On the face of it, it all sounds like the perfect build up to the much talked about arrival of a full time NFL franchise being based over here, most likely in London. However, I am firmly of the opinion that any such move would NOT be a success and I know I am not alone amongst British based fans of the sport in this belief. Here are just a few of my thoughts as to why I wouldn’t move a team over to London.

•    Travelling and Scheduling

One of the more obvious stumbling blocks the league would have to overcome is how they would compensate for a team having to play 8 games in the UK and 8 in the U.S. as well as the 8 teams having to play away in the UK. At the moment, the two teams who compete in the International Series game have their bye week immediately after. It would be impossible to leave the schedule in it’s current format with a team based in London but there would probably be a way round the problem, maybe changing the bye week system and having the UK team play a few away games and a few home games in a row to prevent constant back and forth travel. Having the team play say three or four games in a row away from home would leave UK fans on the sidelines however meaning that idea would probably be unusable.

•    The Novelty Team

The weekend of the International Series still has a novelty factor to it, both to people in the UK and the U.S. and I would expect a permanent to team to have that as a permanent issue. Taking a team out of the U.S. would basically alienate them from the rest of the league and basically make them outcasts with American fans having little to no interest in what happens to them. I would think this would be an issue when trying to sign players and draft picks also with players having to relocate to another country and be removed from the rest of the NFL. With the team being plucked out of the air and placed down in London, having no history in the UK and

•    Cultural Differences

American football (it would never be called simply football) is still viewed as a nothing sport by many in the UK with people offering the same reasons such as the stop start nature of the games and the amount of padding worn compared to rugby players. I always look to defend the game when confronted with these arguments but it just goes to show how different the game is to any other major sport in the UK. American football really is perfectly American in every way and it is that American style that attracts so many of us to the sport, but it also turns many others away. Trying to anglofy it would simply make it a side show from the real thing and would only serve to make the team further removed from the rest of the league.

The fact that the NFL season takes place between from September to the Super Bowl in February, it would have to compete with sports that have long been established as national sports within the UK, football and rugby. There is pretty much 0% chance that an NFL team placed in London would prise football and rugby fans away from attending their teams games in favour of watching an American football team they have no long standing emotional attachment with.

•    Fan Base

Whilst the level of fan interest around the International Series games has been strong each year but that interest has seemingly dropped since the first game between the New York Giants and Miami Dolphins in 2007. There were large areas of Wembley with seating covered over at last year’s game (as seen in the picture taken by myself before the game) and I fear this would be a regular sight with more and more seats becoming redundant should a team become based at the stadium.

Wembley stadium before the 2011 International Series between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Chicago Bears with covers over unused seats

Clearly there are thousands of NFL fans within the UK and Europe with the fan base continuing to grow but the vast majority of those fans already have their own teams that they support and would be unlikely to change their allegiance just because a team has popped up in Europe. It would also be expecting a lot of fans to make regular trips to London for the games. A day trip to London to watch the International Series is both expensive and time consuming for fans from the Midlands and the North of the UK, not forgetting those who come over from Germany, Sweden, etc. Most likely you’d have people making one off trips to games, picking a weekend when they are free to do so and whilst this combined with the ‘newness’ of the entire concept may keep the attendances relatively high initially, after a couple of years, the ‘take it or leave it’ fans will have lost interest and those who have their own teams would likely go to the game should their team be playing and not support the London side.

Football teams and rugby teams in the UK have built up their fan bases over a long history and fans pick up their teams for various reasons at a young age and stick with them through thick and thin, most of the time thin. Should a London team prove to be unsuccessful early on, you can guarantee plenty of people would lose interest as they have no emotional ties to team and why bother forking out three figure sums to go and watch them play. Whilst on paper it may seem like a great idea, all European NFL fans rallying behind and supporting a team based in London, it wouldn’t be the case. Why would an NFL fan who lives in Hull, Glasgow, Cardiff, Birmingham, Newcastle, Liverpool or Manchester for example, feel any passion for team based miles away in London when they have their own local football, rugby, cricket teams to support? It’s not like they would have any connection with the team other than the fact it is being played a couple of hundred miles down the road. It takes time to develop a relationship between teams and fans and before that can be established at a sustainable level, the bubble of interest surrounding the new attraction at Wembley may well have burst.

