If you’ve been paying attention to the Champions League today, you know that traditional English powerhouse Liverpool are now stuck in a very bad place. They have 4 points with 2 matches left to go and need two wins and a couple of other results to fall their way if they hope to make it beyond this point.
Why’s this really matter though? Well Liverpool stand to lose a good chunk of money from missing out on the knockout round and could stand to lose even more. Right now they sit outside of the top four in England and might miss out on the Champions League all together. A few years back they were outside the top four but managed to get into the Champions League the next season by winning the previous season. Liverpool’s American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett aren’t in the best financial shape either.
Liverpool are just one example of many teams all across the world facing a rather precarious financial future. Our very own fuseproject has been working hard on an excellent piece on just how the financial situations of some of these clubs has left them on very unfirm ground. This here is just a taste of the financial ruin that clubs are facing. Look for the first installment of fuse’s work starting this Friday.
Liverpool could be ordering up their last drinks but we’re just getting started. Lets dive right in shall we.
Blogetizers
Chuck delves into the dangers of Football Cancer [Style Points]
Pedro Martinez is on the mound to do some…ghostbusting [Sportress]
Who doesn’t love some good LOLNFL? [KSK]
Berstreet recapped last night and is now dating Kevin Garnett!. [The Gally Blog]
Lowercase knows more about college football than I know in general. He’s got his bowl projections for week 9 [Football on the Fringe]
Cheesecake
For the guys: Italian WAG Alena Seredova
For the Ladies: DIRK KUYT! SUPERMAN!
Enjoy!
In this upcoming article about football finances (as in soccer), will die Bundesliga be discussed? Their clubs seem to be quite financially secure since they had their money troubles almost a decade ago and have been more conservative of late (or so it seems to me as someone with little acquaintance with the league).
Except for Dortmund, I think they’re still in trouble (but they have that huge stadium and have been working to resolve those issues) – don’t quote me on that.
I would hope that the focus on finances would cover die Bundesliga and le surrendermonkeyligue. Those two really have everything in order right now.
I think the focus is on Scotland, but I can’t speak for Fuse. Just come back on Friday to see what’s up.
Oh and hi.
Hola peeps. How’s things going?
I am avoiding turning into my father and embracing technology: I have just used Twitpic for the 1st time.
Got the sniffles, so that’s not good. Another early night for me here.
So here’s where I plug for your nominations for this little ol’space for Best Blog on the US Soccer site.
http://www.ussoccer.com/Best-of-Awards/2009-Best-Of-Awards.aspx
Click the dropdown, choose Best Blog, and write us in, would you? It means an angel gets it’s wings, and we’ll finally be able to let Adam out from under the staircase.
But what if he doesn’t deserve to come out? And I followed your instructions yesterday anyway – are we allowed to stuff the ballot box?
He’s been clawing at the door for awhile now, I figure he must need to poo or something.
You can stuff the ballot box, dear. We’d appreciate it.
Done.
Ok, I can’t take as much joy out of Liverpool’s performance as I thought I would. This is almost depressing. The thought of a storied organization swirling the drain isn’t as fun as I thought it would be.
The thing is, I don’t even think you can look at Leeds as a blueprint. The new landscape for these big clubs carrying this much debt could be much more severe than what happens to Leeds, who have been up til now, the poster children for a big club gone horribly wrong.
That’s exactly my fear. Clubs like Liverpool and United are carrying too much debt. There’s no way the banks would be able to accept pennies on the dollar from a new holding company created by Hicks and Gillette or the Glazers that would re-buy them. The results of a “new blueprint” might be horrifying for sports fans, regardless of who it is.
Everton fans are also distressed at the prospect of a poor(er) Liverpool.
In all serious, my blog partner (www.plainsoccer.com – I haven’t written for about a year and he has only posted one article this season, so it’s a generous title – but he did get an interview with Mark Schwarzer last year by writing that he was doing quite awesomely before any of the MSM realized that possibly the best GK in the premiership didn’t play for a Champions League club) and I think that if the money stops coming in, England’s in trouble – but not as much as Spain is in general. He’s the one who expects a German Renaissance.
