EPL Talk » olympics

Why Sky Sports News Sucks

The Gaffer — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 13:26:15 +0000

Thought for the day: If you were an alien that landed on earth and were forced to watch the Sky Sports News program “Through The Night,” would you know that the biggest sporting event in the world waa taking place, the one that happens only once every four years, the summer Olympic games?

The answer is an emphatic no.

I watched Through The Night on Friday night. Not one single mention of the opening ceremony of the games in its 60 minute broadcast. I also watched it on Saturday and didn’t see the games mentioned either.

This is another example of how immature and biased Sky Sports News is.

When Euro 2008 was happening, “Through The Night” often ran with Cristiano Ronaldo transfer gossip as the main story or cricket news and relegated the Euro 2008 headlines to usually the third or fourth story of the idea in its program.

Go back a couple of years to the bung scandal that BBC’s Panorama program uncovered and it took “Through The Night” a couple of days to cover the news and then they buried it deep within the program. But if some player got into a fight or there’s half a rumor of an agent sealing a transfer deal that no one cares about, you can almost guarantee it’ll be the lead story.

The rule that Sky Sports News seems to be running is that if they don’t own the rights to the event, then they’ll ignore that news. On the other hand, if they own the rights, you can be assured that they’ll cover that news ad nauseum and hype it so much that it’ll never live up to its expectations.

Here’s a parody of Sky Sports News done by That Mitchell And Webb Look, a BBC show. This is so true:

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Martin Rogers Discusses Spurs Transfer Signings, Euro 2008 And Olympics

The Gaffer — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 04:36:29 +0000

Don’t miss the latest Major League Soccer Talk podcast interview with Martin Rogers, Yahoo’s world soccer writer. Interviewed by Kartik Krishnaiyer, Rogers answers questions about several topics including Tottenham Hotspur’s transfer signings, how the Euro 2008 tournament was received in England and a preview of the Olympics soccer tournament which Rogers is covering for Yahoo Sports.

Listen now or, better yet, subscribe to the podcast via iTunes so you don’t miss a single episode. You can also find the archives of all 50+ interviews here.

How The Olympics Will Affect Premier League

Josh Allen — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 14:44:11 +0000

So with the Olympic torch set to be lit in five days I thought it might be a good time to have a look at how the football side of this global gathering will affect the Premier League when that kicks-off the following week. Well in fact the football side of things kicks-off two days before the Olympic torch is passed over for the final time and concludes on the 24^th August.

The tournament shapes up with four groups of four teams with the top two from each group advancing to the knock-out stages. Basically its exactly the same as Euro 2008, except without the full international teams. That concept was abandon after the first World Cup in 1930 and now as you may know the gold medal is contested between players under 23 with each side allowed to draft in three over 23 years of age.

Four years ago it was Argentina who walked away with the gold medals and they are favourites to repeat their success again in Beijing. However the build-up to the competition has not been without its controversy. Barcelona and Schalke 04 have been very vocal about allowing their players to leave for the Olympics, both have important Champions League qualifiers coming up in that period and they have contested the ruling by Fifa. However on Wednesday Fifa upheld the ruling that clubs had to let players U23 leave to compete in the Games. For a look at the odds on the Olympic football head this way.

Its not just on the continent where a storm has been brewing, Liverpool have been vocal about allowing Ryan Babel and Javier Mascherano represent their respective countries. Let me list the clubs that will be losing a player or a couple of them for the start of the Premier League campaign:

Arsenal: Alexandre Song (Cameroon)
Aston Villa: Brad Guzan (USA)
Blackburn: Ryan Nelsen (New Zealand)
Chelsea: Saloman Kalou (Ivory Coast)
Everton: Victor Anichebe (Nigeria)
Fulham: Adrian Leijer (Australia)
Liverpool: Javier Mascherano (Argentina), Ryan Babel (Holland)
Manchester City: Jo (Brazil)
Manchester United: Anderson (Brazil)
Portsmouth: Franck Songo’o (Cameroon)
West Brom: Gianni Zuiverloon (Holland)

So looking at the list it is clear that Liverpool will be hit hardest by the departures of Mascherano and Babel, both first team players who will miss the Champions League qualifier against Standard Liege, along with the start of the season. However like all the clubs mentioned in this list you’d think that they had sufficient cover to cope with the departures. For example Leijer of Fulham has spent a year at Craven Cottage but is yet to make his first team debut. Them same would go for Songo’o at Portsmouth, both are bit part players who neither side will be that upset about losing. In fact you’d think that the African Cup of Nations causes more grief to clubs than the Olympics. With the Cup of Nations players are gone for 6 weeks during mid-season when things are beginning to get a bit tasty.

With the Olympics players just returning from their summer breaks you might think that whilst it isn’t great for managers to lose any player it might be a chance for them to gain confidence and fitness at the Games ahead of their return to domestic action. You’d think that most managers would consider it an annoyance rather than a worry, apart from the obvious danger of serious injury.

