Tag: ESPN

Categories
Video

Blatteropoly: The ESPN Documentary

SeppBlatter_FIFA

Exquisitely timed for release just ahead of the May 29th FIFA presidential election, ESPN aired an excellent E60 documentary on Sepp Blatter’s governance of world football.

Jeremy Schaap’s piercing investigation deftly uses on-camera interviews with whistleblower Phaedra Almajid, ex-FIFA men like Guido Tognoni, Swiss government officials, and others to probe the murky bid process that granted Qatar hosting rights to the 2022 World Cup. The story digs vigorously into a culture of corruption, fear, intimidation, patronage, and politricks within football’s world body.

Watch the entire show by clicking on each link below:

Part 1: Blatter’s power and Qatar’s World Cup

Part 2: Beginnings of the legend of Blatter

Part 3: Controversy surrounds Blatter’s reign at FIFA

Part 4: Criticism in the UK

Part 5: Challenging Blatter’s power

As an after-viewing treat, I would highly recommend listening to this interview by Sports Illustrated’s Grant Wahl with Jeremy Schaap about making the documentary, lessons learned, and a lot more.

And if you still haven’t had enough, then go ahead and enjoy Last Week Tonight‘s John Oliver lambast the most powerful man in sports! (click here to watch).

Share/Save
Categories
Players

European Soccer Paychecks Top US Sports Wages

ESPN The Magazine’s Money Issue salary survey project reveals that average paychecks of athletes in US professional leagues pale in comparison to the wages of top soccer players in Europe. Barcelona topped the rankings with a total wage bill of $217 million and an average player salary of $8.7 million. Real Madrid’s average wages came in second at about $7.8 million though the club’s total payroll was about $3 million less than the New York Yankees baseball team.

7 of the top 10 highest paying sports teams are European soccer clubs, including Manchester City, Chelsea, AC Milan, Bayern Munich, and Inter. The lowest-paying teams are from Major League Soccer and the Canadian Football League.

The survey was conducted by sportingintelligence.com for ESPN. It accounted for 278 teams in 14 major pro leagues, covering seven sports in 10 countries, comprising 7,925 athletes making a combined $15.69 billion in salary. Read the full article here.

For more information, see Deloitte’s annual report on European soccer revenues here.

Share/Save
Categories
Hosting Video

‘South Africa is coming’



ESPN’s Outside the Lines sent its presenter, Bob Ley, to South Africa to report on the preparations for the World Cup. It is an informative, fair piece in stark contrast with the nonsense published in the UK press, including in The Guardian. You can watch the rest of the report at the program’s website (scroll down and look on the right).

Share/Save