Ben Buckley must go!

In light of our recent stance-taking on Sunil Gulati's chairmanship of the USA program, I think it is only fair to look at how other countries are doing as well.

Let's start at the front of the alphabet and look for troubles. We'll knock off some who don't matter along the way. So Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, and Armenia are out. Angola has probs, but nothing unusual for African FAs. Argentina? Well, they hired a fat, cocaine-sniffing ex-player for a manager, but at least they get their players. Australia? Oh yeah, this is more like it.

Some kid named Bradden Inman (so obscure he doesn't have a wiki yet) has caused a bit of consternation Down Under because he declared that, if called up, he would gladly choose the soggy Scots over his native Australia. His reasoning should be familiar for those of us that saw what Vedad Ibisevic had to say about playing for America--no one has tried to recruit Inman for Australia.

Inman moved from Australia at 14 to go into the youth system at Newcastle. His initial hope was that playing for the Magpies would help him get into the Australian team, but that appears to be a no go. So, when Scotland called him up for a youth match last month, Inman has happy to put on the dark blues and now says that he would take a call up to the Under 21 squad, which would lock him out of Australia's team forever.

Now, I don't know if Mr. Buckley is the one to blame here. Football Australia, the official FFA site, lists him as the CEO, a position roughly on par with Gulati. If he is indeed the head, then he should bear the blame for failings in scouting and contact. My proposed solution for both Bradley and Gulati is pretty simple. It seems that they could both do much better if they just consulted the "I" in their respective rolodexes. See? Problem solved.

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A new American in the EPL

He's the one on the left. Not so short, then.

From Sports Illustrated online

Texas businessman Ellis Short bought a significant stake in Sunderland, the English Premier League told The Associated Press on Friday.

Short is co-founder of Dallas-based private equity group Lone Star Funds. In August, he acquired more than 30 percent of the consortium that owns the club in northeast England.

I thought Friday afternoons were when you released the bad news. Maybe this is bad news over there. I don't know. What I also don't know is who, exactly, Ellis Short is. Follow after the jump to find out with me.

Geez, Short's wiki is only slightly longer than mine. Not a lot of info there. The SI article mentions that he did not buy the club outright, but instead bought into the above consortium, Drumaville, which bought Sunderland in 2006. Drumaville, to the best of my knowledge, was put together solely to buy Sunderland. Before the new purchase by Ellis, it was a group of nine people, headed by former Black Cat Niall Quinn. There has been no information released as to who sold the 30%+ of shares to Ellis.

So what about Ellis? His money seems to come from Lone Star Funds, a private equity firm based out of Dallas. According to their website, LSF has assets totaling over $13 billion. LSF work all over the world, but not always cleanly. According to the Japanese government, LSF purchased a bank, transferred funds via a shell, and failed to pay taxes on the profit. The government has had no luck in resolving the case. He has also faced problems in South Korea. In 2006, the government sought extradition for Ellis in a case that sounds a lot like the Japanese one.

Beyond that, very little is known publicly about Ellis. He is married, and according to this story, she is a wonderful woman. Ellis also owns a Scottish castle, and is therefore living my dream.

Offhand, he sounds a bit like Mike Ashley before Ashley purchased Newcastle. They both made a shedload of money off of businesses they started, but stayed out of the press for the most part. Seriously, beyond today's stories on Ellis' takeover, there is very little else about him online. Wonder if Ellis will pork up and start showing up everywhere in a Sunderland jersey?

By the way, he knows his castle is in Sutherland, and the club is Sunderland, right?

Another take on this at EPL Talk

Thanks to jjf3 for using the tipline on this one

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