 
As you can clearly gather, I don’t see the reason for taking an NFL franchise away from the U.S. and bringing it over here. The International Series is fantastic and we will continue to enjoy that and the amount of coverage of we receive now is great but I really do think it would one step too far to try this. Obviously this is all just opinion and conjecture and should a team be moved into Wembley, the exact opposite could happen and you could see me writing a new article a few years down the line singing the praises of the London team after winning their first Super Bowl and saying how I always believed in them and how it could work. Who knows.

Premier League:

1. Manchester United
2. Chelsea
3. Manchester City
4. Arsenal
5. Liverpool
6. Tottenham Hotspur
7. Everton
8. Aston Villa
9. Stoke
10. QPR
11. Bolton
12. Fulham
13. Newcastle
14. Sunderland
15. West Bromwich Albion
16. Wolves
17. Blackburn

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18. Norwich
19. Wigan
20. Swansea City

Championship:

1. West Ham United
2. Leicester City

——————————————————————-

3. Leeds United
4. Ipswich Town
5. Southampton
6. Middlesbrough

——————————————————————-

7. Cardiff City
8. Birmingham City
9. Brighton
10. Nottingham Forest
11. Bristol City
12. Burnley
13. Hull City
14. Reading
15. Blackpool
16. Portsmouth
17. Derby
18. Watford
19. Millwall
20. Barnsley
21. Doncaster

——————————————————————-

22. Crystal Palace
23. Coventry
24. Peterborough United

League 1:

1. Huddersfield Town
2. Charlton

——————————————————————-

3. Sheffield United
4. MK Dons
5. Scunthorpe United
6. Brentford

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7. Preston North End
8. Colchester United
9. Leyton Orient
10. Chesterfield
11. Bournemouth
12. Carlisle United
13. Sheffield Wednesday
14. Exeter City
15. Tranmere
16. Oldham
17. Walsall
18. Bury
19. Notts County
20. Hartlepool United

——————————————————————-

21. Yeovil Town
22. Rochdale
23. Wycombe
24. Stevenage

League 2:

1. Shrewsbury Town
2. Crawley Town
3. Swindon Town

——————————————————————-

4. Rotherham United
5. Bristol Rovers
6. Crewe Alexandra
7. Oxford United

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8. Gillingham
9. Torquay United
10. Plymouth
11. Dagenham & Redbridge
12. Accrington Stanley
13. Aldershot
14. Northampton Town
15. AFC Wimbledon
16. Bradford
17. Port Vale
18. Southend United
19. Morecambe
20. Hereford United
21. Macclesfield
22. Burton Albion

——————————————————————-

23. Cheltenham Town
24. Barnet

The American keeper who first moved to England in 1997 when he signed for Liverpool has racked up an impressive 400 games in the Premier League which has included a run of not missing a single league game since 2004 with Blackburn Rovers and then Aston Villa. Friedel also holds the distinction of being one of only three goal keepers to have scored a Premier League goal, Paul Robinson and Peter Schmeichel being the other two, coming for Blackburn away at Charlton.

Friedel elected to leave Villa after his contract expired

Friedel is thought to have rejected a number of other offers from clubs including Liverpool and West Bromwich Albion as well as a new deal from Villa before deciding to join Harry Redknapp’s side. With Heurelho Gomes and Carlo Cudicini already established at Spurs, the competition for the number 1 spot will be healthy and is probably the strongest line up of goalkeepers in the league. Cudicini recently signed a new extension to his deal at Spurs but there have been rumours surrounding the future of Gomes and a possible move away back to his old club PSV Eindhoven.

Redknapp seems keen to keep his trio of goalkeepers together however with a long season ahead for Spurs which could include a deep run in the Europa League. The Spurs manager said “It is good to have three such experienced top goalkeepers at the club in Heurelho Gomes, Carlo Cudicini and now Brad and it means we have competition for places particularly with the number of games we will hopefully face next year both domestically and in Europe as well.”

Although into his 40s, Friedel has proved he still more than capable of performing at the top level and now that he has been confirmed as a Tottenham player, the battle begins to see who will be starting between the posts come the new season.

Bartoli started the second set strongest though, breaking Schiavone at the first chance to take a 2-0 lead. However, the Frenchwoman couldn’t build on it and Schiavone broke back instantly and showed the vast array of ground strokes and the ability to create angles from all over the court that helped her win the same title last year as she broke Bartoli again to close out the match and end the home hopes of a French winner.

Francesca Schiavone looking to win a second straight French Open

Schiavone’s opponent in the final will be Li Na who overcame Maria Sharapova in straight sets, 6-4 7-5 in the first of the two semi finals. For Li it is her second straight appearance in a grand slam final after reaching the Australian Open final earlier in the year before losing to Kim Clijsters. The Chinese player took advantage of 5 double faults and 16 unforced errors from Sharapova to take the first set, but like Schiavone, she suffered an early break in the second set as Sharapova looked for a way back into the match.

However, Li continued to move Sharapova around on the clay surface on which she has struggled before and her problems with her serve in the conditions ultimately ended the game as she finished the match with her 10^th double fault to seal Li’s passage into the final.

Schiavone and Li will meet on Saturday to decide the second grand slam winner of 2011. Meanwhile in the men’s draw, the semi finals will take place tomorrow with the top 4 seeds battling it out for a place in the final. Five time champion and World number 1 Rafael Nadal takes on the Australian Open runner up Andy Murray with Nadal a big favourite to advance for the chance of a 6^th title whilst the on fire Novak Djokovic takes on Roger Federer. The Swiss player who has fallen behind both Nadal and Djokovic will be keen to show he is still a force in all the grand slams whilst Djokovic is still unbeaten in 2011, setting all sorts of records on the way as well as winning the Australian Open title. Both semis promise to be extremely exciting with the two winners meeting in the final on Sunday.

MacKail-Smith has enjoyed his best goal scoring season this year

First coming to prominence with Dagenham & Redbridge whilst in the Conference, MacKail-Smith was instrumental in their 2006-2007 season in which they won the Conference title and earned promotion to the Football League. He moved to Peterborough the following season and once again tasted promotion in his second season with the Posh as they climbed from League 2 to League 1. A second successive promotion followed up to the Championship before last seasons drop back to League 1.

It is now clear that the striker’s future is away from London Road and having proved his worth as a goal scorer in the lower leagues, he will now have the chance to show if he can make the step up to the top level with a move to a Premier League club on the cards. There have been a number of players who have made the move from the same level to the Premier League and failed to make the grade. Obvious examples include Jon Stead and Nathan Ellington and MacKail-Smith will be keen to prove he is not another sharp shooter who can’t replicate their form at the top level. However, the 27 year old MacKail-Smith has certainly earned his chance at the Premier League after a number of consistent seasons whilst the likes of Stead, who was only 20 when he moved from Huddersfield in League 2 to Blackburn Rovers in the Premier League, burst onto the scene and was elevated before he was ready.

Newly promoted Norwich City seem to be the favourites to win the race for the striker in a deal apparently worth £3million although there has also been reported interest from Q.P.R, Wigan and Everton. Wherever he lands though, this is MacKail-Smith’s opportunity to establish himself as a Premier League player and achieve what would be a relatively impressive statistic of reaching double figures of goals in a season in all four leagues and the Conference.

The new dates set for the 1-3 August will now mean Contador will be free to take part in the Tour de France which begins on the 2^nd July and concludes a week before the hearing’s revised date on the 24^th July.

Contador, who claimed his second Giro d’Italia title last week has dominated the sport for the past four years, becoming only the fifth man in its history to win all three grand tours, the third being the Vuelta a España and he is thought to be aiming to become the first man to win the Giro and the Tour de France in the same year since Marco Pantani in 1998.

Contador enjoying his 2011 Giro d'Italia success

There are rumours circling however that the Spaniard may choose not to ride the tour and of course the race organisers do have the power to prevent a rider from entering if they feel it may damage the image of the race. That would have been a very surprising move however as Contador is the three time champion and would be the big favourite to go on and win a fourth, especially after how dominant he was in the Giro. Tour director Christian Prudhomme stated on Yahoo Sport “So yes, Alberto Contador can start the Tour,” to confirm the Spaniard is free to race at the event and Prudhomme like many fans and cyclists registered his annoyance at the delay of the hearing until after the race “We wanted a quick resolution, before the Tour, but it looks like it was too much asking.”

Similarly, Cadel Evans who has finished as a runner up twice in the Tour de France and will once again challenge for the Yellow Jersey with his BMC team this year stated “If he is innocent, well, I hope he is proven innocent and if he is guilty, well, he deserves to be punished…Why is it taking so long? Well that is the question. I am a little bit with everyone else on that one … a little bit mystified I guess.”

Obviously the correct outcome needs to be ascertained but like most fans and members of the cycling community; to have the case hanging over the Tour de France as well as the Giro d’Italia will provide an unwelcome distraction from the race. Contador himself has always expressed his innocence and has maintained his focus and level of performance, handling himself very well when coming up against opposition in the shape of fans who want to see him banned. Although he experienced the occasional bit of booing and insulting signs from fans at the side of the road in the Giro, Contador showed his supreme skill as both a climber and a time trialist as he walked away with the Pink Jersey, finishing a huge 6 minutes and 10 seconds ahead of next placed man Michele Scarponi. As well as the overall title, Contador won the Points Classification as he dominated the field.

For now, the hearing will once again have to be placed on the back burner as the Tour de France takes centre stage and Contador is just one of a number of riders hoping to be wearing the yellow jersey come July 24^th and the Champs-Elysees.

Contador celebrates winning last years Tour de France with old team Astana

The question is will Contador even be lining up for his Saxo Bank-SunGard team at the Tour. After his Giro success Contador was rather non-committal about his plans for July “The Tour? We shall have to see . . . how I am going to recuperate, evaluate the extent to which I have recuperated. I have to speak about it with my sporting director and my team.” Personally I want to see Contador at the Tour as whatever you think of him he is still at the top of the sport and until an official decision is reached by the CAS he should be free to ride where and when he wants.

However, if Contador was to be found guilty at the end of this doping saga he could face a two year ban as well as being stripped of his 2010 Tour de France crown and the 2011 Giro d’Italia titles. For now though, lets all look forward to the start of the biggest race of the year next month.

LeBron James after his first NBA title

Game 1 of the NBA Finals ended with the Miami Heat taking the early series lead after a 92-84 victory over the visiting Dallas Mavericks on the back of 65 points from their big three. LeBron James led the way for the home side scoring 24 points whilst Dwyane Wade, 22, and Chris Bosh, 19, weighed in with healthy contributions as they took the initiative in the best of seven series. Despite holding the Heat to 39 percent shooting on the night, the Mavericks’ own offense failed to deliver as they produced their worst shooting display of the playoffs so far. Dirk Nowitzki did sink 27 points but missed 11 of his 18 field goals as well as picking up a tendon injury on his left hand which may hamper him in the remainder of the series.

The Mavericks who had been free scoring during the entire playoffs so far, struggled to find their shooting form but in a low scoring first quarter, they held a one point lead at 17-16. The Mavs held their one point lead after the second quarter also as both teams enjoyed a much more profitable quarter in terms of scoring.

Dallas came out in the third quarter and extended their lead to 8 points before the Heat turned things around and dominated the rest of the third quarter to earn themselves a four point lead going into the final quarter after a buzzer beating three-pointer from James.

With two of the best closers in the game, the Heat pushed their lead out and managed to assume control, keeping the Mavs at bay and not allowing them to get to close to pulling off a sixth straight road win in the postseason. With neither team on shooting form, the Heat won the battle around the basket, bringing in an extra ten rebounds with James, Wade and Bosh bringing in a total of 28 whilst the Mavericks reliance on Nowitzki scoring 35-40 points saw them fall short. Nowtizki did pull in 8 rebounds and Shawn Marion collected 10 as well as 16 points.

Miami's big three led the way

Although the makeup of the Heat side has drastically changed since their 2006 Finals win over the Mavericks, the outcome was worryingly familiar for Mavs fans who have now seen their side lose five straight Finals games to the Heat. Those in Dallas will be keen for these Finals to take a similar pattern as the 2006 Finals however when the Mavs ran out into a 2-0 lead before Miami’s four straight victories took the title and a reverse of would please not only Mavs fans, but those neutrals that still hold a grudge against the Heat.

James stated “We’ve got a lot of work to do. … That’s one in the books. We’re excited about this game. Tomorrow we prepare for Game 2, and I see ways we can get better.” That final statement is certainly true as Miami have produced many higher level performances during this postseason which they will be looking to replicate. Meanwhile, the vastly experience Mavericks should be able to move on from this defeat completely and prepare for game 2 of the series which will be in Miami on Thursday June 2^nd.

Owen to stay in United red

On his twitter account, Owen stated that he was “Delighted to be staying for another year” and now that 31 year old former Liverpool forward is confirmed to be remaining with the team, doubts are now cast over the future of Berbatov, the clubs top goal scorer in the last season. The Bulgarian managed 21 goals during the 2010-2011 campaign despite falling out of favour in the second half of the season as Rooney and Hernandez developed a strong partnership up top for Ferguson’s side.

Owen was included amongst the substitutes during the recent 3-1 defeat to Barcelona in the Champions League final ahead of Berbatov who was left out of the final squad and the Bulgarian told Sky Sports that he felt “ashamed” about being left on the sidelines for the game and he watched the match on a monitor in the United dressing room. Berbatov stated that he would like to stay with the club, “I will fight for the 20th title.” However, with him seemingly now falling behind Owen as well as Rooney and Hernandez in Ferguson’s plans, there will be a number of rumours surrounding potential moves away from Old Trafford coming out in the next few days and there will likely be many clubs both in the Premier League and across Europe alerted to the potential availability of the Premier League’s joint top scorer.

The AS Monaco side before the 2004 Champions League Final

The list of honours in the history of Les Rouge et Blanc is a long one which includes 7 Ligue 1 titles between 1961 and 2000 as well as 5 Coupe de France titles. Successful periods through the 1960s and the late 1970s and 1980s established the side as one of the biggest teams in the French league and in more recent times, their run to the 2004 Champions League Final was their best ever European performance. Despite losing to Jose Mourinho’s FC Porto in the Final, impressive victories over Real Madrid and Chelsea in the knockout rounds won the club many admirers throughout Europe but since then they have never been able to reach similar heights in Europe or domestic football.

Park Chu-Young shows despair after relegation is confirmed

Always expected to finish around the top of the Ligue 1 table, they managed a strong third place finish in their Champions League Final season 2003-2004 and then repeated that finish a year later. However, they fell out of the of the bracket of the top clubs reaching Europe from Ligue 1 with 10^th, 9^th, 12^th, 11^th and 8^th place finishes before this seasons disastrous campaign.

The recent past of players such as Thierry Henry, Patrice Evra, Emmanuel Petit and Ludovic Giuly are now a distant memory and the focus will now be to return to Ligue 1 at the first time of asking.

Donaldson in action for Crewe

Dario Gradi has stated he would like to keep Donaldson and why wouldn’t he? After the season the striker has had. Donaldson managed 19 league goals in his first two seasons at Gresty Road, but his 29 goals in all competitions means this past year has been the best in his career so far in terms of goals. The offer made by the Alex would require Donaldson to take a pay cut on what he already earns and with most clubs able to offer much more in the way of wages compared to Crewe, it would seem unlikely he will remain in South Cheshire. The offer does include the incentive of Donaldson receiving a healthy percentage of any future transfer fee for the striker from other clubs but it seems pretty certain he will move on.

Bradford City, Donaldson’s home town club have been the most vocal in their pursuit of Donaldson with manager Peter Jackson apparently holding talks over a possible move to Valley Parade. Other League 2 clubs linked with his services have been Oxford United, Gillingham and newly promoted Crawley Town who will likely be able to offer much bigger wages than any club outside the Championship as they look to bring a second straight promotion through heavy investment. It would be a rather strange outcome however if Donaldson decides to remain in League 2 however with this being a great opportunity to move up the leagues.

League 1 teams mentioned as being interested in Donaldson include Carlisle, Chesterfield, Tranmere, Sheffield Wednesday, Charlton Athletic and Colchester United whilst Watford, Millwall and Coventry have also been suggested destinations in the Championship. Watford may be looking at Donaldson as a potential replacement for leading scorer Danny Grahama who is attracting interest from newly promoted Swansea City whilst Millwall’s leading striker Steve Morrison is on the verge of a move to another new Premier League side in Norwich City. However, regardless of where Donaldson winds up he will be expected to deliver a similar tally of goals and level of performance that he managed in this past season for Crewe.