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Football, Futbol, Soccer, etc. (Official Thread)

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RACING LOUISVILLE WON’T SHARE WHY CHRISTY HOLLY WAS FIRED

OCTOBER 8, 2021
Racing Louisville is standing by their decision not to reveal the reason behind former head coach Christy Holly’s dismissal.

Louisville captain Michelle Betos told the media after the team’s loss to the North Carolina Courage on Wednesday night that the players agreed with the approach.

“That’s not something we’re willing to talk about,” she said. “I know the entire world is looking for transparency from our club, and I think that will come in time. I think you guys should have trust in that.”

Racing Louisville fired Holly in early September “for cause.” While the club has not indicated what that means, vice president of development James O’Connor said later that it “happened pretty quickly.”

He also did not dismiss the possibility of the termination being linked to something illegal, choosing to “plead the fifth.”

Entire article: https://justwomenssports.com/racing-louisville-wont-share-why-christy-holly-was-fired/

U.S. Soccer investigation into women's game finds systemic abuse, misconduct

The independent investigation into player abuse in women's professional soccer found a long list of failures by National Women's Soccer League coaches and executives, as well as the United States Soccer Federation itself.

"Our investigation has revealed a league in which abuse and misconduct -- verbal and emotional abuse and sexual misconduct -- had become systemic, spanning multiple teams, coaches, and victims," the report read. "Abuse in the NWSL is rooted in a deeper culture in women's soccer, beginning in youth leagues, that normalizes verbally abusive coaching and blurs boundaries between coaches and players."

The summary report, a copy of which was obtained by ESPN, also details recommendations for the USSF to implement going forward. The investigation was conducted by former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, on behalf of the USSF.

The report includes a previously undisclosed revelation as to the manner of Racing Louisville's firing of Christy Holly as manager back in August 2021. The report details how Holly called a player, identified as Erin Simon, in for a film session, stating he would touch her "for every pass" she made a mistake on. (ESPN's policy is to not publicly identify victims of abuse, but Simon, through a spokesperson, agreed to be identified.)

Holly then proceeded to put his hand "down her pants and up her shirt." Simon would try to "tightly cross her legs and push him away, laughing to avoid angering him," adds the report, stating that when her teammate picked her up to drive home, Simon broke down crying.

Holly was later fired for cause, though the reason for his firing wasn't publicly disclosed.

"There are too many athletes who still suffer in silence because they are scared that no one will help them or hear them," Simon said in a statement through a spokesperson. "I know because that is how I felt. Through many difficult days, my faith alone sustained me and kept me going. I want to do everything in my power to ensure that no other player must experience what I did. This report allows our voices to finally be heard and is the first step toward achieving the respectful workplace we all deserve. It is my sincere hope that the pain we have all experienced and the change we have all brought about will be for the good of our league and this game we all deeply love."

Entire article: https://www.espn.com/soccer/united-...to-womens-game-finds-systemic-abusemisconduct
 
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Cristiano Ronaldo offered £300m+ deal from Saudi Arabia - sources

Cristiano Ronaldo has a lucrative offer to move to Saudi Arabia on the table following his departure from Manchester United but the Portugal forward is set to wait until after the World Cup before deciding on his next move, sources have told ESPN.

Al-Nassr are willing to offer the 37-year-old a three-and-a-half year contract worth more than £100 million a year.
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Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, are hopeful that Ronaldo's presence in their domestic league would help a bid to host the 2030 World Cup and would be keen for the former Real Madrid and Juventus forward to work as an ambassador for the country.

Entire article: https://www.espn.com/soccer/soccer-...-offered-300m+-deal-from-saudi-arabia-sources
 
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Pele's family members gather at hospital as condition worsens

Brazil legend Pele's family members gathered at the Albert Einstein hospital in Sao Paulo on Saturday, where the 82-year-old, widely considered one of the greatest footballers of all time, has been since late November.

Doctors said this week that Pele's cancer had advanced and that he requires care related to renal and cardiac dysfunction. His family said he would remain in the Sao Paulo hospital over the festive period.

Pele has received regular medical treatment since a tumour was removed from his colon in September last year.

"Almost all of them. Merry Christmas. Gratitude, love, togetherness, family," his daughter Kely Nascimento wrote on Instagram with a picture of their family in the hospital.

"The essence of Christmas. We thank you all for all the love and light you send."

Entire article: https://www.espn.com/soccer/brazil-...amily-gather-at-hospital-as-condition-worsens
 
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Watching Real Madrid at Liverpool. It’s 2-2 late in the half, each keeper has allowed a goal by making a mistake that would be inexcusable by a junior high kid minding the net.

They need to be seen to be believed.

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www.espn.com

Messi should be turning point for draconian MLS roster rules

Miami employed salary cap gymnastics to sign Lionel Messi & Co. If MLS wants to be a destination league, it must cater to its most ambitious clubs.
www.espn.com www.espn.com

Messi should be turning point for draconian MLS roster rules​

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Former Barcelona stalwarts Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets are expected to join Lionel Messi at Inter Miami this summer.

Lionel Messi has come to MLS to play for Inter Miami CF. It is a seminal moment for the league in that arguably the greatest player in the history of the game has arrived on these shores less than a year after winning the World Cup, where he was named the tournament's best player.

Getting Messi to Miami is a big enough financial hurdle. Managing owner Jorge Mas confirmed that the Argentina captain and newly signed designated player will make between $50 million and $60 million a year -- more than the 2023 team salaries of Real Salt Lake, Orlando City SC, New York Red Bulls, St. Louis City SC and CF Montreal combined -- in a deal that runs through the 2025 season, with sources telling ESPN there is an option for the 2026 campaign.

The MLS rulebook stipulates that clubs can carry three designated players, whose salaries will count for only $612,500 against the cap, regardless of what they actually earn. So Messi's wages of $50 million to $60 million? For cap purposes, it's barely 1% of that.

From a roster rules perspective, signing Messi was relatively easy. The hard part is fitting fellow longtime friends and former Barcelona teammates Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba on the roster.

Why not sign them to similarly lucrative DP deals as well? Because the South Florida club already had three designated players on its books: striker Leonardo Campana, midfielder Gregore and attacker Rodolfo Pizarro. Miami tried exceeding the DP threshold once before, in 2020, when it emerged that it essentially fielded five of them. It received the stiffest fine in MLS history for its efforts.

The club has had to do some salary cap gymnastics to make all this work.

Pizarro, with precious little time to negotiate a transfer out of the club, agreed to terminate the remainder of his contract on Friday night. That freed up the DP slot that Messi now occupies.

Gregore, with a salary of $826,000 according to the MLS Players Association, will have his contract bought down using General Allocation Money (GAM), one of the league's roster-building mechanisms. That will clear a path for Busquets to sign a DP deal of his own.

For Alba, it's both simpler and more complicated.

He is expected to join using Targeted Allocation Money (TAM), which caps his salary at $1,612,500 per year. Every team in the league has $2,720,000 in TAM available to it in 2023 -- essentially supplementing the salary cap -- but as part of the sanctions levied against Inter for their past salary cap discretions, they have had $2,271,250 deducted from their allocation allotment spread across the 2022 and 2023 seasons, making it a scarce resource on South Beach.

Simple, right?

Now, just imagine if Luis Suarez or any other of Messi's friends wanted to join him in Miami. The club would no doubt love to make that happen, but MLS salary rules would make it nigh on impossible.

For the 2023 season, the MLS salary budget is $5,210,000 per team, which excludes DPs and allocation money. Such conservative limits have helped make MLS a financially secure league, but the arrival of Messi (with Busquets and Alba surely not far behind) could serve as an inflection point as to how MLS approaches roster building and spending.
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