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2021-22-23-24 News Thread

andyt said:
Barcelona is €1.35 billion in debt. Salaries are 103% of income, which the President blames on “state clubs” (Man City and PSG). They couldn’t register Messi and were only able to register Memphis Depay and Eric Garcia because Gerard Pique accepted a last minute pay cut.

www.espn.com

Laporta fumes as Barca debt rises to €1.35bn

Barcelona president Joan Laporta has revealed that the club's debt now totals €1.35 billion while defending his management from criticism.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
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Breaks my heart to see them struggle ... just like it will break my heart when City and PSG finally lose their lustre in the eyes of their magnate oligarchs and their seemingly bottomless money wells run dry.
 
jeffbear said:
Breaks my heart to see them struggle ... just like it will break my heart when City and PSG finally lose their lustre in the eyes of their magnate oligarchs and their seemingly bottomless money wells run dry.
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I saw elsewhere that Real Madrid has a hair over €900 million in debt. A big number to be sure, but 1/3 less than Barcelona.

Barcelona’s books were also hurt by the unusually early exit from the Champion’s League, going out in the round of 16. Real Madrid lost to Chelsea in the semis.
 
This is more of a 2022-23 news item, but Angel City FC has signed its first player. They acquired Christen Press’ rights from Racing Louisville for their 1st round pick in 2022, $75k in allocation money and roster protection from Angel City in the expansion draft.
 
andyt said:
This is more of a 2022-23 news item, but Angel City FC has signed its first player. They acquired Christen Press’ rights from Racing Louisville for their 1st round pick in 2022, $75k in allocation money and roster protection from Angel City in the expansion draft.
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I think Angel City also committed to a total salary of more than $500K for Press, which is ... a lot, given the salary structure of the league. Some of that will be subsidized by US Soccer, but that's a big swing for the new club. They've also hired their first coach ... grabbing Freye Coombe away from Gotham City. She's negotiating her exit there, although she is offering to coach out the year. I figured Angel City would come out swinging, and thus far ... spot on.
 
jeffbear said:
I think Angel City also committed to a total salary of more than $500K for Press, which is ... a lot, given the salary structure of the league. Some of that will be subsidized by US Soccer, but that's a big swing for the new club. They've also hired their first coach ... grabbing Freye Coombe away from Gotham City. She's negotiating her exit there, although she is offering to coach out the year. I figured Angel City would come out swinging, and thus far ... spot on.
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Gotta say, VERY excited at the prospect of taking my eldest granddaughter and her mom to an Angel City FC match next year. One of my good friends was one of the original Lucky Boys, the charter fan club of LAFC. He's a season ticket holder, and often leads them in cheers. He's promised to take me to a few matches as well.
 
The Houston Dash acquire USWNT captain Abby Dahlkamper from the NC Courage for $25k in allocation money, performance-based incentives and future considerations. She played last season with Man City and never returned to the Courage after the English season ended in the Spring.
 
andyt said:
The Houston Dash acquire USWNT captain Abby Dahlkamper from the NC Courage for $25k in allocation money, performance-based incentives and future considerations. She played last season with Man City and never returned to the Courage after the English season ended in the Spring.
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Her husband plays for Austin, so she was looking to move in that general direction. The Courage have been really accommodating for these players wanted to relocate for family reasons, but they didn't get much back from this move ... depending on what those future considerations turn out to be. In NWSL that can mean freaking anything, unlike MLB where it normally means the equivalent of a case of beer.

And local fans seem to be freaking out, but the Courage are the stingiest defense in NWSL as it is, and Dahlkemper hasn't played a game this season. It's still a young league and fans get attached to personalities rather than to their team itself. The Courage have had a ton of roster churn since 2019 (Dahlkemper, Hamilton, Dunn, Labbe, O'Reilly), but they're still as good as anybody in the league over the run of a "normal" season.
 
jeffbear said:
Her husband plays for Austin, so she was looking to move in that general direction. The Courage have been really accommodating for these players wanted to relocate for family reasons, but they didn't get much back from this move ... depending on what those future considerations turn out to be. In NWSL that can mean freaking anything, unlike MLB where it normally means the equivalent of a case of beer.

