New Yanks from New England

Liverpool FC have new owners from the same old country. New England Sports Ventures also owns the Boston Red Sox, who like LFC, has never won the baseball equivalent of the BPL for dog years until NESV came. The Red Sox tried for almost 100 years, which makes LFC's 20 year title drought nothing to whine about.

The former owners however have not yet given up the fight. They claimed to have spent GBP140mio and want it back. The players and coaches are relieved, the off field problems are affecting the on-field performance and now they can go back to playing football. 

Sports is now a big business. There is so much money involved in sports, it is dictating how sports is played. Back in the day, games in the English 1st Division (now known as the Premier League) were all played at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon. There were limited, if any, live television coverage. We either had to go to the stadium (which was always full, unless you're a supporter of Man City) or listen to the game on radio. Failing both, we'll gather around the TV at 4.45pm waiting for the result. 'Darlington ... one ... Huddersfield ... two; Swindon Town ... nil ... Port Vale ... nil;' I was watching the result show in 2009 and realised that its the same voice I was listening to back in '92. Maybe the job requirement is you must sound like the guy before ...

Nowadays, big games hardly clash. TV wants to maximise the viewership because more viewers means more revenue so we can now watch Man U play Arsenal at 8pm, Liverpool play Chelsea at 11pm and end the football marathon watching Spurs lose to West Ham at 1am. The old system not only creates suspense but makes match fixing slightly more difficult. The new system opens the door to possible match fixing because after knowing result for the MU - Arsenal game, the bookies can attempt to manipulate the Liverpool game. 

Most top players are now paid obscene salaries. At an average of fifty thousand pounds a week,  each player on the pitch makes as much as two spectators in the stands earns in a year. When clubs pay that kind of salaries, they expect the players to put the club first before the country. Uli Hoeness, the Bayern President was so upset that Marc Van Bommel came back from the international duty with an injury, he told the player to remember who his employers are. At the end of the day, the national team suffers.

Money makes the world go round, thats why the Fed* is printing money all the time. Money may not be able to buy you happiness but it can buy you things (or people) that makes you happy. Everything is about money nowadays, everything is measured in monetary terms, which is quite sad really because I believe money is good, but its not God.

*Federal Reserve = Central Bank of USA