Selling Rothenberg Short Would Be a Big Mistake
Last month, columnist Brian Glanville, writing in London’s influential and internationally circulated World Soccer magazine, stuck one of his sharper pins into a man who has done considerably more for the sport in the United States than any of his predecessors.
Glanville wrote, “Alan Rothenberg has been involved in American soccer for over 30 years but he still does not really seem to understand the game.”
Oh, really?
It might come as a surprise to Glanville--who delivers his views from a lofty perch 3,000 miles removed from the closest Major League Soccer game--that Rothenberg is more than merely “involved” in the American game.
The president of U.S. Soccer for the last 7 1/2 years and the founder and chairman of MLS, Rothenberg is about to cast aside one of those hats and don another.
In August, his second term in charge of the U.S. federation expires, and he is prevented from seeking reelection. So he has decided to become an owner, a la Jack Kent Cooke, the man who introduced him to soccer with the Los Angeles Wolves more than three decades ago.
Rothenberg, who once owned the L.A. Aztecs, has put together a group of investors--said to include Peter Ueberroth--that is trying to buy the San Jose Clash.
The asking price is more than $20 million.
“Our teams are not for sale for anything less,” MLS Commissioner Doug Logan said. “It is fair to say if the deal is culminated, it will be for substantially more than $20 million.”
Why would Rothenberg, who was reported to have earned about $8 million for staging the very successful and extraordinarily profitable 1994 World Cup, want to be an MLS owner?
After all, the 3-year-old league is still awash in red ink and is likely to continue losing money for several years to come.
“I love that market,” Rothenberg, 58, told the Associated Press. “Since Spartan Stadium has been improved to international dimensions, I’m very excited about it, not only for Clash games but in using it for international games as well.”
OK, that’s the short-term gain.
But Rothenberg and his partners are more savvy than that. A few hundred thousand dollars here and there is mere pocket change.
On the other hand, if the league does succeed in the next five to 10 years, how much would, say, a Paul Allen be willing to pay to move an MLS team from small-market San Jose to Seattle? How much would an MLS team in Portland be worth to Nike?
A $25-million investment might easily be doubled or tripled, might it not?
IT AIN’T HALF BAD
Not content with bashing only Rothenberg, Glanville also set about deriding the league Rothenberg helped create.
“Now [Rothenberg] has come out with the ludicrous offer to FIFA . . . to make MLS a laboratory for experiments with the laws,” Glanville wrote.
“Why? The implication is that soccer is in some kind of crisis and needs reviving. That may be true in the USA and even in Japan, mere tributaries of the game, but it certainly isn’t true of football at large, which is booming.
“The problems of MLS will not be solved by mucking about with the laws, which has been tried often enough before. Its difficulties are intimately connected to its poor quality.”
Glanville believes that “having seen the best [at World Cup ‘94], American fans were hardly going to be satisfied with second- and third-rate fare.”
That is a little too harsh on MLS.
True, the product is not first-division Spain, but neither is it third-division Ghana. There are many capable players and coaches in the league. About half of them, in fact.
Given time, MLS will replace the other half so that the quality of soccer on this side of the Atlantic might entice even Glanville to abandon his perch and pay a visit.
DIABLO AND THE PRESIDENT
It is highly unlikely that President Clinton has watched any MLS games during the past couple of seasons, even though his local team, Washington D.C. United, has won back-to-back championships.
It is even more unlikely, therefore, that Clinton would have the slightest idea who Marco “El Diablo” Etcheverry is.
But if he had been paying attention to D.C. United, the President could perhaps have had a quiet word with Etcheverry last week when the team was honored at the White House for its most recent title.
He could have told him, for instance, to stick around.
Etcheverry, it appears, is suddenly the target of a number of European teams, some of whom are talking of doubling his salary to more than $500,000 and paying MLS $4 million or $5 million for the Bolivian midfielder.
At least that’s what the Washington Post has reported.
Meanwhile the league, which owns all 240 MLS players, is taking a wait-and-see approach.
The millions sound good, but the loss of Etcheverry would be a serious blow to MLS credibility.
“We have had some [foreign] contact about Marco in the last year on a monthly basis,” Sunil Gulati, MLS’ deputy commissioner, said last Wednesday. “This month’s country of origin was France. We have not received a concrete offer--and by that I mean a written offer from any FIFA-licensed agent or club--for Marco. So it’s a moot point on what we would do.
“We’re very happy with his play. He’s an important player in the league. But as we tell virtually anyone who inquires, we would look at any serious proposal, but at this point there’s nothing to take to our board. Marco will be playing for D.C. United as far as the eye can see.”
FRIEDEL’S CHOICE
One MLS player who did pull up stakes and head to Europe this season is Brad Friedel, the U.S. national team’s backup goalkeeper who left the Columbus Crew to sign for Liverpool in England’s Premier League.
On Friday, Friedel was in the nets when Liverpool held league champion Manchester United to a 1-1 tie, and he has been the starting keeper for more than a month after replacing David “Calamity” James.
Having accomplished that goal, it is hardly surprising that Friedel is not putting the U.S. World Cup warmup game against Austria in Vienna on April 22 high on his priority list.
“Liverpool has a lot of important games coming up, so I don’t think I’m going to that one,” Friedel told Reuters. “We have Chelsea around that time. It’s a big game, not one I want to miss.
“At the moment, I’m very committed to Liverpool, until May 10 [the season’s end]. Starting May 11, my mind will be on the World Cup.”
POLITICS AND IRAN
There is a wind of change blowing through Tehran these days, at least on the sporting front.
A few days ago it was revealed that the first training courses had been held for women referees and coaches by Iran’s soccer federation, to the consternation of Islamic conservatives who do not want women to even attend games, let alone be involved in them.
The move is said to have been “due to the insistence of fans” and is being strongly supported by Faezeh Hashemi, the daughter of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Meanwhile, the USA-Iran World Cup game in Lyon on June 21 continues to stir comment.
“I don’t know what it’s been like back home [in the U.S.] because I’ve been over here pretty much since December,” Friedel said, “but it will be a political game, that’s for sure.
“Politicians and the press will make more out of it than the players. I can only speak for myself. I’m not taking the game as a political thing; it’s a football game to me.”
And if Iranian women show up to watch, so much the better.
MEXICO WOES
Since winning the Gold Cup in February, the fortunes of Mexico’s national team have plummeted. Coach Manuel Lapuente has continued to experiment with various lineups and the results have been disastrous.
On a tour of South America that was completed last week, Mexico was humbled by a couple of club teams. The low point by far was a 5-1 loss to Chile’s Universidad de Catolica last Wednesday. That followed a 3-1 loss to Boca Juniors of Argentina.
“Crucified” the Reforma newspaper said of the latest debacle--hardly the sort of blaring headline one would expect in a Catholic country during Easter week, but there it was.
“We fired Bora [Milutinovic] and put in Lapuente for this?” asked the sports daily Esto.
Long known as the “Tri” by fans after the three colors in the Mexican flag, the team now is being call the “Tri-tanic” as its World Cup hopes sink lower with each defeat.
