July 4th, 2008 By 
The Gaffer · 6 Comments
Hull City today unveiled their new home shirt for the 2008/2009 season. The Yorkshire club, who are in the Premier League for their first time, have gone back to their traditional black and amber stripes for their home shirt, designed by Umbro.
Sponsored by Karoo, the new shirt goes on sale at their club shop on July 5. View the history of the Hull shirts here.
What do you think about the new Hull shirt? Click the comment link below to share your opinion.
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Tags: football shirts·hull city·Umbro
July 4th, 2008 By The Gaffer · 4 Comments
Photographs of Aston Villa’s new home shirt for the 2008/2009 season have been leaked courtesy of Football Shirt Culture.
The new shirt from Nike features the name of Acorns Children’s Hospice as its chief sponsor. The home shirt is designed in the traditional claret and blue of Aston Villa and features the recently updated club crest on the left chest.
After all of the hype and anticipation of Aston Villa redesigning their Nike kit, the new one is disappointing. Other than the neck line changing to a v-neck and some other very slight changes, the shirt hasn’t changed much since last year’s design.
What are your thoughts about the new shirt? Click the comments link below and share your opinion.
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Tags: acorns·Aston Villa·football shirts·nike
July 4th, 2008 By The Gaffer · 3 Comments
On behalf of EPL Talk, I’d like to wish our readers in America a happy independence day on this fourth of July. I hope you and your family have a safe and wonderful holiday.
It’s ironic when you think about it because sometimes we forget that when the United States celebrates its independence, it’s celebrating its independence from Britain. Nowadays American culture is such a part of UK life while British sport and music are such a part of America. EPL Talk is a perfect example of this.
Here’s a true story. When I moved from Wales to the U.S. in 1984, my schoolmates in high school would run up to me and playfully proclaim “Ha ha, we beat you in the war” as well as “We beat you at the tea party!”
Honestly, I had no idea what they were talking about.
Growing up in the UK and going to school there until the age of 14, the subject of the American war of independence was never mentioned. It wasn’t in the history books. It wasn’t mentioned in school or in typical conversations. In fact, I ended up emigrating for the States one year before my last year in secondary school but I did study for my O level in World History one year before leaving and passed with flying colors. Even in a very comprehensive and grueling exam such as World History, the subject of the American independence from Great Britain was never mentioned. So much of the curriculum was on World War I and II and the Battle Of Hastings.
Presumably most Americans learn about the history and stories of the war for independence during elementary school or middle school. So by the time I emigrated to the States and immediately entered school in ninth grade, the topic of America’s Declaration of Independence was already common knowledge for American kids. I, on the other hand, was clueless and was trying to figure out why the American kids kept on talking about tea parties and how “we beat you, ha ha.” My fellow classmates must have wondered why I looked bewildered when they tried to provoke a reaction out of me.
It wasn’t until many years later that I finally learned about the Boston Tea Party and the independence from the British thanks to the helpful book, Don’t Know Much About History by Kenneth C. Davis.
As is traditional, I’ll be spending the afternoon celebrating the 4th of July with my extended family at a barbecue while watching the local fireworks display. Thanks for your loyalty and have a wonderful day.
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July 3rd, 2008 By The Gaffer · 25 Comments
An official photograph of Arsenal’s new away shirt has been leaked. Designed by Nike, the new shirt is yellow with navy sleeves and a red trim, which is reminiscent of Arsenal’s famous away shirt from the late 1980s.
Pictured in the rehearsed scene from the Arsenal changing room are Arsenal legends Alan Smith, Steve Bould and Paul Merson. Thanks to the Football Shirts website for the tip.
What do you think of the new Arsenal kit? Share your opinion by clicking the comments link below.
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Tags: Arsenal·football shirts·nike
July 3rd, 2008 By The Gaffer · 9 Comments
Nike has beaten Manchester United to the punch and unveiled the new Man United third shirt for the 2008/2009 season. The club badge is on the left of the shirt and there is writing around it saying, “May 29th 1968″ and “40th Anniversary” which commemorates the 1968 european cup win over Benfica. Thanks to the Football Shirts website for the tip.
What do you think of the new shirt design? Let us know by clicking the comments link below.
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Tags: football shirts·Manchester United·nike
July 2nd, 2008 By Paul Bestall · 139 Comments
Liverpool seem to have decided on a new transfer policy this summer which makes the same impact as Real Madrid’s lovelorn chase for Ronaldo. Liverpool seem to be using their local paper, The Echo, to release transfer target information into the public domain to unsettle players at other clubs. Gareth Barry became the first and now it seems that Liverpool are targeting Tottenham’s Robbie Keane in the same way. Whilst I know this kind of thing has gone on for years, Manchester United have been accused 19 times in the last 10 years of tapping up players, Liverpool seem determined to lose any face they have in British football by simply announcing which players they covet and seek to recruit them in this way.
