If betting on football was legal in Malaysia, the most popular game this month would surely be which of three English Premier League clubs visiting Kuala Lumpur in July will attract the biggest attendance at the 80,000-capacity National Stadium in Bukit Jalil. Malaysian selections will play Arsenal on 13 July, Liverpool on 16 July and Chelsea on 21 July and organisers have set the same ticket

Mike Woitalla of Soccer America recaps the attendance this past weekend in Major League Soccer.
As usual, a huge crowd showed up in Seattle. But this time they were treated to a victory. D.C. United drew well for its clash with the Galaxy as league attendance remained above the 2010 season average.

By Chris Wright

'Scandal' has broken out in this morning's Il Corriere dello Sport, who claim that Lionel Messi, both Gab and Diego Milito and cape-wearing crime fighter Martin Palermo attended a 'sex and alcohol' party in their native Argentina which was being hosted by local reality TV strumpet Xoana Gonzalez.

After the pathos of the win over Brazil, today's match was a relief. My sense of relief pales, however, compared with that of the people watching the semifinal with me. I write this from the "family bus" – as luck would have it, I attended the France-USA match with the family of Lori Lindsey.

Chicago, IL Andrew Hauptman, owner of the Chicago Fire, has all but declared his intentions to move the team to Miami, Florida. Unfortunately for him, however, his lease to Toyota Park provides only one escape clause: extremely poor attendance.

Together with general manager Frank Klopas, Mr.

Following you will find pictures and fan video taken during the meeting with MLS Commissioner Don Garber. None of the video is professional so bear with us. the video it does give you a little taste of what it was like to be there.
I've seen much criticism out there from fans from other cities concerning the number of fans that showed up to the event.

Mike Woitalla of Soccer America reports on the continued attendance success by Major League Soccer.
The league remains on pace for its best attendance average ever. The 12 games in Week 29 games averaged 18,284 fans as Vancouver sold out its new home and two Wednesday night matches drew unusually big crowds.

After MLS Commissioner Don Garber received an onslaught of emails for months from a limited number of Miami Ultra supporters who wanted MLS back in the South Florida market, Garber met with them last weekend to have his say. He didn't mince words with the group.

"Miami needs to change its reputation as a market that believes in professional soccer," said Garber to 60 Miami Ultras and other soccer supporters.

As you know, year 16 wasn't pretty for the NASL:

At this same juncture the NASL was contracting, struggling to survive, which it would do for one more season. From a high of 24 teams in the 1980 season, the league had been sliced in half in just two years, with only 12 teams remaining.

Form, as they say, is temporary. Class is permanent.

According to the form books, Barcelona are pretty good at the moment. And Chelsea have had a decent run over the last few years. Manchester United have had a great 20 years and we all know about the Liverpool heyday in the ‘70s and ‘80s.

Courtesy of the BBC News business section. Revenue-wise, it's not the Big 4, but the Premiership, the other Big 3, and Ligue 1.
And football's revenues keep climbing.
The most profitable league? Turns out that's the Bundesliga; also the league with the highest attendance. It also outpaced La Liga whose revenue growth is concentrated around a smaller number of clubs (Real and Barca).

The attendance for today's match is... lining the pockets of Harry Kewell Out-of-contract at Galatasaray and seemingly short of the kind of offers that interest him, Australian star Harry Kewell is considering a return to his homeland. Given that most A-League clubs don't have the cash to keep Old King Kewell in the manner to [.

Manchester United vs Manchester City Goals 3-2 Highlights 2011 Community Shield Video is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter

Manchester United vs Manchester City Goals 3-2 Highlights 2011 Community Shield Video is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter Manchester United vs Manchester City 2011 Community Shield Final score:- Manchester United vs Manchester City 3-2 ( Smalling, Nani*2/ Lescott, Dzeko) Wembley- 7.

Seattle Sounders general manager Adrian Hanauer is delighted with the rate of growth within Major League Soccer.
The North American domestic league has been going from strength to strength both on and off the pitch in recent years and Hanauer is ‘thrilled' with how things are fairing in MLS.

A few days ago I posted about the slow ticket sales for the first leg of the CCL final in Monterrey, but that was just among season ticket holders. The general public appear to have responded to the call from club leadership and players to make their presence felt at the Tecnológico, because now ticket sales are up to 28,000 with general and preferential seating sections sold out.

