ow11:

You can put your points in this fan thread instead of bombarding the sports home page with pointless threads that will get no more than 5 responses.

Pre-season perfection

Real Madrid might be the biggest, brashest, self-promotingest club on planet football, but they seem to be the only major team capable of conducting a sensible pre-season.

This weekend, while Manchester United take on a Malaysian XI, City are in South Africa and Chelsea in Seattle, Real will be training at their Irish hotel retreat ahead of a kickabout against Shamrock Rovers on Monday.

It might not have the glamour of a trip to the Far East, but the Carton House Hotel in County Kildare has offered Real the chance to erect some blue screens to keep out prying eyes and get down to some serious training.

The hotel is near the town of Maynooth, which is known as an educational centre for Catholic priests, and would have been the perfect base for Wayne Rooney, who has said he would have become a man of the cloth if he had not played football.

United will be sweating through a night-time low of 25 degrees Celsius in Kuala Lumpur while spending most of their time signing autographs, smiling blankly at sponsors' promotional events and getting mobbed at airports.

Real, on the other hand, will be enjoying the mild weather and enjoying the hotel's spa facilities that, Cristiano Ronaldo might like to know, include the 'Green Science Skin Renewing Facial with Perfecting Plant Peel', available for just 135 euros.
Defender Michel Salgado said: "They are perfect conditions for our pre-season. The weather is really nice to work in. We were training in Madrid in 40 degrees so I think Ireland is perfect."

If you would like to join Real in luxury at the Carton House Hotel, there are still rooms available for Sunday night, starting at 110 euros. Who knows, you might even see Ronaldo emerging, zen-like, from his chakra balancing massage.

http://eurosport.yahoo.com/football/early-doors/article/183646/

- - -

biina:

Florentino Perez Aims To Change Real Madrid Kick-Offs To Attract Audience Of 1billion
Florentino Perez is already busy working overtime on more business strategies to recoup the €196 million investment on Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka and Karim Benzema.
One of the big financial jackpots in football comes from television rights, and AS has reported that the construction magnet has drawn up plans to change the schedule of Real Madrid’s games at the Santiago Bernabeu to tap further into the Asian market.
It is believed that Perez will try to convince the different broadcasters in Spain to move the team’s kick-off to 15:00 CET during the winter months and 16:00 CET in spring time (anywhere between 20:00 to 22:00 in Asia).
Intereconomia TV reported a few days ago that Perez estimated that, based on current kick-off times, the global TV viewership of Madrid’s matches stands at around 800 million, but he anticipates that the early start time could boost the figures up to 1.8 billion, thanks largely to the massive audiences in China and Japan, where there is a fanatical following of Cristiano Ronaldo, as well as the fans in South America, who support Kaka.
The White House president is said to have drawn encouragement from the English Premier League’s current TV schedule, where the big clash of the weekend is often held on Saturday at 12:45 GMT and at 15:00 GMT for the bulk of the fixtures. However, he had already come up with this idea during his first stint at the Bernabeu, but he ran into resistance from the LFP {Liga de Futbol Professional) as well as the TV broadcasters.
He is confident that the new timetable will not only benefit Madrid and the opposing team, but it will also broaden La Liga’s appeal to a wider market.
The only setback to this plan would be the disapproval of the paying members in Madrid to attend the games earlier than usual. At present, La Liga’s games are normally scheduled from 20:00 CET to 22:00 CET for Saturday’s round of matches, and 17:00 CET to 21:00 CET on Sundays.
Perez has already predicted that CR9 and Kaka will generate more than €90m of profit every year, a figure that will almost cover this summer’s triple Galacticos signing in two seasons.
http://www.goal.com/en-india/news/138/spain/2009/07/16/1385611/florentino-perez-aims-to-change-real-madrid-kick-offs-to-attract-

Those cules won't say anything now when we are making moves that benefit the entire league, instead they are busy wasting money on David Villa

RuuDie:

So out of the projected 90milla profits. . . . how much are the other La Liga outfits getting

biina:

Each club negotiates its own media rights in La Liga (not collective like EPL).

RuuDie:

So what is all the crap about every club in the EPL benefitting. . . .  did they buy Kaka, CR9 & Benzema to play for all the La Liga clubs

mukina2:

I hate madrid

mukina2:

like say una win anything last season

biina:

Dat one na history.
Wait for november when we go comot all ya teeth wey dey show!

khanye: