - December 6)
The board of Manchester United is preparing to make an approach to Malcolm Glazer, the US billionaire and one of the football club's largest shareholders, about the reinstatement of a director that Mr Glazer voted off the board last month. more details | go to article
Liverpool FC In £100m Talks With L4
by (Article | Financial Times - December 2)
Liverpool Football Club are in talks with L4 group, a consortium put together by two US-based entertainment executives with Liverpool roots, in a move that could lead to a £100m-plus deal for control of the club. The consortium is now thought to have the involvement of a big-name former Liverpool player, earmarked for a seat on a reshaped board if a deal goes ahead, and the backing of a US sports and entertainment group. more details | go to article
Sirius Signs To Broadcast Uk Soccer
by (Article | Financial Times - November 29)
Sirius Satellite RadioSirius, the satellite radio operator that last week named former Viacom president Mel Karmazin as it chief executive, has signed a deal to broadcast Britain's top soccer matches. The move forms part of Sirius' expansion of its sports and music offering as it tries to become a broader media force using satellite transmissions to deliver digital entertainment across the US. more details | go to article