| Product: |
icons.com |
| Date: |
28/07/01 (143 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: First For News, Many Top Footballers, A Growing Role In The Sport
Disadvantages: May Begin To Develop Into A Cartel
It has often been said in footballing circles that the clubs are the epicentre of the sport. It used to be the case that players were not able to exert any real control on the game, and no matter how extravagant their antics, on or off the pitch, managers were always able to bring them back down to earth with a bump.
However, the balance of power in the sport has definitely shifted with a series of milestone changes, notably the decision to abolish the maximum wage (1961), the proliferation of agents (1980s onwards), the influx of the TV millions from Sky (1992 onwards) and the Bosman ruling (1995).
One of the other major changes to the sport of football in recent years is the lengths that players will now go to to raise their profile. The players, it seems, are not content with signing multi-million pound advertising deals and earning weekly wages that are well in excess of what most of us earn in a year. They now employ agents to look after their on-field and off-field concerns and many of them now also have a new window in the world - the icons web site at www.icons.com.
Many of the Premiership's top footballers, as well as a host of other top names that play in all the top leagues in Europe and the rest of the world, are part of the icons phenomenon. Icons now effectively acts as a shop window to an ever-growing number of the top names in the sport.
When once the big stories on transfers, new deals and other activity were broken in the world's press, it now appears that icons is taking over this mantle. Over 150 players have now signed up to icons.com, and each has their own personal site, which is accessible via a nifty drop down menu on the left hand panel of the icons home page. Each site brings you up to date with the latest news on that player and is usually the first place to find the important breaking news.
To see the individual player sites you first need to register at icons, which involves providing
some basic personal details (name and address etc.) along with your e-mail address, a username and a password.
Icons is certainly a force to be reckoned with and has now reached a critical mass that means it is able to use this profile to exert an ever-increasing influence on the game.
Not surpringly the site also has an icons shop where you buy lots of merchandise and memorabilia relating to the current crop of big names in the game. There are also a number of other facilities on the site, including competitions and quizzes.
So, for all the latest information on today's top footballers, make sure that icons.com is bookmarked for the forthcoming season.
[by the way, can anyone figure out what the title of this opinion is an anagram of? - answers in the comments section please]
{An original Dooyoo opinion
© Blackjane 2001}
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