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Mid-Day Ticker: Chelsea fails in move bid, WPS terminates magicJack and more

Stamford Bridge

By CALEB SONNELAND

Chelsea may not be bolting from Stamford Bridge for a new home after all.

The club came up short in its attempt to convince the necessary majority of the Chelsea Pitch Owners to sell back the stadium land that the club sold to the supporter-spearheaded group, and as a result, the club can't regain ownership of the entire grounds.

According to The Telegraph (UK), Chelsea won't move from Stamford Bridge unless it can make a profit from the current grounds going forward, and as long as the club does not control the ownership rights to the entire area and the naming rights of the stadium — another CPO asset — it won't be able to do so.

Here are some other stories to keep your Thursday rolling along:

WPS TERMINATES MAGICJACK

The Women's Professional Soccer team that employed U.S. women's national team stars Hope Solo, Abby Wambach, Christie Rampone and Megan Rapinoe is no longer after WPS terminated magicJack, formerly known as the Washington Freedom. 

More recently based in Boca Raton, Fla., the club, owner by the mercurial Dan Borislow, was voted out of the WPS by its Board of Governors on Tuesday.

It remains to be seen what action the USWNT players take in securing their futures at other WPS clubs.

FIFA SECURES WORLD CUP TV DEALS

In television rights deals worth around $1.85 billion, FIFA completed its sales of the broadcasting privileges for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

The United States is believed to account for around $1.2 billion of the deals, with Fox, Telemundo and Futbol de Primera Radio all securing broadcasting rights.

FIFA also sold rights to Canada's Bell Media, which wrestled the privileges from CBC, Canada's previous broadcaster of the World Cup. 

FERDINANDS SHUN TERRY

Life isn't getting any easier for John Terry.

The Chelsea golden boy has found himself at the heart of controversy once more following allegations from Queens Park Rangers' Anton Ferdinand that Terry racially abused him when the two sides clashed over the weekend. 

Terry has denied the claims, while club manager Andre Villas-Boas has leapt to the defense of his captain and said that the issue was resolved in a locker-room discussion between the two players after the game.

Despite his insistence of innocence, both Anton Ferdinand and his brother Rio Ferdinand (of Manchester United) are refusing to speak with Terry and his alleged "frantic attempts" to get in touch with the Ferdinand's have been ignored.

The British Football Association is looking into the incident, using this video as evidence.

TOURE SET TO FIGHT CITY BAN

Not long after his six-month club-imposed drug ban, Kolo Toure looks set for yet further disciplinary action — action, his agent claims, that the player will fight.

Back in February, Toure tested positive for a banned substance and was subsequently suspended by Manchester City until August.  The substance, it was later revealed, came from his use of his wife's weight loss pills.

Despite serving out his six months, City is now thought to be ready to throw Toure in front of a internal disciplinary panel next week. The purpose of the panel is to determine whether to fine the Ivory Coast defender for his extended absence from playing duty. It was confirmed after his drug test that Toure had not consulted the club medical team before consuming the pills.

Meanwhile, Toure is said to be interested in a potential move away from Eastlands in favor of Paris Saint-Germain.

QUICK KICKS

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What do you make of the Chelsea stadium situation? Think WPS made the right move in terminating magicJack? What do you see FIFA doing with all that money? Do you believe Terry?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. The Bridge is fine. Abramovich is just another greedy owner who wants a new place like where the Giants/Jets play, Yankee Stadium, Emirates Stadium, etc etc where they can charge astronomical ticket prices and price out real fans. I’m really happy for Chelsea fans.

    MLS fans need to set up supporters’ trusts to get a piece of ownership as soon as possible. It will be easier before MLS is one of the big sports in the country.

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  2. maybe off topic but related….watched the mls game on direct tv last nite….direct tv says it is going to drop all the fox sport channels on nov 1….yikes!

    Also, i hope fox makes huge improvements in their broadcast quality….the games on their channel is very poor…

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  3. Maybe, maybe not. Reports from credible WPS reporters say that WPS is able to continue next season with five teams, and there is the possibility of an expansion franchise in Connecticut (one that’s been rumored since late summer, so it’s not a half-assed replacement team).

    I don’t see that Borislow brought so much more money that he made the league financially viable. Especially if he couldn’t be bothered to have a front office staff or a website or put up adboards.

    If WPS can make it through their fourth season, there’s a strong chance that there will be a western division in 2013 with at least Vancouver and probably one or two other teams (Seattle, Portland, and/or LA)? And in addition to CT, there’s talk of a D.C. United-affiliated team and a team in Dallas that are looking to join.

    Yeah, it’s speculation. But MLS didn’t blossom overnight, so I don’t see why we should expect WPS to.

    If WPS is smart (and they don’t run their league like United Football has run theirs), they can make it like MLS has.

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  4. I don’t understand why Chelsea keeps looking for a new place. Granted, I haven’t been there, but the Bridge can’t be all that bad can it?

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  5. Don’t kid yourselves. Losing magicjack is a HUGE blow to this league surviving. Borislaw was a jerk and bully, but he brought money into the league. Without him, there would be no WPS in 2011.

    They only have five teams with Boston looking dire. Stick a fork in WPS.

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  6. I couldn’t tell what he said in that video. What is he being accused of saying? Regardless, Terry is a scumbag and I hope he gets in serious trouble for this.

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  7. If the current expansion of people watching games on the Internet continues, will FOX regret spending so much on a broadcast so far down the road?

    When TV and computers have fully merged by then I can see regular networks having to change their entire business model.

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  8. Here’s a link to one article ( http://www.allwhitekit.com/?p=5948. Having personally spoken but from with friends who worked in the leaague for other teams as well as some former MagicJack players, their owner seemed like a Tyrant hell bent on doing things his way while screwing any and everybody over. The players were incredibly restricted and not treated with respect as professionals. I’ll see if I can find something more descriptive. To read it is mind boggling stuff, you’d never expect a pro team in North America to treat its athletes in this manner. Hopefully others on this thread can go into more detail and do a better job of articulating this Magic Jack situation than I.

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  9. Hopefully Fox has something similar to Watch ESPN in place by 2018. Being able to watch every World Cup game online was a huge plus for ESPN having the World Cup last summer.

    Soccer will never advance beyond its current niche in the U.S. as long as the games are shown on a premium channel not included in already ridiculously expensive cable packages and aren’t available legally online during work hours.

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  10. Couldn’t agree with you more. This guy was a serious Piece of Work and the league and players are so much better without him. Ashame, since he had an opportunity to do alot of good for the Women’s game in this country.

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  11. I feel bad for the magicJack players, but I dance on magicJack’s grave. Borislow has done nothing but give WPS the finger week in and week out.

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  12. It’s insane that the US accounts for 2/3 of the TV money. The US! Where soccer is the fifth sport! Something is wrong with this picture. It’s no wonder we pay so much for our cable bill.

    Reply

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