Mirko Bolesan 1995

2008-09-11T20:57:00.003+01:00

Faroe Play

Luxembourg's sensational 2-1 win in Switzerland last night made me remember the day that the Faroe Islands entered international football. Their first match was against an Austrian side who had qualified for the 1990 World Cup.

Turn up your sound and listen to the commentary on this:

The Faroese goalkeeper Jens Knudsen earned a lot of the post game headlines due to the white bobblehat he sported during matches. He won 65 caps for the Faroe Islands playing his last game for them in 2006, he also starred in goal for the Faroese handball side though it being an indoor sport his bobblehat probably wasn't required.

2008-08-02T20:47:00.004+01:00

Summer Czech

It’s not long before “Western” Europe’s leagues swing back into action (the Czech league begins today!) so I felt it was about time I had another look at what’s happened in the world of Czech football over the summer.

Karel Bruckner left his job as Czech Republic coach after his side were knocked out in incredible fashion at Euro 2008. The Czech players were victims of a robbery in their own hotel (cash and three match tickets) and on the field as they were one of Turkey’s victims. 2-0 down with 15 minutes left Turkey somehow managed to score three! Despite the obvious defensive frailties you can’t help but feel that they really missed a player like Nedved (retired) and Rosicky (injured) to run the midfield.

Players that came out of the tournament with their reputations enhanced included the Czech’s right winger Sionko, who at 31 and playing in Copenhagen is unlikely to attract many bids from Europe’s elite. Sverkos, who scored the opening goal of Euro 2008 was linked to a move to the spectacularly excellently named Saturn. A fee was agreed with his club Banik Ostrava but the player opted against the move.

Bruckner has popped up as the new manager of Austria, who continue their trend of appointing ageing coaches. After considering the likes of Carlos Alberto, Klaus Toppmoller and Slavia manager Karel Jarolim the Czechs have opted for Petr Rada who will begin his international managerial career against Fabio Capello’s England.

A Czech player who is moving to Russia is giant striker Jan Koller who joins Jiri Jarosik at Krylia Sovetov Samara. Another famous Czech international Jiri Novotny, 38 has joined one of the most famous Czech sides Dukla Praha in the Druha Liga. As Novotny winds down his career, one of his former international teammates Radek Bejbl has called time on his. The former Slavia Praha and Atletico Madrid midfielder who starred for the Czechs in Euro 96 has announced his retirement
from football.

Czech U19 international Tomas Necid

Despite a disappointing Euro 2008 Czech fans did have something to cheer about as the European U19 Championships came to the Czech Republic. A difficult group containing Italy, England and Greece faced the Czechs but a win against England, a draw against Greece and an exciting 4-3 loss to Italy was enough to take them through to the semi finals where they eventually lost to Germany. Tall centre forward Tomas Necid of Jablonec (on loan from Slavia) caught the eye for the Czechs and ended the tournament as overall top scorer. I'm sure the Czechs will be hoping they have finally found a long term replacement for the almost irreplaceable Jan Koller.

2008-05-31T18:49:00.001+01:00

Non-Europeans

Euro 2008 begins in a week time, oddly there are 42 players who were born outside of Europe who will be competing in the competition. Here's the list..

Portugal
Deco - Brazil
Boswinga - Congo
Pepe - Brazil
Nani - Cape Verde

Switzerland
Gelson - Cape Verde
Vonlanthen - Colombia
Djourou - Ivory Coast

Turkey - mostly eastern Turkey
Rustu Recber
Tuzluca
Mehmet Topal
Semih Senturk
Gokdeniz Karadeniz
Tumer Metin
Tolga Zengin
Ugur Boral
Emre Asik
Tuncay Sanli
Ayhan Akman
Sabri Sarioglu
Mehmet Aurelio - Brazil

Croatia
Josip Simunic - Australia

Germany
Kevin Kuryani - Brazil

Poland
Roger Guerreiro - Brazil

France
Patrice Evra - Senegal
Lilian Thuram - Guadeloupe
Claude Makalele -Congo
Patrik Vieira - Senegal
Jean-Alain Boumsong - Cameroon
Steve Mandanda - Congo

Italy
Mauro Camoranesi - Argentina

Russia - all three Eastern Russia
Sergei Semak
Dmitri Sychev
Dmitri Torbinski

Spain
Marcos Senna - Brazil

2008-05-29T20:15:00.006+01:00

Mill No More

Awful news from Rotherham United today that confirms that they will not be playing at Millmoor next season. Instead the club will play their games in Sheffield at the Don Valley Stadium.

The Don Valley Stadium is normally used for athletics and rugby league. It has also been used for concerts and gameshows (Channel 4's "The Game") in the past as well. It looks totally unsuitable for Rotherham. Wrong city, not big enough and has an athletics track around it - which never helps the atmosphere as anyone who has been to the Withdean will tell you!

I have only ever visited Millmoor once. It was on the first day of the season in Cardiff City's first game back in the second flight about five years ago (the game ended 0-0). It was almost certainly the hottest game I have ever been at. Standing in the away end at Millmoor (it is seated but Cardiff fans aren't sitters) under a corrugated iron roof was akin to being in an oven.

Good luck to Rotherham United. Things can surely only get better now. Surely!

2008-05-24T00:58:00.007+01:00

Big Yellow Bus

All hop on the NK Domzale bus, new Champions of Slovenia.

Slovenia is a young country and so has a young football league. NK Domzale's title win is the first in their history and they are only the third club to win the championship after NK Maribor and NK Gorica.

Other first time winners of their respective leagues are Llanelli of Wales and CFJ Cluj of Romania (who not content with winning the league for the first time also won the cup!).

To round off this shortish article on league title winners here's a list of all of the leagues that have been decided over the past few weeks. (Note - many of the ex-Soviet countries and Scandanavia & Ireland have league programmes that run over the summer so are not included in this list).

Albania: Dinamo Tirana
Austria: Rapid Veinna
Belguim: Standard Liege
Bosnia: FK Modrica Maksima
Bulgaria: CSKA Sofia
Croatia: Dinamo Zagreb
Czechia: Slavia Prague
England: Manchester United
France: Lyon
Georgia: Dinamo Tblisi
Germany: Bayern Munich
Hungary: Debrecen VSC
Italy: Inter
Luxembourg: F91 Dedelange
Macedonia: Rabotnicki Skopje
Malta: Valletta FC
Moldova: Sheriff Tiraspol
Montenegro: Buducnost Podgorica
Netherlands: PSV
Northern Ireland: Linfield
Poland: Wisla Krakow
Portugal: Porto
Romania: CFR Cluj
San Marino: SC Faetano
Scotland: Celtic
Serbia: Partizan Belgrade
Slovakia: Artmedia Bratislava
Slovenia: NK Domzale
Spain: Real Madrid
Switzerland: Basel
Turkey: Galatasaray
Ukraine: Shakhtar Donetsk
Wales: Llanelli

2008-05-14T23:46:00.006+01:00

Swiss Super League

Continuing on from the article down the page on Austrian football I felt a piece on Swiss football would be appropriate as

FC Thun are probably known to most people in England as the side who played in the Champions League against Arsenal a few years ago (2005). They acquitted themselves well, only losing by the odd goal in both ties to Arsenal and finishing above Ajax in 3rd place. The current season has ended in relegation, they now have a mountain to climb to get back into the Swiss elite... The oldest club in the country and the second oldest on continental Europe is FC St Gallen. They are managed by Krassimir Balakov who was a member of the Bulgarian national team who made the semi finals of the World Cup in 1994. They finished 2nd bottom of the Super League this season and lost out to Bellinzona of the second flight in a two legged playoff. Incidentally Bellinoza qualified for the UEFA Cup as losing finalists.

Bellinoza's marvellous change kit.

The exotically named Neuchatal Xamax won the league twice during the 1980s. Blackburn Rovers defender Stephane Henchoz played almost 100 matches for the club at the beginning of his career. Their major recent success was winning the Swiss Cup in 2003. The club is quite a breeding ground for African players, Papa Bouba Diop, Henri Camara and Thimothee Atouba all played for the Neuchatal club before moving on to the Premier League.

A little known fact is that the ex-Crystal Palace striker Mark Bright spent a few months at FC Sion in Switzerland near the end of his career, he made very little impact in his short time there! Like many Swiss sides they were founded very early in the 20th Century (in 1909). They were one of the Swiss entrants to the UEFA Cup this season, falling at the first hurdle against Turkish side Galatasaray. An exceptional 3-2 victory at home was followed by a disappointing 5-1 result in Turkey.

One of the more famous names in Swiss football Ciriaco Sforza is now managing midtable side FC Luzern. He played for the national team on 79 ocassions and spent most of his career in Germany (winning the Champions League with Bayern Munich in 2001). [official site of Sforza here] "Supersub" David Fairclough played for FC Lu

zern during the mid-80s and scored a goal in the club's SRS Cup win in 1984 against Borussia Dortmund.

The first team in the dictionary: FC Aarau. They have a Wimbledon-esque badge. Last year they had a player by the name of Mark Fotheringham playing for them (he's currently at Norwich). He is famous for the "Fozzy Flick", it's not quite a Cruyff turn but is worth a look.

Probably the most famous Swiss club are Grasshoppers Zurich (their nickname apparently coming from the way their players celebrated in the early days of the club - but that's far from certain). They are also notable to many football fans in the UK as they shared a subbuteo side with Blackburn Rovers, or at least that's why they are notable to me.. They have won the Swiss title more than any other club (27). City rivals FC Zurich finished two points ahead of Grasshoppers, they ended the season in third and made the last 16 of the UEFA Cup this season where they lost to Hamburg.

The title was contested between FC Basel (who are managed by ex-Spurs boss Christian Gross - I believe this reference is obligatory when writing about Basel) and Young Boys of Berne (who really DO play at the Wankdorfstadion - or at least that's what it used to be called - it is also the largest solar power plant in the world incidentally).

FC Vaduz flying high

As mentioned earlier Bellinoza won the promotion playoff against St. Gallen and so will compete in the Swiss superleague next season. The team who won the second division were FC Vaduz of Liechtenstein. It's obviously quite odd for a team from a different country to play in the top flight of a league of a different country but there are examples ranging from Derry City, Monaco and Swansea City in the early 80s. What is less clear is European qualification. Vaduz currently enter the Liechtenstein cup and normally win it (as they are by far the strongest side in their country). It is likely that they wouldn't be allowed to represent Switzerland in European competition should they qualify. In 2006/2007 FC Vaduz were actually eliminated from the UEFA Cup by FC Basel (of Switzerland).

2008-05-11T01:17:00.003+01:00

A Nicely Written Match Report

I'm currently reading Eddie Hapgood's autobiography (he captained Arsenal and England during the 1930s). It's a pretty good read. As you can imagine a lot has changed in the game since then.

Hapgood

This excerpt from a match report that Hapgood was involved in is included in the book. (Hapgood's Arsenal are playing Hapgood's previous club Kettering Town). See if you can work out what the reporter is moaning about before the end of the article...

"The next time I go to see a match on the Rockingham Road ground at Kettering, I shall insist on being accompanied by Sherlock Holmes, the 'Big Four' from Scotland Yard, and a leading member of the British Magical Society. Though I have no intention of causing any undue alarm in the camp of the faithful followers of the Poppies, I feel it incumbent upon me to warn them, at the close of a thrilling season, that the green patch which covers the playing area conceals a treacherous quicksand, wherein players disappear and are never seen again.

Kettering were entertaining the Arsenal in a friendly fixture, and, with the exception of a goal or two that happened along in the first half, all went well (though I believe the diminutive Mitchell had some difficulty with his shorts - they seemedto fit too tightly around his ankles). It was after the referee blew the whistle for the refreshment interval that the tragedy happened. Two strapping Arsenal players - David Jack and 'Happy' Hapgood - vanished into thin air. Presumably, the quicksands had swallowed them up, not even a tuft of hair could be traced, and the crowd stood aghast when the Arsenal re-started. No David Jack; no Happy-go-Lucky Hapgood.

In their places appeared two substitutes, mysteriously recruited from some sort of Arsenal 'pool' held in reserve (like a battalion in billets) somewhere behind the grandstand. People wondered; they whispered in queer undertones. What happend to Jack? Where was Hapgood?

If there had been anotehr adjournemount before the end of the match, I should not have been surprised to see the Arsenal team re-enter the arena with a brandnew forward line, three halves borrowed from the Scottish League, two backs from West Bromwich, and a goalkeeper on loan from Newcastle United.

