Football and Fashion |

A top Scottish university has announced that some of the biggest football clubs in the country are joining them in a project which is aimed at helping those suffering from dementia. Hearts, Hibernian, Motherwell and Celtic have all teamed up with the Caledonian University in Glasgow in its latest stage of the long running research project it has been doing on the condition.

The clubs will be offering both those suffering from dementia, and their carers, the opportunity to visit the grounds and have a chat about the beautiful game in a serious of informal and relaxed coffee mornings. For those who like football but don’t follow a particular team, there is a chance to visit Hampden, the home of the Scottish national team.

This initiative has come about after those doing the research at the university discovered that using football to trigger the minds of those suffering from dementia resulted in startling and positive results. Experts had discovered previously that showing items of football memorabilia to men with dementia had stimulated their memories in quite a remarkable manner.

Charlie Bennett, from Motherwell FC,  has said that  Motherwell have always made an effort to engage with their community at all different levels, and strive to bring benefits to others wherever they could. He added that some of their former players suffered from Alzheimer’s, so they had first hand knowledge of how the condition affected both the sufferers and their families.

The team hopes that by letting sufferers and their carers access the facilities at their ground, Fir Park, they are creating an environment to stimulate their minds. The trophies and memorabilia that are on display in the lounges could have a profound effect and jog memories, thus bringing relief to their carers.

Although we now consider it as part of the norm, football in August still doesn’t sit well as it is so synonymous with winter. It has been around for a while now but it still feels as if the start of the new season sounds the death knell for our summer, and the dark night will soon be upon us. It’s also a sad fact that football this August is like no other, as the usually high octane excitement of the first day of the season has been marred by games being cancelled.

This isn’t due to the weather or anything so innocent, this is due to the acts of mindless violence that have taken place across the UK over the past week; this is due to the riots. The decision to let other games go ahead has been said by many to be madness, as crowds of drink fuelled football fans streaming through parts of run down cities already decimated by the riots is a recipe for disaster.

Those police officers who have worked tirelessly for days to try and restore order on our streets will invariably now be deployed to try and keep order amongst a different kind of threat. This is an explosive cocktail of extra, yet easily avoidable, tensions that the country as a whole could do without. Those in power should have got their priorities right and delayed the start of the season, the thugs wouldn’t have won, the country would have.

While the instant communication that comes with the social media explosion has brought about some new problems. Defining the limit of free speech on the anonymous internet, where the worlds of public and private collide, is one of the biggest challenges that today’s lawmakers face, according to ITV Football’s Sean Martin.

As usual, where politics go sport surely follows, and the recent furore over the super   injunction unceremoniously dumped the footballing world into the eye of a huge political storm. Whilst freedom of expression has been protected, and blanket censorship condemned, this hasn’t yet gone universal and similar protection has yet to be afforded to other sportsmen.

The fact that Twitter has now been banned by many sports teams is posing a real threat to the freedom of speech for players. Two of the teams from the Ryder Cup of 2010, the All Blacks world cup squad and the Leicester Tigers have already got bans in place and Alex Ferguson, who has expressed his disdain for Twitter more than once, is reported to be considering doing the same at Manchester United.

The censorship of Twitter is spreading like wildfire through sport, without any acknowledgement at all that this blatantly flouts their fundamental commitment to the freedom of speech. Freedom of expression needs reactive and not proactive censorship and should not be treat as if access to it is akin to drugs or firearms, as speech does not pose danger.

As well as being devoted, you have to be pretty well off to support Arsenal these days. It has been revealed that tickets for certain seats at the Emirates stadium are the dearest in the country. Not only do they charge £100 for these seats, they also have the dearest pies, with a chicken tikka filling coming in at a whopping £4.

Liverpool fans are the worst off overall however, their top tickets cost a much more affordable £48, but their cheapest tickets are £39, making them the priciest. This means that the cheapest day out for Liverpool fans adds up to £43.95, nearly three times what it would cost you at Newcastle.

