From: MAILER-DAEMON@cs.utexas.edu
Newsgroups: rec.sport.soccer
Subject: mail-to-news failure
Date: 9 Oct 1992 11:25:25 -0500
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|---------------------------------------------------------------|
|Prof. Christopher S. Allen                Voice: (706) 542-2984|
|Political Science Department                FAX: (706) 542-4421|
|University of Georgia                Bitnet: csallen@uga.bitnet|
|Athens, GA 30602 - USA         Internet: csallen@uga.cc.uga.edu|
|---------------------------------------------------------------|


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From CSALLEN@uga.cc.uga.edu  Fri Oct  9 11:11:37 1992
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Date:         Fri, 09 Oct 92 11:55:28 EDT
From: "Christopher S. Allen" <CSALLEN@uga.cc.uga.edu>
Subject:      Re: Football in the USA
To: rec-sport-soccer <rec-sport-soccer@cs.utexas.edu>

Having thought about how to get greater press coverage of "Football
in the USA", I decided to write a letter to the editor of my local paper's
(Atlanta Constitution) sports section. Realizing that pitching it toward
idenfifying Americans who are starring for European teams, I thought it
wise to try to tell the editor that there were important human interest
stories that he was missing by ignoring soccer. Yes, this is transparent,
but I suspect this is probably the best way to get the attention of sports
editors who don't want to give soccer the time of day. Feel free to use
as much of this as you would like for your local needs:

=================================================================
I am writing to request more soccer coverage in the Constitution
and to call your attention to a significant development:

Americans are playing -- and starring -- in topflight European
professional soccer leagues. All of the following are the leading
lights for the US national team that will play in the 1994 World
Cup here in the United States. Among the most significant are:

    -  Californian Eric Wynalda is the second leading scorer in
       the German Bundesliga for FC Saarbruecken, with a total of
       6 goals already in only 9 weeks of play. His estimated
       market value in the German Bundesliga is $1.7 million!

    -  New Jersey's John Harkes is a midfielder for the English
       First division team Sheffield Wednesday, a team that is
       currently competing in UEFA Cup competition against the
       top European clubs from other countries. He was the first
       American to ever play in Wembly Stadium in last year's
       League Cup championship, plus he scored England's "goal of
       the year" as voted by the English soccer press.

    -  Newly naturalized Roy Wegerle of the English premier
       league team Blackburn Rovers scored two goals last
       Saturday as his league leading team won its match 7:1. In
       a midweek League Cup match, he scored another goal. He was
       transferred from his former club, Queen's Park Rangers to
       Blackburn Rovers for $1.8 million last spring.

    -  Thomas Dooley, the son of an American serviceman and a
       German woman, is also a recently naturalized citizen who
       had always had a longing to come to America and find his
       father's family after his father deserted the family in
       the 1960s. He is the central defender for last year's
       German Bundesliga champion, Kaiserslautern.

    -  Tab Ramos, an alumnus of North Carolina State, is
       currently starring for the Spanish topflight second
       division club, Real Betis of Seville. He also was traded
       from his former club for nearly $1 million. He is
       consistently being praised by the Spanish soccer press and
       several of the top first division clubs (Real Madrid and
       Barcelona) have expressed interest in acquiring him.

    -  Indiana's Steve Snow, the leading scorer on last year's US
       Olympic team, is currently starting for FC Boom in the
       Belgian first division.

In addition to these Americans starring abroad, the following are
all playing professional soccer in first or second division
professional leagues:

Jorge Acosta      Forward           Deportivo Cali (Colombia)
Brian Bliss       Defender          Carl Zeiss Jena (Germany)
Kasey Keller      Goalkeeper        Millwall (England)
Frank Klopas      Forward           AEK (Greece)
Ernie Stewart     Forward           Willem II Tilburg (Holland)
Chris Sullivan    Forward           Brondby (Denmark)
Billy Thompson    Midfielder        FC Pau (France)
Nick Brujos       Goalkeeper        Sligo Rovers(Ireland)
Ian Fleur         Goalkeeper                (Belgium)
Henry Gutierrez   Midfielder        Rennes (France)
Cle Koeman        Defender          Cruz Azul (Mexico)
Manny Lagos       Midfielder        Union Lerida (Spain)
Dale Mulholland   Forward           Locomotiv Moscow (Russia)
Juergen Sommer    Keeper            Luton Town (England)

Soccer fans in the area would really appreciate your regularly
posting the scores of teams in England, Germany, Spain, Belgium,
Holland, and Italy in the paper. Most league matches take place
on Saturday (England and Germany) and on Sunday in the other
countries. In addition, most Cup matches and World Cup
elimination matches take place on Wednesday. So if you would
check the AP, UPI, and Reuters wires on Sunday, Monday, and
Thursday, you will probably find some interesting stories of
American successes in this supposedly "foreign" sport. If you
have room for obscure Australian tennis tournaments, surely you
can spare the space for a few lines of agate type of the teams
that American soccer pros are playing for.

In addition, the US national team is playing an exhibition match
against the Canadian national team tonight (October 9) at the UNC
Greensboro soccer stadium. It would be nice if you could have
someone cover the match. Many of the players mentioned above will
not be at this exhibition, but most of them will be playing for
the US national team (the champion of the North and Central
American -- CONCACAF -- region) in Saudi Arabia on October 15,
16, 19 and 20 in the Intercontinental Cup against the champions
of South America (Argentina), Africa (Ivory Coast), and Asia
(Saudi Arabia). It would be nice if you could provide coverage of
that too.

As you know, Atlanta was one of the cities to bid for a World Cup
site in 1994. As you also know, it was unsuccessful. One reason,
I believe, is that there has been little or no soccer coverage at
all in the paper, save for the stray Emory score. There will be
several "alternate" sites that will be designated in case one of
the primary sites can not fulfill its obligation. Atlanta may
still have a shot at that.

Increased soccer coverage in the major local paper would likely
be a significant factor in possibly awarding some matches to
Atlanta.

Thank you for your consideration.

===============================================================
I closed with my phone and fax numbers. Try something like this with
your local sports editors and see what happens.

Best, Chris

|---------------------------------------------------------------|
|Prof. Christopher S. Allen                Voice: (706) 542-2984|
|Political Science Department                FAX: (706) 542-4421|
|University of Georgia                Bitnet: csallen@uga.bitnet|
|Athens, GA 30602 - USA         Internet: csallen@uga.cc.uga.edu|
|---------------------------------------------------------------|