Official Press Release
New York, Wednesday 29th July 2009 – In a stunning rebuke and continuation of his isolation from the football world, Fox Soccer Channel (FSC) today announced that Steven Cohen would not be returning to host the FSC show Fox Football Fone In (FFF) which he has co-hosted for 4 years.

So ESPN's gone out and signed Martin Tyler to be its no. 1 commentator for the 2010 World Cup.
Good. He's a very good, if slightly ubiquitous, commentator. He won't embarrass ESPN like Jack Edwards, Dave O'Brien or Marcello Balboa and he'll make a lot of US World Cup viewers very happy.

Tribal Football has what the owner of Ajax has to say... Ajax director Rik van den Boog has confirmed his club's interest in signing Oguchi Onyewu on a free transfer from Standard Liege.
The 27-year-old is at the end of his contract with the Belgian outfit and has also reportedly attracted the interest of Fenerbahce and a number of English clubs.

The young Spaniard Suso will join up with his fellow countrymen at Anfield rather than join the superstars at the Bernabeu. Liverpool have stolen a march on Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona and secured the services of highly-rated Cadiz teenager Jesus Fernandez Saez, nicknamed Suso, according to Setanta Sports.

"Freedom isn't free
It costs folks like you and me
And if we don't all chip in
We'll never pay that bill"
So I'm sure most of you know by now that Steven Cohen has shut down World Soccer Daily. On Friday's edition of WSD, the broadcaster revealed that his decision was made after some random nutter(s) contacted his stepchildren (via Twitter) and friends.

Setanta Sports, the British broadcaster that everyone loves to hate, shut down thier on-line subscription signup page yesterday in another sign that they may have reached the end of the road. One British source reported that Setanta would cease operations at midnight Tuesday, but that deadline came and went with the broadcaster still on the air.

Many industry observers were surprised earlier this year when Fox Soccer Channel not only held off ESPN's bid to swipe the US television rights to the English Premier League, but wrestled the Champions League away from the worldwide leader in sports. But ESPN may be ready to get back in the game as the financial difficulties at Setanta Sports could leave the broadcast rights to 46 EPL games up for grabs.

"We have distanced ourselves and will continue to distance ourselves from any comments that disrespect the memory of Hillsborough.
"We can see no benefit of giving him legitimacy by the club singling him out. Giving Mr. Cohen oxygen is the worst thing we could do.
"He is not a representative, nor ever has been a representative of the club.

It's pretty much well known that Setanta Sports are struggling financially at the moment and according to the BBC are on the brink of collapse. Setanta apparently owe £30m to the Premier League and have already failed to make a £3m payment to the Scottish FA for its rights to the SPL highlights.

If you haven't heard, some soccer on TV ratings came out yesterday. FSC, America's preeminent all-soccer broadcaster, became Nielsen-rated just about a year ago. Since then, the network's ratings...

You know it's been an eventful round when a goalkeeper can slap someone in the face and no one really takes any notice. Even Norwegian broadcaster TV2, who are more interested in controversies than actual football, had more interesting things to talk about this week. Erik "Myggen" Mykland made his first appearance in the Tippeliga in 13 years, Christian Bolanos recorded an early candidate for goal of the season, Rosenborg showed why their name is on the trophy this season, an 18 year-old defeated the reigning champions and Sandefjord won their first away-game at the highest level in 15 attempts.

GA_googleFillSlot("Sb_Home_Right_1_120x240"); North American football broadcaster GolTV has acquired the rights for the German Bundesliga in the US and Canada until the end of the 2011-12 season. GolTV has been the rights-holder in the territories since 2006-07, prior to which Fox Soccer Channel (FSC) held them.

It's all for charidee, mate Setanta Sports commentators Jon Champion and Chris Waddle have been handed a potential banana skin as they attempt to come through Saturday's match between England and Kazakhstan without dropping in any football cliches. The cash-strapped broadcaster has promised £5,000 to the Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer Research UK, but they will knock [.

Yesterday, amidst all the good news for Arsenal supporters, there was an announcement by the English Premier League that they are cancelling Setanta's contract for the 2009/10 season owing to the fact that Setanta could not make a £10m scheduled payment. The rights to some 46 matches are now going to be repackaged and sold to the highest bidder with Sky sports and ESPN the two most likely contenders.

"Erm, see what comes up if we type in English soccer." Financial broadcaster Bloomberg has showed that football is probably not its number one news priority. The news channel accompanied its story on ESPN bagging the Premier League rights with footage of Cristiano Ronaldo and Christian Dailly. Ronaldo and Dailly have very little in common except they [.

I have such a love/hate relationship with Sportsnet when it comes to their coverage of Canadian soccer. I mean, they do some good things. I like Craig Forrest and they did bring the EPL to regular cable. For that I am happy and grateful. But today my relationship is much more on the hate side.

Just in case you haven't heard (and despite the glowing headline from the CSA site declaring Sportsnet to Broadcast Canada Gold Cup Matches), Sportsnet will not be showing Canada' s Gold Cup matches on the main Sportsnet channel.

Spanish production company Mediapro will launch a new terrestrial channel offering pay-per-view matches from La Liga for €1 a game. Mediapro holds a controlling stake in Spanish commercial broadcaster la Sexta. Its Gol TV channel is currently only distributed through Spain's pay-TV operators. There is no government law that allows payment for television broadcasts on digital terrestrial [.

So much for the competition laws on broadcasting, then. When the European Union introduced new laws which were meant to prevent one broadcaster taking a monopoly of sports broadcasting, it seemed as if the viewer could only benefit. Sky's monopoly on Premier League football was, we were told, finally broken as a new deal was struck with two-thirds of matches going to them and one-third to Setanta Sports.

The Premier League have announced that they have terminated their contract with Setanta Sports in the United Kingdom. That means that Setanta has lost the TV rights for the 2009-2010 Premier League season and will sell the rights to the 46 lives games to the highest bidder.

The bidding deadline for the TV rights to those 46 games in England is Monday.

Starting this Sunday, NFL teams will begin their grueling five month battle to see who will win the Lombardi Trophy, which got us here at STO thinking...

Out of all the legendary coaches to ever coach an NFL game, John Madden and Mike Ditka have to be considered two legends at the top of the list.

Rio Ferdinand is perhaps one of the more unlikely of digital ambassadors. Before yesterday's online-only broadcast of Ukraine v England, the defender offered his opinion on the unique way the game would be broadcast to the nation.

"I'm sure it'll be the way forward and in the future it'll probably be the reality.

It's the news that soccer fans with Comcast have been waiting for. ESPN and Comcast have agreed to deal to bring ESPN 360 to Comcast customers by the fall of 2009.

Up until now, none of the 17 million Comcast subscribers had access to ESPN 360, the broadband video site that features the Champions League, Coca-Cola Championship, Serie A, Major League Soccer, Bundesliga and several other leagues.

This week will be the most important in the history of Setanta, the Irish broadcaster who - according to the British press - could be forced into administration in the next few days. The implications of such a disaster would be massive for the Premier League and could also cause ripple effects throughout North America, the Caribbean and Australia where Setanta Sports has a major footprint.

With the Irish broadcaster on the brink of collapse, Football Corner wants you to sum up Setanta Sports in just three words.
Whenever we do a : three words to sum up on the site, we always received loads of comments so lets do the same again. If I was to sum up Setanta in just three words, I would say : Sky is better.

According to BBC News, Setanta has lost the English TV rights to the Premiership after failing to pay the latest installment of 30 million pounds. There was a deal in place that was to rescue the ailing broadcaster, purchasing 51% of the company. US investor Len Blavatnik with Access Industries was said to have been trying to wrangle a deal with Setanta but as of Friday negotiations had fallen apart and there were no other suitors knocking on Setanta's door.

From The Guardian
Yesterday, ESPN announced that the sports channel's football coverage would be extended to include matches from the top-flight domestic competitions in Germany, Portugal, Russia and the Netherlands.
The US broadcaster has also secured the UK and Ireland rights to air the remainder of the Major Soccer League competition in the US, featuring David Beckham's LA Galaxy.

