(Summary is not available.) Click to continue reading...

Here's an interesting article by Greg Lalas about soccer salaries in the U.S.: "MLS getting what it pays for". Rather than wanting more millions to import marquee players from around the world, he's advocating that MLS teams pay more for "mid-tier players". And according to Lalas, that means MLS would become a better career choice for some of the players currently in the USL. Click to continue reading...

More financial woes in Malaysia. I have documented of course the troubles faced by Perak and they are one of the better sides in teh country. Penang also have no money as this story from the Star shows.

Saturday September 27, 2008
Penang FA raise RM15,000 to pay players
GEORGE TOWN: The 30 Muslim players in the Penang senior and President's Cup teams can now look forward to celebrating Hari Raya - albeit in a small way. Click to continue reading...

1 - Rioting fans blame the ref for their actions
2 - The FA owe a 5 *hotel tens of thousands of dollars
3 - 9pm kick offs
4 - A visiting coach gets lamped in the players tunnel
5 - Clubs can get away without paying any salaries.

You couldn't make it up! Click to continue reading...

You'll remember, of course, the general contempt that TFC has shown for travelling fans. Well, now it's showing it to home fans as well.

My season ticket renewal form arrives in my inbox. Apparently included in this year's price is not just my 15 league games, but also an international friendly (I see they've learned their lesson and are now scheduling only one of these atrocities), two Canadian championship matches, and (drumroll please) a premliminary round CONCACAF game. Click to continue reading...

Wizards technical director, Peter Vermes will remain with the Wizards. Bob Luder is reporting that Vermes had been offered the job of GM with the LA Galaxy, following the firing of Alexi Lalas. Vermes turned the position down. Honestly I can't blame him for it. The situation in LA is a circus and almost a no win situation for the man that takes the GM position. Click to continue reading...

After all, they have been doing plenty of laughing at us since the weekend.

Apparently, Arsenal could have signed Arshavin but they couldn't afford his wages.

According to Arshavin's agent Dennis Lachter, Arshavin wanted just too much money.

"Wenger was serious about buying Arshavin," said Lachter in the Daily Express. Click to continue reading...

UPDATE: This list has been updated to include Darren Huckerby's salary, Emilio's big pay raise and Claudio Reyna's retirement.

Also the list of celebrity MLS fans has been updated here.



While MLS is not the English Premier League, that hasn't stopped a few players from making a tidy bit of coin and greenbacks. Click to continue reading...

Earlier today, Steven Goff with the Washington Post posted some of the salaries for some of the recent additions to MLS. His original post didn't have the salary for the Wizards latest signing, Josh Wolff. In a later post today, he does have Wolff's salary. Wolff's full season salary is $200,000. That is right around where I had expected it to be, as he's a returning US international. Click to continue reading...

With Frank Lampard's demands at Chelsea firmly on the agenda right now, it's had me thinking about how sad it is that the trust I once had in players at the club has decreased in sharp contrast to their ever-increasing salaries. Funny then, when reading an old article circa 2002, to realise that the Chelsea [. Click to continue reading...

Chase Hilgenbrinck has retired from professional soccer to become a priest.
(From the Revs press release) "After years of discernment, I feel strongly that the Lord has called me to become a priest in the Catholic Church," Hilgenbrinck said. "Playing professional soccer has been my passion for a long time and I feel blessed to have successfully lived out this dream. Click to continue reading...

Arsene Wenger's comments supporting Alex Ferguson came as a shock to the whole world. He agreed that clubs should stand strong against want-away stars who are offered major salaries by major european outfits. Portugese playmaker Cristiano Ronaldo, whose recently had surgery on his ankle, has gone through months of speculation pre and post Euro 2008. Click to continue reading...

Good day to you all.

We'll begin with Adebayor whose agent has been talking. Obviously he hasn't been listening to the player because what he says is rather at odds with what Adebayor has been saying. Stephane Courbis says:

If this was a money problem, then he would have asked to leave.

Click to continue reading...

Photo by ISIphotos.com

So how does an MLS team lose to a USL-2 team? There were plenty of factors that went into the Red Bulls' 2-0 loss to Crystal Palace Baltimore on Tuesday night, but none of them is as important as the simple fact that the Red Bulls team that took the field played terribly.

Click to continue reading...

Morning all. Sorry I haven't been updating as recently as I'd like, I've just been really busy lately.

So Samir Nasri hasn't been officially signed yet, which makes my prediction from two days ago wrong. I'm positive he will sign though, but I am going to stop predicting when. I would assume it will be this week but every other time anyone has guessed it's turned out to be wrong so I'll just wait until it's officially announced. Click to continue reading...

With the July 1st salary guarantee date looming just a week away, that is the question that we ask about two players: Jose Carvallo and Franco Niell. Both were brought to this country in the offseason that saw the additions of five new South American players. Three of those players (Gallardo and los Gonzalos) have earned regular roles in the starting XI. Click to continue reading...

