Top Stories

Thursday Kickoff: Controversy brewing at Real Madrid, Sao Paulo wins in Libertadores, and more

BY DAN KARELL

Real Madrid captains Iker Casillas and Sergio Ramos have declared a fiery ultimatum to club President Florentino Perez on the matter of manager Jose Mourinho, according to Spanish publication Marca.

In the scathing report, the captains have declared that Perez must either sack Mourinho, or else many of the squad will hand in their transfer requests. This all reportedly occurred during a meeting on Tuesday afternoon, prior to Real Madrid’s trip to Valencia for their 1-1 Copa Del Rey match.

Perez, Casillas and Ramos have all come out today refuting the report, calling it a lie.

Here are some more stories to get your Thursday started:

FIVE-STAR SAO PAULO RUNS WILD IN COPA LIBERTADORES

Sao Paulo began their Copa Libertadores campaign in style, demolishing Bolivar of Bolivia 5-0 last night in Sao Paulo.

Former Brazilian national team star Luis Fabiano scored two of his teams three goals in the first half, before his side added two more in the second, one a penalty kick from Brazilian legend, and starting goalkeeper, Rogerio Ceni.

In the other Copa Libertadores action last night, 2008 Libertadores champion LDU Quito took down Gremio in Ecuador by a score of 1-0. Midfielder Carlos Feraud scored the lone goal for the Ecuadorian club in the 75th minute, giving Quito the advantage heading into next week’s second leg.

The final two matches of the first-leg of the first stage will be tonight, as Deportes Tolima of Colombia host’s Universidad Cesar Vallejo, and Uruguayan club Defensor Sporting hosts neighboring rivals Olympia of Paraguay.

SPANISH CLUBS TOP FOOTBALL MONEY LEAGUE

In Deloitte’s yearly list which ranks clubs based on their revenue from last season, Spanish clubs Real Madrid and Barcelona sit top the latest rankings of richest clubs in the world.

Madrid made a reported €512 million last year, followed by Barcelona with €483 million. Manchester United (€395.9m), Bayern Munich (€368.4m), and Chelsea (€322.6m) round out the top five.

Despite their recent drop in the standings, Liverpool FC still made €232.2 million last year, good for 9th best in the world.

CHILE, COLOMBIA WIN IN SOUTH AMERICAN YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIP

Chile put on a masterful performance yesterday in the South American Youth Championship’s final stage, beating Ecuador 4-1, with a couple of highlight reel goals. Chilean forward Nicolas Castillo opened the scoring with a delightful chip over the keeper, while teammate Felipe Mora scored a terrific curling free-kick for Chile’s fourth goal on the day.

Meanwhile Colombia took care of Uruguay by a score of 1-0, putting them in pole position to be one of four South American qualifiers to the U-20 World Cup later this year. With three games remaining, Colombia can qualify by the end of the next game if they win, and Paraguay records a win or draw in their next match against Equador.

In the other South American U-20’s match yesterday, Peru tied Paraguay 1-1. Paraguay’s Junior Alonso tied up the score in the 82nd minute after Peru’s Miguel Araujo took the lead in the 28th minute.

QUICK KICKS

Ethopia’s football association has been fined $10,000 for crowd trouble during their 1-1 draw against Zambia on Monday. (REPORT)

Palermo have acquired forward Mauro Boselli from Wigan on loan until the end of the season. (REPORT)

French forward Yoan Gouffran has officially signed for Newcastle, joining on a four-and-a-half year contract. (REPORT)

Argentina has announced their squad for their February 6 friendly against Sweden in the brand new Friends Arena. (REPORT)

——————-

What do you think of these reports? Are Mourinho’s days at Real Madrid numbered? Do you see Luis Fabiano making a return to Europe at some point? Are you surprised about the numbers reported in Deloitte’s football money league?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

    • Incorrect, many people in other countries care about the NFL. Wait, I’m sorry, lemme turn it up for you….MANY PEOPLE IN OTHER COUNTRIES CARE ABOUT THE NFL!! Quit being a punk and learn to spell and use a keyboard. I hope you are a young child and take this is as a learning experience. Otherwise, you don’t realize how popular the sports is in this country is my man/woman. And that’s just laziness. I love soccer, but American football (pro and college) is my main squeeze.

      Can’t we all just get along?!

      Reply
  1. Everyone is talking about how much the top 2 made and it IS phenominal, but that is what happens when you put all the money and best players to two teams ( rather than sharing at least somewhat ).

    Look at number 20 and consider this is for many nations. Less revenue $ than my Seattle Mariners, historically one of the worst teams in the history of baseball.

    Reply
  2. We need some kind of tell-all book about this year in Madrid that started with Ronaldo’s “I’m sad, and the club knows why.” I’m really surprised, I admired the way they won the league last year and thought they would build on it. Is Mourinho just pushing the same buttons over and over again, and burned out his team?

    Reply
  3. ECUADOR. Not Equador like equator. Easy mistake to make, but pretty clear lack of spell check used. Loved the update content otherwise, thanks.

    Reply
  4. That new stadium has paid off for Juventus. They’re up to 10th on the money list now. You’d have to think that other clubs will follow suit and move to new grounds that can help drive revenue.

    Reply
  5. 512 million euros and 483 million. In a country with fiscal problems. Is this really the profit. If so holy crap the NFL has a revenue of 9 billion dollars.

    Reply
    • If you follow the link, it appears to be revenues, not profits, to which the sums refer. That means that the NFL’s annual revenue figure (that you cite) isn’t probably all that far off from what I imagine would be the total revenue generated by all Premier League teams, or La Liga teams. Still interesting, though, that the numbers are that close, for leagues in countries with such a relative difference in national economy. Testament to the international market power of top soccer clubs…

      Reply
      • The PL makes far more than the NFL. But centralized TV revenue will cost teams. Everyone there earns the same amount from TV deals. Also going to a game is a lot cheaper than NFL.

    • In october it was reported the TOTAL NFL revenue was 8.3 billion. That averages out to $260 per team. So I’d say 512m Euro’s is pretty profittable

      Reply
    • The NFL is better monetized than La liga, or any other soccer federations. Even with more fans and more games NFL manages to makes more money. Mostly because there are scores of ads per game and with americans being more loaded per capita the ads are worth the money cause we spend more.

      That aside there maybe alot of loss and the like in individual football league teams but if you look at EPLs new tv contract which starts next season their top 10 moneyed teams alone may be atleast bringing in between 2 to 3 billion and as the game grows this will continue to grow in all the markets all over.

      The NFL isnt growing in any other markets than where it is already (please one game in london is irrelevant) its relying on its fan base getting richer and spending more (an unsustainable bubble) than actually expanding the game.

      The NBA did a better job they are realistically the only sport that can compete with soccer globally and even then it falls apart without other viable leagues in other countries. When an argument can happen whether J league/Chinese league/NBA/Euro league is better then FIFA should start to worry.

      Reply
  6. In the Coppa Italia, MB had another good game as Roma defeated Inter 2-1. It looks like Bradley has replaced De Rossi, who is out injured for another 2-4 weeks, as the key man in the middle (the starting lineup had him at right midfield, but he played centrally throughout the match.)

    Reply
    • I realized in the 2nd half that game was happening and tuned into a dodgy internet feed. After a couple minutes Bradley gets the ball and makes a nice cut and the announcer excitedly yelped, “MEEEEEESTER MICHAEL BRADLEY!” He’s clearly making at least a few fans over there 🙂

      Reply

Leave a Comment