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I used to think people were crazy to complain that foreigners in the Premier League were killing the England national team. But now I think they’re right - only it’s not the foreign players, it’s the foreign owners that are to blame. The massive influx in money (highlighted by the recent madness at Manchester City) has created a culture in the Premier League where winning and staying in all competitions is important not just for the fans and players, but also to the long-term financial health of the club. Meaning that trivial things like World Cup qualifiers and even cup games are given second-class status to Premier League weekend games and European competition.

Take the example of Steven Gerrard’s latest injury. It seems that Gerrard has been playing on a groin injury for a while, even after further aggravating it in a midweek Champion’s League qualifier that Liverpool had to win. So what does Manager Rafa Benitez do? Asks him to gut it out for the weekend Premier League game and then schedule surgery for the international break - which, as you can imagine, did not initially sit well with England Manager Fabio Capello.

Rafa Benitez insisted he had made his peace with England coach Fabio Capello yesterday and dismissed claims of a breakdown in communication over Steven Gerrard’s latest injury absence.

Gerrard will have the second of two minor groin operations today and will miss Capello’s first two competitive games in charge, as England begin their World Cup campaign against Andorra next Saturday and Croatia four days later.

Capello was reportedly unhappy at being kept in the dark over Liverpool’s decision to arrange surgery for their skipper in the immediate aftermath of Wednesday night’s Champions League qualifying round win over Standard Liege.

Now it seems that captain John Terry, Frank Lampard, Owen Hargreaves, Wes Brown, and Ashley Cole will also miss one or both international games - which leaves me wondering how England is expected to get a result against Croatia - the team that will most likely be their toughest competition in the group - in a competition where, unlike Euro 2008 qualifying, winning the group is paramount to qualification. I know it happens on-and-off already, but is this going to get to the point where clubs will start to come up with all kinds of excuses to keep their best players out of all international games?

I suppose the good thing is that some non-regulars like Fulham’s Jimmy Bullard will get a chance to impress Capello. But without some kind of continuity in Capello’s system, how can the team be expected to play as a unit? Some would say Capello should drop the overpaid regulars and give the young England stars more consideration. But Capello seems to have a fondness for a more grizzled England team (see:David Beckham) with Michael Owen the only notable exception.

I say instead of picking an England All-Star team, just send Aston Villa. They seem to be the only Premier League team stockpiling young England talent (Ashley Young, Gabby Agbonlahor, Gareth Barry, Steve Sidwell, Luke Young, Curtis Davies, etc.) and there’ll be no worries about not playing together. I suppose they need to find someone to replace Carew, Laursen, Friedel and a few others, but it would certainly have saved them from paying both Shteve McClaren and Fabio Capello all that money when they could get the guy (Martin O’Neill) they probably should have hired after Sven left. Of course we’ll look past the fact that Villa’s owners are American and their manager is Irish!

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Thanks again to NBC for their tape delay strategy. They sat there on the set of the Today show, where all the news and even the cultural exchange pieces are more watered down than the soda at Magic Johnson’s theaters (allegedly), and talked about “tonight’s closing ceremonies” when they were either happening behind them at the time (8pm local time) or they had pre-taped the entire Today show. God help them if Joe Biden had punched Barack Obama in the mean time - their transitions to and from the news desk would have been way too cheery. Or maybe they taped a “sad” transition too.

Anyways … on to the show - almost a reverse of the Hong Kong handover!

Beckham sets ball rolling towards London 2012

BEIJING, Aug 24 (Reuters) - China unveiled an extravagant farewell to the Olympics on Sunday and David Beckham, the world’s most famous soccer player, said hello by kicking a ball to start the countdown to London 2012.

The appearance of Beckham on top of a red double-decker bus that unfolded into a hedge-clipped silhouette of London sent 91,000 fans into a frenzy in the futuristic Bird’s Nest stadium.

A grinning Beckham kicked the ball off the top of the bus into the hands of a delighted Games volunteer.

The London segment was woven into a spectacular closing ceremony that wrapped up a $43 billion Games designed to showcase China’s might, modernity and sporting prowess.

… as well as their authoritarian rule, communist culture of cheating, and their opposition to free press and protest.

A ring of fireworks exploded round the rim of the stadium. Two giant drums were hoisted into the sky with two pairs of suspended drummers thumping out a hypnotic beat.

The stadium was turned into a kaleidscope of glittering colours with 200 acrobats taking giant leaps and somersaulting across a stage on spring-heeled stilts.

Launching a huge party to wrap up the greatest sporting show on earth, thousands of athletes poured in from all four corners of the stadium, blowing kisses and waving flags.

The towering figure of Chinese basketball player Yao Ming was seen grinning from ear to ear.

Beckham, brought up in east London, hailed Beijing’s success but told Reuters before the ceremony: “I’m sure we will be better than them, without a doubt.”

From what I understand, while the organization was crisp and the visuals were stunning (in some cases, unbelievable - literally), the place was dead. There was no party atmosphere that you might have found in Barcelona or Sydney. So in that respect, I’m sure the world’s new financial capital will excel. It’s hard to party with secret police everywhere and the threat of being sent for “re-education’ at a labor camp more apparent than the smog.

Britain’s eight-minute chance to tell the world what the London Games would offer the world in 2012 featured guitarist Jimmy Page, who launched into the riff from “Whole Lotta Love”.

He was joined in the Led Zeppelin classic by TV talent show winner and chart-topping singer Leona Lewis.

