SFS FLASHBACKS | SPANISH BASKETBALL | DRAZEN PETROVIC

Found this priceless video on "youtube" (thanks to "CroPETROforever") of when REAL MADRID ruled SPANISH BASKETBALL. That reign ( the 80s) was made even more glorious thanks to Croatian DRAZEN PETROVIC who was the finest European Basketball Player that I have ever seen in Spanish or European Basketball

The player left Real Madrid for the NBA (USA), being a poineer to open the way for other

SPANISH FOOTBALL | ROUND 25 MONDAY NIGHT REUSLT | MALAGA 3 ALMERIA 1

The Spanish Football League ended Round 25 with the Monday Night LIGA match between MALAGA & ALMERIA with the victory going 3 - 1 to the home team. A desperate win for Malaga who are bottomed placed & need all the points they can muster up to attempt to get out & not get caught in the relegation zone.



Malaga - Almeria: Spanish Soccer 2011

It was Almeria that looked good early & was playing

If You're Going to Trash Talk At Least Get Your Facts Straight

"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts"

Daniel Patrick Moynihan

My Twitter timeline turned into a trash talk fest between Arsenal and Manchester United fans in the immediate aftermath of Arsenal's loss in the Carling Cup.  The two teams may not have been rivals for a Premier League championship for over half a decade, but the animosity from earlier clashes hasn't died down.  I've generally tried to stay above the fray because it often sounds like sore loser syndrome when one tries to defend the indefensibly poor play of their team - even if it was poor play for only a few seconds.  There is, however, a point where I reach my limit, and it is when opinions try to be passed off as facts.

I reached that point when I saw this tweet come across my timeline:

In 6yrs, Arsenal spent £107.9m on 30 players (0 Cups). United spent £123.7m on 21 Players (over 10 Cups)!

This is a patently false assertion, the expenditures listed are incorrect, and the goal really is to excuse Manchester United's position as consistently being in the Top 2 when it comes to transfer expenditures, year-in and year-out.  Let's review the actual expenditures by each team from the 05/06 season through the 10/11 season (all data is taken from the Transfer Price Index):

• Arsenal: £130.2M at time of purchase for 24 players (£167M in 2010-2011 GBP per the TPI)
• Manchester United: £196.9M at time of purchase for 24 players (£223.8M in 2010-2011 GBP per the TPI)

But that's not the real measure in disparity between what resources the two clubs have available to them.  The real difference is measured in their Sq£, which takes into account the cumulative costs of all transfers currently on the squad (like Wayne Rooney's 04/05 transfer that would cost £49.1M if executed today).  The average Sq£ (in 10/11 GBP per the TPI) for the two teams from 05/06 to 10/11 is shown below.

• Arsenal 10/11 Sq£: £140.9M
• Manchester United 10/11 Sq£: £284.1M

Over those years, Manchester United has had a more than two to one advantage in the terms of the cost of players it can put on the pitch.  Compare that to the suppossed 14% advantage that United enjoyed in the tweet, and you see that the estimates aren't even close.  As was demonstrated in this series of posts, it is that ever increasing amount expended on transfer fees that has allowed Manchester United (and to a certain degree Chelsea) to maintain their high finish position in the league.  Frankly, what Arsene Wenger has been able to do with such a meager budget - average finish of 2nd when his financial resources should have put him 6th - is nothing short of amazing.  In recent years it's become even more magical, where his 10/11 expenditures have him finishing 10th when in reality he's challenging for the Premier League title.  I'd like to see how well Alex Ferguson would do if he were actually constrained by such a budget that refuses to take on debt.

Yes, Manchester United fans should rightfully crow about their cups.  They won them, and Arsenal hasn't over the last six years.  However, no one should kid themselves that the clubs have two different expectations based upon their financial commitment in the transfer market.  To compare the two as equals is a bit absurd - whether its a Manchester United or an Arsenal fan doing the comparisons.

One could also argue that Chelsea's, Manchester United's, and Manchester City's of buying players at any cost to win championships is EXACTLY why the EPL has the highest debt load of any UEFA league and why UEFA is having to institute financial fair play rules.  But that's a discussion for another time...

DePaul's Friday Symposium on Compliance in Chicago

This Friday, the DePaul Journal of Sports Law and Contemporary Problems hosts "A Rule is a Rule: Compliance in the World of Sports." The presenters include Timothy Epstein, Marc Edelman, and myself. 2.75 hours of CLE is available for attorneys and a reduced rate admission is offered for law students from other area schools. Here's the event description:

The DePaul Journal of Sports Law & Contemporary Problems will host its annual sports law symposium, A Rule is a Rule: Compliance in the World of Sports, on March 4th, 2011. During this event, panelists will discuss a variety of legal issues currently arising in the world of sports. In line with our organization’s mission statement, the symposium will investigate the intersection between law and sports with a focus on today's most important sports law issues, and discuss the contemporary problems that result.

Last year, our symposium was a great success. In fact, our symposium was recently acknowledged at the prestigious National Sports Law Institute Conference as being “an excellent Conference.” Panelists at our previous conference included representatives from the National Football League, the Big Ten Conference, the Chicago Cubs, and notable professors from Sports Law academia.

This year we are striving to hold another highly successful symposium to uphold the tradition. Our panelists will include compliance experts from universities, as well as scholars who have written and taught on the subject.

Compliance is a very broad topic. In the legal field, our entire careers focus on compliance with rules, whether they be federal law, state law, or bylaws within an organization. This symposium will explore issues of compliance that are particularly relevant in sports. We will have two panels: the first panel will focus on compliance in college sports, while the second panel will address compliance in professional sports

The event is being held at the University Center (525 S. State), a few blocks south of DePaul's law school.

Book Review: Gaming the World

Perhaps US soccer and MLS would have a brighter future if we could see more images like this.

I have always maintained numbers are just a means-to-and-end in understanding the beautiful game. They provide a semblance of order and understanding to what is a chaotically beautiful game with relatively simple rules. As such, I balance my statistical blogs and books with a few cultural ones along the way. Wading too deep into the numbers makes one forget the emotional aspect of what makes sport great. While not taking such a numerical tact, Gaming the World: How Sports Are Reshaping Global Politics and Culture does take an academic approach to describing the wider cultural impacts of sports and is a must read for anyone comfortable with a book that comes from an academic press (Princeton University, to be exact).

