Yeah I told you there was going to be a podcast today and there actually is so that is awesome. I think it's pretty good but that's why I need people to listen to it, so it isn't only my opinion. I go over a lot of stuff in a little time, including Gallas, the injuries, a review of our fixtures so far this year, internationals, preview the Everton match, the salary cap situation and a couple of other things. Click to continue reading...

Morning all. After quite a busy week I am back. I haven't missed much though because Arsenal didn't have a game for the last week. So what's been going on you ask? No you probably didn't ask that at all because there are 75,235,298,235 other Arsenal sites out there for you to get your lack of news from. Click to continue reading...

  FA chairman David Treisman mentioned introducing a salary cap, to combat the "very tangible dangers" of the current financial climate.  Premier League clubs have a combined £3 billion of debt.  But, is wage expenditure really the most prominent issue? Yes, players make an absurd amount of money for wearing short pants and playing a kid's game. Click to continue reading...

With the greater interest in investing in Major League Soccer, more ambitious expansion (18 clubs by 2012) and increased international competition fixtures, MLSR has learned that the MLS Board of Governors will meet later this year to discuss the following:


* Single Table

* Apertura/Clasura schedule

* Adding a 2nd Designated player per team andor one whose salary is fully paid by the club and does not count towards the salary cap - no more four hundred thousand dollar cap hit. Click to continue reading...

Tim Leiweke, the mastermind behind the Designated Player rule, is lobbying for Major League Soccer to change its rulebook once again in the offseason, this time to allow DP signings to be exempt from the league's salary cap altogether.

Leiweke, the president and CEO of Anschutz Entertainment Group, says that by making a designated player signing count for $400,000 against a salary cap of just over $2 million, owners are being penalized for taking a big risk. Click to continue reading...

Adelaide United fans celebrate last nights historic win. But how many people will turn-up for the Semi Final, they're already talking about switching venues to cope with the crowd...

And whilst Australia and particularly Canberra has been slow to grasp the opportunities that Asia can provide to football, to the city and the region; our own A-League side would benefit the city/region like no other sport. Click to continue reading...

If you like your football full of passion, great skills, end to end excitement, two sets of pumped up fans, a full stadium and a Semi Final prize up for grabs you'd have loved the Adelaide United Kashima Antlers clash at Hindmarsh Stadium last night.

The Reds won 1-0 and made history becoming the first Aussie side into the Continents major football tournaments Semi Final. Click to continue reading...

SAF - out
Perak - out
Kedah - out
Home - out

Perak got beat 5-0 in Beirut and are probably still on their way home now. Two of their players quit last week... they loved football but it was money that put the food on the table not the love so they found jobs that paid a salary. Click to continue reading...

The Australian, Ray Gatt, was lamenting the crowd numbers today. Previously he had said they would come back with goals. Now we are waiting for the other codes to finish. But maybe the cause is the FFA's play to leave out extra teams this year. Along the lines of - if the came this year and the Socceroos don't qualify for 2010 next June - then the A-League may need new teams to maintain interest. Click to continue reading...

Ruud Gullit has kept his silence for the most part since leaving his post as head coach of the Los Angeles Galaxy on August 11th, but is now speaking out about David Beckham and Major League Soccer among other things. The former AC Milan and Oranje star took over the reins of the "Jewel of MLS" in the most recent offseason, but left L. Click to continue reading...

Last night, Toronto FC coughed up yet another road game, another predictable mess, another exhibition of poor positioning and amateur on-field decision making, another embarrassing debacle for Canada's lone MLS club.

How long O Lord?

I can't even watch five minutes of TFC on tv anymore, and my home game visits are turning into predictable dirges. Click to continue reading...

It seems one of the things that may have prompted MLS to consider major changes to the schedule might have been the words of ex-LA Galaxy boss, Ruud Gullit. In this interview with Britain's Daily Mail he give MLS some constructive criticism that many readers here likely agree with.

Here is an excerpt:

Courtesy of our friends at Tribal Football:

Former LA Galaxy coach Ruud Gullit says there's a lot that needs to change in MLS.

Click to continue reading...

People are pissed off. And this is your place not only to vent but to answer our poll on what would possibly help to turn it around in the years ahead.

Some opinions on what has transpired over the last couple weeks with MLS clubs having less than stellar performances in the first run of the CONCACAF Champions League:

"Tonight's game looked like playing Soccer with
a National Forest, crossed with the Dawn of the Dead. Click to continue reading...

I was wrong when I suggested earlier that DCU would probably be taking the CCL seriously, since they had rested Emilio and Fred for the Dallas match. Instead we sent out an even weaker team tonight, that included the reappearance of Zach Wells! Goff says it's because Crayton had a sore knee, I'm not so sure. Click to continue reading...

Well you could say find out week. But today is the really critical day for the Roar, Wellington and the Glory.

Find out 1 - the Roar: Was the off-season purchasing in tune with the challenges of version 4 of the A-League? Key find out: is Sergio V-D a quality striker and is Craig Moore in good enough shape to handle the A-League? Click to continue reading...

Shockingly, the USL has just as many teams in the group stages of the CONCACAF Champions League as Major League Soccer. Montreal did their business with a 0-0 draw away after winning 1-0 in the home leg. Puerto Rico definitely took the hard road, but made it work. After last week's thrilling match in Costa Rica, they gave up an early goal at home. Click to continue reading...

Even before TFC sold Edu to Rangers, the size of their squad has been of concern all season long. The salary cap is the final factor, but the Senior roster numbers eighteen and the reserve squad has room for 10. So the international call-ups that will take 9 away from Toronto's roster may be a concern, but it should have been anticipated long ago. Click to continue reading...