In fact I think that the Premier League has gotten off easily in terms of losing players where as Serie A is losing quite a clutch of players. In the end as Premier League clubs all of them should be able to cope with the departures and as many of the players themselves have said that they want to play for their country there doesn’t seem much point in fighting it. In fact I would advice everyone to sit back and enjoy the Olympic football, it can be very entertaining and a break if you very quickly get bored of the new football season. For the Premier League odds click here.

Liverpool Does the Right Thing: German Clubs Do Not

Kartik Krishnaiyer — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 05:20:15 +0000

On the European Continent and on the British Isles the view of the Olympic football Tournament is completely different than in the rest of the world. In Europe the tournament is seen as more of a nuisance than anything, while among those in the Western Hemisphere and in Africa it is seen as big deal.

Nigeria and Cameroon are both recent champions of the event, and after both nations achieved their Gold Medals, mass celebrations consumed the nation. Mexico fired its national coach, the biggest hero in Mexican football history Hugo Sanchez because he failed to qualify the team for the Olympics, despite a month earlier, achieving the nation’s first result on American soil against the arch rival United States in nine years. Brazil’s Dunga has survived a tumultuous World Cup qualifying campaign thus far, because he is seen as the man to bring home an Olympic Gold Medal, and Brazil did not want to change coaches so soon before the Olympics.

The United States puts more emphasis on Olympic Football than any tournament outside of the World Cup, and because for years the Olympics themselves were used as a propaganda tool by the USA, I’ve heard debate within American soccer circles as to whether or not winning the Olympic Gold Medal would actually do more for the game domestically than winning the World Cup. While I do not subscribe to this view in the least bit, it simply demonstrates how important the Olympic tournament is considered to many people. In fact, one of the best forwards then United States has ever produced, Brian McBride has come out of international retirement just for this event, because of its importance to US Soccer. Tim Vickery, who understands Latin Football better than just about any European writer, explains why this event is so important to so many in an outstanding piece.

But European clubs for the most part are more annoyed and bothered by this event than they are interested in it. Liverpool is losing more than just about any club on the planet. Ryan Babel will be featuring for Holland, Javier Mascherano for Argentina, and Lucas for Brazil. This puts the Reds behind the eight ball in the first few weeks of the Premier League season. Rafa Benetiz isn’t happy about it, but unlike some of the clubs in Germany, Liverpool understands that FIFA’s declaration that all selected U-23 players must be released is to be honored. But even more admirable is that Liverpool has released Mascherano, who is an overage player and whose release Liverpool legally could have prevented.

Chelsea has released Solomon Kalou. Blackburn has released Ryan Nelson (an overage player) and Manchester United has allowed Anderson to join Brazil. However two German clubs are refusing to release their Brazilian players: Werder Bremen with Diego, perhaps the best player in the Bundesliga last season, and Schalke with Rafinha. Both players left their clubs this week without permission to join Brazil’s training. This stands in contrast not only to the example set by the three aforementioned English clubs, but by AC Milan who just signed Ronaldinho and have made him the center of a major worldwide marketing campaign. Despite this, Milan has allowed Ronaldinho to join Brazil’s squad, perhaps because Italian clubs are more used to this situation than other European clubs: Italy has competed in more Olympic Football tournaments than any other nation. (Believe it or not, the United States has qualified for the second most Olympic Football tournaments, and would tied with Italy for the most appearances had the US not barely missed qualification for the 2004 tournament).

What’s even more disturbing are the lengths the two German clubs are going to in order to try and stop players from exercising their free will and representing their country. The Court of Arbitration for Sport will hear a case being brought before it by the clubs and backed by the European Club Association to block U-23 players from joining their national teams in the Olympics. Werder Bremen has also refused to allow Dusko Tosic of Serbia to join his team and has reportedly confiscated his passport.

Olympic football is very important to many across the globe. As European clubs become more and more global in both their squad makeup and in their marketing they must learn to bend on these sorts of issues. Liverpool to their credit has reluctantly complied as they continue to try and build their global brand. The German clubs, already in a league whose international stature is waning have made a fatal mistake in the court of international football public opinion with their unreasonable stand. Though many in Europe whose focus is the club game and European tournaments may applaud Schalke and Bremen for their stands, the Bundesliga is no doubt soon to take a major beating in perception and respect level in Latin America.

While Olympic Football takes place outside the regular FIFA blackout windows, clubs in Europe must understand the importance of this event and also assume the risk for signing high profile internationals. Liverpool, as a more popular and successful club from an international standpoint clearly understands this better than Werder Breman and Schalke 04. Perhaps this helps to explain why the Premier League is head and shoulders above the Bundesliga these days when it comes to international recognition and popularity.