Barcelona sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta remains confident coach Pep Guardiola will continue his successful spell at the helm.

However, he has confirmed the club have drawn up contingency plans should Guardiola decide to leave the Nou Camp.

Zubizarreta is optimistic it will not come to that despite the Catalans, who visit Osasuna on Saturday, trailing arch-rivals Real Madrid by seven points in the La Liga title race.

As we all know, Harry Redknapp has not even thought about becoming England manager. Given that the possibility of him doing just that is on all major news bulletins, OTP wondered what exactly he is thinking about. 1. Business investments 'Arry's still not got round to investing that money that Milan Mandaric gave him to [.

Controversy Surrounds MLS' Home Grown Rule | College Soccer Recruiting News

This is part two of a two part series with Real Salt Lake's GM and an agent that has negotiated an HGP deal. More light is getting shined on this rapidly developing portion of the American soccer system every couple of weeks.

Real Madrid continue to top the global football financial league table taking top spot ahead of their Spanish rivals Barcelona for a seventh consecutive year. Combined revenues of the top 20 Deloitte Football Money League clubs exceed €4.4bn to defy European economic woes.

Newcastle have been listed the 25th richest club in the world by Deloitte Touche, in terms of annual revenues. Deloite bring out their money league every year at this time which lists the top football clubs in the world in terms of their yearly revenues. The top three clubs with their revenues in euros from the latest financial [.

Real Madrid y FC Barcelona siguen siendo los dos clubes con más ingresos del mundo, según el estudio ‘Football Money League', elaborado por Deloitte, que analiza la información financiera de los clubes de fútbol correspondiente a la temporada 2010/11. El Real Madrid alcanzó durante la pasada temporada una facturación de 479,5 millones de euros, un nueve por ciento más que la 2009/10, mientras que el FC Barcelona, que incrementó más sus ingresos, hasta un 13%, alcanzó los 450,7 millones de euros.

By Jason Davis - WASHINGTON, DC (Feb 9, 2011) US Soccer Players -- The Super Bowl Experience™ (possibly trademarked, I can't be sure, so better safe then sorry), is not an undertaking of small expense. It costs money to fly to the predetermined Super Bowl city, spend a few nights, and, most importantly, purchase a ticket for the game.

The Deloitte Sports Business Group presents the Football Money League 2012

"Breaking Down The Deloitte Football Money League Report" was originally published at The Republik of Mancunia.

Park Ji-sung has silently achieved a feat that many cannot even think of - to play 200 games for Manchester United. He completed the milestone when he was introduced as a substitute in United's staggering comeback draw at Chelsea on last Sunday. The 30-year-old energetic midfielder who joined Manchester United in 2005 from Dutch side PSV Eindhoven was considered a money-making venture by many

You may or may not have seen this earlier today. I retweeted it via @JoeTweeds a few hours ago.

Either way, it's a very good read and a refreshingly different take on John Terry than the ones we've been force-fed over the past few months. No, he's not a monster. Sorry, media.

Below is an excerpt.

Wasn't it always going to end this way? Ironically.

Enough!

With Fabio Capello's rumored brush-up with John Terry again John Terry! at World Cup 2010 in mind here at TSG, Capello resigned his England post today, taking umbrage with the English FA for usurping his power and "de-captaining" John Terry last week.

By Chris Wright

On the day of his 30th birthday, Genoa's Rodrigo Palacio (he of 'abysmal rat-tail/Jedi bog chain' horror hair fame) scored against Lazio on Sunday with an absurdly deft, over-the-shoulder flick at the near post that lobbed over the flapping Federico Marchetti and in at the far post.

By Alan Duffy

It took a cool £8million to get the case to this stage, where a joyful Harry Redknapp walks free from Southwark Crown Court and back to Tottenham and their title charge. Hardly a sensible use of money?

While Arsenal fans will no doubt be crying into their free-trade cappuccinos, Sky Sports News will no doubt be breathing a sigh of relief.

"We Actually had the highest corporate sponsorship revenue ever in Major League Soccer out of the gate. In year one for an expansion in Portland.