I was beginning to wonder wheter the police had authorised the issue of the usual £500 Reward notices, when a powerful voice nearby informed the world that Jack andhis friend had merely dropped out to give two other Arsenal men a chance to kick the ball!"

2008-05-07T21:12:00.008+01:00

Austrian Bundesliga

With Euro 2008 being jointly hosted by Austria I thought it was time to look at the domestic leagues of the two countries, starting with Austria.

The top division (Bundesliga) is a relatively small division containing only ten teams. Clubs play each other twice at home and twice away.

SV Ried are another club in Austria who have accepted the "corporate dollar", the full title of their side is SV Josko Fenster Ried, the logo of the firm is even featured on their badge, something that makes me quite uneasy. Saying that the picture in their gallery from the Innsbruck game made me feel quite uneasy too. SCR Rheindorf Altach are another club who have incorperated their sponsors logo (CASHPOINT) onto their badge, it's one thing allowing a company to sponsor your ground or kit but on the badge? Step too far perhaps?

SV Rien vs Innsbruck.

Wacker Innsbruck are one of many sides (almost half) that play in green in the Bundesliga. They see themselves as the continuation of the Tirol Innsbruck club who won the Austrian title three times earlier this decade. However, Tirol went bust in 2002. Wacker Innsbruck had Liverpool defender Besian Idrizaj on loan this year, a player who has also had spells at Crystal Palace and Luton Town.

Carsten Jancker, remember him? The man who scored "the Germans" only goal against England in their humiliating 5-1 defeat? The man who used to terrify defences all over Europe with his aerial ability? Well, he's now at SV Mattersburg who finished 5th in the Austrian Bundesliga this season. The Champions League winner (really!) has scored a decent 14 goals for the club this term and seems to have got his career back on track after a poor spell in China. Despite Mattersburg being a town of only 6300 people they had one of the highest average attendances in the Bundesliga.

Carsten Jancker

Franchise football is unsurprisingly present in Austrian football. SK Austria Kamten were only a couple of years ago known as ASKO Pasching (a club who once beat Werder Bremen in Europe) - they were the club who were called FC Superfund for a while as sponsorship in Austria ran amock amongst their football clubs. They finished second bottom of the Bundesliga this season, saving themselves from relegation as only one club is demoted each season.

One of the more famous names in Austrian football are Sturm Graz. They made the quarter finals of the UEFA Cup in the early 80s, beaten by Nottingham Forest by a dubious penalty (or at least that's what the wikipedia page says - I suspect it was written by a still angry Sturm fan!). Their European exploits didn't end there however. In the 99/00 season they won their group in the Champions League above European giants Galatasaray, Rangers and Monaco. Times have been a bit harder on the Graz club recently. Financial problems have blighted the club and they've been unable to repeat their European successes.

FC Red Bull Salzburg are probably the most controversial side in the division. On April 6, 2005 Red Bull purchased the club and rebranded it under their Red Bull name. Not only did they change the name of the club they also changed the club colours from violet (there is no violet on the kit at all now) and stated "this is a new club with no history". It's a pretty brutal way to run a football club. Fans of the club obviously weren't happy so set up their own club as SV Austria Salzburg (Red Bull Salzburg's old name) and joined the seventh tier of the Austrian pyramid and began playing at the start of the 2006/2007 season. They won the championship in their first and second seasons as a football club and are now only four promotions away from playing the Red Bull horrors (who incidentally were Austrian champions in the same season). Their official website is very violet and has a basic English version. Definitely worth a look, though the club shop is only in German at the moment.

SV Austria Salzburg fans decked out in violet

LASK Linz are a breath of fresh air in a smog of commercialism in Austrian football. They have never allowed a sponsor to sully their club name in their entire history. LASK Linz were the first club outside of Vienna to win the Austrian title (1965 - they won the cup in the same year) but have never got near to repeating this feat.

The two Vienna clubs dominate the footballing landscape in Austria. 'Rapid' and 'Austria' have won the Austrian title on a remarkable 55 occasions. Austria Vienna play in lovely violet and white and have won the Austrian championship 23 times and the cup 26 times. Their best modern European performance (Austria Vienna won the Mitropa Cup twice in the 30s) saw them lose 4-0 to Anderlecht in the Cup Winners Cup Final in 1978.

Rapid Vienna (who sport a green and white strip) have never won a European trophy, but have made two Cup Winners Cup finals. Once against Everton in 1985 and once against Paris St Germain in 1996, a youthful Carsten Jancker (now at SV Mattersburg as described earlier) played in Rapid's 1-0 loss. Despite these European "failures" the club has an impressive list of honours that include a German championship and cup victory! They are the current Austrian champions having won the title by six points from Red Bull Salzburg.

Overall I find the league quite depressing. Massive commercialism (some of the players look like Formula One drivers with sponsor logos stuck on every part of the body) and many clubs moving from city to city.

2008-05-04T22:07:00.005+01:00

Division Four Relegation: Mansfield Town

Long gone are the days where a club would finish bottom of the league and be automatically "re-elected" or would stay up due to the club winning the Conference not meeting certain "regulations" with regards to their stadium. If you finish in the bottom two than you will be relegated.

There is still a huge stigma associated with exiting the Football League. This is despite clubs such as Doncaster Rovers, Carlisle United and Hereford United being relegated to the Conference and rebounding with style. Also, it is worth noting that the Conference currently looks a lot like a Division Four from the 1970s. Aldershot Town, Cambridge United, Torquay, Exeter City, York City and Halifax Town. It also contains clubs such as Kidderminster Harriers and Rushden & Diamonds, both of whom have been in the football league very recently.

Mansfield Town entered the Football League in 1931. So next year will be their first out of the league in 77 years. The club were formed in the 19th Century as Mansfield Wesleyans; taking their name from a local church.

It was in 1910 that the club began using their current name, Mansfield Town. The change angered another local club Mansfield Mechanics - who quickly disappeared into obscurity. Nine years later the club adopted its current colours, wearing a yellow and blue halved kit.

Much of the blame for Mansfield Town's current plight is, not unreasonably, laid at the door of owner Keith Haslam. How a club such as Mansfield who have decent enough attendances, have had some very good moneyspinning cup ties in recent years: Live on BBC1 vs Middlesbrough in the cup earlier this season and an away tie at Newcastle a couple of years ago. This should have left the club with enough money to finish above the paupers of the division such as Accrington Stanley and Dagenham & Redbridge.

Mansfield Town ended their long stay in the Football League on Saturday with a two-nil loss at Dagenham & Redbridge. It will be a long journey back, one hopefully that their fans will try and enjoy, a chance to win a few games and win some silverwear. You get the impression that they will first have to get rid of a certain Mr Haslam before the club can progress..

2008-04-29T14:52:00.004+01:00

Cardiff City FA Cup Final Songs

The FA Cup Final song is one of my favourite FA Cup traditions, Chas and Dave's effort in 81 being a personal favourite of mine. Unfortunately it is something that has fallen by the wayside in recent years but thankfully followers of Cardiff City have thrown themselves into it.

BLUEBIRDS FLYING HIGH (5/10)
The official song, Bluebirds Flying High, is sung by ex-Fame Academy, Eurovision entrant James Fox. It's very middle of the road, innoffesive stuff. Describing the quality of Tony Capaldi's long throw and Enckelman's ability at saving "spot kicks". The most cringeworthy moment in the song comes near the beginning where Fox sings "at the helm is Peter Ridsdale". Singing about a football chairman is always wrong, but I suspect it was the best way for James Fox to convince the club (i.e. Peter Ridsdale) to endorse the song as the official song - it was Fox who approached Cardiff City with the song. The most interesting part of the video is City fullback Kevin McNaughton dressed in a Dangermouse suit, something I am yet to get to the bottom of.

DO THE AYATOLLAH (2/10)
A week or so later a few Cardiff City fans created a musical monstrosity in "Do the Ayatollah" - is a song based on the dance floor hit "Do the Macarena". (The ayatollah is wonderfully described on wikipedia as "Performing the Ayatollah is done by having both hands flat pointing towards each other raised above your head and repeatedly moving them up and down in a patting motion".) It is as bad as it sounds and it only gets worse when you watch the video. Being a huge fan of rather poor jokes I do like the 1927 (just before half past seven) gag at the start but it goes downhill after the Call to Prayer. Awful. Although, in fairness it is only meant to be a bit of fun and not taken too seriously. However, they have massacred a perfectly bad song!

CARDIFF CITY SUPERSTARS (9/10)
Sitting head and shoulders above "Bluebirds Flying High" and "Do the Ayatollah" is the excellent "Cardiff City Superstar" by Helen Love and a few members of the Super Furry Animals. A previous version of this song (written to the music of 70s kids TV show Banana Splits) was written a decade or so ago. I like this, the lyrics are far more fan-centric than the other two songs and include the excellent lines: "Alan Green and the BBC, we're the team you didn't want to see" and "Ninian Park will always be my home, not the IKEA stadium across the road".

It also has the marvellous line "Directors leave and players go.", something that James Fox would do well to remember after featuring Publicity Pete in his song.

2008-04-27T00:25:00.006+01:00

North Korea 1966: World Cup Qualification

Most football fans with any interest in the World Cup knows all about North Korea's amazing run during the 1966 World Cup. They were the first Asian side to make it to the quarter finals of he competition and beat Italy by a goal to nil on the way there. However, what is less well known is their qualification campaign.

For the 1966 competition FIFA decided that only one nation would go forward from Africa, Asia & Oceania. The 16 African nations were understandibly upset by this so withdrew from the tournament en masse, as did the South Koreans.

This left North Korea and Australia as the only two entrants and with Australia not recognizing North Korea as a country a neutral venue of Phnom Penh in Cambodia was decided upon.

The Australian team was largely made up of Brits, with only one of the side actually born in Australia. The Australian sides only competition in these years came against touring sides from Europe or infrequent matches against amateur sides in Australia. This World Cup qualifier in Cambodia was their first international match in 6 years.

And it showed. The North Koreans ran out 6-1 winners in front of 60,000 spectators. Pak Seung Jin scored two, Han Bong Jin also scored twice with the other goals coming from On Seung Hwi and Pak Do Ik (the man who would in the finals score the winner against the Italians).

The second leg, played three days later in the same city, was a formality with the Koreans winning by three goals to one. The Australians, comprehensively beaten, had to wait until 1974 before they finally made the last stages of the World Cup Finals.

The North Koreans travelled to England as rank outsiders and shocked the world with a creditable draw against Chile and a remarkable win against Italy. Unfortuantely the dream ended in the quarter finals as despite going three goals up in twenty five minutes the Eusebio inspired Portugese fought back to win an enthralling match 5-3.

North Korea (like England!) have failed to emulate their 1966 successes but they are finally on the road to recovery with some very good performances at youth and full international level.

NORTH KOREA QUALIFICATION CAMPAIGNS
1970 - Withdrew, refused to play Israel.
1974 - Failed to win preliminary group, finishing behind Iran and Syria.
1978 - Withdrew.
1982 - Despite winning preliminary group and knocking out Japan, North Korea knocked out by China 4-2 (aet)
1986 - Failed to win preliminary group, finishing behind Japan.
1990 - Reached final round but finished bottom of the final group (last six countries)
1994 - Reached final round but again disappointingly finished bottom of final group (last six countries)
1998 - Did Not Enter
2002 - Did Not Enter
2006 - Won preliminary group but lost out in second stage to Iran and Japan.
2010 - Currently second in the second group stage after beating Jordan away and gaining a creditable draw against South Korea.

2008-04-26T18:49:00.003+01:00

Slough Town FC

Slough Town ended their season today with relegation. A 1-0 loss at Fleet Town secured their fate and they join the (also relegated) Newport Isle of Wight in the 9th tier of English football (or at least I think it is, working out the pyramid that far down is quite difficult).

In the 97/98 season Slough Town finished in 8th in the Conference table, ahead of Yeovil Town (now of League One), they held this year's cup finalists Cardiff City to a 1-1 draw at Wexham Park and only narrowly lost at Ninian Park in the replay.

Those days are long gone for the Rebels. A series of financial calamities and the closure of their Wexham Park ground (that now lies in ruins) has led them to play in Windsor and now Beaconsfield. The town of Slough is almost certainly the largest town in the UK without a football side in its environs.

Despite all of the bad news of this season there have been some positives. Three of Slough's squad were involved in World Cup qualifiers (see here) and there has been quite a lot of talk about the club moving back to the town.

