U.S. SOCCER MARKETING ARM TRYING TO BRING TEAM HOME TO ESPN

          API Soccer, the marketing arm of U.S. Soccer, is
     "continuing its efforts" to bring the four remaining away
     games of the final round of World Cup '98 qualifying to ESPN
     and/or ESPN2, according to Mike Reynolds of INSIDE MEDIA.   
     API Dir of Business Development John Guppy said API has
     encountered "barriers" related to "confusion about who holds
     the rights" in the various nations.  Guppy: "Let's just say
     there are a lot of groups that have been laying claim and
     the business practices are quite different than the way
     things are conducted here in the U.S."  While ESPN has
     secured rights to the U.S. match November 9 in Canada, it
     has not yet secured deals for games in El Salvador, Mexico
     and Costa Rica.  An ESPN spokesperson: "We want to show the
     games and have blocked out time, but there are no deals in
     place yet."  Reynolds adds that sources indicate that
     Univision, which carried the first of these matches in
     Spanish from Jamaica, "may, in fact hold the rights to these
     games 'in all languages' in the U.S." (INSIDE MEDIA, 3/13).