By CALEB SONNELAND
Despite the fact that there's still a full month until the January transfer window opens, the possibility of LA Galaxy star David Beckham linking up with Paris St. Germain has the team talking.
Players Kevin Gameiro, Sylvain Armand and Christophe Jallet all voiced their support for the seasoned veteran signing on, and with the financial clout of PSG might be enough to land Beckham at the club.
Beckham's contract expires at the end of the MLS season in November and PSG is said to be sniffing around the player along with the likes of Manchester United and Tottenham.
The Englishman has long been linked with a move back to Europe, and if his contract expires, it's looking increasingly likely that Beckham could make the return.
The player joined the Galaxy in 2007 for a five-year-deal worth $32.5 million from Real Madrid. He has since spent time on loan at AC Milan as well as trained with Tottenham.
Here are some other stories from across the world to keep you Monday rolling along:
FOREIGN OWNERS COULD VOTE TO SCRAP RELEGATION/PROMOTION
Richard Bevan, chief executive of the League Managers' Association, mentioned the possibility that, due to the increase in foreign ownership in the English Premier League, the relegation and promotion of clubs between the Premiership and Championship could be done away with.
Bevan believes that if "four or five" teams come under foreign ownership, the owners could swing the vote to get rid of the promotion and relegation process.
Bevan and the LMA are taking measures in trying to prevent the motion by submitting a parliamentary inquiry to England's FA suggesting a licensing system for clubs.
Of the 20 teams in the EPL, half are under foreign ownership.
SUAREZ "UPSET" BY ABUSE CLAIMS
Liverpool striker Luis Suarez made headlines the last time Liverpool and Manchester United clashed for his stellar display, however, this time around, he's in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.
Suarez battled with United captain Patrice Evra on several occasions on Saturday, with the conflict reaching its peak in the second half when the two players exchanged heated words at length. Evra was shown a yellow card for pushing away Suarez's hand from his head.
Evra spoke to the media after the game and claims that the Uruguayan used a "certain word" more than 10 times during their exchange and that Suarez tried to wind him up.
However, Suarez spoke to the media about the incident for the first time since the game, saying that he is "upset" by claims that he racially abused Evra.
The FA has launched an investigation regarding the two players chief executive Gordon Taylor serving as a mediator in the issue.
MANCINI WANTS CITY STAY
Just under two years ago, Roberto Mancini took control at big-spending Manchester City, and now the Italian hopes to continue as the boss at the Etihad Stadium.
Mancini took over from Mark Hughes in December 2009 and is coming off a successful season which included an FA Cup final victory as well as one of the coveted Top 4 spots in the league, finishing third.
With the last year of his contract quickly approaching, Mancini insists he isn't in a rush to pen a deal, but insists that he would very much like to continue in his current position.
Manchester City faces Villareal tomorrow afternoon at 2:45pm ET, and the pressure is on the Blues to get a result after only taking a point from its first two matches.
“Insures” is not a word I would use (or did use). The system should, over time, create logical economic brackets for teams to compete in (this assumes that money=success). Obviously their are exceptions in the case of long term mismanagement (Chicago Cubs (i’m a fan)).
I think the only way you can insure competitive balance is through a strict salary cap type situation similar to the NFL. I’m not certain how this would work in a game where you are dealing with a global market of players unless a group like FIFA imposed global salary caps.
All that being said, I doubt competitive balance is what the owners have in mind in this situation; rather, it feels a lot more like wanting a safety net for their investment. Personally, I feel like that net should be team performance.
On what criteria would they determine who stays in the Prem and who is left out? Money? Pay to play? Buy a franchise? Current clubs? What about newbie clubs? What about clubs that were there recently who are fighting in the Championship on their way back?
I would think this would immediately raise up competing leagues in England if this ever were to happen.
Beckham has repeatedly said he wants to play for England in 2012, and 2014. EPL makes sense.
