Archive for soccer

Soccer is a massive business. Not just club level play, but international events such as Euro events, Gold Cup, and of course, the World Cup are massively popular and thus massive money makers. Despite the popularity of soccer itself, FIFA has a deservedly wretched standing with many fans. It seems as though the governing body of international soccer has recognized this, and is making veiled attempts to reconcile with fans.

From the outcry of fans regarding Russia’s anti-gay laws while they prepare to host the 2018 World Cup to the thousands of migrant workers who have died building Qatar’s 2022 stadiums, let alone the various corruption charges, FIFA had some serious bridges to rebuild. Perhaps it was the FBI’s investigation to countries bidding for the 2022 World Cup or the drop of major sponsors in Emirates, Sony, Castrol Oil, Johnson and Johnson or Continental, but it appears as though FIFA is attempting to re-brand their image.

On January 29 of this year, Major League Soccer announced their sale of the popular KICKTV YouTube channel to London based Copa90. Last week Copa90 then sent out a press released regarding a joint partnership as they joined forced with Pitch International, just three days after Pitch International sent out a press release saying they partnered with FIFA. The FIFA/Pitch International pairing will consist of PI airing the new show FIFA Football. The show will launch in May and according to Niclas Ericson, FIFA director of television, the show is about all aspects of the game.

FIFA Football is about giving fans a real insight into the game, on and off the pitch. Football is a truly global game and there are so many great moments to celebrate and fascinating stories to share from around the world. We hope this show will help to inspire the next generation to play, engage in and enjoy the world’s most popular sport.

Aiming at the younger generations — not just as players but also fans — by acquiring and partnering with YouTube channels seems to be a savvy move by FIFA. The NFL catered to fans in January by putting sanctioned game clips and highlights on YouTube. Given the amount of heat put on the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell in the wake of several poorly-handled decisions, throwing service to fans, possibly in a bit of a distraction ploy, was an interesting tactic. Similarly for FIFA, their new partnerships do nothing to apologize for past (and present) missteps by soccer’s most influential organization, however reaching out to fans is at least a positive step for a company not well known for positive press.

(Header image via Facebook)

The growth of soccer is something we’ve been hearing about since the mid 1990s. Major League Soccer may not have the top tier quality of European leagues just yet, but the quality of play has certainly been on the rise, particularly in the last few seasons. Older stars such as Thierry Henry, Robbie Keane and of course David Beckham have given the MLS a touch of precision it has been lacking. When seeing what these players can do in the MLS, many fans have seemingly sought out higher levels of competition, namely the English Premier League.

Back at the midway point of the EPL season, NBC — who owns broadcasting rights here in the United States — released viewership numbers and they showed an uptick from last season. NBC claimed a 15% jump in TV views and an encouraging 36% increase in streamed games via PC, mobile and tablets. Corroborating the continued rise in soccer’s popularity is the latest Global Web Index report, showing an bump up across the board in EPL watching.

Of the sample of about 40,000 users across 32 different countries, 28% claimed they watched the EPL on television. Another 16% reported streaming the games through their connected devices rather than the traditional TV route.

Unsurprisingly the 16-24 and 25-34 age demographics lead the online viewership numbers, with 19% and 22% respectively streaming their games

Given the time zone differences — a Tottenham fan in San Jose, CA is faced with a seven hour difference or a Bayern fan in NYC still has a five hour difference — it remains a difficult reality for the European leagues to grow here. While some people, myself included, are more than happy to wake up early to watch games, eventually we may reach a point where the casually interested fans are not willing to sacrifice sleep for their soccer fix. Until we reach that point, the rising popularity of soccer, especially the EPL, is a welcome sight.

(Header image via Ungry Young Man)

The Southampton Football Club — which sits a surprising fourth in the Barclay’s Premier League — has just announced a new partnership with Healthspan Elite. Already partnered with the club for vitamins, probiotics and fish oils, the vitamin and supplement supplier will now become the official nutrition partner in the first deal of its kind in the premiership. Healthspan Elite is already official partners with the British Sailing Team, Glasgow Warriors, Edinburgh Rugby, the Scottish Rugby Union and three associations.

