#central european football league | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

39oa · 6 months

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nhl x f1 fandom survey results

hello there! about two months ago, @andreisvechnikov and i posted a form meant to gather data from fans on tumblr of both f1 and the nhl so we could take a look at demographics, trends, and then subsequently share interesting corresponding insights.

in total, our form received n = 102 responses — honestly not that great of a sample size for stratifying data by teams when considering that there are 32 nhl teams and 10 f1 teams, so a lot of findings come with a large caveat, but hopefully this post will be interesting to you anyway! (of note is also that all of this data was collected before the nhl regular season began, so hopefully we can rerun this experiment sometime next year when the seasons are running concurrently and see how results have changed then.)

unrelated to our survey, @sergeifyodorov also polled hockey fans on their favorite teams a while back; his results will be referenced as well throughout this post! he was extremely kind and generous enough to send over his data so that we could play around with it on our own, so thank you again for that!!! one last time, please note that our results are not easily comparable because of different sample sizes and team/blog reach (for example: the leafs were heavily underrepresented in our data, but i'm pretty sure it's because the form simply never made its way to that corner of hockeyblr and not because leafs fans are statistically less likely to enjoy f1 LOL...)

without further ado:

DEMOGRAPHICS

"Where do you currently live?" + "How old are you?"

out of 102 participants, an overwhelming amount — 85.3% — live in north/central america or europe, and most respondents were also between the ages of 18-25. since the nhl is based in north america and f1 teams are (mostly) based in europe, i was curious to see how fandom trends varied across these two demographics specifically.

EUROPE VS. AMERICA

"Do you consider yourself more of an F1 or hockey fan?"

interestingly enough, 2 in 3 of the european respondents said that they like or follow hockey more, with only 15.15% preferring f1. asian and north/central american fans were a little more evenly split, with 38.9% north/central american fans saying they liked f1 and hockey about the same. however, altogether 89.2% of global respondents said that they prefer hockey OR that they like both sports about the same, so it seems that fans in our survey skew more toward hockey in general.

"Do you follow any top-division hockey leagues outside of North America?"

again, since f1 is primarily based in europe and since europe boasts a huge hockey market outside of the nhl, this question was aimed at understanding interest in other top-division hockey leagues outside of north america. more specifically — not anything like the ahl or ncaa but instead leagues like the shl and liiga.

the majority of the respondents who said they followed top-division hockey outside of north america were, unsurprisingly, based in europe, with over half (54.5%) claiming to follow other leagues and 1 in 4 (24.2%) preferring these to north american hockey.

as for north/central american respondents, a large majority — 85.2% — claimed to not follow any leagues outside of north america. here were the leagues mentioned at least twice:

"Do you follow professional leagues for any of these following sports?"

for this question, we gave several multiple-option choices of obvious sports and also allowed respondents to submit their own answers if we missed any. here were the most-commonly followed professional sports outside of f1 and the nhl, filtered to at least 2 responses:

interestingly, football and baseball were on par at 26.5% — or about 1 in 4 — each, although the most common response was actually none; 37.3% of respondents said they only watch hockey and motorsports for professional sports. the sports that received one vote each were: volleyball, tour de france, swimming, pro wrestling, gymnastics, figure skating, cycling, climbing, and australian rules football.

TEAM POPULARITY

NHL STATS

"What is your favorite NHL team?" + "If you like multiple NHL teams, feel free to name any others below." (<;- capped at 3)

in order to rank each team — despite different voting methodology and sample sizes from both surveys — i normalized a popularity score based on a weighted value, composed of how many people voted for it as their favorite team and then how many people mentioned it in the "other teams i like" question. each team was then graded relative to the top team, in our case dallas and in cody's case pittsburgh.

in the table below, the numbers in purple correspond to our survey and the numbers in grey show cody's results as reference. as you can see, toronto is very underrepresented in our data, while dallas is considerably more popular and tops the chart. 3rd-place vancouver was also our most commonly mentioned "other" team with 19 votes, despite only being 6 people's favorite team.

does this mean that fans of both f1 and hockey are statistically more likely to enjoy dallas than your average hockey fan? or does it just mean that i'm primarily a dallas stars blog and this was the audience i accidentally reached when sharing my survey? (most likely the second) the world may never know!!!

another way of looking at the popularity differences across both surveys is with a little scatter plot. same data, just different presentation!

