Monthly Archives: July 2013

The brand new Premier League season is nearly upon us, after Wigan Athletic, Reading and Queens Park Rangers were relegated at the end of last season the new one starts with three new Premier League jersey all hoping to pave a successful future in the most popular football league in the world. These three teams are Cardiff City, Hull City and Crystal Palace, statistics of the likelihood of these teams not being relegated at the end of the season do not make promising reading. Since the renaming of the 'Championship' in 2004 only three of the winning teams that gained promotion to the top flight were not immediately relegated for the next season, can Cardiff City make that four? The second place team, this year Hull City, have been relegated 4 out of the last seven times, and unfortunately for Crystal Palace only two of the playoff teams have managed to last longer than one season against the might of the top teams including Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea.

Looking at each

During their summer tour in Japan the current Premier League Champions Manchester United have launched their brand new away kit.  Striker Danny Welbeck was chosen as the face of the advertising campaign, he is seen wearing the full strip whilst celebrating scoring a goal, set against a background of red coloured smoke, the image looks dramatic and exciting just like the navy and black colour scheme chosen for this seasons second choice strip.  The round neck design features large gingham checks reminiscent of last seasons home shirt, the gingham is representative of the clubs fascinating industrial heritage.  In Manchester in the 18th century there were many cotton mills, the industry was booming and the main output was gingham check fabric.  The Nike logo, club crest and AON sponsor are all simply designed in white, ensuring the strip looks elegant and stylish, another great addition alongside the already released home strip.  It is reported that the kit will

Liverpool have been fairly unlucky over the past few seasons, in the past they have always been known as one of the bigger clubs, up there with Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool, however it almost feels as if the club have fizzled out recently with not much mention of the club apart from the controversy over star striker Luis Suarez. Will we ever seem the Liverpool home shirt conquer Europe again?

The club have always been in the top ten of the league, mainly finishing 7th and above, the last time they qualified for a Champions League spot in the top four was in the 2008-09 season where they finished in second place in the Premier League behind Manchester United. That season it was Rafael Benitez who helped the club achieve top four status, it did not all run smoothly at the

This year's UEFA European Under 21's Championship was hosted in Israel between 5-18th June.  Qualification for the tournament started in 2011 with 52 teams, the English team was placed in group 8 alongside Norway, Belgium, Azerbaijan and Iceland, to their credit they came top of their group winning seven out of eight games, their two-leg playoff match was against Serbia they won both ties 1-0 giving them a 2-0 lead on aggregate and securing them a pace in the final tournament with host team Israel as well as Germany, Italy, Holland, Norway, Russia and Spain.  There were high hopes for under 21's in their England football kits however, the results on the pitch didn't materialise, they were drawn in group A along with Italy, Norway and Israel, they played and lost three matches only managing to score once from the penalty spot against Norway. Following

Many people would have predicted Germany to win the women's Euro 2013, rightly so after they had already won 5 in a row, but the team certainly showed what they could do and on the 28th July and won the competition celebrating in style  after some fantastic football against a strong and very unlucky Norway side.

Germany played well from the off with plenty of chances to break the deadlock, they had 21 shots on target compared to Norway's seven. These statistics just show how well Norway's goalkeeper Ingrid Hjelmseth did against the German side. She made some fantastic stops and if it was not for her Germany could have been five or more goals better off.  The game was half and half in the first twenty minutes of the game, with Germany maybe edging it slightly up until the 28th minute until Norway's Cathrine Dekkahus was bought down to the floor and the referee awarded a penalty. Many fans have stated that they thought this was a very soft decision from the referee.

In recent years Barcelona football club have been unstoppable, they have been the best team in Europe, over the last ten seasons they have won six Spanish La Liga titles including the most recent season. They have also had the honour of winning two Copa Del Reys, three Champions Leagues, two UEFA Super Cups and two FIFA World Cups, this is an impressive list of achievements for one club. Despite beating Real Madrid to the Spanish League title, in the European competition the Champions League the Barcelona shirts struggled. Following the group stage the team clawed their way into the semi-final round after drawing home and away with PSG, winning on aggregate goals, but were spectacularly defeated by German side Bayern Munich losing 4-0 at Bayern, and 0-3 at the Nou Camp, making the final score an excruciating 7-0 on aggregate. Bayern Munich went on to beat Borussia Dortmund to be crowned champions of Europe. The two teams recently played again in a friendly (view pictures of the

Following the release of the home kit in May this year Nike have officially released the brand new Manchester City away kit, this season is the first time city have ever been seen wearing a Nike kit.   The club have a long affinity with their old supplier Umbro, the Umbro logo emblazoned the teams kits from 1975-97, they then had brief spells with Reebok, Kappa and Le Coq Sportif before returning to Umbro in 2009, Man City actually wore a kit designed by Umbro in the 1934 FA Cup Final. Umbro are a British sportswear company, it was founded in 1924 with the specific interest of entering the market to supply football kits, and it rivalled the then market leader Bukta.  In 2007 Umbro was bought by American sportswear giants Nike, this deal lasted until 2012 when Nike announced it was selling Umbro to concentrate on its other sportswear brands.  Since then Nike has acquired the rights to make football shirts for former Umbro kit wearing teams, Manchester City and England.

Gareth Bale is currently one of the most sought after players during this summers transfer window, and the speculation about a possible move from his current squad at Tottenham Hotspur has been rife.  Bale who is a 24 year old Welsh footballer started his playing career at Southampton, he joined them at age 16 and was immediately recognised as a talented footballer, he was described as a creative player and was named Football League Young Player of the Year 2007.  Just over a year later in May 2007 Bale joined the London based Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur, signing a four year deal.  Bale has certainly made a name for himself as a top player in the Premier League; during his time at Spurs he has made 146 appearances, scoring 42 goals from his left-wing position.  He has also been awarded numerous accolades and awards including last season alone being named PFA Young Player of the Year, PFA Players' Player of the Year and FWA Footballer of the Year.  Spurs

The World Cup is a football tournament organised by FIFA, it is contested by nations from each of the FIFA continental zones. The tournament is held every four years and is hosted by different countries from around the globe. The next tournament is due to be held next year, 2014, in the South American country of Brazil. Â The first ever World Cup was held in 1930 and was hosted by Uruguay, the first television coverage was in 1954. The 1958 World Cup that was held in Sweden was the first tournament to be aired internationally, and in 1970 for the first time in the UK the tournament was broadcast in colour. Over recent years with the invention of satellite and paid for television the sale of television rights for sporting events has become big business. The Premier League has sold domestic TV rights to Sky and BT for over £3bn; add to this the BBC's Match of the Day contract and international broadcasting deals the Premier League is set to receive a staggering £5bn in television broadcasting

The World Cup is a popular international football tournament with countries from all over the world competing, it is traditionally held in the summer months every four years. The tournament is hosted by different nations, FIFA try to fairly distribute where the competition is played throughout the different FIFA Continental Zones, these zones are Africa, Asia, Oceania, Europe, South America and North & Central America & Caribbean. FIFA's executive committees, following a bidding process decide which country should host each World Cup, the decision is usually made six or seven years in advance of the event to give the host nation time to prepare. Next years tournament will be held in Brazil and we already know that in 2018 it will hosted by Russia and in 2022 Qatar. Since the announcement of the Qatari World Cup there has been controversy and upset due to the temperate climate of the country in the summer months.

Qatar is in Western Asia and is very similar to a