It could well go down as one of the best public relations exercises of the year. And all it took to garner priceless world-wide headlines was a trip to a soccer game and a spot of lunch afterward.

As head of Toronto's Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, CEO Richard Peddie comes in for all kinds of flak for the 41-year title drought his Toronto Maple Leafs have endured. The Leafs have long been one of North America's prime sports properties, a licence to print money with their fervent fan base and the cornerstone of a sports empire that includes the NBA's Toronto Raptors, the Toronto Rock of the National Lacrosse League and the 19,000+ capacity Air Canada Centre, where all three teams play out of.

They also are enjoying the wildly successful exploits of their newest franchise, Toronto FC, quickly becoming Major League Soccer's model franchise. Now in their second season, the team has played to sold out crowds since Day One at 20,000-seat BMO Field. The adoring hordes of singing, chanting, flag-waving fans are reminiscent of Europe or South America's most passionate supporters. 

And all this accomplished with a TFC club that won but six of it's 30 games in 2007. The potential for greater success with a better team and an expanded stadium is massive.

So it's understandable that Peddie and MLSE associate exec Ian Clarke would find themselves in England not long ago attending an annual British soccer industry trade show. The two were there to attend seminars, rub elbows and, as Peddie succinctly put it, "raise our soccer IQ." Naturally, with England's Premier League season still underway, the opportunity to visit a number of English clubs presented itself and the two made the rounds seeing life at the top of the soccer food chain for themselves.

With foreign ownership becoming a steady, even controversial, trend among top English clubs, somone obviously drew a conclusion from their visit to venture that they were in London to present a takeover bid and the resulting short works fiction set off further rounds of speculation and, finally, denial.

As Peddie told Canadian newspaper, The National Post: " I attended a game at White Hart Lane. I took the train, went to a game, watched Tottenham tie and had lunch there. That was the full extent."

No cocktails and ####-chat with Spurs chairman Daniel Levy? "I have never met the individual," said Peddie. 'Never contemplated an offer. Complete fiction."

The first report of Peddie's visit to England came out almost a week ago. It was a fairly balanced look at his trip and explained to readers unaware of the nuances of English soccer who were the hot commodities in the marketplace and who were the bargains.

But Spurs are a favorite target for certain British tabloid newspapers. The 11th richest team in the world and frequent underachievers, they've long been rumoured to be candidates for a takover bid. They've also never gone out of their way to curry favour with a British media they often felt let them down in earlier decades when Spurs fans were the subject of ant-Semitic taunts.

They banned writers from the London Evening Standard earlier this season for constantly writing speculative articles that did little more than stir up fan anxiety. The Standard's sister paper, The Daily Mail, was quick to fan the flames of speculation, implying that bargaining had already begun between the two sides.

For Spurs, the whole affair is business as usual. They're enjoying plenty of good publicity this week after the signing of coveted Croatian prospect, Luka Modric, a 22-year-old midfielder being sought by a number of top clubs.

For Toronto FC, the whole affair amounted to a public relations bonanza. A lot of mention was made of the club, at a time when the team is enjoying its first three-game winning streak and playing attractively. It's a good time to let the international spotlight flash briefly on the club.

If Richard Peddie was caught unaware by the mounting media speculation of his visit to London, he at least had the good sense to let the scenario linger on a little and wait until the week was over before issuing any denials.

England and Scotland are separated by only 96 miles of border but, as play ended in the Euro 2008 qualification rounds, the difference in attitude among soccer fans on either side of the line is light years apart.

The Scots fell at the last hurdle, a controversial 2-1 loss to Italy that robbed them of qualification after a 12-game series that included two famous 1-0 wins over France. The term most commonly used to describe this latest near miss was Glorious Failure. And some comfort can be taken in that.

Initially disappointed at the final whistle of their last game, Scottish fans soon found themselves lifting their heads and smiling again, realizing that an exciting rebirth in Scottish soccer was unfolding before their disbelieving eyes.

Manager Alex McLeish, building on a stout program begun by Walter Smith, forged a group of promising individuals into a strong unit, earning universal praise for taking a small nation so close to the summit of European soccer.

Players like Alan Hutton and James McFadden or goalie Craig Gordon, have emerged from the qualifying round with soaring reputations and there's renewed interest from top clubs in Britain and Europe about what Scottish players have to offer.

Although England came equally close - one point would have put either side through - the contrast in emotions and expectations couldn't be more distinct. The English, losing at home 3-2 to Croatia, have failed miserably, if the reaction of their fans and media are anything to go by.

Manager Steve McClaren, under a barrage of criticism from Day 1, was fired immediately after and the general sense is that this is a soccer program in serious trouble. It not only needs to find a new manager, it also needs to find players who can cope with the intense pressure of playing for England.

Ironically, the previous manager, Sven-Goran Eriksson, who was also chased out of his job under similar circumstances, has proved again what an astute manager he is by immediately taking unfancied Manchester City into a top five place in the standings.

McClaren had shown himself to be a capable manager before the England job by taking Middlesborough to the UEFA Cup finals. But the England job is steadily proving to be an unmanageable task and anyone who takes on the responsibility as manager will find the burden of expectation from England's ravenous fans to be a crushing load.

