Football and Fashion |

Boss of the Stoke City club, Tony Pulis, has commented in the past that some of the Premier Leagues clubs spend a ridiculous amount of money on wages, although he added that good luck to players that manage to get the wages if the clubs are willing to pay it out.

Pulis went on to say that the football industry is now all about glamour and if many of the rumoured wages are true then it is just absurd.

So far, Pulis has only signed one person to the team, Florent Cuvelier a teenager from Portsmouth that finished 11^th in the League during 2009.

On the other side of the spectrum, Manchester City has spent the most this summer dishing out £20m to obtain high profile players such as Yaya Toure and David Silva.

It is claimed that Toure earned about £200,000 every week at Eastlands.

Pulis also said that he is tired of Stoke being marked as targets for transfer and has decided to halt signing any new players to the team.  He said that as of yet they have been linked with 138 different players and for now will just sit back as they have actually not been linked with any players that have made their shortlist.

The Stoke boss also stated that the best deals usually happen during the transfer window and so they are happy to sit back and wait for the deals they want to become available.

FA officials reduced the prices of the upcoming Hungary match on August 11^th after the disappointing performance of England at the World Cup.

With the support for the team ebbing and the 2012 European Championship qualification hanging over them, the FA has stated that they may need to continue to reduce ticket prices in order to win fans back on their side after they were left disappointed, frustrated, and angry by the South Africa performance.

An FA spokesman commented that they have not rejected any ideas to make sure that as many England fans as possible are able to attend the Wembley matches.  The spokesman added that hopefully they will be able to restore the positive enthusiasm that was seen before South Africa, which will spur on some positive results in terms of stadium attendance.

Tickets have already gone on sale for the qualifications campaign for England Euro 2012 set against Bulgaria on September 3^rd but the FA is still exploring ways to make sure that their side of the stadium fills up which may damage the bid for the World Cup 2018.

The FA spokesman stated they are approaching the problem on a game by game basis, with tickets available for Bulgaria game right now but the possibility of price adjustments for future qualifiers.

The Football Supporters’ Federation on the other hand believes that the key to getting supporters back is the head coach of England, Fabio Capello which will help promote the team’s image.

Coming soon to a sports shop near you, Reebok ZigTech is the training shoe designed to help athletes run further and faster for longer with less fatigue.

French footballer Thierry Henry was spotted championing the new ZigTech range alongside Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton at the US Reebok launch in March.

The two raced one another across a zig-zagging assault course, putting their Reebok ZigTech trainers to the test as they swang from ropes, ran up travelators and through obstacles.

Once the roaring crowd had quietened down, Reebok explained the ideas behind their ZigTech trainers and their unusual Zig sole unit.

Designed as a training aid, Reebok ZigTech is a new range of athletic shoes inspired by the energy transfer of a slinky. The concept is for the energy generated at heel strike to ripple down the zigs in the ZigTech sole, through the stride and providing extra power when the wearer pushes off with their toes, propelling them forward faster.

So the combination of extreme cushioning and efficient energy transfer takes the focus away from shock absorption and into forward momentum. And because key leg muscles are being used purely for running and not taking the impact of the athlete’s feet hitting the floor, it’s possible to run further and faster for longer with less fatigue and a reduced chance of injury.

The Reebok ZigTech is already being worn by Reebok sponsored athletes to enhance their training sessions and will be coming to the UK very soon.

Sepp Blatter might have indicated that football goal line technology will be debated in Wales at a football law makers meeting, but it now seems that the subject will not be discussed until October.

The International Football Association Board (IFAB) technical sub-committee is due to meet on Wednesday but plans to only discuss one thing that was agreed to be on the table back in May.

Thus, the debate about the new technology will not take place until autumn.

A spokesman for the FIFA told reporters that this week will be focused on ratifying requests that have come about as a result of the assistant referees’ experiment which was started last year within the Euopra League.  The spokesman added that the formal meeting will take place in October.

In March the IFAB first rejected the idea sating that it would be too disruptive and expensive to introduce.

However, after a series of high profile incidents that occurred at the World Cup finals, the matter was once again brought to the centre of attention.  One of these events was a goal made by Frank Lampard in the game against Germany that was wrongly disallowed.

The president of FIFA had made comments that implied the debate would happen during this week even though it is now apparent that it has been pushed back.  During the World Cup, Blatter stated that it would be silly not to discuss the allowance of technology at the FA Board meeting in July.

Fundraising for football games has received a large boost with a high street sports retailer as a large donation was made to Football Buster’s £1m Grassroots goal project.  As a result, Football Buster is now able to take applications from football clubs that are in need.

Last year www.footballbuster was launched and used as an empowerment tool for sports organizations and football clubs that are in need of fundraising efforts that can be pledged online.

Co-founder and Assistant manager of the Macclesfield Football Club, Gary Simpson, stated that no longer will football clubs be forced to go cap in hand looking for donations from local businesses or wealthy parents because now they can look for new revenue options.

Due to the unique football games and the £1m in donations the site has become quite popular among sports sponsors and football clubs which helped to inspire the latest large donation.

Nathan Griffin, the other co-founder, stated that this is a large breakthrough for grassroots football teams and proves that Football Buster is continuing to grow in popularity with many football clubs now following the example to set up football games online in order to raise the same funds that professional clubs gain access to.

Griffin added that they are working with a large football manufacturer and hope to provide football clubs that are fundraising with free footballs.

Legendary ex-international and premiership referee Graham Poll answers questions submitted by Coral Dugout fans on Facebook. Visit Facebook to join the debate and see the personal video responses. Watch the video for more information.

A new report, published today, suggests that the way to improve English football following the dismal England World Cup performance is to follow the approach of leading Spanish clubs and hand them over to their fans.

FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, the two leading teams in Spanish football, are co-operatives owned by 175,000 members. Of the 11 players who started out on the field for the winning World Cup team, 10 of them work for one of these two co-operatives.

A recent survey by Co-operatives UK and included in the report, 56% of respondents across the UK see the benefits of this approach, believing their club would be in better hands if it was owned co-operatively by the fans.

The report is published alongside the first English translation of the statutes of Spanish club FC Barcelona, the poster child of co-operative football.

Dave Boyle, Chief Executive of Supporters Direct and the author of the report, commented “FC Barcelona is a powerful example of how a club can be organised co-operatively and still successfully compete with rivals across the world. The club has long been known for being owned by its fans but, until now, we couldn’t see how things worked ‘under the hood’. Fans looking at what rights and powers they have in the club can only look on with envy.  Of course, co-operative football clubs are like all clubs – they are not immune from financial troubles during times of economic austerity. But it’s the ownership structure that really sets them apart.”

“There are a growing number of supporters’ trusts in the UK looking to give fans a greater say and stake in their clubs; our aim is to show how the co-operative model can run effectively and to the benefit of all involved.”

The new report, ‘Barca – fan ownership and the future of football clubs’, and the full FC Barcelona statutes are available on line at www.uk.coop/barca.