Football and Fashion

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Football and fashion may not be two obvious partners; we think they could be a perfect combination, and have helped us produce a sports blog for both sexes!

Follow the latest news from the national and international football governing bodies, football news from big competitions like the Champions League, and a look back at some football nostalgia.

While the matches and results are all important, the ‘beautiful game’ also attracts attention for other reasons, which gives the blogging world plenty to talk about. From footballers wives and their fashion styles, to product endorsements, and football related gifts! Look at football from every angle!

First e-book edition of Soccer in Sun and Shadow published by Byliner

“Is there any book more evocative of ‘the beautiful game’ than Eduardo Galeano’s slim but buoyant paean to the players, goals, joys, and heartbreaks of a lifetime of soccer fandom?” —Vanity Fair

“It’s all here. Everything you should know about soccer, the world’s game.”

Los Angeles Times

Soccer in Sun and Shadows ,which retails at $9.99, is one of the greatest sports books written in our times, and we have the internationally celebrated journalist and author Eduardo Galeano to thank for it. Mark Fried has translated it into English, and it is now available as an e-book for the first time.

Packed full of charm and wit and carrying the kind of insight only a true fan could relay, The New Yorker has said that it “stands out like Pele on a field of second stringer”. It has also been named one of the all time top 100 sports books by Sports Illustrated.

Originally appearing in Spanish in 1995, now revised and thoroughly updated, Soccer in Sun and Shadow traces the sport from its roots in China to the Brazilian slums where the dance form capoeira reshaped it into a soccer “made of hip feints, undulations of the torso, and legs in flight,” and finally through the great moments of a century’s worth of competition in all corners of the globe.

These stories come addictively fast and furious, vignettes with the searing impact of great photographs. And as would be expected of one of our most accomplished historians, Galeano sets every one of them against a greater context: the wars being waged, the cultural shifts transforming societies, and what inflames him the most: the inexorable influences of money, sponsorship, television, and any form of cold, hard calculation that aims to place winning for its own sake above the beauty and glory of the game.

“[I am] a beggar for good soccer,” writes Galeano, who grew up in Uruguay hoping to become a professional soccer player. “I go about the world, hand outstretched, and in the stadiums I plead: ‘A pretty move, for the love of God.’ ” The past century’s great players, from Di Stéfano to Cruyff to Maradona, reward him with such moves, and we are all the richer for it. At times hilarious, at others heartbreaking, one thing it never lacks is humanity. Soccer in Sun and Shadow is a fan’s book, and it’s much more. Featuring artwork designed by the author, it has been called by theSan Francisco Chronicle “a loving tribute to the game and its culture, and a celebration not only of soccer but also of life.”

People leaving homes so Anfield can be expanded

In the area around the Anfield stadium in Liverpool many residents are choosing to pack and move away from their homes so that the football club can tear down the family homes and make their Main Stand larger. Over the last six months the club has decided to scrap plans to build a new stadium and instead is now settling for an expansion. The Liverpool city council has been working hard to purchase the homes with the added incentive of legal compulsory purchase.

Most people that are moving are bitter and angry since the area has been steadily declining for the past few years. They are especially angry that the club purchased many homes and left them open for decades leading to the decline of the area.

Some residents are still refusing to be uprooted and are angry that the council offered them a low price for their home owners. These residents want to be paid enough to purchase a new home and receive compensation for the many years of living in the neighbourhood that has suffered from the football club’s decisions.

They are even angrier about the fact that they are being forcibly told they have to move so that the new owner of Liverpool, Fenway Sports Group, can make money. A man who lives on Lothair Road which sits against the Main Stand stated that the house next to him has been empty for years and he is not giving up his home until they forcibly remove him from the property.

The residents are bitter because the club purchased homes decades ago along Lothair Road without telling the community what they intend to do. This has led to the overwhelming idea that Liverpool purchased the homes to purposely drive down the market in the area.

UEFA financial regulations to be challenged in court

UEFA’s financial fair regulations are going to be challenged in the courts of Europe due to a players agent being upset that the rules are restricting the total amount of money that a player can earn.

The Belgium agent, Daniel Striani, has placed a formal complaint with the EC stating that the rules are unfair since they require clubs in the EC from 2011 forward to financially more forward. Lawyer Jean Louis-Dupont will represent Striani. Louis-Dupont successfully challenged contract rules in 1995 for Jean-Marc Bosman and won allowing Belgium players from that point forward to move without any costs at the completion of their contracts.

This time around Dupont believes that he will once again beat the rules outlined by UEFA even if they are argued additionally by the European Commission. He stated that the regulations that are supposed to help prevent financial losses from occurring at clubs will have many adverse consequences that are not competitive.

The very first argument he plans to make is that by not allowing a club to run at a loss they will not be able to make any proper investments. The second argument is that it will give an unfair advantage of rich clubs and will secure their power in the league making it hard for any other team to rise up as Manchester City has done in the past.

In addition, he plans to argue that the FFP simply wants to reduce wages and transfer fees which is obviously anti-competitive and not fair to the players because it will end up reducing the amount of transfers that take place on a regular basis as well as the number of players that actually end up on a contract with different clubs. Over time this will also lead to salaries of players decreasing.

