"The only way to make Americans love the game, is to make the game American."In the United States, soccer - as the Americans insist on calling the game - bobs in the wake of basketball, baseball and grid-iron football. Yet for a four-week period starting on Friday 17 June, the USA will host the greatest football show on earth, World Cup '94.
As part of the World Cup deal, the US is required to set up a professional football league, starting next year. Alan Rothenberg won the professional soccer franchise, and is now the Chairman of Major League Soccer. He admits that selling soccer in the US will be tough, but believes that a slow, steady approach will eventually lead to a prospering domestic league.
Jim Pagalia, on the other hand, has more radical intentions. Jim thinks that the way to get a US audience interested in football is to make the game more American - hence his planned "Zone Soccer." Zone Soccer is a $700 million rival to the MLS, due for launch in May 1995, with some substantial changes to the rules. Jim shows When Saturday Comes' Simon O'Brien how Zone Soccer will work.
Which of these soccer codes - if either - will find its way into the hearts of US sports fans?
Clip taken from Standing Room Only: Soccer, Stars and Strips, originally broadcast on BBC Two, 15 June, 1994.
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