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Episode details

World Service,14 Aug 2014,17 mins

Can European Football Learn from the NFL?

Business Daily

Available for over a year

Business Daily gives a warm welcome to the new European football season. The English, Spanish, and German leagues are all getting underway in the next week or so, but will there be much real sport to cheer? Despite the recent drive towards financial fair play, some commentators argue that most of these top leagues are becoming less not more competitive. With smaller clubs complaining of the growing gulf with the big spenders, we ask what Europe's soccer leagues can learn from American football? We hear from Professor Chris Brady of Salford University in Britain and from Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the NFL, which sets caps on wages and distributes all tv revenue equally to its 32 teams. Also in the programme, Jeremy Wagstaffe reflects on the modern cell-phone or tablet. Is the touch-screen device, he asks, not a sign of progress but a step-back for anyone who believes in the written word?

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