New Chelsea 3rd Kit 2011/2012

Chelsea revealed their new 3^rd kit for the forthcoming season today and perhaps the best way to describe it would be ‘safe’ but it is flirting with the idea of being adventurous or dangerous or even off-the-wall by having a large yellow block across the chest......oh Roman, you cЯдzy cдt.

The rest of the kit is all white, with the exception of the navy block colour, which is always a good option in my book although the grass stains will be causing problems for the kit man. The grass stains shouldn’t pose a problem as John Terry has 11 wives who can help with the cleaning. 

Now, I’m no fashionista but I hear colour blocking is “in” at the moment, although apparently only for women but at least Torres will be happy with the navy and yellow blocks.

As there is very little to say about a white kit and as I have mocked a couple of players already all I can do now is present you with a tedious fact; the last time the colour yellow featured heavily on a Chelsea kit..........(drum roll)..........they won the FA Cup!!!

And just in case you were wondering who you won't look like and who you won't play like if you buy this Chelsea 3rd kit......here you go.....

Read more...

EXCLUSIVE: Alex Ferguson's phone is hacked....

The Man United manager's phone was hacked earlier this summer and the following text conversation was found........

Disclaimer: The above is all rubbish, Alex Ferguson's phone wasn't hacked as far as we know. He may not even have a phone. If you believed it then shame on you, dear reader, shame on you.

Read more...

EXCLUSIVE: Kenny Dalglish's phone is hacked....

The Liverpool manager's phone was hacked earlier this summer and the following conversation was recorded........

Disclaimer: The above is all rubbish, Kenny Dalglish's phone wasn't hacked as far as we know. He may not even have a phone. If you believed it then shame on you, dear reader, shame on you.

Read more...

Who I want to work for......

By Fesc Cabregas

Read more...

2011 South Pacific Games Football - Papua New Guinea

National Flag of Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea have made appearances in all bar one (2007) of the previous football tournaments at the South Pacific Games. Although they have never managed to come away with the Gold medal they have had a reasonable amount of success; placing in the top four on five occasions.

They have also entered the 1998 and 2006 World Cups but failed to qualify. In 1998 they advanced to the second round of qualification but were drawn in a difficult group against New Zealand and Fiji and were subsequently knocked out at this stage. As a result of not entering the 2007 South Pacific Games which doubled up as a preliminary qualifying round for Oceania they were disqualified from the further 2010 World Cup qualifiers.

Along with a few other entrants in this year’s South Pacific Games, Papua New Guinea are at the bottom of the FIFA World rankings. This ranking is mainly due to Papua New Guinea having not played a match since the summer of 2007. If they do not play a match within the next month then they risk being removed from the FIFA World rankings.

The team is currently managed by former Australia striker Frank Farina. Farina had a very brief loan spell in England in 1992 with Notts County although he only played 3 games and didn’t score.

Since 1987, Papua New Guinea have failed to progress further than the first round in the Games. Unless they get a very easy draw in the group stages this year, it is unlikely that they will reach the knockout stages due solely to the fact they haven't played a competitive fixture for 4 years.

Read more...

2011 South Pacific Games Football - Kiribati

The island nation of Kiribati is one of two nations (alongside Tuvalu) in the South Pacific Games football tournament which are not members of FIFA. They do not therefore have an official FIFA world ranking.

As the national football team has only ever played in 7 competitive matches it is almost impossible to analyse their chances in the forthcoming games. If their last appearance at the Games (in 2003) are anything to go by then they could be in for a rough ride later this summer.

They started the 2003 Games with a narrow 3-2 defeat to Tuvalu and unfortunately for the I-Kiribati (the name given to Kiribati natives) things went quickly downhill from there. They followed up the defeat to Tuvalu with a 7-0 loss to the Solomon Islands, a 12-0 loss to Fiji and finally succumbed to an 18-0 defeat at the hands of Vanuatu.

34 year old midfielder Lawrence Nemeia is Kiribati’s most capped player having earned 5 caps. He is also the top goal scorer thanks to his brace against Tuvalu in the 2003 South Pacific Games. The 2003 Games were in fact the only time Kiribati national team have appeared at the tournament because in 1979 they were represented by one of the islands clubs.

