Friday, May 16, 2008

Long-Term Pocketlining Plan

Elite European clubs, and even lesser European clubs, look to line their pockets during the summer season through international tours. The holy grail of these tours seem to be rich middle eastern countries and the U.S. Barcelona is tapping the U.S. vein...long term...signing a five-year agreement to play 6 games over five years with the MLS.

These exhibition tours are somewhat of a sham, though. The teams lead fans to believe they will see the stars play, see high quality play and general greatness and fans suck up the tickets, lining the pockets of the clubs to pay transfer fees. The reality of the situation is that some of the stars come on these tours, the competition is lesser, and the players don't give their all.

I don't blame the players for their performances. They already play for 9 months with high stakes. Their bodies need to recover from the grueling season. And, yet, if a squad comes near me, I will still fork over the dough. So, I'm still a fool, even though I know what's going on.

6 comments:

Email us at said...

When Aston Villa came to the US, they used most of their starters. Then again, they only used 22 players all year in the EPL (bite me, Barclays), tied for last with Blackburn

Goat said...

I can't believe I'm going to admit this but I actually saw Villa play the Columbus Crew. Even more pathetic was that Villa supporters outnumbered Crew supporters.

Email us at said...

We Villans roll deep, what can I say?

Ian said...

Didn't Villa's first choice keeper mess up his knee on the plastic pitch up in the Toronto? Or was it a defender?

Precious Roy said...

I think I paid $30 plus the cost of a drive from Austin to Houston to see about 15 minutes of the Ronster play for Barca. I think Deco played a whole half.

Although when the Galaticos played at Soldier Field, pretty much everyone—Figo, Beckham, Zidane, Owen, Ronaldo, and whatever other gazillionaire was on the squad—played a decent amount.

But yes, if fucking Portsmouth rolled up to my nearest stadium, I would pony up the dough.

Email us at said...

It was indeed our keeper, Sorensen. But I would hardly call him our first-choice keeper under O'Neill. He didn't even see a reserve minute this year.