I would be absolutely giddy for years if the Yankees where circling the drain. Not the same sport but, it is storied franchise.
Just think if Baltimore had beat them in the playoffs that one year… or the Scott Brosiuseses of the world had been simply Scott Brosiuseses.
(hides from Logic)
I know it’s not the same, but I’d settle for them only getting one title or so and perhaps not having the ability to drop 60 mil/season on 3 new players and only have 2 20 mil players on the roster as a result.
But the reason they win (unlike the mechanical Red Sox) is chemistry and Nick Swisher
/Simmons’ed
The funny thing is think about a few years ago with the Twins. They were going to be contracted and their players distributed out to the other clubs. Now they have a new stadium and are a going concern. You just never know.
Yeah, but the Twins’s owner is richer than Jesus. And he convinced the state to pay for it (didn’t he?)- which the state (or province) should NEVER do.
WAS richer than Jesus. I don’t think Assbag Mcfucktard (Birth name: Carl Pohlad) got to take it with him, thank God.
The deal in Minnesota is 1/3 needs to come from the sports team, 1/3 from a local partner (city/county), and the final 1/3 comes from the state. It’s not great, but at least the team had to pony up something.
Thanks.
And 2Y – Point taken; just because a team is sucky that it will be sucky (unless it is the Browns).
Does this mean that the Vikings and the Gophers will share the Metrodome, or will they too get new digs?
Ummm….the Gophers opened TCF Bank Stadium on September 12th. It is, and remember that I am horribly biased, fucking incredible.
The Vikings are pretty much up shit creek right now. Hennepin County partnered with the Twins for the stadium, and Minneapolis is broke as fuck. They have no way of getting funding without ponying up 2/3 themselves. Unfortunately, they’re pulling the same shit the Twins were trying (and getting called out on) 10 years ago.
I need those sunglasses. They would cover about 90% of my head.
Also, exciting times getting two division wins against the Packers.
I still think that Green Bay has the better QB, but the Vikes getting close to locking up the div (as you can plainly see youself). And you get to watch Green Bay and Chicago potentially knock each other out from playoff contention.
WSR – Forgive my ignorance, please. Not too much coverage of Gophers football here. I just checked out the pictures. It does look awesome (except for the field turf, but that’s forgiven).
Also checked out the schedule – I forgot that they play Iowa on the last day of the season.
Ignorace? Bah. Not everyone is as obsessed with Big Ten football as I am. Completely understandable. And I agree about the field turf, but the stadium is also used for intermurals and marching band practice so this keeps it from getting torn up worse than a midget doing interracial porn.
Iowa/MN has been the last game for a few years now. This has the potential to be the 2nd time a Gopher team has kept a rival out of potentially playing for a national championship in my lifetime (1993 Wisco).
I am completely biased the other way, but from everythign I’ve read, TCF Field is the standard bearer for what football stadiums (especially at the college level) should be.
The Badger radio team loved it, and they would go out of their way to trash the Metrodome. Wayne Larrivee calls it one of the two or three best stadiums he’s seen recently.
And good evening folks.
Last call has been quiet this week.
I’ve only been to see West Va @ Syracuse and Wisconsin @ Michigan State (last year) – hopefully sometime I’ll be able to make it out to your respective necks of the woods and see your stadiums.
(Perhaps combine the Dairy Expo with some football in Madison – even though my kid brother is the farmer).
I also have seen the Raiders @ Bills (last year). I wouldn’t watch the Bills in Toronto though, since I think the team should remain in Buffalo.
RE: Semper’s first comment at the top of the page – apparently Schalke 04 are in deep trouble (over 100 million Euros in debt) over some risky debt instruments they used to leverage their club or something.
I don’t have links, only what I’ve heard on World Football Daily, but I’ll see what I can dig up.
