Top Stories

Mid-Day Ticker: Suarez open to staying, Kean willing to postpone, and more

Luis Suarez 2 (Getty Images)

By FRANCO PANIZO

Luis Suarez's future at Liverpool may be up in the air, but he is hoping to end any and all speculation by signing a new deal with the club.

Plagued by controversy since joining Liverpool from Ajax in January 2011, Suarez is keen on extending his time with the Reds. The Uruguayan forward said he is happy at the club despite having been banned for eight-games for a racially abusing Manchester United defender Patrice Evra.

Suarez, who still believes he was a victim in the Evra ordeal due to him being suspended despite what he called no concrete evidence, is currently contracted to stay with Liverpool until 2016.

Here are more stories from around the soccer world:

KEAN OPEN TO POSTPONING GAME VS. BOLTON

With Bolton dealing with a ton of emotions as Fabrice Muamba continues to fight for his life, Blackburn Rovers manager Steve Kean is open to postponing their upcoming game. Bolton's league match on Tuesday versus Aston Villa has already been postponed, and Kean said he would be willing to do the same for Saturday's match between his club and the Trotters if they ask.

ROMA TO TRAIN IN ORLANDO

AS Roma is coming to the United States. The Italian club has agreed to a six-year deal with ESPN Wide World of Sports that will see it train at the facility in Orlando, Florida during Serie A's winter break. Roma is currently owned by U.S. businessman Tomaso DiBenedetto.

RED BULLS SIGN MADURO

The New York Red Bulls have made an addition to their roster, signing midfielder Ryan Maduro on Monday. Maduro, who trained with Portuguese club Belenenses and two English clubs in the past year, spent much of the preseason with the Red Bulls. The 25-year-old Madura originally hails from from Providence, RI and played for Providence College.

STRIKERS TOP CANADIAN U-23 TEAM

One of the U.S Under-23 men's national team's Group A opponents for World Cup qualifying suffered a loss on Sunday, as Canada was bested by the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers in Sunrise, Fla. The NASL club topped Canada's U-23 team through an 86th minute goal from former FAU forward Darnell King.

The United States plays Canada in their second Group A match on March 24 in Nashville, Tenn.

—–

Would you like to see Suarez extend his stay with Liverpool? Think Bolton should ask to postpone their game versus Blackburn? Happy the Red Bulls signed Maduro?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. thank you for this useful post. i understand Ives works for Fox, but that doesn’t mean I can’t ask for an article on the details of this deal. not specific to what Fox plans to do, but rather, what we know about AJ’s plans.

    as for the Bundesliga/GolTV thing, what i was reading stated that AJ was going to buy out GolTV, and thus buy out their Bundesliga rights. as such, how will that affect their deal with ESPN? and to a lesser extent, what about the Serie A and EPL games FSC licenses to ESPN. specifically, ESPN3 which has become a great medium for soccer.

    these guys above are acting like it’s a simple answer when, in fact, it could be a very messy situation. which is why i wanted to get more details on it. capitalism can be great for competition, but as we have seen with TV rights, capitalism does the exact opposite sometimes. increases competition and yet prices increase (e.g. Netflix vs. Hollywood vs. Amazon vs. Hulu, etc.). these companies got into a huge bidding war for TV rights and instead of this increase in competition lowering prices, it raised prices across the board.

    as such, i wanted to see if there were any further details about how AJ planned to set this all up. honestly, i think this could be a great thing, but i need more details. this could be great because maybe they’ll have all their channels on a single sports package unlike FSC+. we already pay for FSC and then have to pay another $13 for FSC+ (on Fios). granted, a lot of these questions come down to cable providers too. but i have to assume AJ is going to be in talks with these cable providers to ensure US viewers have the same access to these games (hopefully more access). but i don’t want to assume, i want to know. i’m also curious to know about spanish language rights.

    Reply
  2. Ives works for FOX. He cannot answer your question.

    GOLTV has Bundesliga in the U.S. through May 2015 with 2 matches each round sublicensed to ESPN, Inc. Those rights were locked down several months ago.

    Al Jazeera will have U.S. rights to La Liga in 2012-2015, Serie A in 2012-2015, and Ligue 1 in 2012-2018.

    In particular, the international rights to Ligue 1 were bought by Al Jazeera on a global basis last May for 6 seasons, for only EURO 32 million/season (EURO 192 million total.)

    U.S. rights to EPL in 2013-2016 will be sold by the Premier League in August or September.

    Al Jazeera is using a subsidiary of MEDIAPRO (the company that markets the international media rights to La Liga) in South Florida to get a Spanish-language sports channel up and running.

    Al Jazeera is also planning a French-language sports channel for North America (primary target is Quebec and Atlantic Canada) which will be modified from the channel Al Jazeera is planning to launch in France.

    Reply
  3. I have to agree with abc, common sense implies that they will have multiple channels in order to maximize advertising profits. I think you concern is unnecessary at this point.

    Reply
  4. Yes i do donkey. Obviously my concern isn’t english broadcasts. Instead, i am wondering about how many channels, will it be in HD and will they put those channels on the existing sports package. Or will they only have one channel and therefore screw how many games we have access too. So stop flipping out about a legit concern given they have no further details right now.

    Reply
  5. What are you worried about? If they spent that kind of money for US soccer rights, obviously they would spend more money to have the proper channels to broadcast it. You think they’re going to buy up all those rights here in the US and not broadcast in English? Do you know how capitalism works?

    Reply
  6. SBI, what is the deal with Al Jazeera looking to buy the US soccer rights for the EPL, La Liga, Serie A and the Bundesliga? According to some articles, they are going to buy GolTV as well as buy EPL and Serie A rights away from FSC.

    this scares me because they don’t have a normal channel. all they have is an HD channel on DirectTV that is in arabic. I’m sure they have some kind of plan in place, but it sounds like these guys are going to outbid everyone. Qatari oil money might ruin soccer for us unless they start 2-3 channels that offer HD.

    Reply
  7. He is also one *ell of a crybaby. I remember him crying like a little baby without his bottle when the U-20 beat Uruguay.

    Reply
  8. Ha… imagine playing for Roma and being told for the next 6 years your break training will be in Orlando FLA. I sense a wedge issue to be exploited by a savvy agent.

    Reply

Leave a Comment