And local fans seem to be freaking out, but the Courage are the stingiest defense in NWSL as it is, and Dahlkemper hasn't played a game this season. It's still a young league and fans get attached to personalities rather than to their team itself. The Courage have had a ton of roster churn since 2019 (Dahlkemper, Hamilton, Dunn, Labbe, O'Reilly), but they're still as good as anybody in the league over the run of a "normal" season.
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2nd in the table and tied with Portland for the best goal differential in the league. And that was with losing Dahlkamper and Dunn (and Daniels too, she retired). Hamilton brought them ARod, Labbe was replaced by Casey Murphy who is at least as good. But now they lost Mewis for 6-8 weeks, so we’ll see how that goes.
 
andyt said:
2nd in the table and tied with Portland for the best goal differential in the league. And that was with losing Dahlkamper and Dunn (and Daniels too, she retired). Hamilton brought them ARod, Labbe was replaced by Casey Murphy who is at least as good. But now they lost Mewis for 6-8 weeks, so we’ll see how that goes.
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Yeah ... but Mewis had been playing hurt and had barely played for the Courage anyway. They aren't as dynamic as they've been for sure, but it's Debinha's bus to drive now, more or less.
 
Sony fired Mike Richards as executive producer of Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. Why is this on the soccer board? Michael Davies, whose Embassy Row production company is based at Sony will take over on an interim basis. People on this board will recognize him as half of the Men in Blazers. So can we expect more soccer answers on the board?
 
Unless Sony is going to subcontract the operations of their most lucrative syndicated programming to Embassy Row, then I expect interim to mean "until he finds us a new permanent host and we find a new EP." Pretty sure Dave-O is just serving as an impartial arbiter in a situation that got very sticky, very quickly for Sony. Good thing Regis Philbin passed away otherwise Dave might just chuck him out there. Regis was his answer to every question for quite a while.

Although ... I'd pay good money to watch Jeopardy as hosted by Michael Bennett. Manifest THAT, internet.
 
Looks like Barca finally got Aguero registered, after Alba and Busquets took a wage haircut to get them under the limit. Pique had taken a cut earlier in the month. Aguero is out until November with an injury, but he’s in the squad.
 
Looks like Tobin Heath is headed to Arsenal on a free transfer, signing a 2 year contract. Her NWSL rights were held by Racing Louisville but she never joined them after leaving Man U in the spring.
 
andyt said:
Looks like Tobin Heath is headed to Arsenal on a free transfer, signing a 2 year contract. Her NWSL rights were held by Racing Louisville but she never joined them after leaving Man U in the spring.
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Hopefully Tobin can get healthy and regain some stature in the game. She was an absolute shell of her normal self in the Olympics.
 
World Cup qualifying in South America was thrown for a loop today when the match in São Paulo between Brazil and Argentina was suspended because 4 Argentine players broke quarantine. Brazil requires anyone traveling from the UK to quarantine for 14 days and the 4 players; Buendia, Martinez, Romero and LoCelso, all played in England last weekend. All were going to miss Argentina’s next match on Wednesday and head to Croatia to quarantine ahead of next weekends Prem matches. Under UK quarantine rules, they would have missed 2 matches but they’ll only miss 1 by quarantining in Croatia. Brazil is without 9 Europe-based players because their clubs didn’t release them for qualifying.
 
andyt said:
World Cup qualifying in South America was thrown for a loop today when the match in São Paulo between Brazil and Argentina was suspended because 4 Argentine players broke quarantine. Brazil requires anyone traveling from the UK to quarantine for 14 days and the 4 players; Buendia, Martinez, Romero and LoCelso, all played in England last weekend. All were going to miss Argentina’s next match on Wednesday and head to Croatia to quarantine ahead of next weekends Prem matches. Under UK quarantine rules, they would have missed 2 matches but they’ll only miss 1 by quarantining in Croatia. Brazil is without 9 Europe-based players because their clubs didn’t release them for qualifying.
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Mad that FIFA bullied the FA into requiring those players to go, via "special exemption" or whatever nonsense FIFA used to justify its boorish behavior. Glad that Brazilian medical officials stepped in to make FIFA and Conmebol look bad. Just wish they hadn't allowed the match to start.
Wonder what FIFA will do to bully Brazil, though, now that this has happened?
 
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