F1 STATS

"What is your favorite F1 team?" + "If you like multiple F1 teams, feel free to name any others below."

not much that needs to be explained here — mercedes and ferrari were far and away the favorites, but red bull and mclaren were also fairly popular! the least popular team of all was haas, with only one person mentioning it as a team they liked and no one voting for it as their favorite team.

interestingly enough, 1 in 3 (34) of respondents said that they had no favorite team at all, with this response scoring higher than any single team (mercedes only had 21 "favorite" votes, although it had 36 total responses). this was a large contrast to the nhl results, where only 6 people answered none for their favorite hockey team — meaning that 94.11% of respondents claimed a favorite nhl team!

(perhaps this means that f1 fans are less likely to be loyal to a team and instead prefer to follow drivers' individual careers, or that team allegiances are simply stronger in hockey fandom. or maybe not! who knows.)

something else i was curious to see concerning the most popular teams was another location distribution, although this time i didn't want to simply calculate percentages straight-up since we already know that the global distribution skews mainly toward north/central america and europe. because of this, i filtered only teams that had n >= 10 votes and calculated the difference for each percentage from the global average, so i could see which teams were more biased toward a location than "expected."

for f1: ferrari, mclaren, and red bull all had slightly higher american interest than average, with red bull especially skewing lower on the european side.

for hockey: dallas had higher than average interest in oceania, with pittsburgh scoring higher in asia and seattle being especially strong in north/central america (and thus less so in europe). toronto, carolina, and florida also had higher support in europe.

(note again that these are very small sample numbers, especially for teams with less than 20 votes!)

+ just for fun, here's how the top 4 other sports (football, baseball, american football, and basketball) skewed location-wise.

probably not much of a surprise here, although interestingly europeans were more likely than americans to say they only followed motorsport and hockey.

PLAYER / DRIVER POPULARITY

"Who are your favorite NHL players?" + "Who are your favorite F1 drivers?"

when it came to calculating the most popular players, we asked that survey respondents list up to three of their favorite players, then assigned 3 points to the first player, 2 to the second, and 1 to the third. using this weighted count, i ranked drivers and players using a normalized score.

86 unique nhl players were mentioned for this question. out of them, 84.9% (73) are still actively playing in the nhl. the most popular active players were sidney crosby and quinn hughes, while the most popular inactive player was paul kariya, with 2 mentions and a score of 11.76%.

using the same process, 39 unique f1 drivers were mentioned for this question, this time with 95% (19/20) of the current grid being represented — the only driver not mentioned a single time was nico hülkenberg. the remaining 20 drivers were either retired or reserve drivers. lewis hamilton was far and away the most popular driver in this survey, while the most popular inactive driver was 3rd-placed sebastian vettel with a relative score of 61.18%.

here are the top 25 for each sport alongside their corresponding teams:

as you can see, the most-represented team in the nhl top-25 is dallas, with 4 players (robertson, hintz, heiskanen, oettinger) making the cut! other teams to have at least 2 athletes in the top 10 are edmonton for the nhl and alphatauri for f1.

F1 X NHL CROSSOVER

this was the main reason we created this survey in the first place. our burning question was: Which F1 teams do fans of certain NHL teams tend to like — and vice versa?

in order to calculate this, i mapped all the nhl teams each respondent voted for to all the f1 teams they voted for, assigning 1 point to each. so if someone had a favorite team and named three "other" liked teams for each sport, that would be 8 points on the matrix altogether. i then filtered out any nhl team that had less than 20 total tallies for f1 teams and created the chart below:

i also removed "none" votes since i was more interested in the distribution of interest strictly across f1 teams. finally, i filtered out the f1 teams with negligible amounts of votes and created another percentage chart relative to the global average (since we "expect" mercedes and ferrari to be most popular overall):

some summarizing thoughts:

DAL and VAN fans were both less interested in red bull and ferrari and more interested in mclaren and williams

NJD and PHI both voted less for mercedes; the former preferred ferrari and the latter red bull

CAR didn't have huge discrepancies across the board, but skewed a bit toward red bull and williams

COL had the lowest relative interest in mclaren of all teams, while SEA had the highest relative interest in williams

again, these sample sizes were pretty small so maybe it means nothing at all. i'd love to run this survey again with more responses and maybe also restrict the team choices to only 1 favorite + 1 other team per sport in order to really drill down into people's preferences, but hopefully this is interesting anyway!

