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Posts Tagged ‘america’

• Americans ‘looking at having more of a franchise situation’
• Aston Villa surprised and confused by Richard Bevan remarks

The chief executive of the League Managers Association has warned that owners of a number of Premier League clubs are talking about trying to scrap promotion and relegation in order to safeguard their investments.

“There are a number of overseas-owned clubs already talking about bringing about the avoidance of promotion and relegation in the Premier League,” said Richard Bevan. “If we have four or five more new owners, that could happen.”

He said he understood that talks had taken place among “American owners and some of the Asian owners as well”.

With Stan Kroenke’s move to become the majority owner of Arsenal in the summer, the north London club joined Manchester United, Liverpool, Sunderland and Aston Villa in American hands.

“If you’re looking at sport all around the world and you look at sport owners trying to work out how to invest and make money, you’ll find that most of them like the idea of franchises and if you take, in particular, the Americans, there have without doubt been a number of them looking at possibly having more of a franchise situation,” said Bevan, who had been speaking at the annual conference of the Professional Players Federation.

“That would mean no promotion and relegation. My point is not whether this is good or bad, although personally it would not be good news for English football. My point is to ensure that the FA [Football Association] is strong enough to ensure the principles on which our clubs are run.”

Last week the managing director of Liverpool, Ian Ayre, said pressure would build for clubs to be able to sell their own overseas TV rights in order to be able to compete effectively with overseas rivals.

The new wave of US owners, who look on Premier League football as an investment rather than a vanity project, is expected to look overseas for new revenue streams, although other clubs quickly moved to distance themselves from Ayre’s comments.

Bevan said the pressure from Premier League clubs meant it was important that government proposals to introduce an over-arching licensing system administered by the FA were introduced.

“If I was an American owner and owned a football club, or if I was an Indian owner, I might be thinking that I would like to get rid of promotion and relegation because my shares would go up,” he said. “That’s why the role the FA plays has to be a much stronger one that it has been in the past.

“The problem with the RFU [Rugby Football Union] and the ECB [England and Wales Cricket Board] and the FA is that they are institutionalised and institutions, when they’re around successful world business people, often move a bit slower.”

The board of Aston Villa, owned by the American Randy Lerner, said they were confused and surprised by Bevan’s remarks about unnamed American and Asian owners. “If he intended this group to specifically include Aston Villa, as could be inferred by his comments, then we would ask him to confirm as much. We might also add that the founding of the Football League in 1888 was led by a previous chairman of Aston Villa, William McGregor.” It is understood that Villa have not been involved in any discussions of the sort described by Bevan and have no intention of any such involvement.

Premier League insiders insisted there was little appetite for any move to end promotion and relegation. It has not been debated for two years, when Bolton Wanderers put forward a suggestion for a two-tier Premier League with limited promotion and relegation, which was roundly rejected.

Clubs bought into the traditional league structure for competition and commercial reasons, the insiders said, and pointed out that the FA did not necessarily require new powers to block any move to do away with it.

Even if 14 of the 20 clubs voted to abandon promotion and relegation, the FA could intervene and use its “golden share” to prevent it from going ahead.

Stoke City’s chairman, Peter Coates, spoke out strongly on Monday against scrapping relegation and promotion. “I’d be horrified to think that was someone’s long-term agenda,” he told the Associated Press. “Although it happens in America with franchises, our traditions are totally different … it would be an absolutely unthinkable thing to happen if we wanted to try and close that particular [relegation] door. It would be so bad for the game and would do it immense damage.

“You’d take away the thing that’s so important: the opportunity to go up and down which creates a mass amount of interest. There’s as much interest in the relegation battle as the title battle.”

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Your team-by-team guide to all the key pre-season fixtures for this summer

All times listed are BST

Arsenal

Malaysia All-Stars XI (A), 13 July, 1.45pm

Hangzhou Greentown (A), 16 July, 12.30pm

Cologne (A), 23 July, 2.30pm

Boca Juniors (H), 30 July, 4.20pm

New York Red Bulls (H), 31 July, 4.20pm

Benfica (A), 6 August, TBC

Aston Villa

Walsall (A), 21 July, TBC

Blackburn (N), 27 July, 6.00pm

Chelsea/Kitchee FC (N), 30 July, TBC

Derby (A), 3 August, TBC

Braga (A), 6 August

Blackburn Rovers

Accrington Stanley (A), 16 July, 12.00pm

Morecambe (A), 16 July, 3.00pm

Aston Villa (N), 27 July, 6.00pm

Chelsea/Kitchee FC (N), 30 July, TBC

Kilmarnock (A), 6 August, 3.00pm

Bolton Wanderers

FC Tampa Bay (A), 14 July

Orlando SC (A), 17 July

Bradford City (A), 24 July, 3.00pm

Bury (A), 27 July, 7.45pm

Hereford (A), 1 August, 7.45pm

Levante (H), 5 August

Chelsea

Portsmouth (A), 16 July, 3.00pm

Malaysia All-Stars XI (A), 21 July, 12.45pm

Thailand All-Stars (A), 24 July, 10.45am

Kitchee (A), 27 July

Rangers (A), 6 August, 3.00pm

Everton

Bury (A), 15 July, 7.45pm

Philadelphia Union (H), 20 July, TBC

DC United (A), 23 July, TBC

Birmingham (A), 30 July, 3.00pm

Werder Bremen (A), 2 August

Villarreal (H), 5 August

Fulham

NSI Runavik (H), 30 June, 7.30pm (Europa League)