2008-04-17T21:48:00.000+01:00

Gambrinus Liga

Most leagues in Europe have only a few powerhouse clubs who dominate the league. The Czech Republic is no exception with Slavia and Sparta from the capital city Prague dominating the league since its inception in 1993. Since then only Slovan Liberec and Banik Ostrava have broken up this dominance.

And this season with only five games to go the Championship title in the Czech Republic has yet to be decided. The usual suspects Sparta and Slavia are currently 1st and 2nd in the table with only a handful of matches left.

Sparta currently sit atop of the division having played a game more than Slavia. Sparta are the most successful club in Czech footballing history having won the Czech league ten times and the Czechoslovakian title on twenty four occasions. (They have also won the Mitropa Cup three times, only Vasas Budapest of Hungary have won more) They have only ever once been outside the top flight, this occured in 1975, it's a subject they obviously don't like to talk about as their official website talks about the "black year" and the reason for their relegation "due to a number of circumstances".

Both Sparta and Slavia look like they will qualify for the Champions League. Sparta were knocked out in the qualifying round by Arsenal, a club that Sparta share an interesting trait. In 1906 a Sparta director made a trip to England, he liked Arsenal's redcurrant kit so much that he brought some shirts back to Prague. Since that day Sparta have worn the colour and made it their own. (Arsenal later changed to red shirts with white sleeves, although they did bring back the redcurrant kit for their last season at Highbury).

Slavia are currently three points behind their city rivals with a game in hand. Prague's second club play in red and white halves, the red symbolising the heart and the white the fair play of the Olympic ideal. They are currently in the progress of moving ground to the delightfully named "Eden" stadium. Some idiots reported that Slavia would be playing Oxford United in the first game in their new ground - despite reports supporting this - it turns out it that Slavia's first opponents will actually be Oxford University - Slavia's first ever match was against Oxford Uni back in 1899.

Battling it out for third place, the UEFA Cup spot, are Brno, FK Teplice and Banik Ostrava. All three have experience in European competition. Brno made the quarter finals of the UEFA Cup in the 79/80 season, FK Telpice knocked out Kaiserslauten and Feyenoord in the 03/04 compeition while Banik Ostrava's Cup Winners Cup semi final in the late 70s is as far as any Czech club has ever gone in European competition.

FC Brno fans taunt Slovan Liberec...

Currently lying in mid-table place are Mlada Boleslav who, like a lot of teams who played behind the iron curtain, have undergone many name changes in their history. In the 1960s they were known as the Skoda Mlada Boleslav (the town contains a Skoda Museum), but even more bizarrely they were known as "Aston Villa Mlada Boleslav" for almost thirty years. Their official site mentions the name change but frustratingly never actually explains it.

Onto the sides battling for relegation and we come across Bohemians Prague (currently known as Bohemians 1905). They are probably the third most successful side in the capital and have one of the most lovely badges in world football. A kangaroo. A club tour of Australia in 1927 led to the adoption of the kangaroo as club badge and mascot, they were even given two kangaroos - both of which were donated to Prague zoo. For the strangely interested you can even buy kangaroo soft toys in their club shop. It's marvellous, but perhaps far too cute.

To give a British slant on the Czech top flight there is an odd story of Byron Webster. A 21 year old footballer born in Leeds who currently plays for SIAD Most (a club situated 70km north of Prague). With the globalisation of football continuing at pace we perhaps shouldn't be surprised, however I can't help but think that we in the UK have got the better end of the deal, losing the battling qualities of the "ex-York City star defender/midfielder" but gaining the Czech midfielder Tomas Rosicky....

2008-04-13T23:02:00.001+01:00

Welsh Premier Chairmen vote for two divisions

The much rumoured split of the Welsh Premier League will happen at the start of the 2010/2011 season. This will match the Scottish Premier Division with clubs playing each other four times (twice at home and twice away). The idea being that the better players will eventually drift to the top division improving the overall quality of the league, hopefully improving the performances of the Welsh clubs in Europe. [The Welsh Premier teams are also looking to move to a summer league which again could help performances in Europe]

I feel this is a positive move. I've always been sceptical of a Welsh league that doesn't feature any clubs from the three biggest cities in Wales (Cardiff, Swansea & Newport) being able to maintain an 18 team league. As a Cardiff City fan I'd love to see the league clubs and the exiled non-league sides get more involved in Welsh football but unfortuantely I don't see any way this could be possible currently.

A couple of ways the Welsh clubs playing in the English system could get more involved are as follows... Cardiff City don't have a reserve side - something that I feel hasn't been helpful at all to the development of fringe players such as Darcy Blake - so Cardiff could create a reserve side and field it in the Welsh League setup. However, I'm not sure how welcome the Welsh Premier clubs would make Cardiff City Reserves. It would surely devalue the competition somewhat to have a reserve sides in a Welsh Premier Division, I also don't think UEFA would be particularly impressed and European qualification for these reserve sides would simply be impossible.

The only other alternative is to set up clubs in the bigger cities of Cardiff, Swansea and Newport and parachute them into the Welsh Premier Division. This thought is almost too terrible to contemplate and stinks of franchising. However, I do feel that Cardiff City and Swansea City may have the support/finances to run a side each in the Welsh league system that is totally separate from their "full" side.

I feel that getting the cities of Cardiff, Swansea and Newport involved in the Welsh Premier League is important to make the league more popular, but we have to be careful not to let the league lose any of its soul. Parachuting clubs into the Premier isn't fair, entering reserve sides into the league devalues the competition and Cardiff City, Swansea City and Newport County will never play in the League of Wales.

Anyway, overall, I feel that the 10 club top division is a positive move. For the record the current clubs who would qualify for the "elite" division are: Llanelli, The New Saints, Rhyl, Port Talbot, Bangor City, Carmarthen Town, Neath Athletic, Haverfordwest County, Welshpool Town and Aberystwyth Town. It would leave Caernarfon Town, once of the English pyramid, in the second flight of Welsh football.

2008-03-24T21:39:00.000Z

Roker Park

I read a few weeks ago that on the site where Sunderland's old ground Roker Park once stood. Like so many old grounds a housing estate replaced it. Unlike so many other ex-grounds someone actually had the good idea of naming the streets in a lovely way.

2008-03-16T22:08:00.000Z

SLAVIA PRAGUE

Interesting story coming out of Prague this week concerning Slavia's new stadium.

NEW SLAVIA STADIUM TO OPEN IN MAY
The official opening of Slavia Praha's new stadium in Prague
10-Vrsovice is due to take place at the beginning of May.

Alexandr Kliment of E Side Property, the company overseeing
construction, told reporters today that work on the ground is almost
complete, with nearly a third of the new Eden's 21,000 seats already
installed.

According to iDnes.cz and SportovniNoviny.cz, Kliment also revealed
that Slavia's opening game in the new stadium is likely to be a
friendly against fifth-tier English side Oxford United.

[Slavia's first game against British opposition was against an Oxford
University team in 1899.]

---

Interesting in that reading Oxford United messageboards they don't seem to know anything about it! Anyway, searching around there are a few good pictures of Slavia stadia old and new at this link:
Slavia Stadia

2008-03-13T23:38:00.000Z

Cardiff City ease into FA Cup Semi Finals

It's very, very, very strange. I never, ever, ever, ever thought I would see the day when my club made the FA Cup Semi Final.

Cardiff City beat Middlesbrough last Sunday. It is now Thursday and the magnitude and utter nonsenscial nature of the event still hasn't sunk in. I'm not even sure it will have sunk in when I'm walking down Wembley way watching the famous blue and white of the Cardiff City support bob up and down alongside the red of Barnsley.

Incredible.

2008-03-01T00:21:00.000Z

Turkish Names

I read the following piece on an internet forum, but I've lost the name of the person who wrote it, a quite interesting read concerning naming of Turkish players....

----

There's not a single standard but a more general one. we usually refer to them by first names.. (tuncay sanli as tuncay, semih senturk as semih, ugur boral as ugur, selcuk sahin as selcuk, etc..). in almost all occasions, fans, match commentators and the press/media will refer to them this way as well, other than sometimes referring with full name.

one exception is when there are other significant players with the same first name.. such as mehmet topal (gs), mehmet topuz (kayseri), mehmet yozgatli (besiktas) and so forth who are all significant players in turkey one way or another.. or 3 players first named ibrahim in besiktas (ibrahim toraman, ibrahim uzulmez, ibrahim kas)..in this case, they are usually called either mostly by full names or sometimes just by last names. (in the past, they used to be tagged with "buyuk" or "kucuk" before their names meaning big or little, kind of similar to the way brazilians add "inho" to their names as in ronaldo vs. ronaldinho.. not very common anymore). hakan sukur is also one of these players, as there were in the past and again currently are two hakans in galatasaray.

another exception is some high profile players, like hakan sukur, tuncay sanli, mehmet topuz being referred by full names.. that's more the case in players like hakan sukur and mehmet topuz whose first names are common among players, and less the case with tuncay who's mostly referred as tuncay. hasan sas was one of those players also, who is more often referred by full name than just by his first name.

as for current turkish players in fenerbahce, we usually refer to all of them by first name except kazim richards, who is usually referred as colin kazim, kazim richards, colin kazim richards, and sometimes kazim. (his name seems to create a lot of confusion everywhere, as he's also listed as kazim kazim in european games after he got his turkish passport under that name, which is hilarious).

good thing brazilians also use first names, middle names or nicknames as there is a "de souza mafia" in fenerbahce squad. (deivid de souza, alex de souza, eduardo de souza).

2008-01-03T23:04:00.000Z

1st January 2007 - Cardiff City 1 Plymouth Argyle 0

The M4, New Years Day, 8.30am. Racing in my Korean built Kia Picanto at 70mph – any faster and the steering wheel shakes and the CD skips, listening to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, read by the simply magnificent Stephen Fry. Ron Weasley, what a card. Hogwarts, a death trap, why haven’t the inspectors haven’t closed it down? Very few National Curriculum subjects taught. The kids may know what the “Were” in “Werewolf” means but I dread to think how poor their mathematical and English skills must be.

I pull over into Leigh Delamare Services, the car park is deserted. I am tired, not from revelling in Bracknell’s bustling town centre’s new years festivities the night before but from staying up late reading. I am not rock and roll. I buy an espresso, £1.69, it tastes and looks like tar. A few miles after these Services, if you keep your eyes peeled, you can sometimes see a fantastic bird of prey (I think it’s a buzzard), sitting majestically on the fences alongside the motorway. Again, continuing the ornithological theme the game is the Bluebirds against the Pilgrims. Neither bluebirds or pilgrims can be found on these Isles. The Pilgrims set sail from home to the new world while there are no bluebirds on the British Isles, their natural habitat being in the Americas. So, we had two very American concepts coming head to head under the guise of the Welsh capital versus the Cornish capital.

The Bob Bank terrace was full. One man wearing a blue, white and yellow bobble hat entered the ground holding aloft a Toblerone like a knight of the round table (a Christmas present from a loved one no doubt), I think it was one of those new fruit and nut ones. A gentleman beside me had prepared a small packed lunch, two cheese (grated) sandwiches, a scotch egg and a flask of tea. There was nothing left of the sandwiches before kick off.

The Bluebirds started neatly, their almost exclusively left-footed midfield giving their right footed Plymouth counterparts the runaround. After a less than satisfactory decision from the man in black the frustrated Sylvian Ebanks-Blake hoofed the ball away (much to the chagrin of the Cardiff support). The offence went unpunished. Had this not been a one o’clock kickoff with more drinking time in the pubs in Canton, the surly Ebanks-Blake could have expected a triangular shaped piece of chocolate to whistle past his head. Instead the comatose Cardiff support watched blearly eyed as the ball was returned via three ballboys, a steward and a Cardiff full back.

And then, one-nil, a midfield move, a saved shot from Tony Capaldi (his first foray into an opposition box this season), a save from Argyle’s French keeper, the crowd sighed, then Everton-bound Joe Ledley swoops into the box and fires home! Fulham-bound Joe Ledley was by far Cardiff’s best player, he’s improved markedly from last season and is looking more and more like a Premiership player. I have no doubt he’ll be banging the goals in for Bolton in a few weeks and doing that “A” celebration that is so in vogue for Wigan players at the moment.

The second half was a scrappy affair. Even Sunderland-bound Joe Ledley failed to shine in a half of poor quality. Cardiff’s normally frangible injury time defence held on, Loovens – alert, Johnson – takes no prisoners (unlike Azkaban) and the Welsh capital ended the game as victors over the Pirates of Penzance. Cardiff’s keeper Kasper Schmeichel, devilish, debonair, direct, driven, dexterous, Danish, clapped each corner of the Ninian Park ground as a final goodbye. It was his last game for the Welsh club. We will miss him. Not least because there is something very comical about a goalkeeper called Schmeichel hoofing the ball up for Hasselbaink to flick on to Fowler.

