The Commercialisation of the European Cup - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Jumpers for Goalposts: How Football Sold Its Soul
by Rob Smyth and Georgina Turner
Published 1st December, £11.99 paperback original, Elliott & Thompson

Jumpers for Goalposts is a fascinating and funny reflection on why football has changed so much since the inception of the English Premier League in 1992, and why the old descriptions of "the beautiful game" and "the people's game" no longer fit.

Raining on his parade One of the things we sadly miss about the commercialisation of our beautiful game is games played on awful pitches. It was football's greatest leveller, and made two things much easier: 1. Non-league sides causing amazing giantkillings 2. The creation of 'comedy' football videos However, when Tonga met the Cook Islands [.

Premier League footballers and their mis-use of Twitter is rapidly becoming the primary source of news and entertainment for journalists and fans alike.
Free from the oppressive, bland media-trained arena of post-match press rooms, the modern day player on the internet is worryingly loose cannon for managers, with supporters and journos waiting on every tweet.

Copa America 2011 Preview - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

This Friday (1st July) the eyes of South America will turn to La Plata, Argentina, as the host nation take on Bolivia in the opening match of the much awaited Copa America, a tournament that will showcase some of the most talented individual players on the planet.

Gianfranco Zola, fresh from appearing in the Chelsea Legends side that beat Spurs 4-0 in the local tournament at Craven Cottage the other week, has spoken of how football has changed since he finished playing.
Zola was asked about the game how much it has changed and said:

"There's no doubt that the pace is higher now, even in the last few years.

Once upon a time, FIFA was not corrupt, it was just a Eurocentric empire run for the good of a few countries in western Europe unwilling to open the doors of the World Cup to the rest of the world. Those were the 1960s, when Englishman Stanley Rous' FIFA preferred to pander to the racist South African football association over finding ways to integrate the developing world into its halls of power.