The premise of the book is simple - describe how global sports culture has become hegemonic and helps knock down barriers society would rather leave up - and complex at the same time - why did soccer succeed in Europe and not North America even though both continents had nascent soccer cultures in the 1800's? As with any academic book, the authors have a substantial number of citations for each chapter, providing a great historical walk through the issues they tackle - the rise of global sports culture, the clash and reconciliation of competing sports cultures, the feminization of sports culture, and a great study of the unique nature of US college athletics. This book is a product of two authors who represent its main themes - a German and an American attached to their own sport cultures who fell in love with University of Michigan athletics and quickly realized they had fertile ground to explore. Given the path they travelled to writing such a book, the material within it is easily understood by the casual fan who wants to understand how the major sports of our day - soccer, basketball, American football, baseball, and hockey - evolved and the challenges they face as they as they now intersect each other in a globalized world.

The first takeaway from the book could clearly be "let your talent travel overseas". In studying the success of North American sports that have grown overseas or overseas sports they have seen grow in the US, there is one common theme - to build interest in a newer sport a less experienced nation must allow their talent to compete in the top professional level in the more experienced nation. After recounting what the "Nowitzki effect" has done for basketball in Germany, the authors start Chapter 3 with this observation:

Just think of Lance Armstrong's immense influence on having spawned a coterie of superb American bicycle racers and on having raised his sport's profile in the United States. America professional soccer, thus, is in need of a Lance Armstrong equivalent to emerge as a superstar in one of Europe's premier soccer leagues to dramatically improve its cultural roll stateside.

I couldn't agree more, and that's why I feel that having Landon Donovan stay in MLS is a huge mistake for US soccer. Some might argue that he's not the caliber of player to be considered a "superstar", but we'll never know as he didn't take the chance when he was in the greatest demand. Imagine how much attention would be paid to him and US soccer if he had translated last year's World Cup run into a full time stint in the Premier League? Instead, he came back to an LA Galaxy side that had clearly peaked earlier in 2010 the season, saw them fail to make the MLS Cup, and then saw the leading goal scorer from his team depart for a second tier German squad. All the while, people are now calling for the US national team to be built around another American who is making waves in England rather than play in MLS.

Yet all hope for US soccer isn't lost. While MLS's product is still inconsistent and clearly second tier on the world scene, there is growth in US soccer. Recent immigrants "import soccer into the United States and instantly provide a strong base for MS games, which have an average attendance of circa 15,000." This type of attendance figure makes MLS one of the top ten in the world when it comes to game attendance (on the other hand, television viewership leaves much to be desired). Ultimately, the authors argue that soccer in America is still an "Olympicized sport", meaning that most US soccer fans show up for the big international competitions like the World Cup, but fade away when it comes to the annual MLS season.

The authors do a great job of also explaining the difference between US and European professional sports. Key differences include:

• A greater amount of success achieved by minority athletes when compared to Europe, which serves as "an integrative substitute for other forms of social (welfare) mechanisms".
• The geographically large area of the US contributing to long travel distances that inhibit travel by the away team's fans, making the in-stadium experience very different than Europe's soccer stadiums. This distance also leads to an unbalanced schedule that is a key difference with European soccer.
• The presence of a single team in a city (except in New York and Los Angeles), which ensures larger stadiums and less intense rivalries
• By effect of a lack of such local proximity, intense cross-town or cross-state rivalries are saved for the uniquely American college athletics landscape. The authors do a great job in taking a whole chapter to explain the rise of US college athletics, how they are most similar to European national soccer leagues, and how they serve to democratize the US sports scene.

In studying the cross-cultural sports landscape, it appears there are two areas where the authors see the United States as more advanced - inclusion of women and acceptance of minorities (except the GLBT community, which is still universally marginalized). While the authors do argue that sports in general do provide a good bit of cross cultural acceptance, they can also incite a nativist backlash that focuses on local identity. This "counter cosmopolitan" reaction is especially prevalent in the second tier of European soccer and Italy's Serie A, as is the continued second-tier treatment of women in sports. As a counter-example, the authors look to the United States as a shining example of racial and gender integration. Racist taunts and anti-Semitic salutes found in European stadiums would never be tolerated at the lowest level of American athletics, while US women's teams in soccer, softball, and other sports dominate the world stage due to their equal treatment in the college athletics that help feed the national teams. To be sure, female pro athletes still have a long way to go to match their male counterparts, but on a national level the success of the US Women's soccer team is certainly the envy of the US Men's team.

The authors' detailed history of such gender and racial developments is key to understanding their real point about sports' true capital: cultural, not economic Sports, especially in the US, become a prime mode of recreation for millions of participants and an even greater number of observers. It dominates talk radio, our weekends, and sometimes even our weeknights. Americans buy jerseys, scarves, high-definition televisions and cable services, and tickets to matches. Stadiums are routinely sold out, and the recreational calendar is dominated by which sport is in season at the time. The book compiles some interesting statistics:

• College football generates $2 billion in revenue a year.
• Men's basketball brought in $600 million during the 2007-2008 season.
• College hockey and baseball brought in far less.
• The professional leagues, while bringing in a far more respectable $15 billion per year, would only rank 170th on the Forbes 500.

Of an interesting personal note, that would put them between a company named Computer Sciences and my employer, PACCAR. Thus, it is the outsized cultural influence that makes someone like me don an Arsenal jersey every weekend even though I will be lucky to go to a single match at the Emirates in my lifetime. Certainly their financial position in the world of soccer helps provide access to their product, but it pales in comparison to other companies that could be demanding the time and effort many of us put into following, playing, and interacting via sports. It's the cultural interactions - in the stadiums, in the pubs, and online - that drive such a disproportionate amount of our time to an activity with such a minimal economic impact.

Ultimately, that's perhaps the most re-assuring aspect of the book. Sports predominantly grew out of working and lower-middle class communities looking for a way to compete, relax, and build community identity. It's how soccer began in working class English communities, and why college athletics took off in remote locations of the United State via land grants from the government. For all the money that gets wrapped up in sports, it is the kid who picks up the basketball in the inner city, or a suburban girl who picks up a soccer ball, that helps democratize the sport and the wider culture. We always need to be vigilant of someone trying to buy a championship or violate the rules of amateurship, but by and large sports are natural to humans and the biggest effect they have is to empower the players and they provide a wider acceptance of the minority the players represent.

More Sports Law Links

As a follow-up to Mike's recent post with a number of sports law links, I wanted to provide a few more, as there have been a number of interesting developments in our field.

1. 60 Minutes ran a story on legendary Vegas-based sports gambler Billy Walters last month. The video clips provide a fascinating look into the world of high stakes "white collar" sports gambling.

2. Did Jose Canseco's admitted steroid use rub off on other MLB players? Eric Gould and Todd Kaplan analyze Canseco's "peer effects" in a forthcoming issue of Labour Economics.