But this is the Champsionship, no laughing matter, another victory for the boisterous Bluebirds.

As I have no picture of yesterday I'll leave you with this one from the 1914 Cup Final:

2007-12-28T15:05:00.000Z

The 100 Cap Club
There are now an astounding 141 players that have broken the century barrier.

The top ten are below:

1.Mohamed Al-Deayea [Saudi Arabia] 181 (1990-2006)     
2.Claudio Suárez [Mexico] 178 (1992-2006)
3.Hossam Hassan [Egypt] 169 (1985-2006)
4.Cobi Jones [USA] 164 (1992-2004)
4. Adnan Kh. Al-Talyani [UAE] 164  (1984-1997)
6.Sami Al-Jaber [Saudi Arabia] 163 (1992-2006)
7.Martin Reim [Estonia] 156 (1992-2007)
8.Lothar Matthäus [(West) Germany] 150  (1980-2000)
9.Ali Daei [Iran] 149 (1993-2006)
10.Iván Hurtado [Ecuador] 146 (1992-2007)

As the number of international matches increases more and more players break into the 100 cap club. If Fabio Capello selects David Beckham in his first England team then Beckham will win his 100th cap. His performances for England in the last few games should be enough to see him included in that side. It's a damning indictment on the current England side that a player who is in the twilight of his career playing in MLS still looks a class above the likes of Lampard, Gerrard and Cole when pulling on an England shirt.

2007-12-27T00:53:00.001Z

Kunishige Kamamoto

Yanmar Diesel (pictured at the end of this post) won the Japanese Premier Division in 1971. Yanmar are the precursor to Cerezo Osaka who currently play in the J League 2 and in the late 60s and 70s had one of the most famous Japanese players of all time playing for them.

Kunishige Kamamoto was a centre forward and probably one of the most successful Asian players in the world in the 60s and 70s. His high point came in the 1968 Olympics when the Japanese were drawn against Spain, Brazil and Nigeria. They began the tournament with a very impressive 3-1 victory over the Nigerians, all three goals were scored by Kamamoto. They followed this up with a 1-1 draw with Brazil and finished the group with a goalless draw against the Spaniards that sent Japan into a quarter final with France.

The French had won a tough group including hosts Mexico yet this didn't frighten the Japan side who ran out 3-1 winners! It was in the semi finals that the Japanese dream was to end. A 5-0 loss to eventual winners Hungary sent Japan into the bronze medal playoff against the Mexicans. In front of 40,000 people Japan emerged victorious with a 2-0 win. Kamamoto ended the competition as top scorer with 7 goals.

An extended trial at FC Saarbrucken in West Germany followed but Kamamoto decided that he preferred to stay in his job at Yanmar Diesel as an administrator rather than play professionally in Germany. Speaking in 1971 he said: "I am sure we will have professional football here within 10 years and maybe then I can earn a living as a coach or manager." It was 20 years later (1992) that the professional J-League was set up and we've now seen players such as Inamoto and Nakata grace some of the best clubs and leagues in Europe. If Kamamoto was born in a different era maybe we'd have seen a lot more of him.

Kamamoto played 61 matches for Japan and scored 55 goals. A quite remarkable record (17th in the all time international goal scoring charts - level with Romario!).

2007-12-17T22:23:00.001Z

Hellas Verona

In England we have Leeds United, a side that in recent memory have walked off with the league title yet now are "plying their trade" in the third flight. In Italy we see a similar tale, this time with Hellas Verona, champions of Italy in 1984/1985, which was interestingly the only ever season where the league randomly assigned referees to matches. But they have recently fallen on hard times. If a few seasons in Serie B wasn't bad enough, last season they lost in a "play-out" to Spezia and find themselves in Serie C1/A.

A side that in recent years has had the likes of Camoranesi, Raduciiu, Martin Laursen, Sebastien Frey, Craig Davies (*cough*) and Liechtenstein's most successful ever export Mario Frick wear their colours are now rooted to the bottom of the division with over half a season gone. They have only managed two wins all season and face a real battle not to be relegated into what can only really be described as footballing oblivion. (Even the marvellous soccerway.com website doesn't cover Serie D!)

Like Leeds United they aren't a particularly well liked club, with many fans of a right-wing persuasion shall we say? They have also experienced some awful money troubles and are currently undergoing failed takeover after failed takeover.

Overall it hasn't been a great year for Veronese football with Chievo Verona also relegated, though they are currently in the top half of Serie B. Hellas Verona fans famously said that "Donkeys would fly before Chievo make it to Serie A". Well, it looks as if Hellas need a miracle of those sorts of proportions to maintain their Serie C status.

2007-12-10T20:24:00.000Z

CECAFA Cup 2007

An international football tournament has just begun featuring 11 nations. All of which come from the eastern and central regions of Africa. It is unlikely to get much media coverage outside of Africa but it is a tournament that has been full of interest and intrigue over its 80 year history. Yes, that's right, it's 80 years old. Older than the European Championships, older than the African Cup of Nations and older than the World Cup itself. When you read through the history of the CECAFA Cup online you soon start to realise that it is a very curious competition with a rich history.

It all began in 1926 and was named after a soap company: Gossage. The first final was won by Kenya (after a replay) in Nairobi against the Ugandans. The very next year the tournament did not take place due to a hosting dispute. These sorts of political moves have blighted the competition ever since its inception. Uganda dominated the Gossage Cup (Kenya recieving the trophy picture - right) throughout the 30s and 40s even winning one final 13-1. The pattern of Ugandan or Kenyan victories continued throughout the 1960s. The 1960 final between Uganda and Kenya ended in a draw and it was decided that the two teams would own the trophy for 6 months. However, the cup went to Kenya and disappeared, only re-appearing before the 1961 tournament when Kenya regained the trophy. The only side to break the stranglehold of the Kenya/Uganda axis wasTanzania (known as Tanganyika in during the first half of the century).

It was as late as 1978 when Malawi became the first side outside of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania to win the trophy with a last minute goal against Zambia. In the past 30 years the competition has bucked the trend of modern day football by becoming more and more open with Sudan, Ethiopia, Zambia and Zanzibar all winning the trophy. (Rwanda B won the Cup in 1999 defeating Kenya who had knocked out Rwanda's A side in the semi final!)

So, a competition with a colourful history. With the 2007 edition of this competition underway I thought I'd take a look through the runners and riders in this year's competition.

Group A includes the hosts Tanzania who have appeared in 28 CECAFA Cups in their history and hosted many of the tournaments themselves. They won the opening match of the CECAFA Cup this year with a 2-1 victory over Kenya. Kenya (pictured) are a country with an interesting history in the CECAFA Cup, they are 5 times Champions of the tournament with one win coming as recently as 2002. There's a great story concerning the CECAFA Cup final of 1951 where Kenyan striker Omari Okumu lays the blame of their 2-1 loss down to witchcraft as every time he tried to kick the ball it "turned into snakes". They are joined by Burundi who can boast that Shibani Nonda (previously of Blackburn Rovers) was born in the capital Bujumbura. Unfortunately for The Sparrows (I love African nation nicknames) he opted to play for the DR Congo. Somalia complete the line-up for Group A. Like Burundi they have never won a CECAFA Cup and have had very few highlights in this competition.

Group B is headed by Uganda, a country that has dominated the tournament throughout its history. They impressively defeated Kenya by 9-5 in the 1937 final and the final of 2000 was actually competed by it's A and B side (the A side one but only after penalty kicks!). Rwanda are likely to give the Ugandans a battle for the title of Group B winners. They are one of the only countries with a pedigree outside of CECAFA having qualified for the 2004 African Cup of Nations. Despite being knocked out in the first round they did record a creditable draw against Guinea and a very good victory over DR Congo. Eritrea are a very young nation having only gained independence from Ethiopia in 2000. Their greatest footballing moment so far was holding African giants Nigeria to a goalless draw in Asmara during World Cup Qualification. Dijibuti (pictured) are undoubtedly the minnows in this group and arguably of the whole competition. In November of this year they won their first ever competitive match against Somalia and have made it through to the second stages of the qualifcation tournament where they will come up against Egypt, DR Congo and Malawi. A very difficult assignment for the islanders.

Group C and the final group contains a footballing oddity. The small state of Zanzibar is officially a part of Tanzania and is thus not allowed to compete in World Cup qualification. They instead compete in the CECAFA Cup and have put in some creditable performances throughout the years, taking home the Cup on two separate ocassions. They have also played in the FIFI World Cup (a World Cup for countries that aren't countries - if that makes sense) and finished in 2nd place, losing in the final to North Cyprus. Group C is completed by Ethiopia and Sudan. Two of the three competitors (alongside Egypt) in the first ever African Cup of Nations in 1957. Ethiopia were winners of this cup in 2004 and 2005 so will be keen to regain it. Sudan are the current holders of the CECAFA Cup despite confusingly losing the final to Zambia last year (Zambia were a guest side so weren't allowed to take home the trophy).

The tournament has just kicked off and the first round of games has taken place. Hosts Tanzania beat the Kenyans 2-1 in their opening match and Uganda beat Djibouti by 7 goals to 0 which is quite alarmingly the same scorline that the Ugandans beat Djibouti in the 2000 competition! Zanzibar drew with holders Sudan 2-2 and the Rwandans beat Somalia by 2 goals to 1. I'll hopefully keep you up to date with what is happening in what I consider to be a totally fascinating tournament from East/Central Africa.

Sources:
RSSF: http://www.rsssf.com/tablese/eastcentrafr.html
KenyaPage: http://kenyapage.net/

2007-12-09T20:37:00.001Z

Mascots

Mascots are seen by many as a new phenonomon, part of the American sporting entertainment business to be placed in the same bracket as cheerleading or fireworks before the big match. But as this picture from 1957 shows, mascots were part of the British footballing culture even back then.

To take the example of Midlands club West Brom in the late forties they had a lucky black cat as a mascot. In the early 50s a "boy mascot" by the name of Johnny Tromans took over.

The man you can see alongside Johnny Tromans in the picture is "Pancho". I have no idea where the Mexican link comes into West Bromwich Albion football culture, I suspect its been lost in the midst of time.

In the 60s Blackpool also experimented with small boys and animals on the pitchside. This picture depicts a young lad from Blackpool in full team colours, one sock rolled down - years before Steve Claridge was knocking around the lower leagues - and a duck in his arms.

In the early days of Blackpool FC an act called "The Atomic Boys" used to perform and a duck was part of their act. The duck became an unofficial mascot of the side and the animal became part of Blackpool folklore - even after the Atomic Boys had performed their last 'gig'. A duck even travelled to Wembley with Blackpool in 1953, a famous year for Blackpool as they took home the cup. (Incidentally in 1954 Johnny Tromans took West Brom to Wembley and brought home the cup).

Mascots aren't a new thing. They're just far more goady and commercial nowadays. I also doubt whether Pancho (or the duck) ever onced faced a penalty at half time taken by a local radio DJ.

2007-12-07T22:54:00.000Z

Russia - Tom Tomsk

The second part of my review of Wales' qualifying group (or perhaps its just a weak excuse to write about some of the more interesting aspects of the country) examines Russia, the largest nation on the planet and one with surely the most expansive footballing top division in the whole world.
Great picture of the 2007 season here

The Russian Premier League season finished on the 11th November with Zenit St. Petersburg taking the title away from the Moscow club's iron grip. Russia's capital city provides the Russian Premier Division with a third of its clubs (6/18) and at a stretch could also claim FK Khimki (Khimki lies right by the Moscow canal and is only a few miles from Moscow). The more interesting clubs in Russia (to me) are the clubs that lie outside of Russia's capital and into the wilds of this huge country. In particular, Tom Tomsk - everyone's favourite Russian club. "What do you mean?", I hear you cry! Well, let me explain....

If you were forced to choose a Russian side to follow then you'd almost certainly choose the Siberian side Tom Tomsk. Not only do they play in an incredibly exotic location, there are also very few football clubs on the planet that can boast that their club name contains the name of a womble!

Wellington in New Zealand and the Bulgarian national team are the only two I can come up with. Interestingly (again, to me) Tom Tomsk do have a Bulgarian midfielder by the name of Aleksandr Mladenov on their roster. So there is a distinct possibility - nay a certainty - that Mladenov can be described as Mladenov (Tom Tomsk and Bulgaria) in a World Cup sticker album. Marvellous.