David Moynes speaks out over football club ownership rules

David Moyes opines that it is the ownership rule that forbids outside investors from holding more than 49 percent of the clubs stakes which is the reason Bundesliga has been having such healthy competition. The other factors which he attributes to the better performance of Bundesliga over the Premier League are the ticket pricing and the development system in force for the youth. David Moyes is the current manager of Everton.

He has been rumoured to be moving off to Germany at the end of this season when his contract expires. He has been a constant spectator at the Bundesliga matches and has held high regards for the teams that form the Bundesliga league. It is more for the passion that he feels would be satisfied in Germany rather than pure monetary gains which have helped his decision to move to Germany when his contract ends here.

That the league has its positive aspects is proven by the fact of Germany being the European Champions for under 17, 19 and 21 levels. He also points at the large number of home grown experts that the Bundesliga is helping to create.

Amongst all the European major leagues, the Bundesliga charges the least for their tickets and there is maximum attendance at their matches. To cite an example the seating capacity of the “Yellow Hall” in Borussia Dortmund is 26,000 where ticket is priced at €15.

He states that his experience at the games he witnessed in Germany were out of the world. The stadiums were chock-a-bloc with tickets sold out well in advance. The work that goes on behind the scenes is also accomplished with clockwork precision and therefore the stadium experience is just wonderful.

He mentioned that clubs in Germany have come a long way since their 2006 World Cup event by way of infrastructure that has been built with the people who would come to watch the event kept in mind. This has been incorporated by every club that is presently running in Germany.

Chelsea WAG accused in Belgian magazine of having an affair with another player

Chelsea has been stricken by a host of rumours that one of their players WAG’s was guilty of an affair with another squad member. Belgian magazine ‘Story’ broke the story that Kevin De Bruyne dumped girlfriend Caroline because she was caught having an affair with Thibaut Courtois the goalkeeper. Both of the men are Chelsea players; which explains how it could have happened, but at the moment they are both out on loan.

De Bruyne the 21 year old received £7m for signing in January of 2012, but is playing at the moment with Weder Bremen the Bundesliga side. Courtois on the other hand was signed out to play for Athletico Madrid.

The two men are Belgian national team team-mates and both used to play at Genk. According to the magazine while De Bruyne was training in Turkey at a Bremen training camp Caroline drove to Madrid and visited Courtois. It went on to explain that De Bruyne heard about the affair and Caroline was then told she had to move out.

It is believed that the two days off that De Bruyne received from training at the beginning of March were likely to be as a result of the affair. He reacted by deleting all photos of Caroline from his Twitter. A source reportedly told the magazine that she cheated on Kevin in the house in Madrid, but Kevin did not know anything about the affair so when it came to light he was thoroughly shocked.

Bild, the German newspaper, stated that he attempted to contact De Bruyne but they were told that he did not want to make a comment. The scandal is very similar to the 2010 scandal that emerged when it was discovered that John Terry had an affair with Wayne Bridge’s girlfriend and also the mother of his child.

Lower division clubs ask FA for fairer payouts

Football League clubs are asking the FA to increase the amount of money that it hands out to other divisions. This past Tuesday it was announced that sides from the top flight would be paid as much as £60m over the next four years starting at the 2014 season. However, clubs are asking that the sides do not receive any additional funds.

The 72 Football League clubs met on Wednesday to talk about how payments should be distributed over the next three years. The clubs did not however reach an agreement about how payments should be disbursed and will meet again in May to talk about the matter in more depth.

The Premier League sold the broadcast rights for the next three years to BT and Sky for £3bn which is a very large increase over the past £1.25bn. Overseas rights to air the matches will put that total up to about £5bn. Out of that, parachute payments; which are money that is given to the different sides from top flight and cash that was given to clubs that did not receive parachute money consists about 15% of that total deal.

The Press Association Sport stated that clubs that are a part of the Championship that do not already get parachute payments will given £2.3m each which is more than they would get if they made their own TV deal.

League One Clubs will be given £360,000 and League Two will be given £240,000 which is a 5% to 6% increase. Parachute payments were originally created to help clubs that lost a large amount of revenue when they dropped out of the top division of England.

Even though there has been a lot of debate about solidarity payments and parachute payments the Premier League continues to insist that it does not prevent clubs from eventually being promoted into the Premier League.

Ashley Young forced out of rest of season with injury

Ashley Young will not be playing for the last five Premier League games of the Manchester United season as an ankle injury has taken the Winger out of the game. Sir Alex Ferguson confirmed this week that Young will have to sit out the rest of the Premier League campaign in order to recuperate.

Young suffered an ankle injury during the Manchester City derby defeat just a fortnight ago. When the injury first occurred Ferguson stated that the winger would have to sit out for a fortnight but further tests have showed that the damage is actually a lot more extensive and will take longer to recover from.

It is not yet known yet if Young will be able to recover before the post season friendlies start between England and Brazil and the Republic of Ireland. However, at the time that these matches occur Young will have had already sat out two months and may be feeling up to playing again.

Ferguson stated that this is a very bad blow to the team as they have already been dealt quite a few blows due to the absence of two significant players. He went on to explain that they thought that Young would be back in just a few weeks but after a meeting with a specialist this past Wednesday in London they found out that the prognosis is not so pleasant.

Instead, Manchester United will have to make do without him for remaining games of their season. The outlook is not great for the team that has lost several of its key players due to injuries over eth long football season that has not been going in their favour.

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