3. Patrick Hruby of ESPN.com explains why lawyers "always get [the] last laugh in sports, as in life."

4. Ben McGrath of The New Yorker asks - "Does football have a future?" McGrath's article looks at the "concussion crisis" in the NFL. In the latter part of the article, he mentions the possibility of imminent class action lawsuits.

5. The conventional wisdom in sports gambling is that sports books try to set their poinspreads (sides) and totals (over/unders) as a conservative/guaranteed way to profit. Steve Levitt (co-author of Freakonomics) cast doubt on such strategy in an oft-cited 2004 paper published in The Economic Journal. Rodney Paul and Andy Weinbach provide empirical support for the "Levitt hypothesis" in a new article in Applied Economics Letters.

6. Was Congress complicit in connection with baseball's antitrust exemption? Neil Longley examines Senate voting patters in a forthcoming Applied Economics Letters piece.

CEO Vikings Futsal Talks Futsal 2011 - Part 2

This program will be broadcast on 2xxfm (98.3mhz), Tuesday 1 March 2011 across the Australian Community Radio Network.

We begin the program with something for the Coaches as we navigate the pre-season (sourced from the ASC). A short description of the physiology of the athlete and how that must be considered in preparing a player(s) and as the season progresses, how to maintain peak fitness and performance. Gone are the days of run around the outside of the oval and don't worry about the footballs till later. If you have a coach doing this rubbish, get another coach or a new club.

Then its on to Part 2 of our interview with CEO Vikings Futsal, Alasdair Miller. The CEO talks a ittle more about the business model used by Vikings Futsal, the need for Futsal to secure its own playing facilities and a fascinating update on the impact of the floods/cyclone in Queensland and Victoria on Vikings Futsal operations. They got hit hard, but the game goes on! Nothing much stops the Vikings Futsal mob for long. The CEO just talks plain sense. Its refreshing. Wish others could do the same! For those that have asked whether Vikings have considered coming into the ACT - the CEO answers that question in this part of the interview.

Download Podcast here:

SPANISH FOOTBALL LEADING GOAL SCORER - EL PICHICHI - AFTER ROUND 25 SEASON 2010-2011

Firstly , please accept my apologies for the Spanish Football League Leading Goal-scorer "widget" on the right hand side. I have contacted the Football website that they are not updating the goal scoring tally & they have not responded. The site in question -  "Footbo.com" -  has been losing its "attraction" for some months with some poor service that leaves you wondering why they are still

REAL MADRID | KAKA | PATIENCE IS WEARING THIN

Some say that KAKA came from AC MILAN with injury. Some say that the Brazilian had the 2010 World Cup as his main objective with Brazil & thus placed REAL MADRID as a secondary obligation. The last accusation is out of line & I personally doubt it 100 % , but here are some numbers from the ex FIFA World Player:

9 goals from 33 games ( 8 in 25 Liga matches; 1 in 7 Champions League)



Kaka with

ROUND 25 SPANISH FOOTBALL - LA LIGA SUNDAY GAMES RESULTS

SPANISH FOOTBALL action this Sunday via LA LIGA & its Round 25 with four matches scheduled. Here is a brief summary of events, the results & the scorers.



Caicedo scores for Levante

LEVANTE settled their game with OSASUNA in 10 explosive minutes with a 2 -1 victory. The game reached its maximum height in the 41st min when PANDIANI put Osasuna ahead. Then Levante reacted in deadly fashion with

Sunday Sports Law Links

* Mark Cuban wonders why more superstar U.S. teenage basketball players don't go play professionally in Europe, where players can be as young as 14 and earn lucrative contracts. The NBA, as we know, requires that U.S. players be 19-years-old and one-year removed from high school before they are eligible to play.

The European route was clearly successful for Brandon Jennings, who played professionally in Italy for one-year before becoming eligible for the 2009 NBA draft. Jennings earned about $1.2 million in Italy between salary and endorsement income -- obviously more than he would have "earned" while playing as a freshman in college, assuming he had overcome his eligibility issues.

The international experience has been much less successful for 6'11 power forward Jeremy Tyler, however. Tyler skipped his senior year of high school and struggled playing professionally in Israel in 09-10. Then again, Tyler has been much more impressive this season while playing in Japan's pro basketball league--a league which has former NBA players in it, including Bruce Bowen and Jerold Honeycutt. Tyler is averaging an efficient 9 points, 6 rebounds and 14 minutes per game while drawing consistent praise from his coach. Tyler is eligible for this year's NBA draft -- his recent improvement in play, not to mention impressive size and athletic ability, probably will land him on an NBA roster next season.

* * *

* Shira Springer of the Boston Globe has an excellent preview of this week's MIT Sloan Sports Analytics conference (hat tip to Warren Zola). I will be speaking at the conference on the Sports Labor Relations panel.

* * *

* How would you like to study international sports law in Florence, Italy over the summer and get law school credit for it? The South Texas College of Law is sponsoring a study abroad program in Florence between June 3 and June 25 that will focus on two courses: international amateur sports law and international professional sports law. NFL agent/attorney and former NFL player Ralph Cindrich is one of the instructors, as is South Texas College of Law prof James Musselman. Sounds like an awesome experience to me.

* * *

* Last year I wrote a guest column on Torts Prof Blog on the tort implications of "game presentation" -- the various things stadium operators do to keep fans interested during games, including on-court and on-field promotions -- in the context of Coomer v. Kansas City Royals, a lawsuit filed by a guy who while attending a Royals game was injured by a hot dog that had been propelled by the Royals Mascot as part of a promotion. A couple of weeks ago, the Royals lost a motion for summary judgment in the case. Carla Varriale of Athletic Business Network has the story on the Royals' inability to get rid of the case and what it means for game presentation.

* * *

* I was interviewed on the Dennis and Callahan Show on WEEI Boston last week to talk about legal issues involving Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and DJ Henry (a Pace football player who was shot and killed by a police officer in a terrible misunderstanding of a situation). I also spoke with Drew Forresster of WNST Baltimore about Bonds, Clemens and the NFL labor crisis, and how NBA players might be in a better position than NFL players when it comes to being locked out: some NBA players, particularly the stars, will have opportunities to go play in Europe and earn considerable $$, while playing with and against legitimate talent (while European basketball may not be as "good" as the NBA, it's far better than the D League or some other minor league).

* * *

* NBA Deputy commissioner Adam Silver claims that three-quarters of NBA teams are losing money, even though NBA television ratings are way up this season.

* * *

* UConn men's basketball coach has been suspended by the NCAA for the first three games of next season. The Hartford Courant's Paul Doyle has the story and interviews, among others, Connecticut Sports Law's Dan Fitzgerald.