Like most Russian sides Tom Tomsk have had numerous names during their history. Tomles, Sibelekmotor and Manometr amongst others. But the most intriguing name was probably "Buvrevestnik". While other football clubs in the Soviet Union were named after factories (steel, cars, engines) the Siberian club were named after a seabird, a storm-petrel to be precise.

The storm petrel is the smallest of sea-birds and breeds in dense colonies on cliffs (so wikipedia tells me). It's not clear from anything I've read whether there was a deliberate attempt to name themselves after a seabird unfortunately. Obviously it's not too uncommon in football clubs, especially in England, to be "nicknamed" after a seabird. I have my doubts whether Buvrevestnik were named on a purely ornithological basis, after all a lot of Russian outposts and military bases were also named after the bird. Still, it is great to hear of a softening, however slight, of the often stiff Russian exterior. The genteelness continues when you hear their nicknames of Olenevody (Reindeer Herdsmen) or Valenki (a type of winter footwear), these facts do nothing but endear me more to the Siberians. It's also worthwhile to note that their badge contains a very nice Latin phrase "Sui Generis" which means "unique in its own characteristics".. Or at least, that's what the internet says it means...

The final selling point is obviously the woman on a horse that you've been puzzling over whilst reading this post. The only person sat astride a beast like this on matchdays in England is likely to be a police officer. At Tom Tomsk it's a rather fetching young lady who parades herself (and the horse) around the pitch before matches.

Do easyjet fly to Tomsk?.... I'm sold.

2007-12-04T00:22:00.000Z

Australian A-League

I was lucky enough to acquire some highlights of the Australian A-League this week. So rather than watching Match of the Day I took in some Aussie footballing action.

The first thing that strikes you is the sheer garishness and over the top nature of the intro sequence. Balls on fire, crazy music, silly celebrations, you get the picture.

The first match on offer was Adelaide United vs Perth Glory. Glory were coached by ex-Millwall striker Dave Mitchell (above) who is always my favourite answer to the ubiquitous "Footballers with beards" question that gets asked on internet forums all around the land every week - or at least it does in the places I frequent. He was serving a touchline ban for kicking a bottle onto the pitch.

Another familiar face with suspension issues was another ex-Wall player Kevin Muscat who was lining up for Adelaide after a short suspension. He didn't last long, two bookings in a minute and he was walking. A wonderful kick of the Samsung sponsorship later and he was down the tunnel. As someone with a Samsung phone I can only praise Muscat for his exemplary taste.

Other interesting features for a British football follower were that ex-West Ham and Blackburn midfielder Robbie Slater is working as a co-commentator for Fox Sports in Australia (he even has a website: look - http://www.robbieslater.com/). Other notable aspects about the game were that both goalkeepers sported a number 50 on their backs - surely one of the first times ever this has happened - especially when one of the keepers has as excellent a name as Tommy Tomic!

A creditable mention must go to Melbourne Victory who sport a wonderful chevron kit (think Brescia) and to Aurelio Vidmar for having a large a nose as his brother.

The A-League is an odd beast, 7 teams from Australia and one from New Zealand. 8 teams never seems enough for a league. Especially when you consider that means only four games every matchday - the goal of the week at the end of the show was barely good enough to be called goal of the game. But its a slow learning curve that the MLS have already ridden out to become a decent standard league. Only time will tell if "soccer" can stick in Australia, the 80,000 crowds at Sydney this week will help - albeit caused by the David Beckham circus.

For those interested the final score was Adeilade United 1 Perth Glory 1...

2007-12-02T22:36:00.000Z

'Black' XI

I came across this picture in the A-Z of West Brom that I bought on ebay a few weeks ago. It apparently depicts the opposition to Len Cantello's Albion XI in his own testimonial. The matchday programme calls it a "Cyril Regis and Lawrie Cunningham XI" but the Albion A-Z just calls it a "Black" team assembled by Cyril Regis. I'm not sure any team would get away with this sort of team selection nowadays.

I still haven't discovered which side (if any) Ron Atkinson was managing..

2007-12-01T01:00:00.000Z

Azerbaijan - Gurban Gurbanov

Now that the balls are out of the bowls in Durban we know that Wales have been drawn into a group with Germany, Russia, Finland, Liechtenstein and Azerbaijan. As a review of draw I intend to cover one of these teams every couple of days.

So it begins with Azerbaijan, a very familiar side to the Welsh having been part of our qualifying group for both the World Cup in 2006 and most notably were part of Wales' group for qualification for Euro 2004.

A lot of people will tell you how Mark Hughes led his Welsh team of Premier League stars to the brink of Euro 2004 by finally developing a system that the side could work under and achieve results. An excellent 2-0 win in Helsinki and a wonderful 2-1 win against Italy in Cardiff were gained early in qualification. But it was far more complex than that.

You may never have heard of him but without Gurban Gurbanov Wales may never have even made the playoffs. Gurbanov is Azerbaijan's leading goalscorer of all time. His 12 goals in 65 appearances eclipse all other achievements by Azeri players (including both of his brothers who have also turned out for the national team) but from those 12 goals there are 3 that had great importance for the Welsh side.

His two goals in Serbia helped secure the Azerbaijanis an unlikely point and another goal in Azerbaijan's incredible 2-1 victory in Baku over the Serbs helped push the Serbians into third place and Wales into the coveted runners-up spot. To put the result into context Azerbaijan lost 6-1 to Serbia at home this year.

Azerbaijan 2 - 1 Serbia - Euro 2004 qualifying

Gurbanov has recently retired so there'll be no helping hand from him this time around but they certainly aren't a pushover, especially for a side like Wales who love to make things difficult for themselves.

2007-11-28T19:52:00.000Z

Mitropa Cup

1992 was the last year that the Mitropa Cup was competed. Boruc Banja Luca of Bosnia-Herzogovnia were the last winners of this illustrious trophy. But what was it? And who competed in it?

The Mitropa Cup was the first ever international tournament competed by club sides from different countries. Over the years the teams were drawn from around southern Europe. Italy, Hungary, Austria, Romania, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia were all represented throughout the years.

In the 20s and 30s it was one of the most important football tournaments in Europe. Famous clubs such as Sparta Prague (the first winners of the tournament), Ferencvaros, Rapid Vienna and Bologna were amongst the winners.

There was an inevitable break during the war years before the tournament resumed in 1951 under the name of the "Zentropa Cup". In the 50s the Hungarian teams unsurprisingly dominated with Red Star Belgrade breaking up the wins by Budapest clubs in 1958.

The 1960 tournament (known as the Danube Cup) took a slight break from tradition with all countries invited to send three teams to Budapest to contest the tournament. Rather than the best club emerging victorious a country was marked as the winner. Hungary's three clubs Ferencvaros, Tatabanyai Banyasz and Ujpest Dozsa performed the best winning the trophy for the Magyars pushing the Yugoslavs into second place. Can you imagine Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal representing England in a tournament like this? Seems unlikely doesn't it?

As the European Cup, Fairs Cup and UEFA Cup began to take the focus away from tournaments such as the Mitropa Cup the competition was fought by the winners of the second flights in each country. Italian countries dominated with giants AC Milan winning the cup in 1982, Udinese, Pisa (1985 - see picture) and Bari all won the cup in the 80s.

Interest in the tournament continued to wane and the last final in 1992 was contested by Boruc Banja Luca of (the then) Yugoslavia and Budapest VSC of Hungary at Foggia's stadium in front of around 1000 people.

Boruc Banja Luca - holders of the Mitropa Cup.

2007-11-26T00:28:00.000Z

I'm a real sucker for these "Unofficial World Champions" but I'd never heard of this one until today - while reading about the Venezeulan national team * no less - holders of the baton quite recently.

It's named after Uruguay's 1930 World Cup winning captain José Nasazzi. (I know it's a totally artificical construct but I like to think of it as the type of artifact that Indiana Jones would unearth)

Uruguay were the first holders in 1930 when they won the World Cup and since then the baton changes hands whenever the current holder is beaten within 90 minutes.**

I'm not sure where I'm going with this topic but the name of this 'trophy' is so fantastic that I feel FIFA needs to acknowledge this as an legitimate piece of silverwear.

http://www.rsssf.com/miscellaneous/nasazzibaton.html

* beautifully nicknamed La Vinotinto (The Red Wine One)
** which is apparently slightly different to the less romantically named "Unofficial World Champions"

2007-11-24T02:56:00.000Z

AVERAGE ATTENDANCES IN THE EURO 2008 QUALIFIERS

More pointless stats from me...

England 79098
Ireland 55808
Germany 51599
Scotland 49441
France 46278
Italy 44784
Netherlands 43000
Spain 39979
Portugal 38430
Georgia 36917
Ukraine 33850
Russia 33783
Sweden 29409
Croatia 28000
Greece 27833
Israel 27391
Denmark 26303
Serbia 25600
Finland 24747
Turkey 24673
Wales 24672
Belgium 21258
Poland 21143
Norway 20760
Belarus 20053
Bulgaria 19129
Kazakhstan 17414
Romania 16500
Azerbaijan 15583
N Ireland 15472
Macedonia 15083
Czech Republic 14196
Slovakia 12412
Hungary 12217
Bosnia 11750
Moldova 10581
Albania 10433
Armenia 10258
Malta 9667
Estonia 9550
Cyprus 7799
Latvia 7467
Iceland 6752
Lithuania 5750
Slovenia 5271
Luxembourg 3846
Faroe Islands 3560
Liechtenstein 3480
Andorra 2386
San Marino 2327

* Obviously the above doesn't include the one match that is yet to be played.
** Excludes the fixtures where 0 people were said to have attended (Serbia, Turkey & Israel matches)
*** red denotes "Home nation"
**** bold denotes "qualified nation"

Highest Attendance: 88091 - England vs Croatia
Lowest Attendance: 200 - Andorra vs Russia, Estonia & Croatia.

Interesting that England vs Croatia had 88091 there, whereas the match in Andorra that sealed England's fate was watched by a paltry 200 people.

Averages of groups:
Grp A 24919 (Poland & Portugal)
Grp B 36763 (Italy & France)
Grp C 17524 (Turkey & Greece)
Grp D 28136 (Czech Republic & Germany)
Grp E 32549 (Croatia & Russia)
Grp F 21477 (Spain & Sweden)
Grp G 19705 (Romania & Netherlands)

2007-11-22T01:44:00.000Z

Which team had the easiest group in Euro 2008?

Figure denotes the average current World Ranking of the other six/seven teams in the group.

1 CROATIA 63.143
2 ENGLAND 63.000
3 RUSSIA 62.286
4 ISRAEL 59.286
5 PORTUGAL 58.125
6 GERMANY 57.429
7 CZECH REPUBLIC 56.857
8 POLAND 56.625
9 HOLLAND 56.571
10 ITALY 56.286
11 FRANCE 56.143
12 ROMANIA 55.857
13 SERBIA 55.750
14 SCOTLAND 54.857
15 MACEDONIA 53.857
16 FINLAND 53.625
17 UKRAINE 53.571
18 IRELAND 53.571
19 SPAIN 53.286
20 BULGARIA 52.714
21 BELGIUM 52.375
22 SLOVAKIA 51.000
23 SWEDEN 50.714
24 CYPRUS 50.000
25 DENMARK 50.000
26 WALES 49.857
27 BELGIUM 49.857
28 GREECE 49.000
29 N IRELAND 49.000
30 ARMENIA 48.875
31 NORWAY 48.000
32 ALBANIA 47.571
33 TURKEY 47.000
34 SLOVENIA 46.714
35 GEORGIA 46.571
36 ESTONIA 46.000
37 AZERBAIJAN 44.625
38 BOSNIA 44.143
39 HUNGARY 44.143
40 KAZAKHSTAN 43.875
41 LITHUANIA 43.857
42 ICELAND 42.857
43 MOLDOVA 42.286
44 LATVIA 41.857
45 ANDORRA 39.857
46 LIECHTENSTEIN 37.143
47 LUXEMBOURG 36.143
48 MALTA 31.429
49 SAN MARINO 30.143
50 FAROE ISLANDS 29.000

These statistics mean very little, but I do like them.

2007-11-03T02:13:00.001Z

"Championship sides", Where were they in 86/87?

HOUCHEN!

Division One

Norwich City - 5th
Scotsman Kevin Drinkell finished top scorer for the Canaries with 16 goals in a season that saw Norwich beat Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool at Carrow Road. Norwich show great strength in depth in the goalkeeping department with Chris Woods and Bryan Gunn taking up the keeping spots with Ian Crook, Steve Bruce, Dale Gordon and Ruel Fox also playing major roles. Cyprus-born Jeremy Goss who would later become famous for volleying Norwich City into the history books against Bayern Munich also featured for the club later on in the season.