According to press reports this evening, the Blue Square Premier has been unable to reach agreement with the new boy in the British pay television market, ESPN. This comes as no great surprise. For one thing, lower division football doesn't exactly fit in with the profile that the nascent channel has built up over the last couple of months, a profile based upon top European football, Premier League football and American sports.

I'm sick of this crappy little network and having to deal with their bullshit.

They suck. Plain and simple! They promised us 3 games a week and they are already backing off to 2 games a week at best. They promised a contest that never materialized. They pick up Europa and won't even show German teams.

Awesome. I can't imagine an American soccer broadcaster approaching even one-tenth of that joy and enthusiasm. Maybe Limarzi on amphetamines?

American soccer fans looking forward to watching the 2010 World Cup will have a familiar voice calling World Cup matches on ESPN.

Sports Illustrated's Richard Deitsch is reporting that ESPN is set to hire English broadcaster Martin Tyler as lead play-by-play announcer for the 2010 World Cup.

Before the last game, a few players and front office people came out to the tailgates to socialize and drop off some "refreshments". Adam Cristman is injuried so he was out there...Kevin Souter, currently on the DL and doing a great job as a fill in broadcaster stopped by also. Here is posing with Mike of Down the Byline fame.

On Twitter last night, I asked readers last night two questions: One, were they excited about Friday's World Cup Draw and two, was this the first one they were going to experience?

The answer to the first question was an enthusiastic yes. People are extremely excited. And the answer to the second question was mixed.

Sad news this morning. Sir Clement Freud has died.

Broadcaster and former Liberal MP Sir Clement Freud has died aged 84. A statement from his family said Sir Clement had died on Wednesday evening at his London home.
He is survived by his wife of 59 years, the actress Jill Freud, five children and 17 grandchildren.

Setanta Sports is in financial crisis. Setanta failed to pay the SPL £3million last week and are locked in talks with their financiers to extract a minimum £50 million that they need to carry on operating.

So what I hear you ask?

Well Setanta Sports is the platform, on which Arsenal TV is broadcast.

As this Times article points out with Setanta's bankruptcy all but inevitable, it is the SPL's smaller clubs that will have to absorb the financial blow.

The EPL's decision to terminate Setanta's £392million contract to broadcast 46 live matches came after the company failed to meet its £10million installment obligation.

According to BBC News, Setanta has lost the English TV rights to the Premiership after failing to pay the latest installment of 30 million pounds. There was a deal in place that was to rescue the ailing broadcaster, purchasing 51% of the company. US investor Len Blavatnik with Access Industries was said to have been trying to wrangle a deal with Setanta but as of Friday negotiations had fallen apart and there were no other suitors knocking on Setanta's door.

With pre-season officially just days away the excitement is building in preparation for the new season. The Blue Square Premier fixtures will be released at the back end of next week and by then Graham Westley's squad will have already been through a couple of tough days of fitness training.

Book Review: Wark On by John Wark
It must be impossible for those who played top flight football in the era of pre-Premiership riches not to wonder how their lives would have panned out had they been born a couple of decades later. Take Glen Hysen: the Swedish central defender who played for Liverpool in the early nineties recently ended up on the dole after a Swedish broadcaster opted not to renew his contract.

Below is piece by Graham Cunningham (my favourite racing broadcaster despite him refusing to print off my racing figures at Pontefract one day...claiming there was no printer in there) which was buried in a recent Betfair piece.

If I ever end up on Mastermind then you can bet 1.

A few stories tonight that are worth checking out. A lot of MLS based items that need discussed and a little US-Mexico hype for Wednesday. If you got a link that you feel needs discussed here just send me an email and I'll do my best to get it up tomorrow.

Blanco and Kljestan Grace FIFA Soccer 10 Cover

Link

Cuauhtémoc Blanco of the Chicago Fire and Sacha Kljestan of Chivas USA will be featured on the front packs of FIFA Soccer 10.