Photo by SirRobHaley

We here in the States are occasionally subjected to one pundit or another proclaiming “This is the year soccer’s popularity explodes in America” or “This is the year soccer in the U.S. finally makes it!” Putting aside the problem of defining “making it” these types of stories generally surround a major event (World Cup, Champions League Final, etc.). I’ve never taken these stories seriously and have generally just gone about enjoying the matches. However, recently I started thinking that the 2011-12 Premier League season may indeed be a year for increased popularity in the sport in America. The reason has nothing do with any major soccer event but rather two factors unrelated to soccer whatsoever – default and laziness.

I happen to think the sport’s popularity in America will rise this autumn for one simple reason – there might not be much else to watch.

I firmly believe the current owners’ lockout of the players in the National Football League will extend into the summer and I feel that at least a delay of the start of the American Football season in September is plausible. If and when an NFL season does finally commence, the quality of play is likely to suffer due to a lack of preseason training camp and inconsistent offseason preparation by locked out players. American football players need a couple of summer months of beating each others’ brains out in order to adequately prepare for a new season. Therefore, even if games are eventually played, I think this will be a “lost” season in the NFL. Furthermore, fan backlash towards the sport, once it does ultimately return (in some diluted form), will at least keep some people away.

What is a sports-loving, beer-loving, HDTV-loving culture supposed to do when its most popular sport disappears? Rake the leaves? Read a book? Talk to the wife? I doubt it.

Incidentally, sports fans won’t be able to turn a basketball game on either. It is even more likely that there will be a prolonged work stoppage in the NBA this fall than in the NFL, jeopardizing at least the start of the basketball season. The baseball season will also be finished for all but a handful of teams competing in the playoffs.

So, this dearth of sports viewing options presents at least the possibility that some extra people tune in on a Sunday morning in September to see what all the fuss is about. Perhaps that match they tune into will be a 4-3 barn burner, complete with top quality skill, wild emotional swings and perhaps a fan riot thrown in for good measure. Who knows, this might be just the spark America needs.

This possibility has always been a bit of a dilemma for me. While I would love to see soccer’s popularity increase, I also secretly take great pleasure in being in on a glorious little secret with a very small percentage of my countrymen. Either way, I do think the factors might be in place for some more American eyeballs to at least give soccer a chance this fall. That alone makes me excited to think about the possibilities.

The shock transfer ban recently imposed on Chelsea for their “inducing” of young French player Gael Kakuta has again raised the argument of English clubs scouting for and developing too many foreign players within their youth systems. Why?

It’s a simple numbers game.

Football is a global sport, so it would make very little sense for a club to ignore the wealth of upcoming talent outside of their own back yard.

Why would successful English clubs with the great history and tradition (or money) that is capable of alluring the world’s finest young talent not do so?

Do you think Barcelona, Real Madrid or Inter Milan would think twice? No, they wouldn’t.

Also, there are huge misconceptions regarding the amount of non-English players currently on the books at the top four Premier League clubs.

Liverpool have most notably been tarnished with a reputation of investing their time primarily with imported youngsters.

Yes, their reserve squad consists of only eight English players from a squad of 27, but their academy boasts a massive 18 English youngsters from the total of 24 they currently have on their books.

Chelsea, despite the recent punishment, have 12 English reserves within their squad of 19 (inclusive of Kakuta), and are developing 13 English youngsters within their youth squad of 22 players.

Another club that have been been subsequently implicated in the ‘tapping-up’ controversy is Manchester United.

The reigning Premier League champions employ 17 players of English nationality in their plentiful reserve squad of 28, and 21 from 34 within their academy.

Arsenal’s first team may be devoid of English players in number, but their Under-18 academy league squad boasts 11 home-grown talents and only eight imported youngsters, including three Irish players.

Their Schoolboys side includes 12 English from the 16-deep squad.

So, why the endless debate?

England have just stormed through to next year’s World Cup finals by winning all of their eight qualifiers to date, and at the level below, the Under-21 side reached the final of the European Championships in the summer.

The England Under-19 side lost out to Ukraine in the final of their respective European Championships and the Under-17’s won the annual 2009 Nordic tournament and finished second in the FA International tournament.

I believe English football and English footballers are progressing just fine.

Possessing the best domestic league in the world and being among the favourites to lift the most coveted and illustrious trophy in Jo’berg cannot be all bad.

Sacked former Chelsea striker Adrian Mutu is on the verge of bankruptcy and retirement from football after the well-documented verdict of the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The disgraced darling of Romanian football, currently plying his trade at Serie A club Fiorentina, has been ordered to pay $23.7 million (£14.7 million) to the West London club for breach of contract after testing positive for cocaine use in 2004.

The whole case, from Chelsea’s original decision to sack the player to the recent verdict, is scornful.

Yes, Adrian Mutu was in breach of his contract and broke the law at the same time, but the compensation bill may ruin this highly-talented man’s life.

The prolific-striker did live a chequered lifestyle prior to the positive drugs test. In the twelve month period leading up to it, his marriage came to an acrimonious end and he lost the subsequent custody battle for his son.

He was later involved in a sex scandal with a Romanian porn star and then became embroiled in a car chase with police that resulted in a driving ban.

In a revealing interview with Sky, Mutu cited his fame and naivety for falling into the trap of cocaine abuse while living in the bright city lights of London.

The incidents that occurred in that same year would also bear a hugely demoralising affect on any person – let alone an incredibly famous footballer in his mid-twenties.

I don’t condone his actions, but I don’t condone those of his employer either.

It is unknown to the public whether Chelsea Football Club offered Mutu any source of rehabilitation prior to his sacking. It is also yet to be established if the player responded to the test results in a manner that would suggest he would take up such an offer.

But, for a club owned by a multi-billionaire to vindictively pursue a man that has since turned his life around and to announce the result as ‘a very significant result for football’ is most despicable.

The Serie A hitman has scored 47 goals in 77 appearances for Fiorentina, following a stint at a scandal-hit Juventus, and has proved a model professional since arriving at the Viola in 2006.

Chelsea are basing their claim on the amount they believe the club would have received if they were able to sell the player. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has backed this up, stating that the $23.7 million (£14.7 million) relates to the full residual value of his transfer fee.

Had the club not sacked the striker, despite his subsequent seven month ban from football, they would have been able to sell a player of his undoubted quality on, in a move that would have averted this five-year-long battle.

Having seen two appeals already knocked back by the CAS, Adrian Mutu will now have to ask the question again and make a further appeal against the decision at a higher court.

I just hope that the full and final outcome of this reprehensible saga is a just one.