A lot of you might have noticed the poppy flower adorning attire of managers, broadcasters, players' shirts etc. to mark Remembrance week. Sportsmail (or, indeed, the Daily Mail) have led this campaign to get all Premier League clubs to have an embroidered poppy on club kits. Personally, I didn't have much of a problem with a campaign of this sort.

Click to continue reading...

Orlando, FL The 2009 Major League Soccer Racial and Gender Report Card resulted in continued outstanding results for MLS regarding racial hiring practices and another significant improvement in gender hiring practices.

MLS earned a third consecutive solid A (92) for racial hiring after getting A's in the categories of MLS League Office, players, head coaches, team president/CEO and team professional administration.

Click to continue reading...

Orlando, FL The 2009 Major League Soccer Racial and Gender Report Card resulted in continued outstanding results for MLS regarding racial hiring practices and another significant improvement in gender hiring practices.

MLS earned a third consecutive solid A (92) for racial hiring after getting A's in the categories of MLS League Office, players, head coaches, team president/CEO and team professional administration.

Click to continue reading...

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.

Click to continue reading...

Big Story
Have fans become spoiled, expecting every major game to be available for free and in their own language on their home television set, whereever the game is being played? The patchy television rights structure of World Cup qualifiers in which home teams sell their own coverage has led to considerable frustration for fans of both England and the U.

Click to continue reading...

Next weekend sees a big test in the ongoing debate over whether people will pay for premium content on the internet, when the World Cup qualifier between Ukraine and England in Dnipropetrovsk next Saturday. The match is due to be shown in the UK live over the internet only following the collapse of Setanta during the summer.

Click to continue reading...

At the start of today's match, Vito Mannone was Arsenal's third-choice goalkeeper, and speculation was rife that he might soon be relegated to fourth choice. His man-of-the-match performance against Fulham might have changed that.
I wouldn't be at all surprised now to see Mannone have a run in the side as first-choice keeper. Click to continue reading...

The Guardian reported last night that the Premier League have been dealt a massive legal blow in its fight against online piracy when an Israeli court threw out an attempt to shut down a pirate website that was showing live matches free of charge.

Some of the observations made by the Israeli court include:

• it was a case of "fair use" since no profit was made from the broadcasts and that, in Israeli law, breach of "broadcasting" copyright only referred to cable or wireless transmission and not streaming over the internet.

Click to continue reading...

Man United 2 (Rooney pen 59, Diaby og 64) Arsenal 1 (Arshavin 40)
(Premiership)

I missed Saturday's game as it was the last day of our club's cricket season, but having listened to it on the radio, and now watched the whole match in retrospect, I finally feel in a position to comment.

Click to continue reading...

(All times UK)
Friday 28th August
19:30 Borussia Monchengladbach v Mainz, Bundesliga, ESPN
Even after three games, 'Gladbach look woefully inconsistent. However, their mercurial if flighty forwards will fancy having a crack against newly promoted Mainz who may still have their heads turned after that fantastic victory over Bayern Munich last weekend. Click to continue reading...

A 2-0 loss to Valencia out in Spain rounded off our pre-season preparations on Saturday. Nothing to cry about really. I can remember a lot of successful seasons which kicked off with indifferent results in pre-season.

Friday bought us news of our draw with Celtic in the play-off round of the Champions League.

Click to continue reading...

The internet is dominated by teenagers. If you doubt it, go to Yahoo, look at any sports story, and take a look at the comments. Those that are decipherable (why do people use text speak when space isn't limited?) are almost exclusively the extreme views of the fickle, the black and white majority that see either unprecedented success, or unmitigated disaster on the horizon.

Click to continue reading...

The Polish champions, Wisla Krakow, lost today their chance of playing in the Champions League as they were defeated by Levadia Tallin. Yes, I also haven't heard about this team before. Luckily, the game wasn't televised anywhere as broadcasters were wise enough to spare fans sure heart attacks and spells of uncontrolled fury.

Click to continue reading...

I remember it like it was yesterday. A Sunday night in April 1986, Dad picks me up from work. I had barely slammed the door on the Riviera shut when Dad spoke.

"Well, it was a good day for the old guys."

"What happened?"

"Jack won the Masters!"

Golf was the perfect game for Dad because it was more mental than physical.

Click to continue reading...

The ink has only just dried on the contract, but already the fall-out from the deal that will save quite a few of the SPL clubs is starting to accumulate.
At a meeting held at Hampden yesterday afternoon, the 12 clubs that make up the SPL voted to accept a combined ESPN/Sky TV deal worth £65m which will see the broadcasters show 60 games between now and the end of the 2011/12 season. Click to continue reading...

Some time ago I posted a ramble on the problems adapting football to the demands of television, mentioning in passing the way that some other sports are presented on the small screen, including cricket. Last night, watching the first session of the Ashes series on SBS, I was impressed by a recent innovation in the coverage of that particular sport. Click to continue reading...

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.

Click to continue reading...

Kudos to EPL Talk for posting this just a bit ago. I found it to be something worth mentioning here.

The "World-Wide Leader" ESPN has announced more details regarding its coverage of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa next June.

Highlights of the announcement:

• ESPN will present all of its 2010 World Cup coverage from on-site in South Africa, totaling more than 65 hours of original content.

Click to continue reading...

The English Football Association (FA) has released a statement regarding Setanta UK going into administration.

"The FA will now consider options to find the best platform to broadcast those fixtures contracted to Setanta," said FA Chief Executive Ian Watmore. "These include England home friendly matches, FA Cup ties, England U21 games and the FA Community Shield.

Click to continue reading...

The kids may be cute, but can we shut them up please?
Maybe our World Cup experience won't leave us with torn ear drums after all? FIFA is to discuss the future of the vuvuzela.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter said he was aware of complaints of the instrument drowning out the commentary of broadcasters and the calls to have the loud fog horn banned. Click to continue reading...

The Premier League has announced it will sell Setanta's 46 live matches for next season to other broadcasters if the Irish company does not fulfil its payment obligations by 19 June. Click to continue reading...

Speaking today on his Commissioner Speaks blog, "The Don" Garber stated:

Other professional sports leagues and events have incorporated technology into the officiating decision-making process. Whether you are a fan of the NFL's Challenge and Review System or tennis' Hawk-Eye automated line-calling mechanism, technology in certain sports does assist with ensuring the correct call is made.

Click to continue reading...

Last week, Sir Alex Ferguson complained about the timing of our Premiership game against Boro, playing the early kick-off following a Wednesday night Champions League semi-final.

Ferguson ended his complaint by recognising if you sell your soul to the devil then there isn't much room to complain.

Click to continue reading...

FIFA TV director Niclas Ericson announced that FIFA will make a staggering $2.7 billion from the broadcasting rights to show the 2010 World Cup. "We have entered an agreement with the African Union of Broadcasters to place the TV rights in 41 sub-Saharan countries before the end of 2009," Ericson said. Click to continue reading...

The crunch second leg of any big European tie is the match all broadcasters want. Two giants of the game, perfectly poised from the first encounter, coming together again - it guarantees drama and massive viewing figures. In fact, second leg numbers are usually around 20% higher than the first, and that is even taking into account dead rubbers.

Click to continue reading...