English Premier League

Clint Dempsey jumped high in the air, both arms raised, as a fan in the stands at Fulham unfurled a Lone Star flag.

On this January afternoon in London, Dempsey had become the first American to score a hat trick in the history of the English Premier League. The eyes of English soccer were on the 28-year-old from Nacogdoches.

LONDON -- Real Madrid and Barcelona are football's biggest moneymakers for the third straight year and look set to out-earn their rivals for the foreseeable future.

The annual review of football finance by Deloitte shows Madrid topping the list for the seventh straight year with revenue of 479.5 million ($636.5 million) to the year ending June 30, an increase of 9 percent on the previous 12 months.

English champion Manchester United was again in third place with (euro) 367 million ($487.2 million), the highest of four English clubs in the top 10 earners. Bayern Munich was fourth with (euro) 321.4 million ($426.6 million), with Arsenal, Chelsea, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Liverpool and Schalke next.

LIVERPOOL, England -- There was no crowing from Landon Donovan after he led his Everton side to victory over Clint Dempsey's Fulham in England's FA Cup.

After all, the U.S. teammates will be on the same side again soon enough.

NEW YORK -- Without much fanfare, soccer will take another big step into the American mainstream this weekend when Manchester United's game at Arsenal becomes the first English Premier League match to be televised live by a U.S. over-the-air network.

"To do this 10 years ago, had we put to the affiliates that we wanted to take the time to show a soccer game, we would have been either laughed at or it would have been a violent and an immediate rebellion,"' said Fox Sports Chairman David Hill, who is putting the match on his main network.

The biggest soccer buzz around the world this past week was in anticipation of Saturday's El Clasico between Barcelona and Real Madrid, which lost 3-1. Coming in a very close second was the shocking news that not one but both teams from Manchester had crashed out of the Champions League before the knockout round.

Hard to believe, but the Champions League will go on without Manchester United and Manchester City. (Take a moment to digest that information.)

LONDON -- Clint Dempsey became the American career scoring in the English Premier League, capitalizing on a mistake by goalkeeper Pepe Reina to lead Fulham over Liverpool 1-0 Monday night.

With 37 goals since joining Fulham in 2006, the 28-year-old midfielder from Nacogdoches, Texas, broke a tie with Brian McBride, who played in the Premier League with Everton (2003) and Fulham (2004-08).

LONDON -- England's 20 Premier League clubs paid almost 72 million pounds ($113 million) to players' agents over a one-year period, with Manchester City spending 13 percent of the total.

The league said Wednesday that City paid 9.7 million pounds ($15.3 million) to agents from Oct. 1, 2010, to Sept. 30, 2011, a period that covers two transfer windows. City's total is close to three times the average spent per team -- 3.6 million pounds ($5.7 million).