The Unseen Threat From Europe - the Premier League's Dominance of European Football is in Danger

So, Manchester United look like they are going to win the Premier League title again. And with Chelsea dying a slow death in West London and Arsenal constantly shooting themselves in the foot, while Liverpool argue with their own manager, can anyone challenge them?

The Reds one-sided success (this year would make it 11 wins out of 17) in the English Premier League puts the league in danger of turning itself into an Eastern European backwater-type league where a single team is dominant for decades, as the rest of the country scratches around for scraps. The red herring this season is Aston Villa, who have broken into the top four, but is that because they have improved to meet the top four, or is it that the three below Man Utd are drifting down to meet them?

The fact that the top tier in the English league has an obvious second league of teams nowhere near good enough to challenge for anything other than mid-table obscurity, underline the crossroads English football appears to be at.

Of course, there's the money. Last week it was announced that Sky accidentally blew Setanta out of the water and took five out of six Premier League TV packages by upping their bid to £1.4bn over three years. All good for clubs who can continue to throw money at players in a bid for the Holy Grail of football, a place in the top four .
But that money is only the base on which the big clubs are building their brands - and Man Utd's success is such that they are in danger of getting too big for British football. A survey last year suggested that United had 333m fans worldwide compared with 75m in 2003. Clearly, success is paying off globally - one only has to look at the growing percentage of southeast Asian fans popping up at Old Trafford for visual evidence.
 
Man Utd's dominance would not threaten "Brand Premier League" on its own: what the English leagues should be really worried about is that the rest of Europe appears to be getting its act together. As TV pays the bills, and global branding pays for the pretty dresses, any danger to Brand Premier on the world stage will be disastrous, particularly as the world lurches into a financial crisis.

The four big leagues (France, Italy, Spain and Germany) are in the midst of becoming more exciting by the week, with competition at the top and engaging action at the bottom, with a little quality, too. There finances appear to be improving rapidly, too. France's Ligue 1 has seven teams vying for the title this year: perhaps because the team that has dominated for a decade, Lyon, has not had the global branding Man Utd has had. And the French leagues hit the jackpot in 2005 when a bidding war put the price of TV packages at £1.6bn - almost on a par with the Premier League.

Last year, the German Bundesliga took over the English Premiership's mantle as the league making the most money out of shirt sponsorship: a small part of a club's overall revenue but significant in that it suggests how bankable the league is in terms of marketability.
A year ago a rather doom-laden Spanish La Liga was looking at multiple bankruptcies as economists warned that clubs had radically overspent to keep up with Real Madrid and Barcelona. But the fact that Spain has two clubs bigger than Man Utd means that it will always be more competitive on a global market. It also has the advantage that there are more football-mad nations that speak Spanish than English-speaking nations.
 
The fate of Italian clubs, meanwhile, should serve as a warning for the money-bloated Premier League. For years they fed on bloated cheques from rich owners - often local companies done good or senior politicians or Italian oligarchs. Now it doesn't look so good. Juventus has been dropped a league and since returned, while many other clubs suffered from wage bills hitting 85% of income. Now, there is some light at the end of the tunnel. Clubs like Napoli, which suffered from the previous wage profligacy (Maradona and Paul Gascoigne the highest profile luxuries), are back in the black and highflying in Serie A.  Oh, and Italy still has four of the top 20 richest clubs in Europe.

Perhaps more importantly is the strong support in Italy for a salary cap which, if implemented, will drive Italian clubs back up to the top in Europe.
 
If the Premier League continues on its current path, three things could happen:

1) Of course, everything could work out fine, with the money levelling off as Brand Premier begins to help every club in the league. Competition becomes more intense, the world is hooked,

2) Man Utd continue to dominate and the fans slowly but surely switch off. United decides it doesn't want to share the TV money so, as the only show in town, decides to break away from the TV package and sell itself. With little or no competition at home European action becomes more important. The spectre of a European super league raises its ugly head again.

3) Brand Premier goes the way of Italy: money breeds corruption, breeds alienation and eventually the English falls into a bitter sea of fear, court cases and recriminations. Millions worldwide switch back to a revitalized Serie A and La Liga and the old world order is duly re-established.
 
Sepp Blatter allows himself a quiet, triumphant smile.

Premier League 2010-2011 - Two Weeks Til Kick Off!