The I-Kiribati will be hoping for a smoother ride in the group stages this year. They are unlikely to have their hopes set on qualifying for the knockout rounds but picking up a win would give the island nation a lot to cheer about. They will be hoping to have a certain amount of luck in the draw for the group stages if they are to pick up their first ever win. Their best hope of 3 points would be against Tuvalu who have a similar footballing history as a nation.

Read more...

Video of the Week

New video of the week: The world realises Messi is human after all.

Click the Video of the Week button in the menu bar above to see it.

Read more...

2011 South Pacific Games Football - Cook Islands

The Cook Islands are one of the smallest FIFA member in terms of population and are currently ranked 190^th in the world alongside Tonga and one place above Djibouti. 

If the example of everyone from American Samoa being able to fit inside Old Trafford with a lot of room to spare came as a surprise to you then your jaw will hit the floor with this fact; the entire population (according to the 2006 census) of the Cook Islands can fit inside Plymouth Argyle’s Home Park. 

If you had to pick a side to compete in such international competition as World Cup qualifying from the crowd at an average Plymouth Argyle home match it is highly unlikely that it would make the World Cup finals. 

So spare a thought for the Cook Islands who have never qualified for a World Cup and only qualified for the group stages of the Oceania Nations Cup twice. 

The Cook Islands first venture into international competition came in 1971 when they played Tahiti. Unfortunately this historic first game ended in a 30-0 defeat and it remains their biggest defeat. 

They have featured in the group stages of the South Pacific Games on three occasions but have never made it past the group stages. Their last appearance at the Games in 2007 saw them finish 4^th in their group of 5 although they did manage to pick up 3 points against Tuvalu in a 4-1 win which is their record biggest win. They were drawn in what was perhaps the toughest group, as the two teams which progressed from it ended up as the two finalists (New Caledonia and Fiji). 

The Cook Islands national stadium

Due to Rugby Union and Rugby League being so popular in the Cook Islands, it has been difficult for football to gain much popularity throughout the country. It is perhaps a case of waiting for the sport to be played by more Cook Islanders before the national team can expect any success in international tournaments, even in smaller tournaments such as the South Pacific Games.

Read more...

2011 South Pacific Games Football – American Samoa

At the time of writing American Samoa lay in 202^nd position (equal last) in the FIFA World Rankings; joint bottom with a few fellow pacific island teams.

To give an idea of the size of American Samoa, the entire population could fit inside Old Trafford and there would still be roughly 10,000 seats left to spare. With such a small population it is not surprising that the national football team of the US owned island has made very little impact on the footballing world, if any at all. American sports such as Basketball, Baseball and American Football all enjoy a lot more popularity than football throughout the island and this of course hinders the growth of the sport on the island.

American Samoa are probably best known on the international football circuit for being on the wrong end of the record victory in an international match. They lost 31-0 to Australia in a 2002 World Cup qualification game. The match saw Archie Thompson score 14 goals and David Zdrilic score 8. The match is not a particularly fair reflection on the football ability of the Samoans as many of their first choice players and reserve players could not play due to visa problems upon trying to enter Australia. As a result, Samoa had to field a very young side which even included some 15 year olds who had never played a 90 minute match before.

Rawlston Masaniai, Am.Samoan midfielder

American Samoa have only appeared at 3 South Pacific Games Football tournaments before with a sixth place in 1987 being their best finish. The last games (2007) saw Samoa’s first entry in the football tournament since that sixth place finish in ’87.

In terms of their aims for this year’s tournament; qualification from the group stages would be a success and one which they could use as a platform from which to build on for the future of football in American Samoa.

Read more...

Forest Green Rovers and 'The Great Escape'

Forest Green Rovers: The Escapologists

As the end of a football season draws to a close and the mid-table positions inevitably pale into relative insignificance (for the neutrals at least) the collective attentions of the majority of fans become fully focused on the battle for promotion at the top and the fight for survival at the bottom. The latter, more often than not provides far more suspense and excitement. If you stop to think about it, it’s hardly surprising as there is so much more at stake for the teams involved. Year in, year out there are always one or two teams who are plotting their “Great Escape”.

Each team staring into the abyss that is relegation desperately searches for their very own Andy Dufresne. Some teams find him and their seasons end in deserved euphoria. For those teams that plot the great escape but end up doing a football equivalent of this; it is relegation. 

