Mad Brit Diary

Soccer's best-paid volunteer, Rothenberg starts a bank.

(Friday, March 26, 2004) -- America has been a graveyard for soccer leagues over the years and numerous investors have lost more than their shirts trying to promote the game in the game's final frontier. That is with the exception of the great Alan Rothenberg who took a controversial whopping $7 million bonus for heading up the 1994 World Cup as a so-called "volunteer."

Just to jog your memory, folks, but the jovial Alan, a charming man if there ever was, took "time off" from his lucrative law practice and "volunteered" to run the World Cup 1994 preparations. He declined to take the $350,000 salary per year offered from the World Cup committee, but still tolled up a massive expense account. Just ask a certain fellow with a short name from a certain Amish state in the good old USA, but we won't go there.

Rothenberg did a good job and we were all grateful for his charitable effort. Then, it was found that the event made $50 million in profit and Alan came calling. He received a $7 million check in the mail, which included $800,000 for each year he had worked and a $3 million plus bonus on top of that. We all then realized that Alan's term for "volunteering" was not the same as the one used down at the soup kitchen for the homeless on Hollywood Boulevard.

Look, I'm not trying to start class warfare here, but $7 million was rather large, even in these Enron scandal days.

So what is Alan doing with his giant a pile of cash these days? Well he's opening a bank, of course! It's true. Rothenberg has just opened his own bank in Century City, Calif. The former top legal aide to late Jack Kent Cooke, the one-time Washington Redskins owner, raised more capital for a start-up bank -- $34 million from 400 investors -- than in the history of Los Angeles County. You have to give it to Rothenberg -- he is a genius.

Much loved now by the FIFA bosses and known an "expert" on soccer, Rothenberg, 64, strides the planet as a true American soccer mogul, the only man to have made a genuine buck from the game in the USA. After all, Rothenberg, who founded Major League Soccer in 1996 with other people's cash -- the league has lost $200 million in eight years -- is a very talented lawyer and, remember folks, lawyers may lose in court but they never, never lose. They always get paid and Rothenberg, who owns a nice slice of heaven high in the hills of California, gets paid very well.

In 1996, Sports Illustrated called him "a shameless self-promoter and a smug and shady profiteer," but that was very cruel. Look, we know he gives to Democrats but that was way too harsh.

What really upset people were reports that Rothenberg's law firm, Latham & Watkins, billed the World Cup committee for $2.7 million in legal services in four years leading up to the event and Rothenberg was getting a chunk of that in commissions. Someone smelled a "conflict of interest" issue. Rothenberg told one newspaper it was "a real nice deal for the World Cup," because it was five percent off the firm's $210 hourly rate.

We all wanted Alan to get some reward for his work on the World Cup because he's such a loveable and happy guy, but $7 million just blew us all away. Now my question is, will Rothenberg give me a decent low-interest loan from his new bank to buy a house, as the Mad Brit is just too darn tired of being ripped off by his landlord. Are you there Alan? How's my credit?

Check out April's issue of Vanity Fair magazine. There's a great cover story on "Bend It Like Beckham" star Keira Knightley. Then there's an short article on Freddie Adu -- "My friends call me Doogie Howser" -- and also, an outrageous, bordering on vulgar, interview with Arsenal star midfielder Freddie Ljungberg.

Gheorghe Hagi, considered Romani's greatest player and nicknamed the "Maradona of the Carpathians," has returned to his old Turkish club Galatasaray to coach.

David Litzelman asks: "Do you know if any of the TV networks are planning to show any of the Euro 2004 games?: (Sorry Dave, they will be all on pay-per-view.)

