Beckham’s Miami team could play at university

MIAMI: David Beckham's dreams of seeing his new Miami team gracing a state-of-the-art stadium in a prestigious downtown location seemed further away than ever after local authorities suggested the club temporarily play at a university.

A year after Beckham announced plans for a new Major League Soccer franchise, the former Manchester United star has been repeatedly frustrated in his attempts to secure a home for his as-yet unnamed team, ahead of the club's debut season, originally slated for 2017.

Miami-Dade County commissioners want Mayor Carlos Gimenez to strike a compromise to house the new team at Florida International University (FIU) in the city in the short term, while negotiations take place to find a more permanent location.

"It would assist the efforts to identify and develop a permanent location for a soccer stadium facility if a Major League Soccer franchise based in Miami-Dade County began playing professional matches as soon as possible because it would likely increase public support for the franchise and begin building a committed local fan base," said a commissioners resolution.

Tadd Schwartz, a Miami Beckham United spokesman, said: "Things are progressing in Miami and we are very much on track in our plans.

"David Beckham is very positive about the future of the club and he continues to enjoy incredible support from the people in Miami.

"Careful consideration will be given to FIU when we address the opportunities for a temporary facility."

Neisen Kasdin, an attorney for the Beckham group in Miami, added: "We still remain in the process of identifying a permanent stadium site and that is the priority at this time."

Beckham and his investors want the team to play at a 20,000-seat waterfront stadium but they have faced opposition from local interest groups.

The FIU Stadium has a 20,000 capacity.--AFP

Six Nations 2015: Is patriotism still important in international rugby?

"Look what this lot have done to Wales. They've taken our coal, our water, our steel. They buy our houses and they only live in them for a fortnight every 12 months. What have they given us? Absolutely nothing. We've been exploited, controlled and punished by the English - and that's who you're playing this afternoon."

This was how skipper Phil Bennett chose to ignite his red-shirted team-mates before Wales met England in 1977: a rousing oration to match the most stirring of sporting occasions.

It has become part of the narrative for this fixture. Us against them, flag around our shoulders, history at our back. Except 38 years on from Bennett's mischievous rabble-rousing, quite where us ends and them begins is rather harder to make out.

There will be fierce patriotism on display in the stands and heaving Cardiff streets. For two teams drawn from similar cultural and geographical backgrounds, it may be a little less red and white.


There is professionalism, there are postcodes. Of the Welsh team that will charge out at the Millennium Stadium on Friday night, almost a third were born in England.

George North began his supersized existence in King's Lynn, Norfolk, centre Jonathan Davies in Solihull, West Midlands. Flanker Dan Lydiate was born in Salford, his fellow forward Luke Charteris in bucolic Camborne in Cornwall.

Alex Cuthbert originally hails from Minsterworth in Gloucestershire. Jake Ball - Ascot-born - once captained the Surrey Under-15 rugby team, and later emigrated to Western Australia as a promising fast bowler.

As current captain Sam Warburton said when asked, provocatively, about the supposed hatred between the two nations: "I have to tread very careful with this question, you have to remember my dad's English."

No-one would suggest that their birthplaces will mean any of those men giving anything but their all against England. Which rather shows how much has changed since Bennett sent his team out on fire and fumes alone.