The Evolution of the World Soccer Daily Online Support Pages

The World Soccer Daily Petition and Fund Raising Web Pages both were heavily edited and elicited forceful reactions from groups involved.

In the weeks following Steven Cohen's statements about Hillsborough and the subsequent LFCNY boycott campaign, two web pages appeared. One on a petition website and another on a fundraiser website, both in support of World Soccer Daily and Steven Cohen. While the creation of these pages and their defense of Cohen's right to make the statements he did are nothing interesting by themselves, the fact that the wording of both pages has changed since their original posting, seemingly in reaction to inflammatory at best, libelous at worst, statements, is a much more interesting story.


The World Soccer Daily Supporters Petition

Posted on ThePetitionSite.com the stated purpose of the petition was to support Cohen and World Soccer Daily under his first amendment right to free speech. With a set goal of 20,000 signatures, the petition has received 1,487 signatures as of June 30th, 2009. Posted as part of the petition was a statement written (we assume) by Nick Iannone, a fan and supporter of the show. What is now posted on the petition is not the original text. While I have been unable to get a screen shot, I do know from reading the initial petition, that it accused Who Are Ya Designs (one of the sponsors that has left Cohen) of a breach of contract and called for WSD fans to boycott the company over said breach of contract. At some point after the creation of the petition, new text appeared, removing the the accusation of a breach of contract against Who Are Ya Designs. The new text is as follows:

It should be noted that Who Are Ya Designs in fact did not breach their agreement with WSD. The contract between WSD and Who Are Ya Designs had simply expired on May 31, 2009 and was not renewed. This forum had incorrectly called for a boycott of Who Are Ya Designs.

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A seemingly innocent mistake by a fan of World Soccer Daily or is there more to this? I have reason to believe the blatantly false statement concerning the breach of contract did not sit well with Who Are Ya Designs. According to an anonymous source, Who Are Ya Designs threatened Nick Iannone with litigation if the petition was not altered to correctly address the status of the contract between the companies. What's more, the source claimed that when faced with a potential lawsuit, Iannone requested help from Steven Cohen and was essentially hung out to dry, a statement Iannone himself denies.

As Iannonewas the lone name associated with the creation of the petition, he was left to deal with the repercussions of the false statements on his own, thus the wording of the petition was changed. As stated before, Iannone denies being "hung out to dry" by Cohen and offered on this statement in response to my contacting him for comment:

At no point during my time of helping Steven Cohen and World Soccer Daily as a fan and listener, have I ever felt as though I was in a position of being "hung out to dry" as you have put it. I have been nothing but pleased and proud of the efforts of the listeners of the show (especially when compared to the efforts of others). If you are doing a story meant to be objective, I suggest you focus less on issues such as this and more on the heart of the issues at hand. Thank you.

As is typical in any situation like this, we have two sides to the story. Was Steven Cohen the force behind the petition and if so, did he write the initial statement included on the page that accused Who Are Ya Designs of a breach of contract? It's all speculation at this point, but if my source's claims about Who Are Ya Designs and Nick Iannone are true, then we can forumlate two likely scenarios.

The first scenario is that Iannone, as he claims, worked on behalf of Cohen simply as a fan and listener of World Soccer Daily. He clearly had some contact with Cohen concerning the petition, but the work was ultimately his alone. The statements concerning Who Are Ya Designs were accidental and removed at the behest of the company.

The seconds scenario is that Steven Cohen did the leg work, writing the statement and had Iannone publish the petition under his name to act as a buffer between him and the reaction of Who Are Ya Designs that he knew would come. Essentially, it would mean that Cohen intentionally made false and inflammatory statements about a sponsor that was not renewing their contract with him. Whether Cohen explained to Iannone the inevitable backlash that would come from lying about his contract with Who Are Ya Designs, we may never know.

One interesting point that might shed some light on the Cohen/Iannone relationship. My request for comment was sent via email to Nick Iannone's email address posted on the petition page. Before I received a comment back from him, I was contacted by Steven Cohen, via email, offering to discuss the story with him directly. I responded to Cohen shortly after receiving the email, but as of June 30th, I have not yet heard back from him. The offer remains open for Steven Cohen to comment on this story and his comments will be given equal time on this blog if he so desires.

We may not know the full extent of the connection between these two individuals, but there is a distinct possibility that a more substantial connection exist. We also don't know if there was any premeditated intent behind the statements made about the contract between Soccer Weekly, Inc. and Who Are Ya Designs. Finally, the question remains as to how much influence Cohen really had over the creation and writing of the petition.


The Fundable.com Help World Soccer Daily Page

In addition to the petition page, a fund raising page was created for World Soccer Daily as sponsors began to leave the show. Also created by Nick Iannone, the Fundable page had to be re-written due to the inflammatory nature of the initial text. As of June 30th, the 26 day period for donations to be submitted on this page has expired and "This group action expired before meeting its target. Pledges will soon be deleted". According to the Fundable.com FAQ, any funds pledged to a fundraiser that does not meet its target, will be returned to the individuals who pledged the funds and no money will be received by the Group Leader of the fundraiser.