Through 25 games Southampton trails only perennial powerhouses Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United in the BPL. The Saints’ +21 goal differential is the third best as their defense and goalkeeping has combined to allow a league leading 17 goals surrendered. Since conditioning and health is essential, Southampton has relied on Healthspan Elite to keep their players fit. On the new deal, the Saints’ Head of Sports Science, Alek Gross was quoted:

“We’ve been using Healthspan Elite’s products for some time now and each of our players has a daily intake of vitamins to support the health and wellbeing plans we have in place. This partnership, however, will allow us to explore our strategy even further. By maximising the knowledge and expertise from both parties, we’re aiming to develop supplements that will aid the performance and recovery of our players.”

The deal will allow Healthspan Elite access to make use of the clubs internal player tracking, recovery timetables and the like, with both sides hoping to see gains in the player bounce-back performances. While Southampton plays their league games in the BPL for a total of 38 games, the Saints also participates in the Capital One Cup and Football Association Cup. As the matches and minutes pile up, players inevitably get sore, strained and the like. Any edge that can be had for top tier clubs will be taken advantage of, and Southampton is looking to do just that.

(Header image via Wikipedia)

Another one of the “Big Five” leagues has made a technological leap, with Italy’s Serie A unanimously approving the implementation of a goal-line system for next season. The options have been narrowed to three possibilities, including the FIFA GoalControl system used at the 2014 World Cup, the HawkEye system used by the Premier League and one unnamed option.

President of Italian soccer federation, Carlo Tavecchio, has mentioned a desire for goal-line technology (GLT) in the past, publicly stating he believed it will be implemented before next season. In an interview following exploratory meetings last month, Tavecchio was quoted:

“This morning’s meeting began a journey that will take us to the application of goal-line technology in our country during the predicted time-frame…I am convinced that its [GLT] use, starting from next season, will be unavoidable.”

Given the usage and growing acceptance of GLT in domestic and international leagues, seeing another one of Europe’s power leagues roll out a system is excellent. Of the Big Five, the Premier League already uses GLT, the Bundesliga will use it next season and with usage on the rise elsewhere — including US-based MLS clubs and the Dutch Premier League — it should be just a matter of time (and funding) before it is a universal part of soccer. While neither this year’s Africa Cup of Nations or Asian Cup offered GLT, it will be in use for the UEFA Euro 2016 matches. This year’s Women’s World Cup will feature goal-line technology for the first time, marking another step in the right direction.

(Featured image via the Serie A Facebook page)

In the Barclay’s Premier League, the status quo continues for the online broadcasting options for at least one more season. Both Sky Sports and BT Sport won the broadcasting rights, now showing 126 and 42 matches respectively per season starting from the 2017-19 season through 2018-19. Both numbers represent a jump from the 116 and 38 currently shown, however the price was high. Sky Sports and BT paid a combined £5.136 billion (nearly $8 billion USD) — coming to more than £10 million per match — with BT paying £960 million and Sky picking up the rest of the tab.

Neither BT Sport or Sky Sports currently broadcasts internationally, and with NBC’s contract set to expire after the 2015/16 season, the bidding for the Premier League will come to a fever pitch next year. Currently with either BT, Sky or NBC you’ll need a cable package, but here in the United States there is not a way to view the streams from BT or Sky without using a VPN. Even by tricking the system into thinking you’re in the UK, you’ll still need a paid subscription to view the content.

The same goes for both broadcast apps (available on Android and iOS)  as there is no standalone package available yet. A brief exchange with a BT Sport chat helper cleared up any potential for a stream option here.

The tables below, courtesy of Statista, show the Premier League’s rapid growth above their fellow European competitions as well as the amount paid to the clubs from broadcast revenue.

The leagues, from left to right, are the Premier League, Serie A, Bundesliga, La Liga and Ligue 1. These leagues are often referred to as the “Big Five” as they represent the top competitions in not only Europe, but the world.

Despite being the most popular of the European leagues, the PL’s popularity is still on the rise, as is the price to broadcast it and view it. While this deal does not hurt or help anyone already with a cable deal in the UK, for the rest of us it is merely treading water until the international rights open up again next year.

Sources: Sky Sports and BT Sport
Header via Wikipedia

Though the Major League Soccer season ended not even a week ago, the league has wasted no time looking ahead to next year. Partnering up with long-time sponsor Adidas, MLS has announced their new official match ball for the 2015 season. Called the NATIVO, it will feature the six identically shaped panels, continuing the move away from traditional pentagonal or hexagonal designs.

