Not exactly a great week if you're John Terry. More, after the jump:

Kicks for sale

So if you're keeping score at home, that's Social Media Neophytes/Journo Hacks/Chelsea Naysayers 3, John Terry 0. First he lost the armband, which, in fairness many of us accepted with relative understanding.

Sebastien Le Toux's departure from the Philadelphia Union certainly made headlines. There was much made of the incident after the player came out and spoke his side of the story. It was emotional and troublesome that, according to Le Toux, a professional club in MLS would dismiss a player in such fashion.

Eli Manning's star has never shined brighter as he leads his New York Giants into their 2nd Super Bowl in the past 4 years.
As accomplished and appreciated as Manning is now, he was not always held in that regard. Playing professional sports in the largest fishbowl of a media market like New York is not easy, as there are very high expectations to manage and distractions to avoid.

Joshua Wells makes, of course, a triumphant return to TSG

#Trending...

There has always been a conflict between keeping athletes safe in college and professional sports and preserving the excitement of the game.

In 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt felt it was necessary to step in and reform the way college football was played.

As the NFL playoffs continue on this weekend, Tom Brady and the New England Patriots will take center stage.
Brady has become an icon in professional sports, and is associated with leading a Patriots' dynasty as well as ranking among the all-time greats.
As precise a passer as Brady is, people who know him best always remark about his tremendous level of commitment, focus, determination and toughness.

MLS lives by a simple creed, there is no such thing as too many drafts. Thus today we had our fourth draft of the off-season with the 2012 Supplemental Draft. This is essentially rounds 3-7 of the SuperDraft but in the interest of time, money and general interest, it's been split off in to its own event.

Birth certificates don't serve much of a purpose these days. Everybody has one and after they're put away in the bedroom drawer they're not really needed until you start dealing with government bureaucrats years later. But when Thierry Henry's the subject of conversation everybody's suddenly interested in his birth date, which was Aug.

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- Throughout the day, the QPR Report Messageboard has news updates, comments and perspectives - even links to other board comments of interest re QPR matters (on and off the field) along with football (and ONLY football) topics in general.

No matter how good a coach you may be, your success will ultimately come down to your players on the field.
Especially in professional sports, ownership groups with itchy trigger fingers seem to think that a quick firing can present a quick fix for a team in disarray. That has been brought to the forefront in the National Football League (NFL) here in the United States, and in the English Premier League (EPL).

After Tottenham's controversial defeat against Stoke City last Sunday, it has been reported that hundreds if not thousands of Tottenham supporters have been and continue to send obscene tweets to Sir Chris Hoy. It appears there seems to be a literacy problem among some of the Tottenham supporters.

So there have been some "reports" by a couple organizations that have claimed that the LA Galaxy are pursuing Frank Lampard as a replacement for David Beckham. The 33 year old Chelsea is, no doubt, a powerful name in soccer so it doesn't surprise me that these rumors are out there.

That said, I would just like to clarify that everybody should take these reports for that they're worth: rumors.

Phil Rothchild has/is up there with one of the least professional sports journalists in Australia - lots of biased assessments of football over the years so nearly fell out of my chair at this one.
Thing is many of these so-called journo's could have talked positively about football down the years, him, FitzSimons, Birmingham, Bolt, Wilson and the rest but for some reason they choose not to - small minds I guess - but here is our Phil doing his bit to spruik the game when clearly there is no need to.

Via Andy Crossley, a brief description of the limited partnership arrangement pursued by Arenaball hucksters in the 1980's:

For their investment, the limited partners received operating rights to their local franchise, but little of the financial and marketing discretion typically accorded to professional sports owners.

BY ADAM SERRANO

The Los Angeles Galaxy will get to enjoy one of the greatest luxuries in professional sports. They'll get to play the final, at their own stadium and in front of their own fans.

The Galaxy will face the Houston Dynamo in the MLS Cup Final at the Home Depot Center on November 20th.

