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Does anyone no the nick names for the premier league teams?

As many as poss please……. ?

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Barcelona is the capital of Catalonia – an autonomous community of Spain. Located on the Mediterranean Sea, it is the second largest Spanish city with a population of around 1.6million people. Barcelona is perhaps best known for its sporting links – in 1992 it held the Olympic Games and its main football side, FC Barcelona, is one of the biggest in the world.

Barcelona is one of only a dozen teams to have won the Champions League on more than one occasion – most recently in 2006 when they remained unbeaten throughout the entire tournament, a feat only matched by Manchester United in 2008. Their two victories are, however, overshadowed by rival Real Madrid’s record of nine cup wins.

Their Spanish rivals also have the upper hand in Spanish Premier League La Liga titles – winning by 31 to 18 – but Barcelona have won the Spanish cup 24 times, which is more than any other side in the country.

Football is often criticised for the amount of money involved. Whether it’s how much the club spends on transfer fees and player wages or the cost of tickets and merchandise to cover these outgoings, the general consensus is that it’s too much.

During the 2006/07 season, Barcelona was listed as the third-richest club in world football but the club has dented the claim that all clubs are money-grabbing. Rather than have a company pay money to be their shirt sponsor – an easy way to generate income for the club and one that is undertaken by almost all professional sides these days – Barcelona announced in 2006 that the logo of children’s charity UNICEF would appear on their strips. They agreed a five-year deal which would see the football club donate a small percentage of its income to a foundation set up in partnership with the charity.

This trend has now begun to spread to other clubs. Aston Villa announced that they would advertise Acorns Children’s Hospice for the 2008/09 season – it is the first time a Premiership club has used a sponsor in this way.

Both clubs have received a lot of positive press following their decisions and many hope that others will follow in their footsteps and help those in society who most need it.

Despite the loss in revenue, both teams still have enough income to make big money signings to stay competitive in their respective leagues. Indeed, Barcelona remains one of the biggest clubs in the world and is constantly looking to challenge for the La Liga title and Champions League honours.

Recent stats show around 25% of Spain’s population support the Catalan giants and millions more follow them around the world, often flying to the city and staying in hotels in Barcelona just to watch them play. It’s a huge boost to local tourism and the more money that is spent on the club, the more that they donate to charity.

Isla Campbell writes on a number of topics on behalf of a digital marketing agency and a variety of clients. As such, this article is to be considered a professional piece with business interests in mind.

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Technorati Tags: premier league football shirts

Technorati Tags: premier league football shirts

Technorati Tags: premier league football shirts

Popping up on the internet from time to time recently amid the constant Portsmouth takeover speculation, has been the issue of the club’s new kit for next season.

Of course, the all blue home kit, created to commemorate our ‘110th anniversary’ (!), can’t be worn next season as we will need another to mark our 111th anniversary. This does mean, though, that it looks likely we will be reverting to red, white, and blue. Hooray! Whether the design lasts more than one season remains to be seen. The picture doing the rounds for most of the last few weeks has been a rather amateurish looking photoshop showing white trim with a new sponsor, Intercontinental Hotels. However, the quality of the image left many suspecting tomfoolery.

There is now a new version appearing. It is shown on TrueBlueArmy.com. To see the home kit, click here; for the away, here. Rumour has it the third kit remains black, with a horizontal blue stripe. The source for these latest pictures is Canterbury in Australia, but whether the images are right or wrong, the kit must surely be in production by now. The issue of the sponsor appears unclear, with none shown. It seems the club may be cutting it fine if the takeover needs to be complete before a shirt sponsor is confirmed. The designs themselves look fine to me. The inportant thing is that we return to white shorts and red socks. This has got me thinking about other kits we have had, good and bad, but bear in mind my experience dates back only 25 years. It may be true, however, that we have seen more variations in this time than in the previous years put together!

1983-85 – a classic looking plain royal blue with slightly darker tramlines by Le Coq Sportif. Wouldn’t mind one of these as a classic shirt!