* * *

* Do Male Athletes have Body-Image Problems? Admittedly, that's not a question I've thought much about, or maybe at all, but Libby Sander of The Chronicle of Higher Education explains why it's an interesting topic and why new research on the topic may shed light on behavior issues with male athletes.

* * *

* Before the Red Sox offered 29-year-old outfielder Carl Crawford a 7-year, $142 million contract this past off season, they obviously did their due diligence on him. After-all, the contract is fully guaranteed and the financial commitment being made is enormous, especially for a player who will turn 30 this season and whose game is based to a large extent on his speed. As Gordon Edes of ESPN.boston points out, the Red Sox took due diligence to a such a point that it creeped out Crawford:

[Red Sox Assistant GM] Allard Baird, who oversees the club's pro scouting department, was assigned to scout Crawford for most of the second half of the 2010 season.

"I knew they were scouting me," Crawford said. "Coaches would tell me this guy asked about you, or that guy."

But he said he had no inkling they were monitoring him off the field, too.

"I definitely look over my shoulder now a lot more than what I did before," he said. "Just when he told me that, the idea of him following me everywhere I go, was kind of, I wasn't comfortable with that at all.

"I don't know how they do it, how much distance they keep from you when they watch you the whole time. I definitely check my back now, at least 100 yard radius. I'm always looking over my shoulder now. Now I look before I go in my house. I'd better not see anything suspicious now."

Kind of reminds of me when the NBA "ordered its security forces" to more closely follow NBA players off-the-court.

SPANISH FOOTBALL ROUND 25 SATURDAY GAMES RESULTS & SURPRISE

SPANISH FOOTBALL action tonight with five matches scheduled as part of Round 25 of the La Liga.


A 0 - 0 draw result between REAL SPORTING DE GIJON & REAL ZARAGOZA with both teams taking a point each. Not much to really add here at all.



Atletico de Madrid - Sevilla FC

Great game between ATLETICO DE MADRID & SEVILLA FC with a 2 -2 draw. It was end to end stuff with the home side having to

world's largest mud volcano,Lusi 13,000 families homeless, will probably continue to erupt for another 26 years, researchers

The Tungurahua volcano spews ash and steam during an eruption in Banos

The world's largest mud volcano, which had left nearly 13,000 families homeless, will probably continue to erupt for another 26 years, researchers estimated.

The first eruption was back in May 2006, and has been spewing 180,000 cubic metres of mud a day.

The volcano has affected many homes, schools and farmlands.

This is the first reliable estimate on how long Lusi will continue to erupt.

Co-author Richard Davies stated that there are a number of factors which made it not possible to produce an estimate until now.

SALMAN Khan and Katrina Kaif will be seen together once again and this time they will come together for a Yash Raj film,

salman and katrina

SALMAN Khan and Katrina KaifKatrina Kaif will be seen together once again and this time they will come together for a Yash Raj film, to be directed by Kabir Khan.

In real life, they may have parted ways, but the ex-couple still continue to be friends and have no qualms on working with each other. The flick will be an action-thriller-romance genre. SalKat jodi is surely gonna be exciting and will pull the audience to theaters, given their personal history, and their hit films together. The estranged lovers were last seen together in Tees Maar Khan, in the Walla Walla song.

We hear that director Kabir Khan, who extracted a critically-praised performance from Katrina Kaif in New York, is in talks with the lady to sign her up for his next project that will be an action thriller with loads of romance thrown in.

A source close to Katrina confirms, “She’s in talks with Kabir for the project. It’s a performance oriented role in the league of New York.”

Coincidentally, Kats has been signed for two films for the same Yashraj banner. The second one stars Shah Rukh KhanShah Rukh Khan, and will be directed by Yash ChopraYash Chopra.

Now, SRK-Kat pair is interesting because they’ve never been paired together in a film

A film each with SRK and Sallu? What more could Kat want.

After Algeria, Libya, Tunisia and Egypt Protest Is Morocco Next?

As mayhem continues in Libya, many people have been wondering which middle eastern country could be the next, to experience the wrath of the people. Morocco is situated to the west of the middle east countries, bordering Algeria. In recent days it has seen some protesters on its streets.

Many of these countries share common ground. One thing that Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia and Egypt have in common is the high percentage of the country's population, who are under 25 years old. Here are some statistics:

Population of Morocco 32.3m with 47.7% under 25

Population of Tunisia 10.4m with 43.1% under 25

Population of Algeria 35.4m with 47.5% under 25

Population of Libya 6.5m with 47.4 under 25

Population Egypt 84.5 with 52.3% under 25

This high percentage of young people could in some ways explain the strong desire for change, which is currently so evident in the middle east. One thing to mote with these figures is the relativel;y small population of Libya, considering the country's size. Tunisia is tiny in comparison but has a larger population. Morocco is not mucg larger than Tunisia and so its population seems huge.

The overriding religious faith in all of these countries is Islam. Some people are Sunni Muslims but there are few other religions followed in the region, with the Islamic in the majority. Until the current unrest in the middle east, all of these countries had unelected leaders and corruption. Countries such as Egypt and Tunisia are currently undergoing change.

All of these countries have fairly high levels of unemploment with libya the highest, at 30% of the poluation.

With so many similarities it almost seems inevitable that the wave of unrest will continue to spread to the other countries. However, each case is different.

So how will Morocco fare?

King Mohammed VIKing Mohammed VI has ruled Morocco since 1999. His people do not want to overthrow him. However, many Moroccons want change and reform. They appear to want change though that will still allow a ruling King.

The Makhzen is a Moroccon name for the elite in the country's business and state affairs. The Moroccon people want an end to the privileges of the Makhzen. It would seem that they would be happy with this change, along with a reduction the King's powers.

A free and democratic elected government would of course complete the picture. Whether these changes are possible in Morocco remains to be seen. If they are not given consideration though, Morocco could yet experience the wrath of the people and revolution.

Libya Protest - And Role Of The UN, NATO and The US

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay

As the noose is closing on Libyan leader Moammar Ghadafi, gun fire has again erupted in the capital Tripoli. Protesters flooded out of mosque Friday morning. Troops and gunmen loyal to Ghadafi fired in the air, which send some protesters running. Witnesses said that they hadn't seen any wounded but that gunfire could also be heard in other parts of the city.

Meanwhile the UN Security Council met yesterday as did the UN Human Rights Commission. The UN has agreed on a strong condemnation of Ghadafi's action against its own people. While it appears that Ghadafi has lost control of much of the country, troops loyal to the dictator are still in control of the capital.

While there is no accurate figures on exactly how many people have been killed in the protests that started February 18th, UN Human Rights Commissioner, Navy Pillay told the top UN Human Rights body that:

"Tanks, helicopters and military aircraft have reportedly been used indiscriminately to attack the protesters. According to some sources, thousands may have been killed or injured."