FANDOM ORIGINS

i always love learning about how people got into a fandom, so we also asked respondents how they got into f1 and hockey, with the following options being provided:

Grew up around it/Family

Hockey or F1 RPF

Introduced by friends (online or IRL)

Discovered individually through fandom content (gifs, YouTube, podcasts, etc.)

Hockey books & romances (Hockey)

Drive to Survive (F1)

Other films, documentaries, etc.

3 respondents clarified that they specifically discovered hockey through reading the webcomic check, please!, but i decided to implicitly include this in the "hockey books" category. a few of the "other" options for hockey also specifically mentioned the olympics.

here was the distribution of responses, noting that the question was multi-option so there is overlap:

i also made a side-by-side bar chart to note differences between f1 and hockey origins. in this case, i paired "hockey books/romances" with "drive to survive," since i see them as the two biggest respective examples of mainstream media movements for each fandom (around social media/rps spaces i should say), the former being mainly based in booktok.

as you can see here, a considerable amount of fans got into f1 through dts (1 in 5). in terms of fanfiction, hockey rpf was a lot more influential in getting people into hockey than f1 rpf was in getting people into f1 (23.7% vs. 11.3%). lastly, hockey was also slightly more common as a childhood/family sport than f1, although only by a few percentage points — 28.9% of fans grew up with hockey and 23.2% grew up with f1.

of course, i couldn't end this question without doing another location analysis, which gave some interesting results:

for f1, the overwhelming majority of european respondents said that they grew up around f1 or were introduced to it by family — 51.5%, or over half (the chart says 44.7% because of multi-option overlap). in contrast, only 24.1% — or 1 in 4 — of north/central americans said this. their results were much more evenly split in general, with drive to survive and fandom content ranking considerably higher.

for hockey, the distribution actually looked quite similar between north/central americans and europeans, although americans ranked a little higher in terms of growing up around the sport. it's pretty much the same though — the main difference is that a good chunk of the "other" votes for the europeans specified getting into hockey through the olympics. altogether, respondents from asia, oceania, and south america mostly discovered hockey through a mixture of rpf and hockey books, although these are very small sample sizes so not fully reflective of overall experiences.

OTHER MOTORSPORTS

"What other motorsports do you follow?"

we were also interested in knowing what other kinds of motorsport people liked.

interestingly, north/central americans had the smallest proportion of f1-exclusive respondents, with 37.7% saying f1 is the only motorsport they follow. here were the series that received at least 10 votes:

indycar was by far the most popular "other" motorsport series, with motogp, nascar, and general feeder formulae (f2, f3, etc.) faring well too. unsurprisingly, you can also tell at a glance that there is overwhelming american interest in indycar and nascar compared to other series!

CONCLUSION

that's about all we've got at the moment. if there's anything else you'd like to see more of, or anything you're confused about/think doesn't make sense, feel free to reply to this post or shoot me an ask :') thank you again for reading and i hope you enjoyed this little post!!! 🥲❤️

#sorry this is literally a million years late the major depression had hands 😔#f1 #hockey #stats

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justforbooks · 5 months

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Franz Beckenbauer, who has died aged 78, was widely regarded as the best footballer Germany has ever produced. A pre-eminent figure in the world game after the second world war, he was a phenomenally innovative player who captained West Germany to a World Cup win in 1974 and later managed his country to two consecutive World Cup finals, winning the second of them in 1990 in Rome.