The new manager will also have to cope with a player pool that looks to be in need of either a serious clearing out or a fresh approach to drawing the best from the remarkable level of talent available to choose from.

Given that most of the players likely to be selected for England's national team are already well rewarded financially by their clubs, it will take someone with a masterful touch to get the next England squad properly motivated and committed to winning.

Somehow, that manager will have to find a way to match the small-country attitude that has seen teams like Scotland and Croatia build tight, cohesive teams full of committed, selfless players.

But when one considers that the money paid to players by Premiership clubs helps to soften the blow of national team failure, it's a challenging task that no England manager may ever achieve.

North American fans should take heart in the performances of smaller nations like Scotland and Croatia. As soccer remains a minor sport in North America, it's fairer to compare what's going on within the US or Canadian programs with the smaller European nations than with powerhouses like Italy, Spain or Germany.

Americans have always had an ability to extract maximum sporting benefit from lesser resources due to an ability to focus the use of those resources. Add to that the growth in size and quality of MLS soccer and many of the key ingredients are coming together to support this premise:

Both Canada and the United States, a rivalry not unlike Scotland-England,  have every reason to be ambitious in the coming years. For Canada, just getting to a second World Cup would be achievement enough in the short term.

But the growing popularity of the game, larger numbers of players to work with and a bigger , soccer-savvy business base to draw financial support from give the United States a clear edge,

Enough of one to justify saying that America will win its first World Cup before England wins its second. 

Only the English could build something as excessive and expensive as the new Wembley Stadium and proceed to open and operate it without the slightest regard for the people who will ultimately pay for it, English soccer fans.

Costing over $1.6 billion, with each added overrun and legal skirmish headlined in the media, the laborious building process which began late in the last century finally ended earlier this year. Entire galaxies may have formed quicker and less stressfully than the ordeal which finally gave England it's new 90,000-seat soccer showcase.

It's a spectacular looking building alright, with a soaring arch rising distinctively above the movable 11-acre roof. Unlike it's predecessor, this stadium is clearly built with only one sport in mind - soccer. While the first Wembley stadium had a running track separating the seats from the pitch, this version has stands that are built tight to the sidelines, offering better views and more intimate atmosphere.

The first event of any significance is on May 19 when Chelsea and Manchester United wil play in the venue's inaugural FA Cup final. While clearly proud to be involved in such an historic event, both clubs have expressed their displeasure at how tickets are being distributed to their fans and the prices those fans will have to pay.

Angry that each club were allotted only 25,000 tickets each, with a majority located in the higher price range of seats, supporters groups have announced that they'll pay Wembley back by organizing mass boycotts of all food and souvenir vendors during that event.

It's hardly the ideal circumstance for the stadium's first major event. But it's certainly in keeping with the wooly thinking that pervades much of the management ranks of English soccer.

Stadium officials recently poured cold water on a proposal to allow Tottenham Hotspur temporary tenancy for two seasons while their White Hart Lane stadium is being rebuilt and expanded. It's caused a ruffle among Spurs fans who are eager to see their stadium reconstruction get underway. They can't help but notice that their ardent rivals, Arsenal, were rumored to be moving permanently into Wembley before choosing to build Emirates Stadium.

With only a small number of events scheduled each year for Wembley, such a move offers some interesting benefits.

Spurs are not likely to fill the stadium every game. They might for big matches against local rivals like Arsenal or top clubs like Man U, Liverpool or Chelsea. but there will be many games when a 60,000 crowd would be a good turnout for them, yet Wembley would still be almost one-third empty.

With ticket prices to Premiership games already at extortionate levels, gone are the days when a working-class fan could take his family to watch a game. A generation is growing up these days aware of the Premier league stars only through television.

You wonder why England struggles to win nowadays, when youngsters that should be having their desire to play sparked through an afternoon at a soccer game are continuosly denied by runaway ticket prices.

A club playing for a time at Wembley, particularly so soon after its protracted and embarassing opening, would breathe life, fresh perspective, into a stadium and a management situation grown stuffy and out of touch.

By opening up Wembley to a temporary club tenant, the FA have a great chance to sell off large sections of seats at affordable prices and bring the game back to fans who need see first hand the glory o####reat goal or the roar of a delighted crowd.

Instead, Wembley management prefer to comfort themselves knowing that 15,000 or more Club Wembley members have lined their coffers by snapping up the best seats for every event for years to come.

They say things like they don't want the stadium to be associated with anything but the national team and the FA Cup or it might weaken the brand. They want games scheduled there on a controlled basis so that they can bring in concerts and NFL games and the Race of Champions motorsport event.

Well, now they've got fans - the people who support the very core business of the stadium - upset to the point of boycott about FA Cup ticket distribution and the high-handed dismissal of Tottenham's leasing arrangement.

The last thing Wembley needs is to begin alienating fans. In fact, drawing more of them to the site would be beneficial in helping to encourage the redevelopment of the blighted area around the stadium.

One hopes the new stadium will work to reverse the lengthening series of poor results of the team the place was principally built for, the English national team. Based on the performances we're presently seeing from the team and Wembley management, they look like they were made for each other.