The Pot 4 Club Trabzonspor is a post from: Just Football

The Pot 4 Club continues on Just Football with an analysis of Trabzonspor from the creators of Turkish-Futbol.com:

Club: Trabzonspor

Straight outta': Turkey

Group: B with Internazionale, Lille and CSKA Moscow

Brief History

Trabzonspor are a professional sports club based in the city of Trabzon which is located on Turkey's north east Black Sea coast.

Professional sports are a business and at the end of the day it's all about one thing and that's money. At times I believe some people don't see a professional athletic club in the same light as a Microsoft or ...
This is a content summary. Visit http://www.epltalk.com to read the entire article

Beşiktaş Jimnastik Kulübü (commonly called Beşiktaş) is a professional sports club based in the Beşiktaş district in Istanbul, Turkey. The club is best known for its soccer team and is regarded as one of the traditional powerhouses of the Turkish Super League. Beşiktaş finished the 2010/11 season in fifth place and won the 2011 Turkish [.

Beşiktaş Jimnastik Kulübü (commonly called Beşiktaş) is a professional sports club based in Beşiktaş district in Istanbul, Turkey. Beşiktaş is best known for its soccer team and is regarded as one of the powerhouses of the Turkish Super League. The club finished the 2010/11 season in fifth place and won the 2011 Turkish Cup.

Whenever you follow multiple different professional sports, you inevitably start to notice the unique aspects of each of them. For instance, I remember Martin writing a while back about how odd it would be for an NBA basketball fan to endure various different international breaks during the middle of the regular season.

I have been a soccer fan for many years. Since half of my family is English and lives in England, I have always been an England supporter and a supporter of Tottenham Hotspur (somewhat local team) and Reading (local team). A couple of years ago a friend suggested I should give MLS a chance.

Empire Field during a better evening. Photo by Mufae

Forfeits are usually a term for CYO soccer when a team doesn't have the requisite ten players or there aren't enough oranges for halftime. Rarely does the terminology enter a debate in professional sports, where the money and resources are available to shift matches around based on inclement weather.

The first time I met Wells Thompson was early in his career. It was at a time when his first professional team was playing in a pre-season friendly. Well's was kind enough to walk over and shake my hand, talk to me about everyday things. Sometimes, that is rare in professional sports. What I found though over the years and throughout this interview, was a very humble and thankful athlete who finds strength in people and in faith.

Abby Wambach and Hope SoloOK, you've won me over United States Women's National Team (#USWNT as we say in the Twitterverse). I got sucked into that game yesterday and I enjoyed it; why is this starting to sound like some kind of Alcoholics Anonymous initiation rite?
I admit I was late, forgive me, but I did catch up quickly after halftime.

The Philadelphia Union announced yesterday that they have traded starting left back Jordan Harvey to the Vancouver Whitecaps for a box of smoked salmon, a scrimshaw whale's tooth and a First Nations' ceremonial eagle feather. In MLS's world of cryptic parlance and partial disclosure, this is also known as "allocation money.

Mr Gianni Merlo, President of the International Sports Press Association (AIPS) has called for members of the world's peak professional sports media body to join in the fight against manipulation and to defend their right of expression. Merlo has also urged the media to find innovative ways to harness and better exploit the use of new technologies in order to invest in culture.

Photo by Andrew Huff

Professional sports are just a reflection of society in general. We live in a world where we demand instant service. Having to wait for anything has become a general annoyance in our lives. I demand something so I should be able to have it without any questions asked.

Photo by Andrew Huff

Professional sports are just a reflection of society in general. We live in a world where we demand instant service. Having to wait for anything has become a general annoyance in our lives. I demand something so I should be able to have it without any questions asked.

The President's posse... the Colorado Rapids.The President welcomed the reigning Major League Soccer champions Colorado Rapids to the White House this week building on his already bulging soccer credentials. He even compared himself to Barcelona great Lionel Messi.
Even though its customary for Presidents to welcome league title holders in American sports, Barack Obama has proven to be unique in his soccer fandom from his predecessors.

