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.

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.

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.

Sir Alex Ferguson believes that football is starting to get popular in the United States with the Manchester United manager expecting a competitive edge on their upcoming matches as they leave Monday for their Chicago training base.

The US was able to hold England to a World Cup draw and Ferguson is convinced that the Major League Soccer standard is better than ever.

Ferguson stated that American soccer is starting to make an impact and that he had commented before the World Cup that the US team were going to play like the athletes that top football players in England are.

He continued to say that this is also the way that American football players are, athletic and fit with a good feel for the pitch.  Ferguson explained that he can see the improvement throughout the MLS and has spoken to many people over the last few months about this fact and seen an upsurge in the excitement around it.

Darren Fletcher, Edwin van der Sar, and Dimitar Berbatov will be travelling to the United States along with many youngsters which include Fulham’s former defender Chris Smalling.

Ferguson added that winning is the challenge in front of the team but at the same time the idea is to get everyone a chance to play so that when they come back they are prepared for the season.

United will play against Philadelphia Union on July 21^st at the Lincoln Financial Field followed by a match in four days at Arrowhead Stadium against the Kansas City Wizards.  They will finish out their United States tour in Houston playing the MLS All-Stars on July 28^th.

Facebook has denied rumours that it is talking to the Football Association about taking over the England team as its major sponsor. The landmark social networking website is one of four companies reportedly looking for the available contract as the English football body is hoping to find a replacement for Nationwide, which it lost, valued at £20m.

The building society will discontinue its sponsorship at the close of July, after withdrawing the effort that they made to the Football Association prior to the World Cup.  Santander the banking group and telecommunication giants Orange and O2 all made the shortlist.

Facebook however had continued to deny that they have considered the sponsorship or met with the FA stating that any rumours are ‘bizarre.’  In an official statement they said that they are not speaking to the FA, and that they are not sure where the rumours started, but it’s not true.

The statement also acknowledged that they do work with many brands and the FA has made use of the Facebook platform thus they have spoken to them about these matters but in no way different than any other brand.

Facebook is just one of many blue-chip companies that have spoken out against rumours that they may become the new sponsor of the England team.

England’s footballers suffered more humiliation last night after Nationwide, their official sponsor, dumped them after 11 years. The building society confirmed this week that it will let the £20m contract expire at the close of July.

It was generally understood that the building society was prepared to pledge another four years of sponsorship to the team before the lacklustre performance at the World Cup 2010.

The FA however kept its options open believing that they would be successful at the World Cup thus attracting sponsors that were prepared to pay a much larger amount of sponsorship.  However, at the time they believed that Nationwide would keep its offer opening even if England did not perform well.

However, now that their risk failed the FA has to desperately search for a new sponsor before the August 11^th match against Hungary at Wembley.

Many of the 15 million members of Nationwide should be pleased with decision as they became irritated of supporting England in the midst of its financial problems.

Some have even expressed frustration with England’s website with Clive Totman stating that given the current financial situation many directors question if football passions should be expressed when the money would be better spent on lower mortgage rates or member benefits.

The past deal included media interview backdrop boards, an all training kit, broadcast sponsorship rights, and ticket rights.

Nationwide also was able to use the Three Lions crest on promotions, advertising, and had access to players for personal advertising efforts.