Football is an interesting sports in the world sports arena. This blog is going to deliver some posts about Football it's a game and recreational sport. If you are a football star you have possibilities to become a billionaire. Test your opportunities and try your luck!
Over the past few decades, the NBA has witnessed a significant increase in the number of international players making their mark on the league. This influx of global talent has not only enriched the game but also transformed the NBA landscape in various ways.
One of the primary reasons for the rise of international players in the NBA is the evolution of the NBA G League. Since its inception in 2001, the G League has become an indispensable part of the NBA’s player development strategy, providing a platform for young players from around the world to develop their skills and gain valuable experience. With 29 teams affiliated with NBA franchises, the G League fosters a seamless transition and collaboration between the two leagues, contributing to the development of players like Danny Green, Hassan Whiteside, and Pascal Siakam.
NBA franchises have recognized the potential of international talent and are investing more resources into scouting and developing players from around the globe. This includes providing top-notch facilities, coaching staff, and development programs for their affiliate teams in the G League. As a result, the G League has become a hub for experimentation, with teams exploring new player development strategies, data analytics, and technologies to identify and nurture international talent.
The rise of international players in the NBA has also contributed to the globalization of the game. With players hailing from various countries and cultures, the league has become more diverse and inclusive, attracting fans from all corners of the world. This has led to the NBA expanding its reach through international partnerships, broadcasting deals, and the establishment of NBA academies in countries like India, China, and Africa.
As international players continue to make their mark on the NBA, the league’s landscape is being reshaped in several ways. The infusion of global talent has led to a more competitive and dynamic league, with teams adapting their strategies and playing styles to accommodate the diverse skill sets of their players. Additionally, the success of international players has inspired a new generation of young athletes from around the world to pursue their dreams of playing in the NBA, further solidifying the league’s status as a global powerhouse in sports.
The company says the move, planned since last year, is unrelated to boycott calls against it amid Israel’s war on Gaza.
Sports brand Puma will stop sponsoring Israel’s national football team in 2024, according to a company spokesperson.
The move was planned since last year and is not related to consumer boycott calls against Israel amid the Gaza war, the spokesperson for the German sportswear firm said on Tuesday.
Puma has long faced boycott calls over its brand alliance with the Israel Football Association (IFA), but such calls have intensified during Israel’s two-month offensive in Gaza, which has killed more than 18,000 Palestinians.
In a statement emailed to the Reuters news agency, a Puma spokesperson said the company’s contracts with several federations, including Serbia and Israel, were due to expire in 2024 and would not be renewed.
The spokesperson said Puma would soon announce deals with several new national teams, as part of its “fewer-bigger-better strategy”.
An internal Puma memo viewed by the Financial Times, which first reported the news, also confirmed the shake-up.
The memo said Puma would continue to “evaluate all other existing partnerships as well as any other upcoming opportunities to ensure we have a strong roster of national teams”, the newspaper reported.
Puma first signed its contract with the IFA to provide kit to players in 2018.
Since then, the company has faced boycott calls from activists, who say the IFA also includes teams based in Jewish-only settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are illegal under international law.
Global firms supportive of Israel have faced growing boycott calls by the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) movement before and during the Gaza war.
Earlier this week, fashion company Zara pulled an advertising campaign from its website after it drew a backlash for appearing to mimic scenes of suffering in Gaza and sparked boycott calls from pro-Palestine activists.
Roll up, roll up and welcome to the Lionel Messi show, currently the hottest ticket in the USA. A flash in the pan or finally a changing of the guard in American sport?
America is in the grip of Messi madness after he signed for Inter Miami from Paris St-Germain in the summer. Football in the country has been here before. But never quite like this.
The timing could not have been better with the Copa America taking place there next year and the final set to be played in Miami at the Hard Rock Stadium on July 14. The Club World Cup is due to be held in the States in 2025, and what will be the biggest World Cup yet is coming to the USA, Canada and Mexico in 2026.