1985-87 – not the home shirt, which was fine, but not as nice as the previous version my opinion. The manufacturer had changed to Umbro, but I’m talking about the white away kit, with the two diagonal blue shoulder stripes on the shirt. Although I’m sure this was the kit in which we were embarrased on national TV in an FA Cup tie against Wimbledon when, straight from the kick off after going behind, Noel Blake mamaged to slot the ball past Alan Knight for an own goal and 2-0, as Knight was doing up his laces!

1987-89 – again, not the home shirt with the red and white pin stripes, which even then I thought was tacky! Admiral, the new manufacturer, didn’t cover themselves in glory there. But I loved the retro salmon pink away kit! I had one (with shorts and socks, of course as I was eleven at the time). I think we should reintroduce a version of that now!

1991-92 – this was truly horrendous! However, I still have it as a treasured possession due to its association with our FA Cup run that season (I also still have the blue shorts with the little FA Cup on the side). Made by Influence, it had their trademark zig zag, same-colour pattern all over it. I seem to remember Cambridge United having the same design on theirs. The only worse one I can think of was the Arsenal away kit which had the same pattern in yellow and black! That (and the cup run of course) is the only thing that made me feel better about this kit.

1992-95 – Asics were making quite a splash at this time and they gave us a decent home shirt, much better quality than the previous one. Something strange had happened with the badge, and even with the design on the shirt itself, which at a distance looked plain blue, but was a bit ’swirly’ up close. Where they really came into their own was with the away kit, which was in black and red halves. I had both the shirts but the black and red one was much my favourite. I had great memories of it at a late season 2-0 midweek away win at Tranmere (Whittingham,2), but not so great ones after losing 1-0 to Leicester at the City Ground in the first leg of the play offs.

1997-99 – my memory is slightly hazy around this time as to exactly when we changed our kits. I think we used the Asics one for three seasons before they changed the design. The second Asics kit wasn’t so good, with a huge white band around the collar. But the stand out horrible kit from this period was the Admiral kit which (I think) we used from ‘97 to ‘99. I still have it, if only to prove to anyone that asks (never gonna happen) how bad it was. It was poor quality with a HUGE badge in the middle of the chest, and ‘Pompey’ written in tacky yellow italics on the bottom of the back (?????). Still, we wore it at Bradford City in 1998 to avoid relegation.

2000-01 – after a one season flirtation with an own brand kit that wasn’t up to scratch, the club unveiled an improved version in 2000. The quality was no doubt an improvement, but the shirt was uninspiring. Still, this is the one that Robert Prosinecki graced and the orange away version was at least distinctive.

This marked the start of the one-season kit era, with only one kit since the introduction of a new kit in 2000 surviving beyond a single campaign. The biggest howler in that time has been the 2005-06 kit by Jako with a yellow stripe running the length of the shirt. The season was as bad as the kit, and the icing on the cake was the embarrasing red and beige away effort. UGHH!

To the present day, and Canterbury make stylish kits. The 2007-08 Cup-winning year kit has been by far the best recently, with only the Le Coq shirt from the early 80s to rival it in my opinion. Some have complained about the gold flashing, but I don’t mind that combined with traditional colours. Last season’s colour scheme was paricularly uninspiring. Let’s hope this new kit returns to tradition and lasts for more than one year!

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Date: Saturday 8th August 2009 at 6.30pm (local time)

Venue: Estadio Olimpico Joao Havelange (The Engenhao), in Rio de Janeiro

 

BOTAFOGO

Prior to Thursday nights loss with Sao Paulo, Botafogo were on an unbeaten 7 game roll, don’t froth at the mouth too much though as 4 from that roll were draws. However, most of their draws have been away and today they face a team in Atletico PR who have won only 2 games from the last 7.

 

Sao Paulo beat the “Big Fire” (Fogao) 3-1, Thursday, hardly surprising as I said a couple previews ago, Sao Paulo will be climbing the league faster than Jacob climbed his ladder - so that loss won’t be held against them, besides, Big Fire hasn’t won at Morumbi since 1998. 