Pillay urged the the Human Rights council to use all means possible to establish an independent panel to investigate alleged abuses and hold those responsible accountable.

European nations have led the charge for strict sanctions and order a UN led investigation into possible human rights abuses and to expel Libya from the council.

NATO is planning a special emergency meeting on Friday and said it had no requests to intervene and would only do so with a mandate of the UN. This is unlikely to happen.

The United States has also condemned the actions of the Ghadafi forces and is advocating sanctions against Libya.

The priority for the EU, NATO and the US is to evacuate its citizens and NATO said it would facilitate such operations. Canada had one aircraft land in Tripoli this morning, but it left empty as no Canadians were available for the flight. A second flight is planned for later on today.

In an interview, to be aired later today on Turkish television, Ghadaffi's son, Seif el-Islam Gahdafi, said that his family had a Plan A, B, and C:

"We have Plan A, Plan B and Plan C." Plan A is to live and die in Libya, Plan B is to live and die in Libya, Plan C is to live and die in Libya."

Short of condemnation, an arms embargo and sanctions, it appears that the UN is incompetent to take further action. Rescuing Western citizens seems to be the main effort of the United Nations, the United States, the EU and NATO.

It would appear that after the evacuation, citizens of Libya, who will not have the novelty of being evacuated are on their own. Once again, a brutal dictator, who has been propped up for the sake of oil, will be able to punish his people for opposing him. One can only hope that the Libyan people are successful in toppling Gahdaffi and his family.

India vs England Always provided the fitting climax and thrill - Some Best moment of past

The very first game of the World Cup was played between India and England, back in 1975 at Lord's. Since then, this rivalry has grown into a fascinating duel, with India enjoying a upper hand in recent times. We look at four games between the two sides that are worth remembering for years to come..


When Freddie took off his shirt...

The teams went into the final game with India leading 3-2. This match, at the Wankhede in Mumbai, provided the fitting climax as England eked out a thrilling five-run win to draw the series 3-3. England made 255 based on opener Marcus Trescothick's 95. They looked like making much more at 153-2, but collapsed, with Harbhajan Singh picking up a five-for. Sourav Ganguly (80) led India's chase, but Andrew Flintoff (3-380 won it for England. To rub salt into India's wounds, Flintoff took off his shirt and ran around the ground with his teammates in jubilation.

Feb 3, 2002 at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai

Brief scores: England 255 in 49.1 overs (M Trescothick 95, N Hussain 41, A Flintoff 40; Harbhajan 5-43) beat India 250 in 49.5 overs (S Ganguly 80; A Flintoff 3-38) by five runs.

When Aleem Dar did India in

It was the decider of the NatWest series, which had gone right down to the wire at 3-3 till that point. At Lord's, however, everything went wrong for India. England, expectedly, prepared a fast and bouncy wicket and bowled out India for 187. The game, unfortunately, was spoiled by Pakistani umpire Aleem Dar's folly in judging Sachin Tendulkar out caught behind off Flintoff when television replays showed that the ball had brushed the batsman's shoulder.

Sept 8, 2007 at Lord's

Brief Scores: India 187 in 47.3 overs (MS Dhoni 50; A Flintoff 3-45, A Mascarenhas 3-23) lost to England 188-3 in 36.2 overs (K Pietersen 71 not out, P Collingwood 64).

The Lord at Lord's

It was probably the second most impactful win for India after the 1983 World Cup triumph. The Natwest tri-series final looked like England's for the taking after Nasser Hussain & Co made 325 for five. With the top order in the hut, all hope looked lost at 146-5, before Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif scripted a sensational turnaround with a 121-run partnership. The most abiding memory though was Sourav Ganguly twirling his shirt on the Lord's balcony.

July 13, 2002 at Lord's

Brief scores: England 325-5 in 50 overs (M Trescothick 109, N Hussain 115; Z Khan 3-62) lost to India 326-8 in 49.3 overs (M Kaif 87, Yuvraj 69, S Ganguly 60, V Sehwag 45) by two wickets.

The Nehra sixer

In a must-win game for India, Ashish Nehra produced perhaps the best-ever spell delivered by an Indian fast bowler. Playing with a badly damaged knee, Nehra ran through the English batting line-up on a seaming Durban pitch. In between, the charged up pacer had a banana and threw up instantly! The other thing worth remembering from this game is Sachin Tendulkar's pulled six off seamer Andy Caddick.

Date: February 26, 2003

Venue: Durban

Brief scores: India 250-9 in 50 overs (R Dravid 62, S Tendulkar 50, Yuvraj 42; A Caddick 3-69) beat England 168 in 45.3 overs (A Flintoff 64; A Nehra 6-23) by 82 runs

Two special Air India flights will to Libya from today to evacuate stranded Indians

NEW DELHI: India on Friday got the much-awaited clearance to land special flights in Tripoli to carry out evacuation operations for its citizens in strife-torn Libya.

Two special Air India flights will depart for Tripoli, one each from Delhi and Mumbai, early on Saturday and are expected to be back by Sunday with over 600 evacuees.

Two Indian warships will also leave for Libya from Mumbai on Saturday.

About 18,000 Indians are stranded in the country. Foreign minister S M Krishna said Libyan authorities had allowed Air India to operate two flights daily for evacuation for the next 10 days.

"As per schedule informed by Air India today, two flights per day from tomorrow to March 7 will be operated," the minister said.

The national carrier has deployed an Airbus 330, with a capacity of 270 seats, from Delhi and a Boeing 747, with a capacity of 400, from Mumbai.

Krishna said the country has also requested the Libyan government to extend the flight clearance if the evacuation was not completed within the given time period.

Meanwhile, two Indian warships, which together can carry 1,900 passengers at one go, will leave Mumbai on Saturday morning for Libya to supplement the evacuation operation. The defence ministry gave the go-ahead for the dispatch of INS Jalashwa and Delhi-class destroyer INS Mysore.

Friday Night Links

Here's your Carling Cup edition of my favorite links from the past week:

• The Run of Play has a perfect piece that any soccer fan can relate to, especially bloggers who consume copious amounts of soccer information in their few spare hours.  I can totally relate to Alan Jacobs' inability to sleep in due to a work and blogging life that also requires me to be up at 5 AM every morning.
• Sounder at Heart provides their take on the new MLS playoff format, and why the same flaws from previous years still exist.  You can compare their observations to my own via my three part series on the MLS playoffs' failures and my own reaction to the league's 2011 edition.
• Soccer by the Numbers had two great posts in the last week.  The first was a re-cap of a study proving that a team's improvement after sacking a manager in the Dutch Eredivisie is not statistically significant when comparing it to a teams' performance when they just stick with the manager.  This provides great food for thought when it comes to the professional coaching carousel at the top flights of European soccer.  The second in a study that shows zero correlation between an increased number of corner kicks and an increased number of goals across the Big Four European leagues.
• Finally TwoHundredPercent has an interesting post related to the British parliament hearings on the financial state of English soccer.  For those of us in the States, it's a bit odd that a national governing body would be conducting such a review about the financial state of what is nominally a private enterprise based around recreational activity.  Nonetheless, the testimony as summarized in the post provides some interesting insight into the competing views of how the English game should be governed and financially regulated.

