Don Garber Provides Bank Information To Nigeria In Exchange For Hundred Of Talented Prospects

Today, MLS Commissioner Don Garber announced that MLS had reached a deal to bring hundreds of Nigeria’s most talented youth prospects to American shores with little or no cost to the league. 

“Not to toot my own horn, but I single-handedly doubled – nay, tripled - the talent level of MLS today,” explained accomplished horn-tooter Don Garber, ”It all started when I received an e-mail from a group of Nigeria’s leading football scouts.  They offered to provide us  – totally free of cost, I might add – with hundred of highly touted prospects to populate our football academies and youth teams and all they asked in return was our bank information so that they could secure transportation for the players.”

In unrelated news,  hours after Mr. Garber’s press conference, the league’s public relation office distributed a notice stating ticket prices would be quadrupled for the 2011 season in order to allow the league to recover from an  ”unexpected massive loss of funds.”

[contributed by Rory Miller, thanks Rory!  For more by Rory, check out: www.tiny.cc/1nt1i]

January 31, 2011 – News Briefs

*** Hundreds of ticket holders were locked out of Qatar’s Khalifa Stadium for the AFC Asian Cup final between Japan and Australia on Saturday.   The Qatari organizers acknowledged that the gates to the stadium had been shut well in advance of kick-off, causing many fans to be denied entry and miss the entire match.  Organisers explained the gates were closed for security reasons due to the attendance of VIPs who included the Heir Apparent Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, FIFA president Sepp Blatter, and AFC boss Mohamed Bin Hammam.  For those of you planning to attend the World Cup in 2022 make note to arrive several hours early to the stadium, do not be surprised about significant decisions affecting your experience without notice, and expect to be treated like a serf in comparison to royalty, like the Al Thanis and Sepp Blatters of the world.

***  In the wake of an embarassing defeat to Osasuna, Real Madrid winger Cristiano Ronaldo launched a tirade against violent fans and players alike.  ”Constant kicks, more balls than what is normally allowed on the pitch… No, it’s unacceptable for a football match to become a naval battle … What happened during the match is not good for children or people who enjoy the beauty of football. I hate it!” he said.  We agree with Mr. Ronaldo, there is no place for violence in football.  Matches should be viewed exclusively as an opportunity to showcase flamboyant new hairstyles and to demonstrate the ability to dramatically fall with only the slightest touch.

***  Ghana Football Association (GFA) President, Mr. Kwasi Nyantakyi has allegedly confessed to spending upwards of $100,000 on gifts for FIFA officials whose decisions affected Ghana’s football during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.  Beerandsoccer remains skeptical of this report because everyone knows FIFA likes much much larger bribes.

January 28, 2011 – News Briefs

*** Qatar unveils plans for “sustainable” World Cup 2022 stadiums.  Today Qatar and German design firm AS&P revealed plans for three stadiums for the 2022 World Cup that are intended to be environmentally friendly.  Paying for those stadiums will be countless barrels of oil which will be drilled from deep within the Earth, which will then be sold, transported on a oil-burning tanker, processed in a pollution spewing refinery, transported on diesel-burning trucks, and then resold to end-users for them to burn in their SUVs.  Environment, you can thank them later. 

*** UK media outlets are reporting that upward of 13 firms are in the running for providing FIFA with goal-line technology.  This technology, which will accurately register when a goal has been scored, is being widely opposed by lobbyists in the referee effigy industry. 

*** UEFA threatens to strip Ukraine of the rights to hosting Euro 2012 amidst claims that its government is interfering with its football federation.  UEFA secretary-general Gianni Infantino issued the confederation’s ultimatum to Ukrainian officials whilst coughing suggestively and rubbing his thumb and forefinger together in an exaggerated fashion.   A few well placed bribes are expected to bring this situation to a prompt and happy conclusion.

Craving Radiation Poisoning, Russian Journalist Writes Article Raising 2018 World Cup Security Concerns

Moscow, Russia – Upon waking early this past tuesday morning, journalist Oleg Pogrebizhskaya apparently thought to himself “It is awful dim in here.  I really wish my body emitted a gentle greenish-yellow glow.”

Mr. Pogrebizhskaya might just get his wish.  Yesterday, he published an article raising questions over Russia’s 2018 World Cup security in the wake of the recent Moscow Airport bombing and now, officials in Russia’s Information Ministry have hinted that it will only be a matter of time before Oleg’s pickled herring is seasoned with polonium 210.

Asked if he was concerned about his forthcoming radiation poisoning, Pogrebizhskaya explained that “it is no big deal.  Like that old Yakov Smirnoff joke goes – in America you write articles for the newspaper, in mother Russia those who monitor the newspaper electrocute writers in the testicles.” Continue reading

January 26, 2011 – News Briefs

*** Five-time FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year Marta is reportedly joining the Western New York Flash, the club announced Wednesday.  This means that the Flash will at least register some spectacular goals before their eventual bankruptcy.

*** FIFA announces rights agreements with Al Jazeera.  Apparently, from now on, all of Sepp Blatter’s future denials of wrongdoing and self-congratulatory harpings will be filmed with a home video camera and will be interspersed with footage of FIFA personnel running through tires and climbing obstacles whilst carrying AK-47 rifles.

*** According to Google News, over 5000 articles have been reproduced today regarding whether Andy Gray will provide commentary for EA Sports’ FIFA 12.  Apparently, the source of repetitive generalities in a videogame is at least 20% more worthy of media coverage than the political turmoil presently rocking Egpyt. 