Watford - 9th
A very good season for Watford that saw them lose out at Villa Park to Spurs in the FA Cup semi final. Watford, managed by Dave Bassett, had the likes of John Barnes, Kenny Jackett and Luther Blisset in their side. True Watford legends.

Coventry City - 10th
Quite possibly the most famous season in the club's history. John Sillett leads the club to its first ever major trophy, a 3-2 FA Cup win over Tottenham Hotspur. Famous names such as Ogrizovic, Kilcline, Peake, Gunn, Phillips, Bennett, Houchen and Regis wear the famous sky blue kit in this season.

Southampton - 12th
A steady season for a Southampton side that featured England's World Cup goalkeeper Peter Shilton (fresh from the Maradona handball incident). Both Matt Le Tissier and Francis Benali were on Southampton's books at the time just starting out on a career that would span over 10 years of top flight football for the Saints. Glenn Cockerill and Jimmy Case were the midfield pair in the centre for the south coast team.

Sheffield Wednesday - 13th
Managed by future Division One winning boss (with Leeds) Howard Wilkinson the Owls finish a respectable 13th. Lee Chapman, Mel Sterland, Nigel Worthington and new Bolton Wanderers boss Gary Megson are all part of Sheffield Wednesday's squad. A young Kevin Pressman is part of the Wednesday setup but is yet to make his debut.

QPR - 16th
The "famous" QPR in their hooped shirts finish in 16th place. "Sir" Les Ferdinand making his debut for the London side alongside the likes of future managers Martin Allen and Leroy Rosenior. Talksport presenter and ex-Ipswich frontman Alan Brazil was an unsuccessful part of the QPR squad this season.

Charlton Athletic - 19th
Charlton narrowly avoid relegation by winning the playoffs with Peter Shirtliff scoring both goals against Leeds United in a 2-1 win (in the mid 80s the team fourth bottom of the top flight took part in the playoffs as well). Alan Curbishley and Steve Gritt (who would one day manage the club as a duo) were in the Charlton squad this season alongisde Carl Leaburn, Garth Crooks and future England international Rob Lee.

Leicester City - 20th
A disappointing season for Leicester City as they fall into Divison Two. The only bright spot to the season was the 20 goals from Alan Smith. England international and Escape to Victory star Russell Osman played most of the season in the heart of the Foxes defence with World Cup midfielder Paul Ramsey in Leicester's midfield.

Division Two

Ipswich Town - 5th
As far as 1980s footballers go Ipswich had one of the most exotic. Dutchman Romeo Zondervan scored one of Ipswich's two goals against Leeds United in the Blues' 2-0 win on New Years Day. Future top flight players Jason Dozzell. Chris Kiwomya and Dalian Atkinson are also on Ipswich Town's books alongside Ipswich legends Frank Yallop and Mick Stockwell.

Crystal Palace - 6th
The famous strike partnership of Ian Wright and Mark Bright was just taking shape. Palace narrowly miss out on the playoffs in a side that featured future England international John Salako and future West Ham and Charlton manager Alan Pardew.

Plymouth Argyle - 7th
One of the most impressive finishes in the club's history sees the Devon club still lose to Cardiff City in the League Cup. 4-1 up at halftime against the Welsh side wasn;t enough as the Bluebirds rallied to score 4 in the second half defeating the Pilgrims 5-4. Darren Rowbotham who would later become an Exeter City legend and Gary Nelson who would go on to write an excellent book on lower league football feature for the South Western club this season.

Stoke City - 8th
Stoke were guided into eight position by player manager Mick Mills (once of Ipswich Town). The first Welsh international to don an afro (George Berry) played in Stoke's defence and Tony Ford who would one day play 1000 games was a part of Stoke's squad - at the end of the 86/87 season he had a mere 400 appearances to his name.

Sheffield United - 9th
Sheffield United finish below their rivals Sheffield Wednesday (who spend the season in the top flight). Peter Withe, goalkeeper John Burridge a young Peter Beagrie and Jeff Eckhardt all play their part in the Blade's 9th place finish.

Barnsley -11th
The Tykes finish in midtable with Stuart Gray their top scorer. An FA cup run that features trips to Caernarfon and a tie against Aldershot is ended by two goals to nil at Highbury. Barnsley's Littlewood's Cup campaign is ended by Arsenal's London rivals Tottenham Hostpur.

Hull City - 14th
Lower league journeyman Andy Saville finishes top scorer for Hull with 14 goals. Future Oldham Athletic striker Frankie Bunn is on Hull's books this season and will later become the first player to score 6 goals in a League Cup tie in Oldham's 6-0 demolition of Scarborough.

West Brom - 15th
The Throstles with a very disappinting season only finishing 15th and losing to Swansea in the 3rd Round of the Cup and being knocked out of the League Cup by Leicester in the First Round.

Division Three

Bristol City - 6th
One of the high points of the season was a 5-0 win at home to Doncaster, Alan Walsh getting a hat-trick. Joe Jordan and a young Keith Curle feature for the Robins.

Blackpool - 9th
In early February Blackpool win two games in a row by 6 goals to 1. The sea-side team then go eight games without a win.

Division Four

Preston North End - 2nd
Sam Allardyce a the back and Gary Brazil and John Thomas up front with veteran Frank Worthington fired Preston into the third flight. A young Nigel Jemson who would later go on to score the winning goal in the League Cup final for Nottingham Forest was starting his career for the Invincibles this season!

Wolves - 4th
This was a season where the Mutch/Bull partnership was beginning to take shape. However it wasn't enough for Wolves who lost in the playoff final to Aldershot Town and were humiliated 3-0 in the first round of the FA Cup by non-league Chorley.

Colchester United - 5th
A good season for the Us who featured a young(ish) Alec Chamberlain and a forward that many lower league fans will know well; Tony Adcock.

Scunthorpe United - 8th
A good end to the season (four wins on the trot) sees Scunny finish in a solid 8th position. A creditable 2-3 defeat to eventual finalists Spurs in the FA Cup caps off an unspectacular season. A future Premier League winner Mark Atkins plays in his first full season as a professional for his hometown club.

Cardiff City - 13th
Cardiff City held together by veterans Alan Curtis and David Giles finish midtable in the bottom flight. Jason Perry, who would go on to play hundreds of times for the Bluebirds, makes his debut.

Burnley - 22nd
A season to forget for the Clarets, top scorer Welsh international Leighton James with 10 goals.

Overall, I feel Coventry City's achievement in 86/87 is the one that stands out. Their first (and still only) piece of major silverwear and one of the all time best cup finals.

2007-10-27T02:44:00.002+01:00

Nationalities of the players who started their Champions League matches this week.

Brazil 44

France 30

Spain 27

Italy 21

Portugal 20

Argentina 18

Germany 15

Turkey 14

Scotland 13

England 11

Czech Republic 10
Holland 10
Romania 10

Norway 9
Ukraine 9

Greece 7
Russia 7

Ivory Coast 6
Serbia 6

Slovakia 5

Sweden 4
Uruguay 4

Colombia 3
Denmark 3
Ireland 3
Mexico 3

Belgium 2
Bosnia 2
Cameroon 2
Finland 2
Ghana 2
Mali 2
Nigeria 2
Poland 2
Senegal 2

Australia 1
Belarus 1
Burkina Faso 1
Canada 1
Chile 1
Croatia 1
Ecuador 1
Gabon 1
Georgia 1
Guinea 1
Iceland 1
Macedonia 1
Montenegro 1
Morocco 1
New Zealand 1
Panama 1
Paraguay 1
Peru 1
Switzerland 1
Togo 1
Uzbekistan 1
Wales 1

Not sure how to interpret these statistics, but I still found them interesting.

2007-10-26T00:04:00.001+01:00

Bryan Robson, why he's still allowed to manage football clubs I have no idea...

Bryan Robson, why he's still allowed to manage football clubs I have no idea...

2007-10-13T01:20:00.001+01:00

A couple of Ghana related tidbits today.

Firstly, Hearts of Oak of Ghana have an excellent kit. I can't think of any club in the world with a superior kit to this one!

[Hearts of Oak player on the LEFT!]

Secondly, the African Cup of Nations 2008 mascot is to be chosen next week. I can't wait for the decision!

"The Local Organizing Committee (LOC) of Ghana 2008 Africa Cup of Nations will officially outdoor the name of the Mascot for the tournament during the balloting of the teams billed for the Accra International Conference Center (AICC) on Friday, October 19.

The naming ceremony, according to Magnus Rex Danquah, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the LOC would be done in accordance with the Ga Traditional custom of naming a newly born child.

The naming ceremony, he said is a novelty of the Ghana 2008 LOC that forms part of activities lined up to give the general public a rare opportunity to view the tournament's mascot. "It's incorporation into the main official draw is expected to make the entire event a grand and memorable one."

The mascot, an eagle in motion is clad in Ghanaian rich traditional attire, Kente with black shorts piped with gold. Alhaji Issa Hayatou, President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) will grace the event, which will also have members of the Executive Committee of CAF in attendance."

2007-10-10T22:14:00.001+01:00

International World Rankings

I read a post on a football forum talk about how good England were against "top" sides in the world. Therefore I thought I'd draw up this little table. It represents the top ten teams in the world (by FIFA rankings) and puts them in a league table using only the results from 2000 onwards.

So there you have it. France out on top with England a disappointing 9th.

2007-09-29T01:49:00.000+01:00

Very little changes in football.... Okay, so maybe it does, just a little! This comes from the ubiquitous (at least in the 60s it was) Football League review. An interview with Italian Gigi Peronance. From 23rd September 1967.

2007-09-24T18:29:00.001+01:00

History of Association Football

I picked up this book the other week and have only just got around to reading it. It has a fantastic first page which is incredibly English. It was written some time during the 60s I believe (from what I've read of the rest of it)

Click on the link below, enlarge the picture and have a good read...
The Story of Football

2007-08-18T22:58:00.001+01:00

Edware Town kit design from the excellent supplement from Rover magazine. Published a long, long time ago!

Edgware Town, one of many non-league clubs that make up the large pyramid that leads to the "best league in the world".

They were founded just before the Second World War and have spent all 68 years of their existence playing at the White Lion Ground in Edgware (however the pub the ground was named after was demolished in 1997). This is quite a feat for a non-league side, many of whom are shifted from pillar to post with regards to where they play their football. In fact recently it looked likely Edgware Town would be evicted from their ground and made to share at Harrow Borough.

Despite their relatively low position in the English footballing world they can boast some decent players. David Beasant, Scott McGleish and Brian Stein (his transfer fee paid for the floodlights at the White Lion Ground) have all donned the green and white of Edgware Town - unfortunately they no longer play in quarters. But the most interesting player to have played for Edgware Town is probably the excellently named Bedford Jezzard.

Bedford Jezzard played all of his professional career at Fulham and played two matches for England. One of the matches was one of England's heaviest defeats of all time. A 7-1 reverse at the hands of Hungary. Despite this loss Jezzard was included in England's 1954 World Cup squad but didn't play during the tournament.

There's a great article about the man at the link below:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20050526/ai_n14642776

2007-08-15T19:48:00.001+01:00

Oooh! Danny Dichio

In my opinion Major League Soccer takes quite a lot of unfair stick in the British press. It often faces critisism on grounds of being "too American", "overcommercialised" and "supporting the awful franchise system."

On the first count, of being too American, it's going to be difficult to avoid. It is of course, overcommericalised, but so is pretty much every top league in the entire world. And the Franchise system is something that is deeply ingrained into the American sporting psyche. I just don't think they could cope with a large league ladder such as in England or Italy.

I've been taking quite an interest in Major League Soccer, not because of the obvious pull of Mr Beckham but because of ex-Wolves, Norwich City (and most important to me) Wales midfielder Carl Robinson.

Robinson plays in the MLS East for Toronto FC, one of the newest teams in Major League Soccer. The manager there is ex-Scotland striker Mo Johnstone and there are familiar faces throughout the team. Danny Dichio (more about him later), Jim Brennan, Colin Samuel, Ronnie O'Brien and Andy Welsh have played in British football leagues.