What makes this situation worse is that Liverpool seem to be a little hard up and this new policy seems designed to get their targets to request to leave rather than match clubs valuations of players they desire. Stories began to be circulated yesterday that Keane had requested a transfer, which Tottenham and the players agent quickly denied.
Gareth Barry meanwhile has been fined and told to stay away from Villa Park after criticising Martin O’Neill and Aston Villa in an unauthorised interview.Barry is desperate to join Liverpool but I’d understood it more two years ago, Villa are in the best shape they’ve been for ages. If anything, Villa have more chance of winning the Premiership than Liverpool do at this current time, financially they’re far more robust and have a chairman that cannot put a foot wrong for me coupled with an exciting squad that has bags of potential.
The Barry saga hasn’t done the player’s reputation any favours though and I think it’s a shame that a lad who has spent his entire career at a club and rose to club captain at an early age should treat the fans who adore him like this. I think it’s a real shame, Villa have certainly made him feel special and given him everything he wanted but it’s still not enough.
Barry was quoted as saying“There’s no going back, it’s time for me to move on, I’m desperate to play Champions League football and that’s why I have to leave Villa. Villa kept saying they wanted me to stay but I have not heard from the manager for weeks. It’s seven weeks now since the season finished but while the gaffer’s found time to be a pundit at Euro 2008, he hasn’t found the time to speak to me. Have Villa offered me anything to try to persuade me my future is at Villa Park, not Anfield? Not a thing.”
Do we believe that? Can you see Randy Lerner and Martin O’Neill being like that and ignoring this stituation. No-one believes that at all. Why can’t Barry be honest with the Villa fans who used to idolise him? Why not simply say “I want to play with my best mate Stevie G, earn more money and go out with a clothes horse”? because everyone knows Gerrard will have played a major role in negotiations to get Barry to jump ship, it’s a fact that they are best mates and have been for nearly 10 years. Honestly, do we think they’ve not talked about it at all? O’ Neill, to his credit, has said Barry can leave as long as Liverpool pay the price tage they’ve set and not a penny more.
Good luck to Villa though, I hope they hold out for every last penny of the £18 million they’ve set as his price, Liverpool need to realise it’s not 1988, they’re not the best club in England and haven’t been for 18 seasons, teams can’t be bullied by them anymore and it bothers me far more than the Madrid/Ronaldo/United love triangle that they seem determined to destroy any good will opposing fans have for them. As for Keane, I’ll take Torres or £25 million, other than Rafa, you’re wasting your breath.
Tags: anfield·Aston Villa·Gareth Barry·Manchester United·Rafa Benitez·real madrid·ronaldo·spurs·Steven Gerrard·Tottenham
July 2nd, 2008 By The Gaffer · 4 Comments
Chelsea today launched a redesigned version of its club website. The new look-and-feel of the site is completely different than the previous incarnation which was a very difficult to navigate site designed in Flash that was launched in November 2006 by Premium TV.
The new site is much more intuitive and interactive than the previous version. And most importantly, it’s much easier to find what you’re looking for.
The Chelsea site now features a chat section as well as user-generated blogs, polls and much more — all contained within a section aptly named The Shed.
Overall, the site has a much more consistent design that we’ve become accustomed to when visiting other football websites. Watch EPL Talk in the coming weeks for a more complete review of the new Chelsea website.
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Tags: Chelsea·football web site·premium tv
July 2nd, 2008 By The Gaffer · 29 Comments
Television companies that feature the Premier League throughout the season face the harsh reality of trying to keep their viewers returning during the three months in late Spring to early summer when the Premiership is on break.
The issue is especially troubling for soccer networks such as Fox Soccer Channel, GolTV and Setanta Sports. They must face a difficult time trying to convince advertisers to run commercials in the summertime when soccer diehards watch far less coverage between the middle of May to the middle of August.
The situation is compounded when you take into consideration the summer tournaments that focus viewers on one channel. During Euro 2008, my TV was tuned to ESPN and ESPN2 for more than 62 hours.
In an informal poll conducted by EPL Talk, 19% of our U.S. readers watched zero hours of Fox Soccer Channel programming during June. For FSC, these are pathetic results when you consider that during the EPL season, many EPL Talk readers will watch 32 hours or more of Fox during a typical month.
When it comes to soccer on TV networks, we have little to no loyalty. Whoever will show a tournament such as Euro 2008 will automatically get our allegiance for an entire month every four years. If the coverage of the Premier League suddenly switched from Fox Soccer Channel and Setanta Sports to another network such as ESPN, we’d switch allegiances overnight and go whichever way the wind blew.