Paul Kennedy of Soccer America reports on the past week's attendance in Major League Soccer.

Thanks in part to expansion teams Portland and Vancouver both drawing capacity crowds, MLS average attendance is up more than 1,300 fans a game over the final 2010 average, though several teams that date back to the launch of MLS in 1996 are struggling at the gate.

"We don't want a bunch of traveling supporters. As soon as we open up the whole building, it's a free for all. So obviously when we open our whole building up it's a lot different than when Vancouver and Portland open up their whole buildings, because their buildings hold 18,000 and 20,000. We want home games.

Cuba vs Mexico 2011 Score:- Cuba vs Mexico 0-5 ( Hernandez*2, Dos Santos*2, De Nigris) 9th June, 2011- CONCACAF Gold Cup ( Copa Oro)- Group A Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, NC Cuba vs Mexico attendance:- 46,012 After crushing El Salvador 5-0, Mexico record their second successive victory in Group A as they crush Cuba [.

I wish someone would do a documentary on the rise & fall of the Rochester Rhinos. 7 or 8 years ago they were the darlings of the U.S. second division with a U.S. Open Cup title to their name, outdrawing a few MLS teams at the gate and getting a SSS at a time when few big-league clubs had one.

After a disappointing two game homestand last week, the New England Revolution head out on the road for perhaps their toughest two game stretch of the season. The Revs face off against the Seattle Sounders on Sunday before taking on Real Salt Lake on July 4th. Both opponents currently sit in the top four of the MLS standings.

Roger Levesque scored two goals. Osvaldo Alonso scored his second goal in two matches. Erik Friberg finally put one in the back of the net. Most importantly, the 46,065 fans in attendance with huge grins on their faces after the Seattle Sounders beat the New York Red Bulls 4-2 after blowing a 2-0 lead.

Soccer America reports on the rising attendance in college soccer, lead by the University of California Santa Barbara.
UC Santa Barbara drew 13,822 fans, the largest crowd of the season and second largest crowd ever for an on-campus regular-season game, for its 2-0 win over Cal Poly.

We're about halfway through the current season of the Major Indoor Soccer League (yes, there is still an MISL, this is the third version, basically, long story, tell you later) and average attendance is about where it was last year.

Which is to say, not good. Not good at all.

With 27 of the 50 scheduled games in the books as of this morning, the MISL is averaging under 4,000 (announced) per game, following a season that saw the league average dip under 4k for the first time this century.

I've written about match day attendance and leagues' financial health before, so I thought it was interesting to see these figures from the latest report on the Bundesliga's financial situation. Here's the trend in spectators since the inception of the league in 1963.
While the league's annual attendance ranged between 5 and 7 million per season for almost three decades throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, we have seen a rapid and sustained increased since Germany's unification in 1989/90 from about 5 million then to almost 13 million during these last two years.

Mike Woitalla of Soccer America writes of the large crowds in Major League Soccer this past week.

Week 9 games averaged nearly 2,000 more fans than the previous week as Seattle's Qwest Field filled for the "Cascadia Cup" against Northwest rival Portland and set a season record.

Might be the last one for a while, but here's the latest list of attendance figures for the prominent leagues (if a team's not listed, either they haven't had a home game yet or I have no figures for them).

THE MLS G Total Avg. Seattle Sounders FC 7 253,864 36,266 Los Angeles Galaxy 6 136,938 22,823 Vancouver Whitecaps FC 7 140,923 20,132 Toronto FC 8 157,020 19,628 Portland Timbers 6 111,762 18,627 Philadelphia Union 6 108,596 18,099 Houston Dynamo 7 122,414 17,488 New York Red Bulls 6 104,036 17,339 Chivas USA 5 85,592 17,118 DC United 6 98,063 16,344 Real Salt Lake 5 81,360 16,272 Colorado Rapids 6 83,007 13,835 FC Dallas 7 96,099 13,728 Chicago Fire 5 66,439 13,288 New England Revolution 7 87,146 12,449 Columbus Crew 6 60,427 10,071 San Jose Earthquakes 6 59,132 9,855 TMLS TOTAL 106 1,852,818 17,479 NASL G Total Avg.

