EPL Talk » News Of The World

Premier League And FA Threaten To Sue Justin.tv

The Gaffer — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 14:21:09 +0000

The Premier League and Football Association have finally caught up to Justin.tv and are threatening legal action to prevent soccer fans from around the world watching live streaming games, according to the News Of The World newspaper.

However as of this morning, the streams are still available for today’s Bolton against Manchester City derby and record numbers of fans may visit the site for the first time because of the publicity created by the News Of The World article (see screenshot above, taken from Justin.tv this morning).

EPL Talk wrote about Justin.tv in September and reviewed how easy it was to watch the England against Croatia game. Plus we detailed how many channels were available and how many users were viewing the match. The News Of The World conveniently copy and pasted my research and included it in today’s story without attributing the source.

According to the News Of The World, recent stats from Justin.tv include 167,138 hits for the Man United versus West Ham game and 148,063 viewers for the Arsenal against Spurs derby.

In May 2007, the Premier League filed a lawsuit against YouTube because of the game highlights available on that website. But what the YouTube lawsuit and threatened legal action against Justin.tv expose is another issue entirely. There is obviously a huge demand for soccer fans to watch their favorite team online, but instead of creating a solution that generates revenue for the clubs and the league, the league is focusing on persecuting the companies that are illegally streaming the games.

Sure, what Justin.tv and YouTube (and hundreds of other sites) are doing is illegal, but the Premier League is in a continuous cat and mouse game that it’ll never win. Even with NetResult policing the Internet to limit the amount of goal highlights shown on YouTube and other sites, it’s impossible for that organization to win.

The lawsuit against YouTube and the threats of legal action against Justin.tv are merely a drop in the bucket. All the legal action is doing is showing that the Premier League wants to protect the companies who have paid large amounts of money for the Internet rights to the league.

The Premier League and its clubs are missing out on a huge opportunity to provide legal streaming of matches as well as goal highlights in a package that would be available online to football fans around the world. It’s ridiculous to think that in the year 2008 with all of the technology that’s available that soccer fans should be prevented from legally watching their favorite team play week-in, week-out.

By providing a legal alternative to watch any or all of the games, it’ll put most of the illegal streamers out of business. We, as human beings, are accelerating toward a world where most of our movie and TV watching are being done online. The concern at the Premier League is probably that providing all of the games by the Internet will reduce the amount of money that networks will pay for the TV rights, but I don’t believe this would happen. TV, as we know it, will continue to be around for several years. Until TVs become obsolete, the Premier League has a massive opportunity to generate massive amounts of revenue from both TV and Internet rights.

Portsmouth Turning Into A Farce Due To Financial Troubles

The Gaffer — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 13:09:13 +0000

Alarming reports are coming out of England this morning regarding the future of Portsmouth Football Club.

According to The News Of The World, owner Alexandre Gaydamak has put the club up for sale to avert a financial crisis, and is looking to sell Pompey for an initial £20 million.

Incredibly, the newspaper is also reporting that a stunning 90 per cent of Portsmouth’s annual income is used to pay player’s wages, which is a definite recipe for disaster.

“The financial position of the club is fully audited and is consistent with its peers in the football industry,” said an official from Portsmouth FC in a statement from the club this morning. “The club’s owner has already stated that the club is not for sale but, as with all businesses, should the right offer be forthcoming, serious consideration would be given to the proposal.”

What an absolutely ridiculous statement by Portsmouth. First, the club fails to address the newspaper’s statements head-on and says that their financial position is similar to bigger clubs in football — which is a scary thought for the other clubs. So, they don’t deny they’re in severe financial trouble.

And second, they say they’re not for sale, but if the right offer came along they would be. What politically correct nonsense is that? The club owners are too proud to say the club is for sale, but behind everyone’s backs they’ll tell insiders that they’re for sale. At least Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley had the balls to tell the public he wants to sell his club.

The problem for Portsmouth is that they may face a difficult task trying to find an investor willing to buy the club from Gaydamak. Their Fratton Park ground only fits just less than 20,000 and their new 36,000 stadium on Horsea Island is still up in the air and won’t be ready until 2011 at the earliest.

I know that Harry Redknapp has a penchant for buying lots of expensive players, but what sort of wages is Portsmouth playing their stars if that amounts to 90 per cent of its income? Sure, Peter Crouch, Jermain Defoe, David James and Lassana Diarra must be making huge wages. But other than those players, what other stars do they have? Kranjcar, Distin, Diop, Lauren, Hreidarsson and Utaka to name a few.

Either Portsmouth is paying more than they should for wages, or their income they’re bringing in is inadequate. Whatever the case, this looks like an extreme case of poor management by Gaydamak, which spells disaster for Portsmouth if a wealthy investor doesn’t bail them out soon.