When it comes to a well-oiled machine looking to promote and grow a brand, nobody does it better than the USA. With all this marked in, plus the possibility that the country could also be hosting the next Women's World Cup in 2027, it's safe to say that if football - sorry, soccer - doesn't take off in the USA after all that, then it is difficult to imagine when it ever will.
Will the arrival into Major League Soccer of Messi, regarded by many as the greatest player in the history of the game, finally burn an indelible brand into America's sports-mad psyche and establish its place alongside team sports like American football, basketball or baseball, or will it turn out to be another false dawn?
How has Messi's arrival changed Inter Miami and the MLS?
If there's one thing American sports fans adore more than the teams they support it is the passion they feel for superstars playing for them. Think Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, Wayne Gretzky and you get the idea. Now add the name Lionel Messi.
The New York Red Bulls have offered a special offer holiday ticket promotion involving next season's home opener and the derby against rival New York City FC. But there's a catch. If the first match sees them drawn against Inter Miami, it won't count as part of the deal. Written in small print alongside the offer are the words, "If RBNY plays Inter Miami CF in the home opener, each home opener ticket will be replaced with a ticket to RBNY's 2nd home match."
The name 'Lionel Messi' doesn't feature but then it doesn't really have to. Surely no team will be including Inter Miami tickets in cheap seats deals in the new season
No-one at club or league level was prepared for the effect Messi's signing would have on them.
Season ticket packages for next season are coming out at double what they were in 2023, which makes Inter Miami one of the most expensive tickets in the world - and this for a league not generally considered to be among the top level worldwide.
The club's Instagram account has gone from one million followers to 15 million.
If you want to catch the little magician when Inter Miami play away from home be prepared to dig deep.
For example, if you had wanted to watch Columbus Crew this year you could do so for as little as $40. Next season they will be charging a minimum of $382 for a seat in the 'nosebleed' section for the visit of Inter Miami, going up to $680.
If you happened to be in Orlando visiting Mickey Mouse and fancied catching a game, then last season you could have watched the locals for around $97. If you're in town when Leo visits Orlando City next season, be prepared to shell out more than $1,500 for a seat on the secondary market.
Ticket prices have skyrocketed in the MLS as fans have flocked to watch Ballon d'Or winner Lionel Messi
The atmosphere at games borders on the surreal. No-one is really watching the game other than through the participation of Messi.
If he is 50 metres from the ball everyone is still watching him. When he walks up to take a corner it is celebrated almost like a goal. It is almost like watching an event, a happening, that is occurring within another event.
What about buying a shirt then? Good luck!
Such is the frenzy for buying replica shirts that Adidas are struggling to meet demand in certain sizes. Even for next season.
And if you can find a shirt - and apparently even Inter Miami co-owner David Beckham has been finding it tricky to get some to give to people as gifts - there is logically a dearth of the numbers 1 and 0 and the letters M, E, S and I.
Pre Messi, Inter Miami had a stadium with plenty of empty seats. An extra stand was built to accommodate demand for when he arrived.
New stadium and new approach from all involved with Inter Miami
Construction has now begun on the Inter Miami CF stadium, set in a 58-acre public park, and scheduled to open in 2025.
The team's budget has gone from $60m to $300m and tickets are sold out within minutes whenever Inter Miami play - home or away.
Michelle Kaufman has been a sportswriter for around 35 years, most of which has been spent writing predominantly about soccer for the Miami Herald.
"My life was a lot quieter and less complicated before this man arrived in my life," she told me when we met up recently in Miami at a Soccerex exhibition.
"I'm spending about as much time focusing on him as I am my husband which is probably not a good thing.
"There is a Messi cult following that I have never seen before. I am doing a podcast on him and I have people watching it from Gabon, from Tangier [in Morocco]. I'm looking at the map and wondering where these countries are."
The Inter Miami press office has never had to deal with anything like it - not only the best player in the world, but also a celebrity.
So how are things going for Messi since he arrived?
Messi certainly hit the floor running.
In front of a capacity crowd of 20,000, including the likes of LeBron James, Serena Williams and Kim Kardashian watching on from luxury suites, he scored a stoppage time free-kick winner to seal a 2-1 win over Liga MX side Cruz Azul.
