with joel Crosskill

I'VE OFTEN thought the fatal flaw of the American approach to the world's game is its philosophy of "if you can't beat 'em buy 'em" with Major League Soccer often resorting to publicity stunts and spending sprees to kick-start national interest. If Pele couldn't do it, why expect David Beckham to?

However, earlier in the week an interview in the Financial Times may herald a new American approach.

ESPN president George Bodenheimer was quoted as being "absolutely interested" in buying the U.K. rights to broadcast BPL football. A move that could put the Disney-owned ESPN in direct competition with U.K. media juggernaut BSkyB, owned by Rupert Murdoch's Newscorp, numbers two and three respectively on the Fortune 500 entertainment industry leaders list.

Currently U.K. rights are held by BSkyB and Irish network Setanta with the duo paying a record £1.7 billion for the three-season licence. But with Disney in play, a Mickey Mouse offer is highly unlikely when the rights are reissued in 2009.

In the '90s, Premier League matches on the channel regularly received lower ratings than college football. So why would ESPN be willing to risk the premiership again?

The key to the riddle may lie in some of ESPN's other recent sporting acquisitions: namely cricket website Cricinfo and rugby portal Scrum.com. Both sites catering to sporting tastes not traditionally associated with the Stars and Stripes.

ESPN have dominated their domestic market with access to more than 95 million homes and those internet purchases represent their expansion plans into Asia in particular.

It is Bodenheimer's belief that the BPL is a "fabulous property for any broadcaster", not only for its entertainment value but mainly for its "advertising value', as the live uninterrupted nature of the matches becomes increasing attractive to advertisers.

With the global sports industry expected to top the £100 billion mark by 2010, the self-proclaimed worldwide leaders in sport believe the BPL could underpin the group's global goals, with a current audience of over half a billion people in 202 countries and counting.

Though American business interest in football on the domestic front seems haphazard, their away form has been red hot recently. With the purchase of two of the crown jewels in English clubs history, Man-chester United and Liver-pool with American greenbacks ESPN's entry into the arena of BPL rights seems inevitable.

So even though Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez may think the Yanks don't get football, they're certainly starting to make football cents.

Contact Joel at jcrosskill@sportsmax.tv