While Fox shows replays of classic Premier League matches as well as MLS and USL games during the summertime, I feel that FSC’s summertime selection is shortsighted. If I was in charge of programming for Fox, here’s what I would do:
- Get the viewers involved. Fox could easily take their list of archived programming they have and list it on their website and allow viewers to vote for the classic games they’d like to see on the channel. This way, viewers feel more involved in the programming and are more likely to watch the classic matches rather than stumble across them on Fox.
- Improve the marketing. Fox Soccer Channel should be packaging its programming together into blocks of time that would be easier for viewers to remember. For example, there could be “FA Cup Thursdays” during the month of July that show some of the best FA Cup finals. Or what about “Grand Slam Sundays” where the best Sunday matches are strung together on Sunday mornings or evenings. The list of possibilities goes on and on.
- Give us an EPL Review Show marathon. This was an idea suggested by one of EPL Talk’s readers last summer. Why not take all of the EPL Review Shows and run them back-to-back as a marathon so that viewers could learn more about the history of the Premier League from season to season? I know I would definitely watch it.
The kickoff of the new Premier League season is 45 days away but, for me, there are few reasons to watch Fox Soccer Channel between now and then. I can’t wait for the new EPL season to begin, but Fox obviously needs to do something to reverse the summer doldrums. GolTV and Setanta Sports are in a similar bucket too, but at least Setanta will be showing a lot of friendlies this summer involving Premier League sides while GolTV will have some of the World Cup qualifying matches.
What are your thoughts on what Fox should do during the summer months to keep soccer fans returning? Post your opinions below by clicking the comments link.
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Tags: ESPN·euro 2008·Fox Soccer Channel·GolTV·Premier League·Setanta Sports
July 1st, 2008 By Jeff Hash · 9 Comments
Sunday afternoon’s Euro 2008 final between Spain and Germany on ABC was watched by 2.4 million overnight households according to numbers announced by Nielsen Media Research. That gives the broadcast a 3.1 overnight rating based on the 77 million households in America which make up the overnight numbers. That number is a little more than double the 1.5 overnight rating ABC got for its broadcast of the Netherlands v Russia quarterfinal last weekend.
So, first, a quick dose of reality; the number obviously pales in comparison to the 8.6 overnight rating the network got for the 2006 World Cup final between France and Italy. That’s not a surprise given the higher profile of the World Cup, but it shows there were a considerable number of casual sports viewers who have watched soccer and did not tune in. Also, that number is certain to go down once the last batch of households with televisions, mostly in rural areas, are counted up later in the week. For example, the Netherlands-Russia match saw a 20% drop in its rating once these were added, going from 1.5 to 1.2. Assuming a similar percentage drop for this match would put the final rating down to around 2.5.
However, that number also gives ESPN and owner Disney a reason to smile. At 2.5, ABC’s performance for the Euro 2008 final would equal the national rating picked up by Univision for its American broadcast of another continental championship: last year’s CONCACAF Gold Cup final between the United States and Mexico. What this shows is that there is a noteworthy, if smaller, audience on American television for big event international soccer outside the World Cup, both with and without local teams to drive it.
So, what does ESPN do now? Well, while these results are good, it’d be hard to justify using them for the purpose of adding European league soccer, given they are far more dragged out events (months instead of weeks) and can’t guarantee big star affairs every single time. On top of that, most of the European leagues already have deals for this season tied up. And for next season, the only contracts due to run out in the US are for Spain’s La Liga and Germany’s Bundesliga. It’d be hard to capitalize on the momentum of this tournament without any big leagues coming straight away to the network.
What ESPN could do next, however, is try to solidify their position as the home of big event international soccer. The network already has the rights to next year’s Confederations Cup and the 2010 World Cup. 2011 could see the network try to pick up the Gold Cup or Copa America, either of which offer English and Spanish language possibilities, and then ESPN would finish the cycle by getting Euro 2012. Another move might see ESPN expand its portfolio when it comes to online broadcast rights through ESPN360. They already have the online rights to Serie A and the Russian Premier League, and most American broadcasters have done little in this area to make use of those rights. The other networks might be receptive to parting with their online rights to pick up some additional cash. ESPN360 was a major success during the tournament, with eight of it’s 10 most watched single events being Euro 2008 matches, and it’s an area they can try to expand on right away.
Wherever it goes from here, Euro 2008 represents a step forward for soccer on ESPN, and is a moment worth celebrating. Now fans will have to wait and see for what the network’s next step ahead is going to be.