Toronto FC's took five matches to score their first goal in MLS. It came in the 24th minute, scored by Danny Dichio (unfortunately for Dichio he was sent off later in the same match!). Now, every match that they play the Toronto fans sing the quite marvellous Danny Dichio song when the scoreboard hits 24 minutes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WloBJ9wihcc

All of the videos I have seen regarding Toronto's participation in the MLS seem to suggest that their fans are passionate, loud and very interested in soccer. The idea of singing a song on the 24th minute of every game that is played is a lovely one, I'd like to think it will continue for years to come - even if Dichio leaves the club.

Forget about Becks, let's hear it for MLS and Danny Dichio!

Danny Dichio, Danny Dichio, Danny Dichioooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

2007-08-05T15:10:00.001+01:00

Serie B may have lost giants Juventus, Genoa and Napoli to Serie A and Hellas Verona to Serie C1 but there's still a lot of interesting clubs competing in the Italian second flight.

Four teams were promoted to Serie B replacing Hellas Verona (who finished fifth bottom and lost what the Italians call a play-out to Spezia), Arezzo, Crotone and Pescara. Replacing them from Serie C1/A are Grosetto and Pisa, with Avellino and Ravenna joining Serie B from Serie C2/B.

Here's an overview of each team in turn and a little about each club.

Grosetto - Serie C1/A CHAMPIONSGrosetto fans

This will be Grosetto's first ever season in Serie B. Having spent the majority of their history in the amateur leagues the Tuscan club were promoted with a goal from Australian international Carl Valeri.

Grosetto are a small club by Italian standards and their ground only holds 8500. They are nicknamed "grifone" after the Griffin that is prominent on their badge (rather than a cunning marketing ploy to cash in on the popularity of the Harry Potter books).

Ravenna - Serie C1/B CHAMPIONS

Ravenna fans celebrate their return to Serie B

Ravenna won the Serie C1/B title with a game to spare to secure their place in the 2007/2008
Serie B.

Current Atalanta and former Chievo, Palermo, Porto and Roma manager Luigi Del Neri managed the northern club during the early 90s. He's changed jobs 11 times since his stint at Ravenna.

Pisa - Serie C1/A - Playoff winners

Pisa 1979 before their Anglo-Italian Cup final win over Barnet

Pisa will be a familiar name to many English football fans. As once Chelsea footballer and now media pundit Paul "don't mention Dean Saunders" Elliot played for them in the mid 80s alongside Brazilian World Cup winner Dunga.

They are probably the most prestigious of all of the promoted clubs having won the Mitropa Cup twice in the 80s (I think I'll have to write a blog entry on that) and can boast the likes of Wim Kieft, Christian Vieri and eyes-bulging-best-ever-World-Cup-Final-celebrating Marco Tardelli.

Avellino - Serie C1/B Playoff winners

Avellino seem to have a lot of players with moustaches.

Avellino had an impressive ten year stay in Serie A during the late 70s and early 80s. The "wolves" beat recent Serie A side Foggia in the playoff final to reach Serie B.

2007-07-28T19:28:00.001+01:00

I have a very unhealthy obsession with football kits. This is why, six months ago I designed a football kit for the Democratic Republic of Congo and sent it to them. They hadn't asked me to do it, I just felt that as their country had adopted a new flag it was about time they updated their kit. DR Congo's new flag is blue with a yellow and red sash across it, therefore I copied that idea and submitted the kit.

Last week DR Congo released their new kit (made by Puma). It doesn't quite have the diagonal sash I wanted but it definitely incorporates some of the ideas I suggested in my email. I'm not deluded enough to believe it was me who swayed the DR Congo FA's mind on this issue, I'm just glad they have made a kit that mirrors their flag.

What is also very nice to see in the kit is the Leopard badge that was made so famous by Zaire (DR Congo's previous name) in the World Cup of 1974 - the first 'black African' side to qualify for a World Cup Finals.

I'm looking forward to seeing Lua-Lua and Nonda lining up in that kit in the African Cup of Nations at the start of next year.

2007-07-28T01:06:00.000+01:00

Guam 2 - 5 Mongolia

It may seem like that I have some sort of bizarre fetish for EAFF football. So you'll not be surprised when I post up these clips from youtube of the match between Guam and Mongolia played in Macao earlier this year (23rd June 2007)

Worth watching for the Mongolian's fourth goal alone:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sspy0pQhVYs

What I also uncovered on my soujourns on youtube were some videos of the Guam national squad messing about on their way to Taiwan (presumably for an away match). It's no wonder the islanders have never beaten a FIFA nation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aijn4u--NpU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Djmx-KVxOnc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aijn4u--NpU

2007-07-25T21:27:00.001+01:00

I was browsing around youtube the other night and came across one of my favourite World Cup moments of all time. Cameroon vs Argentina in World Cup 1990, specifically Benjamin Massings' 'tackle' on Claudio Cannigia.

It was a great game for many reasons. It's the first World Cup match I ever remember watching. Both kits are superb, especially Cameroon's green, red and yellow kit with unfeasibly large badges.

No one expected a win from the Africans against the World Cup holders, but the nine men of Cameroon won it. 1-0 with a goal from Oman-Biyik.

See the wonderful tackle here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeRlJJbtdHc

2007-07-25T00:10:00.000+01:00

Football on the Steppes

I was lucky enough to visit the faraway country of Mongolia this summer. As a football fan who is interested in some of the more bizarre and interesting aspects of the international game I obviously looked up some of the Mongolian's results over the past few years. It's not an impressive record.

Despite being a satellite of the Soviet Union for 70 years football in Mongolia never really took off. As I was reliably informed whilst in Mongolia there are only four sports that are played in the country: Horse Riding, Archery, Wrestling and Drinking (not always in that order). There is another sport that involves ankle bones that is more popular than football.

We are often told that Football is a Global Game. Mongolia is one country that seems untouched by the long arms of FIFA and superstar footballers like David Beckham. The climate of the country may give a reason for that. Sweltering hot summers and freezing cold winters isn't really the type of weather that lends itself to football, the poor Maldivians had to play a World Cup Qualifier in -20C a few years ago. Far from what they are used to.

The Mongolians entered their first World Cup in 2002 and their only successess have been a few wins against Guam in the East Asian Federation Cup (mentioned in a previous blog entry). They really do have a long way to go before challenging the likes of Korea and Japan (never mind qualifying for a World Cup).

Their federation is currently run by a man who goes by the name of Ganbold Buyannemekh, who apparently played for Dynamo Kiev reserves whilst at university in the old Soviet Union. He is the Mongolians most celebrated player, but he will have to perform miracles if he ever wants to see Mongolia in the finals of an Asian Cup or even a World Cup Finals.

2007-07-23T00:09:00.000+01:00

Borough United Football Club

The first Welsh club to get past the first round of a European tie weren't Cardiff City. They also weren't Swansea, or Wrexham, Newport County, Bangor City or Merthyr Tydfil. They were the little known club from North Wales, Borough United.

Despite being a Cardiff City supporter for about fifteen years, and spending much of my time reading about Welsh football and some of the odder aspects of the European game until this week I had never even heard of Borough United.

Borough United were formed by a merger of Llandudno Junction and Conwy Borough in 1954. Only fifteen years later (1969) they folded and were no more. Yet, in those fifteen years Borough United packed in a Welsh Cup win and a European Cup Winners Cup run. When you consider how few teams have played in European competition it is incredible that a Welsh club such as Borough United managed it, yet so few years later ceased to exist.

The 1962/63 season saw Borough United's finest cup triumph when they beat Newport County in a two-legged Welsh Cup final (after beating the likes of English club Hereford United, Rhyl and cup holders Bangor City). A 2-1 victory at home and a battling 0-0 draw at Somerton Park was enough to bring the cup up north. A summer of fundraising ensued in order to fund the club's European adventure.

The 1963/64 European Cup Winners Cup contained the likes of Manchester United, Atalanta, Barcelona and Celtic but the Welsh minnows were drawn against the Maltese Cup winners Sleima Wanderers. The first leg, played in Malta ended in a creditable 0-0 draw at the Maltese National Stadium. This meant all Borough United needed to do was beat the Maltese side in order to get through to the second round, and that's exactly what they did. In front of 17,000 Welshmen Borough United beat Sleima by 2 goals to 0. An incredible result for the European first timers.

The second round in those days was the last 16, Borough United were pitted against Slovan Bratislava (now Slovakia then from Czechoslovakia). The challenge was one step too far however and the Welsh side lost out 4-0 on aggregate. Far from the disgrace many would have expected. Especially when you consider that Sporting Lisbon beat Apoel Nicosia 18-1 (on aggregate) in the same round.

The full second round draw is here:

Borough United	v	Slovan Bratislava
Celtic	v	NK Dinamo Zagreb
FC Barcelona	v	Hamburger SV
Fenerbahce	v	Linfield
Motor Zwickau	v	MTK Budapest
Olympique Lyonnais	v	Olympiakos Pireus
Sporting CP Lisbon	v	Apoel Nicosia
Tottenham Hotspur	v	Manchester United

We salute you Borough United. Most may have forgotten you, but you will go down in history as the first Welsh club to get past the first round of a European tournament. Let's hope Rhyl and TNS can take inspiration from this and perform their own European miracle.

2007-06-20T17:51:00.001+01:00

The East Asian Football Federation is a group of international football nations (unsurprisingly, from East Asia). Currently a large number of these teams are fighting it out in the East Asia Cup Preliminaries.

Six countries, Chinese Tapei, Guam, Hong Kong, Mongolia, North Korea and hosts of the premilinary rounds Macao are fighting it out to join Asian powerhouses China, South Korea and Japan in the East Asian Cup finals.

However, there's a more interesting story behind this year's competition. A group of islands three quarters of the way between Hawaii and the Philippines known as the "North Mariana Islands" were recently admitted to the EAFF (East Asian Football Federation).

In the past the Islanders had played against other islands teams in the region such as Micronesia and Palau, often losing heavily. But this was their big opportunity, admission to the EAFF and a 2 legged playoff against Guam for the right to play in the EAFF Preliminary competition.

North Mariana's first ever full international match took place on the 25th March 2007. A young, fit band of Guam players arrived in the North Mariana Islands not knowing quite what to expect. What faced them was possibly the oldest international side ever assembled. Eight of the Eleven North Mariana players were aged over 40 years old, one was born in 1958. What is more astounding is that they managed to get by only losing 3-2 to Guam. Incredible.

Unfortunately for the North Mariana islanders they couldn't fight back from the first leg defeat and lost the second match 9 goals to 0 in Guam with Guam striker Zachary Pangelinan scoring five goals.

Small acorns grow into large trees.

2007-06-17T20:21:00.001+01:00

FIFA has never really liked the idea of co-hosted tournaments, which is why the Korea/Japan experiment of 2002 will probably be the last ever co-hosted World Cup. But a quick glance over to Asia for the Asian Cup 2007 shows you that the AFC have no such reservations about it. Four nations; Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam will joint host the games this summer.

Much of the news coverage from Britain concerning these games has (unsurprisingly) come from the Australian camp. Mark Viduka, 31, has recently signed for Newcastle United and had announced his international retirement. However, a "backflip" - as World Soccer News put it, has led to Viduka coming out of his shortlived retirement to lead the Socceroos into their first ever Asian Cup.

They will come up against three teams that they will know little about. Hosts Thailand, Oman and Iraq (who's side just missed out on a medal in the last Olympics). Australia, as favourites for the tournament will expect to easily qualify for the knockout stages.

The Australians start the Asian Cup against Oman who are playing in only their second Asian Cup in their history and have little footballing heritage. However, they do boast Carlos Alberto and ex-Aston Villa manager Joszef Venglos among their previous coaches. This time it is former Argentine striker Gabriel Calderon who will be leading the Omanese into battle this time around.

Of interest to myself is the Omanese kit. Their flag is made up of three bars of red, white and green and thus the national colours of Oman are the same as Wales. In the last Asian Cup they sported a wonderful all red with green and white flashes kit that I felt would have done Wales proud. Unfortunately my emails to the Oman FA were left unanswered and I never did manage purchase a kit.

I leave for Mongolia this Saturday and fly back on the opening day of the tournament. I very much doubt Ulaan Bataar will be full of football fans looking forward to the Asian Cup - after all, it would take a near miracle for the Mongolians to qualify for an Asian Cup wouldn't it?

2007-06-17T12:06:00.000+01:00

CONCACAF Gold Cup 2007

With summer now here and with no European Championships or World Cups to occupy our minds there is the small matter of the CONCACAF Gold Cup to fill our footballing conscience.

