ATLETICO DE MADRID NEWS - LAST DAYS FOR MARTIN PETROV?

ATLETICO DE MADRID 28 year old Bulgarian winger MARTINPETROV may have his days counted at the club & in Spanish Football.The winger has´nt lived up to expectations & a terrible knee injurylast season did´nt help at all his situation. Perhaps the two known& publicized offers from English Premier League teams MANCHESTERCITY & TOTTENHAM could be the change of airs that he needs. Thelatter club is

SPANISH FOOTBALL NEWS BRIEFS

Spanish & ex- Deportivo & Mallorca forward DIEGO TRISTAN of31 years of age has signned for Italian club LIVORNO for the nextseasonNews from Italy, concretely from "La Gazzetta Dello Sport", publishcomments from INTER MILAN defender MARCO MATERAZZI werehe advises his club & REAL MADRID player EMERSON to forget aboutsignning for Inter.According to Materazzi, Emerson made offensive comments about

The Influence of Fox v. FCC on Sports Broadcasts

We are pleased to announce that Mark Conrad will be guest blogging in early August. Mark is an associate professor of legal and ethical studies at Fordham University’s Schools of Business, and has written extensively on sports law and business.

Last week, he published an op-ed in the Sports Business Journal entitled "Court's Indecency Ruling a Relief to Sports Broadcasters." The piece examines Fox v. FCC, a decision handed down last month by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that makes it more difficult for the Federal Communications Commission to fine broadcasters, including sports broadcasters, for broadcasting swears uttered by players and fans. Mark's piece is subscription only, but here is an excerpted version:

In the equivalent of a technical knockout, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit handed the FCC a stinging defeat when a majority concluded that the agency’s 2003 rules expanding the definition of “indecency” and “profanity” to isolated instances known as “fleeting expletives” were “arbitrary and capricious.” According to the majority opinion in the 2-1 ruling, the commission’s explanations did not justify such an expansion. The ruling forced the agency to come up with a more compelling justification, one that the judges doubted the FCC could do.

For those radio and television sports rights holders, the specter of six-figure fines for four-letter words resulted in a series of difficult decisions, such as the use of time delays or otherwise “sanitizing” the production by avoiding miking to produce as “safe” a broadcast as possible.

With the ruling in Fox v. FCC, all broadcasters, but particularly sports broadcasters, can breathe a sigh of relief. Think of the implications if the court had upheld the commission’s claim that a fleeting expletive violates indecency and profanity restrictions. Those of us who remember John McEnroe not only recall his tennis exploits, but also his argumentative skills. More than once his protests against officials were laced with profanities, some of which were heard live by millions. If these rants had occurred in 2006 instead of 1986, broadcasters likely would have been sanctioned, to the tune of up to $325,000 per violation under the 2006 Broadcast Indecency Enforcement Act, where Congress raised the maximum fine for an indecency infraction tenfold to $325,000.

Let’s think of the ramifications of this interpretation in the context of a sports broadcast. What if fans start yelling four-letter words while protesting a call and the public can hear those protests? What if a microphone picks up the sounds of players cursing? Or the game officials? Each of these events, coupled with the increased fines under the 2006 Decency in Broadcasting Act, chills the broadcaster’s First Amendment rights, but is discriminatory as well, since cable and satellite programming is not subject to the indecency standards.

But sports broadcasters should note that the 2nd Circuit’s ruling represents a temporary victory. It did not address the constitutional questions, but rather focused on the lack of evidence for the FCC’s conclusions. The court gave the FCC the opportunity to justify the rules. And if the FCC wishes, it may either seek a rehearing in front of the entire body of judges in the federal appeals court or an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Mark concludes his piece by proposing that "if Congress enacts legislation expanding indecency to cable and satellite, let it create a special exemption, a legislative waiver of liability for live sports broadcasts."

For related posts on the FCC's regulation of sports, see Greg's "CBS Apologizes for Halftime Show Ending" (2/1/2004) and Howard's "New Sports Media v. Old Sports Media" (4/17/2007). For a number of related posts on free speech in sports, see this link. Howard also has an excellent law review article on that topic, "Free Expression and the Wide World of Sports."

SPANISH FOOTBALL TRANSFER MARKET TALK

Plenty of news today focused, as usual, on REAL MADRID & thetransfer market rumours.ARSENAL has rejected, according to "AS", the Real Madrid offerof 10M€ for JOSE ANTONIO REYES & is currently negotiatingwith LYON.The player is currently in his home town of Sevilla awaiting theoutcome of negotiations. Reyes wishes deseparately to stay in Spain& with Real Madrid.This situation has´nt gone unnoticed

My Perfect All-Time MLB Starting Lineup

This is partly just a way for me to say who I think the best overall player at each position, and partly because I think it's cool to see how people would arrange a lineup when they could use anyone that ever played in the MLB. For the sake of historial accuracy, no DH will be used, and I will just have a pitcher 9th. Anyway, here is my lineup:

1. LF Ted Williams - Williams isn't really a conventional leadoff man in the sense that he doesn't steal bases, but that's no matter. Some of his power is wasted by the fact that he's batting first, but he was so good at getting on base that he'd be the perfect leadoff man. His OBP was a staggering .482... simply put, he was one of the 2 greatest hitters to ever live.

2. SS Honus Wagner - The Flying Dutchman is the greatest SS ever and one of the best hitters of his time. In today's context, his .391 OBP and .466 SLG aren't eye-popping numbers, but he did lead the NL in OPS 8 different times. Also, his 722 career SB help make up for the relative lack of speed from Ted Williams in the leadoff spot.

