I actually think that this strange sounding conspiracy is true.setmonster wrote:
And I think it is that old Victorian "play up and play the game" spirit that FIFA is attempting to keep with its rejection of video technology. And that's my second point. Americans might not like it and might think it's primitive but I think much of the rest of the world likes it that America does not take football seriously and refuses to engage with the game on any meaningful level. If it takes the preservation of weird idiosyncrasies like draws and bad refereeing decisions to keep America out of it, well, that might be acceptable to some people.
Look at international basketball or Hockey. Both sports are played VERY widly and every league except for the NBA and the NHL are little more than developmental minor leagues.
If soccer really put Butts in seats the way football does in the U.S. then FIFA/UEFA would be a joke. The current batch of MLS owners would sell their teams for a tidy profit to the Mark Cuban's of world and MLS would be the only league with any talent.
So while it seems really paranoid and conspiratorial to have a "the world is out to keep the U.S. from enjoying soccer" mentality I do think that there are plenty of people who actually are quite happy that there is a popular international sport we don't care about.
I snagged some values for people to consider (all values are mean average)
Average Pay in 2009-2010 of a Primier League soccer player (which is according to wikipedia the best funded soccer league in the world) is $1.011 million dollars
Average NFL player salary last year was 1.4 million dollars
AVerage MLB salary last year was $3.0 million + dollars
Average NBA salary last year was 5.356 million dollars.
The Highest paid soccer player in the world (C. Rinaldo) earns 13 million euros a year or approx $16 million dollars.
A Scott Boras contract for gentley used shortstop who can never hit in the clutch is $27.5 million dollars a year
There is more money to be made playing sports in the U.S. than anywhere in the world.... asuming we give a crap.