Question: You guys turned a profit in your first full season in MLS

MP: Yes. I mean it will be a long time before we are profitable when you look at the money we sunk into this thing.

Their Words "Juninho is not going to be utilized at São Paulo per the coach's decision and the club is accepting the loan deal for Juninho's return to Los Angeles to play for the Galaxy," Sao Paulo spokesperson Felipe Espindola. Other Sources Is salary space an issue for Galaxy? Who knows? - from Soccer America's Ridge Mahoney: The great unknown is, of course, allocation money.

The year 2011 was a good one for the Fort Lauderdale Strikers. The Traffic Sports owned team which originally started out as Miami FC in 2006 rebranded last year as the born again Strikers with a new logo and uniforms to boot. Traffic pushed more money towards the organization than it ever had in the [.

Game Intelligence has been keeping a close eye on the proceedings in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, searching for the finest names at this year's Africa Cup of Nations. Cream of the crop is a name that money just can't buy... ... Continue reading →

The Portland Timbers began their training camp in California on February 5, but the front office announced two separate trades involving allocation money, international roster spots and draft picks. The Timbers will now have nine official international spots for the 2012 season after both announced deals.

Keeping up with the many moves that have taken place with regards to D.C. United's roster over the last couple of weeks is no small task. Each day it seems as if United are releasing another press release regarding a new player signing or the release of a player. Instead of posting each individual press release here is a recap of the roster moves from the past week up to today.

Here's an interesting early morning trade for everybody. It appears that the Portland Timbers have traded with D.C. United for an international roster spot for the 2012/2013 seasons in exchange for an unknown amount of allocation money.

Naturally one would expect that this would be used on a new signing and it may very well be for the 2013 season, however, not for the season because.

To anyone who follows the beautiful game, Anelka's move to Chinese Super League club Shanghai Shenhua did not make sense. What is even more interesting is Anelka's recent revelation that he snubbed PSG and a chance to re-unite with former coach Carlo Ancelotti for a little known Chinnese team.

Forgive me for any emotion, but I love Nottingham Forest. And Nigel Doughty saved my club. After buying the club for £11 million in 1999 after the club had entered administration, Doughty ploughed £100 million of his own money into the club, allowing Forest to mount a series of playoff campaigns in an effort to [.

Fresh off a transfer from the struggling Bolton Wanderers, defender Gary Cahill is reportedly already unhappy at Stamford Bridge. Cahill found himself on the bench for Chelsea's recent match against Swansea City, as he was hoping to fill in for the injured John Terry.

Goal.com is reporting that an inside source close to the Chelsea training camp noted that Cahill looked as if "his head has gone," but noted that Cahill has not filed any official complaint with manager Andre Villas-Boas.

Are we witnessing another revolution in Thai football involving a notorious political family dynasty?Following on from the Buriram soap opera we now have Suphanburi spending big money in an effort to bring football glory to their town in the boonies.
Currently in Division One they have set about improving their squad for the new campaign and among their signings is Pipat Thonkanya, the former Persisam and Thai Port striker who spent last season with Osotspa after a short spell with Buriram PEA.

The Fire have had a tremendous offseason so far. We have fortified our midfield, improved our defense in the SuperDraft, and even added some forwards to the mix. The Fire midfield is certainly the most populated on the team, and one I would definitely consider it a strength. It's credit to the front office for taking what was considered a big weakness last year and turning it into one of our strong points.

The first two months of the season were awful, the atmosphere was angry, unsettled and going to watch the team wasn't at all pleasant. The atmosphere eased after a good run of results, putting us well back into contention for the Champions League places.

A new year run that has yet to see us win in the league has heralded the return of that atmosphere, a portion of the fanbase have been very forward with their views on the manager and a few of the players an injury crisis has not helped matters either all in all, being an Arsenal fan in the past few weeks has not been the most pleasant of experiences.

Photo: Earl Gardner

There are a lot of quotes from Sebastien Le Toux in this article. Many of them come from Chris Vito's (of the Delco Daily Times and The Times Herald) fantastic interview with Seba. Check it out. Many quotes from Peter Nowak are from his January 31 press conference.