When he arrived the team were languishing at the bottom of the MLS table.
Less than a month after his arrival, he scored a screamer to earn a draw against Nashville in the Leagues Cup final to secure the club's first piece of silverware after a 10-9 win on penalties.
Buoyed by cup success, Messi's Miami went on a 12-match unbeaten run to force themselves into contention for a play-off place that would have been almost unthinkable when he arrived.
In the end it was a bridge too far, especially after a muscle injury caused Messi to miss six games in September and early October.
This is now a side transformed after a roller coaster of a campaign. Failure to make it into the play-offs means he can now look forward to the longest holiday break he has ever had.
He will have about a month and a half off, although that will be interspersed with games for his country. The dream for many football fans is that Messi will remain in contention for Argentina at the 2026 World Cup.
Off the pitch, things are going well, although the US media expected more appearances from him.
He did only one press conference when he arrived and sports media are used to more regular contact. That said, he has spoken more than ever, twice after a game for Apple TV, five individual interviews after the August press conference, as well as in the big presentation on his arrival.
If the media want more from him then they are going to be disappointed.
Messi, the Inter Miami captain
He now has the captain's armband, although it was not what he wanted but rather something that was thrust upon him.
And with the surging demand for anything Messi-related that can fill column inches and air time, going out in public is proving difficult. When he first arrived he was pictured visiting the supermarket. This is no longer possible because everybody knows he is in town, even those that do not follow football.
Meanwhile, he is committed to the Miami cause. He flew to Paris for the Ballon d'Or ceremony, arriving at 8am on the Monday and flying back to Miami immediately afterwards in the first minutes of the Tuesday to be back for training.
He has also joined the players' Whatsapp group, where he has shared some of his match tickets with those that need them. He even handed a penalty to his team-mate and forward Josef Martinez because he had been going through a spell without scoring.
At home, his wife Antonella is helping him settle, finding things out about Miami, such as the best places to eat and enjoy, as well as honing his look and his image off the pitch. He is more confident these days, he has found his place in the world.
They were no strangers to Miami and the Messis have got an impressive property in the area that they have rented for years.
He has been reunited with former Barca team-mates Jordi Alba and Sergi Busquets, while Luis Suarez will almost certainly also soon join them.
His time in Paris was not the happiest of his life. The fans didn't get him. But now things are different and his next club target will be to go looking for victory for Inter Miami in MLS.
The future of MLS and the importance of Messi in guaranteeing it
Despite great personalities and events like the 1994 World Cup, football has never really 'arrived' in the USA to the extent that many thought that it would.
How big is the arrival of Messi in MLS? Fernando Palomo, ESPN sports anchor and one of the most respected commentators on football, has no doubts: "It is one of the biggest revolutions in the world of sport that this country has seen in decades," he said.
But even he stops short of confirming that the Argentine superstar's arrival into MLS will prove to be the game's upward tipping point.
He said: "I live in a small town in Connecticut and people that don't talk to me about football have approached me not only to talk about football but to tell me that they have already bought the Messi jersey, which kind of tells you where it's landed and how it's impacted this game."
Palomo adds it is much bigger than when Beckham came over but that "time will tell" if it really makes football in America take off.
"At least the game is in a better place than it ever has been," he said.
Ultimately, American sports fans' emphasis on the individual rather than the team could make it difficult for the game to grow to where many believe it should in the United States.
Coverage: Listen to commentary on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Radio Ulster; live text commentary and post-match video highlights on the BBC Sport website and app.
England head coach Eddie Jones says "poison" about playing style must be removed from players' minds before Saturday's game against Ireland.
The 2020 Six Nations champions found their best form in this year's tournament so far to claim a thrilling victory against France last weekend.
But they cannot retain the title after defeats by Scotland and Wales.
"There's a story around the game," Jones told BBC Sport. "You guys fill players' heads full of poison."
Jones was referring to the praise his England team earned for the way they played against France, in contrast to earlier performances in the tournament.