A search for “schalke 04 debt” brings up this article:
http://www.javno.com/en-sports/schalke-safe-insist-magath-despite-huge-debts_279247
So, it could be in excess of 280 million in debt. Yikes.
Thanks for that GE&F. I tried looking on dieWelt for more info on Schalke, but I didn’t have the patience to wade through the German.
I was talking to H.U. (the guy who actually posts on our blog). He was saying that Man Utd. is fine. Their debt % is reasonable. Liverpool may be fucked. Arsenal’s is weird since they went into debt to build houses (diversifying when perhaps it wasn’t their expertise) – but once they sell them they’ll be in good shape again.
He’s said before that Liverpool is only Gerrard and Torres. It’ll be interesting if Benitez goes to Real. I would expect him to try to get Torres to follow – and it might not be expensive either. Torres probably wouldn’t go to Man Shitty, Chelsea wouldn’t be able to bid – leaving Man Utd, Barca, and Italy as other destinations.
Liverpool seem to have done a piss poor job of expanding their fan base into Asia and America, unlike teams like Man U, Chelsea, or Arsenal (which apparently are setting up for quite the US invasion pretty soon with Kroenke stepping up to the plate on shares).
How a team with their history of championships can seem so insular is rather confusing.
I remember getting a coffee table book about the Hudson Bay Company when I was much younger. (I really liked Canadian History then and it had nice pictures). I remember that in the final essay the author made the conclusion that the modus operandi of the Company was survival. They didn’t take the chance on expanding and instead concentrated on what they knew – first furs and then selling stuff. They had the oil rights to tons of Arctic Oil and sold it for nothing since it was a new business idea and out of their area of expertise and they weren’t really wanting to take the chance.
Now I’m sure that Hicks & Gillette wanted to expand – but maybe they didn’t hire the right people / didn’t realize the mess they were getting themselves into and have the extra money to make the investment / just got pissed off at each other and refused to work together to make it work.
Or Tom Hicks is just a horrible sports owner who turns everything he touches into excrement. I lean toward that probability.
Oh yeah, to finish that thought – I might sound like generic BBC pundit, but my un-researched opinion is that Liverpool just didn’t have the culture that was willing to take the chance and Hicks & Gillette never got their act together to take advantage of a particularly high time in Liverpool’s prestige
I’m thinking that the right time for Liverpool to expand their interests was before they were acquired by Hicks/Gillette – it was probably when ManU was making inroads on a global scale, about 10-15 years ago. Granted, winning helps grease the wheels of sporting commerce as much as anything, but Liverpool could’ve done so much more to increase their exposure.
I’m not the genius to come up with the things they should have done, it just seems that they could’ve done a lot more to make themselves one of the top 5 clubs for worldwide fan marketshare, and not Chelsea. Signing more African talent might have been a good start on the pitch; seemed to work quite well for the Blues.
That level of fandom comes with winning, though, and they haven’t won a league in twenty years. If you’re not based geographically in Merseyside, and have the choice between ManU – who always win, have more recognizable players, and are more accessible to you – or Liverpool, who are pretty much the opposite of all that, you’re probably going to pick ManU. Honestly, Liverpool is probably the least accessibile of the “Big Four” because of that.
I’d argue that it’s true that they have lost out to Arsenal, but they should be ahead of Chelsea for their European success/history. I know this is from personal anecdote, but it seems everyone I know is a Liverpool fan.
I think if you’re contrary you either go for Liverpool (with Gerrard & the history & recent success in the Champions League) or Arsenal (the flair team with French/Africans) – perhaps it’s because I started following 5 years before Chelsea made it big.
I can see your point though, and it probably does point out why they haven’t broke out big time – although maybe I’d expand Merseyside to England (Gerrard would have that domestic appeal but perhaps not international where we don’t care where the players are from). I seem to have too many Liverpool fans as mates.
Well, if you’re contrarian, you go away from the Big Four and go with another team – but I recognize that won’t happen for many fans in the US, because the exposure for most of those clubs is non-existant compared to the largest EPL clubs.
Manchester United are only fine because they’re not losing. They’re debt is double Liverpool’s, though, and if the wheels start to come off there they’ll go just as well. The lack of spending on the transfer market, and the Glazers strangely keeping their NFL team about $30 million under the cap, tend to indicate at least some concern about the finances.
I’d never thought of it that way. I haven’t checked the debt load, but I think they have the infrastructure and even the residual effect of this period will keep ‘em doing well for a while.
Also, didn’t realize that about the Bucs. Another good point – but until there’s a QB or they get themselves sorted out, there isn’t that good of a reason to start dumping the money into the team (although I guess this could be countered with perhaps they’re not trying, see how fast Atlanta turned it around).
Incidentally, as a Liverpool fan and a Browns fan, this week has blown cock so far.
Anyone talking about relevant sports?
Lets go Yankees.
Lets go team Rashard.
Go Howard?
/Losing interest in baseball quickly but still hoping that the bullpen falls apart.
Lost me at “Let’s go Yankees”, but to each his own.
Think Rashad/Rampage will ever happen, or will Rampage actually stay retired?
Iy’s definitely going to happen. Rampage is going to come back. He was just pissed at management.
I’m thinking Marcus Jones is going to lose tonight and Rampage will end up 0-8.
The biggest difference between Liverpool and Man Utd., however is that except for those 3 or 4 years when Ferguson tried to outsmart himself, he’ll only drop 15 mil for a player – whom he is almost certain will succeed.
Houllier and Benitez would sign Diouf (not a bad player) and random dudes looking to strike it lucky. If Liverpool had been smart with their transfers, they could be much deeper than they are. Maybe they were unwilling to take a chance with black players (post-Barnes) like Arsenal. Of course, other than Benayoun, Torres, mascherano, and his centrebacks (perhaps Kuyt as well)- he’s had a disastrous record on the transfer market – if it’s a fullback or an attacker, then you’re crossing your finger with Benitez (Pennant etc.) – they’ve spent the money to be a big player but haven’t got the results.
I should mention that by black players, I mean African talent – I can only think of the one Dutch LW they currently have. They tried Diouf and Diao and failed horribly (I guess they had Toure), but it seems that Benitez is a little restricted in where he spends him money.
18 mil for Glen Johnson? Do you think he paid a premium because he’s English?
damn – no edit function. oh yeah, and Johnson.
English players always go for a premium, and that premium will only increase if this 6+5 nonsense is ratified in the English game.
I haven’t heard ANYTHING about that lately, actually. I think it might be dead…or a boogeyman that’s brought up only around transfer windows.
RAWK just broke down the signings by Benitez earlier today, actually, and it’s fairly impressive. There aren’t that many misses, or many players sold at a loss. All told, he’s spent a net of about 83.7 million in five years…less than what Man City spent this year alone. And his wage bill is about 40k under United’s too. The author’s thought was that, all things considered, we’re lucky we’re in a position right now to worry about the CL, because we probably should’ve been in this spot a few years back.
http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=249365.0
Re: the window 10-15 years ago.
My Spurs fan friend argues that Spurs were just as big as Arsenal until Wenger took over. Since then, you’re right GE&F- TV became infinitely huger and that has been the difference.
PS. I picked Sunderland to be contrarian. (Phillips just came off his 30 goals in the premiership)
Ok all, calling it a night. RATL – I suppose you’ll be going to sleep happy – can’t begrudge you that.
I might catch up with you later in the week and I’d be interested in hearing your take on Ohio State and Penn State – since the little I’ve seen of Penn State (they don’t show cupcakes on TV up here, except for perhaps tomorrow night, but that had a small chance of being decent) their O-Line looked shaky against Iowa. Ohio State has this Pryor problem they can’t solve. O lines are key, but turnovers kill.
I’m a Braves fan and all these Phillies fans (particularly the bandwagon ones) piss me off. I hate the Yankees too, but less than the Phillies. I’d rather hear about Yankees winning it for a year than the Phillies.
I’m Baaaaack!
Anyone miss me?
\shameless pandering’