I’m with you. Becks will end up in MLS. He would have to go to PSG by himself because Victoria made it clear she is going nowhere. And given they have a new kid, I don’t see it as a realistic option for him to be playing in France and her living in LA for anything more than a loan.
And I agree about the promotion/relegation thing. They still need 4-5 owners to agree, likely whom will have to be foreign, before they can get that. And even after that, the FA can veto it. I would think a veto is 99% sure.
it’s the foreigners pushing for this, not the english.and it’s because foreign owners are tired of investing in a lower level EPL club and then being relegated and losing a ton of value on the club they bought.
yeah, like other have said, this has nothing to do with quality. these owner’s just want to change the system now that they bought into it rather then accept the risk of relegation they took on when they bought the club.
my question is, how would these owners choose who stays in the EPL? obviously they would be like whoever is there currently. but is that really fair? it’s a mess of an idea and driven by greedy, rich owners. what else is new…
There is ZERO evidence that pro/rel insures competitive balance.
This will never happen. Soccer fans will revolt like never before.
Northzax, Thank you, nice explanation for people why Pro/Reg is just not feasible here.
oh Ivan,that NFL stooge saved MLS.
Ok guy.
Like I said. We’ll see where Becks is playing in April. You stopped just short of a guarantee that it’ll be for PSG and I definitely said he’ll still be within MLS.
As for the USA/France match, I heard speculation about that without even paying attention to the rumor mill. Are you trying to apply to SBI? Are you seeking a reference? That statement just seems like a fan of an indie band that tells everyone they “knew who they were before anyone else11!!” after hearing them reach the Top 40 on the Billboard Charts.
No one cares, bro.
If so, calling out your peers as clueless on an obvious statement of hyperbole and projecting an image like you have inside information because it happens to be involving “your club” just comes off has trying too hard.
Nice job cracking the case though, Sherlock. Too bad you were deep in the line of speculation that had already surfaced.
Eliminating pro/rel in England is fraught with deal breakers. First, the FA reserves veto power and in all likelihood will choose tradition over radical change.
Second, soccer fans will vote with their wallets. If the masses don’t like the idea, they’ll make their opinions heard. It’s all about money.
Finally, it’s nearly impossible to fairly settle on a static table when every year there’s a new batch in the Premiership. Using this year as an example, why would Swansea, Norwich & QPR get lucky while West Ham, Birmingham & Blackpool get the shaft?
It’s not an issue of one upping another, the issue is relaying credible info based on something remotely factual other than speculation. Maybe you know more about it than I do and just chose not to cite your source. I didn’t cite my sources, I can and just neglected to do so earlier but there’s quite a bit out there and has been for the past few weeks.
Now, stop getting hung up on the Clueless remark and NO I will not make such a statement about myself nor will I seek a beer from you. Not sure what the point would be in doing either and for the record, I was the one whoe mentioned the France-USA friendly here last week before anyone else metioned it – including this site.
LOVED this analysis. Thanks.
Well, one things for sure, one of us will be wrong come April.
(hint: it won’t be me =P…or I owe you a drink. however, if you’re incorrect – you must state that you’re “clueless” once in every post for a week I’m exempt since I’m already “clueless”).
Lemme toss in my 2 shillings on the “Euro” & “MLS” snobs. Personally, I can’t stand either since they both seem to focus on educating all of us about how Superior the league they support is over another. They both have pluses and minuses and the bottom line is that we like what we like for whatever reasons. How can what you like be wrong when it comes to watching the game. Personally, I don’t care for EPL and tend to watch alot of Ligue 1 (PSG fan), La Liga and Serie A. I watch alot of MLS and make it a point to try and watch other leagues when I get a chance. It makes me no better than those people who love EPL et al. Just a difference in the league we enjoy. Funny thing is that when Champion’s League kicks in, we all tend to end up on the same page. That’s a bit of my issues with the “snob” and I’ll leave it there for now.
