Monthly Archives: April 2013

Everyone connected to English football will be deeply troubled by the recent violence scenes witnessed in the Premier League and FA Cup including the terrible scenes of Millwall fans causing havoc on the terraces during their FA Cup semi-final against Wigan and Newcastle fans creating disturbances after their Premier League loss to local rivals Sunderland. It had been hoped we would not go back to the dark ages of English football with the formation of the English Premier league with all the best players from around the world featuring in English Premier League shirts. Hooliganism first started in English football in the 1970's and continued into the 1980's with some major battles creating a horrific reputation for English football and their fans with Europeans calling football violence the "English disease." The situation came to an all-time low point during Liverpool's 1985 European Cup final match against Juventus at the Heysel stadium where Liverpool fans broke a police guard

Rafael Benitez is Chelsea's interim manager, Benitez is a Spanish football manager, and his appointment in November 2012 was an unpopular choice with Chelsea fans. Benitez's unpopularity comes from his previous association with Liverpool football club and negative comments made about Chelsea. Despite, his unpopularity Benitez would like to end his time at Chelsea on a high by securing a Champions League place. Benitez has steered the Chelsea football team to the chance of qualification through either winning the Europa league or securing one of the places available to the top four teams at the end of the Premier League season. Chelsea are currently one goal up after the first leg of the Europa League semi-final against FC Basel, the return match will be on Thursday at home for the Chelsea team in their well-known royal blue home Chelsea football kit. The Europa League final will be against the winner of the other semi- final between Benfica and Fenerbache, it will be played in Amsterdam

There is now much more to the most popular sport in the world than what there used to be. Football has become very popular and is now one of the most watched and played sports in the world. A few years ago the aim of the game used to be to put on one of your team's football tops and score as many goals as possible and reach the highest in the table. Now there are many more factors and expectations in the world of football. There is a lot of money in football, the size of the player's wage packets for one. Another part of football that attracts many different companies from around the world are the sponsorship deals on football tops. Clubs from all angles are included; many national teams like Brazil, Portugal and England are all involved in big money deals. It was Liverpool who were the first ever club to have a main shirt sponsor printed on to their shirts; they had Hitachi in 1979, although they still kept their manufacturers Umbro on their shirts. The football club agreed a deal with

Oliver Giroud is a French striker who now wears an Arsenal football kit following his move from Montpellier in summer 2012.  This season Giroud, who wears a number 12 Arsenal football shirt, has been Arsenal's second highest scoring player so far netting 17 goals, he has however been given a 3 match ban following a red card at Fulham last weekend for a challenge against Stanislav Manolev.  With only four Premier League matches left to play this season losing Giroud is a blow for the team who are not yet guaranteed a spot in the Champions League competition.  The ban was contested by manager Arsene Wenger after the match as Giroud claimed to have "slipped whilst going for the ball", the Football Association have however upheld the three match ban and Arsenal will play the next three matches without Giroud in his Arsenal football kit.

Arsenal are currently third place in the Premier League table, closely followed by London clubs Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspurs in fourth

This week Soccer Box are running a brand new competition on Facebook giving people the chance to win a fantastic official Barcelona home shirt. Barcelona are one of the most popular teams in the Spanish La Liga and are currently top of the league with 84 points, with Real Madrid second on 71 points. Barcelona have always been a great Spanish team and over the last few years they have become very well-known in England, especially for their star striker Lionel Messi along with other key players such as Iniesta, Xavi and David Villa. Many young footballers thrive to play like Messi, who has become an idol to many. Unlike some other footballers he has been professional throughout his entire career on and off the pitch. Messi has been playing in his Number 10 Barcelona home shirt for the first team since 2004 and has come a long way, scoring hundreds of great

The games in mid-week ended with bad results for two of the favourite Spanish football teams from La Liga. Both of the Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid have lost the first leg of their Champion's League semi-finals. It was Barcelona up first and with the likes of star striker Lionel Messi playing a full 90 minutes we would have expected a fantastic show against Bayern Munich. However it did not turn out that way and Barcelona ended up losing 4-0 to. The German side played fantastically all the way through, their squad consisted of players such as Robben, Ribery, Gomez and Muller while Barcelona one of the best Spanish football teams ever played with most of their first team players, Messi, Pedro, Xavi, and Iniesta. The match was held at the Allianz Arena in Munich on Tuesday night. There are a total four teams left trying to reach the Champion's League final, these being Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund. That leaves two Spanish football teams and two German

AC Milan are a popular Italian football team, they are currently sitting in third place in the Italian Serie A football league, with Juventus occupying the top spot and Napoli sitting in second. The first and second place teams in the Serie A league are guaranteed a spot in the group stages of the European Champions League competition, whilst the third place team have to qualify by playing a two-legged knockout match.  So with 5 games left to play have AC Milan got any chance of beating Napoli to second place who are currently 7 points ahead, or will any chance of a Champions League spot be taken away by Fiorentina who are only 1 point behind AC Milan in fourth place? Wearing their home AC Milan kit the team travelled to the Juventus stadium last weekend where they lost 1-0 following a second half penalty, losing in Turin was a blow to the team who had not been beaten in the previous 14 Serie A matches.  Their next match is on Sunday at home against Catania who are currently

Spanish giants Barcelona have always been a very popular team, they play in the La Liga and their home stadium is Camp Nou which holds up to 99,786 people. The squad play in their home Barcelona football shirt as part of the Barcelona football kit. The home shirt is a mixture of blue and red and has a great design. They have had a fantastic record in football and have never been relegated from the top Spanish league La Liga, along with their rivals Real Madrid. These two teams have a huge rivalry and whenever these teams are put together for a match against each other it is named 'El Clasico'. In 2009 Barcelona were the first team to win the treble, they won the Copa Del Rey, La Liga and the UEFA Champion's League. Barcelona have had their fair share of top players over the years including the famous Ronaldinho who played for them from 2003- 2008. He won the Ballon D'or in 2005 and has also been named as a FIFA world player. Young children and footballers idolised him and his skills as

Last night Robin Van Persie highlighted his phenomenal first season in a Manchester United kit with a dramatic hat trick including his second goal that was an amazing volley. Having lost the title in dramatic fashion on the last game of the season last year against their arch rivals Manchester City it was clear how proud Sir Alex Fergusson was of his team. Van Persie started his career playing for Feyenoord in 2001 and then Arsenal spotted his world class talent and signed him where he became an instant hit with the Gunners and was their captain last year. After negotiations fell apart it was with sadness Robin Van Persie sought a new team in the Premier League and

Wayne Rooney started his career playing for Everton where he enjoyed years of success. Rooney had decided he wanted to take on a new challenge and joined Manchester United in 2004 for 25.6 million pound. He was given the number 8 Manchester United shirt by manager Sir Alex Ferguson and made his debut in the Champion's League on the 28th September. Manchester United played Fenerbahce and won 6-2. Three of these came from Rooney making him the youngest player ever to score a hat trick in the Champion's League. Rooney's first season with United could have been better though, they came third in the league missing out on the title, however they did do better in their cup competitions. Wayne Rooney really started to make a name for him self becoming United's best goalscorer for that season, for his achievement and skill he was handed the PFA Young Player Of The Year award. In 2007,  Rooney picked up an injury when he fractured his ankle, which had previously happened in 2005, almost a year