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Quiet Star Now Advocates for Union
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By JACK BELL
Published: January 15, 2008
For 12 seasons in Major League Soccer, Eddie Pope represented himself with quiet distinction and class on the soccer field. Now Pope, a defender who retired after the 2007 season, will further the interests of his former compatriots as the director of player relations for the union that represents M.L.S. players.
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Melissa Majchrzak/M.L.S. — WireImage
Eddie Pope says players “need to start weighing in about where the league needs to go.”
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“For me, as someone who’s traveled endlessly for 12 years, this job will provide some stability and allow me and my family to remain in one place for two years, hopefully,” Pope, 34, said Monday in a telephone interview from the union’s office in Bethesda, Md. “I really think the players need to start weighing in about where the league needs to go in terms of getting involved in coaching, the front office, even as referees.”
Pope appeared for the United States in three World Cups (1998, 2002 and 2006) and played on three M.L.S. championship teams with D.C. United (1996, ’97, ’99). He also played for the MetroStars and Real Salt Lake.
“I think the biggest issue we have to deal with is the contracts of the developmental players,” he said, referring to the deals that pay young American players a paltry $12,900 a year. There are modest incentives, but the maximum they could add is $15,000. “Having been a teammate of several on those contracts, it’s hard to watch guys playing their hearts out on the field, then going home to a house with four or five other guys and sometimes not living in the best neighborhoods. That’s tough.”
Pope, who has been on the job for only four days, said his “ultimate goal is to have happy players and families, because if the players are happy, it makes the league better.”
The current collective bargaining agreement between the league, a single-entity operation that owns all player contracts, and the union expires after the 2009 season.
Africa
The 26th African Cup of Nations starts Sunday in Ghana, and a reverse exodus of players has taken more than 130 professionals from their European club teams.
France had a long colonial history in Africa, where people in nearly 30 countries speak French. Its clubs have lost the most players (57) to the 16 nations participating in the tournament.
Elsewhere in Europe, 37 players from teams in the English Premier League are in Ghana, followed by players from Germany (11), Italy (10), Spain (9), Scotland (2) and the lower leagues in England (7). In addition, one player from M.L.S., Colorado Rapids goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul, is in Ghana. Coundoul, who played for Martin Luther King High School in Manhattan, is one of three keepers with Senegal.
Some of the biggest names in European soccer have joined their national teams, including Didier Drogba (Chelsea/Ivory Coast), Michael Essien (Chelsea/Ghana), Kolo Touré (Arsenal/Ivory Coast), Emmanuel Eboué (Arsenal/Ivory Coast), Samuel Eto’o (Barcelona/Cameroon), Geremi (Newcastle United/Cameroon) and Asamoah Gyan (Udinese/Ghana).
Egypt, which has won the tournament a record five times, is the defending champion. Host Ghana and Cameroon have each won the championship four times. The final will be played Feb. 10 in Accra, the capital.
Oval, Not Round
Place-kicker Lawrence Tynes and the Giants are going to Green Bay, Wis., to play in the National Football Conference championship game Sunday, but Tynes’s heart is in Scotland.
Tynes, 29, was born in Greenock, Scotland, and is a dedicated fan of one of the top two teams in the country, Glasgow Celtic. He plans to put on his green-and-white hooped jersey in April, when he will be the grand marshal of New York’s Tartan Day Parade. Tynes was only 10 when his father, a United States Navy Seal who was based in Scotland, moved the family to Florida (his mother is Scottish; he is the first Scottish-born player in N.F.L. history). As a youngster, he went to only one game at Celtic Park while attending a Catholic primary school, St. Kieran’s in Campbeltown.
He played soccer at Milton High School in Milton, Fla., until a teacher enticed him into becoming a kicker and defensive back on the school’s team. After attending Troy State, Tynes was signed and released by the Kansas City Chiefs. He landed back in Kansas City after brief stints in N.F.L. Europe (Scottish Claymores) and the Canadian Football League (Ottawa), kicking for the Chiefs in 2004-6. Tynes was acquired in a trade by the Giants during the off-season to replace Jay Feely, who signed with Miami.