Completely disagree that this is an antiquated system; in fact, I think this system should be employed for things like MLB as well. Pro/rel creates a system the provides mobility and ultimately competitive balance. Teams that invest enough (in theory) will be able to move up while teams that don’t, or are poorly managed will fall into a league more suited to their economic situation. Getting rid of this systems assumes team’s economic situations never change and would in essence, reward poor management and not investing in the quality of the team.
I’m with Beachbum in disagreeing with your definition of a “EuroSnob”. However we do disagree on the value of the play off system.
It doesn’t make the regular season less meaningful – prior to the Supporter’s Shield, I’d agree with you. Actually, the European Equivalent of the playoffs is the Promotion / Relegation battle at the end of the season. Cups are open to alot more participants and should be viewed as a separate tournament.
You are aware that alot of European Leagues are exploring the idea of using an “American” style play-off system? It’s still a business and they see it for being one hell of a cash cow.
MLS snobs = oxymoron to me. come on
I forgive you
:O)
The talks have been going on for awhile and last week he met with the decision makers in LA – they flew in from Qatar and the talks have progressed quite a bit. Some places are saying it’s 95% done but as well know it’s not done until someone signs on the dotted lines.
Why would I not stand by what I said? I also recall making the following statement “…It’s alot closer to actually happening that you can imagine..”. Unlike your remark of “…Neither will happen & both will remain exclusively within MLS…”
At the very least one would wonder if he’s gonna be here next year since the league hasn’t commented on it nor the Galaxy – at least to the best of my knowledge and this has been in the news for the past few weeks.
MLS & the Galaxy are usually quick and calculated with a response, so at the very least you’d figure something might be going on.
Why would I not be around these boards next year? Because I may be wrong? C’est la Vie, life goes on. If I knew this was a definite deal, you’d have heard about it by now – trust me on that one. Now, I know that I was a part of that first group of people to support Ives’s site well before he had other contributors and I damn well have every intention on continuiing to support one of this country’s best soccer journalist.
Well said. The backlash against “Euro snobs” has created a larger group of MLS snobs who are just as bad. I mean, I don’t expect a LOT of balance from comment threads, but could we at least get a little?
disagree with your definition of eurosnob
If watching Blackburn, Wolves, Birmingham, Wigan, and Blackpool battle for surviving the drop on the final match day makes me a Euro Snob, then call me a Euro Snob.
There are structural differences between Europe and the US that makes a possible adaption of the others’ system untenable at best.
MLS depends too heavily on the draft to move towards a relegation system. Colleges and independent clubs bear most the burden to train players. Until MLS and lower leagues can be financially stable with fully functioning academies, this will be the status quo. No league in the US, save perhaps the NFL, could implement such a system. I would prefer an improving and stable MLS (which it is presently) to one that mimics overseas leagues for mimicry’s sake.
HA!! Every Euro snob who wants relegation in MLS just spit coffee all over their computer.
Pro/Rel really only matters in one place at the top flight: England. and the reason for that? money. The TV payment for a team in the Championship is about 8 million Pounds/season. in the PL? 60m a season. those are the baselines. in Germany, Italy, France, Spain, etc, the bottom feeders in the league get peanuts from TV, compared to the big guys. United pulled in (from the basic TV deal) only about 10 million more than West Ham. (also about ten million more from the ranking (each rank is about 500k, each home tv appearance is another 500k, plus the prize for winning, plus CL, plus plus plus) but a 50 million pound raise will buy you enough, spent well, to survive your first season in the PL,from there, get lucky with some players, and some bounces, and maybe you’re midtable.
compare to say, Spain. Barca gets 100 million Euros from the TV deal, as the bottom feeder, you get 10. now compete with that. the only real financial difference you get is a home match from Barca and one from Real. meanwhile, you have to pay your players more, buy some new ones, double your ticket prices…it’s almost a better financial bet to stay down.