The new Premier League season kicks off in just two weeks time. Oh yesss! Doesn't it seem ridiculous that just a couple of weeks ago we were bathing in World Cup footie, and in two more weeks the English Premiership kicks off yet again?

Not that I'm complaining. It just seems to have been a very short summer, with copious amounts of football to keep us occupied and our minds off boring transfer sagas that usually end up meaning a leading Premiership player being courted by a leading European side (this summer it has of course been Cesc Fabregas being hunted by Barcelona). Transfer rumours that seem to have a lot of life left in them, despite what some might say.

So what will the upcoming Premiership season have in store for us? We'll be posting a preview in the next few days, but the main ingredient I see coming into play is the force of the teams just outside the standard Top Four of Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool. Manchester City look set to be the team to upset the odds this season, as they've gone out and splashed some serious cash over the summer. Without a doubt, their squad on paper now looks like a very strong Premier League Top Four side. It just depends whether or not they have the ability to transfer that potential into reality. A strong start to the season and they could be in with a very serious shout.

Another side that looks like it has the power to compete is Spurs. Led by Harry "I shoulduv been Ingerlund boss" Rednapp, they had a great season last year and are now poised to strike it big in Europe (although have to get through a potentially tricky qualifying match to make it through to the group stages). They've always been the "nearly" side of London, so perhaps the tide is finally turning.

Elsewhere, Everton don't seem to have the financial clout to compete, though will always perform and fight as a team. I would love to see Newcastle do something big, but they really need a stable season to reinstate themselves back in the Premiership. And Aston Villa have perhaps one of the finest British managers around today in Martin O'Neill, but do they have enough to scare the big boys? I fear not.

Anyway, watch out for our review of the upcoming Premiership season, coming soon. We'll also be blogging our way through the season, with attention on each of the major leagues, plus of course the Champions League. We'll also be following the Hunchers Consensus, just to keep a track of how well the Hunchers community is performing. Don't forget to make your weekly football predictions!

Fernando Torres "El Nino" - The Perfect Striker?

Fernando Torres has become one of the most respected of the foreign players earning their living in the English Premier League. Ever since his transfer from Atletico de Madrid in the summer of 2007, El Nino, as he was dubbed early on his career, has impressed English football fans not only with his goalscoring abilities, but by his total attitude towards life in his adopted Liverpool.

It couldn't have been easy for Torres when he joined the Merseyside giants. He was, after all, the undoubted 'king' of Atlético; he'd been their youngest ever first team player, youngest ever captain and the talisman of both the team and its supporters almost since his debut in May, 2001. With a following of pop star like proportions, and playing for the team he loved, it was little surprise that he resisted a money-making move abroad for as long as he did.

The time was right, though, in July, 2007, for Fernando to move on. Atlético were in desperate need of money and Torres was beginning to look tired after carrying the burdens of responsibility for so long. July 4th, however, was a highly emotional day when he said his tearful goodbyes to the club he'd loved as a child and for whom he'd scored 91 goals.

It wasn't straightforward, either, joining a club like Liverpool. With a history of great strikers, and a desperation to re-establish themselves as credible championship contenders, Torres would have known that a 'settling in ' period would have been out of the question. He had to hit the ground running - and flat out, at that.

To his great credit, that was just what happened. Torres took to the pace of the Premier League game straight away - claiming that it suited his style of play much more than that of La Liga. After opening his league account against Chelsea in August, he went on to find the net 24 times in his first season and, despite some niggling injuries, has kept on scoring ever since. At the time of writing, Torres has found the net 60 times for Liverpool in only 96 games - an incredible goals per game ratio that equals anything his illustrious predecessors managed.

Liverpool supporters, of course, think the world of their 'kid' - and not just because of the way he brushed Rio Ferdinand aside to score Liverpool's first goal against Manchester United recently. He clearly loves playing at Anfield and has developed a remarkable rapport with the fans, akin to that he had at Atlético. Not that he's forgotten his former club, or its fans. After scoring the first Liverpool goal in a four nil Champions' League demolition of Real Madrid last season, Fernando expressed the hope that the Atléti fans had enjoyed watching that match as much as he had enjoyed playing in it!

Let me finish with a little illustration of one reason why, perhaps, Fernando Torres is such a popular figure. In the summer of 2009, he married his long-term girlfriend Olalla in El Escorial, Madrid. This was no elaborate 'Hello' celebrity wedding, though. Rather, it was a quiet, dignified, family affair, held without fuss and extravagance. There was only one press photographer there - a local, who was then told by the groom to sell on whatever photographs he wanted to magazines and newspapers.