Sponsoring leagues and competitions with match balls is a well-trodden road for Adidas, as they also use a new ball for the Women’s World Cup 2015 as well as Euro 2016 qualifiers. Competition is rife among Adidas and Nike for official match balls, or OMBs, and both companies are eager to put their respective designs on the field. Nike holds an edge in number of leagues — though many countries and leagues aren’t listed of course — in Europe, including inarguably the two best, Premier and La Liga.

For international leagues both at the county and club level, Adidas has locked up OMB status in a clean sweep, though Nike does sponsor the 2015 Asian Football Cup 15 with their new Ordem 2.

Between 12-panel vs six-panel designs to the thermal-bonding or fuse-welded discussion, there is no shortage of differences of balls in league matches. Factor in the chance for a player to potentially use three different balls in a 12-day period — league fixture, UEFA and national team call up — the lack of standardization is odd. It isn’t a question of quality, merely continuity. The old saying “different strokes for different folks” rings true in many aspects, but when millions of people (not to mention millions of dollars) are involved in these matches, perhaps the saying “can’t we all just get along?” would be better.

(Header image via Facebook)

Major League Soccer, in conjunction with ESPN and ChryonHego, debuted a new player tracker graphics package in yesterday’s MLS championship game between the New England Revolution and the Los Angeles Galaxy. The tracker shows the player’s club, number and highlights them with a gold colored circle during important moments of the game.

In the first half of play, the Galaxy won a corner kick. The system highlighted Omar Gonzalez leading up to the set piece, as the central defender is listed at an imposing 6’ 5” and an ideal target for headers.

While the system was use sparsely during its unveiling game, it manages to hold plenty of intrigue and possibility. The realm of soccer statistics hasn’t yet matched the level of baseball analytics, though there is no shortage of reading material to study the topic. Last year MLS signed a deal with Match Analysis to utilize their system of data collection and video to present things perhaps unseen by the naked eye. Among Match Analysis’ list of current or previous clients is the national teams for the United States, Mexico, Canada as well as 2014 World Cup winners Germany. While the Germans team used a different system en route to their win in Brazil, a system called Match Insights, there seems to be no shortage of demand for soccer analytics, as well as a way to bring them to the viewer at home.

Much like any proprietary system, the analytical side of the beautiful game may be kept close to the vest by the clubs and teams who pay for it. If MLS’ new system can highlight players — or even set pieces, attacks and counter-attacks — by using data collected, all the better for the game. A different option would be for the system to display offsides while the commentators simultaneously explain to potentially novice viewers what an offside consists of , thus avoiding any embarrassing Ted Lasso-esque situations. From the now standard and expected yellow first down line in football to the digital strike zone in baseball, technology has rooted its way into sports broadcasts. MLS is attempting to bring that same level of integration to their product.

(Image via Wikipedia)

The 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup groups will be drawn tomorrow at noon eastern on the Fox Sports 1 channel plus a live stream via Fox Sports Go. Joining the host nation of Canada is 23 other nations that qualified to make a run at the title of World Cup champion.

How to view the games themselves on television was decided years ago. FIFA gave all broadcasting rights in the United States from 2015 through 2022 for English TV and radio to Fox and their affiliates. Spanish TV rights went to Telemundo Media, owned by NBCUniversal. The Fox Soccer 2Go stream does not appear to have any streaming rights to the Women’s WC, however with a digital converter box, anyone with a TV — even without a cable subscription — should be able to see a limited number of fixtures. Lou D’Emilio of Fox Sports quoted World Cup Coordinator David Neal saying “Fox or Fox Sports 1 will carry all 52 WWC matches live in 2015.” Without a definite distinction of how the games will be split among the two channels, it remains unclear how many games a cord cutter will be able to see.

A possible option is the Fox Sports Go app is available for Windows, Android and iOS devices. Unfortunately Fox Sports Go currently depends on having a particular cable subscription. Despite producing a strong Fox Soccer 2Go app (where no TV packaged is necessary as it is a standalone price), the Fox Sports Go leaves much to be desired. One of the current issues is that despite having access to a Charter Communications login, complete with Fox Sports 1 and 2 in the channel lineup, Charter is not a selectable option. Given Charter services almost 28 million subscribers across 29 states and is the fourth largest cable provider in the nation based on revenue, one would assume compatibility with Fox Sports Go. Fox Sports Go is also not available to subscribers of either of the two major U.S. satellite providers — DirecTV and Dish. Apparently I am not missing much from not having access to the app, though. Among the three platforms, the highest rating is three stars on the Android version versus two on iOS and a 1.8 stars rating for Windows devices. Not to put faith in internet reviews, after asking around the only worse streaming platform than Fox Sports Go was the NBA’s League Pass, notorious for issues and bugs.