*** Newspapers throughout Brazil claim that World Cup 2014 will pour billions into their economy and spark tremendous job growth.  Meanwhile, Greece and virtually every other host of a worldwide sporting event, are having a good laugh (well that or fighting back riots over ‘austerity’ measures).

Chicago Fire Loans Template Press Conference Responses To Nery Castillo’s New Club

Chicago, IL – On January 20, 2011, the Chicago Fire reported that Nery Castillo would be joining Greek club Aris FC.  Apparently, Castillo wasn’t all that Aris received from the Fire.  The Fire also provided Aris with a memorandum containing sample press conference responses.  According to team sources, the Fire received this memorandum from officials at Manchester City and they apparently received a copy from Shaktar Donetsk and paid to translate it into English.

“It has been invaluable,” said a team source – in a thick Greek accent - who wished to remain anonymous, “it is one thing to be disappointed with a signing but it is even worse when you have to express that disappointment on the fly.”

Beer and Soccer has obtained a copy of the memorandum, the contents of which are reproduced below: Continue reading

Chicago Fire Opts for Monster.com over Ladders.com for Staffing Needs

Chicago, IL – With less than two months to go until the Fire kick off their 2011 MLS campaign, the Fire’s front office has expanded its search to the internet in order to replenish its badly depleted roster. 

Fire honcho Frank Klopas launched an exhaustive scouting search of Chicagoland parks (from “Highland to Tinley”) this off season, but after several months he had nothing to show for it except frost bite and syringes of dubious origin.  Despite this failure, Klopas was undeterred.  After hearing about the “Internet” from a neighborhood child, Klopas decided to take advantage of 50 free hours of “Internet” time that he says he “won” in a “mail order sweepstakes” from America Online.  After several hours of attempting to load the software, Klopas was on his way to complete his reconstruction deconstruction of this once championship-caliber team. 

“Last year we really tried to give Andrew’s money away to every reclamation project we could find: Nery, Collins, you name it.  Now that I’ve exhausted every player and coaching recruiting resource I’ve got, I’m turning to the only other connection I have - my internet connection.” 

After lovingly describing the features of his 28.8k modem (“do you see all those lights?”), Klopas went on to explain his approach to Monster.com.  ”The loss of our jersey sponsor and our DPs cancel each other out, so that’s good, but the lower attendance over my tenure has really strained our hiring practices,” Klopas explained, ”clearly we can’t field the type of $100,000+ players that theladders.com caters to.  But that still leaves Monster.com, which has a much fiercer sounding name, anyways. ”   Thus far, the posting on Monster.com has yielded well over 1,000 hits for the Forward position, however, after realizing the compensation structure surrounding and learning that Carlos de los Cobos would still be managing, all applicants have since dropped out. 

Undeterred, Klopas pledged to forge on, “Results and attendance are only part of the story.  This front office has a vision and will use the Google tirelessly until we find out what that is.”

[This piece was contributed by author Mark.  For more by Mark, check out his blog at http://ussoccersnob.blogspot.com/ (ed: this is the correct link, an incorrect version had previously been posted. sorry)]

Russia Revises Cost of Infrastructure Projects for Winter World Cup, Bankrupts Host Cities

St. Petersburg – 2018 World Cup Bid Chief Alexey Sorokin announced in a press conference that surging costs due to FIFA’s unexpected shift of the World Cup calendar to a winter schedule has immediately placed all host cities in on the brink of insolvency.

Mr. Sorokin, who is expected to die soon of mysterious causes, explained: “We weren’t planning on stadium retrofits and redesigns, or even buying a bunch of heaters for outdoor viewing parties.  I didn’t know adding ceilings to our venues was going to be this expensive. Maf–, err, I mean government money has just run dry.” 

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev added, “It’s terribly cold here in the winter, balls will freeze. Why would FIFA change to a Winter schedule? They need a history lesson.  Do they know what happened to Napoleon? the Germans?”  Continue reading

Sporting KC Selects Name “Colorado Rapids” in MLS Re-entry Draft

Just a month after rebranding themselves as Sporting KC, the former Wizards front office pulled off another shock by selecting the moniker “Colorado Rapids” in the MLS Re-Entry draft. The Rapids front office immediately declared that they were surprised that leaving their name exposed had turned out so badly for them.

“We totally get where KC is comming from, I mean, even though it is confusing to call a team in Kansas City by the name ‘Colorado,’ it is hella less confusing than that Sporting Club nonsense” said former Rapids GM Jeff Plush.  Colorado is believed to be looking into renaming their team as “Miami Fusion” in honor of captain Pablo Maestroeni’s former team, or possibly going with “Denver Olympiakos.”

[contributed by Rory Miller, thanks Rory!  For more by Rory, check out: www.tiny.cc/1nt1i]

Bob Bradley Calls 8-year-old Multinational to January Camp

With the immediate success of youth players during Team USA’s win at the Mandela Challenge Cup, Coach Bob Bradley has set his sights on bringing in younger soccer stars to the senior team. 8-year-old Zachary Jesus-Salvatore Kpodo is the 4th player selected under 23 since after the USA’s successful run at the 2010 World Cup. Kpodo lives in Chile and holds quadruple citizenship to the US, Italy, Chile, and Ghana.

Multiple citizenship can be attributed to being born over US airspace to a Chilean father and Ghanian mother.   Zachary’s father was diagnosed with “severe impotence” and Continue reading