Mes: diciembre 2021

The gulf between rich and poor clubs has never been greater. The amount of money circulating in the game has never been greater. The amount of players instantly becoming multi millionaires and buying fast cars and large mansions have never been greater. However, more sadly, the amount of clubs, especially ones with a lot of prestige and history behind them, going under have never been greater.

There’s always something wrong in seeing a football club, especially one which gets packed houses, struggle to break even and compete for a title. Just as the amount of money circulating has increased, the cost of staying in the game has increased as well.

Such large increases in wages put smaller, less rich clubs at a serious disadvantage in terms of challenging for titles and championships. As a result, many of these clubs have been forced to take financial gambles to be able to attract good enough players to remain competitive. This has backfired for some clubs such as Leeds United who in the space of 5 years went from being in the Champions League semi final to the English third division.

The question remains, can this wage spiral be controlled so that it no longer harms the smaller clubs? The answer is yes, and in football it’s being used in just 2 countries in the world: the USA and Australia. Both Major League Soccer and A-League used what is known as a salary cap, which is a limit as to how much a club can spend on players’ wages on a yearly basis.

The main advantage of such a system is that it ensures that each team is competitive despite their revenue and profits. It ensures parity and equity for the players and keeps the fans on the edge of their seats when it comes to challenging for the title as no one is shoo-in.

The major disadvantage of having a salary cap system in place is that it becomes very difficult for a club to retain its players. As a result, championship-winning teams rarely do stay together for another season. This is exactly what happened when Melbourne Victory won the 2006/07 in dominating fashion. The exodus of various players led to Victory having a disastrous season in 2007/08. The salary cap is an even greater disadvantage in football especially if other leagues do not have a salary cap themselves. As a result, the best players and talent will be taken away from leagues with salary caps, leaving fans with the leftovers.

Nevertheless, the risk of losing talent is not greater than the risk of losing clubs forever. While it may be a tragedy for clubs to lose star players due to a salary cap, it will surely ensure that fans still have a club to support.

Jose Mourinho is back at the helm at Chelsea and the question on everyone’s lips is how the fiery manager is going to perform this time around.

The general consensus is that Mourinho has learnt a great deal from his time away from the spotlight and the image he’s presenting to the world is a more subdued one so far. He seems to be in control of himself and how he comes across, which is what you would expect from someone as skilled at working the media as he is. If he shows the same kind of ability to whip up a media frenzy before a game that he has in the past, that alone could boost Chelsea’s performance this season.

Jose Mourinho has always been a colourful character – he called himself a «special one» when he was first appointed by Chelsea back in 2004. Certainly, if his success rate is anything to go by, he was justified in thinking of himself that way – he lead his team to back-to-back titles, winning two Barclays Premier League titles, one FA Cup and two League Cups until he left by mutual agreement in 2007.

Mourinho now describes himself as «the happy one» Chelsea has always been important to him and this time around, Mourinho is in it for the long haul, having managed Inter and Real for relatively short periods. He’s always been very vocal about how much he enjoys English football and he’s publicly stated that he intends to work as hard as he can to prove that he should be with Chelsea for the foreseeable future, long beyond the four year term of his current contract.

Mourinho’s style of management has always been focused on picking the best player for the job, regardless of personality and this strategy has served him well – after his winning streak at Chelsea, he took Inter Milan to victory in the 2010 Champions League before moving to Madrid, where he was equally successful.

Refusing to be drawn on Rafael Benitez’ decision not to play John Terry as much as he could, especially since he’d had a similar policy towards Iker Casillas, the Real and Spain captain last season, Mourinho insists that he will play the right man for the job, regardless of how high profile a player may be. This means that it’s likely we’ll see more controversial decisions from the Portuguese manager. It cannot be denied, however, that his focus on the game rather than personalities is what’s brought him the results in the past.

As Chelsea’s pre-season tour of the Far East begins this week, and the players return to pre-season training, Mourinho has promised to play the ‘sexy’ football Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has said he wants to see. This is likely to produce some interesting outcomes given Mourinho’s preference for pacey and powerful football. However, Mourinho has said that he is aiming to please the fans on all fronts, not just with good results, but with entertaining football as well, and given his history and reputation, he’s likely to deliver.

With the buzz growing around the new AAFL, is the U.S. ready for yet another American football league? The All American Football League thinks so.

What is it?

Football by any other name. The AAFL is hoping to attract football fans who need an outlet for professional football in the NFL’s offseason.

What’s the attraction?

Besides a spring and early summer season, the AAFL is associating itself with colleges known for football to attract college football fans in their offseason. This is critical to its approach because it intends to recruit players from those colleges. The idea is that if you closely followed a player’s college career and they are now playing for the AAFL, you will want to follow their professional career as well. Each college’s alumni and local fanbase will be offered ticket packages and other perks.

Where will the teams be located?

So far, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Michigan, Tennessee, and Texas.

Try-outs for Arkansas, Alabama, Florida and Michigan have already been held, and depending on your source, some players have already been signed to teams. A regular season and playoff schedule is already set, though again, depending on your source, not all the venues for games have been finalized. Among the sites that are expected to host at least one game are Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, FL, War Memorial Field in Little Rock, AR and Ford Field in Detroit, MI.

Is there anyone well-known associated with the league?

Though the league commissioner and operations executives are not hired yet, the chairman of the Board of Managers is Cedric Dempsey, a former NCAA president. There is also representation from former college presidents and university system chancellors as well as Jack Lengyel, better known as the character played by Matthew McConaughey in We Are Marshall.

Wait, isn’t there already football in the NFL’s offseason?

Arena League Football (AFL) runs from March to June. NFL Europa has folded. The Canadian Football League (CFL) runs roughly from late June through November.

Will it work?

A lot of leagues have come and gone. The problem is that it costs a lot to run and maintain a football league. There are player and executive salaries, stadium leases and television contracts just for starters. The AAFL is a for-profit league and if it cannot operate at a profit, it won’t stay around for very long. It is worth noting that the AAFL will not benefit from concession sales the way some professional teams do to boost their profits because concessions at the games will be operated by and for the host stadium. For what it’s worth, beer will not be available.

Another hurdle the league faces is keeping the costs to fans down. Ticket prices for pro sports are a big turnoff, and the AAFL will have to find a way to keep ticket prices affordable and attractive. Ticket prices have been announced to be around $13 and there will be a big push for locals to buy «memberships» which gives them special perks such as VIP parking and special screenings of out-of-town games.

The AAFL has said it will televise games nationally, but there’s nationally televised coverage and then there’s national television. Just ask the NHL who are effectively buried on Versus, a channel that most people have never heard of.

The league can get a huge boost if the quality of the game play is high. Then, it stands a good chance of making it past the first season.

The real question is whether or not the AAFL model can work by staying local, and whether it even needs the support of a national fanbase. And you might also be asking, why bother at all? Is there really a void in the world of American football that is served by a new league? The AAFL thinks so. If not, it will be just another football league that comes and goes in the blink of a season.