It’s been a few weeks since I’ve had a chance to update you on the latest news stories affecting English football fans from around the world. So even though some of these stories are stale, most of them have not been covered by the blogosphere and remain topical to us die-hard football fans. Enjoy.

  • GolTV will be airing the 2009 Peace Cup this summer featuring Aston Villa, Real Madrid, Juventus and others (PR Newswire). GolTV has won the exclusive TV rights in the United States to the 2009 Peace Cup tournament which will be played in Spain this summer. In its opening games, Aston Villa will play against Malaga and Atlante in late July (view schedule).
  • GolTV and Setanta Sports are now available on JetBlue flights (World Screen News). Note to self: When traveling on weekends in the United States, be sure to book a flight on JetBlue for Setanta Sports and — now — GolTV coverage.
  • ESPN’s soccer empire continues to grow (euFootball.biz). ESPN continues to buy more soccer rights around the world. This time it’s the Bundesliga rights for the Brazilian market. Plus, earlier this week, ESPN announced it would be launching its new sports network on UK TV this August 3rd. It’s old news for some, but it hasn’t mentioned on this blog, but ESPN also acquired the majority of the Premier League TV rights in Ireland earlier this week.
  • Showtime Arabia misses out on renewing Premier League TV rights in Middle East for 2010-2013 seasons (Arab Business). Showtime Arabia is one of the few TV networks around the world that shows every single Premier League match on television. Now they’re trying to find a way to show the 2010-2013 Premier League matches in the Middle East.
  • The Daily Mirror jumps on the football website bandwagon (Brand Republic). If at first you don’t succeed, try try again.
  • Setanta US remains optimistic that they’ll continue to be in business for the foreseeable future (Setanta US). “It’s business as usual and we look forward to the start of the new soccer season as well as providing our partners and subscribers with any additional information during the coming weeks,” says Setanta executive.
  • Bad news for the Premier League: JustinTV adds DVR functionality (TechCrunch).