He added: "We're trying to take the poison out of it."
Jones believes the match in Dublin could be more attritional than the free-flowing win against France.
"We know what the game is going to be like, we've got an idea," he continued.
"But sometimes when all the narrative is about 'fantastic, free-flowing, this is how we want to play all the time' - that seeps into players' heads."
Following England's win against Italy in their second match, former captain Matt Dawson said the side lacked "an attacking instinct".
But Jones' men appeared to turn things around against France, with Dawson calling the win a "lightbulb moment" for the team.
"The expectation is that the next game is going to be like that - that it's going to be free-flowing," Jones continued.
"But generally speaking, when you've played like that in a game, the opposition will try to take that away from you in the next game, so it becomes a tough, grinding affair.
"I'm not criticising what the media does and the fans have got to have their own opinion. Of course they're entitled to their opinion but the reality of the game is different to that.
"Sometimes you've got to win ugly. Do you think the players put their body on the line because they want to play terrible rugby?
"We all want to play good rugby but sometimes it doesn't happen like that."
France and Scotland's round three fixture was postponed, leaving them with an extra game still to play
Daly for Slade 'like for like'
Centre Henry Slade - a key component in England's attack - will miss the Dublin game through injury and is replaced in the starting XV by Elliot Daly.
Daly usually plays at full-back for Jones but was demoted to the bench against France, replaced by Max Malins who will remain at 15 for the Ireland game.
Jones said the choice to move Daly to the centre was in anticipation of a "strong aerial battle".
"It's a like for like selection," he explained. "We feel like having a left-footer at 13, which Slade gave us, will be handy. Elliot is a high work-rate player which is important in a kicking game."
Benjamin James Chilwell is an English professional footballer who plays as a left-back for Premier League club Chelsea and the England national team. Wikipedia
The next chance to do that comes on Wednesday night at the Bridge when the Blues will look to build on our lead from the away leg against Atletico Madrid.
‘One-nil away was a good result but we are only halfway done,’ says Chilwell, ‘and if we can get that win then that will be massive for that final push going into the last stretch of the season.
The run of results,
which has included eight wins and four draws, has restored the Blues into a
top-four position in the Premier League, it has us with a first-leg lead in our
Champions League tie with Atletico Madrid, and it has earned a place in the
quarter-finals of the FA Cup.
Chilwell, who helped keep a clean sheet in our
most recent game – the 0-0 draw at Leeds on Saturday – has been personally affected
by the stiff competition for a starting shirt, with Marcos Alonso’s increased
involvement meaning reduced minutes on the pitch for the England left-back
compared with earlier in the season, but he can see the strong squad
benefitting the club as a whole.
‘The manager has come in and every weekend going
into the game no one knows who is going to be starting and in what position,
and that is a positive thing because we have a massive squad of very talented
players who are all fighting for 11 spots.
‘That just brings the best out in all of us
because in training everyone is fighting for one of those starting shirts. That
is why coming into the weekend we are sharp and defensively we are doing well,
and that is why we are unbeaten
‘We
have been training hard. Tactically the manager is spot on. Defensively we do
look solid and I can’t put my finger on what it is apart from we are training
hard and everyone is fighting for 11 spots and everyone is getting a game. It
is important that we are getting clean sheets but on the flip side we want to
be scoring more goals and winning more games.’
Chilwell admitted straight after the game at
Leed that he should have scored with at least one of the chances
that came his way.
‘I’ve had a few chances that I probably should have scored and I think that is
the same for a lot of people in attacking positions,’ he adds.
‘Once we get up there we need to be a bit more clinical. ‘We need to get more
bodies in the box and try to be a bit more clinical with the final pass and the
final shot.’
BEN CHILWELL ON THE
ATTACK AT LEEDS
The
next chance to do that comes on Wednesday night at the Bridge when the Blues
will look to build on our lead from the away leg against Atletico Madrid.
‘One-nil away was a good result but we are only halfway done,’ says Chilwell,
‘and if we can get that win then that will be massive for that final push going
into the last stretch of the season.’