Union's Le Toux sounds off after trade to Vancouver

"The only thing they wanted is the money," Le Toux said. "Being with this team and being a guy, not to build around, but to help this team, was what I wanted. ... They must have wanted to sell me for money because they needed money. We don't have a nice practice facility and that is something they promised since I am here.

"The only thing they wanted is the money," Le Toux said. "Being with this team and being a guy, not to build around, but to help this team, was what I wanted. ... They must have wanted to sell me for money because they needed money. We don't have a nice practice facility and that is something they promised since I am here.

Mention the word contraction in American sports circles and many fans will shudder. It was this word that was mentioned in the mid-90s by Major League Baseball in hopes of dissolving teams in markets that made little money. However, MLB ...
Visit http://www.majorleaguesoccertalk.com for the rest of the story.

You can make the Super Bowl even funner to watch by laying down some money on a few prop bets. While there are dozens and dozens of prop bets available, here are a couple of our favorites. Oh, and we'll tell you how to bet!

How many yards will the first touchdown go for?
While it's tempting to bet the 1-7 yards option, that isn't the smart bet.

The Philadelphia Union announced what Sebastien Le Toux already told us: The team's all-time leading everything has been traded to the Vancouver Whitecaps for allocation money.

Reaction to the news has been met with disbelief, scorn, whatever tears look like on twitter, and more disbelief.

See Tim Carr's PSP piece, and our earlier piece on how news of the trade leaked out for more information.

It's only a matter of time that the Indianapolis Colts let Peyton Manning walk. Since they have the No. 1 pick in the 2012 NFL Draft and will select Andrew Luck, the Colts will let go of Manning and go in a different direction.

With that in mind, where will Manning end up? Well, first of all, since he's dealing with a neck injury, there's a chance he will retire.

Sebastien Le Toux Reportedly Traded To Vancouver Whitecaps

As crazy nutso as it may sound, it really does look like the Philadelphia Union have traded Sebastien Le Toux to the Vancouver Whitecaps. They are apparently getting allocation money in return. That's a player who has scored 25 goals and assisted on 20 others in the past two years people.

Before coming into the league, Dwight Howard built himself up as a very religious man who wanted to make a mark on the league by being a great human. As it turns out, Dwight Howard is a loser.

Even though the Orlando Magic have helped him make it to the NBA Finals, Howard isn't happy in Florida and has instead demanded a trade.

It's beginning to feel like the Dynamo are fighting against the city they call home in order to attract players to sign with the club. Houston is of course a great city, we all know that, but there are clearly issues making it hard for the team to get players to sign on the dotted line and play here.

Arsene Wenger is being linked with a move to take Schalke midfielder Lewis Holtby to Arsenal. And there are even some suggestions that a deal has already been done for the German-born 21-year-old to join the Gunners in the summer. His contract in Germany ends next year.

A source with close ties to Arsenal has told Arsenalinsider that the transfer has already been agreed for the midfielder, whose Scouse father is a former Brit soldier based in Germany.

Just days after selling Tim Ream to Bolton, the New York Red Bulls have secured the services of his replacement, signing Colombian centerback Wilman Conde after making a trade with the Chicago Fire.

The Red Bulls dealt allocation money (which one source put at $150,000) to the Fire for the chance to sign Conde, who returns to MLS after spending 2011 in Mexico with Atlas.

The Chicago Fire Soccer Club announced Monday the club has traded the MLS right of first refusal on defender Wilman Conde to the New York Red Bulls in exchange for allocation money. If this kind of deal doesn't make sense to you, be sure to give this story a read. More after the break.

New York has agreed to personal terms with the out-of-contract Conde and he will be added to the Red Bull's roster pending receipt of his International Transfer Certificate.

By Chris Wright

Pies' undoubted highlight of the weekend, Craig Bellamy and his rubber band (I think I saw them play at a wedding once) going through a bit of choice choreography on the touchline at Anfield on Saturday...

The sad fact is, some sports scientist somewhere has spent good money running test after test to show that warming-up with a laggy band around the ankles can increase muscle efficiency by 0.