As I’m sure you’ve all heard by now, English Premier League team Liverpool Football Club, aka, “The Reds,” were sold to New England Sports Ventures under the ownership of Americans John W. Henry and Tom Werner on 15 October 2010 for £300m.

I know this is tough for all you Liverpool fans to see another foreign owner take charge of your beloved club.  And I’m sure it is more frustrating to see Americans running the show, especially with the different level of play between the two countries.  You’re probably asking yourselves what true experience they have for this beautiful game of soccer and if they know the proper way to create a winning squad.

However fans, I have some news for you.

What do English Premier League Football teams Aston Villa, Birmingham City, Blackburn Rovers, Chelsea, Fulham, Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal and now Liverpool, all have in common?

Super wealthy foreign investors own them all!

Let’s review: Malcolm Glazer owns Manchester United, Randy Lerner owns Aston Villa, Stan Kroenke is a significant shareholder with Arsenal, and all are from The  USA.   Roman Abramovich from Russia owns Chelsea and Alisher Usmanov, another significant shareholder with Arsenal, is from Uzbekistan.  Carson Yeung, a Hong Kong businessman owns Birmingham City and Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, from the United Arab Emirates, owns Manchester City.  These are just a few.

Now, add two very successful Americans, John W. Henry and Thomas C. Werner to this list. They are the current owners of the Boston Red Sox (and newly acquired Liverpool F.C.), an American Major League Baseball franchise, who transformed this once mediocre team, to being crowned World Champions in 2004 and 2007.

As an American, and someone who works in the soccer industry, I feel it is great to see foreign owners getting involved in the game. Whether it’s for the glory on the field, or for financial gain only, it brings a greater awareness to the game in general. After all, fans only want to see one thing and one thing only on the result sheet every week.  Win.

Here in the USA, we too are being infused with players and coaches with Premiership and International experience. It all lends itself ultimately to a better soccer experience for the fan, a greater level of competitiveness and, a better product.

Back to Liverpool and those fiercely loyal English fans. Let’s not forget they were once the dominant team in England. They won league titles virtually every year between 1973 and 1984 along with three European Cups, three FA Cups and four League Cups.  Since then, success at this level has been hard to come by, and the team has disappointed fans looking to repeat those golden years.  Henry and Werner offer the monetary infusion and management skills necessary to reinvigorate this once dominant team. And that is my very point. Do the loyal fans of these English clubs really care about who owns and manages their beloved team? Is it really about winning and restoring the lost pride and quality of player that it takes to compete for the very top honor at this level?

Just look at what some players are earning these days.  Recently Manchester United secured a 5-year contract with striker Wayne Rooney that will give him roughly £200,000 per week! Look what it takes to put together a top-level competitive team. The game has changed and continues to become even more expensive. Someone must ultimately pay bigger player compensation packages.

Luckily, Henry and Werner bring a new sense of excitement to this aspect of the game.  With their understanding that Liverpool is in need of significant change, this could potentially be the beginning of signing more high-end players.  For them to compete with Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal, Liverpool needs the funds to do so.  This is where Henry and Werner can be of substantial assistance.

If a fan can watch his team earn 3 points every match and be in the top end of the table why would he care about who owns the club?  As long as his club is producing positive results, the ownership will not be criticized.

So it comes down to who can afford to run and manage these clubs.  The combination of superb management skills and massive amounts of wealth is the key to a dominating club.  The old days of owners seeking pride of ownership alone, is grimly faced with the stark realization of being able to support these teams, all chasing for the top spot.  Let’s face it, success brings glory and financial return.  Every year starts the same way.   Each team begins with zero wins and zero losses but the dream to win it all.

It’s Good For The Game! from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

Kakuta is a skilled left-winger that Chelsea considers one of their brightest youth players, as he led the youth squad in goals and earned the Academy’s Scholar of the Year award. He also made 7 appearances for the under 17 French national team, but was plagued by injuries for most of the campaign.  Chelsea acquired Kakuta from Lens, a Ligue 1 club, in 2007. After losing Kakuta to the Blues, the French club filed a complaint with FIFA. A statement from FIFA read: “The DRC found that the player had indeed breached a contract signed with the French club. Equally, the DRC deemed it to be established that the English club induced the player to such a breach.”

Several financial penalties emerged, and Kakuta was ordered to pay $1,110,000 dollars and Chelsea $185,000 dollars to Lens for training compensation. Furthermore, Kakuta lost 4 months of eligibility to play in official matches. The significant damage is still to come if Chelsea does indeed lose the ability to register new players for two consecutive transfer windows. In 2005, Italian club Roma received a similar punishment in which they lost the ability to sign players for one year. In the Roma case, it took the Court of Arbitration for Sport three months to hear the case and Roma was able to sign players through the summer transfer window as their ban took effect 5 months after the complaint was lodged. That being said, it is quite possible that Chelsea will be able to sign players during the next transfer window in January before their ban is imposed.