Tynes, in his fourth season in the N.F.L., has converted 23 of 27 field-goal attempts this season for the Giants. His longest were from 48 yards, which he did three times.
Notes
¶The Red Bulls will have the 16th, 32nd and 44th selections in the M.L.S. draft Friday in Baltimore. The club sent its top pick, No. 7 over all, to Chicago as partial compensation for signing Juan Carlos Osorio as coach. The expansion San Jose Earthquakes have the first selection in the draft.
¶In Manchester, England, the only jersey of a non-European team on sale recently at several sporting goods stores in the city center was David Beckham’s dark blue Los Angeles Galaxy shirt.
¶The National Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta, N.Y., has 35 former players on its ballot this year. The list includes some blasts from the past (Pato Margetic, Carlos Valderrama and Marco Etcheverry), some who are still in the game in M.L.S. coaching or management (Peter Nowak, Preki and Jeff Agoos), and five women (Shannon MacMillian, Danielle Fotopoulos, Cindy Parlow, Joy Fawcett and Tisha Venturini-Hoch). Players need to receive 75 percent of the votes to gain induction in August.
¶Fox Soccer Channel, in conjunction with Vividas, a provider of video streaming technology, has started a broadband service in the United States to deliver English Premier League matches (and other international competitions) over the Internet at foxsoccer.tv. The service is available for single matches ($4.99, on delayed tape), in 10-match packages ($29.95) and as an all-access package, which includes Premier League and other events, like the F.A. Cup games ($49.95 for the rest of this season’s games).
¶Six American players have the dubious distinction of playing for teams (Derby County and Fulham) that are in serious danger of being relegated from the English Premier League. They are: Benny Feilhaber and Eddie Lewis at Derby; and Clint Dempsey, Carlos Bocanegra, Brian McBride and Kasey Keller at Fulham.
Quiet Star Now Advocates for Union
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By JACK BELL
Published: January 15, 2008
For 12 seasons in Major League Soccer, Eddie Pope represented himself with quiet distinction and class on the soccer field. Now Pope, a defender who retired after the 2007 season, will further the interests of his former compatriots as the director of player relations for the union that represents M.L.S. players.
Skip to next paragraph
Melissa Majchrzak/M.L.S. — WireImageEddie Pope says players “need to start weighing in about where the league needs to go.”
News and features from around the world of soccer and the Web.
Go to the Goal Blog »
More on Soccer
“For me, as someone who’s traveled endlessly for 12 years, this job will provide some stability and allow me and my family to remain in one place for two years, hopefully,” Pope, 34, said Monday in a telephone interview from the union’s office in Bethesda, Md. “I really think the players need to start weighing in about where the league needs to go in terms of getting involved in coaching, the front office, even as referees.”
Pope appeared for the United States in three World Cups (1998, 2002 and 2006) and played on three M.L.S. championship teams with D.C. United (1996, ’97, ’99). He also played for the MetroStars and Real Salt Lake.
“I think the biggest issue we have to deal with is the contracts of the developmental players,” he said, referring to the deals that pay young American players a paltry $12,900 a year. There are modest incentives, but the maximum they could add is $15,000. “Having been a teammate of several on those contracts, it’s hard to watch guys playing their hearts out on the field, then going home to a house with four or five other guys and sometimes not living in the best neighborhoods. That’s tough.”
Pope, who has been on the job for only four days, said his “ultimate goal is to have happy players and families, because if the players are happy, it makes the league better.”
The current collective bargaining agreement between the league, a single-entity operation that owns all player contracts, and the union expires after the 2009 season.
Africa
The 26th African Cup of Nations starts Sunday in Ghana, and a reverse exodus of players has taken more than 130 professionals from their European club teams.
France had a long colonial history in Africa, where people in nearly 30 countries speak French. Its clubs have lost the most players (57) to the 16 nations participating in the tournament.