As for MLS, we can either assume the league goes with a salary cap and strict revenue sharing (like now) or adopts the baseball model of all’s fair in love and war. I prefer the former (the English model, not the Spanish one) So you’re the Carolina Railhawks, winners of NASL (single table, no playoffs) and you’re in MLS next season. replacing let’s say, New England. you’re got a ten thousand seat stadium (with maxed out temporary bleachers) that your fans are used to paying $10-15 to visit. That’s now at least tripling, to the 30-50 most MLS fans pay. So your fans are grumpy, but heck, you need the money. After all, you have to raise your payroll from roughly $400k to about $2m just to have a shot. and you have more travel, that west coast swing alone has to cost a couple hundred grand. MLS may not stay at the Mandarin, but it sure ain’t the Motel 6. so your fixed expenses just increased by let’s say 5 million, conservatively. now, and here’s the great part, you get a cut of the MLS TV Revenue! sweet! you’re golden! oh wait, that’s a million bucks. ruh roh, promotion just cost you $4m. Railhawks have that kind of cash? and you’re likely to be back down next season, so you have to bank cash to survive, not spend it. Why would you do this?
sure , Pro/Rel is a nice fantasy, but it simply doesn’t fit with the US sports landscape.
I apologize that I don’t recognize your name from the SBI boards but I will make a mental note now.
Come April in Beckam’s case, or even say one year from now for both stories, let’s see where Beckham is plying his trade and how close (likely far to non-existent) this supposed abolishment of promotion/relegation is.
…and remember you said it was I, that was “so clueless”. Stand by your intellectual assessment of my opinion, and I’ll stand by mine.
Hope you’re still around these boards in a year.
That Bevan article is completely speculative — he is just making stuff up.
What about the MLS snobs that seem to think the world revolves around them? That story is about changing English football in a pretty significant way but by all means lets think about how it affects MLS fans. Seriously how are MLS snobs different then Euro snobs both just think about how everything relates to their brand football as if its the only thing that really matters.
Be Serious, every one of these owners knew the risk when they entered into their investment. When you play with fire, sometimes you get burned. You don’t need to defend a rich individual that put their finances at risk by investing in an extremely risky venture. And you could use to lose a bit of the attitude as well
So the lower division clubs financial future doesn’t matter just the financial stability of the richest clubs in England. How about you stop having disdain for other peoples money generated in the lower divisions. Due to prom/rel Englands Championship is the most profitable second division in the world beating several first divisions across the world. If you loose prom/rel then all of those clubs will loose substantial amounts of money.
The EPL is so lucrative it attracts those foreigner investors with prom/rel in place even in the current economic climate. With or without prom/rel the EPL will be fine financially because of their global fan base the same can’t be said for the lower division clubs. This move hurts English football and only helps a FEW rich owners the other owners that also have money invested get screwed. This isn’t about people having disdain for other peoples money regardless of the decision other people’s money will be affected but as a football fan I want what is best for the sport.
There could be one huge season which includes all ninety plus the teams of the Football League. One home and one away. The top 20 teams of that table are forever in the top flight. It would be like the longest most epic season ever.
Get rid of promotion/relegation and the owners, without fear of losing their lucrative TV rights and fan bases, will allow their teams to wallow in uncompetitiveness for years. The foreign investors couldn’t care less that Liverpool has been at the bottom of the table for years – who cares, because they earn the same amount as if they were at the top.
Having promotion-relegation means the owners must at least take some interest into the game, and I doubt many of the foreign (American) owners really want a part of that.
Having said that, this could just plainly be a scare campaign against accepting foreign ownership of teams, because of what could happen. I doubt the owners really know what promotion and relegation are.
Scrapping promo/relegation will be a disaster of epic proportions and I hope it never becomes realoty in the civilized world. MLS’s single entity structure is holding the league back and rewards mediocrity.
It’s time MLS ditches the NFL clone Garber, gets rid of playoffs, moves to single table, and works w/ NASL/USL to establish promo/relegation structure.
