Massimo Cecchini: When Italian clubs buy foreign clubs

Il paradosso della globalizzazione selvaggia, in fondo, si nasconde anche nelle pieghe di un calcio specchio dei tempi. Archiviata l’età dell’oro – quella che appiccicava alla Serie A l’etichetta di “campionato più bello del mondo” – proprio in questo periodo di crisi i club italiani stanno scoprendo il gusto dell’espansione estera. Cioè, dalle vere acquisizioni alla semplici partnership – diverse società hanno deciso che per consolidare le proprie posizioni è opportuno scavalcare le Alpi o attraversare il mare.

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Ludogorets to donate 20% of Europa League gate receipts to charity

Domuschiev donation

By Alexander Krassimirov
March 5 – Bulgarian champions Ludogorets will donate 20% of its ticket revenue to charity from the upcoming home quarter final match in the Europa League against Valencia in Sofia next week. The club has established a foundation ‘Ludogorets for Bulgaria’, which will carry our charity work in all spheres of Bulgarian society.

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Romanian league eyes €100 million from new broadcasting rights deal

romania Liga 1

By Jaroslaw Adamowski
March 5 – Romania’s league association LPF is currently negotiating a new broadcasting rights deal for the Liga 1 which is expected to total €100 million for the next three years. The negotiations are expected to be completed this March, with several major media players set to bid for the contract, reported local daily Jurnalul National.

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European clubs cheat the player market by failing to pay ‘solidarity’ dues

football development

By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent, in Barcelona
March 5 – Hundreds of clubs responsible for developing players before they hit the big time in Europe are being unwittingly cheated out of their rightful compensation. New international transfer figures show that Europe’s clubs are all but ignoring their responsibilities to Continents like Africa and South America by paying out little more than one-fifth of required “solidarity” payments to clubs who train players during their formative years –

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ECA says transfer system is fit for purpose but slams FIFPro and agents

Money in football

By Andrew Warshaw in Barcelona
March 4 – European clubs paid agents a staggering $254 million in international transfer fees over the past two years, representing 14.6% of all deals involving contracted players. That was by far the most eye-catching finding of a wide-ranging independent analysis commissioned by the European Club Association and presented at their annual assembly today.

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Reds still in the red, but better times are in prospect

Anfield

By David Owen
March 4 – Liverpool’s exciting brand of attacking football, which has carried them to second place in the Premier League, is inspiring dreams of a return to the club’s glory days between the 1960s and 1980s. But the on-field revival has yet to be reflected in the bottom-line – at least judging by the latest published accounts.

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Matt Scott: Let the high-flying stars be Pied Pipers for football everywhere

“We bring you the circus, pied piper whose magic tunes greet children of all ages, from six to 60, into a tinsel and spun-candy world of reckless beauty… and high-flying stars. But behind all this, the circus is a massive machine whose very life depends on discipline and motion and speed. A mechanised army on wheels, that rolls over any obstacle in its path.” Narrator, The Greatest Show On Earth

Football today is as the circus of the 19th and early 20th Centuries,

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