Berlusconi is kind of like a Trump. He may not have his money but for Italy and the Milan Lombardy region as well as the rest of Northern Italy, he is king. Monza was an easy purchase for him. He may do well with them but not sure how much he can win. As soon as you go south of Florence , you start getting into rough waters. From Rome on down everything is controlled by organized crime. They keep saying they clean it up bla bla bla but it’s never the case. Doing things in the Lazio region into Naples takes a miracle. You always have to give a guy a little black bag of cash with no questions asked. Forget about Puglia , Calabria and Sicily. Maurizio Zamparini Who came from the north , bought Palermo in 2003 and they maintained their Serie A status until maybe 5-6 years ago. The only reason he bought the club was because he made pacts with the local mafiosi to put his grocery chain and retail mall in the region. I think he finally got it done and then in the end bailed or sold the club. Now they are in the 3rd or 4th division I believe. The only reason Parmalat’s Parma owned by Calisto Tanzi was winning all his trophies was because he defrauded everyone in a Ponzi scheme. I think he is now about to get out of jail but not before he bankrupted them club. The only teams who win anything in Italy are Milan , Inter and Juventus. The rest are just along for the ride.
Yeah, he delivered a long tirade about how MLS "just isn't worth" the expansion fee and that NASL was "a better league" and then came back a year or two later and paid 3 times more. But Joey is an.imbecile of the first water who makes Anthony Precourt look like a genius. I've always suspected.that the Saputo family backed him in the team and stadium in order to keep him busy and out of the family business where he might actually do real damage.
Traffic Sports was tied in with the NASL revival and they were rolled up in the FIFA scandal New York Cosmos and NASL working to survive as league meetings open https://www.espn.com/soccer/new-yor...th-working-to-survive-as-league-meetings-open "Much of the NASL's funding came from a now-disgraced sports marketing firm, Traffic Sports USA, who at one time had ownership stakes in three teams. When Traffic USA president Aaron Davidson, who also was chairman of the league's Board of Governors, was indicted for his part in the FIFA corruption scandal, his involvement with the league ceased."
I actually remember teams like Palermo, Livorno, Siena and Cesena that were in the Serie A but aren't anymore due to corruption and financial problems. Its sad how much dirty stuff goes around Italian football.
There is corruption all over Europe. South and Latin America are even worse but no one notices or cares about them that much. The thing is the Italians keep getting caught because someone sings. Other places like Turkey , former Yugoslavia , Poland , Russia , Greece and other Eastern nations for example won’t dare to talk. It happened in Spain , France and England historically as well but they also kept silent about it.
According to Forbes Berlusconi is worth twice as much as Trump. He's an Italian Trump and Murdoch combined.
And when he ran and won office, he lost a lot of money. He was/is also very much hated by the left wing and leftists media in Italy while in office. Still is. When I was there, the Tuscans hated him but then Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna or rather Livorno, Firenze -Bologna is the home regions of the Italian Communist Party and they all hate capitalists like Berlusconi and Trump. I'll never forget when the union organizers all went on strike , shut down the towns because they were trying to overturn a law that would enable employers to layoff their employees. I remember everyone parading with their Red Communist hammer and sickle flags handing out prosciutto sandwiches. I recall thinking to myself, I wish someone would have went on strike for me when I got laid off from my Silicon Valley job 6 months earlier...Marco Biagi was killed outside his home in Bologna 3 months later due to his role as an economic advisor for trying to pass the law set forth by Berlusconi who was in charge at the time....I must say, I sure don't miss Italy'! The more I look back and thinking what I went through, I don't understand what made Commisso buy Fiorentina. I know he first wanted to buy AC Milan and that deal fell through. He probably will have had better luck with them than the Viola. Nothing ever changes in Italy.
Traffic Sports founder and CEO Jose Hawilla was indicted for a laundry list of bribery and graft charges and agreed to pay $150 million in restitution to avoid going to prison. But he was old and sick and the US really didn't want to pay his medical bills anyway. He died in, IIRC, 2018 Aaron Davidson, former head of NASL and Traffic Executive, was also charged with a raft of bribery crimes, but became the governments chief stool pigeon in a desperate attempt to avoid prison but he too ended up suffering from cancer. He did pay a five million dollar fine but didn't go to jail either. Former Traffic exec and architect of the NASL deal Enrique Sanz ended up as CONCACAF General secretary under Jeff Webb. Webb is still awaiting sentencing but Sanz somehow avoided jail as well although FIFA issued him a lifetime ban. These were the guys behind NASL and were in bed with the Cosmos guys with the covers pulled over their heads. The real crook was Seamus OBRIEN, who partnered with Sela Sports to take the Cosmos off Paul Kemsleys hands OBRIEN was the key guy behind the 100 million dollar bribe paid to Mohammed bin Hammam, then President of the Asian co federation, for a ten year TV rights deal. The whole thing was rotten from top to bottom and they were ready to just bail when big and stupid Rocco Commisso came along and bailed them out, although as I recall there was no cash involved, he just assumed their debts. OBrien showed up at an NASL owners meeting and announced they he had laid off most of the FO and was shutting the Cosmos down forever. He wanted the owners to all kick in a few million to pay off his bills. Instead, they found Rocco.
This post is precisely why the Cosmos would have never got their stadium built. I always told people that it wasn't an MLS conspiracy, but simple vetting done by the NYEDC who determined that they absolutely did not want to partner with the Cosmos/NASL/Traffic/Sela, nothing but red flags that no ambitious politician wants to be used against them in a future campaign.
Traffic was a garden variety soccer grift. Enriching oneself while actually performing some work. They knew their place in the ecosystem. From hoovering up broadcast properties with backend payoffs, then licensing them through closed circuit and other deals. That's where the majority of their efforts had long been. The whole league-building exercise with the NASL was a different beast, but it was mostly aboveboard. After all, it's a lot harder to get away with, long term, the shit we see elsewhere in the United States. You just have to piss off the wrong AG and you're going down - as we've seen. I think Davidson understood that, and the nice thing for Traffic is that the NASL gave Traffic USA a sheen of respectability in the U.S. A competitor to the SUM and the other promoters, but mostly a fair one. I think the worst thing to happen to Traffic USA was the Cosmos. With David Downs as commissioner in the Traffic paid for league office in Miami, the NASL was growing into a well enough regarded role as a second division. With a growing cadre of independent owners. The arrival of the Cosmos, the sacking of Downs and replacing him with a shill, and the quick departure of the Montreal, Vancouver, and Portland is when the real shitshow began. The modern NASL breakaway was led by three principals with a fourth as a figurehead. By the time Minnesota (and Manny Lagos) left for MLS, Traffic was the only one of the originals left, and the balancing weight of Lagos, Wellman, and -yes- Cooper, had been replaced with the horrific Cosmos ownership. And Traffic did nothing to stop them. Davidson would probably have been swept up in the big FIFA scandal regardless as his part in that had pretty much nothing to do with the NASL stuff and everything to do with the generic garden variety CONCACAF/CONMEBOL bribery for broadcast/commercial rights shenanigans that has been going on (and is still going on, mind you) for decades. But I think the NASL 2.0's legacy wouldn't be in the tatters it is today had the Cosmos not come in and wrecked everything and David Downs had been given few more years in the job. If I recall it was the Cosmos who pretty much scotched the deal that Downs had negotiated with MLS to have MLS reserve teams play in the NASL. The Cosmos did not want to be seen playing NYRB or NYCFC reserve squads, much less losing to them. After all, they were holding onto the glory era of the late 70s as conquerors of North America. It wouldn't do to be losing local derby games played in shiny modern Red Bull Arena to minor league scrubs and academy players. Davidson definitely deserved getting hoovered up in the FIFA scandal. And Traffic USA was definitely a big part of the seemly underbelly of regional soccer broadcast and tournament production. And they did absolutely jack-all to stop the Cosmos train. In fact they actually got on board the train. But the NASL, at its inception, was most certainly not what it became, and back in 2009/2010/2011 didn't deserve where it is today.
What will MLS do with the Cosmos name and logo exactly? Didn't Garber say he won't allow a 3rd team in NY so who would get the name if it doesn't go to an expansion club?
Great summation. I would add that the whole rights scandal helped turn SUM into a financial powerhouse. When the US DoJ indicted Traffic and all it's officers, they had to vacate all their existing rights contracts. And with the AG breathing down their neck FIFA and CONCACAF and CONMEBOL were all desperate to show how clean and straight their new deals were. And there was SUM. You can say whatever you want about them but nobody ever accused them.of being criminals which, at that moment in time, you really couldn't say about anyone else in the business. Plus they are a US corporation so they couldn't get away with much anyway. So everybody practically begged SUM to pick up their games at very low cost to try and avoid having the DoJ and IRS come rifle through their files. For a few years there they made a killing and it helped turn SUM from being a medium sized regional rights outfit into a major player. And made the MLS owners millions and millions of dollars.
Find better owners for NYCFC and rename them? Have NYCFC or RBNY start a reserve team named the Cosmos?
They were pretty open about just wanting to mothball the name. Some folks suggested they could still sell a little branded merch from time to time but one suspects they'd rather it was all just forgotten.
Hard-core NYCFC fans wouldn't follow a team called the Cosmos given the rivalry that's grown in the last few years. There's a lot of hate for a team with no fans.
“I made it clear from the start: We’ll look to build our own home,” Cosmos chairman Seamus O’Brien told SI.com. “We’d evaluated a number of sites within greater New York City. … It’s a state tender, so we’re responding to an RFP, not trying to stick the stadium somewhere else. It’s in a neighborhood that’s effectively zoned as a sports facility with great transportation linkage, road and rail straight in, and a huge car parking [area].” In a metro area that already includes the New York Red Bulls’ MLS stadium in Harrison, N.J., the Cosmos’ plan joins another high-profile proposal by MLS for a privately financed $300 million soccer stadium in the Flushing Meadows-Corona Park section of Queens. The MLS stadium plan has gotten the support of New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, among others. … “I’m not going to comment on what MLS want to do,” O’Brien said. “All I know is [a stadium plan] would make us a more compliant owner than we may or may not be now. We have a soccer-specific stadium. So surely they’d have to be delighted, wouldn’t they?” It’s fair to say that MLS is hardly delighted by the news, however, considering its own separate plans. MLS executive VP Dan Courtemanche did say this in a statement: “Major League Soccer continues to work with the city of New York and local elected officials on our quest to build a soccer stadium in Queens and are making progress with the project. We are in discussions with a variety of potential ownership groups, all who are very interested in being involved with the division I soccer league in North America. MLS continues to support the development of the lower leagues.” Many of Bloomberg's sports initiatives. They included an Olympic bid, the West-Side stadium, a Staten Island Nascar circuit (supported by Trump) and the Flushing MLS stadium.
Fairly obvious they wanted the Islanders stadium there. I can't blame them for choosing NHL over a minor league soccer team that averages 6,000 people every season. Carlos Mendes and Danny Szetela aren't exactly a draw that Cosmos apologists deemed appropriate for a new 20,000 seater stadium in Belmont. The same thing with the US Open Cup. Fans were lobbying US Soccer to broadcast matches for the tournament, SUM, being US Soccer's client practically added the US Open Cup to their portfolio. Since US Open Cup virtually makes no money, I don't think fans complained anymore about the lack of US Open Cup coverage on television.
They didn't choose the Islanders over the Cosmos. The first round of bidding was canceled. NYCFC put up a half-hearted bid against the Islanders.
I think the fact that SUM is a U.S. based corporation that has a limited ability to "get away with anything" or "do business the old-fashioned way" is also part of how FMF and LigaMX helped "save" MLS by becoming SUM's first cash cow with first InterLiga and then (and still) El Tri's broadcast rights and sponsorship partner for friendlies played in the United States. The LigaMX owners (and power behind) FMF definitely know how the game is played throughout the Americas, and by going with SUM, they all get their "fair" share and don't have to worry about one of their partners doing back-end deals for bribes. I think the Mexicans understand the long-term deleterious effects of constant corruption. The brake it applies to progress and raising the game. They also understand that if El Tri or the teams in LigaMX can make the next step up in level of play and become true world powers, then the ability to make money explodes. Since they can't really partner with the NFL, I think that partnering with MLS/SUM is the next best thing. We in the U.S. (in this particular forum) tend to think that UEFA clubs fear MLS long term, but I don't think it really is that close, and that they're more impressed than they are scared. On the other hand, the real achievable target in the near term is South America. And I think the Mexican perspective sees this clearly, and they'd rather be on-board with MLS than caught in the undertow as the economic forces driving MLS begin to slowly overpower all but the biggest individual teams in CONMEBOL. It's not going to happen with a bang, but with a whimper. Nobody really talks about non-LigaMX CONCACAF teams being as good/better than MLS teams anymore. Ten years ago, clubs like Saprissa were still a match. CD Saprissa and other clubs are still Central American powerhouses and the top clubs do occasionally hold their own against MLS sides in the CCL, but the reality is that UNCAF and CFU leagues are way behind MLS. That's already the case with some CONMEBOL leagues. But again most South American leagues have teams that are better than the best MLS sides on average. But every year as MLS's economic and development power grows, that list of teams will get smaller and smaller, and nobody will credibly consider the leagues as a whole of being the match of MLS. To bring that back on-topic. I'm still amazed at the hubris of Sela, O'Brien and company. A total mis-reading of what was possible. They thought they could come in and sue MLS and USSF into submission apparently. But even the corrupt Americans weren't generally ones who took payoffs, but were ones who typically were the ones doing payoffs and using contracts to skim on the backside. Blazer was corrupt, but he was smart. He kept a sheen of "following the rules" and much of the outright fraud outside of the U.S. jurisdiction. I don't really know of any Americans that he paid off. I really don't understand what Davidson was thinking by embracing the Cosmos. Maybe he didn't see a positive end game with where Downs was leading the NASL. Maybe the siren song of the Cosmos breaking up SUM's grip on properties and USSF's control of sanctioning was too powerful and offered a short cut. What a stupid move. The Mexicans took the long route. Partnering with MLS/SUM. I'm sure there is some dirty laundry somewhere within the MLS/SUM umbrella. It's almost unconceivable. But most of it isn't necessarily illegal. We see it in most stadium deals. Over the table payoffs to councillors and delegates where their districts get some youth fields or new sidewalks. Somebody's niece or nephew ends up on some advisory board or some other job. Quid Pro Quo never completely goes away. The very nature of human society is transactional. The key is to what extent people play by the agreed upon rules. And in the U.S., the risk/reward of dodging those rules tends to be riskier. If you get selfish and skirt the rules (like Davidson or Blazer) you can end up very comfortable/powerful or in prison. If you take a longer more holistic view and are willing to share the wealth (like LigaMX) you may not hit the jackpot, but staying the course is generally better for all involved.
I think it would be a longer term thing. If they bought it now. I could see them selling 50-year commemorative stuff in 2027, or even letting the Red Bulls and NYCFC play a game where one team wears the whites and the other wears the greens. If he's still alive, bring Pelé to the game. But, in general, yeah. Just do enough to keep it from being "abandoned".