As a club manager he added a Bundesliga title and a Uefa Cup win to his World Cup victory at international level and as a player he won a World Cup, a European Championship, three European Cups and five Bundesliga titles in Germany. However, more than his capacity for winning, it was the elegant, intelligent nature of his play that attracted such admiration all over the world.

While he was still a teenager at Bayern Munich, Beckenbauer had become the virtual inventor of what came to be called “total football”. Watching the Milan team Internazionale on television, he was impressed by the attacking forays of their big left-back, Giacinto Facchetti. He asked himself why a defender might not attack from a central role as well as from the flanks, and thus became Bayern’s attacking libero. It was a role that became the cornerstone of the total football practised by Bayern and their great Dutch rivals, Ajax, in the early 1970s.

Captained by Beckenbauer – a tall, erect figure always ready to sweep out of defence – Bayern at first played second fiddle to Ajax, but eventually emulated them by winning the European Cup three times in a row, between 1974 and 1976. Before that sequence Beckenbauer had already captained an outstanding West Germany team to the European Championship title in 1972, beating the Soviet Union 3-0 in the final. Two years later he led his country to victory in the 1974 World Cup on German soil, defeating the Netherlands 2-1. He played 103 times for West Germany and appeared in 427 league matches for Bayern.

Franz was born to Antonie (nee Huphauf) and Franz Sr, a postal worker in the Munich suburb of Giesing, near the stadium where he would make his name. By the age of eight he was already regarded as a technically accomplished player, even in a city where footballers and football proliferated. Munich 1860 was the club he favoured; Bayern Munich, where he would later excel, were small beer at the time; an upstart by comparison.

However, Munich 1860’s loss would be Bayern’s gain. In 1958 he was playing for the junior team of a little local club, SC 1906, which actually closed that year, and expected to join 1860. “But in the last game we played for SC 1906 against 1860,” he related, “a half-back gave me a slap. That was enough for me. 1860 would never get me. And so Bayern took me into its ranks.” Beckenbauer was, with rare exceptions, always a sporting player, who declared that he would rather be fouled and leave the field than commit a foul himself.

He made his debut for Bayern Munich in 1964 – when they were in the German second division – and in his first season helped them gain promotion to the Bundesliga.

Thereafter Bayern rapidly became a major force both at home and in Europe, winning the German Cup in 1966–67 and the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1967 (against Rangers). Beckenbauer was made team captain for the 1968–69 season and led the club to its first league title that year, subsequently winning three league championships in a row from 1972 to 1974 and that hat-trick of European Cup wins in 1974-76.

Under his leadership (he was nicknamed the Kaiser for his commanding, almost imperious presence) the Bayern team of that era, which also featured greats such as the goalkeeper Sepp Maier and the centre-forward Gerd Müller, established itself as one of the most accomplished club sides of all time.

Beckenbauer’s first game for the national team, at the age of 21 in 1965, had come even before Bayern’s dramatic rise to prominence. He was the star member of the West Germany side in the 1966 World Cup finals, where they were runners-up in the Wembley final to England, and again in the 1970 finals in Mexico, where they finished in third place.

Helmut Schön, the tall, gentle West Germany team manager who was almost a father figure to Beckenbauer, for many years refused to let him play the libero role for his country. When he finally relented in 1974, West Germany won the competition and Beckenbauer lifted the trophy as captain.

All seemed set fair for a fourth World Cup campaign for Beckenbauer in Argentina in 1978, but to general surprise, and aged only 31, he retired from international football in 1977 to switch to play for New York Cosmos in the North American Soccer League.

It was an unusual move after almost 15 years at the highest level of the game with Bayern, but the contract was lucrative and enormous crowds came to see him play with Pelé and other stars at the Giants Stadium, New Jersey.

In his four seasons with the Cosmos the team won the national Soccer Bowl on three occasions (1977, 1978 and 1980). “I’ve done everything in my life – championships for Bayern Munich and the World Cup for Germany – but the New York Cosmos was the best time of my life,” he said. “At Munich it was all German players; at the Cosmos it was 14 nationalities and Pelé.”