If there is one team in the world who have the knack of pulling off better escapes than Harry Houdini himself it is Forest Green Rovers.

For the last thirteen years, Forest Green have been plying their trade in the top flight of non-league football. More often than not, they have been one of the teams involved in the mêlée that is the scrap to avoid the dreaded drop into the regional second tier of the English non-league pyramid. 6 times in the last thirteen seasons to be exact but every time, they have managed to cling to their precious Conference National status.

Rovers’ stay in the Conference Premier hasn’t been a constantly painful experience however; they have finished in the top half twice. The first time they had the luxury to harbour hopes of sneaking into a playoff place but could only manage a very respectable 9^th place finish in what is becoming an increasingly difficult league to compete in.

The fact that the Gloucestershire side have been slowly building up a reputation as the “Harry Houdini” of the non-leagues is mostly down to the fact that on two occasions in the last 7 years they have avoided relegation despite the fact that they had finished the season in a relegation spot. Forest Green fans must surely now see the great Houdini as a complete amateur after having seen their team perform far greater feats of magic and trickery. In fact, thinking about it, that means Forest Green have come back from ‘dead’ twice......even Jesus only managed that once.

"Don't look at me....Forest Green have done it twice"

To spare you from an incredibly dull analysis of every single one of Forest Green’s seasons in the conference national I’ll stick to the two seasons where they “came back from the dead”.

The first time that Forest Green achieved the unthinkable was six years ago in the same season that saw Barnet promoted back into the Football League. Earlier on in the season Northwich Victoria had gone into administration and received a 10 point deduction which saw them enter into the relegation battle with Farnborough, Leigh Genesis and Forest Green. Northwich managed to overcome the deduction and finish 9 points ahead of Forest Green and at the same time condemning FGR to the Conference South, or so everyone thought. It wasn’t until mid June that Rovers learnt that they had been reprieved due to Northwich being unable to resolve issues with their stadium and also with their Conference membership. Cue a collective sigh of relief in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire where Forest Green play their home games. Most likely feeling slightly hard done by, Northwich Victoria took their place in the Conference North as Forest Green began to focus on and prepare for another season in the conference national.

Sadly these days it isn’t uncommon to see teams relegated due to their financial woes and other teams, who over the season were far more deserving of relegation, survive. After what must have been a difficult and nerve-wracking time for Forest Green fans, they had done it....they had managed a true footballing great escape, maybe not by merit on the pitch but they had still done it. Never again thought the fans, never again................until 2010.

Having barely had time to get over the traumatic survival of the 2004/2005 season, the fans had to go through it all again. On 24^th April 2005, Forest Green were relegated. It was all over. They fought to the very end but ultimately went down on goal difference with Gateshead surviving thanks to being three goals better off. June came around as many of the Forest Green fans began to come to terms with life in the league below and what it would bring them. The 10^th of June however was a day that will stay with those fans for a long time yet as once again Rovers were reprieved at the expense of Salisbury City. Salisbury had severe financial problems and as always in football, money talks. They were to powerless to resist the forced relegation and Forest Green had somehow kept their heads above water.

These two examples of great escapes à la Forest Green paint a picture of a club that has relied on the misfortunes of fellow clubs to avoid relegation. If you need proof that they can stay in the conference national through their on-pitch efforts then you need look no further than this season’s final table. By the skin of their teeth, yes, but they managed it and I’m sure they will again next season.

I hope for their fans sake though that never again do they have to wait until the league AGM to learn which league they will be playing football in the following season.....

Read more...

Super Injunction XI

"Love Rat" footballers are constantly providing the Tabloid papers with news, so much so that it is possible to put together quite a good team together. (only quite good due to the inclusion of the most famous Terry brother; Paul)

The team is managed of course by none other than Sven Goran Eriksson


                                                 Peter Shilton

    Jamie O'Hara      Paul Terry         John Terry        Ashley Cole

    Joe Cole           Ryan Giggs       Frank Lampard    George Best

                                                 

                           Wayne Rooney     Stan Collymore

Admittedly not every player is in their 'normal' position but we're sure they won't mind as they have been caught in far more compromising positions throughout their careers.


And yes, we know that not all the players featured bothered wasting their money on a super injunction.

Read more...

Are the rules there to be broken?

