ESPN today significantly raised the bar today on the quality of Premier League coverage in the United States. Their early kickoff between Manchester City and Chelsea was a turning point for a few different reasons. First, the game featured one of the top English commentators, Ian Darke, broadcasting exclusively to a U.

By Clemente Lisi - EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ (Jun 3, 2010) US Soccer Players -- A discussion about the World Cup would not be complete without mentioning Spanish-language broadcaster Andres Cantor. Born in Argentina, Cantor, who currently works for Spanish-language TV network Telemundo, is famous for his gut-busting play-by-play that reaches the "Gooooooaaaal!

Uefa has appointed Sportfive to market the media rights for Euro 2012 in 49 territories across Asia and Oceania.

The executives at Major League Soccer defy logic. Take for example the TV viewing numbers for this 2010 season which recently ended. The viewing numbers were down 12% compared to last year on ESPN2. And they remained flat on Fox Soccer Channel with an average of 53,000 viewers during the regular season.

In the final edition of our 10 Questions feature, Clemente Lisi talks with GolTV broadcaster Phil Schoen about his experiences covering the game, the always entertaining Ray Hudson, and the future of soccer in America. By Clemente Lisi - NEW YORK, NY (Dec 30, 2010) US Soccer Players -- Phil Schoen and his color commentator Ray Hudson have built an audience for their broadcasts of games on GolTV.

Fox Sports International is in discussions to acquire Setanta Sports USA and an announcement is expected in the next 72 hours, sources confirmed to EPL Talk on Monday.

Fox Sports International is best known to soccer fans as the company that runs Fox Soccer Channel.

In related news, Setanta Sports USA has dropped the Premier League from its list of sports programming available on its network.

As readers of Inside Minnesota are fully aware, I was at the heart of reporting the story of the battle for control of Division II soccer that took place this past fall and early winter. Inside Minnesota Soccer was actually reporting on some of these issues for over a year, but stepped up the coverage last spring when the Team Owners Association started to make noise about their unhappiness with the United Soccer League.

When I ran into Gooch in Philly at the SuperDraft/NSCAA Convention a few weeks ago, some people didn't appreciate it and some did. Oh well, you can't please everyone (unless you are Kaka...nobody seems to hate that guy). Now I just scratched the surface because A) I am a blogger and not a journalist or broadcaster or any of things I have been rumored to be, B) I was not prepared to ask for more than I did, and C) Gooch has a schedule to keep Cotdamnit.

Boy, Steve Davis hits it on the head with this one. I know I've harped over MLS broadcasts before and Davis made several points I'd said in the past. Quality read for those (like me) who get annoyed easy while listening to a MLS game.

I always say the best cure for it is to do what Seattle is doing, a single broadcaster calling the game.

Does Australian broadcaster SBS actually want Australians to watch the World Cup? Or does it just want to make them very very angry? Top marks for comedy though.

• FrankenSven unveils ultimate football player. Sadly not Ivorian. (Soccerlens)
• Benoît Assou-Ekotto is an honest man (The Guardian)
• The Gaza World Cup (Palestine Note)
• Marseille's 2010/11 shirts unveiled leaked.

First time of their history Bursaspor won the Turkey's top league Turkcell Super League TITLE in the 2009-2010 season,
As I predicted about five weeks ago,the race went down to the wire....
Everything was suppose to go Fenerbahce's way....
Because, the=y were on top of Bursaspor going into last match of the season.

BBC is considering filtering out crowd noise from its World Cup broadcasts following a deluge of complaints about vuvuzelas.

By Tuesday morning, the BBC had received 545 complaints from viewers about the constant buzzing sound of the plastic horns used by fans at games in South Africa.

With many big teams now out of the running, viewership figures and advertising revenue could fall faster than the dashed hopes of fans in the U.S., England, France or Italy.

Keisuke Honda criticised his team's defensive football and admitted that he wouldn't even have watched the match.
Takeshi Okada apologised to the nation for failing to achieve his goal of steering Japan to the semi-finals.

There is no question that soccer in the United States has gained more credibility since the World Cup, both domestically and abroad.
Thierry Henry's move to Major League Soccer to play for the New York Red Bulls only enhances the potential growth for soccer in the United States. Tim Love of BBC Sport writes of the soccer revolution taking place in the United States.

While the Football League hopes it will still be the next big earner, online streaming of matches has proved distinctly unpopular

Youth Football Development and the state of the game: An expert's view is a post from: Just Football

In continuation of our intermittent series looking at different aspects of youth football and youth development, we bring you the first part of an in-depth interview with Chris Green, award-winning multimedia journalist, BBC Radio 5 Live broadcaster and author of Every Boy's Dream England's Football Future on the Line.

GolTV announced a new agreement with UNCAF, the Central American Football Union, to be the exclusive North American broadcaster of the 2011 Copa Centroamericana

This Inter Milan broadcaster got just a bit excited over the team's 4-3 comeback win against Siena over the weekend.
Just a bit.
Gotta love the old-man celebration in the studio too.

Broadcaster, Sky Sports News are reporting that a Newcastle United deal for Portsmouth centre back, Mike Williamson should be complete within the next couple of days. They reported that they "understand a deal will be be completed in the next 48 hours", though there has been no official statement from either Newcastle United or Portsmouth [.

US sports broadcaster ESPN has released details of its World Cup 2010 coverage. If you're reading this from outside the US, you may not think this is big news. But for American soccer fans, it is. Here's why:

In other countries, you can take it for granted that football is a big deal and so the World Cup will be treated accordingly by your broadcaster.