Apart from being fast, strong, brave and unselfish on the football pitch, Fernando Torres is one of football's gentlemen off it! He also scored the winning goal for Spain in the final of the European Championships. What more could you want?

Barclays English Premier League - World's Most Popular and Prestigious League

The Barclays English premier league is arguably the most televised, most glamorous, most popular and the richest league in the world right now, with at least four of the teams - Manchester United, Chelsea FC, Arsenal FC and Liverpool FC ranked among the top 20 richest club sides in the world, and the league televised in several countries of the world. The television rights on the league is in millions of pound sterling and the prize money for the league winners is the best any country can offer anywhere in the world.

The English premier league has metamorphosed from a small league in the 19th century to the giant of the 21st century. With the league producing four quarter finalists each year in the past five years in the UEFA champions league, with Liverpool FC lifting the champions league trophy in 2005, Manchester United in 2008 (playing the final with fellow English club side Chelsea FC); Arsenal playing in the finals in 2006; Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United each having played at least at the semi-finals level in the past five years, the Barclays English premier league is obviously the best league in Europe currently.

Years ago, Brazilian and Argentine players shunned the English premier league like a leper, rather preferring to ply their trades in the Spanish La Liga, Italian serie A, German Bundesliga and the French league, etc. But today the story has changed as more of the Brazilian players are now gradually entering into English premier league - The likes of Robinho, Edwardo, Baptista, Carlos Tevez, etc. now showcase their talents in this wonderful league; it is certainly a place every footballer would love to be.

We are entering into the second round of the 2009/2010 league, we expect more Brazilians, Argentines, Nigerians, French, Portuguese, Ivorian players etc to troop into this prestigious, exciting, entertaining and attractive league to add more colours and glamour to the league as we also expect more transfer records to be broken. Manchester United currently holds the record of the most expensive player transfer in the European league with the sale of Christiano Ronaldo for 70 million Euro to Real Madrid FC of Spain. With the exit of Christiano Ronaldo would more quality players come in? We hope to see more of Didier Drogba, Fernando Torres, Defoe, Wayne Rooney, Gabriel Agbonlahor, John Terry, Frank Lampard, Stephen Gerrard, Carlos Tevez, Emmanuel Adebayor, Fabregas, Ireland, John Obi Mikel, Michael Essien, Berbatov, etc. The Barclays English premier league is certainly the place where the soccer action is at the moment.

Kaiser Chiefs Soccer Club

Kaiser Chiefs Soccer Club, a South African football team, traces its beginnings in Soweto, Johannesburg. The club was founded on January 7, 1970 by former soccer player Kaiser Motaung.

The team, also known as Amakhosi or Lords/Chiefs, plays its home games at Ellis Park Stadium or FNB Stadium. They have a tough rivalry with the Mamelodi Sundowns and the Orlando Pirates in the South African Premier Soccer League (PSL) as well as the local league.

Kaiser "Chincha Guluva" Motaung, the club's founder, is a former player for the Orlando Pirates which is also a Soweto team. He also played in the United States as a striker for the Atlanta Chiefs of the North American Soccer Leagueor the NASL.

For pulling out suddenly from the 2005 CAF Confederation Cup, the Kaiser Chiefs have been banned from taking part in African club tournaments. The said punishment however will be lifted in 2009.

Some years earlier, the Chiefs were also penalized by the Confederation of African Football for violating tournament rules.

Adored by their followers, the Kaiser Chiefs Soccer team was one of the very first local teams to turn professional. The club has achieved a remarkable record of 80 titles in 36 years. It has also set unprecedented local sponsorship standards.

The Team's best feat was probably the 2001-2002 seasons. During that time, they won four major championships in four months. The said trophies were the Vodacom Challenge, BP Top Eight, Coca-Cola Cup, and the CAF Cup Winners Cup (Mandela Cup).

Kaiser Chiefs, a British Indies/pop band, got its name from the soccer club.
Tags: Kaiser Chief's soccer club, South African Football, Confederation of African Football

Premier League: Can Liverpool Avoid Relegation?

One of the best clubs in English football is in the doldrums thanks to issues not related to the field of play. Liverpool FC need to sort out their management issues so that the players can concentrate on doing what it is supposed to be doing - play football.

