Sun 19 Nov 06

The Beckham Rule

MLS has changed its rules to allow each team to pay one (and only one) player an unlimited salary - and the L.A. Galaxy has its sights set on the one footballer* the average American will have heard of:

…The US football league has just amended its salary cap to allow teams to pay one star player an unlimited amount, a change openly dubbed the “Beckham rule”.

The former England captain has reportedly been stalling on signing up for another season at Real Madrid, but a return to the Premiership also seems unappetising. It seems increasingly possible that Beckham will choose to blow the final whistle on his European football career. And if this is the end, the moment has been prepared for. Philip Anschutz, the billionaire leisure industry mogul and sometime friend of John Prescott, has been building up his relations with Beckham and hopes to lure him to join his Major League Soccer club, Los Angeles Galaxy.

This would be a huge publicity coup for Major League Soccer - but it also threatens to turn MLS into another NASL, which collapsed after paying too many aging stars too much money. The North American league will really have arrived when European players in the prime of their careers are willing to come over.

*well, I guess Mia Hamm is a household name - and maybe even Zidane, whose infamous head-butt has been parodied in everything from The Family Circus to a recent episode of Family Guy.

Damian P.

November 19th 2006 Posted to General, Major League Soccer

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Mon 13 Nov 06

MLS Cup Starting to look like Football

Yesterday saw the Houston Dynamo defeat the New England Revolution on penalties after two rounds of overtime play. What got them into the showdown was some thrilling play in the second part of overtime, as each side scored dramatically within a minute. The downside was the 112 minutes of pedestrian play that it took to get there.

MLS is coming up in quality, although there ought to be a league rule forbidding cannon volleys unless the players are named Wayne Rooney or Michael Ballack, judging by yesterday’s wide misses of the sticks. And ESPN could take some lessons from Sky Sports in field camera work. But with expansion coming to Toronto next season, we may expect to find more Canadian coverage on TV.

Paul Canniff

November 13th 2006 Posted to Major League Soccer

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Fri 25 Aug 06

Toronto Names First Gaffer

Toronto FC, which will play in the MLS next season, has named veteran Scottish player Mo Johnston as its first head coach.

Though Johnston had a less than stellar record upon departing as head coach of New York Red Bulls, he does bring a considerable amount of playing and managerial experience to the touchline.

Today’s hardcopy edition of The Globe and Mail reports that Canadian international and former Southampton player Jim Brennan may be Toronto FC’s first signing.

Paul Canniff

August 25th 2006 Posted to Major League Soccer, Toronto FC

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