Everton boss David Moyes’ hopes of keeping Landon Donovan at Goodison Park for just a little longer appear to have been dashed by LA Galaxy boss Bruce Arena – unless the start of the new MLS season is delayed as contract negotiations continue.

The Toffees made a request that the MLS allow Donovan to stay a little longer as he has made such a positive impact since arriving in Merseyside in January. But in a statement on the LA Galaxy website, Bruce Arena stated "We're not interested. Landon will be back here on 15 March, as we have said all along." The MLS season kicks off for the Galaxy on March 27^th.

LA Galaxy teammate David Beckham, who is on loan again to AC Milan, will not be returning until the Serie A season is over, so it was unlikely that Arena really would have considered allowing his other big star to skip the start of the season.  Donovan certainly made an impact on the Everton fans and players alike and  many of them will be sad to see him go.

What though if negotiations stall and the season is delayed? Then, says Arena, that might be a different story, “If we didn't have a league going on we would certainly entertain the idea of allowing Landon to stay there. If we have a league, Landon's going to be playing for the Galaxy.”

At the moment though, possibly much to David Moyes’ disappointment it appears that the MLS players union is willing to let the season begin without a new contract as long as talks are ongoing, which means that Sunday’s game against Hull will be Landon’s last in a blue jersey for some time.

The Deloitte Football Money League, put out by the major accounting firm Deloitte, just published their rankings of the Top 20 highest earning soccer clubs in the world for the 2008-2009 season.

The list represents total club income, in British pounds, excluding transfer fees.  All 20 clubs on the list are from the five major European leagues.  England had seven clubs on the list, Germany five, Italy four, France two, and Spain had Real Madrid and Barcelona in the top two spots.

1. Real Madrid £341.9million
2. Barcelona £311.7m
3. Manchester United £278.5m
4. Bayern Munich £246.6m
5. Arsenal £224.0m
6. Chelsea £206.4m
7. Liverpool £184.8m
8. Juventus £173.1m
9. Inter Milan £167.4m
10. AC Milan £167.4m
11. Hamburg £124.9m
12. Roma £124.7m
13. Lyon £118.9m
14. Marseille £113.5m
15. Tottenham £113.0m
16. Schalke £106.0m
17. Werder Bremen £97.7m
18. Borussia Dortmund £88.1m
19. Manchester City £87.0m
20. Newcastle £86.0m

At Sunday’s Carling Cup Final there were plenty of green and gold scarves in evidence amongst the red sea of Manchester United supporters. Green and gold were the colors of Newton Heath – the 19^th century soccer club that was renamed Manchester United in 1902. The scarves were part of the Manchester United Supporters' Trust (MUST) campaign to show displeasure at the continued ownership of the club by the Glazers – an American family whose company Red Football Joint Venture was revealed a few weeks ago to have debts of  £716.5m ($1.17bn).  Those debts are secured against the famous soccer club; a club that prior to the Glazer family ownership had zero debts and enviable income streams.

The protests against the Glazer’s ownership of the club have been quietly building for some time now, and the BBC reported on Monday that a group of financiers dubbed “The Red Knights” are now seriously stepping up their efforts to purchase the club, backed by the powerful MUST. The problem is that the Glazers have no intention of selling.

But MUST and the Red Knights have no intention of giving up. The supporters trust are working with Blue State Digital, one of the firms that helped run Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. They are appealing to fans to starve the club of cash by not renewing their season tickets this year and refusing to buy official merchandise.

The English FA state that all that Red Joint Football Venture has done so far – including issue loans worth £1.67m from the parent company to patriarch Malcolm Glazer’s children – is within the realms of legality but they must be concerned as more and more soccer clubs are falling into debt. Portsmouth – now in administration to try to save themselves – are the first Premiership club to come so close to extinction, but the state of the finances at other big clubs are a cause for concern.

The only profit Manchester United officially showed last year was £80.1 – the exact transfer fee for Cristiano Ronaldo.  Some fans are worried that if the club were to fall into too much financial trouble they would lose the current jewel in the United crown, Wayne Rooney, whom it is rumored Real Madrid are willing to pay whatever it takes if the 23 year old will agree to be reunited with the former CR7. Last year, Brazilian star Kaka agreed to a transfer from AC Milan to Real Madrid in a move that was, he admitted, purely financial as his transfer fee effectively saved the club from falling too far into debt.

 

I just ran an analysis of our World Cup nations qualified section to find out how many times all 32 nations taking part in the 2010 Wold Cup have qualified for past World Cups.  There have been 18 prior World Cups dating back to 1930, so the 2010 South Africa World Cup is the 19th men's World Cup.  Brazil, the five-time champion is the only nation taking part in South Africa that qualified for all 18 prior tournaments, and Slovakia is the only nation playing in its first World Cup.  Note that Serbia officially gets credit for prior World Cups that Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro played in.

2010 FIFA World Cup Participants By Prior World Cups:

• Brazil: 18
• Germany: 16
• Italy: 16
• Argentina: 14
• Mexico: 13
• England: 12
• France: 12
• Spain: 12
• Serbia: 10
• Uruguay: 10
• Netherlands: 8
• Switzerland: 8
• United States: 8
• Chile: 7
• Paraguay: 7
• South Korea: 7
• Cameroon: 5
• Portugal: 4
• Denmark: 3
• Japan: 3
• Nigeria: 3
• Algeria: 2
• Australia: 2
• South Africa: 2
• Ghana: 1
• Greece: 1
• Honduras: 1
• Ivory Coast: 1
• New Zealand: 1
• North Korea: 1
• Slovenia: 1
• Slovakia: 0

The Portugese marketing agency Futebol Finance recently released their list of the 50 top paid players in world soccer for the 2009-2010 season.

An analysis of the list shows that 35 of the top 50 players come from just six clubs.  Barcelona leads with 8 players, followed by Chelsea with 7 and Real Madrid and Manchester City with 6 each.  Bayern Munich and Manchester United each have 4 players on the list.

Here’s the complete list of the top 50 highest paid players:

Futebol Finance's 50 Top Paid Soccer Players

1 Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid, £11.3m)
2 Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Barcelona, £10.4m)
3 Lionel Messi (Barcelona, £9.1m)
4 Samuel Eto'o (Internazionale, £9.1m)
5 Kaka (Real Madrid, £8.7m)
6 Emmanuel Adebayor (Manchester City, £7.4m)
7 Karim Benzema (Real Madrid, £7.4m)
8 Carlos Tevez (Manchester City, £7m)
9 John Terry (Chelsea, £6.5m)
10 Frank Lampard (Chelsea, £6.5m)
11 Thierry Henry (Barcelona, £6.5m)
12 Xavi (Barcelona, £6.5m)
13 Ronaldinho (AC Milan, £6.5m)
14 Steven Gerrard (Liverpool, £6.5m)
15 Daniel Alves (Barcelona, £6.1m)
16 Michael Ballack (Chelsea, £5.6m)
17 Raul (Real Madrid, £5.6m)
18 Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United, £5.6m)
19 Kolo Toure (Manchester City, £5.6m)
20 Wayne Rooney (Manchester United, £5.2m)
21 Robinho (Manchester City, £5.2m)
22 Iker Casillas (Real Madrid, £5.2m)
23 Victor Valdez (Barcelona, £5.2m)
24 Frederic Kanoute (Sevilla, £5.2m)
25 Deco (Chelsea, £5.2m)
26 Didier Drogba (Chelsea, £4.8m)
27 Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus, £4.8m)
28 Francesco Totti (Roma, £4.8m)
29 Luca Toni (Roma, £4.8m)
30 David Villa (Valencia, £4.8m)
31 Arjen Robben (Bayern Munich, £4.8m)
32 Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern, £4.8m)
33 Ashley Cole (Chelsea, £4.8m)
34 Fernando Torres (Liverpool, £4.8m)
35 Gareth Barry (Manchester City, £4.8m)
36 Patrick Vieira (Internazionale, £4.8m)
37 Charles Puyol (Barcelona, £4.3m)
38 Andres Iniesta (Barcelona, £4.3m)
39 Sergio Aguero (Atletico Madrid, £4.3m)
40 Andreas Pirlo (AC Milan, £4.3m)
41 Willy Sagnol (Bayern Munich, £4.3m)
42 Frank Ribery (Bayern Munich, £4.3m)
43 David Beckham (AC Milan, £4.3m)
44 Wayne Bridge (Manchester City, £4.3m)
45 Lassana Diarra (Real Madrid, £4.3m)
46 Dimitar Berbatov (Manchester United £4.1m)
47 Andrei Arshavin (Arsenal, £4.1m)
48 Nicolas Anelka (Chelsea, £4.1m)
49 Ryan Giggs (Manchester United £4.1m)
50 Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus, £4.1m)