 

ATLETICO PR 

Before Thursday night’s 0-2 win at Cruzeiro, Atletico had only won 1 game from 6 – the win would have for sure injected some confidence into for the most part a struggling team. We musn’t however get swept away by the victory, it was after all against an extraordinary low moral Cruzeiro who are languishing around the drop zone. It was a scrappy affair with 3 red cards and as usual of late, the Cruz dominated early play to falter big time not only in play but with discipline too.

 

STATS (Serie A 2009)

 

BOTAFOGO

LEAGUE POSITION: 13th/20

Games played: 16

Wins: 4

Losses: 5

Draws: 7

Away Wins: 1

Home Wins: 3

Red Cards: 2

Yellow Cards: 40

Goals Scored:24 (from 226 shots/headers on target)

Goals Conceded: 28

Passing Errors: 40.44% 

 

ATLETICO PR

LEAGUE POSITION: 14th/20

Games played: 17 

Wins: 5 

Losses: 3 

Draws: 9 

Away Wins: 2 

Home Wins: 3 

Red Cards: 4 

Yellow Cards: 54 

Goals Scored: 17 (from 140 shots/headers on target) 

Goals Conceded: 29 

Passing Errors: 28.76%

 

VERDICT:

We couldn’t put our shirt on any of these, but Botafogo are favourites and deservedly so.

 

Despite Atletico winning both August games it’s pushing the boat to expect a 3rd consecutive victory. Not only that, a quick look back at their few wins this year were against either teams in the doldrums or teams that were at the time, struggling.

 

I had started to research this preview before Thursday nights games and had all along been favouring Big Fire, and I still believe they will win this. But Prudence has been ringing in my ears “cover the draw” , “cover the draw”. Not forgetting Prudence has a valid point as this season Botafogo have drawn 7 from 16 and Atletico have drawn 9 from 17.

 

Now either I have developed schizophrenia or it’s my aversion to giving the sports books an easy ride kicking in. Either way, a 1-1 correct score draw cover is in order! (Just enough to cover stake and some).  

 

It’s BOTAFOGO straight-up at 1.62 or better! (1-1 correct score cover). 

For more info on Brazilian football teams, previous previews, World Cup 2014 and more, check out this Brazilian Football Site , it’s got tons of Brazilian soccer stuff and all in English too.

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Which football league is better?

which football (soccer) league is better? and why?
premier league, la liga or serie a

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English Premier Football League Game week 22 Match Preview – Part 2

Chelsea vs. Stoke

With Chelsea just managing to beat Southend in the cup, they will be looking for all three points in their home game. Chelsea should start with Anelka and should win the game quite easily. Even though Liverpool made hard work of their match the previous weekend against Stoke, Chelsea should be able to overpower this newly promoted side. Despite having only won only 2 of the last 6 games, Chelsea at home with the in form Anelka bagging a few goals in the last few games are getting their act together as the premier league enters in to the final half of the season,

Stoke having gained a point from their travels to Anfield will be buoyed when travelling to Stamford bridge. With Stoke losing 3 and drawing 3 in the last 6 games, you can be certain that stoke will not will the game at Stamford bridge.

Game Prediction: Chelsea Win 1:0

Man City v Wigan

With Kaka taking all the headlines in the big money transfer gossip of the century, and only having 1 win in the last 6 games, it amazes me that Mark Hughes is still in the job to spend the billions that are available. Craig Bellamy and Santa Cruz are also on the City shopping list this January transfer market so we may well see 3 new faces at Man city February. Although it seems to me that kaka will not be moving to a Mickey Mouse team even for a 1 million us dollars a week.

It looks like Wigan are set to lose Palicious to Spurs for 14 million sometime over the next few weeks. Having won 4 games in the last 6, Wigan are in good form are will be looking to pile even more pressure on Mark Hughes by winning this game.

Game Prediction: Wigan Win 2:1

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