Written by David Richardson and The Hand of Blog

One thing that a lot of people seem to do is question rules and also break them; we’re talking about all rules here, from the Ten Commandments to diving in a football match. Funnily enough it seems a lot of footballers often manage to break all eleven of those at some point during their careers. For now, let’s just focus on the rule that concerns handling the ball and whether the fine line between intentional and unintentional handling needs to be clearer.

One of the most commonly heard phrases at a football match is; "HANDBALL!". This isn’t just when there is an actual handball of course, it happens whenever the ball goes near a players arm. But what really is handball? In FIFA's Laws of the Game 2005, Law 12 says a free-kick or penalty will be awarded if a player;

 "handles the ball deliberately (except for the goalkeeper within his own penalty area)".

‘Deliberately’ is the key word here. This suggests why a penalty was given against Manchester United's Patrice Evra during a match against West Ham earlier this season. Evra's arms were in an 'unnatural position' (at head height) when struck by the ball but Evra clearly didn't intentionally try and handle the ball.

However, former Premier League referee David Elleray has said the referee's interpretation depends on whether the hand or arm is in an "unnatural" position at the point of contact. This suggests why referee, Lee Mason, gave the penalty but the FIFA rule is that the player must deliberately handle the ball, which Evra didn't do. The rule doesn't state anything about the players arm being in an ''unnatural” position. Coincidently, in the same game, West Ham's Matthew Upson was penalised for handball inside the Hammers penalty area. Upson’s arms were by his side when United's full back, Fabio Da Silva, tried to cut the ball back. How could Upson have got his arm out of the way of the ball from 3 yards away? And this time the offending arm wasn't in an unnatural position.

It seems strange is that there is no clear rule set out by FIFA regarding unintentional handball. It is left up to the discretion of the referees. This can be seen from two completely viewpoints;

1. It’s good that the referees have more control over what are difficult and contentious decisions.
2. It’s bad because without a set rule or guidelines, a handball decision could completely change depending on which referee was officiating as they are left to come up with their own rules on when a handball is unintentional within a split second of the event occurring.

Handballs and the resulting decisions made by a referee can be incredibly controversial in football, especially when they occur inside the penalty area. So surely for such a difficult and often confusing thing, the best course of action for FIFA to take would be to clarify the rules surrounding unintentional handballs. But then again, how can you actually tell the difference between an intentional and unintentional handball….

All this then begs the question....should FIFA justify certain rules of the beautiful game?

Read more...

2011 South Pacific Games Football – Fiji

In the sporting world, Fiji are best known for rugby rather than football but the game is growing in popularity after some good results at the South Pacific Games and OFC Nations Cup in recent years.

Fiji were the silver medallists in the last South Pacific Games, losing narrowly to New Caledonia. Together with 2007’s winners, they have to be considered one of the favourites for Gold this time around.

The Fijians are currently ranked by FIFA at 156^th (04/05/11) in the World and although they have never qualified for a World Cup, they are a force to be reckoned with in the South Pacific and cannot be taken lightly later this summer. Since the Games began, Fiji have been in the medals no fewer than 7 times. However, they have only gone home with Gold medals twice in their 10 appearances at the Games. 

Roy Krishna

The man who can help make Fiji 3 time winners this year is Roy Krishna; their 23 year old star striker. Krishna plays his club football for Waitakere United in New Zealand and has scored 31 goals in his 58 appearances for the club. His performances have earned him the New Zealand Player of the Year award and he will be hoping he can be the man to guide Fiji to Gold in August.

Read more...

Un Misérable starring Arsène Wenger

It’s a well known fact that Arsenal haven’t won anything for far too long (by their own high standards of course). It has finally reached the point where some Arsenal fans are thinking the unthinkable; is it time for Wenger to move on to pastures new?

I'll get my coat

There are a lot of questions that have been asked of Wenger’s approach to the management of the team over the last few years. Why do the players seem to insist on walking the ball into the goal? Is there too much focus on developing young talent? The latter was even asked by Cesc Fabregas himself last week, although it seems likely that his words were twisted. Now it seems they have ruined their chances of winning the league thanks to far too many draws recently. So, if it is down to Monsieur Wenger, where did he go wrong?