Getting rid of relegation/promotion would be awful. I love seeing smaller teams come up and give it a good fight (ie blackpool last year). also then there is no incentive for a team to stay competitive if they are perpetually allowed in the top flight just because. Also how would you decide what teams are forever locked out? Leeds is stuck a couple leagues down but has mountains of history, same for Nottingham. Wigan has never done anything productive yet they would be allowed in the top league forever? Simply a poor idea that is being forced by foreign businessmen.
+100
The Morons are those who insist on calling people who enjoy the higher and more meaningful level of play seen in Europe Euro snobs. I support the MLS but there is no question that the European leagues are better organized and more talented. The relegation system is genius as it makes all games important, even those amongst lower tier teams. In the MLS once teams are out of play off contention they have nothing to play for. Playoffs are a system that fail to reword teams for their accomplishments over the season and they make the regular season (the bulk of the season) less important than they should be. The regular season becomes all about making the playoffs rather than the focus of league.
While playoffs undeniably provide a degree of excitement, as anyone can get hot in win,European leagues already have the equivalent in their cup competitions.
The NBA is a paradigm example of the dangers of a playoff system. Most NBA teams fail to play defense during the regular season and many do not try until playoff time. I pray to god the relegation system remains as it adds so much to the game of soccer.
Its time for some MLS fans to realize that they are still far behind the European league model and level of play. The MLS should work to emulate the European system not the other way around. Though I enjoy watching MLS games and hope it continues to grow and flourish as its own unique entity I think it is important for its own growth that people realize what the MLS actually is.
Let’s throw tradition out the window to help the 1% with their “financial challenges”.
Are you a football fan or bankster?
I’m not kidding at all. The system is fun and has great history but it simply is unrealistic in the current world economic climate. It’s easy for you to say suck it up to someone else’s multi-million dollar investment. Think realistically instead of with your emotions and disdain for someone else’s money. If you don’t like what they want, YOU can cash out and get lost.
You’re incredibly clueless about the Beckham PSG deal. It’s alot closer to actually happening that you can imagine.
Elimination of Promotion / Relegation is long overdue and when it finally happens the quality of play will drastically improve for most clubs. In the case of England, their national team will benefit immensely since younger English players will actually get a chance to play and develop. Not to mention the spending will be under better control.
Antiquated system? You can’t be serious. Almost every team in the Prem has had a history of ups, downs, and relegations.
There are a number of Championship league teams like Leeds, Southhampton, Nottingham Forest, and West Ham whose history’s and current form make them more deserving in being in the Prem then the likes of Wigan.
Also shutting the door on the other divisions would kill off foreign investments toward other lower division teams. QPR, despite it’s history, would still be wallowing down in the 1st Division if not for the Formula One guys buying it.
These investors went in knowing the risk, and they need to suck it up and face it. Otherwise they can cash out and get lost.
you like what I did there? =P
Just ignore the Euro “snobs”…they are morons.
nicely done.
One thing in common with Beckham to PSG and EPL removing promotion/relegation?….Neither will happen & both will remain exclusively within MLS.
I see your line of thinking, but oh NO, this would be the one thing they would never cease complaining about … loudly.
The Euro-snob heads must be spinning right now. One less excuse to not watch MLS.
I completely disagree. Pro/rel is an antiquated system that doesn’t take in the financial challenges of professional sports ownership and competition in the new millenium. Just because it’s always been done doesn’t mean it continues to be a good idea. Good riddance.
It’s just the English trying to scare everyone over foreign ownership of their clubs. Or they’re trying to blame the foreigners for something they want themselves.
Seems to have little to do with quality of play, and more with protecting their investment. Nobody wants to buy Newcastle for some huge sum and then see them relegated the next year. Would be sad to see that go
That would be one less thing for EPL snobs to complain about in regards to the MLS
Getting rid of promotion/relegation would suck.
Bottom table matches would be rendered meaningless. Next they’ll want to have playoffs…
How about a salary cap and instant replay? If you want to improve the quality of play in the EPL that might be a start…