Strategic partnerships with foreign clubs? Forgive my skepticism

Forgive me if I am underwhelmed by this new news that Tottenham Hotspur and the L.A. Galaxy may form a strategic alliance. Whatever that is.

Generally speaking here’s the way I feel about these “thinking outside the box” partnerships: Someone wake me up when these fancy alliances actually produce something worth writing about.

Clubs make these announcements with some regularity and like to make a big deal about them, but they generally aren’t much to shout about.

In fairness, it has happened that such an arrangement bares fruit. Not often. But there is some limited precedent.

In 2007, Colorado formed a partnership with Arsenal, one of the world’s big brands. Kroenke Sports Enterprises, which owns the Rapids, sought to help build the Arsenal brand within the United States. That makes sense as Stan Kroenke is a shareholder at Arsenal. So in this case there was an actual connection, something more tangible than conceptual thinking and visions of “idea sharing.”  

“The Rapids reached out to form these relationships in order to pave the way for international friendlies, player development programs, and joint marketing opportunities that will serve to benefit all involved,” the club says on its website.

The club has indeed made a couple of trips to London in recent years as part of their preseason training. A trip abroad this year didn’t work out but, still, go ahead check that box. And coach Gary Smith was a scout for Arsenal before arrival in Denver early in 2008 as an assistant to then-manager Fernando Clavijo. So here we see one that works.

But there are plenty of examples of other such “strategic partnerships” that don’t amount to a hill of refried beans. The MLS champs, for instance, also have a relationship with Pachuca of the Mexican league. I don’t see much having come from that.

FC Dallas partnerships with Atlético Paranaense (Brazil) and Tigres (Mexico) have come and gone. The alliance in Brazil helped the club secure David Ferreira, who just won an MVP.  Could FC Dallas have acquired the player without the partnership? Perhaps. But we’ll give credit for that one. Tigres? Meh. They got a couple of exhibitions and swapped a little training time. Not much else.

Other clubs have announced such alliances that, far as I know, never produced a darn thing. I don’t feel real comfortable naming them, since they may have spent a week there during preseason at some point, or may have exchanged some souvenirs or something. But I Even league-level partnerships have done little to actually assist the league. Remember Major League Soccer’s alliance with the German federation? Don’t feel badly. Most people never heard of it – as it really never has produced much of anything.