With that, have a great soccer viewing weekend.  As a Gooner, all I care about is Sunday's Carling Cup final.  I've only been an Arsenal fan for two years now, but I know enough longtime fans to know how important this match is.  It may be the least prestigious of the four championships for which Arsenal is competing this year, but that doesn't matter.  A cup is a cup at this point, and there is a huge sense that getting this first one will make these players better prepared to win more of them.  It's not something that I can quantify with numbers, but rather an intangible gut feeling.

C'MON YOU GUNNERS!

See you all on the other side of the weekend.

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ATLETICO DE MADRID MAKES 18M€ OFFER FOR LAMEAL OF RIVER PLATE ?

ATLETICO DE MADRID is a fascinating Club. While there is a debate to whether the Clubs debt is +700€ o +182M€ ( a big difference) an issue that has the Club in courts against those who published the first, the Spanish Football Club is reported from Argentina to have made a 18M€ offer to RIVER PLATE for their "creative" midfielder LAMELA.



Lamela in action

The 19 year old is also said by media

REAL MADRID FOLLOWING JAVI MARQUEZ OF RCD ESPANYOL ?

According to Spanish Sports paper "AS", REAL MADRID is following RCD ESPANYOL player JAVI MARQUEZ. Apparently the player left a "glowing" impression on Real Madrid Coach José Mourinho last time both teams played & he has asked his "men" to follow the Espanyol player.



Javi Marquez  Spanish Football talent

The 24 year old has many Clubs interested, from Valencia to Clubs in the English Premier

Peter Carfagna's Negotiating and Drafting Sports Venue Agreements

Our friend and colleague Peter Carfagna, who teaches sports law at Harvard Law School and has a long and storied career in the industry, has written his third sports law book: Negotiating and Drafting Sports Venue Agreements (West, 2011).

His two other sports law books -- Sports and the Law: Examining the Legal Evolution of American's Three 'Major Leagues" (West, 2009) and Representing the Professional Athlete (West, 2009) -- are also excellent.

Peter's new book provides outstanding insight on the drafting of sports venue agreements, including naming rights agreements, media rights contracts, food and beverage agreements, and sponsorship deals with state-operated entities. It also includes complete model agreements of these types of contracts. I very much enjoyed reading the book and will no doubt be referring to it.

Here's the official description of Negotiating and Drafting Sports Venue Agreements:

In addition to being an engaging teaching tool for instructors teaching drafting practices for sports venue agreements, this book is valuable to any sports law practitioner wanting to learn more about these state-of-the-art drafting practices. Beginning with the drafting of the seminal lease agreement, the book leads the reader through a series of best-practices drafting techniques for every major sports venue–related agreement, including naming rights agreements; presenting sponsorship agreements; media rights and concessions agreements; and agreements with state-operated entities. Hypothetical drafting exercises are included in each chapter for classroom use.

Federation Cup Draw For 2011

The initial draw for the 2011 Federation Cup (mens and womens) has been completed.

Depending on who you follow, it looks good or not so good. All Premier League Clubs are participating, with Capital Football extending invitations to a small number of Clubs to join the competition.

Thre are plenty of pre-season games going on around the PL clubs, with many of them travellling to NSW to play. The Federation Cup will see some of them play each other and give an opportunity for the Football "brains trust" in every Club to observe their opposition in 2011.

Federation Cup form is not not an absolutel indicator of form, but it sure helps.

The competition groups for the Federation CUp are as follows, with a detailed playing schedule to follow soon:

Mens

Group A: Belconnen United, Canberra City, Canberra Olympic, Woden Valley, White Eagles, Tuggeranong United


Group B: Canberra FC, Monaro Panthers, Cooma Tigers, Queanbeyan City, Goulburn Strikers, Weston Creek

Womens

GroupA: Woden Valley, ANU WFC, Gungahlin United, Tuggeranong United




Group B: Belwest Foxes, Canberra FC, Weston Creek, Belconnen United

Traveling Violations

This week the University of Tennessee released the NCAA’s “Notice of Allegations” against its football and men’s basketball team, outlining eleven violations. Both current men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl and former (albeit brief) football coach Lane Kiffin were cited for multiple violations. While many are predicting sanctions against the University of Tennessee, Bruce Pearl, and possibly the Director of Athletics Mike Hamilton, what is interesting is whether the NCAA will impose further sanctions on Lane Kiffin now that he is the head football coach at USC.

Historically, coaches have left town before the NCAA hammer comes down, often resulting in infractions on the school and players left behind but not on the coach himself—John Calipari anyone? However, on occasion the NCAA has imposed penalties on coaches themselves even if they are employed at a new school. In the NCAA’s Manual, Bylaw 19.5 gives the NCAA the right to impose penalties on either an institution or individual—with no restrictions on whether that individual is still at the institution at which they committed the infraction.

This has happened at least twice within the last decade. Specifically, Rick Neuheisel was punished in 2002 while at the University of Washington for violations he was deemed to have made at the University of Colorado. More recently, in 2008 Kelvin Sampson was punished while at Indiana University for conduct he engaged in while at the University of Oklahoma.

It will be interesting to follow whether or not the NCAA will impose some form of punishment on Lane Kiffin now that he is in charge of the football program at USC. If this does happen, does USC have a claim against Kiffin and/or the University of Tennessee?

The Price We Pay for Not Owning Our Own Football and Futsal Facilities in the ACT Is Too High A Price to Pay!

We have precious little in the way of dedicated Futsal and Football playing facilities in the ACT, after so many years of running these sports. The difficulties this imposes on both games, at every level of the games, constitutes a major threat to the competitive viability of both games. Our flexibility to change how we organise Football and Futsal is very much limited by a lack of playing facilities, which we can control to effect change. The pressure from other sports on ACT Government public facilities drives what can be done for football. For futsal, we are int he hands of private owners who also service other sports. This must change if things are to improve.

Futsal has no home in the ACT. Nor does Football. We have no Futsal and Football complex in the ACT and our circumstances would indictae that this is the most obvious infrastructure development to be undertalen by Capital Football. The small but commendable introduction of a FIFA standard artificial surface at Hawker Enclosed is a step in the right direction, a beginning!