Appearing on Scottish comedian Craig Ferguson's late night talk show on US television, Becks said he had '30 or 31' tattoos on his body.
When asked by Ferguson, 'Did you get any (tattoos) on your 'business'?' Beckham replied, 'Not yet.'
He then spoke of the recent presidential dinner he attended in London, describing meeting President Barack Obama as 'amazing'.

KC has gotten quite a few new fans over the past few years, and while they have heard the history of the team and the stories of the team potentially moving. But I would suggest for all fans, not just those that are newer read this story about the Rochester Rhinos no longer being on MLS' radar.
The reason for this is because you'll learn about how close Kansas City really did come to losing their MLS team to Rochester.

Well thank you, Michael Carrick. Without your attendance at the Montreal Grand Prix yesterday, we may never have learned of the existence of Canadian skier Erik Guay. And then googled him and found out he wears a really tight suit to work. Yay! Image: Getty Images/Daylife

Attendance for 11 games in Week 13 exceeded the season average as Kansas City weclomed an overflow crowd for its first game at its new stadium and six other teams drew more 18,000 fans. For MLS attendance rankings ...
* After playing its first 10 games on the road, Kansas City moved into its brand-new Livestrong Sporting Park and drew 19,925 for a scoreless tie in a stadium whose capacity is listed as 18,467.

Over the last couple of years we have written extensively about the power of social media to connect teams with fans, promote a brand and drive message to the most passionate and interested potential consumers. Every interview we have conducted with front office representatives has included a discussion about the use of social media.

The CONCACAF Gold Cup is almost done and last night's set of semifinals at Reliant Stadium left us with the final everyone expected in the first place. The USA will face Mexico on Saturday in Los Angeles with a crowd demographic that should line up with what we saw during the second match last night.

The application of rules in football can be patchy at best in this part of the world. On an evening when the SLeague game between Etoile and Young Lions was delayed apparently because there was no ambulance in attendance (!), across town at Toa Payoh Stadium, a colour clash between match officials and a goalkeeper was not deemed worthy of comment.

The day after matches, we usually reserve for rational discussion. But because of the somewhat crazy nature of Wednesday's 7-0 thrashing at the hands of Manchester United, I think I may have over-compensated the day of. With so many people absolutely freaking out -- or at least a few people doing so very loudly -- I didn't want to feed into that.

Rangers v Chelsea Score Highlights 2011 Goals Friendly Video is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter

Rangers v Chelsea Score Highlights 2011 Goals Friendly Video is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter Rangers v Chelsea 2011 Final score and result:- Rangers v Chelsea 1-3 ( Nikica Jelavic/ Daniel Sturridge*2, Florent Malouda) 6th August, 2011- Ibrox Park, Glasgow- Pre-Season soccer friendly- Saturday Rangers v Chelsea attendance:- 47,379 Daniel [.

photo courtesy of Jarred Donalson
Not horrible attendance wise for KC last night compared to KC's history, but I am a little disappointed that the attendance last night was only 15,352. Hopefully this coming Saturday with a home game we'll see a sell out. Check out the break down for the 11th home game of the season all time for KC.

The best photo from a blurry batch of cell-phone pictures. I'm glad to say that I was lucky enough to be able to go to Empire Field's last Vancouver Whitecaps game against the Seattle Sounders. When I go see matches live, I'm usually too engrossed in the action and swept up by the atmosphere to be able to properly focus on what I'm going to write later in the match report.

The Major Indoor Soccer league opened this past week for its 2011-12 season. Per a press release, nearly 13,000 fans were in attendance across three games from Thursday and Friday nights. MISL Senior Director Chris Economides was very positive on the opening, "We are absolutely thrilled at the response of our fans.

Busy few days in Major League Soccer as teams have been aggressively signing players, preparing for the re-entry draft, unveiling jerseys and generally trying to remain relevant in the news cycle. While I've never personally understood the excitement around the release of a new kit, the oft criticized Revolution front office handled their unveiling rather well, usual social media to spread the word.

when you blow out like a dead star
it reminds me how uniform your beautiful is
we carry on like it's easy
like you're all out
and i'm your man
baby i'm your man
-Matt Good, Giant

Or go with the last time I referenced Stars Die, your pick.