Fergie on Beckham and the US
Ferguson makes an interesting point on the US needing four regional leagues:
"In European football, and especially in British football, you can travel easily. "If you are Boston and need to go to Los Angeles it's a six-hour flight. Supporters don't travel so you are missing that rivalry between fans.
"So you have a problem. To make it substantial you would have to go regional but there's not enough teams to have four strong leagues."
On Beckham as footballer or entertainer: "He was never a problem until he got married. He used to go into work with the academy coaches at night time, he was a fantastic young lad.
"Getting married into that entertainment scene was a difficult thing - from that moment his life was never going to be the same.
"He is such a big celebrity, football is only a small part. The big part is his persona." "
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/sport/football.html?in_article_id=480063&in_page_id=1779
posted by Chris P at
9/05/2007 01:15:00 PM
2 Comments:
Fergie makes good points, but in the same set of remarks he suggests that Americans should come to the Premiership at a younger age like Brian McBride, Brad Friedel, and Clint Dempsey. Huh? McBride first played in England at 28, hardly young for an outfield player. Friedel turned up at 'Pool when he was around the same age, I think (still young for a goalkeeper), and Dempsey (though young) is no teenager. If Fergie wants to see an example of someone going over at a truly tender age, look no further than Lando...yeah, never mind. All of that said, I would love to see a day when a regional system could be sustained with teams playing in 10,000-40,000 seat stadia. May come in my lifetime, but I tend to doubt it.
By
... and starting, at 9:52 AM
I thought his comments were well thought out and surprisingly knowlegeable give or take the age issues.
He is right about the regional stuff - other sports here have it but i dont know if it will ever truly work here.
Still Becks did get 55000 into New York recently, however could they enjoy a game when only 20,000 show up next time for a game sans becks?
By
WhatsupWheaton Simon, at 12:47 PM
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