He returned to Germany to play for Hamburg (1980-82), where he picked up another Bundesliga winners’ medal at the end of the 1981-82 season before going back to the US for one final campaign with the Cosmos in 1983 and then retiring. In his career in domestic leagues he had made 587 appearances and scored 81 goals.

When Beckenbauer retired he seemed to have no ambition to go into management, so it was a surprise that in 1984 he agreed to manage West Germany in succession to Jupp Derwall. Never before had a West Germany manager been appointed who had not come through the exhaustive qualifying programme of the German football association, one which involved not only the passing of examinations but the running of minor clubs.

In appointing Beckenbauer, the German authorities were abandoning firm principle in the hope that his immense prestige and authority would prevail; and they were not disappointed.

The team he inherited was in the doldrums, yet at the 1986 Mexico World Cup, suitably inspired, they reached a final in which they were plainly inferior to an Argentina team that went into a 2-0 lead, only for the Germans to fight back, catch them up, and then lose 3-2. Four years later, in a grisly final in Rome, Germany had their revenge, beating Argentina 1-0 with a penalty by Andreas Brehme.

Shortly afterwards Beckenbauer resigned his position to became technical director of the French club Marseille on a two-year contract worth nearly £500,000, taking a German physical trainer with him. But for once his writ did not run. The French players were unhappy with the training regime and Beckenbauer withdrew after just four months.

He was far happier when he returned to Bayern Munich to serve as manager over two short spells – in 1993-94 and in 1996 – during which time he collected two further honours, the Bundesliga title in 1994 and the Uefa Cup in 1996. Thereafter he was president of the club for two years.

In 1998 he became vice-president of the German football association and at the end of the 90s headed the successful bid by Germany to host the 2006 World Cup, chairing the subsequent organising committee. He was named honorary president of Bayern Munich in 2009, a position he held until his death.

His son, Thomas, with Ingrid Grönke was born in 1963. In 1966 he married Brigitte Wittmann. They had two sons, Michael and Stephan. Following their divorce in 1990, he married Sybille Weimer; they divorced in 2004. With his third wife, Heidi Burmester, he had two children, Noel and Francesca. Stephan, who was also a footballer and played for Bayern Munich, died in 2015. Franz leaves Heidi and his four other children.

🔔 Franz Anton Beckenbauer, footballer, born 11 September 1945; died 7 January 2024

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

#just for books #franz beckenbauer #in memoriam

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tumbler-polls · 7 months

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Hey! This might be a bit silly but I think you missed Kazakhstan in your "part of Europe" poll. The north-western part of Kazakhstan is recognised as Europe. It's even part of the European football league.

We included Kazakhstan as a part of Central Asia in the more general poll [here].

The Europe division was made by Chat GPT to avoid using existing divisions (which are highly controversial). It turned out to be an epic failure with many repetitions and omissions; we won't use that method again.

This blog hugely relies on submissions, so feel free to send us improved versions of existing polls and new poll ideas. But remember that there are only 12 options available, and they can't be too wordy.

#meta #Kazakhstan

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joeyvimsantepoet · 3 months

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Cross Border Cups With Scotland

How about Saudi Arabia fund a cross border club trophy with teams from Saudi Arabia, Scotland, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Denmark, Belgium, France, North America, Africa and other European nations? Saudi Arabia has wealth, but Scotland has intense passionate supporters. Clubs like Glasgow Celtic, Aberdeen, Glasgow Rangers, Motherwell, Heart of Midlothian, Hibernian, Dundee, and Dundee United could bring passionate games and lore to Saudi soccer.How about cross border cups for Scottish football. I say a good way for Scottish football to improve is to have cross border trophies on top of domestic and European football.There are an entire host of ideas that could happen. Bring back the Anglo Scottish Cup.Change the Scottish Premiership to a 16 team 30 game league. Then have extra cross border cups.Ideas could include a North Atlantic League Cup. With the top four to 8 SPFL clubs playing a group stage trophy with teams from Europe, Asia, or Africa, or North America, or Saudi Arabia.The Scottish allow Welsh and Northern Ireland club sides in the Scottish Challenge Cup.The Scottish and Welsh Rugby clubs travel to places like South Africa, and Italy. And UEFA soccer has seen Scottish sides travel to Central Asia. So football clubs could travel 5 or 8 times a year to the USA, or Africa. In UEFA trophies Scottish and Welsh sides have been to Central Asia.Other ideas could include having all Scottish Premiership sides not in Europe, plus selected Welsh Cymru Premier club sides, and perhaps Belgian, and North West French sides in the Football League Trophy. There could easily be 16 teams added to the EFL Trophy with a little reorganisation of the trophy to add the new sides.Perhaps all Scots Championsip sides, Welsh Cymru Premier sides, and some North Western French sides in the non-league FA Trophy.