The survey was held across all of the 104 clubs that make up the top 4 divisions in the English league and also the Scottish Premier League. It came as no real surprise that those who support London teams are often paying more for their match tickets. The top seats at Chelsea cost £87 while at Tottenham you will pay £80, but both clubs offer cheaper options, and a budget ticket at Chelsea will cost £23.50.

Further north they drop dramatically in price. The champions, Manchester United, offer seats for £35.60, while you can get into their neighbours Manchester City’s stadium for £25. Fans who support teams in the North West have the best deal, as some of the cheapest seats in the premiership, costing only £10, are available at Blackburn’s ground.

The prices of programmes also vary greatly, the dearest ones are £4 at Leeds, whilst Crawley charge a mere 50p.

The English FA and Lord Triesman, their ex-chairman, have received a scathing attack from the Brazilian Football head. The Football Association was branded by Ricardo Teixeira as pirates and he vowed that while he was in FIFA he would make their life as miserable as possible.

The Brazilian has become incensed at Lord Triesman for his accusations following the World Cup 2018/22 bidding war. Triesman suggested that Teixeira demanded to receive incentives for his votes during which time England eventually lost. Teixeira was cleared last May in a FIFA probe but is not ready just yet to forget and forgive.

Fabio Capello national coach and Alex Horne the general secretary of the FA will surely receive a cold reception upon arrival Thursday in Brazil for the qualifying drawing for the 2014 World Cup.

He said he will make their lives a living hell and while he is with FIFA at the Brazilian FA/CBF the English will not get a foot in the door. He has been quoted as saying the islanders, a name he refers to British with, are pirates just a bunch of pirates.

He says the accusations by Lord Triesman were complete nonsense. He feels the English are just upset since they lost. He says why not look me in eye and tell me I tried to do something as stupid as trying to get a bribe right there in the stands in front of everyone. For over the past two decades Teixeira has been on the executive committee of FIFA and will run as president in 2015 when Sepp Blatter ends his reign.

Discussions between the Football League and the club over Peter Ridsdale’s takeover have begun, says the administrator of Plymouth Argyle. The ex-Chairman of Leeds United last week completed a deal to buy the club. Bishop International, another company will purchase the land around the park as well as Home Park, thus clearing off any of Argyle’s debts.

As the club prepares for the upcoming season, this deal means their survival the administrator of the club Brendan Guilfoyle told the club’s website. There are still concerns about the deal since Kevin Heaney non-league Truro City’s chairman is involved with Bishop International. League rules state no one can be involved with the running of two different clubs.

Football League officials will have to make that decision but the takeover will not be completed until Ridsdale has the right to own the team which will not happen until it is ratified by league officials. While other fans may have wanted another deal, the timeframe does not allow for that said Guilfoyle.

Managing director of the Liverpool Football Club, Ian Ayre, said in a statement this week that the new infrastructure needed by the club is facing major challenges in its realization.  Liverpool needs significantly greater capacity for its fans in order to compete with Arsenal and Manchester United, whose gameday revenues are much higher.  However, Ayre said, there are so many problems with land  acquisition and planning and environmental regulations that the process is painfully slow.

Over the past few months it has become apparent that the expansion of Liverpool’s existing Anfield stadium to a 60,000 capacity would be preferable both in terms of cost and in long-term benefit to fans and players compared to the option of a new stadium to be built at Stanley Park.  Unfortunately, this course of action presents an array of difficulties, for reasons that some feel are just bureaucratic maneuverings.

The fact is that refurbishing and enlarging Anfield would involve a temporary reduction of facilities during the process, as well as costs for acquiring rights to the surrounding property and conforming to many of the City Council’s requirements for such construction.  If Liverpool could make a deal such as the one Manchester just announced with Etihad Airways, which is reported to be worth around £150m over the next 10 years, it would enable them to go with a new stadium.

Mr. Ayre has noted that Liverpool is in discussion with several brands about naming rights for a new stadium, but so far there has been no inclination to rename the old one.  At present the decision about which way to go on the issue has not been made, but the club is under pressure to make a committment one way or the other.  Ayre insisted in his recent statement that the goal is to find the “best possible long-term solution” for the team and its supporters.