Monthly Archives: July 2013

Paul Gascoigne often fondly referred to as Gazza was one of the English sporting heroes of the 80's and 90's.  He began his football playing career at Newcastle United making his debut appearance for the first team in 1985, during his time as a player he also starred at Tottenham Hotspur, Lazio and Glasgow Rangers.  Personal honours awarded to him include P.F.A Young Player of the Year 1987/88, BBC Sports Personality of the Year 1990 and Scottish Players' Player of the Year 1995/96.  More famously than his club career Gazza is best remembered among fans for his contribution to the English national team.  He proudly sported the England football shirt to gain an impressive 57 caps, he played in the well-remembered squad that reached fourth place in the 1990 FIFA World Cup their best finishing position other than their 1966 winning victory.  He also helped the team along to the semi-finals of the Euro 96 competition where they were beaten by Germany after extr

Everyone has their own opinion of professional footballers, some members of the public think that they are overpaid, lazy, and just wear their Premier League kits each week for millions of pounds of wages per week. However kicking a ball around for 90 minutes every Saturday is not all they have to do, there is a huge amount of training and fitness that they have to go through each week in order to stay in the team, never mind play for the starting 11. Medical assessments also take place regularly to assess whether each player is fit to carry on playing. When any player moves from club to club they must undertake a medical to check their fitness but this is not a one off procedure and happens quite often, this is another reason professional footballers must keep training, to improve fitness to be sure of their place in the team.

The Premier League is one of the most popular and physical leagues

The women's European Championship is the main competition in ladies football held by UEFA, it is staged every four years the same as the equivalent men's competition.  The Euro Championships were first held in 1984, this is the last year in which the finals will be contested between twelve teams, from 2017 there will be sixteen teams due to the increasing popularity of ladies football across Europe.  The last ten competitions have produced only three different winning countries, Germany have won on seven occasions, Norway twice and Sweden once, England have reached the finals twice being crowned runners up in 1984 and 2009.  The Euro 2013 Championships begin this week and are being held in Sweden.

The England women's squad have been drawn in group C against France, Russia and Spain, this is a difficult group and Alex Scott, who will be playing in Sweden has said that 'the first challenge will be getting out of the group stage'.  The ladies team qualified for

There are now more Muslims playing football than ever before, a lot of Muslim footballers are very skilled at their game and have gone on to play professional football for a league team. There are now around 30 Muslim footballers playing for Premier League teams, some of these big name clubs such as Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City. Some of the most well-known players in the league have Muslim beliefs without you even knowing or noticing.

Here is a list of just some of the professional Muslim footballers, i have not included all names:
- Marouane Fellaini
- Demba Ba
- Yaya Toure
- Kolo Toure
- Hatem Ben Arfa
- Samir Nasri
- Papiss Cisse
- Bacary Sagna
- Edin Dzeko
- Cheick Tiote

You may notice that when a Muslim football p

Football is one of the most played sports in the world and the FIFA World Cup tournament is watched by millions of supporters around the globe. The competition is held during the month of July and the host nation is selected from a group of candidates. FIFA is split into continental zones and a host country cannot bid if another from the same continental zone has hosted one of the two previous tournaments, this ensures the competition is played in countries around the globe. The previous World Cup was held in South Africa in 2010, 2014 will see Brazil as hosts and Russia and Qatar will host the 2018 and 2022 tournaments. Always holding the competition in July is great for continuity however, in some countries this can mean that the football players are playing in exceedingly hot temperatures. Brazil is generally always a warm country but their summer period is January and in July the heat should be more bearable with average temperatures of around 24c however in Qatar the average daytime

There are a large variety of baby clothes now available to buy, these can be found in supermarkets, high street shops and online stores. Some shops have large sections specifically for babies, prices range depending on the outlet you are looking to buy from. As well as standard baby wear such as jeans, t-shirts, sleep suits, bodysuits, rompers and many more, a new kind of clothing arrived on the scene; football baby wear.

Young children have always had a choice in football clothing such as official club pajamas etc, but this has not been the case for babies up until now. You can now purchase official clothing for your tiny ones to support professional clubs. These can be for Premier League, international and national clubs. The most sought after baby wear are usually from Premier League clubs. Body suits and sleep suits are always very popular, these can be purchased for babies as young as 0-3 Months. Just like other brands that design baby wear football baby wear is made to

Borussia Dortmund are a German football team, they were founded in 1909 and have had a successful history playing in the top flight of German football, the Bundesliga.  Since 1909 the club have secured eight German league championships, the German Cup and German Super cup three and four times respectively, and in Europe they won the UEFA Cup Winners Cup in 1966 and the Champions League in 1997.  However, with the turn of the new millennium their recent past has been more turbulent, the club was the first, and to date, only football club to be traded on the German stock exchange.  In the early 2000s the club struggled with bad financial management and failures to win any silverware, this situation resulted in a loan from rival side Bayern Munich, the sale of their home ground Westfalen stadium, an 80% drop

The number of young children playing football in the UK is always growing, some players are very young. When we say football we mean friendly football matches with friends, playing for local teams and having a kick around in the park. Football is often used as an activity for P.E in schools; this is enjoyed by most children and was not available as much as it once was a few years ago. Football matches are available on the television and easy accessible to children. This is where most children find their favourite players and then some kids see a certain player as their idol. Many parents by their children football kits, the child may choose to have their strip personalised, there are often requests for their favourite player's names and numbers. One of the most popular names to be printed over the past couple of years has been Messi 10. As most already know this is Barcelona's number one striker, also

Football is one of, if not the most popular sport in the world, it is watched, supported, played and talked about by adults and children in all corners of the globe. Many people choose to support and follow a specific team, in the past this was often the club that played in their local area as well as the countries national team, but with the influence of worldwide media and television coverage people are choosing to diversify and support clubs from leagues around the world.  With this changing support there has been an increasing demand for purchasing official football shirts from not only local teams, but also international league clubs and worldwide national teams. With this changing dynamic there has also been a change in the buying habits of consumers, over the last five years Manchester United and Real Madrid have sold approximately 4 million replica tops, many of these have not been bought in high street stores but ordered online.

About two thirds of

Atletico Madrid is a Spanish football team, they are based in Madrid and were founded by a group of students in 1903. The teams main rivalry lies with Real Madrid being another local team, this rivalry began as far back as 1904 when dissident members of Real Madrid joined Atletico.  As a club Atletico Madrid can claim a successful history winning nine La Liga titles, ten Copa Del Reys, the Europa League and the UEFA Super Cup.  In terms of La Liga they are the third most successful Spanish team, falling behind Real Madrid and Barcelona who have won the champions title 32 and 22 times respectively.   For the last nine seasons these two mighty clubs have dominated the top spots and the fight for third place has been the competition between the other La Liga teams. Last season the Atletico Madrid football shirts put on an outstanding display to claim the third place victory scoring 76 points and winning 23 matches.  Can they offer a threat to Barca and Real's dominance during the upcom