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...

I admit it. I was wrong. When Fox Soccer Channel announced in the Spring that they had acquired the US TV rights to the UEFA Champions League for the next three seasons, I recommended to the EPL Talk readers that Fox should hire the world feed that featured the UEFA commentary team instead of putting Fox's crew behind the mic.

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It appears very likely that some or all of the FA Cup matches will be shown on Sky Sports television in the United Kingdom this season. Setanta Sports UK had the rights to the FA Cup last season until they closed its doors this past summer.

Hello, I'm just writing in to send this along to you. Click to continue reading...

Each day, I scour the Internet looking for fascinating stories regarding the Premier League and share most of them on my Twitter account and my shared items on Google Reader. But I often come across some mouthwatering stories that I save to share with you on EPL Talk instead. Trouble is I often run out of time and I'm not able to post them.

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"Dear Leaders"

I think even Kim Jong il woud be envious of the uninterrupted reign of Sepp Blatter.

He and his father, Kim il Sung's combined 37 year rule of North Korea have isolated that country and created an international crisis group that deals with that country's nuclear weapons.

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Fox Soccer Channel and the Premier League today announced that Fox Sports International has won the bidding for the rights to show the Premier League on US television for the 2010-2013 seasons. Fox has also won the similar rights for Central and South America to its associated company, Fox Sports Latin America.

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Martin Tyler has joined ESPN's 2010 World Cup team as the main commentator, according to Sports Illustrated.

EPL Talk speculated back in July that ESPN were interested in acquiring Tyler. And now, according to SI, they expect ESPN to make a formal announcement this week.

Without a doubt, Tyler is by far the number one football commentator in the world and it's an incredible achievement for ESPN to acquire his talent.

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STARTERS
Team USA will travel to Denmark for a friendly on Wed Nov 18. Seeing as Sat Nov 14 is also an international date, do we see our team playing on that day as well?
-Denmark's best known players are probably Daniel Agger, Dennis Rommedahl, Jon Dahl Tomasson & Nicklas Bendtner. Click to continue reading...

The drama continues. Following on the first installment, here's a quick update. This post doesn't present any new or breaking news, it's just a summary of events to date. Most links are to Brian Quarstad's estimable Inside Minnesota Soccer blog, which in more pleasant times focuses on the Minnesota Thunder, but which has been all over this whole story from the start, like white on rice. Click to continue reading...

Apparently some pranksters with a line-marking machine vandalized a soccer field. Here's a quote in reaction.
"To be shafted like this is a bitter pill to swallow, it's a balls up which may leave our next fixture in doubt."
Too funny.
Now the links:

• Europa League roundup.

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Here are several important updates for subscribers to Fox Soccer Channel, GolTV and ESPN2:

• The ratings for last Saturday's Liverpool against Burnley match on ESPN2 (10am ET kickoff) were a 0.2, according to Nielsen. The game was watched in 196,041 households for a total viewing audience of 253,779,
• Fox Soccer Channel will offer a free preview of its network on the following cable networks in areas of the country between September 14-20: Comcast Denver, Comcast Fort Wayne, Comcast Indianapolis, Comcast Portland, Comcast Salt Lake City, Comcast Seattle, Cox Phoenix, Cox Tucson, Time Warner Columbus and Time Warner Kansas City,
• GolTV has acquired the TV rights to many of the Europa League matches.

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In my last post on MLS' future, I postulated that the television rights deals of the future will determine the level of play we will see on the field. I also stated that it is my belief that MLS must offer a better quality product on the field in order to achieve higher fees. Kind of a chicken or egg dilemna.

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He settled into the back seat of the cab. His blackberry flashed.
It seemed like it would be fun when he signed up. Lots of international travel. Helping Australia's most international of sports reach its destiny. And secure the type of TV rights deal he and the team had won for the AFL. And the World Cup. Click to continue reading...

TV Rules

The number one item that should be on the agenda for MLS officials should be has to be the preservation of the TV rights contracts.

Why do I believe that TV holds the future of MLS in its grasp? Because it's already saved the league once. And as of now, it could be argued that the contracts might not even be extended at the current price, or not extended at all(unlikely).

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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.

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As the USA stumbled upon a second place finish in the Confederations Cup, ESPN surely reaped the benefits. Although the team were lucky to be in the final, every "soccer" fan in the United States of America was jumping up in down as the US took a two goal lead, only to suffer a heartbreak in the second half.

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The start of La Liga is upon us...

As we all know, this year's La Liga coverage is enhanced 10x with GolTV still bringing us their quality coverage along side newcomers ESPN, who will have one game a week on ESPN or ESPN2 as well as numerous other matches on ESPN Deportes.

The week's matches on TV (all times in EST)

Saturday August 29th

2:00pm Real Madrid v Deportivo La Coruña GolTV

Sunday August 30th

11:00am Athletic Bilbao v Español ESPN Deportes

1:00pm Valencia v Sevilla ESPN Deportes

3:00pm Almeria v Valladolid GolTV

Monday August 31st

4:00pm Barcelona v Sporting Gijon ESPN

If you are looking to catch the matches on Radio, most of the clubs have their own radio stations and simulcast games streaming online.