The Kambah 3 field is so often touted as the Capital Football centre for High Performance football - no one believes that! Not in its present confiuration. Not even close. However, there is no doubt that the Kambah fields area would make a fantastic multi playing surface hub for Football and Futsal. That's one view that has been around for a long time - and yet nothing has happened. Just talk! Same for the vacant space at Woden, near the Mawson playing fields. So much talk about it being a site for a FIFA standard playing surface (like Hawker enclosed) on the South Side of Canberra. Talk, talk, talk, inspection and wait, wait , wait. What's the plan, when and what will be done and where does the money come from? Is the ACT Government with us. We control nothing, we just wait for "crumbs from the master's table"! The artificial playing surfaces at Gold Creek High School are a terrific playing facility, alas, you need to take a long trek to a neighbouring field get to the toilets, as the school facilties are made available outside school hours.

We cannot rely on the good grace of the ACT Government. Nor should we. We should expect the ACT Government to be willing to make investments in the sport with the highest participation rate in the ACT. The tourism dollars generated by the Futsal Nationals and the Kanga Cup in the ACT, must be worth preserving and investing in. The AFL don't do anywhere near as much, nor are they likely too, but the sum contribution of nothing in the past and a bit in the future saw the ACt Government Minsters, Mr Barr, liberate $26 million over ten years ($2.6m per annum) from the Tourism and Chief Ministers respective buckets of public funds. So there is obvioulsy money around, just not much for Football or Futsal! And we accept it?

Alas, the departure of $26 million to the AFL, seems to have left Futsal and Football investment (in terms of ACT Government expenditure), high and dry! There has been no explanation from the CF Board as to the reason Football and Futsal missed a cut of this cake, nor did they go on the front foot and make a noise about it in the media. Its a subject that should be visited at the CF AGM. So, what's the plan now?

I know that Capital Football liaises with the ACT Government. So they should, as we are almost entirely dependent on the ACT Government for access to playing surfaces all over the ACT. The limitations on access to ACT Government playing surfaces (they are for they sports), menas that we are severely limited in how we can manage Football. As for Futsal, we hire facilties becasue we own nothing of our own - the wonderful "MPower Dome" facility is a good example of what can be done, but its not being by us!

The two ACT Football powerhouses of Belconnen United and Canberra FC own their playing surfaces and have developed good supporting infrastructure around them, while Capital Football, after all these years has established next nothing by way of a supporting playing infrastruture. Hawker Enclosed, as I have said, is a step in the right direction. It seems very unlikely that in the medium term, other ACT Football Clubs will do as Belco and CFC have done.

As to Futsal, we have three clubs in the ACT. The North and South Canberra Clubs are instruments of Capital Football, staffed by hard working volunteers, but in the contxt of this subject, little more than competition managers and venue co-ordinators. We shouldn't expect them by anything else. They don't raise and train teams. They are not like Belco or CFC. They have no capacity to do as say Vikings Futsal does when confronted with the same facilities issues. So its back to Capital Football. The other Club is Boomerangs FS and given the wonderful successes in the NSW Supa League, populated by creative, passionate, determined and business savvy people, they may turn out to be the savour of Futsal in the ACT on the subject of future Futsal facilites. I'll wager that had the Boomerangs FS been given a fraction of the ACT Government's grant to AFL, to sort out a playing centre for Futsal in the ACT, the solution to Futsal (if not Football's) infrastructre issues would already be solved and building begun.

If you go to metro NSW to play Futsal, you will find a robust Futsal environment and among the many Futsal Clubs, you will find community, NSW Government. Football NSW partnership arrangements and club Futsal owned / leased specific futsal facilties, and all this demonstrates is that it can be done and should be done. Same can be said for Football.

Its intersting to listen to the CEO Vikings Futsal talk about this important matter. Vikings know the value of creating Futsal specific facilties. This is a central activity in the Vikings Futsal business model. The CEO also speaks on other aspects of the Vikings approach to Futsal.

We desperately need  a Football / Futsal centre, a hub for our sport(s). But who will do it? Does the FFA care? What's the plan Capital Football Board?

It doesn't seem to stop Vikings Futsal.

Download Podcast here:

VILLAREAL 2 NAPOLES 1 | VILLAREAL GO THROUGH TO KEEP THE SPANISH FLAG FLYING

Fantastic news for Spanish Football as VILLAREAL won 2 - 1 Italian Club NAPOLES to go on in the EUROPA LEAGUE competition. It was never going to be easy & the Italians put up a good game & fight but were overcome by a more determined & better Villareal.



Nilmar scores for Villareal

The Italian team via TAMSIK scored first in the 16th min to make us all wonder if the Spanish team could pull

Comparing Econometric Models of the English Premier League: Reconciling the TPI and Soccernomics Data Sets

Note: This is a re-post from analysis I did back in January 2011 for the Transfer Price Index blog. I am posting it here to complete my series of posts on squad transfer costs, and to set up a forthcoming series of posts on the impact of starting XI transfer costs on table position

I’ve participated in many discussions since my original post on the relationship between a squad’s current transfer cost and their table position. Much of it has been centered on the debate over the predictive power of Soccernomics‘ wage data versus my analysis using current transfer costs. Many readers on The Tomkins Times have come to the same general conclusions as me: each analysis has its valid points and different uses, and the two are not necessarily in conflict with each other.

I’ve also had the pleasure of discussing the two studies with none other than Stefan Szymanski. I plan on keeping much of our conversation private, but you can get a sense of his respect for the overall Transfer Price Index approach and the differences in the two data sets via his review of Pay As You Play. Stefan’s review is a positive one, summarized best in the following observation.

“[I]n a fascinating new book Paul Tomkins, Graeme Riley and Gary Fulcher have developed a method of converting transfer fee data into a squad valuation… With every squad member given a value, this can then be used to compare spending to performance in the league. It is a true labour of love, collecting all the transfer fee values for Premier League clubs going back to the beginning of the 1990s.”

Szymanski closes out his review with this glowing recommendation:

“The book is a treasure trove of interesting financial facts and would make a great gift for any football statto…”

What’s interesting is how much correlation there is between the Soccernomics wage data and the TPI’s cost of the starting XI. Stefan’s metrics in the column are both relative measures (RW for wages and R£XI for relative starting squad cost), and he observes they show 90% correlation to each other. Unfortunately, the Evening Standard did not include the very compelling graph Stefan generated as part of his review of Pay As You Play. Luckily, Stefan has supplied us with that graph and it is reproduced below.