It goes without saying that Wenger has done brilliant things at Arsenal since arriving there in 1996 and he is currently the second longest serving manager in the league (if you don’t know who is first then you must have stopped watching football in 1986....). Wenger is credited with bringing “liquid football” to the UK and having great success with it but now it seems things aren’t really going to plan. The days of Henry, Pires, Bergkamp and Vieira dominating week in week out seem a lot longer than 5 or 6 years ago as the quest for the elusive trophy (any trophy) goes on.

Could Arsenal’s barren run of six years without a trophy be down to focussing on developing the young players? The Arsenal team that lost at Bolton last week had an average age of 24. If you compare this to the average age of Arsenal’s ‘Invincibles’ which was 28 there is a clear difference. However, there is no way of proving that a younger squad would have less chance of winning trophies; I’m sure Alan Hansen would be the first person to agree with that statement. Perhaps what Arsenal are missing is a few veterans in the side to lead by example and ‘guide’ the younger players through the season and onto glory.

Having a glance through the current Arsenal squad it is difficult to find an experienced “leader”. The best candidates are Emmanuel Eboue or Tomas Rosicky but neither of them have actually won anything with Arsenal since being there so they don’t really qualify for the role. Now we come to Jens Lehmann who has made a return to the Emirates relatively recently in yet another questionable Wenger decision. Lehmann fits the bill of a (very) experienced leader but only time will tell if he can help the team win trophies next season. That is if he is even still there next season. Although even if he is but doesn’t play very often he could have an important influence in training and in the dressing room.

Wenger's war on water

On a quick side note, Arsène Wenger often conveys his annoyance at the performance of officials and his team not collecting all 3 points by abusing water bottles in his technical area. Have a look at Ian Rands’ blog “A United View” for a nice graphic illustrating Wenger’s water bottle abuse since 2003/4. Ironically, Arsenal’s “liquid football” dried up around the same time Arsène began assaulting innocent bottles of Evian. If he continues constantly blaming match officials for dropped points then he should read the Evian label backwards and think again.

I hate to keep referring back to the “Invincibles” but I’m going to keep doing it because it makes sense! Anyway, the “Invincibles” were known for their free flowing attacking football and if truth be told Arsenal still play like that today. Admittedly the current squad don’t pull it off quite so well but when Walcott et al bring their A-game they look very similar to the last team that delivered trophies to Highbury/Emirates. I’m really saying that the current Arsenal crop don’t play to their full ability often enough and with them being such a young team it could be put down to a lack of experience and footballing maturity.

One big problem that Arsenal have is that they have managed to earn themselves the label of “bottlers”. This year’s League Cup Final is a perfect example of how they have managed to be tagged as having no nerve; on paper they should have won easily but the expectation was too much and Birmingham took full advantage. In the 2006 Champions League Final and again in the 2007 League Cup Final, Arsenal let a one goal lead slip and in doing so; had to go home with runners-up medals. Those last two examples were against much stiffer opposition than Birmingham (no offence meant to Birmingham there) but Arsenal are a big team and to continue being considered as such they have to hold onto important leads. Whether it is one goal, two goals (seen this season v. Spurs) or even four goals (seen this season v Newcastle).

There are a lot of things that point towards Arsenal needing their very own Ryan Giggs or Jamie Carragher; a player who essentially is the club. The problem that Arsenal face in their quest for a Giggs/Carragher type player is that no-one has been at the club long enough to command such a huge amount of respect and admiration from their teammates. It is possible that Wenger saw the return of Lehmann as a way of addressing this issue but as he has played for other clubs since his departure from Arsenal and as his (re) arrival has already been questioned there is surely no way he could give the team the confidence in themselves that is so desperately needed.

It shouldn’t be necessary to have to change manager. If Wenger does leave then the Arsenal board would have a very difficult task in finding a replacement. It is unlikely that Wenger would walk out in the summer but if he is shown the door by the powers that be then expect a lot of the management rumours to centre around this guy….

André Villas Boas

Read more...

2011 South Pacific Games Football - New Caledonia

The football tournament at the South Pacific Games this coming August will consist of three groups of four teams (although currently only 11 teams are confirmed). The top 3 from two groups and the top 2 from the other will qualify for the Quarter-Final stage. From the Quarter-Finals onwards it’s a straight knockout competition just like the World Cup. The teams that finish 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd will also qualify for the next round of qualifying for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

At the last South Pacific Games, held in 2007, New Caledonia won the Gold medal by beating Fiji 1-0.

