Count RealSaltLake owner Dave Checketts as one who favors a major format change in MLS Cup – as mentioned in the previous post – where the higher seeded side will host the final.

"I've told [MLS Commissioner Don] Garber all along that the championship game should be at the highest seeded team in the game," Checketts told me said Saturday morning as RSL was finishing its training.

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With the Vietnam, Malaysia, Thai and Singapore leagues roughly in sync with each other and due to start their new seasons in the early weeks of 2010 clubs are now preparing training schedules, squads and friendlies.
Why not get the champions from each country to get together in a friendly tournament in December? Click to continue reading...

If Steve Darby and Bryan Robson fancying coming to Indonesia to catch some of their players I would like to offer them my sofa.
It would save them a few bob on hotels and they would be able to get up close and personal to Kosin (Persib), Suchao (Persib), Pipat (Persisam) and Phaitoon (Persijap). Click to continue reading...

W.C. qualifier has 134 tickets sold
I probably don't know the whole story, but it doesn't make it any less remarkable. Only 134 tickets have been sold in Columbia for an upcoming World Cup qualifier against Chile.
It's a big game! Chile is right in the mix for a berth and Colombia is just two points out! Click to continue reading...

With seemingly half the Singaporean national team being reported as packing their bags and relocating to Singapore I would like to offer national team coach Raddy a special deal. With sod all in the way of young players coming through it's going to be in his interests to keep an eye on the heart of his squad as they struggle to adapt to their new surroundings. Click to continue reading...

FIFA president Sepp Blatter is a man who has more than his fair share of ridiculous, unworkable and spurious ideas. But his latest is also possibly his greatest.The, um, 'great' man has suggested using cruise ships as alternatives for hotels at the 2010 World Cup Finals to overcome the shortage of hotel rooms in South Africa. Click to continue reading...

Dimitar Berbatov is enjoying his first pre-season as a Manchester United player and described the reaction towards the squad as being like that towards The Beatles. Sir Alex Ferguson says it's not just the new players who are taken aback by the reaction but the more experienced and even himself.

"But its not just them," Fergie admitted.

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Tossers.
This morning's bombings of two hotels in downtown Jakarta shattered the hopes and dreams of 70,000 fans who had been looking forward to a chance of seeing Manchester United's stars strut their stuff in the flesh.
One of the hotels targeted was the Ritz Carlton which was where the visiting players were due to have stayed for their short stay. Click to continue reading...

Movie hotels aside, we can't forget the real reason we're all here. With that in mind, here's who's playing today in the U-17/18 age group:
IMG Soccer Academy vs. FC Greater Boston at 3 pm PT
Carmel United SC vs Dallas Texans at 4 pm PT
D.C. United vs Real Colorado at 6 pm PT
PDA vs CASL Chelsea FC at 7 pm PT
Get a full recap of yesterday's action while games are underway, and as always, check back here later tonight for highlights and match reports. Click to continue reading...

Movie hotels aside, we can't forget the real reason we're all here. With that in mind, here's who's playing today in the U-17/18 age group:
IMG Soccer Academy vs. FC Greater Boston at 3 pm PT
Carmel United SC vs Dallas Texans at 4 pm PT
D.C. United vs Real Colorado at 6 pm PT
PDA vs CASL Chelsea FC at 7 pm PT
Get a full recap of yesterday's action while games are underway, and as always, check back here later tonight for highlights and match reports. Click to continue reading...

Photo via AP

Oh King Pele! Never fear, your crown will never be taken from you... unless the person holding it is The Dona!

Anyway, he's spoken again about recent "betrayals" in world football because back in his time, there were no multi-million dollar deals and everyone was 100% committed to their clubs.

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Is South Africa ready to host futbol's biggest tournament next year? According to reports in Brazilian newspapers, they have good stadiums, excited fans and roads in "reasonable conditions." As such, South Africa is closing on a "friendlier note" to host the games, a sentiment that wasn't the case last year.

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The wacky Sepp Blatter, FIFA's President, the same guy who last summer called Cristiano Ronaldo a slave - singlehandedly re-igniting my sportswriting career, is back at it again.
This time, Blatter says that a major concern ahead of next year's World Cup in South Africa is an accommodation shortage - and he is proposing the berthing of passenger cruise ships off Durban, Cape Town, and Port Elizabeth to deal with the issue - setting up floating mini-hotels. Click to continue reading...

Would it be possible, do you think, to build twenty or so hotels in nine months? How long does building a hotel actually take, because if I could do it, then I would.I figure that if I can get 20 hotels open in nine months, that will leave me three months to market them to the hundreds of thousands of football fans that will be coming to the 2010 World Cup. Click to continue reading...

By Clemente Lisi - NEW YORK, NY (Jun 11, 2009) USSoccerPlayers -- The World Cup may be just a year away, but more importantly for South Africa right now is that the Confederations Cup is just days away. The eight-team tournament isn't only a chance to see the World's greatest national teams compete, but will be used as a dress rehearsal for organizers. Click to continue reading...

Manchester United and Barcelona are in Rome, their supporters are having Champions League Final toga parties in the street outside their hotels, and the waters of the Fontana del Nettuno are running purple with the leaky ink of self-applied Wayne Rooney neck tattoos. (Barça fans, meanwhile, are just expertly drinking flawless wines and meeting a special someone with an intriguing look in her eye.

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It's pissing down in Soreang, the pitch is like a swimming pool. Persib go into this game minus strikers Cristian Gonzales, Hilton Moreia and Lorenzo Cabanas who probably aren't too disappointed. Their team mates need golashes, not football boots.
By rights the game shouldn't be going ahead. Click to continue reading...

Ballack Hill V Benny Hill Theme 2009 - Funny blooper videos are here
The sight of fear in the eyes of that poor ref will haunt me for at least a week or two. According to the rags, he actually had to switch hotels after the game and be smuggled out of England to get home. No joke. Click to continue reading...

Of course, the death threats. The smuggling out of the country via police escort to avoid those threats being realized.
The changing of hotels to avoid being noticed.
Having the 'you have more hair than brains' chant become the anthem of millions of fans instead of just the Norwegian ones. Click to continue reading...

If you're a professional soccer player, you don't want allegations of boozing, prostituting and sneaking back into hotels associated with you.
Fortunately for Peruvian forward Claudio Pizzaro, he was cleared of such accusations stemming for a couple years ago.
I guess there wasn't enough evidence in the case. Click to continue reading...

Melbourne's pubs and hotels, currently dealing with a rash of alcohol-induced violence and misbehaviour, have come to the conclusion that they need to impose some sort of system to prevent the insanity. So they've looked to football - or soccer, in their case - and the use of yellow and red cards. A yellow serves [. Click to continue reading...

An international jury of hospitality industry experts awarded Dutch hotel group CitizenM the 2008 prize for most innovative hotel earlier this month. The European Hotel Design Awards, presented by S... Click to continue reading...