League Notes
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Writer Feels Galaxy Should
Fight Harder For Beckham |
In L.A., Grahame Jones writes if MLS Galaxy MF David Beckham were to stay with Italian Serie A club AC Milan, with whom he is currently on loan, he "might do more for the sport in the U.S. than he did by arriving." Beckham in departing "will focus attention on the shortcomings of MLS and of the Galaxy in particular." If MLS "wants to be taken seriously on a global level, it has to learn how to play the game off the field as well as on it." The Galaxy and team Owner AEG "instead of going into hiding" upon hearing Beckham wants to stay in Milan "could have and should have turned the tables." The two "could have started by saying ... they would expect something in return," but instead, MLS, AEG and the Galaxy "have no one who can match wits" with AC Milan Owner and Italy Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and AC Milan VP Adriano Galliani. AEG President & CEO Tim Leiweke and Co. are, "to put it bluntly, out of their league" (L.A. TIMES, 2/6).
INTRUSIVE CODE: In London, Kevin Eason reports ATP World Tour player Andy Murray Thursday criticized the new world antidoping code that requires top athletes to let authorities know their whereabouts one hour each day to facilitate testing and he "called for a rapid review of the legislation." Murray: "These new rules are so draconian that it makes it almost impossible to live a normal life. I got a visit at 7am one morning at my home right after I had travelled home from Australia. ... It seemed ridiculous to me as I'd been tested just four days earlier, straight after the match I had lost in the Australian Open." Murray added the official who came to his home "wanted me to produced identification to prove who I was." Murray: "He insisted on watching me provide a sample, literally with my trousers round my ankles, and then insisted that I wrote down my own address, even though he was at my private home at 7am" (LONDON TIMES, 2/6).
GIVING BACK: In Manchester, Owen Gibson reported the U.K. government called on the EPL Wednesday "to ensure the proceeds of its next television deal, which could exceed the [US$4.0B] brought in under the existing one, were shared with grassroots sports and community schemes." U.K. Minister of Sport Gerry Sutcliffe said that if the EPL "did succeed in bucking the recession and securing an improved deal, it must prove it was 'committed to sport all the way down'" (Manchester GUARDIAN, 2/5).
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