Queen Elizabeth also sanctioned a choral version of “God Save The Queen” backed by lush string arrangements.

otherwise known to me using the lyrics of ol’ Samuel Francis Smith:

My country tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died!
Land of the Pilgrim’s pride!
From every mountain side,
Let freedom ring!

USA! USA! USA! … err … I mean … Come On, London!

Even though I was glad to see the Jamaican sprinters, our men’s and women’s basketball teams and our women’s soccer team (despite adversity) win gold , as well as Misty May (yum), I’m hope to never have watch another soccer game or basketball game on NBC. I mean, does it really hurt to have the score up in the corner all the time? That was 1997 technology, for pete’e sake!

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• Axe Becks and play Rooney | The Sun |Sport|Football http://tinyurl.com/5fdv3j “Redknapp said: ‘Wayne would do damage on the right.’” #
• Amazon.com: SanDisk 8GB microSDHC Card (SDSDQ-8192, Bulk Package): Electronics http://tinyurl.com/4j8q6f $23.60 #

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I always knew “Spice Up Your Life” was a thinly veiled anthem for Marxism

A German hobby historian says he’s discovered that Posh Spice is a descendant of a Heilbronn, Germany communist who was close to Karl Marx.

Hans Müller, 72, says he has been researching the Pfänder family for years, but recently discovered that Carl Heinrich Pfänder (1819-1876), the son of a Heilbronn cooper who emigrated to London after taking part in the worker’s movement, is former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham’s great-great-great-grandfather. The communist revolutionary from southwest Germany was an artist and painted miniatures for work in London.

Born Victoria Adams, Beckham is famous for her flashy lifestyle, but her German roots are humble. Pfänder “didn’t get rich,” Müller said. “His wife was buried in a pauper’s grave in London.”

According to Müller, Posh’s forefather left Germany for London because it had “become a bit tight politically.”

“He participated in the 1848 revolution and was with Friedrich Engels at the famous battle in Waghäusl,” Müller said, adding that the revolutionary had also belonged to communist organizations in London.

Müller, who travelled to London three times in the course of his research, says he also discovered that football star David Beckham’s wife has musical roots too. Pfänder’s brother Wilhelm was choral singer and revolutionary who was also active in the revolution and emigrated to America in 1848, going on to become state treasurer in Minnesota.

Müller has been in touch with the pop star’s mother Jaqueline, who confirmed his assertions and promised to tell her daughter, he said.

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• Arsene Wenger could leave Arsenal for PSG http://tinyurl.com/5tsa4o “… at the end of his current contract in 2011″ - from The Telegraph #
• http://tinyurl.com/48sb3e “A former army sergeant, Wenger’s friend [Charles] Villeneuve was a shock appointment as PSG president this week.” #
• http://tinyurl.com/48sb3e “[Michel] Moulin was appointed director of sport of PSG in April…claims Wenger is being lined up for the role.” #
• http://tinyurl.com/48sb3e “Sebastien Bazin - The managing director of Colony Capital who own 62.5 percent of PSG….met Wenger last summer” #
• http://tinyurl.com/4wvk76 “[Wenger] already established close links w/ PSG and played an influential role in their restructuring this week.” #
• England exclusive - US and FA both want David Beckham for world cup bids - Sunday Mirror http://tinyurl.com/4pb88c #

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You know - I see a lot written and said about how Arsenal with their foreign manager and lack of English talent are ruining the Premier League and the soul of English football. Similar comments were made when Fabio Capello was hired as England manager - xenophobic, to be sure. Then when the Premier League unveiled their plan to go International, the same complaints came up yet again. But why? Sue Mott wrote an interesting article in the Telegraph proclaiming that while Premier League boss Richard Scudamore was a blight on the soul of the game for the average fan, he was no idiot, and that there must be something afoot. Something on the order of stemming a breakaway league or an individual TV rights:

There is no doubt that Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool would find a lucrative market abroad. With their glossy foreign players and three out of four foreign managers, the next logical step would be to have training bases and matches abroad, perhaps one day soon? in a global Super League which invites the likes of Real Madrid, Inter Milan and, if money is the only language, LA Galaxy to join in.

Perhaps this is the vision that terrifies the Premier League stragglers, all 16 of them. They fear the day that the supreme artists of domestic football, the money-makers and rakers of the Premier League, move on to a more natural habitat on the French Riviera or a purposely-bought Caribbean Island. Anything to cling on to the coattails of that little goldmine. Anything is better than languishing in the remnants of decapitated, land-locked English football.

Look at it. Manchester United have record revenues but profits only enough to cover their enormous debt. Chelsea is seemingly never going to balance the books and keep winning titles. Liverpool is as mortgaged as the entire west coast of California. Then you have Alex Ferguson ducking out after his city came to a standstill to honor their fallen so he could promote a tour in South Africa or wherever it was … only a few weeks after taking his team to play a testimonial in Saudi Arabia in the middle of a week of a busy season. These new foreign owners are not about breaking even. They’re about making a profit, and doing it in whatever way possible. Including an integrity-compromised 39th fixture.

As an Arsenal supporter, it would be nice to have more access to my team here in the US, but I understand. However, it should be noted that of the Big 4, Arsenal are the only ones with majority English ownership and direction, a solid business and operating structure, and with an Academy producing English talent that aren’t hemorrhaging cash and chasing dollars 4 and 5 timezones away. As Obi Wan in Star Wars would say, “These are not the droids you are looking for.”

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David Beckham has gotten a lot of flack for not giving back to the soccer community in the US: LA Times’ TJ Simers: So much for Beckham being a voice for MLS (PDF)

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