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Earlier today I wrote a post breaking the news that ESPN had garnered the highest ratings for a Premier League game in US history with a viewing audience of 374,799 for last weekend's Wigan against Manchester United broadcast. Well, I spoke too soon. That record has now been smashed by Monday's TV ratings for ESPN2's coverage of Liverpool against Aston Villa.

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When does it become a moral imperative for the government to intervene and head of potential riots?

When it comes to football, specifically Argentinian football. Cristina Fernandez, the PM poured in $155m to head of the debt crisis of the league which had led to a delay of a week in the start of the Apertura.

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Keeping track of all of the ways that soccer fans in the United States can watch the sport on television suddenly got very confusing in the past week with the addition of ESPN2 to the Premier League TV rights package, as well as the glittering array of Champions League matches being shown across Fox's TV networks nationwide.

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Special1 TV will not be returning to Setanta Sports in the immediate future, according to a Setanta Ireland representative.

The cult hit parody show featuring puppets of Jose Mourinho, Sven Goran-Eriksson and Wayne Rooney will not be returning to the airwaves in the foreseeable future unless the program is picked up by another broadcaster.

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Argentina made a deal with the government to broadcast matches free of cost on non-cable channels when the AFA was unable to get the private TV broadcasters to pay more for the TV rights. The league will begin their new season this coming weekend.

The deadlock has seen a delay with the league set to start August 14th.

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Argentine sides enter The Copa Sudamericana on Tuesday night, with Tigre hosting San Lorenzo in the first leg of their preliminary round tie as I type, but I'm buggered if I'm staying up until the thing finishes the goals will be online on Wednesday night. Given the fuss over the Primera División TV rights [. Click to continue reading...

The English Premier League has several midweek matches including Sunderland v Chelsea, Liverpool v Stoke City, and Burnely v Manchester United. The USA TV rights remain with Fox Soccer Channel and Setanta Sports but ESPN has reached an agreement to broadcast several matches . Here's the full TV schedule in the United States for Tuesday August 18 and Wednesday August 19.

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The opening day of the 2009/2010 Premier League season felt like a roller coaster ride especially for viewers in the United States most of whom were more exhausted than usual on Saturday morning after getting little sleep from the night before after hearing about the eleventh hour decision by ESPN to acquire the TV rights to the Premier League's early Saturday kickoff as well as Monday game for the upcoming season.

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The speculation and rumors over whether ESPN would get TV rights for the English Premier League in the United States is over as they have reached an agreement with Fox Soccer Channel. FSC owns the rights and is sub-licensing certain matches to ESPN to broadcast (usually 7:45 AM EST Saturday and Monday 3:00 PM EST matches).

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The BBC airs a special on how the Premiership sells itself abroad.

For the first time annual revenue is expected to exceed £1bn, with much of this success fuelled from abroad.

Matches will be beamed into 575m homes in 211 territories around the world and a total of 90,000 hours of action will be broadcast.

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via REUTERS

So after days of intense discussions about the state of the Argentinean championship , the AFA finally reached a decision about the start of the country's domestic league. The first game is scheduled for kick off on 21st August (as opposed to the 14th this weekend).

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No Boca this weekend..... / VIA AP

Uh-oh, it looks like we may not get to see the likes of Boca Juniors and Estudiantes this weekend in the Apertura after the AFA recently ran into major monetary problems.

Yes, it seems that the top-tier Argentinean sides have amassed massive debts estimated to be a whopping US$182 million and this has forced the Football Association to scrap the Aug.

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Big Story

It's that "crisis" word again. Following the Sweeper's report last Friday on the SPL's growing financial troubles, the Argentinian Football Association has announced it is canceling the league season's August 14th season opener across all divisions due to unpaid club debts totaling USD$182 million.

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According to EPLtalk website

ESPN has acquired the TV rights to two of the weekly Premier League slots on US television for the 2009-2010 season. Beginning on August 15, 2009, each week ESPN will feature the 7:45am ET Saturday game and the 3pm ET Monday game.

Those two weekly time slots were previously held by Setanta Sports who in the past had sub-licensed those games from Fox Soccer Channel.

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According to EPL Talk.com, ESPN has acquired the TV rights to two of the weekly Premier League slots on US television for the 2009-2010 season. With FSC now having Champions League soccer and ESPN Prem games, it seems that soccer on TV in the US has been turned on it's head. Beginning on August 15, 2009, each week ESPN will feature the 6:45am CT Saturday game and the 2pm CT Monday game.

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According to EPL Talk.com, ESPN has acquired the TV rights to two of the weekly Premier League slots on US television for the 2009-2010 season. With FSC now having Champions League soccer and ESPN Prem games, it seems that soccer on TV in the US has been turned on it's head. Beginning on August 15, 2009, each week ESPN will feature the 6:45am CT Saturday game and the 2pm CT Monday game.

Click to continue reading...

Champions League Talk has received a rumor that DirecTV has acquired the TV rights to the debut season of the UEFA Europa League on US television.

The semi-finals of the 2009 Europa League, previously known as the UEFA Cup, as well as the quarter-finals and final will be shown on DirecTV.

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First, ESPN grabbed the rights to some La Liga games. Good move for ESPN Deportes and ESPN360, with over 20 games also getting on the big boy networks. Then, the four letter drops an unexpected preview of the Gold Cup final, which they weren't even televising.
Now, they've bought the rights to some English Premier League games. Click to continue reading...