The CONCACAF Gold Cup is an international tournament for the nations of North America, however in recent years Brazil have been invited to come along to give the competition a little bit of glamour. This year however the glamour has been provided from French colony Guadaloupe who have managed to make it through from the group stages into the quarter finals after securing a draw with Haiti and a sensational 2-1 victory over the Canadians with two of the most sublime long range goals you'll ever see:

They face Honduras in today's quarter finals. A match the players must feel they have an excellent chance of winning. With countries such as USA, Costa Rica and an albeit weakened Mexico left in the tournament lifting the Gold Cup come the end of June but a semi final place may still be on the cards for the Guadaloupeans.

2007-05-21T20:27:00.000+01:00

FA Cup Final 2007 - The New Wembley

I was ‘lucky’ enough to get a couple of tickets for the
(Champions League 3rd place playoff) FA Cup Final on Saturday. I hadn’t been to Wembley before (not even the old one), so I thought I should make the effort to get down there.

The stadium is an impressive sight, it dominates the skyline of West London (the first time I saw the new Wembley was standing on a hill near the signing of the Magna Carta - that is outside the M25). The designers of the new stadium should be praised for keeping Wembley Way, the long walk up to the ground.

The arch gives Wembley a unique look amongst other very large grounds. Looking at the bottom of the arch to where it loops over the stadium from the ground it looks like part of a rollercoaster.

Inside the ground under the stands there are great pictures of great Wembley events, FA Cup finals, motorcycling, rugby league all ordered by date, my tickets were by the 1970s. It’s nicely done. I look forward to finding out what pictures they have from the 1920s.

Programmes inside the ground were £10, I decided against buying one, or any of the extortionately priced food. Pre-match entertainment included people hanging from hot air balloons, a Red arrow flypast (growing up on RAF bases around the UK and Europe I’m bored of these now) and a procession of players from previous FA Cup finals. I applauded Cliff Jones, Mark Hughes, Ian Rush and Big Nev. The United and Chelsea fans jovially booed any player with a tenuos (and not so tenuos) relationship against their own club.

Prince William made a short, pointless speech, Man United fans sang throughout it improving their standing with me immeasurably. Abide by Me and the anthem were sung by Lesley Garrett, Sarah Brightman and Russell Watson. Biasedly I felt it could have been done to a far higher standard by Katherine Jenkins, Charlotte Church and Bryn Terfel.

The match was dire as expected. I was struck by the amount of moaning that the players engaged in with the officials. At one point Rio Ferdinand ran up to the linesman to scream in his face (Rio wasn’t the only example of this, players from both sides were at it). It’s interesting that this sort of behaviour doesn’t really happen in the Championship and when it does it inevitably leads to a booking. This isn’t to say that the Championship is some shining example of the wonderousness of football being played in the Corinthian spirit, I just wouldn’t expect there to be such a marked difference as there was.

What was also interesting was in the space of two minutes Didier Drogba and Ronaldo both dived. Both instances were reacted to by derision from either end. I get the feeling that the only way to stop diving occuring in our game would be for both ends to react against both instances of diving.

Wembley still has the problem that a lot of new grounds have in that it has no real history. I had the same feeling when I went to the Millennium Stadium in that no games had yet been played there. When I go to the Millennium Stadium now I can remember a great Wales win over Italy and a Cardiff City playoff win as well as the other great moments from the ground (Gerrard’s long range thunderbolt and Wales winning the Six Nations). The New Wembley doesn’t yet have a history. It will soon come though as England begin playing matches there (maybe even in the finals of a World Cup or European Championships).

Personally I feel the 1980s were the glory days of the FA Cup, these were the years in which I grew up. The first FA Cup Final I remembered was the 1985 FA Cup when Norman Whiteside won the game for 10 man Manchester United in extra time. I can name all winners of the FA Cup in the 1980s, I struggle with the 90s and haven’t a clue about the last 5 years. I think it’s a great shame that we are unlikely to see an FA Cup final that doesn’t feature Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester United or Chelsea in a long, long time. The days of clubs such as Ipswich Town,
Wimbledon or Coventry City winning the FA Cup are long gone and the chances of any of them making the final is a long shot now.

2007-05-12T09:03:00.001+01:00

A review of the season.

There's plenty reviews of the season about at the moment. I felt I should write one myself. So here it goes...

It was a busy summer deep in the bowels of Ninian Park. Levels of expectation were at fever pitch, so high that they were actually tangiable. Unfortunately for experienced Ninian Park groundsman Wayne Nash the expectations became tangiable within the Grange End goalmouth! This forced the club to play its first three matches of the new Championship season away from home (Far from ideal for the club from the South Wales Valleys). Thankfully after losing 4-0 to eight-man Barnsley the expectation levels had dropped significantly leading to the Ninian Park pitch becoming playable once more.

The season began with Dave Jones very busy scouring the loan market after a terrible case of knotweed had decimated the Cardiff City dressing room. The Ninian Park trouser press in particular had taken heavy damage with Roger Johnson refusing to conduct interviews with the South Wales press while his trousers were in such a poor crumpled state.

Relations with the press were further damaged later in the month when a freak radioactive waste accident in Dinas Powys left City winger Willo Flood with half human-half rat DNA. The resulting media storm was instant with South Wales Echo chiefs doctoring pictures of the tenacious Irish midfielder by combining images of Flood with famous rats. A picture of Willo Flood in full Manchester City kit merged with 80's Breakfast TV star Roland Rat proved to be the final straw with Cardiff bosses who quickly released another "Stadium goes unconditional" story to divert attention away from the rattish Irish starlet.

The resounding defeat to the Tykes shocked the Ninian Park bigwigs who had invested millions of pounds during the summer months on actual big wigs to cement their place as bigwigs at the Ninian Park club. Steve Borley's wig (a light puse and electric blue combo) was the most impressive. It really caught the imagination of the South Wales public with the Western Mail releasing a limited edition "Steve Borley wig Commemerative Egg Cup and Spoon set" that sold out within hours of going on sale. However an S4C documentary on the wig was later cancelled before being shown after public interest in the wigs plummeted after Gavin Henson was seen wearing a cheap knock off version all to easy to get hold of west of Port Talbot.

Stay tuned for Part Two....

Actually don't. I'm rubbish at this.

2007-05-12T08:59:00.000+01:00

I stumbled across this picture on my sojourns around the internettyweb the other week. It goes to show just how far Leeds United have fallen when they used to be lumped together with some of the best teams in the country when it came to merchandising.

2007-04-23T00:27:00.000+01:00

Wanderers. The first winners of the FA Cup in 1872. They beat Royal Engineers by a goal to nil to etch their name in footballing folklore.

The following picture comes from before the 1972 final at Wembley where there was a pageant. All the teams that had won the FA Cup up to that point were represented. Including Wanderers in their fetching hooped kit (I must say it looks rather too large for a lot of the 'players')

2007-04-09T00:22:00.000+01:00

The Carlisle United football squad, 1969/1970 season. Long before Jimmy Glass, long before the Cumbrians fleeting 15 minutes of fame on top of the first division and long before all squad photos were taken on the pitch.

2007-03-25T23:32:00.000+01:00

Guide to the Grounds

I bought this wonderful poster on ebay a couple of years ago and have finally got around to scanning it in.

I love it because it comes from an era in football where all the clubs were seen on an equal footing. If the same poster were to be made today I doubt you'd see the clubs from Division Four (or should I say League Two).

In the UK we still hold onto the fact that all four of our professional leagues are important. Most Italians won't know much of what goes on in Serie C1 for example. However, as time goes on the importance of these leagues is diminshing.

Personally I think this is a shame, I like to think all 92 clubs have equal precedence (with Cardiff City coming out slightly higher than most). Here's the poster, enjoy:
http://www.milkthebridge.co.uk/football/pictures/bart.jpg

2007-02-12T20:31:00.000Z

I've designed a few Cardiff City kits, one based on the famous late 1970s, early 1980s yellow and white stripe.

In a day and age when footballers cost so much to run and football nostalgia is at its peak surely someone with a bit of marketing nous at Ninian Park could develop a couple of classic football kits for the supporters to enjoy?

Unfortunately that IS asking too much, we will end up with another off the peg Joma job, available to buy in S and XS from the club shop around September time (away kit to arrive next March).

I have forwarded these kit ideas to messrs Borley and Ridsdale to no response. I'm sure they've got more important things on their mind (like running a football club and picking out some new tropical fish) but I haven't. This football kit stuff is important...

2006-12-01T21:41:00.000Z

As a Cardiff City supporter I am bombarded by news stories from my own football club and the South Wales media underlining the importance of a new stadium for Cardiff City.

Our current ground Ninian Park can hold a decent 20000. However a lot of it is terracing and with the Taylor Report you're just not allowed to do things like that any more. In fact if the new stadium weren't "In the pipeline" I am pretty certain the FA would have stepped in and forced us to put seats on all the terraced areas. I should think that would leave us with a capacity of about 14000 or so.

So, "Pistol" Pete Ridsdale and before him Sam "The Man" Hammam have concucted a cunning plan to build a new stadium and retail park that will take Cardiff to the "Promised Land" where the land flows with milk and prawn sandwiches.

Anyway, I wanted to see what the facts were behind these new stadium builds and whether they actually improved performances on the pitch.

There are seventeen clubs in the Football League that have moved to new stadia since 1992.
These clubs are:

Bolton Wanderers
Reading
Manchester City
Wigan Athletic
Middlesbrough
Derby County
Stoke City
Southampton
Leicester City
Hull City
Swansea City
Huddersfield Town
Millwall
Darlington
Oxford United

I tracked their league performances from the day their new stadium was built until the end of last season (2005/2006). Early indications are good! It seems as if a move to a new stadium actually does improve your league placings by an average of 2.7 places.

Of the 17 clubs that have moved:

12 have been relegated since moving to a new stadium.
9 are worse off than they were previously.
Oxford United have dropped into non-league football, ending their 43 year stint in the football league.
Leicester City have gone into administration
Southampton are now playing second flight football for the first time since 1978.
Sunderland have recorded the two worse Premier League records in history
Huddersfield Town have gone into administration
Derby County have amassed debts into tens of millions of pounds
Darlington's chairman George Reynolds (who built Darlington's stadium) was arrested for financial irregularities.

So, not a completely happy story. The truth is, with good leadership and decent managerial appointments a new stadium can help as it often improves attendences. Clubs like Middlesbrough and Reading with clever chairmen in Steve Gibson and John Madejski have shown how it can be done.

Cardiff City's chairman is currently Peter Ridsdale.

2006-11-12T23:27:00.000Z

This weekend saw the league sides enter the FA Cup to play against potential bananaskins. The likes of Farsley Celtic, Northwich Victoria and Leatherhead battling to become 'giantkillers' and to become legends in their own small part of England.

As it happens only Basingstoke Town of Conference South managed to make an impact in this year's First Round. A Matt Warner goal in the 25th minute knocked out League One side Chesterfield. The Spireites are (of course) giantkillers themselves having knocked out West Ham United in this year's League Cup. I'm sure many 'Stoke' fans are theorising that they are now better than Arsenal.

West Ham United 1 Arsenal 0
Chesterfield 2 West Ham United 1
Chesterfield 0 Basingstoke Town 1

Well it follows doesn't it?

Basingstoke's reward? A possible derby match against Aldershot Town, if they can beat Chelmsford City.

2006-11-09T21:45:00.000Z

I was looking through some of my old programmes the other day and stumbled across a game between Leyton Orient and Cardiff City from November 1994. Cardiff City had the likes of ex-serviceman Phil Stant up front and the Guyanan born Cohen Griffith on the wing. However, my eye was drawn to one name on the Leyton Orient teamsheet, their number 9, Darren Purse.

Now, I'm sure most of you will know that Darren Purse is a solid centre half. Ex-Albion and Birmingham City, scored for the Blues in a League Cup Final at the Millennium Stadium. So why was he playing number 9?

It seems as if during his youth he was asked to play as a "makeshift striker" and actually had some success up there scoring five goals in the process. It leads me on to thinking that you can only be a "makeshift striker", I'm not sure it is physically possible to be a "makeshift right winger" or a "makeshift libero".

The manager, John Sitton, later to be immortalised on a TV documentary about football management (search Youtube for Sitton), wrote about the centre-half-turned-striker

"already far exceeded expectations. Had an extra, possibly unfair, burden placed upon him when asked to play up front. It shows the feelings for the club and his team-mates by the way he has responded. Can play at a higher level if he keeps his head straight."

The final score of the Orient vs Bluebirds match was 2-0 to the O's with Darren Purse and Colin West (later of Swansea City) getting the goals. Not sure if our centre back pairing of Lee Baddeley and Jason Perry could cope with "makeshift strikers" any better than they could cope with "shift strikers".