Big Story
After years of torturous ownership — from the insulting and patronising Halls to the clueless and inept Mike Ashley — it would seem no wonder that Newcastle fans would be interested in attempting to assert some control on the destiny of their club, especially given their huge numbers and seemingly endless willingness to pump cash in through ticket sales and merchandise.

Last week, the Newcastle United Supporters Trust launched their bid to buy the club. NUST have said their aim “is to make sure the fans voice is never ignored again and the way to do this is to make sure that we’re at the top table and to achieve that we have to buy in.” The Trust, after what they admit were early “faltering steps”, have now achieved legal legitimacy as a democratic, not-for-profit Industrial and Provident Society, attained local media support and garnered pledges of over £20m even before their public announcement, with many pledging from their pension investment pots.

It’s a shame, then, that Louise Taylor’s piece in the Guardian today does not even bother to look at the nuts and bolts of the concept and instead simply dismisses the entire concept of supporter involvement in club ownership: “I’m all for a spot of idealism but somehow doubt whether football clubs are really the right places, let alone ripe, for democracy.” So what exactly are they ripe for, then?  Unaccountable oligarchic rule?  That hasn’t worked out so well for Newcastle, either, has it?

Worldwide News

• As predicted by the blog MFUSA yesterday, MLS Commissioner Don Garber’s comments about the possibility of MLS teams playing under domed stadia (which MFUSA saw as an attempt to hush Sepp Blatter’s oft-stated desire for MLS to follow the international calender) was naively picked up by the press today as a serious proposition, with the Denver Post and Kansas City Star following up. Neither piece looks at the actual realism (or not) of the suggestion: though there could be some kind of a business model there tied to a successful indoor entertainment arena, most of the cold-climate cities in MLS have built or are building their own soccer-specific-stadiums in the past few years, including Chicago, Denver, New York and Toronto. Any such move indoor en masse to allow winter play would thus have to wait for the second generation of clubs’ own stadia, likely decades away.
• Scotland, whose fall off the footballing map is matched by few (though was somewhat inevitable given the country’s population), might soon finally have a team of more diverse origins reflecting the country’s population — FIFA last week approved Gordon Smith’s (the Scottish Football Association chief executive) proposal for British nations to allow players with no blood links into their national teams if they have at least five years of schooling in that country. Graham Spiers of the Times praises the move, saying “It is a complete mystery why, for example, Scotland’s ethnic communities, particularly its throngs of Asians, have yet to embrace football. Unlike England, the Scots scarcely know what it is like to have non-whites pulling on the national jersey, to a point where we almost seem backward or out of synch with the modern world.”
• Alex Ferguson has called on his media friends to help him in his public war of words with the referees’ association, as James Ducker helpfully writes that “sources close to Ferguson have indicated that he is ‘90 per cent convinced’ he will be charged and that he holds little hope of receiving a fair and proper hearing because of the publicity surrounding the case. Ferguson is furious at what he perceives to be a media campaign against him and believes a witch-hunt is being fuelled by sources close to senior referees.”

The Sweeper appears daily. For more rambling and links throughout the day every day, follow your editor Tom Dunmore @pitchinvasion on Twitter.

We’ve been debating all week the value of the high-profile European teams touring the US to huge crowds, while MLS fans slap their foreheads and wonder why fans don’t come out for their local team’s games. At Footsmoke, Cyrus Philbrick goes contrary at the growth of European soccer in the United States and “why it’s probably OK”:

Can someone explain to me how more exposure to the game, especially such a high quality brand of soccer, is bad? Should we stop importing foreign beer because it’s better and undermines our domestic product?

Importing a refined foreign product should help American soccer fans, of which MLS fans represent only a small subset, continue to develop a realistic comparison to their domestic product. It should help erode the snobbery and ignorance of American fans, or at least it will as long as American soccer continues to close the gap that separates it from Europe (another touchy subject that I won’t get into right now). Fans will see Seattle play a fiery and even game with Chelsea for 90 minutes, despite losing 2-0. They will watch MLS games held as part of double-headers after Barcelona and Milan games. And some on the cuff will be converted when they realize, yeah, American soccer is bad, but you know what it’s not that bad goddammit, or at least not bad enough to ignore. They will think, it’s kind of like American beer – cheaper, grittier, and a lot less pretentious.

Philbrick is probably right that more exposure is not in itself bad. Plenty of fans can follow Premier League teams and support their local MLS team, and one has to start somewhere with soccer. Perhaps what’s needed is not to see it as a battle, but for MLS and US Soccer to work on how it can be coordinated better scheduling-wise and in terms of commercial and marketing activity to ensure each time a high-profile team plays in the US, it is providing a benefit for the local MLS team — this clearly isn’t always the case.

Europe

• Nothing is looking up for Newcastle United. Getting smashed 6-1 by Leyton Orient in a friendly over the weekend was bad enough — but now one of the few serious parties interested in purchasing the club has pulled out. Profitable Group, headed by former England player Steve McMahon, are apparently not-so-profitable after all, after failing to provide proof of funding. This means Newcastle are likely to stagger into the new season rudderless and without installing Alan Shearer as manager.
• It’s not just MLS stadiums that have stages. A freak roof accident at a stage installed for a Madonna concert at Marseille’s Velodrome stadium will see it closed for some time.
• Umm: Wigan and the Dutch national team are not usually synonymous, but their new kit for the 09-10 season is in brilliant Orange “in honour of the famous Netherlands side from the 1978 World Cup,” apparently because that was also the same year Wigan entered the Football League. Well, OK then. Can’t wait for Total Football at the JJB (or is it DW Stadium already now?).
• One of the more comical 75-yard goals you’ll ever see was scored by Essau Kanyenda in the Russian Second Division this week. Did no-one tell the goalkeeper that footballs bounce?
• The Premier League is correcting one of its most short-sighted moves in the global marketplace, by going free-to-air on Chinese television.
• Struggling Livingston, the original Franchise FC we reported on last month, are edging closer to oblivion.
• Even the Scottish elite are struggling — Rangers have not made a single summer signing, surely because they made a post-tax loss of £4 million.

Americas

• MLS must be delighted that one of their representative clubs in the CONCACAF Champions League, Red Bull New York, are also right now the worst in the league’s history. Red Bull have won only 2 of their last 21 league games (this in a league designed to ensure parity!), and formerly-acclaimed coach Juan Carlos Osorio is hanging on by the skin of his fat contract. They take on W Connection in Trinidad and Tobago in a match to be televised on Fox Soccer Channel. Of course, it was only thanks to MLS’ overly-generous playoff system that a Red Bull team that epitomised mediocrity last season was able to sneak into the playoffs and rather luckily find their way to the final, and hence continental qualification. Maybe that new playoff system idea we mentioned yesterday would help prevent this kind of debacle?
• If the US national team needed any more motivation ahead of their huge World Cup qualifier in Mexico City next month, the Mexican press provided some clippings for them — they seem to think that their B team beating the US’s B team had achieved a “golden dream” and proven Mexico to be “the best team in the CONCACAF Zone” (Mediotiempo.com). I guess you could say it’s on, were you prone to such hyperbole. US fans will be pleased to learn that the Telemundo has opened up mun2′s English-language broadcast of the match to all DirecTV and DishNetwork subscribers.
• The fan who taunted Beckham has had his lifetime ban from the Home Depot Center rescinded. It’s not particularly clear why, though many of said that he was, after all, invited onto the field by a certain Galaxy employee.
• Houston was selected to host the 2010 MLS All-Star game. Anyone know, well, why?