It hasn't yet been a full two days since the Dynamo's 2-0 loss at San Jose but the time isn't mellowing my discontent and ill feelings. If Houston was truly a bad team, this season wouldn't be causing me near as much frustration, but there is talent on this roster and that makes the things we're seeing all the more difficult to accept.

This post is a slightly edited reprint of an article in Sports, Inc., a magazine edited by students at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. To read the full issue, which is full of analytic insights about the major professional sports, click here or on the image below.
Open publication - Free publishing - More analysis
The article is a little bit of this, that, and everything from SBTN - some highlights and some low lights - intended for people with an interest in analytics but not necessarily expertise in soccer.

My fellow American soccer fans....
There comes a time in every soccer fan's life when they must ask him or herself, "Have I done enough to further the sport in my country?" For millions if not billions of people around the world the answer is a resounding "yes" and the task is done. Soccer has established itself as a cultural bulwark and the passion of a people in dozens of countries.

Occasionally, there's a debate among fans just how far soccer has come in the United States. It's clearly more popular than ever, and the country now boasts a league that, according to some scouts, is on par with the English Championship (Division 2). Another way to chart the progress of soccer in the U.

By Jason Davis – WASHINGTON, DC (May 13, 2011) US Soccer Players -- Major League Soccer's product is most outwardly the quality of play on the field. There are other things that go into the popularity and success of a professional sports competition, some of them related to the star power of individual players and the experience teams can create in their stadiums, but the ability to draw eyes and interest at its most basic.

Thank goodness it's Friday. The Seattle Sounders are on the east coast this weekend to play a much improved Philadelphia Union at PPL Park. Last year the Union had one of the most inconsistent defenses in the league. Things have changed this year as Piotr Nowak reworked the defense. The Union now look like a classic Nowak team with tough stifling defense and inconsistent offense.

Courtesy of MLSSoccer.com the league release this neato map of the where and who of all the international players in Major League Soccer.
The results? While 280 players are from the ol' U.S. of A. another 184 players call 57 other countries home. These stats make MLS the most diverse league in all of American professional sports.

The universe works in mysteriously hysterical ways. Sometimes, the pains of the past form a large pair of obnoxious aviator sunglasses, blinding us to how ridiculous we look despite the prevalence of mirrors and our unmistakable reflection. The Shevchenko-affair at Chelsea scarred Jose Mourinho. Jose detests pressure from owners to play certain players.

As we do every Monday, here is a roundup of some business issues from Friday and the weekend that we didn't hit in our previous posts. One of the big stories over the last few days has been an apprent increase in aggressiveness by various federal agencies seeking to close down sites that illegally stream live feeds of professional sports.

In a narrow 6-5 vote with both U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati and MLS Commissioner Don Garber abstaining, the USSF Board of Directors approved the North American Soccer League (NASL) to provisionally sanction Division 2 pro soccer in the U.S. for 2011. The approval came with a special 1-year provisional status and must still be ratified in today's Annual General Meeting which takes place in Las Vegas, Nevada today.

2011 NASL Combine held in Fort Lauderdale, FL this past weekend.

The 2011 NASL combine ended Sunday in Ft. Lauderdale with the opportunity for over 70 players to impress the league's eight coaches, assistant coaches such as the Puerto Rico Islanders' assistant Adrian Whitbread, Traffic USA Director of Soccer Fernando Clavijo and observers from other leagues.

I've written about match day attendance and leagues' financial health before, so I thought it was interesting to see these figures from the latest report on the Bundesliga's financial situation. Here's the trend in spectators since the inception of the league in 1963.
While the league's annual attendance ranged between 5 and 7 million per season for almost three decades throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, we have seen a rapid and sustained increased since Germany's unification in 1989/90 from about 5 million then to almost 13 million during these last two years.