We’ll be reviewing every team that will be playing at the Games later this summer and the best place to start would be with 2007’s Gold Medal winners; New Caledonia.

New Caledonia

National Flag of New Caledonia

New Caledonia has been an overseas territory of France since 1946 but in 1998 an agreement was reached that would ultimately give power to the island nation itself rather than being fully under the control of France. New Caledonia is an island off the East Coast of Australia, just over 900 miles North-East of Brisbane.

The football team are currently (21/04/11) ranked 151^st in FIFA’s World Rankings which makes them the highest ranked team participating in the upcoming South Pacific Games. It is New Caledonia who are the most successful team ever at the Games, winning it 5 times and having almost always been in the medals (’79 and ’95 being the exceptions) since the Games began in 1963.

Perhaps the best New Caledonian player is Christian Karembeu, who featured in the Premier League for Middlesbrough and he also has the privilege of counting Real Madrid amongst his former clubs. Although Karembeu was born and raised in New Caledonia, he opted to play for France and was part of the French team that won the 1998 World Cup.

All the players in the current New Caledonia national team play their club football in New Caledonia itself and although the team that will feature at the South Pacific Games is yet to be announced, they should be one of the strongest teams there.

Stade Numa-Daly Magenta

As the games as a whole are being held in New Caledonia, the final of the football tournament will be held at the national stadium; Stade Numa-Daly Magenta. The stadia being used for the football matches have capacities of between 600 and 1,000 so Stade Numa-Daly Magenta’s capacity of 16,000 is huge in comparison.

Read more...

2011 South Pacific Games

As the final rays of the summer sun wash over Britain (hopefully) at the end of August, a football tournament will be taking place which for some people will be incredibly important. It is likely that the majority of football fans in Britain will never have taken notice of this tournament or even heard of it; The South Pacific Games.

The games, which are very similar to the Olympics albeit on a considerably smaller scale, will be taking place between August 27^th and September 10^th.  The football part of the tournament, which will be followed in as much detail as possible here, will be spread over the two weeks of the games which are being held in Nouméa, New Caledonia.

This brief introduction to the football tournament at the 2011 South Pacific Games will be followed by a preview in the next few days. The more detailed preview will take a look at the 12 national teams who will be competing in Nouméa , how the tournament works and who the favourites are.  To give you some background and an idea of which teams to look out for, a brief look back at the past tournaments will also feature.

Read more...

‘The Joys of being a Non-League Fan’

The Hand of Blog's first guest contributor, David Richardson, describes the joys of being a non-league fan and amongst other things; why it is infinitely better than watching football on your TV. Follow him on Twitter @RiiCKO

Kingfield - Home of the Cards

I’ve been supporting my local non-league team, Woking, for 2 seasons now and when it comes to the weekend there is nothing I feel more excited about than watching the Cards (nickname originated from ‘The Cardinals’). It’s become an addiction, albeit possibly a good one (?). I’ve never really truly supported a football team before.  I say ‘supported’ by which I mean going every week, home and away to watch a team. I don’t consider people ‘supporters’ for seeing two games a year of their chosen team when, if they were honest, could attend a lot more . The WFC addiction has come about from playing for their ‘Centre of Excellence’. From then on I started going to some games and I was hooked on the drug that is non-league football. Anyway, that’s enough of my background; here are my favourite two ‘joys of being a non-league fan’…..

Personally, the main satisfaction of following Woking and the non-league as a whole is being a ‘regular’. By this I mean going every week, home and away, and seeing the same faces. The average attendance for Woking’s home games is around 1100. It’s the highest average in the Blue Square Bet South and being part of the 1100 WFC fans at home games and the 200-700 away following feels so special. I feel part of the club. Supporting the Manchester United’s, Chelsea’s and Arsenal’s is fine in my opinion and why shouldn’t it be? But do you really feel part of the club along with the other millions of fans worldwide? Can you go into the clubhouse after the game, have a beer, and speak to Carlo Ancelotti about the players, the reason behind the 4-2-1-3 formation and why that expensive striker still hasn’t scored? Well you can at Woking and at other non-league clubs and that’s why I feel part of my club.