Michael Owen To Leave Newcastle On A Free Transfer?

Dominic Mather — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 22:02:55 +0000

This morning the News of the World printed a story that will strike fear through most Newcastle United fan’s hearts; their most expensive player, Michael Owen, could be leaving them for £16 million less than he cost. Owen, believed to be earning £120, 000 per week, is refusing to renew his contract with Newcastle, because they will not continue to pay him his current salary. Owen is thought to be happy to stay with the magpies, his only qualm being his salary.

As the News of the World correctly said, if a new deal has not been signed by January other teams will be free to court the Newcastle striker, and provide more than enough money to keep Owen happy. Newcastle do have the option to form a damage limitation strategy and sell him off cheaply before next summer comes around, but even then they will still have made substantial losses.

Many would argue that salary should not be an issue if you’re earning over £30, 000 per week, so is Michael Owen being selfish and unreasonable to expect a six figure payment every week? The Newcastle captain will see other club talismans being paid a stupid amount and expect the same himself; Ronaldo is also believed to be earning £120,000 per week.

If Michael Owen were to leave on a free transfer it would be a huge blow to Newcastle’s morale. The Toon accepted him from the off and he has been treated as one of their own. The fact that Keegan decided to make him captain would be the straw that broke the camel’s back in terms of the Newcastle contingent feeling as if Owen’s departure was a personal betrayal of their trust. Owen would, and perhaps will turn into a hate figure whenever he visited St James Park.

If Owen does leave, where will he go? Being a former Liverpool player it seems unlikely that Manchester United will go for him, so perhaps Liverpool will treat Owen as a prodigal son and welcome him back with open arms. It seems likely to me though, that it will not be a top four club who would take Owen on, because of him being prone to injury, but perhaps a club challenging for a UEFA cup spot, such as Blackburn, or Man City.

There seems to be a good chance of this going either way, but if you pushed me I would say that I think that there is a bigger chance of Owen staying than going, only because I think that Newcastle will buckle to his wage demands as they do not want to lose their prize asset.

Memories Of Sunday Mornings and English Football

The Gaffer — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 01:04:46 +0000

Growing up in Wales, August for me was synonymous with long summer nights, the excitement of a new season starting and Sunday morning rituals.

Sunday mornings for my family were filled with traditional English breakfasts, cups of tea, the late morning smell of the roast beef cooking in the oven and reading the British tabloid newspapers and Sunday supplement magazines.

In the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, Sunday newspapers in Britain were such a valuable source of information for football fans. I vividly remember devouring the sports pages of the News of The World and The Sunday Mail. I would literally study and memorize the football league tables. Often my cousin Kevin and I would take turns in reading the reviews of the matches and taking in every word as if it was the bible.

As well as reading the match reports and studying the league tables, we would compare the league attendances between the clubs and then head off to the nearby park for a game of football before coming back to eat our Sunday dinner.

If you’re an ex-pat or you live in the UK, what are your memories of Sunday mornings during football season?

Everton And Newcastle Could Be On The Chopping Block

The Gaffer — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 10:53:12 +0000

The Sunday newspapers in England are reporting that Everton and Newcastle United could be sold in the near future. If both clubs are sold to foreigners, that’ll mean 11 out of the 20 Premier League clubs will be foreign owned.

According to The Observer, Everton could be put up for sale if the government approves the club’s move from Goodison Park to Kirkby. Meanwhile, the News Of The World is reporting that Newcastle is in talks with one Asian company, while another Asian firm is very interested in purchasing the Tyneside club.

For Everton, it’s a question of whether the club wants to live in the past or move into the future. Many people, myself included, would hate to see Everton leave Goodison Park due to the history and the beauty of their ground. Moving outside Liverpool to a brand-new ground will generate more revenue for the club in terms of corporate facilities and additional punters in the seats, but the heart and soul would be ripped out of Everton Football Club. And who wants to have a Tesco supermarket on the same facility as a football ground?

Newcastle, despite their passionate fanbase, are a club in trouble mostly on the pitch. The club needs a massive injection of cash and a better run board to steer the Toon to future success. At the rate that Mike Ashley is going right now with few transfer signings, Kevin Keegan will be the first Premier League manager sacked this upcoming season.

If one of the Asian companies can buy out Ashley and spend the big money the club needs, Newcastle can get off its feet again and start pushing for a Champions League qualifying position.

If you’re a Everton or Newcastle fan — or a football supporter with an opinion — what would you do if you were Everton or Newcastle? Would you move to Kirkby and would you sell your club to an Asian billionaire? Share your thoughts by clicking the comments link below.