CORRECTION: According to the Fundable.com Page, as of July 1st, all payments have been dispersed to the group leader.

No matter what the status of any money pledged through this web page, the issue of what was written there remains.

Let's begin with the original text of the Fundable page:

We are the only football show in America, that we expressed an opinion and that people (Liverpool supporters group and Liverpool Football Club) have decided that they have the right to suppress freedom of expression, intimidate and bully 3rd party companies and suppress our ability to make a living.

It is time for the listeners of World Soccer Daily to start fighting back with their wallets and pocket books...if you value World Soccer Daily and the 7 years it has been on the air then it is time to fight back.

This is the United States of American and if these people were operating out of the Middle Easy we would call them terrorist...lets show them that we are not effected or intimidated by a bunch of thugs who are behaving like the Taliban.

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Compare this to what is now posted on the Fundable page:

WSD is the only daily football/soccer show in America. The 7 year old caller-driven show deals with football around the world, especially the Premier League, MLS, and the US national team. WSD also has daily guests from around the globe, and correspondents in the major countries or continents of the game.

Recently a small group of people who disagree with some of the opinions stated by WSD hosts have decided to launch a smear campaign against the sponsors and public in order to get the show shut down. While they are welcome to decide for themselves whether to listen to the show or not, they are attempting to decide for everyone else by targeting advertisers of WSD. This is America; we do not approve of people who elect themselves as the moral voice for everyone else, especially when said people who aren't even members of this country. If you don't like what is said, you are always welcome to change the channel, but you're not allowed to mute the voice.

World Soccer Daily is the fans show, and the fans can play a part beyond their welcome participation. A donation to WSD goes directly to keeping WSD on the air.

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Obviously the tone and language of the page has been heavily subdued.

In effect the author, whom we assume was Nick Iannone, but through circumstantial evidence the argument could be made that Steven Cohen was the author or was at least involved in the writing of the statement, claims both Liverpool supporters and the club itself were bullying and intimidating 3rd party companies, aka. sponsors. There is no evidence to support the claim that any sponsors were bullied by anyone involved with the campaign against Cohen and none of the sponsors I spoke to felt "bullied" in any way. The author then moves on to claim that Liverpool supporters and the club itself are akin to terrorist and are thugs behaving like the Taliban. Very strong words, so strong in fact that just like the petition site, and edit had to occur.

Clearly the original statement was made out of anger against Liverpool supporters, more likely the LFCNY, due to their campaign calling for sponsors to boycott Cohen and his shows. In addition, there was anger directed at the Liverpool Football Club after they published an official statement on their website condemning Cohen's statements.


The second major issue that occurred with the Fundable page was a claim made that stated the following:

""a donation to WSD goes directly to keeping WSD on the air, and a percentage also goes to the Hillsborough Justice Group charity."

While there is no Hillsborough Justice Group charity, there is the Hillsborough Justice Campaign. This statement is no longer part of the page, but it was there long enough to get the attention of the HJC, who responded rather forcefully with their feelings about the claim:

"If Steve Cohen is referring to the Hillsborough Justice Campaign (HJC), then they have never heard of this 'benevolent' offer and have said in direct response, "we don't want his money. He's a disgrace. It would be like taking money off the S*n."

Making false claims about money raised for a charity is no minor issue. The Federal Trade Commission, along with federal and state law enforcement agencies typically don't take situations like that lightly. Between HJC's unhappiness with the statement and the potential legal entanglements that could have occurred from it, one can understand why it was quickly removed from the web page.

So what you effectively are left with when reviewing the history of this fund raising page, is more potentially inflammatory and untrue statements along with an outright lie concerning the allocation of money raised to a charity organization. Clearly both the petition site and the fund raising site have dealt with a variety of issues connected back to either false or perceived false statements. Did Nick Iannone, as a fan of the World Soccer Daily, draw upon on-air statements made by Cohen and make unintentionally false statements, or did Steven Cohen use the petition and fundraiser pages as another way to take shots at sponsors who left his show, along with Liverpool supporters (really the LFCNY) and the Liverpool Football Club? If this is indeed the case, what did Cohen really stand to gain from this?

Summary

Typically, when you are being faced with a campaign against you, openly antagonizing those involved only stands to further motivate people. On the other hand, the attention brought to you by the statements on the petition and fund raising site are simply another vehicle for you bring attention to your show, following the "all pub is good pub" philosophy.

Whatever the truth behind the petition and fund raising pages are, it seems fairly possible that these were not simply a good natured gesture on behalf of a fan. While I cannot prove any connection, the circumstantial evidence is there for a lot of questions to be raised about just what the purpose of the petition and fund raising web pages really were.