We have updated the MLS Rich List with salaries of players who came to the league since we last made the list. The only real change is that DC United's Luciano Emilio jumped up the list 10 places from 18 to 8 due to the raise he got making him a Designated Player.
>While MLS is not the English Premier League, that hasn't stopped a few players from making a tidy bit of coin and greenbacks. Click to continue reading...

So what's going to happen this week? Well, given the experience of the last month, not a whole lot. Wenger, as we know, is working out in Austria and Switzerland (he has got his eye open for a deal he tells us - though I'm not sure how flexible the Uefa rules are about domestic managers with chequebooks and fountain pens pouncing on players on national duty).

Click to continue reading...

Sports Illustrated have released their annual list of the top 20 highest paid non-American athletes. Nine of those twenty are footballers. Read on to find out who (and how much) ... 1. David Beckham (LA Galaxy) $48.2m 2. Kimi Räikkönen (Formula One) $46m 3. Ronaldinho (Barcelona) $37.5m 4. Leo Messi (Barcelona) $35. Click to continue reading...

Release of the draw this week, and other announcements concerning season four. The most significant of which was the resigning of Hyundai for another four year years as the naming rights sponsor for the A-League (apparently on much improved terms). This will take the partnership between the FFA and Hyundai to the end of the 2011-2012 season and it is no coincidence that this will coincide with the new TV rights deal at around that time as well. Click to continue reading...

The MLS Players Union has updated the salary list for this season. The list now includes the salaries of both Claudio Lopez and Ivan Trujillo. Lopez is making less then I had expected, as his base salary is $720,000 with his guaranteed compensation being $820,000. Trujillo is making $70,000 in both base and guaranteed salary. Click to continue reading...

UPDATE: This list has been updated to include the just released salaries of Kansas City's Claudio Lopez and Toronto FC's Laurent Robert. (Dropped from the list are Ante Razov (21) and Ronnie O'Brien.(22) Older version of the list is here.

Also the list of celebrity MLS fans has been updated here. Click to continue reading...

Salaries reports always make for interesting reading and a recent report on soccer salaries is no different. Some players are just stealing money.

Here is the Only Time Will Tell All Overpaid Starting XI.

Goal: Carlo Cudicini, Chelski, $5.6 million.
Defender: Asier Del Horno, Athletic Bilbao, $4. Click to continue reading...

While MLS is not the English Premier League, that hasn't stopped a few players from making a tidy bit of coin and greenbacks.

Here is the 2008 MLS Rich List.

Top 20 Guaranteed Compensation

1. David Beckham (LA Galaxy) $6,500,000
2. Cuauhtemoc Blanco (Chicago Fire) $2,700,000

3. Click to continue reading...

Just like the past few years, the MLS players union has released the salaries for all the players in MLS. The Wizards salaries are listed there as well. The one's missing, though, are the Wizards late preseason signings (Claudio Lopez & Ivan Trujillo).

Some notes on the list are the continued shortchanging forward Scott Sealy has gotten. Click to continue reading...

Good Friday to you all, I felt like starting the day out with this nugget that I wrote a while back. I waited around to post it due to all the trade talks this week. We all love looking at MLS player salaries and review them. I felt like today would be a nice day to [...] Click to continue reading...

It's not as nice as the data the MLS players union puts out on play salaries but it'll have to do for now. 3rd Degree was kind enough to put out the best possible data for coaching salaries in the MLS. Note how many have a greater than or less than symbol.
Rudd Gullit (LA) = $4 Mil over 3 years = $1. Click to continue reading...

There will no be DP slots for Eddie Johnson, Landon Donovan and Carlos Ruiz next year. Despite originally declaring that the grandfathering in of these players would only occur for one year, the MLS has gone back on it's word. Those 3 players won't count as designated players in 2008 despite making more than $400,000 for the year.

If you're thinking that's good news for all 3 teams, it really benefits Los Angeles the most.

Click to continue reading...

Props to Laurie for this link. It looks like the MLS Players Union does publish a list of salaries that is updated during the season. Interesting to see Osorono is making $138,000 while Sanneh is only making $60,000.

http://www.mlsplayers.org/files/8_31_07_salary_info_club.pdf

Click to continue reading...

Beside the Washington Post publishing the salary numbers released by the players union, does anyone have a list of MLS salaries? I'm looking for updated numbers that would show what new players like Wanchope, Pavon, Sanneh, Osorno and others are making. The same with Bobby Boswell's new salary. He's not making $30k any more. Click to continue reading...

Just a couple of quick notes to the casual "fan" from the perspective of this enlightened, welcoming, open-minded futbol supporter who appreciates your enthusiasm, if not your borderline sacrilege.

(1) MLS has 13 teams. Yes, an odd and smallish number, despite your group's "expert" declaring that it has 22 . . . no maybe 20 . . . oh yeah, 18 teams. Click to continue reading...

The player many Liverpool fans call GOD is struggling to find a new home having been released from Anfield following the Champions League final defeat against AC Milan in Greece. Although he was prolific in both spells at Anfield Fowler found it difficult in his spells at Leeds United and Manchester City. Fowler will not be [...] Click to continue reading...