Here are some of last week’s top stories from around the global soccer industry…
Total January spend of £175m sees Premier League transfer spending surpass £1 billion in a season for the first time (FC Business)
Premier League clubs spent £175m in the January 2016 transfer window, according to analysis by Deloitte, the business advisory firm.
This brings the total gross spending by Premier League clubs for the 2015/16 season to over £1 billion, a new record. This surpasses the previous season record of £965m, set last season.
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Mark Cuban invests in Professional Futsal League (Soccerex)
Mark Cuban, the owner of the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Dallas Mavericks, has taken a principal ownership stake in the newly established Professional Futsal League (PFL).
Futsal, a modified version of soccer played indoors with five players on each team, is recognised as one of the fastest growing sports in America. The league is set to being hosting exhibition matches across the US next year, ahead of a full-length season launching in 2018. The game is the only five-a-side soccer variant to be officially approved by the game’s governing body, Fifa. Uefa Champions League winners FC Barcelona are among the European giants already investing in futsal.
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Portugal antitrust watchdog scrutinises NOS, PT soccer broadcast deals (Reuters)
Portugal’s competition authority is scrutinising long-term deals worth hundreds of millions of euros to broadcast soccer league games signed by telecoms operators NOS and Altice’s unit PT, a spokeswoman for the AdC watchdog said on Monday.
She said the authority was concerned over the potentially excessive duration of the deals and exclusive rights that they entail as that may restrict competition in the market, and was collecting information about the deals.
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Liverpool fans warn of further action after walkout over ticket pricing (the guardian)
A Liverpool fans’ group has warned of further demonstrations in the matches against Manchester City and Chelsea following Saturday’s mass Anfield walkout over ticket prices, saying the action against Sunderland was just a start.
Several thousand fans left their seats in the 77th minute of Liverpool’s Premier League clash against Sunderland in protest against the club’s new pricing structure, which includes a £77 matchday ticket. Liverpool were leading 2-0 before the walkout but late goals from Adam Johnson and Jermain Defoe secured a draw for Sunderland.
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MLS evaluating St. Louis for potential expansion team (Major League Soccer)
The MLS-to-St. Louis momentum continued to build on Thursday, with MLS commissioner Don Garber telling the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that this is a “unique moment in time” to evaluate the city’s readiness for a potential expansion franchise.
Garber told the newspaper that he was “very excited” by the prospect of having a club play on downtown St. Louis’ Mississippi River riverfront – the proposed site of an NFL stadium until the Rams left for Los Angeles last month.
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Premier League should be worried by China spending, says Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger (talkSPORT)
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has warned the Premier League about the spending power of Chinese football. The past few weeks has seen clubs in the Far East splash the cash on a host of top players.
Chelsea midfielder Ramires and Liverpool target Alex Teixeira have joined Chinese side Jiangsu Suning for a combined £63miillion, while Guangzhou Evergrande have snapped up Atletico Madrid striker Jackson Martinez for £31m. And in the wake of that spending Wenger has told Premier League clubs they should be worried about the growing power of Chinese football.
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Inside the MLS CBA numbers: Player salaries, team bonuses, more (Sports Illustrated)
Almost a year after signing a new deal to avoid a work stoppage, the MLS players union published the entire MLS collective bargaining agreement on its website on Thursday. Included in the 84-page longread are some pretty specific numbers regarding what MLS players earn–and can earn–based on winning games and competitions.
For starters, there’s a vast difference in bonus money for teams winning MLS Cup and the CONCACAF Champions League, with domestic title winners earning $225,000 more than a potential regional champion from the league. Teams are also awarded $7,500 for each regular-season win, and the amount of money a team can earn for winning the Supporters’ Shield will increase by almost 250% starting in 2017.
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FIFA candidates Prince Ali, Infantino claim votes in Africa (Fox Sports)
Two soccer federations have defied the Confederation of African Football’s leadership to endorse FIFA presidential candidates on Saturday.
South Sudan’s federation pledged its vote for Gianni Infantino, the UEFA general secretary from Switzerland, Liberia declared for former FIFA vice president Prince Ali of Jordan.
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U.S. Soccer Lawsuit Disclosed Players’ Personal Information (New York Times)
U.S. Soccer’s decision on Wednesday to sue the union representing the world champion United States women’s national team came as a surprise to some of the players, many of whom were gathering in Texas for an Olympic qualifying tournament next week.
But the players’ discovery that U.S. Soccer’s court filing included detailed personal information about many of them — including the home addresses of more than two dozen players and the personal email accounts of some of the team’s most prominent players — brought a different reaction: outrage.
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Fox Sports Acquires El Tri’s English Broadcasting Rights (Vavel)
The Mexican National Team will have a new home in the United States as El Tri’s English broadcasting rights have been acquired by Fox Sports with the contract running from this year until the 2018 World Cup. The move is the latest by Fox Sports as it already has the rights to all youth World Cups, Ladies World Cup, this summer’s Centenario Copa America, Gold Cup, Confederations Cup, and the 2018 World Cup.
By soccer attendance standards and overall popularity, Fox Soccer can now add the most popular soccer team in the United States to their soccer lineup list after out bidding the likes of ESPN. The deal includes all of Mexico’s home World Cup qualifying matches and all home friendlies including the matches Mexico plays in the United States (most of their away matches will be shown on beIN Sports).
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This article originally appeared on Business of Soccer. To learn more about BOS you can follow them on Twitter or Facebook.