The club has debts, including fees, payable to Royal Bank of Scotland by October 15, failing which an additional penalty would be due.

RBS have taken the issue to High Court, in a bid to resolve a power struggle within the club, and prevent the club from removing the chairman and another board member who have approved an offer to buy the club by New England Sporting Ventures (NESV), owners of Boston Red Sox, an American baseball team.

To add to the off-field wrangles at Anfield, a Singapore billionaire, Peter Lim has bid to buy the club and made an offer that is said to compete with that of NESV's. Mr Lim is reported to have offered an additional amount to the beleaguered club to help it to buy players. The NESV offer, accepted last week by club chairman Martin Broughton, has been disputed by Liverpool's current American owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks.

Gillett and Hicks have contended via their lawyer that they are not trying to prevent the club's sale but are interested in looking at better offers than NESV"s. According to a statement by the lawyer made on behalf of the owners, an American hedge fund had also made a competitive bid, offering an additional amount to build a stadium.

Incidentally, the hedge fund, refinanced the loan taken by Gillett in 2007 to buy the club, and controls 50% of Gillett's shareholding in Kop Holdings the company that owns Liverpool FC.

Mr Lim had also bid to buy the club in 2007, when Gillett and Hicks's bid was favoured over his. Mr Lim owns several bars, with a Manchester United theme, in Asia, a testament to the Premier League's popularity in Asia.

Mr Lim is reported to be planning to sell off the bars, if his bid to own Liverpool were successful., and use the proceeds to wipe off the club's debts to RBS, while providing additional money to invest in new players in the January transfer window.

After the completion of eight matches, Liverpool are languishing in 18th place on the Premier League points table, and their fans would welcome investment in new players who could revive the squad.

The High Court ruling on the matter is expected on Wednesday, October 13, at 10:30 BST. If the management dispute is not resolved, there is a danger of the club going into administration, in which case Liverpool FC would be docked 9 points, opening up the prospect of relegation.

Premier League Match Time: Sunderland Vs Aston Villa

Sunderland will host Aston Villa at the Stadium of Light in a game that's crucial to Aston Villa's top six ambitions. Last season, Villans won at Wearside, scoring two to Sunderland's none, while drawing their home match against the Black Cats, 1-1.

Sunderland have drawn five matches in a row, with the goalless match against Blackburn on Monday being the latest. On the positive side, the Black Cats have staved off defeat for six matches in a row, their best performance since doing it for 17 successive games in 2006-07.

But the draws against Manchester United and Blackburn must surely rankle as Sunderland should have won those games, and that could have taken the squad well up the table. That said, Sunderland have acquitted themselves well against strong opposition in the form of Manchester United, Man City, Liverpool and Arsenal. Their only loss came in an away match against West Brom. Converting draws into wins must be manager Steve Bruce's top priority.

Contrastingly, Villa have played in only two goalless draws in their last 20 matches, including the one against Chelsea in match-week eight, the Midlands outfit are formidable rivals having finished sixth in three consecutive seasons.

Particularly after the arrival of Gerard Houllier as manager, Villa have turned things around, as they began the season badly under MacDonald who took temporary charge after O'Neill's shock departure before the season started. Under Houllier, Villa have lost just the solitary match in four, winning two and drawing one.

Ahead of the Villa game, Sunderland have injury worries in the form of Kieran Richards, sidelined with a hamstring problem, David Meyler with a knee injury, and Fraizer Campbell who has sustained an injury to his cruciate ligaments.

Gabriel Agbonlahor with a groin problem, Emile Heskey with a back injury, Luke Young with a hamstring injury and Richard Dunne with an ankle problem are likely to miss the Saturday game for Villa.

If Sunderland hope to get a win against the Villans at Wearside, they must surely look to Frenchman Steed Malbranque to strike form against Houllier's men. Malbranque has consistently been making it to the first eleven, and his best is yet to come.

Sunderland's probable starting eleven on the day should have: Mignolet, Bardsley, Bramble, Turner, Onuoha, Henderson, Elmohamady, Henderson, Wellbeck, Malbranque, Cattermole

Aston Villa are likely to include the following players in their starting eleven: Friedel, Warnock, Clarke, Collins, Beye, A Young, Petrov, Reo-Coker, Downing, Ireland, Carew