The first batch of games have been grabbed and it's 2 - 1 to ITV as the commercial broadcaster gets England's first two games at the World Cup (USA and Algeria). The BBC will screen England's final Group C game against Slovenia on June 23rd.
For the full list click here.

A brand new radio station for south Essex launches later today (1 April). Essex Radio is an internet based station, and three quarters of its presenters are from Southend.
The station goes on air at 8pm tonight and the station will resurrect - amongst other shows - the famous 'Club Essex' segment on the weekends.

Efan Ekoku will be covering the 2010 World Cup this summer for ESPN, but before that he will be co-commentating on Saturday match at Old Trafford: Manchester United hosting Chelsea, with first place (and possibly the title) on the line. The renown broadcaster and former Norwich and Nigeria star joined me on Thursday night to break down the match-ups and tactics for Saturday's match.

With this year's South African World Cup the great majority of weekday matches will be played in working hours. Coupled with the fact that many pundits are predicting the U.S. making it to the second round and beyond you are likely to want to watch many of the matches (with your bosses consent or otherwise) than ever before.

Last month, the new MLSSoccer.com replaced the outgoing MLSsoccer.net with great fanfare, as MLS took its website in house and completely redesigned the format and content. At the start, an array of technical issues created an uproar among MLS fans unable to access stats, video and other features of the website.

Last month, the new MLSSoccer.com replaced the outgoing MLSsoccer.net with great fanfare, as MLS took its website in house and completely redesigned the format and content. At the start, an array of technical issues created an uproar among MLS fans unable to access stats, video and other features of the website.

Today I bring you the blogger knows as Roswitha (although I prefer to use the moniker of her web address, the Angry Nun), author of Treasons, Stratagems & Spoils. It may seem to be a bit scatter shot reading right now, so may I suggest some John Cage prepared piano while looking through the back catalog?

Sky Sports News babe Charlotte Jackson may be a Liverpool fan - but her views on Fernando Torres are unlikely to go down well at Anfield.
In an interview for the Mail On Sunday's Live magazine, the presenter admits even Tottenham Hotspur might be a better place for the Spain striker than on Merseyside.

La Liga fans in Indian sub continent will be once again deprived of the opportunity to catch 2010-11 season Live on television. ESPN-STAR has confirmed to me that they will not be telecasting the 2010-11 season, due to terms that were not acceptable to both parties. This happened last season also.

Arjen Robben has been ruled out of Netherlands' first match of World Cup 2010 against Denmark after sustaining a hamstring injury.

Coach Bert van Marwijk said that it was too risky to play Robben on Monday, but is looking for the winger to take on Japan on June 19th five days after their first match.

The opening game of the 2010 World Cup (played before breakfast on the West Coast), averaged 5.4 million viewers on Univision and 2.6 million on ESPN. The Univision broadcast was the number 1 program of the day in more than five US Cities. The USA/England game on ABC averaged just under 13 million viewers and was the fifth most watched soccer match in ABC history.

ITV pundit Robbie Earle has been fired for ticket touting at the World Cup.

The former footie star was dumped today after bosses discovered he had sold around 100 tickets given to him by ITV, against FIFA rules.

The tickets found their way to a group of blonde models who were allegedly given them by Dutch beer firm Bavaria Beer.

The fairly poor pundit and one time Wimbledon star has just gone up in our estimation!

Join Bet365 and get upto £200 free plus money back on World Cup bets!

Win the Club Shirt Of Your Choice Simply by Speaking Your Mind!

The 45-year-old, who had worked for the broadcaster for eight years, was dismissed when it emerged that a group of women involved in a marketing stunt were using tickets purchased by him.

The BBC has reported a record number of complaints about the dull, monotonous drone that accompanies their screenings of the World Cup in South Africa, and so from early next week will be offering an option to filter out the noise of Mick McCarthy.

"It's giving me a headache," said Richard Croft, from Barnsley, "I can't imagine why anyone would want to listen to such an offensive sound for a minute, never mind a full hour and a half.

Teams of the Day: Cameroon & Denmark. Two teams which proudly featured nursery school defending. Bless you. That's all.

Player of the Day: Simon Kjaer. This man was throwing around balls like Xavi, including the long pass to Rommedahl on the first Danish goal.

By Ollie Irish

◄ Back Next ► Picture 1 of 12

Ian Wright - a buffoon

No no no no. No.

"Ian Wright will be one of the voices of Absolute Radio's football coverage when it begins broadcasting live Premier League games next month.

"Wright, who fronted the drivetime show on TalkSport, a rival commercial station, will host a 90-minute post-match analysis show on Absolute Radio at 5pm on Saturdays.

Gol TV Have Taken The First Steps In Becoming An Exclusive Bundesliga Broadcaster.

Gol TV have purchased the rights to exclusively air the German Super Cup match between Bayern Munich and Schalke on Saturday. Gol TV have also gone ahead and purchased the rights to exclusively air next season's German Super Cup match.

Okay. A late night rant (to be posted in the morning).

Before we berate the dubious intentions of a prominent Stateside soccer broadcaster, we should probably first go through that bit where we say that the opinions of Mr Ethan Armstrong don't necessarily reflect the opinions of EPLTalk etc etc.

Sources here in the Netherlands say that AEK is interested in buying Dutch defender Kew Jaliens from AZ Alkmaar, former Dutch champion. With Majstorovic gone that would make a lot of sense, because Jaliens is an experienced defender who usually plays on the right back position, but can also play as central defender.