Chivas USA 1, Tauro FC (Panama) 1 - Tauro advance 3-1 on aggregate

That score from last night is an attention-grabber, isn't it? MLS has invested a lot of effort in playing up a rivalry with Mexico as the best league in this part of the world, so a loss to a team from Panama -- which ranks somewhere below Costa Rica, Guatemala and El Salvador in terms of international achievement -- isn't at all what the league would want.

Click to continue reading...

Today's goalscorer for USL-1 side Puerto Rico Islanders Osei Telesford against England in May/Reuters Photo

Can you believe that headline? After seeing MLS sides lose in all eight attempts to even get so much as a draw in a CONCACAF Champions Cup match on Costa Rican soil, tonight in the new CONCACAF Champions League USL-1 side Puerto Rico Islanders got a shock 1-1 draw at Alajuelense.

Click to continue reading...

Can't wait to see Melbourne and Sydney playing at home this weekend. Both of the big city clubs have shown they have enough talent and money to keep me awake this year...

Melbourne might have the luxury of leaving Archie Thompson on the bench. Wow!

And Sydney still have John Aloisi to come in. Click to continue reading...

Photo by ISIphotos.com

The Los Angeles Galaxy has traded Carlos Ruiz to Toronto FC, sources told SBI on Tuesday evening. Details of the deal were not available yet. To make room for Ruiz on the roster, TFC has waived French midfielder Laurent Robert.

Click to continue reading...

Australia's first W-League Coach, Mike Barnett, A-League bid leader Ivan Slavich..

Australia's first W-League Coach Mike Barnett is Adelaide United's first W-League Coach. Mike talks Salary Cap, player selections, why United will be competitive and the challenge ahead.

Interestingly will there be any female coaches or female Assistants in the new W-league? Click to continue reading...

Photo by ISIphotos.com

Former U.S. Under 20 forward/midfielder Johann Smith is set to make his debut for Toronto FC today against the New York Red Bulls after signing with TFC on Thursday.

Click to continue reading...

Photo by ISIphotos.com

Former U.S. Under 20 forward/midfielder Johann Smith is set to make his debut for Toronto FC today against the New York Red Bulls after signing with TFC on Thursday.

Click to continue reading...

New York: The bids the club placed for foreign based strikers were rejected, so it appears that the Red Bulls will be going even harder after Macoumba Kandji of the Silverbacks. The issue at this point is acquiring enough allocation money through the league to pay Atlanta's approximate $200,000 transfer fee. Click to continue reading...

Photo by ISIphotos.com

The Los Angeles Galaxy needs money. No, not actual cash (they have sold enough David Beckham jerseys not to need actual cash). What LA needs is allocation money and salary cap space (despite what the Bottomless Galaxy Salary Cap jokes suggest).

Click to continue reading...

I figure since these guys have disappeared lately, that I could use this space to look for a new job. I am a legend, I build SUPERCLUBS. Just ask the folks in New York and Los Angeles. They will speak to my OVERWHELMING success.

I don't want to work in England, so don't send me any offers. Click to continue reading...

This was supposed to be a triumphant season for Alexi Lalas' "Jewel of MLS"; a full season of Beckham and Landon Donovan, lead to a title by super-coach Ruud Gullit, shorn of his jheri curl and ego after being cut down to size at Newcastle by the British press, Alan Shearer and an unnamed Italian restaurant waitress. Click to continue reading...

Or so says Ives in this post.

I'm on record in the comments of my last SBI Supporter's View saying that I wouldn't have used the allocation for Cory Gibbs due to his injury history and cost against the salary cap (not like I actually know what that is, of course). But I am not the guy(s) in charge of personnel over at the HDC (that can only be a good thing) and I guess their calculus told them to pull the trigger.

Click to continue reading...

Photo by ISIphotos.com

Former U.S. national team and FC Dallas defender Cory Gibbs completed a deal to play in MLS on Friday, a league source confirmed to SBI. What remains to be seen is just which club he will play for.

Click to continue reading...

Many people have been filling our mailbox up with this report which states that Galaxy boss, Ruud Gullit is selling his house in LA. The speculation is that he is fed up with the Galaxy and MLS's parity based salary cap restrictions.

"For Beckham's boss, a change of galaxy

Who tells David Beckham what to do (besides a certain Spice Girl)?

Click to continue reading...

Galaxy coach Rudd Gullit said it was unlikely the club would sign former Newcastle midfielder Nolberto Solano, citing salary cap and other restrictions.
``He's not coming, I don't think he's coming,'' Gullit said. ``I have to accept it.''

Click to continue reading...

It must really be painful these days to be a Rapids supporter. From fights with security to confrontations with Fernando Clavijo himself. Now it appears that for the 2nd time this year the Rapids will miss their transfer target. Before they were outbid by Korean K-League side Busan. This time they can't sign the 24 year old Brazilian due to the MLS salary cap. Click to continue reading...

The FFA are saying there is a salary cap of $150,000 for the W-League, but the teams are saying they won't be paying anyone!!!

Sure you can have a Salary Cap but if no-one has the money to spend then it's a tad meaningless. This one needs to be investigated for clarification. I'll make a phone call or three. Click to continue reading...

Very simply, and I'm looking through the precise blog-writer's phraseology book right now to express my emotions on this point...

Uh, OH, here it is.

Yes.

No, wait a minute:

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

OK, that's right.

Fallas' story here. Click to continue reading...