While the games are still over six months away, Canada will play its to-be-determined opponent on June 6, the accessibility of the matches is in doubt. This year’s men’s World Cup broadcasting rights was owned by ESPN and still have matches available to be re-watched via WatchESPN, though that does require a cable package. Whether or not Fox allows streams — both live or after the match — remains to be seen. Trusting major telecoms, let alone FIFA, to make the right decision for viewer accessibility is a nearly impossible dream.

(Header image via FIFA.com)

Windmills, wooden shoes and correct calls in football. All three may soon be synonymous with the Netherlands, as the Royal Dutch Football Association (Koninklijke Nederlandse Voetbalbond or KNVB) is looking to implement a specific video referee next season (warning: you’ll need to translate the page). They would be the first association football league in the world to have a separate referee for replays.

Existing replay services such as FIFA’s GoalControl technology or the English Premier League’s Hawk-Eye system are goal-line specific where 14 different cameras capture every angle. While certainly helpful and undoubtedly needed, the KNVB replay referee would observe things more than just goals. Incidents ranging from whether a foul was a red or just a yellow card or if a penalty should be awarded or not. The replay system will also be able to include dives, hand-balls and headbutts if necessary and any action away from the ball where the on-field referee may not have vision. If Luis Suarez gets loaned to a Dutch League team, perhaps biting will be reviewable as well. No word has been handed down as to whether or not it will be able to also rule on offsides calls, however.

The video referee will be located outside of the stadium in a van with multiple monitors. Each stadium will have their own replay system rather than the NHL or MLB style replay center. Using a headset, the video ref will be able to be in contact with the on-field referee in order to rapidly and accurately call the game.

With a strong concern to maintain the integrity of both the game, especially from retired EPL referees such as Graham Poll. In an interview with BBC Radio 5 live, when asked about replay, Poll said:

“The game has speeded up. Players are more crafty and deceitful than they have ever been. Unfortunately, that is a fact of life, therefore referees do need help. To my mind, there are plenty of good ex-referees who would be happy to sit there and review situations and help the referee. They are completely independent and neutral, not at the whim of a television company providing the angle they choose.”

The KNVB looks to lead the way football fixtures are called and hopefully played. If players know they’ll be blatantly obvious on a foul or a dive, all the better to clean up the game. Getting the call correct in a timely fashion is up to FIFA, as the Dutch League submitted their replay proposal to FIFA’s rule and regulations arm, IFAB. Counting on FIFA to do the right thing is a tough thing to ask of football fans, however with the KNVB ready to set the tone for accurate replay, the correct path is clear.

(Header image via Wikipedia)

The latest major version of Apple’s mobile software, iOS 8, gained the ability to add widgets to one’s phone or tablet. While the counterparts in the Android world have enjoyed widgets since April 2009, Apple has finally sought fit to allow widgets on their devices. As a user of both major operating systems, I can’t tell you how happy I am to see them on my iPhone. Rather than requiring manually authorization to display information, e.g. opening an app, widgets constantly update information. In particular stock, Bitcoin and sports widgets are all incredibly convenient. The first major sports widget launched on iOS8 is the free Forza Football Widget, and it is everything I could want from a soccer info center.

After the initial download, you’re greeted to a lovely welcome screen and quick start guide.

As you progress throughout the setup, you’re given the choice of which country to pick. You’re able to choose multiple countries to pick and I decided to go with the United States and add South Korea later on.

Once you’ve picked out which nation — and you can add Under-21, womens, etc. — the next set of choices becomes how many leagues would you like to follow. Unsurprisingly the main leagues are auto selected, but you can add or remove as you wish.

Now that everything is picked out, you’ll want to utilize Forza Football as the widget, not just the app. In order to add real time score updates, you’ll have to swipe down on the notification bar of your phone and select “new widget available.”

At this point you can add Forza to any current widgets you may have running.

I’m able to partake in pre-game polls on who will win, a fun feature I didn’t even realize I was missing.

Additionally the push alerts that go off when a team I’m following is great for people like me who tend to be a bit forgetful.

Forza offers a superior football experience. I’ve previously touched on and even praised other soccer apps such as MLS Matchday and Fox Soccer 2Go, however I can’t see myself using those apps with Forza on my phone. For a brand new widget I can’t imagine anything else I’d really want.