So much so he’s a card-carrying fan. Literally. What a de-monstrance-ation of his support! There’s certainly no one mitre-er than San Lorenzo, after all. The club was named after a priest, so it would be a cardinal sin not to support them! I’m the Honest Ed of football blogs!
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina’s tax chief laid out new rules Thursday aimed at reducing tax evasion and money laundering in soccer, the country’s sacred national pastime.
Ricardo Echegaray has made Argentina’s soccer clubs responsible, starting Friday, for putting the profits from player transfers into special bank accounts. Player contracts must be reported along with these profits, and the investors and agents involved must be registered as representing the player. If any of the income or other information they declare doesn’t match, the tax agency will block those responsible from operating within Argentina’s financial system.
Argentina is the world’s top exporter of soccer players, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in profits as thousands of players are transferred from team to team each year. But Echegaray says the players themselves are often cheated by shadowy businessmen hiding their cash, and their clubs are put at a major disadvantage as powerful financial interests control the cash that drives the game.
This is the fruition of the rampant reliance of all parties on third party player ownership, wherein agents, sports management companies, and dodgy investor groups purchase the economic rights to a player and reap the rewards of any potential transfer. It ostensibly benefits Argentinian clubs who may not otherwise be able to compete for the signature of younger star players, but it’s also susceptible to abuse, with transfer monies leaving the country to far and away global interests, who are often concealed.
Earlier this week, Michel Platini reaffirmed his desire to ban third-party ownership outright in Europe:
[Platini] wants to end the third-party ownership of players’ transfer rights but that is being fiercely opposed by agents who contend it would be a disaster for smaller clubs who depend on outside financing to secure big names.
The issue came up repeatedly at a two-day football conference in Dubai with several agents complaining the issue was being mischaracterised in the press and that imposing a ban – which is already in place in France and England – would only serve to further widen the gap between big and small clubs.
Platini would presumably say that the egregious transfer fee inflation permitted by clubs able to spend well in excess of turnover is the disease, and that third-party ownership an unfortunate symptom. Ideally, instead of hoping for a cheap buy from a third party owner, smaller clubs would turn to the old, less flashy method of developing young stars to sell on to bigger clubs in order to help boost their finances, and, with good management, their on-field fortunes.
But whatever, money is money, and the Kia Joorabchians still need to peddle the phony line about helping out the little guy while they rake in money that rightfully belongs both to the player and the clubs they sell to.
It seems appropriate that on the day before Christmas I’m writing about yet another Neymar transfer rumour. Despite his oft-repeated intention to stay at Santos—at least for the time being—the 20-year-old nevertheless remains atop the wishlist of almost every European club that can afford him.
For three years talent scouts have been dispatched to the Vila with care, in hopes that Neymar soon would be theirs.
Manchester City’s Txiki Begiristain is just the latest club official to have made the pilgrimage to Santos, where he is thought to have spent two days making overtures to the São Paulo side and the player’s other rights-holders regarding a move to Eastlands at the end of the Premier League season.
City are by no means the only club with designs on prying Neymar from the Vila Belmiro before the 2014 World Cup, which is widely understood to be the point in time when the world’s best footballer not currently playing in Europe will most seriously entertain offers from the other side of the Atlantic. But their interest did find its way into the English press, and while that in and of itself doesn’t make such rumours worth addressing, the resulting commotion and potential misunderstanding of the situation probably warrants a brief response.
So here it is.
When nearly a year-and-a-half has passed between Superclásicos, anticipation will no doubt be unprecedented. Nerves will be threadbare; tickets will be all but impossible to come by.
Earlier this week River Plate—one half of South America’s existential derby—temporarily suspended ticket sales for Sunday’s match against eternal rivals Boca Juniors because, as they said in a statement, “With record demand we have decided not to sell to non-members of the club.”
A special website for Superclásico reservations had already crashed due to the volume of visitors, and given the interest in the derby a premium of 800 pesos ($168) was tagged to the tickets allotted for NO socios, or the Boca fans attending the match at River’s Estadio Monumental, when the various Buenos Aires ticketing stalls reopened.
Never have River Plate and Boca Juniors gone so long without facing one another, and as it was River who were responsible for the 17-month ceasefire they and their fans will be especially anxious about the resumption of hostilities.
Tim Vickery stops by to chat with James and KJ about the upcoming World Cup qualifiers in South America.
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While River Plate’s relegation at the end of the 2011 Clausura made headlines around the world, their promotion after winning the Nacional B title in June of this year was swallowed up in Euro 2012 coverage. Hopes had been high for a return to the form expected from a team considered historically second only to Boca Juniors, but the results this season have been dire. Out of eight games this season, River have won two, lost three and drawn three.
They currently sit 14th in the Primera Division, and River fans are understandably upset. While they’re angry with manager Matias Almeyda, following River’s 0-1 loss to Racing Club, fans also gathered in a concourse at the Monumental calling for the resignation of president Daniel Passarella (seen above in a video entitled Drop Dead Passarella).
It’s a significant moment in the club’s history, particularly considering Passarella’s historic involvement with the team as a defender from 1974-82, and his importance to the Argentinian national team’s 1978 World Cup win.
As a player, Passerella was the second highest scoring defender of all time (Ronald Koeman is number one). His preference to defend by attacking seems to have extended to his managerial and presidential career; the nickname El Kaiser clearly applies to his personality as much as his playing style as detailed by Playfutbol. He once famously banned long hair and earrings as Argentina manager, out of ugly, homophobic paranoia, an outlook that may have played a role in his dislike for Gabriel Batistuta while at River. This is but one in a litany of instances of Passerella’s dictatorial approach.
How he will respond to the loss of faith among River Plate faithful is uncertain, but the post-promotion honeymoon has quickly worn off.
Honduras bowed out of the 2012 Olympic football tournament, Saturday, after losing 3-2 to Brazil at St. James’ Park. The matter of their defeat earned them no shortage of admirers, however—such was their commitment to the cause that even after being reduced to 10 men in the 33rd minute they quite nearly caused an upset. Mario Martinez, on loan at Seattle Sounders, and Sporting Kansas City’s Roger Espinoza were especially impressive, and the Newcastle crowd seemed to appreciate Espinoza, in particular.
Thankfully, we’ll get several chances over the next few years to see Honduras thrill on the international stage. Honduran football is experiencing a competitive cycle that began in the quadrennial ahead of the last World Cup and should last until after the current one. Many of the players who competed in the U-23 side at these Olympics are also full internationals, which means the group of them will continue to mature together ahead of next summer’s CONCACAF Gold Cup and the World Cup in Brazil the year after that.
It was the 2009 FIFA Youth Championship that signalled the arrival of this generation of Honduran footballers. After coming third at the CONCACAF U-20 Championship the previous March Honduras opened their campaign in Egypt with a 3-0 win over Honduras (in which Martinez scored twice) before going out at the group stage. Several of the players who just participated in the Olympics were involved in that squad, and their contributions in the senior side will have a lot to do with whether Honduras can, for the first time, qualify for successive World Cups. Read the rest of this entry »