NSI Runavik (A), 7 July, 6.45pm (Europa League)

AFC Wimbledon (A), 9 July, 3.00pm

Stevenage (A), 17 July, 3.00pm

Liverpool

Guangdong (A), 13 July, 1.00pm

Malaysia All-Stars (A), 16 July, 10.45am

Hull (A), 23 July, TBC

Valerenga (A), 1 August, 5.00pm

Valencia (H), 6 August, 5.30pm

Manchester City

Club America (A), 16 July, 12.00pm

Vancouver Whitecaps (A), 18 July, 11.00am

LA Galaxy (A), 24 July, 5.00am

Irish XI (A), 30 July, TBC

Internazionale, 31 July, TBC

Manchester United (N), 7 August, 3.00pm (Community Shield)

Manchester United

New England Revolution (A), 13 July, 11.00pm

Seattle (A), 21 July, 3.00am

Chicago Fire (A), 23 July, 10.00pm

MLS All-Stars (A), 28 July, 1.30am

Barcelona (A), 30 July, 6.00pm

New York Cosmos (H), 5 August, 7.30pm

Manchester City (N), 7 August, 3.00pm (Community Shield)

Newcastle United

Darlington (A), 15 July, 7.45pm

Sporting Kansas (A), 20 July, TBC

Orlando City (A), 23 July, TBC

Columbus Crew (A), 26 July, TBC

Leeds United (A), 31 July, 2.00pm

Fiorentina (H), 6 August, TBC

Norwich City

Gorleston (A), 16 July, 3.00pm

Crystal Palace (A), 26 July, 7.30pm

Southend United (A), 28 July, 7.30pm

Coventry City (A), 30 July, 3.00pm

Real Zaragoza (H), 3 August, 7.30pm

Parma (H), 6 August, 3.00pm

Queens Park Rangers

Harrow Borough (A), 15 July, 7.15pm

Tavistock (A), 18 July, 7.00pm

Plymouth Argyle (A), 20 July, 7.45pm

Bodmin Town (A), 22 July, 7.15pm

Crawley Town (A), 2 August, 7.45pm

Stoke City

Newport County (A), 16 July, 3.00pm

Newport YMCA (A), 17 July, 2.00pm

Brentford (A), 22 July, 7.45pm

Aldershot (A), 23 July, 3.00pm

Sheffield Wednesday (A), 30 July, 1.00pm

Sunderland

York City (A), 13 July, 7.30pm

Arminia Bielefeld (A), 17 July, 2.00pm

Hannover 96 (A), 20 July, 6.00pm

Borussia Mönchengladbach (A), 23 July, 2.00pm

Burnley (A), 30 July, 3.00pm

Hibernian (A), 6 August, 3.00pm

Swansea

Real Betis (H), 6 August, 3.00pm

Tottenham Hotspur

Kaizer Chiefs (A), 16 July, 3.00pm

Orlando Pirates (A), 19 July, 8.15pm

Barnet (A), 23 July, 3.00pm

MK Dons (A), 26 July, 7.30pm

Brighton (A), 30 July, 3.00pm

Athletic Bilbao (H), 6 August, 5.15pm

West Bromwich Albion

San Jose (A), 16 July

Ventura Fusion (A), 17 July

Portland (A), 21 July

Rochdale (A), 26 July

Bristol City (A), 30 July, 3.00pm

Parma (H), 7 August, 3.00pm

Wigan Athletic

Boston (A), 23 July

Barrow (A), 26 July

Colwyn Bay (A), 30 July

Preston (A), 31 July

Marine (A), 2 Aug

Villarreal (H), 7 August, 4.00pm

Wolverhampton Wanderers

Crewe Alexandra (H), 16 July, 7.45pm

Walsall (A), 19 July

Shrewsbury (A), 22 July, 7.30pm

Notts County (A), 23 July

Ipswich (A), 30 July

Real Zaragoza (H), 6 August, 3.00pm

Celtic

Central Coast Mariners (A), 2 July, 10.30am

Perth Glory (A), 9 July, 10.00am

Melbourne Victory (A), 13 July, 10.30am

Rangers

Linfield (A), 16 July, 2.00pm

Blackpool (H), 19 July, 7.30pm

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A dramatic 4-4 draw with Everton spelt the end in 1991. On Sunday, Dalglish takes charge again at Anfield

The train was gathering steam but no one saw it hurtling down the tracks towards Liverpool Football Club. As Tony Cottee scored two late goals to help Everton hold their Merseyside rivals to a 4-4 draw after extra-time in a fifth-round FA Cup replay at Goodison Park, the sole topic of conversation was how an extraordinary run of games between the old adversaries (a league match had preceded the initial Cup meeting) might end in the next meeting.

It was late February 1991. The stress Kenny Dalglish had been internalising for far too long was about to prompt his resignation but, as the teams trooped off, players and fans remained in blissful ignorance of the visiting manager’s mindset.

Two days later Dalglish was gone. The immense strain occasioned first by Heysel and then Hillsborough had finally told on a man who continues to offer the victims’ families his enduring support. Now, 20 years later, he is returning home for his first game back at Anfield since taking over from Roy Hodgson, and finds himself facing the club that persuaded him it was time to walk away.

Earlier in the month it had all seemed business as usual in derby No1 as a goal from Jan Molby and two from David Speedie undid Everton 3-1 at Anfield. Then came a goalless draw in the original cup match, closely followed by that 4-4