The graph clearly demonstrates the correlation between the two metrics, the weakness of the models at either end of the table, and the strength of the model in the middle of the table. Stefan’s observation of over predicting the resources needed for top table positions has been invaluable in explaining the discrepancy between regression predictions and historical data related to Champions League qualification that will be discussed in an upcoming post.

Stefan’s review rightfully points out the reliability of the publicly audited wage data versus the TPI’s privately compiled transfer data. At the same time, I would stand by the TPI as the most comprehensive and meticulously compiled set of transfer data within the English Premier League era. It was indeed a “labour of love” for the authors, a labour that continues to pay dividends in our financial understanding of the league.

Beyond the quality of the data and its impact on any resultant statistical analysis, Stefan’s data set has a bit of an advantage over the TPI. The Soccernomics wage data looks at overall team wages, thus taking into account the total cost of operating the squad in current British pounds. Combine this with the fact that wages are a dynamic measure adjusted over time by team and player, while the TPI is a static inflation of a one-time transfer fee, and we see why wages may be a better predictor of actual team success. It’s also no surprise that the £XI metric correlates very well with that wage data, as it takes into account all the players who have made it on the pitch and how much time they spent on it. There’s no dead weight contributing nothing to the team’s performance on the pitch, good or bad.

Indeed, analysis by Graeme Riley and me has proven this point statistically. Graeme looked at the squad and XI transfer cost order versus table position, while I looked at the multiple of the average squad and XI transfer costs. Both Graeme and I calculated these for each team, and then quantified the correlation of each metric to finish position for each individual season via the square of the Pearson product moment correlation coefficient (the commonly seen R² value in a regression plot). In Graeme’s analysis, the order of £XI had a higher R² value than the order of Sq£ in 16 out of the 18 seasons. In my analysis, M£XI had a higher R² value than MSq£ in 14 out of the 18 seasons. In the final comparison, I looked at the average and standard deviation of the R² values for each metric – order of £XI, order of Sq£, M£XI, and MSq£ – to determine which provides the best, most consistent prediction of table position over the 18 seasons. The M£XI had the lowest overall standard deviation (14.7%) and highest overall average (45.4%), indicating it provided the best fit versus table position (although it is far lower than the R² values in the long-term analysis in my original post and Soccernomics). Ultimately, this confirms my preference for relative measures, especially multiples of averages, and why I prefer to look at long term averages rather than individual seasons.

On the other hand, the TPI data I used in my original analysis only considered the impact of the total cost of transfers on team performance, and neglected those of the free variety as well as trainees. It also doesn’t look to utilization rate. It essentially looks at a reduced data set from the full squad or starting XI, and the graph below quantifies how much of a reduced data set non-free transfers represent over the history of the Premier League.

The graph above shows the cumulative percentage of three types of players within the league each year as categorized within the TPI – trainees, free transfers, and the rest of the players. The vast majority of this final category consists of transfers with confirmed fees, while the rest of it consists of a small number of players whose transfer fees couldn’t be confirmed. The graph is cumulative, so to understand the percentage of free transfers for any single year one must identify the free transfer value on the graph and then subtract the corresponding trainee value from it. As an example, the cumulative percentage (represented by the upper value of the red zone) in 2001-02 is approximately 30% while the league share of trainees is about 20%. This means that free transfers made up about 10% of the league in 2001-02.

What is clearly seen via the graph is that transfers have consistently accounted for nearly 70% of the Premier League’s players since its inception. That’s not to say 70% of the players transfer teams each year, but rather that at some point in their past they were purchased by the team they played for that season. What has changed over the league’s eighteen years is the number of trainees within it. This number has plummeted from nearly 30% of league player classifications in 1992/93 to below 20% by last season. Much of this change has happened due to an increasing number of free transfers, which were given official UEFA sanction with 1995's Bosman ruling. Free transfers have gone from only 2% of league player classification in 1995 to nearly 10% last season. Overall, transfers of any variety came to represent 80% of league players by the 2009/2010 season. In many regards, the Premier League is a microcosm of the increasingly globalized world it operates within: greater international ownership and investment, greater employee mobility, fewer employees staying with a single firm from “graduation” to retirement, and increased dominance by a few brands within the marketplace.

What this all means is that any analysis of league performance on a squad basis that uses the TPI is going to miss nearly 30% of the players in the league. Given that fact and the reasonably good R-squared value my regression analysis achieved, I would consider the relationship to be a reasonably strong one. Ultimately a study by Stefan Szymanski, similar to this one where he statistically examined the causality of the wage/performance correlation, would be fascinating. We might then determine whether it was transfer fees, wages, or table position that drove the relationship with the other two. That is a very advanced analysis best left to a statistician of Stefan’s caliber.

At the end of the day, what Stefan’s analysis, my analysis, and the overall TPI database prove is that one must pay, and pay big, to compete for the top few spots in the Premier League. One must pay dearly for the right to even negotiate wages with 70% of their players that end up on their squad, and then they must be willing to pay dearly again to keep the talent to challenge for a top spot. Each metric, whether it’s based upon £XI or MSq£, has its use in quantifying the roll of ever increasing transfer budgets in a club’s success. Generally, I concur with Paul Tomkins’ assessment that “Sq£ is the only predictive tool, but £XI is surely the better retrospective analyzer.”

To a certain degree this all makes sense, as we want a somewhat meritocratic system where excellence is financially rewarded. It all gives us pause, however, when the same teams can dominate everyone else each year by outspending their rivals, sometimes even with money that had no origination in the soccer world in which each team operates.

March 2 reveals a part of the iPad 2 gadget.

The Second Book of Jobs ?

Apple Inc. has sent out e-mailed invitations for its March 2nd San Francisco press meet, tipping-off about a new version of its iPad tablet computer.

The email invite has all necessary information such as venue, date, time and it contains an image of a March 2 calendar page that is peeling off at one corner, underneath which reveals a part of the iPad gadget.

Unconfirmed reports suggest that Apple has already begun production of a sleek and powerful version of iPad.

space shuttle ‘Discovery’ would blast off from Cape Canaveral tonight on its last journey

The Space Shuttle Discovery is pictured on launch pad 39A after launch was again delayed at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral

The space shuttle ‘Discovery’ would blast off from Cape Canaveral tonight on its last journey – it had been launched in 1981 by NASA 30 years ago and, in view of the decision to gradually close down the space shuttle programs, the ground crew would, with a heavy heart, see it off on its last journey. In this period, it had clocked nearly 150 million miles, and circled the world more than 5000 times at speeds of 17,000 mph. There would be six astronauts aboard Discovery on its last flight – they would be going with supplies meant for International Space Station, and would drop off a robot there. The robot – Robonaut- would be the first ever humanoid in space