Great idea - poor execution

Did any of you guys here about the 2008 Free Kick Masters? No? It took place last week in Houston. Let me give a rundown of what it is.

Soccer's 'best' free kick takers and goalies in the world come to this event to vie for a $1 million prize. The format is single elimination - you go up against another shooter, and whoever scored more goals goes to the next round. You also get points for hitting the posts and crossbar, and the further away you are, the more points you get if you make it. I counted 16 free kick takers that took part in the competition and five goalies.

Shooters included Ronaldinho, Messi, Marquez, Borgetti, Pires, Jozy Altidore, Eddie Lewis, Palermo and other random players. Goalies included David James, Kasey Keller and Toldo. I mean, looking at the lineup, it doesn't look that bad, right?

Well, it was supposed to be much better. Fernando Torres, Lukas Podolski and Del Piero all dropped out before the competition. So instead of getting world-class players to fill their places, the organizers called Romario and Jorge Campos. Serious.


Romario and Jorge Campos are a combined 154 years old. All the shooters wanted to be going against Campos. "Ok Mr. Pires. Who do you want to shoot against...world-class goalkeeper David James, or over-the-hill, undersized, out-of-shape former MLS star Jorge Campos?"

That was the first thing wrong with the competition. The quality was half-assed. Messi...Ronaldinho...even Eddie Lewis - these are known, accomplished football players. Good job. But have you ever of Shen Shi, Subait Khater Fayel or Brad Davis? No! It's like the organizers got their headliners, and said to themselves, Great, we got Messi! Now let's go out there and sign up a bunch of nobodies!

They even had a spot open for a competition winner. That's right - a nobody won some competition for a right to compete for the $1 million prize. Would baseball ever let a competition winner into the home run derby? Would the NBA ever let a nobody into the three-point contest because they won a competition to get there? Hello no! Nobody wants to watch Joe Shmoe take free kicks. Who would you rather see? A 17-year-old nobody kid or a world class footballer? Not a tough decision.

Another reason this failed was the fact that it was in Houston. It's obvious why it was there. Houston isn't far from the Mexican border. The organizers invited three of Mexico's biggest stars to partake in the competition. Of the 30,000 in attendance, 20,000 were likely Mexicans. Organizers were probably afraid they couldn't fill seats in other American cities. But that is bullocks.

If they held it in NYC or LA, they would have gotten better participants (Why would Torres or Del Piero want to fly to Houston?) If they had better participants, more fans would come out. If they held it in a better city, more media would have come out. This competition has the potential to be something big. But in order for it to mean anything, the quality of participants must improve. Here's what they need to do:

1) Change the location. Have it in Los Angeles, NYC, or Miami. I wouldn't fly to Houston if they paid me. It's one of the worst cities in sports. As Bill Simmons said a few years back, the fact remains, you would never come here for any reason, other than these three: (1) For work. (2) To gain weight. (3) To get shot.

2) Increase the prize money. One million bucks really isn't that much nowadays. Especially to European players. They have to make the prize more appealing. The $1m is chump change to the Messes and Ronaldhinos, but it's quite appealing to the Romarios and Dwayne de Rosarios. They need to increase the prize money to put it out of reach for the average players.

3) Ask the top 30 free kick takers in the world. Even though Rafael Marquez won the competition, how many kicks does he take for Barcelona? That's right - none. Asking Marquez to the competition is like asking Chris Bosh to participate in the three-point contest. Bosh is a great player, but three pointers aren't exactly his thing. They need to ask the top free-kick specialists in the world, and after that, invite the big names.

4) Beckham. They NEED Beckham. How do you have a competition without Beckham. Hell, it could have been a goalkeeping competition, and Beckham is still necessary.

5) Change the uniforms. Whatever it was the players wore during the competition - they were HIDEOUS. They looked like the jersey I wore when I was 11 years old playing for the Lazers. It was hard enough watching an overweight Ronaldinho kick the ball into the wall over and over, but watching him in this gag-inducing jersey did not help. I have searched for 10 minutes trying to find one picture of the uniforms up close, but they do not exist.

6) If they are going to bring in veterans, bring in relevant ones. I don't care about Romario. He's ancient. Rivaldo would have been a better choice. Figo, Zidane, Shearer, Totti...these are guys they should be inviting.

7) Get some noteworthy sponsors. Get Nike to sponsor the uniforms, Gatorade to do refreshments and Ford to do transportation. This competition was so budget, I doubt any of the players will return for next year.

8) ESPN writer Jen Change wrote in this article that the scorekeeping was impossible to follow. Not even the players knew how many points they were getting. The audience and writers were lost. Make it easy to follow. Free kicks should be that confusing.

I looked at the list of people they invited, and I think I may have been a bit hard on the promoters. They had confirmations from Deco, Del Piero, Bentley, Juninho and Kewell. They also sent invites to Henry, Fabregas, Adebayor, Riquelme, Drogba, and Ibrihamovic. But I bet a big reason the players declined is because they found out the competition was in Houston.

Agent - "Hey Thierry, there's a free kick tournament for a million dollar prize. Want to take part?"
Henry - "Sure that sounds fun! Where is it?"
Agent - "It's in the United States!"
Henry - "Great! They love me over there! Great media coverage...what city? Los Angeles, New York...?"
Agent - "Uhm.....Houston...."
Henry - "The fuck? Oh, I just remembered, I am busy that weekend."

I think this tournament could work, but the format and quality of players is going to need to improve. The one and done format may not be the best. The fans came out to see Messi and Ronaldinho, and those two players didn't even advance. I would want to see more of those players. Give them another chance. Make it double elimination.

It will be interesting to see who participates next year. Perhaps players were fatigued from Euro taking place this summer. Looking at the way it panned out this year, there's nowhere to go but up.