3. RF Babe Ruth - The best hitter of all-time. He got on base for than anyone else not named Ted Williams, and he hit for more power than anyone ever. I'm not sure you'd find too many people to argue against this.

4. 1B Lou Gehrig - The 3-4 combo of the Yankees of the 20s and 30s my 3-4 in the lineup here. I think Gehrig was pretty easily the best 1B of all-time, and the hitting numbers bear that out. Like the Babe, he was a guy that got on base at a prolific rate and also hit for a ton of power. His OPS is the 3rd highest in MLB history, behind only Williams and Ruth. Plus, if nothing else, he's pretty inspirational.

5. CF Willie Mays - We've already been over who is the best CF of all-time, but just as a recap, I would say Mantle had the highest peak, but Mays and Cobb were the two best over their careers. Of those two, I'd pick Mays by a smidgen. And I think he'd fit in nicely in the 5 spot.

6. 3B Mike Schmidt - Schmidt was only a .267 career hitter, but he had a good eye at the plate, and as his 548 career HR shows, a good amount of power. He led the NL in SLG 5 times in his career.

7. C Mike Piazza - He had his problems defensively but it's tough to overlook what he does offensively. He's the best hitting catcher ever. He had a career average of .309, but he also showed good patience (.379 OBP) and lots of power for a catcher. He has over 400 career HR and slugged .548 for his career.

8. 2B Rogers Hornsby - Many have made good cases for Joe Morgan, but I am still a Rogers Hornsby guy. He was just an unbelievable hitter. Career .358 average, but he did a lot more. He took a decent amount of walks, and he hit for good power, leading the league in slugging 9 times. In my mind he is the best 2B ever.

9. P Walter Johnson - The Big Train was the best pitcher to ever step on the mound... one of the greatest peaks ever (I might argue Pedro's was higher) and he did it for a long time. Just phenomenal. To add to his goodness, he was even a .235 hitter, so he won't be an automatic out either.

What are your thoughts? What would your lineup look like?

LIST OF 25 PLAYERS PUBLISHED FOR UPCOMING U/17 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

The list of 25 players called up to prepare for the upcoming U/17WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS to be held in KOREA from the 13.08 untilthe 9.09 has been officially published.SPAIN is the current EUROPEAN U/17 Champions & the chosen 25players, mostly from the European Champion Squad, have been calledup to be later "fine tuned"to just 21 players to travel towards Korea.Here are the list of players:Alberto

Baseball Draft Bonuses Down This Year Despite Skyrocketing Revenues

In the June 25 - July 1 issue of Sports Business Journal (subscription only), Liz Mullen reports that the MLBPA is investigating complaints from agents that major league clubs are being threatened by MLB to negotiate "league-recommended" signing bonuses for this year’s amateur draft picks that are about 10 percent lower than last year’s bonuses ("Baseball union reviews complaints"). However, MLB executive VP Rob Manfred denied that clubs were being told that recommended amounts were mandatory and that clubs were being threatened with penalties if they didn't sign the player for the recommended amount. But he did tell Mullen that the recommended amounts overall were "roughly 10 percent" below last year's recommendations due to the changes in the CBA negotiated late last year, which increased clubs' leverage in negotiating contracts with draft picks. According to Manfred, "Because of that increased leverage, we fully expect that (clubs) would pay less." Last October, I discussed these negotiated changes, which include: (1) clubs that fail to sign their first or second round draft pick will receive the same pick in the subsequent draft as compensation, and (2) pushing the signing deadline back to August 15. [However, I reviewed the 220 plus page document and did not find these provisions. These changes can most likely be found in the Major League Rules, which are adopted by the league.]

I've always thought that the baseball draft operates like the "wild west" because there are rules in place that are consistently violated and nobody cares. For example, scouts and agents frequently violate the rules by engaging in "pre-draft dealing," meaning that the scout and agent verbally agree on a signing bonus amount prior to the draft. But then, these verbal agreements are not legally enforceable anyways. Also, the baseball draft is unique from the other sports because agents working on behalf of players don't even have signed representation agreements (the draft takes place during the college baseball post-season and signing agreements with agents jeopardizes their NCAA eligibility). In baseball, agents also consistently violate the NCAA rules by communicating and negotiating directly with the clubs before and after the draft.

And getting to the subject of this post, my "lawyer brain" has also never understood this concept of "league recommended bonuses" in baseball. These recommended bonuses are sometimes referred to as "slot money," meaning that the player gets the league recommended bonus amount for the slot (or pick) in which the player was drafted. Each year the league has discretion to set the amounts of these recommended bonuses, yet the clubs are not required to adhere to the league recommended bonus amounts. And if a club suffers adverse consequences by the league for paying a player more than the recommended bonus amount, it would constitute a violation of the CBA. So then in that event, do the league recommended bonuses have any teeth? By the way, is anybody asking themselves at this point, if the clubs have greater leverage this year as a result of the new CBA revisions, then why would it be necessary for the league to even reduce the recommended amounts from last year, let alone threaten the clubs?

Well, amazingly (sarcasm), bonuses are in fact down exactly 10 percent this year across the board! Baseball America reported last week that "all 15 first-round picks who have come to terms have signed for slot money or less, and all of those slots have represented a 10 percent reduction from the 2006 slots." [I think they should just rename recommended bonuses as "restraints on trade."] Mullen noted that "compensation for rookies in other major American sports has been increasing, but agents say that signing bonuses for baseball players selected in the amateur draft have been down or flat in the last few years despite skyrocketing MLB revenue." Although approximately half of the players in the first round have yet to sign and there is still three weeks left until the signing deadline, I wouldn't expect the remaining bonuses to be much more than slot money when clubs will now get an additional draft pick in the same slot next year if they don't sign them this year.