The second joy of being a non-league fan is being able to say, “Yeah I support my local team”. The chances are that many of you non-league fans would have had the following conversation at some point:

"Which team do you support?"
"Woking"
"Woking? That's Non-league?"
"Yeah"
"Oh right, so which is your first team?"
"Woking"
"No, I mean Premier League?"
"Woking, I only support Woking"
"Really? Well that's good I suppose, sticking with your local side and all..."

And that’s what I like. A fair few of the football-conscious people I know don’t support their local team. They would rather sit in front of their SKY+ HD 3D super TV (AND ITS LIVE!) and watch their ‘team’ from 50 miles away. I believe that every supporter at non-league level really does love their club. They will sweat blood singing their hearts out for every single one of the 90 minutes on a cold January night at Chelmsford to see their team win 1-0 in the last minute. So if you’re ever bored of the live noon kick-off on SKY pop down to see your local team and you never know, you might even enjoy it!

Read more...

El Clasico

So tonight brings us the big one; Cristiano Ronaldo v Lionel Messi , no sorry I mean Real Madrid v Barcelona. It is one of the games most famous, most watched and most fierce rivalries; I’m sure you all remember a pig head being thrown at Luís Figo in 2002.

In a matter of hours, these two giants will clash once again at the Santiago Bernabéu. Barcelona go into the game 8 points ahead of Madrid and with many thinking the title race is already over. If Real Madrid can snatch the all important win tonight then they will still have an outside chance of taking the La Liga title come the end of the season.

For a while now, there have been discussions all over the world about who the best player in the world actually is; Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo. Once again, tonight we will see perhaps the two best players in the world on the same pitch but who is the in-form player? 

Well perhaps some Castrol Edge stats can help us decide. Although neither player is an out and out striker, they are consistently amongst the goals. A list of the top players in terms of goals scored and assists made in the top 5 European leagues shows Messi and Ronaldo easily in front of anyone else. Messi and Ronaldo are almost equal at the top of the goals scored list (Messi having scored one more) but the most interesting fact is that Lionel Messi has more than double the assists that the Portuguese has. Obviously these two players aren’t the only ones scoring their teams goals so the assists could prove crucial in tonight’s game.

Both the players have made exactly the same amount of appearances in La Liga this season and have had almost exactly the same amount of time on the pitch. During this time Ronaldo has attempted a lot more shots than Messi but it’s Messi who has been the more clinical of the two; scoring roughly once in every four attempts.

So, everything is pointing at Messi being the in-form player going into tonight’s El Clasico and perhaps the stat which is most relevant for todays game is that Ronaldo has not made an assist or scored a goal when he has been playing against Lionel Messi at club level. Messi himself on the other hand has scored 2 and assisted 2 when playing against Ronaldo.

Read more...

Liverpool away kit 11/12 launched by adidas

Following the recent launch of Chelsea’s new home kit for the 11/12 season, adidas have today launched Liverpool’s away kit, also for 2011 – 2012.

The dark metallic grey shirt has a thin silver pinstripe effect, silver sponsors logos and a silver badge. The shirt actually looks quite stylish which is something that the vast majority of football kits don’t quite manage. Perhaps the best touch is the red flames on the silver Liverpool crest and the thin red lines around the sleeves and collar also improve the look of the shirt as a whole.

As with the Chelsea 11/12 shirt, TechFit™ and Climacool™ features are also included although only with the players’ shirts. Unfortunately they don’t appear in the replicas that are sold to fans so don’t get your hopes up expecting to turn into a Sunday League Suarez.

Read more...

Adidas launch new Chelsea home kit for 2011-2012

Earlier today, the sports manufacturing giants adidas launched next season's Chelsea home strip.

The design of football kits can be a surprisingly divisive thing and it seems adidas have played this one on the safe side but at the same time have managed to produce a “fresh” design that is sure to be popular with the Chelsea faithful.

The horizontal shadowed stripes, which give a nod to Chelsea kits of the ‘80’s, bring a new element to Chelsea’s shirt. As with Chelsea’s current shirt the famous three stripes of adidas take their usual place along the shoulders. The stripes will be even more prominent next season as they are blue and set on white background.

Less visibly but, we're assured, imperative to the performance of the strip is the technology featured. These include the TechFit™ and Climacool™ enhancements which should improve endurance and keep the players dry during the game.

Look out for this kit on the pitch during the final Premier League game of the season where it is set to début.

Read more...