Transfer Window Shut for Chelsea Till 2011 from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

No matter how innocent the athlete may appear to be, WADA must uphold its stringent approach. Those who test positive for performance-enhancing drugs are punished for cheating and putting themselves at an unfair advantage of which their competitors are deprived. In terms of recreational substances, WADA cannot be seen to endorse the use of these drugs and so the offending athlete is also liable to punishment. Any failed test for prohibited substances will result in punitive action, including a probable ban.

The harshest example of this can be seen in the case of British Olympic Skier Alain Baxter. Baxter had failed a drug test when ‘lev-methamphetamine’ was found in his sample. It later transpired that this substance is present in the American version of a Vicks nasal inhaler. The British version does not contain the prohibited substance and Baxter bought and used the American one at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, assuming the content would be the same. In its judgment, the Court of Arbitration for Sport said that Baxter was a “sincere and honest man who did not gain a competitive advantage despite the trace of lev-methamphetamine in his system”. In spite of his honesty and innocence, Baxter was stripped of his Bronze medal, which was ultimately awarded to his 4^th-placed Austrian counterpart, Benjamin Raich.

It would seem that the resulting damage from testing positive for a prohibited substance is not only of that to your reputation, but the financial consequences can also be severe. Adrian Mutu, a Romanian footballer who is famous for having played for Chelsea, Juventus and Fiorentina, tested positive for cocaine in 2004. He was banned for 7 months and fined £20, 000. Chelsea purged him from the club for breach of contract. He later signed for Juventus for free. Chelsea sued him on the basis that they were denied a transfer fee that was due to them for what should have been his sale to Juventus. As he breached his contract, he was removed from the club and as a result he was able to sign for Juventus for free, where normally the recipient club would be required to compensate the selling club for the transfer. The matter went to the Courts and was resolved within the last month. The Court of Arbitration for Sport dealt him out a staggering fine of €17 million, which he was told to pay Chelsea to compensate for their loss. This represents the highest ever fine imposed by FIFA.

The moral of the story if you are a professional athlete is not to do drugs – it is quite simple really. In all likelihood you will get caught, and your punishment will be severe. There are not many athletes who can comfortably afford to pay the fines, and the damage to reputation can be brutal – nobody likes a cheat!

Drugs and Sport – Why It’s Not Worth It from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

The worldwide presence of the MLB almost came to a grinding halt this week as the Boston Red Sox threatened to boycott their season opener against Oakland in Japan due to a pay dispute. But this wasn’t any old pay dispute. The players weren’t interested in an increase on their $40,000 appearance fee, but rather they wanted an increase in the amount paid to their support staff who were traveling with them. The Red Sox prevailed, with their staff receiving the exact same amount as the players for the trip. [Red Sox call of Japan no-show]

Punter paying off

It’s well known that Ricky Ponting makes quite a nice living off his chosen sport of cricket. But now details have emerged about how much he actually makes off the field.The aforementioned article highlights just how marketable Australia’s captain is. As I reported last year, Ponting was recognized as the most marketable Australian in the Sweeney Sports Survey.

Brands would be jumping over backwards to get Ponting to represent their brand. Just some of the sponsors that he has includes (dollar figure in brackets):

Adidas, who have their own line of Ricky sunglasses ($150,000).
HarperCollins, who publish his ‘Captain Diaries’ each year ($100,000-$150,000).
Kookaburra Bats, who is his bat sponsor ($350,000).

It’s good news to both current and future Cricket agents that Cricket Australia is quite relaxed on allowing several individual sponsors, unlike in England where most of the image rights are retained by both the National and County Associations.

Lampard not happy at Chelsea

Frank Lampard, Chelsea’s attacking midfielder is not happy with Chelsea at the moment. The England player has under 18 months left to run on his contract, and has expressed interest in extending his stay. [Lampard frustrated about contract]

But despite the club telling him everything is going along smoothly, they are yet to get back to him, and Frank is not happy.

As Frank told the London Evening Standard:
“I’ve been approached a few times by the club saying they are going to come to me with something and they haven’t, hat means they’re saying they will have to wait until the summer and I don’t really know what that means. I said at the beginning of the season I didn’t want to talk about my contract because I wanted to concentrate on my football.”

It would be frustrating for someone in Frank’s position, who would expect to be given a new contract as he is the current captain of the club.

March Madness

As March Madness sweeps all over the US, it’s not just the players that are showcasing if they can make it in the big time- but also the coaches. As this Sports Illustrated article suggests, there are some teams who are headed for the Sweet 16 who may be suited by bigger teams they knocked out to get there. Speaking a little bit out of my depth here, and a bit gutted over USC’s first round loss, I ask you the readers to suggest who you can see being suited during the other ‘March Madness’?

The Wash Up from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules