Cheating in Soccer

There are many things that a lot of player get by with that could be considered cheating. For example diving could be considered cheating. If the player doesn't touch you why are you diving and then acting like your a fish out of the water going all over the place. It's not necessary to do that. If the player makes contact with you that's a different situation, but if he misses you and you flop your causing the other player a yellow card or a red card possibly. Another way players cheat is by time wasting. Time wasting is probably the most annoying thing for the losing team, especially in a close game. The reason I say this is because you know if it was a tie game or if that team was losing the would be trying to get the ball in play as soon as possible. With them trying to kill time once the ball goes out of play, the players just walk around, in no rush what so ever. And the referee doesn't do much either. He just tells the players to hurry up and try to get the ball in play quickly. That's how player can get away with things in the sport of soccer and how it can be considered cheating.  

Soccer Conflict of Interest

A big problem that has become a big problem in soccer is the player health. A lot of concern has become to the player health and making sure that nobody gets extremely hurt. even though a lot of player get hurt, it's not career ending and they can go back in to same game. Also the referees need to make sure that nobody gets hurts. They need to have a grip on the game that nothing gets too out of hand and nobody gets extremely hurt. If the ref doesn't have a grip on the game the players are going to go at one another and some player will get hurt badly. Also there's a chance in older kids games that a fight might break out. If there happens to be a fight there are going to be a lot of suspensions and the referee's job is in jeopardy. If these things can be prevented the game will be a lot better and there won't be this big conflict n the game.  

How Soccer Deals with Gay Players

In recent media, a player by the name Robbie Rogers came out and told the media that he was gay. He was afraid that he's career was over and would never be able to play soccer again. In actuality, he was wrong. A lot people looked up to him and told him that his career wasn't over. After sitting out for about 4 months, he signed for the LA Galaxy. He is the first soccer player to be openly gay and still be playing soccer. He also has received an opportunity to play on the national team from the head coach Jurgen Klinsmann. Robbie Rogers is now looked up to by a lot of soccer players and other players from different sports. Many soccer players accept the fact that he is gay and don't really think of it when they play against him. Robbie doesn't even think about it either. Robbie is starting something that could go internationally. Maybe in the next couple of years, more soccer players or players in different sports will come out and tell the media that they are gay. And I don't think that people will react to much about it.

Reaction to League of Denial

In today's world, concussions have became a big part in the sport world. In, League of Denial, it talks about how many football players received concussions and they eventually kept on playing with them. The affect it had on these player after their careers were over were very eye opening. A lot of these players had a lot of problems with them and they didn't seek the medical help that they needed. This is also causing a concern to player in today's world. Former NFL player Chris Borland retired from the game of football after only playing a year. The reason he did this is because he doesn't want to have head problems in the future. Borland says,"I'm concerned that if you wait 'til you have symptoms, it's too late. ... There are a lot of unknowns. I can't claim that X will happen. I just want to live a long, healthy life, and I don't want to have any neurological diseases or die younger than I would otherwise."  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sports/league-of-denial/top-nfl-rookie-to-retire-citing-concussion-risk/. This was a very bold statement for a player to say with a lot of potential in his professional career. This may start a trend with young players retiring early because they don't want to have head problems when they are older.

In soccer, it is very rare to hear somebody with a concussion. In soccer, it's more just leg injuries and pulled muscles. But about a year or two ago, the goalkeeper for Tottenham Hotspurs, Hugo Lloris suffered a pretty big knock to the head. After minutes of convincing the trainers, Hugo Lloris stayed in the game with what everybody thought was a concussion. If I was the trainers of Tottenham, if he had a pretty bad knock to the head, and looked like he was suffering concussion symptoms, he needs to come out of the game. Even if the player wants to keep on playing, he needs to come out of the game.

If I was GM of a Youth League

If I was the GM of a youth league for soccer, there isn't much that I would need to change. For the most part, the leagues are very good. The only conflict that I would need to change is the distance the teams have to travel and how to attract more kids to the sport. Maybe one way to attract kids is to hang flyers around town to get the word out that there is a team. Another way to attract kids is to put it up on a website so a bunch of people can see it. If you parents and kids are seeing this, this will intrigue them and hopefully they will come out and play.
Another thing that families may have a problem with is how far the teams will have to travel. With these teams traveling such a long time, it cost a lot of money for gas and things like that. With teams like this traveling a long distance, I would like to change the travel time for the teams that have to travel such a long time. Maybe meet half way so each team has to do some traveling. It's not fair for one team to have close to a 2 hour drive and the other team have just a 10 minute ride to their home fields.

Youth Soccer

Youth soccer is at the highest it has ever been. Behind basketball, soccer is getting the most popularity from kids. It's even in front of baseball and football. By the year 2000 there were nearly 3 million kids participating in soccer. With the rapid growth in the sport I wouldn't be surprised if a couple more million have joined by now. 

Also another reason that there has been a rapid growth in youth participation is because of how much soccer has been aired to the television. Just about every weekend, you can see a game or two of the British Premier League. Also a lot of kids joined after the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. If games keep on getting aired on the television, I think a lot more kids will join their local league for soccer.

Should College Athletes get Paid

A big question in the college world is involving college athletes. Many people think that college athletes should get paid while others think them getting a free educator is good enough. If you were to ask me, I think a free education is good enough. The reason I say that is because they aren't professional athletes. They are student athletes, and with being a student athlete you must do school work and play to your best potentional as an athlete. Many people may disagree and say if they are playing to their best they should get some money, or if the on campus store is selling jersey with their number on it, they should earn some of that money. But a free education is good enough if you were to ask me.

NCAA and Soccer

The NCAA and soccer are not really heard nationally like basketball and football. In fact, not that many know about college soccer unless you do some research into it. And the only national attention it gets is when it's the final four. When you look at football and basketball, they have every single game televised, all on different channels too. Soccer also has a tournament just like football and basketball, you just won't know until the final four.

Another thing to point out is scholarships. Football and basketball are able to hand a couple of scholarships. Soccer is only allowed to hand out one scholarship a year. Many people think that soccer should be able to hand out more than one per year. Many people thinks it's unfair that football and basketball can do it with all of their recruits but soccer can only do it one of their recruits.

What the Team Owes the Fans

In sports, the team should owe their fans a good season. Maybe not get into the playoffs, but show that they tried every single game. Even a winning season a good enough. But there are years where some teams don't really try and the fans don't get happy with team. For example, a couple years back the Philadelphia 76ers were really bad. One of the worst in the entire league. Many thought that the team were tanking on purpose. some saw this as good, but a lot saw this as bad. Many people were unhappy with the Sixers and thought that they should at least try. If I were the Sixers organization, the only reason I would be doing this is to restart essentially. And by doing this i would like to make the playoffs in the incoming years and possibly win a championship.

Fans Rights

The fans rights or duties at a soccer is to watch the game and cheer their side on. The fans at a soccer game should not be doing anything else then that. In today's world, fans often like to run on the field and disturb the play of game. Many people don't understand why these people do this because it interrupts the game. Also a lot of fans chant racial chants and very inappropriate chants. A lot of these chants are heard of by the players and it affects them. It affects players so much that they want to be transferred to a different club. For instance, Kevin Prince Boateng played at AC Milan. During one of the games against Pro Patria, Boateng heard racial chants coming form the stands. Once hearing these chants he stops playing, picks up the ball and punts at the fans. After he did that he walks off the field. Boateng after the game said that if he heard any racial chants he would walk off the field no matter what.

Men In Blazers

The show Men In Blazers, ratings gone up and up it seems like after every show. The show is about the week or weekend of soccer in review. The host Roger Bennett and Michael Davies look at most of the premier league games. They also look at a lot of international games, when the premier league is on international break, More recently the Men In Blazers take a slight look on the MLS too. When Roger and Michael do the review on the games from the past week, they like to put their own little twist on it. And what I mean by that, they have there own sense of humor that most people will not get if you don't watch soccer. These guys do a great job of giving the premier league the publicity it deserves and they have fun with it too. If they continue to keep on giving the premier league the spotlight it deserves, more people will watch the premier league in the mornings.

Premier League Rights

In the year 2012 NBC made a three year starting in the 2013-14 season to air all 380 games each season. The deal will run out after the 2015-16 season. Fox was the network that had the English Premier League before NBC bought for about $83 million. By the end of the three years it will be about $250 million. The Premier League is probably the most talented League in the world compared to competition and the teams that are in it. It's a good thing that NBC bought out the contract from Fox because a lot more people are beginning to watch their favorite team play live. When Fox owned the rights to the Premier League, the only showed a handful of games. After the 2014-15 season the league ratings went up 15% from the season before. This year so far the rating have gone up at least 36% from last year, and the year isn't over yet. It seems with NBC buying the Premier League off of Fox the ratings have gone up and it looks like the ratings will continue to go up with NBC having the rights of the Premier League.

Role Models

In 1993, Charles Barkley did a commercial for Nike saying that he's not a role model, he just dunks and scores points on the basketball court. This brought a lot of controversy about players being role models. If you ask me there are some players that people look up to as role models. For example Cristiano Ronaldo ad Leo Messi. It seems like these two players can do no wrong on and off the field. On the field these two are hands down the best on the field when playing. These players are at the top of their class and these players have broke many records in different leagues. And off the field these players are great. They don't smoke or drink. They are always watching film and seeing how they can improve their game. A player that I wouldn't choose to be a role model is Mario Balotelli. This man has had a lot of problems with a bunch of different clubs. He also had some problems off the field to. An example of this would be when Mario set off fireworks in his own house and caught his house on fire.

Szczensy Caught Smoking in the Shower

Goalkeeper Wojciech Szczensy, starting goalkeeper for Arsenal, was caught smoking a cigarette in the shower after a loss against Southampton. After reports of Szczensy was caught smoking in the shower he was fined 20,000 euros. Also with being fined Arsene Wenger has benched Szczeny and has picked David Ospina as Arsenals number one goalkeeper. Ever since this incident Szczeny has been benched ever since. When asked about his decision, Arsene Wenger said, "I don' know, but how can you take a decision? You know how you can take a decision." Arsene Wenger also adds that he didn't bench Szczeny because he was caught smoking in the shower. Wneger said, "Look I don't want to talk too much about that because the more I talk , the less I inform you. Was the smoking incident the reason? No. Honestly, no." Information from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2905379/Arsenal-manager-Arsene-Wenger-insists-Wojciech-Szczesny-dropped-NOT-disciplinary-measure-smoking.html.

How the World Cup can Learn from the Super Bowl

The World Cup and the Super Bowl are probably two of the biggest competition in the world today. Even these two sports have their own criteria and things they do. For example, during the Super Bowl there are funny commercials that come on just about about television break. Even though during the World Cup does have many television breaks, they can possibly make funny commercials to intrigue people into the sport. It can be a start of a world of new followers and hopefully continue all around the world. Another thing that the World Cup can learn from the Super Bowl is the time of each match during the World Cup. the Super Bowl this year started around 6:00. During the World Cup some of the matches started while a lot of people were still asleep. Even though this depends on where the world Cup is held, they should at least give the a country who doesn't get a chance to see their country play a chance to see them. This can possibly be the biggest thing the World Cup can learn from the Super Bowl.

Super Bowl Reaction

The tickets for the Super Bowl have skyrocketed this year compared to years in the past. These tickets cost a fortune compared to the tickets just a year ago. One of the reason this is because the Super Bowl was held in a city much warmer than last year. With the city much warmer than last year, it attracts more people. When it was held in New York just a year ago it was very cold and not many people wanted to travel to a city that was freezing. Also the Super Bowl had two teams that travel very well. With the teams that travel well, the tickets sell out fast and the left over tickets cost a fortune. According to  http://www.forbes.com/sites/darrenheitner/2015/02/01/why-have-2015-super-bowl-ticket-prices-skyrocketed/ , "It's due to speculative selling, it's common for ticket brokers to sell 'spec' tickets that they don't yet have in hand at higher prices,..." This was another controversy that many people thought they had tickets but the ticket brokers didn't actually have the tickets. The ticket broker told the people who initially bought the ticket that they have the ticket and they could get the ticket at the Super Bowl. But in actuality they had the ticket and sold it to another person for a higher price so they could get more money or the ticket broker advertised the ticket but never actually had the ticket to sell. Many people became upset when they found out that they couldn't go see their favorite team play in the Super Bowl.