Region in revolt

The recent unrest in Libya has been dominating the news and rightly so. We are constantly hearing about the progress of the Libyan rebels’ fight against Colonel Gaddafi, the no-fly zone and the air strikes carried out by the US, UK and France. But how has Libyan football been affected?

In terms of football, Libya is never really mentioned. Partly because in the UK we are enclosed in the European football bubble and therefore rarely hear about the African nations. The African Cup of Nations being an exception to that of course, but even in that tournament it is only the later stages that manage to garner some press attention in Europe.  At the World Cup last year, Ghana flew the flag for Africa as they advanced the furthest and altogether there were 6 African teams involved. Six African teams however still leaves 47 we seldom hear about. Libya is included in those 47.

The Libyan team have never appeared at a World Cup and have only qualified for two African Cup of Nations (one of which they qualified for as hosts). They are currently ranked 71^st in the World, forty-five places above Wales.

Libya are currently involved in qualifying for the African Cup of Nations and their unsuccessful London Olympics qualifying campaign has just finished. It was their attempt at Olympic qualification that had been hit the hardest by the uprisings and the resulting no-fly zone. Libya faced South Africa in the first leg of an Olympic qualifier 2 weeks ago with the match taking place in Daveyton, SA. Normally, according to the Libyan assistant coach, the team would have met up a few days before the match and flown straight to South Africa but these are not normal times in Libya. The no-fly zone also affects all commercial flights and therefore the Libyan youngsters were wondering if they would even be able to get there to play the match.

 The Libyan football authorities did what they could and organised a mammoth journey to South Africa via Tunisia and Germany. The team met in the Libyan capital of Tripoli and drove 435 miles to Tunisia from where they flew to Munich only to transfer onto another plane to Johannesburg. The journey took 25 hours altogether and was clearly not the ideal preparation for the Libyan team, especially as they arrived late the night before the match. 

South Africa, unsurprisingly, won the match. The second leg was played yesterday and it finished goalless so South Africa have progressed. The game took place at a neutral venue (Mali) due to the continual fighting in Libya. The African football authorities had already had to find a neutral venue for Libya’s match against the Comoros Islands which also took place in Mali 2 weeks ago.  The match was part of the African Cup of Nations qualifiers and the Libyan first team had to travel to Bamako, Mali for their “home” qualifier against Comoros. This time it was a happier ending for the Libyan side (they won 3-0) after what we can only assume was a long and tiring journey from Tripoli to Bamako (if they went by road it would have taken over 3 days). The result wasn’t the main talking point of the match however. It was the 20,000 Malians who turned up to support Libya. A Colonel Gaddafi ruled Libya has always enjoyed a close relationship with Mali and its people. This would explain the Malian Libya fans chanting “Gaddafi, Gaddafi” after each of the three goals were scored. This is an example of how sport and politics can collide.

A potential problem for the Libyan team would be a difference of opinion on their Leader Colonel Gaddafi and whether or not he should be in power. The Libyan captain, Tariq Ibrahim al-Tayib quashed any suggestions of a politically motivated dressing-room divide when he told the BBC “the whole team is for Muammar Gaddafi”. Don’t be fooled into thinking that this match was a completely smooth operation for Libya though. The uprising had caused a few problems for some players who are based in the Libyan second city of Benghazi as they were unable to leave the city and join up with the team.

Benghazi is currently occupied by rebel forces and the city’s football team Al Ahli Benghazi has a fierce rivalry with Al Ahli Tripoli. The rivalry between the two cities is not only due to football but also politics. Colonel Gaddafi’s son, Saadi, once made himself captain of Al Ahli Tripoli after essentially buying his way in. Some of the matches against their arch-rivals in Benghazi suffered from some very questionable refereeing in Tripoli’s favour while Saadi was involved. Knowing this history between the clubs and cities it wouldn’t be too farfetched to assume that the rebels occupying Benghazi played a part in preventing some Libyan players meeting up with the national team. Of course, it is also possible that some of the players themselves want to see the back of Gaddafi and therefore refuse to represent their country while it is under his power.

All of the above illustrates just how far political turmoil can spread. Looking at a situation like the one in Libya through the viewpoint of football can also show people that there is far more going on in these countries than a simple battle between two different groups. Above all, it reminds us that warfare really can and does affect everything.

Read more...