Something to Watch Next Year...

YouTube joining F1? It would appear as though...

The online video-sharing website's co-founder and Chief Executive, Chad Hurley, has officially confirmed an involvement with next season's F1 new boys Team US F1.

The key area worth following?

"Getting in on the ground floor of a project of this size and scope is a tremendous opportunity, and I look forward to helping shape the US F1 vision and corporate strategy for years to come," Hurley tells Autosport.com.

"I see tremendous potential for all sports to integrate more media, more social connections, connect with the fans and build a fan base. And that's exactly what I hope to bring to US F1, bringing my experience and perhaps my opinions of how we could go about that."

Formula One is an undoubted success worldwide, with a particularly avid following in Europe. However, traditionally open-wheel racing has struggled in America, and F1 has historically trailed NASCAR racing, and more-Americana events such as Indianapolis, rather than waking up Sunday mornings to follow European races.

Will a new American team change that? Unlikely. However, increasing exposure, making greater use of online multimedia and better promoting the sport to new American fans, may have a lasting impact on the sport, if Hurley et al. succeed.

Certainly worth keeping an eye on in the years to come...

Sport in the Globalized World...

An interesting piece from BBC Sport came out this week, looking at the impact of globalization on English football, and the influx of foreign players into the Premier League (as compared to the former First Division, circa 1989-90).

Where the Premier League's players come from
By Ollie Williams

In the past two decades, the composition of England's top-flight teams has changed dramatically.

At the start of the 1989-90 season, leading clubs like Arsenal and Manchester United boasted just one or two regular first-team players who were born outside the United Kingdom.

Now, Premier League teams have, on average, 13 foreign-born stars within their ranks.

Use the interactive world map above to explore the birthplaces of players in all the current Premier League squads, and compare them with the same teams' players from the start of the 1989-90 season - then find out more about each team below.

Twenty years ago, defending champions Arsenal had just two players born outside the UK on their books: Icelandic midfielder Sigurdur Jonsson and Irish forward Niall Quinn.

Jonsson made barely a handful of appearances before leaving Highbury in 1992, while Quinn was soon to sign for Manchester City.

Liverpool, eventual title-winners that season, had an unusually large number of foreign-born players in their 1989-90 squad.

Kenny Dalglish's side featured five players born outside the UK: John Barnes (Jamaica), Bruce Grobbelaar (South Africa), Glenn Hysen (Sweden), Jan Molby (Denmark) and Steve Staunton (Republic of Ireland).

But they were the exception. Teams were far more likely to boast just one or two players born outside the UK and, in many cases (such as Manchester City's David Oldfield and Chelsea's Tony Dorigo), those players were British nationals who happened to have been born abroad.

Two decades ago, the teams making up this year's Premier League could only boast 12 players born outside the Commonwealth between them.

Twenty years later, more than half of the Premier League's clubs could field an entire starting line-up of foreign-born players.

Liverpool now have just three UK-born first-team stars in Jamie Carragher, Steven Gerrard and Glen Johnson, with other British talents like Jay Spearing making only occasional European appearances to date.

Anfield is home to 20 foreign-born players with a strong first-team claim, while Arsenal can boast 23, as opposed to four Brits, all aged under 21.

Teams recently promoted to the top flight have the fewest foreign-born players in their first-team squads - Burnley have seven, Wolves have eight, as do Stoke, who gained promotion a year earlier, while Birmingham have nine.

West Ham are also at the lower end of the spectrum, with nine foreign-born players, but at the time of writing this still comprised almost half of the 21 first-team players at Gianfranco Zola's disposal.

Follow the link to see analyses of each of the Premier League's twenty teams, and the changes in squad formation and player origin over the last two decades. Interesting reading for anyone curious about the impact, both positive and negative, of the globalization of sport.

Where the Premier League's players come from