USL Leadership Shake Up, NWSL Final Ticket Sales Delayed, and more: Tuesday Freedom Kicks
Morning DC Footy Folk!
I’m glad that the European football season is back. I watch Inter Milan demolish Monza in the Serie A opener. Caught a bit of Liverpool vs Newcastle. I know that Manchester City had an official “Premier League in the USA” watch party in DC. It must’ve been a great viewing experience as the Cityzens came back to win it late in the game. Did anyone get a chance to watch the game at Hook Hall? If so, feel free to share your viewing experience from over the weekend!
Anyways, onto the news!
Amanda Vandervort departs as USL Super League president (ESPN)
Looks like some changes are afoot in the leadership department for the United States’ other Division 1 womens soccer league.
Interesting that they delayed sales by a week. No real explanation has been given. I am still hoping to snag one and catch the final (fingers crossed the hometown team makes it).
Diego Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ ball sells for $3.35 million at auction (Yahoo! Sports)
I did not realize that the referee from the infamous Argentina-England match, Ali Bin Nasser, got to keep the ball. He collected a cool bit of money with that stealthy move (though the person who bought it from him was the one who sold it most recently).
‘Enough is enough’: players pile pressure on under-fire Gianni Infantino to resign (The Guardian)
Many former players are calling for change. One former player though seemingly came to the defense of Infantino though…
Finally an update on the Esther Gonzalez “transfer” to the Saudi League. I think some changes are incoming after that move…
Anyways, that’s all from me folks! See you in the comments!
What Gonzalez did is obviously really shady. In the normal world, Gotham might be able to sue for breach of contract, and maybe even a non-compete clause, And could sue the poaching business for tortious interference.
The soccer world, however, has this very normal process to execute such transfers in employment. If the employer isn’t will ing to simply release the player from the contract to move elsewhere, there’s an expectation that there’s a price that would satisfy them, if the new employer is agreeable to a negotiated or contractual price. The Saudi club and Gonzalez owe Gotham. If FIFA weren’t so corrupt, they might even be able to rely on FIFA to force payment of an appropriate transfer fee.
The whole thing is extremely off
Saudi Arabia gets a headline for their women’s league, but they surely know that the headline would read a lot better if it was “Saudi Women’s League Signs Esther from American Champions, Gotham City.” Given the presence of Kerr on their roster and Esther’s age, this would not have been a hard deal to make, and would have been laughably inexpensive for the sovereign wealth fund.
So, the question is, did Esther do all this knowing they would pay her if she wriggled out of her contract in an underhanded way?
Worth noting, this league in its current form was reportedly was founded in 2020, and in six years, I’ve never once heard a whiff of news about it anywhere. And it’s not particularly clear if they’re interested in showing this league to anyone.
It’s all very tough to interact with, even mentally.
Esther wants to secure her life after her body gives out, but this was a brutal sale.