MLS opens up team shirts to betting and spirits sponsorship
June 28 – The MLS has relaxed its commercial rules to allow betting companies to brand team shirts opening up jersey fronts and sleeve patches from the 2020 season.
News
Liverpool switch on to own digital channels for pre-season matches
June 28 – Liverpool are to show their six pre-season matches live on their own digital broadcast channels LFCTV and LFCTV GO.
Mexico vs Costa Rica: El Tri hunting for Phoenix semi
June 28 – A free scoring Mexico head into Saturdays’ quarter finals at the NRG Stadium Houston as match and tournament favourites.
Conmebol fines Brazil for homophobic fan chant
June 28 – Conmebol has slapped the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) with a fine of $15,000 over homophobic chants at the Copa America’s curtain raiser between hosts Brazil and Bolivia.
Beauty and the Beast: Canada and Haiti promise contrasting styles
June 28 – Opening Gold Cup quarter final play in Houston, Texas, are Canada and Haiti, an intriguing fixture between two aspiring Concacaf nations who have both made their mark in different ways so far in this tournament.
Infantino’s hollow words on Palestine forget his own cynical football oppression of the country
June 27 – FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s participation in the ‘Peace to Prosperity’ workshop in Bahrain have raised plenty of eyebrows in the Middle East with his own personal history being that of aggressor rather than peacemaker.
James Dostoyevsky: From the Infantino playbook: A Game of African Thrones
In one picture, a cut-away from an Al Jazeera broadcast on Twitter, you see him sitting next to a UK war criminal has-been in Manama, where a laughably androgynous Kushner delivers a ludicrous proposal for Mid-East Peace. [THIS “Pax Americana” risks to be a still-birth similar to Infantino’s neo-colonial football proposal to “Save Africa” (from itself, I take it?). What Kushner and other far-right bozos are planning to do to the Palestinians (if the rest of the world lets them),
FIFA referee guru Collina defends VAR decisions at France 2019
June 26 – Refereeing at the Women’s World Cup has been under severe scrutiny with VAR and other interventions wrecking the natural rhythm of the game, but FIFA’s head of referees Pierluigi Collina has shrugged off the storm of criticism, saying that the tournament is not “an experiment” for new rules using the VAR.
Grp D: Outlaws roar US on to Curacao quarter final
USA 1 Panama 0
By Andrew Warshaw at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City
June 26 – They banged their drums, sung their songs and waved their flags in a sea of patriotic fervour.
Marathonbet keeps skin in the Spanish game with Sevilla shirt deal
June 27 – LaLiga’s Sevilla have replaced social gaming firm Playtika with online bookmaker Marathonbet as their new shirt sponsor in a two-years deal.
LaLiga clubs deliver €29m of value for shirt sponsors from TV
June 27 – A study of shirt sponsorship within LaLiga by sponsorship consultancy Strock found Spain’s top clubs delivered a return on investment of €29 million last season via TV exposure.
Grp D: Guyana and Trinidad share the honours
By Andrew Warshaw at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City
June 26 – Guyana were 10 minutes away from departing their first ever Gold Cup with a priceless three-points tonight, only to concede an equaliser to Trinidad and Tobago in a 1-1 draw that sent the Caribbean rivals home winless.
Grp D: US and Panama square off in sold-out Kansas City
By Andrew Warshaw at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City
June 26 – The United States and Panama, two of Concacaf’s fiercest rivals, square off Wednesday for the right to win Group D at the Gold Cup and keep momentum going as they enter the business end of the tournament.
Apart from the occasional blip, the US has dominated matches between the pair with a 13-1-6 record but there is no doubting how much it must have hurt to see Panama strutting their stuff at the World Cup in Russia last summer after their own ignominious failure to qualify.
Grp C: High drama in LA as El Salvador crash out
Honduras 4 El Salvador 0
By Paul Nicholson at the Banc of California Stadium, Los Angeles
June 25 – Road signs on the way to the stadium flashed Sold Out. El Salvador vs Honduras was the hottest ticket in Los Angeles Tuesday night and what an evening of passion and excitement it was for those that were going.
Nigerian players’ protest over unpaid bonus sparks heated exchange
By Osasu Obayiuwana
June 26 – Nigeria’s Super Eagles go into Wednesday’s Africa Cup of Nations group match against Guinea, after a blunt refusal to show up for the customary pre-match press conference in Alexandria.