Sam Kpakiwa writes - Hey Mad Brit, love the new format of the column. Keep up the excellent work. To the point at hand. Let's not forget the fact that Rio Ferdinand failed his club by failing to perform his professional responsibility. I mean it was a SCHEDULED drug test for heavens sake. Also let's not forget the fact that none of the remaining defenders, or the rest of the team as a whole, stepped up to the plate to plug the hole created by Rio's "oversight." Plus we should also consider Sir Alex's failure to sign a quality defender during the transfer window. With all these events, it seems that Tim Howard's surprising absence from last weekend's line up indicates that he is going to take the brunt of the blame for United's season of shambles. I know that he has had a tough second half to the season, and is probably not going to be forgiven any time soon for their Champions League exit, but I don't think this is all Tim's fault. I just fear that another great young American talent will now face a future of bench riding and dreaded reserve league action after he failed to take his ONE AND ONLY shot in the English top flight. I am a huge United fan, but if that's our young Timmy's future I'd rather see him playing somewhere else. Because he is too good for the bench.

Doug Rhodes writes: "Cheers, MB. Thanks for letting me present my opinion. If it is good in the rest of the world, why not MLS? Many U.S. companies are shirt sponsors in other countries. . . I remember when Alpo sponsored an American Soccer League team in the late 1970's from Pennsylvania (Keystoners?) and they became one of the first teams to have a company on their shirt. . . Again thanks for letting me have my say. I'll be at the opening game of the upcoming MLS season wearing the kit from one of my two favorite clubs. I haven't decided yet.

Ari Adland writes: Your reader wants sponsors' logos on the shirts? Commercialization is everything that is wrong with sports. Why would you want to add more corporate crap to the game? I'm sure it will happen eventually, but to want it to happen is crazy. (The reader) asks what is wrong with shield and a sponsor's logo. Well, what is wrong with just the shield? It is your team. You're supposed to have an affiliation with the team (and its logo), not an association with some crappy telephone company."

Doug Kieffer writes: "As always, tremendous work. Just a couple of things I want to comment on. First, FIFA's elimination of the Golden Goal is utterly ridiculous. Dan Loney wrote a great piece on it. My take on it is that it is some sort of anti-American thing. Granted, we're not the world leader in soccer, but we've come up with some top-notch sports concepts and sudden death is one of them. The world soccer community may chafe at it, but I can't imagine anything more exciting than the golden goal.

"Point 2, I predict that within 10 years, merchandise from MLS clubs will be hot in Europe. Even now, imagine a guy in Hannover, Geramny, with an original Mathis MetroStars shirt. Brilliant. Overseas folks looking for a way to stand out will look quite smart in some Chicago Fire gear. We can all dream."

J.K. Bartke of Los Angeles writes concerning his city being snubbed by the ChampionsWorld tour: "Hey, Mad Brit -- your insights are terrific. It's the recently announced plans to have the European Powers skip out on the second largest city in America, the second largest market, and arguably the most soccer involved city that has me seething. What are they thinking? Of course, I can think of two things right off the bat: Los Angeles has no world class stadium that seats over 25,000. Granted, the Home Depot Center is top of its class, but it's way too small for the likes of Manchester United, (Glasgow) Celtic, Bayern Munich, and AC Milan.

"The Rose Bowl and the Coliseum are relics with significant deficiencies in space, parking, and\or location. Secondly, the 'powers-that-be' will argue the Coliseum didn't sell out last summer for the Manchester United vs. America game. Get a clue, guys. While other cities got Manchester, Celtic, or Juventus, Los Angeles got Mexico's America, a second-tier team and an enemy of most of the Mexican population of Mexico's second largest city (Los Angeles). I'm disgusted with the whole affair, but yes, I will watch the games and turn Celtic green or Manchester United red with envy that a third-rate Seattle market gets a game and Los Angeles has neither the stadium nor anyone in the marketing structure who has the insight to see past our minority communities to the community of soccer-loving peoples as a whole.

T. Rey says: "Hey, Mad Brit. I would really like to see Conor Casey get a chance with the national team. He has been scoring regularly in Germany and would be a wonderful partner for Landon Donovan up top."

Heard a rumor, have a gripe or a tip? Feeling lonely? E-mail the Mad Brit at themadbrit3@aol.com.