Elsewhere in Europe, 37 players from teams in the English Premier League are in Ghana, followed by players from Germany (11), Italy (10), Spain (9), Scotland (2) and the lower leagues in England (7). In addition, one player from M.L.S., Colorado Rapids goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul, is in Ghana. Coundoul, who played for Martin Luther King High School in Manhattan, is one of three keepers with Senegal.
Some of the biggest names in European soccer have joined their national teams, including Didier Drogba (Chelsea/Ivory Coast), Michael Essien (Chelsea/Ghana), Kolo Touré (Arsenal/Ivory Coast), Emmanuel Eboué (Arsenal/Ivory Coast), Samuel Eto’o (Barcelona/Cameroon), Geremi (Newcastle United/Cameroon) and Asamoah Gyan (Udinese/Ghana).
Egypt, which has won the tournament a record five times, is the defending champion. Host Ghana and Cameroon have each won the championship four times. The final will be played Feb. 10 in Accra, the capital.
Oval, Not Round
Place-kicker Lawrence Tynes and the Giants are going to Green Bay, Wis., to play in the National Football Conference championship game Sunday, but Tynes’s heart is in Scotland.
Tynes, 29, was born in Greenock, Scotland, and is a dedicated fan of one of the top two teams in the country, Glasgow Celtic. He plans to put on his green-and-white hooped jersey in April, when he will be the grand marshal of New York’s Tartan Day Parade. Tynes was only 10 when his father, a United States Navy Seal who was based in Scotland, moved the family to Florida (his mother is Scottish; he is the first Scottish-born player in N.F.L. history). As a youngster, he went to only one game at Celtic Park while attending a Catholic primary school, St. Kieran’s in Campbeltown.
He played soccer at Milton High School in Milton, Fla., until a teacher enticed him into becoming a kicker and defensive back on the school’s team. After attending Troy State, Tynes was signed and released by the Kansas City Chiefs. He landed back in Kansas City after brief stints in N.F.L. Europe (Scottish Claymores) and the Canadian Football League (Ottawa), kicking for the Chiefs in 2004-6. Tynes was acquired in a trade by the Giants during the off-season to replace Jay Feely, who signed with Miami.
Tynes, in his fourth season in the N.F.L., has converted 23 of 27 field-goal attempts this season for the Giants. His longest were from 48 yards, which he did three times.
Notes
¶The Red Bulls will have the 16th, 32nd and 44th selections in the M.L.S. draft Friday in Baltimore. The club sent its top pick, No. 7 over all, to Chicago as partial compensation for signing Juan Carlos Osorio as coach. The expansion San Jose Earthquakes have the first selection in the draft.
¶In Manchester, England, the only jersey of a non-European team on sale recently at several sporting goods stores in the city center was David Beckham’s dark blue Los Angeles Galaxy shirt.
¶The National Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta, N.Y., has 35 former players on its ballot this year. The list includes some blasts from the past (Pato Margetic, Carlos Valderrama and Marco Etcheverry), some who are still in the game in M.L.S. coaching or management (Peter Nowak, Preki and Jeff Agoos), and five women (Shannon MacMillian, Danielle Fotopoulos, Cindy Parlow, Joy Fawcett and Tisha Venturini-Hoch). Players need to receive 75 percent of the votes to gain induction in August.
¶Fox Soccer Channel, in conjunction with Vividas, a provider of video streaming technology, has started a broadband service in the United States to deliver English Premier League matches (and other international competitions) over the Internet at foxsoccer.tv. The service is available for single matches ($4.99, on delayed tape), in 10-match packages ($29.95) and as an all-access package, which includes Premier League and other events, like the F.A. Cup games ($49.95 for the rest of this season’s games).
¶Six American players have the dubious distinction of playing for teams (Derby County and Fulham) that are in serious danger of being relegated from the English Premier League. They are: Benny Feilhaber and Eddie Lewis at Derby; and Clint Dempsey, Carlos Bocanegra, Brian McBride and Kasey Keller at Fulham.