Or a Celtic Nations Club Cup of Scottish, Welsh, Irish, Ulster, Cornish, Cumbria, Brittany, Isle of Man and Yorkshire club sides.Perhaps leading Scottish, Irish, French, Dutch, Belgian or German sides invited as guests into the Engliah FA Cup, or English League Cup.I do not support merging the British leagues, as people would wrongly think Scotland was part of England. And all the Scottish trophies in history would be relegated to the status of lower tier trophies. While all the English trophies would be seen as forerunners of the British trophies. So Scottish clubs would be seen to be reset as having won ZERO trophies. Also 30 trips into England a year might be too much bit 5 to 8 times a year would keep it a novelty and highlight of the season.We need Pan-Great Britain Cups on top of domestic and European football.If we had a British League a club like Dundee could make 25 trips year of up to 800 miles. That would be too tough. It has to be at a manageable number of games.

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chelseafcwmemes · 2 years

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Something just happened at the Euros 2017. And since then it’s been growing fast.

Article from Børsen Weekend.

At the same time as Pernille Harder has walked from the grass pitches in Ikast to the absolute world top in Chelsea, something has happened with women's football: the money has grown, the spectators have increased, and next Friday the national team will run into the Park for the first time. Meet Danish women's biggest football star.

If you close your eyes while Pernille Harder speaks, it feels, for a brief moment, as if London is disappearing. From the fashionable Kingston upon Thames in the south-western part of the British capital, you pull across the North Sea and all the way to Tulstrup near Ikast. To the grass pitches, to when Harder, as a five-year-old, stood in the middle of the Jutland heath for the first time with a football at his feet; on the boys' team, because at that time there was no team for girls in the local football club Tulstrup / Faurholt IK. Almost 25 years and three stays abroad in Sweden, Germany and England later, Pernille Harder sits in the kitchen-dining room in a Victorian terraced house with yellow bricks and an electric car from Hyundai in the driveway. Out in the backyard, her Swedish girlfriend Magdalena Eriksson, a football player and teammate, is mowing the lawn. The rented house in the neighborhood, where a single-family house costs seven figures in British pounds, has been their home since the summer of 2020, when Chelsea FC bought Harder free of its contract in Wolfsburg, Germany for 2.5 million. Danish kroner - enough to make her the world's most expensive female football player ever. In general, a lot has happened since Pernille Harder first crossed the chalk lines on the outskirts of Ikast, both with women's football and with the 29-year-old football star herself, but the Central Jutland dialect still hangs undiluted. That's just the way it is

Boys' hair and big dreams

That Pernille Harder is Danish women's football's indisputably biggest star can be ascertained by taking a simple look at her CV. She made her sensational debut with a hat trick for the Danish national team as a mere 16-year-old, got a contract abroad when she was 19, led Denmark to the European Championship final in 2017 and was named Europe's best female footballer by the European Football Association Uefa in both 2018 and 2020. Even Pernille Harder says: "I just focus on getting better every day. I want to win titles, but I do not have to win anything before I stop, and the most important thing for me is the joy of playing football." Humility, however, should not be confused with lack of ambition. Ever since she was little, Pernille Harder has wanted to be a professional football player, but when she turned on the TV at home in the living room of the childhood home, she only saw men on screen. And then she had to become a boy, she of course stopped and ordered her mother to cut her short hair. Only later did it dawn on Pernille Harder that there was also a national team for women, and then the lures were allowed to grow out again. Today, she has achieved most of what she set out to do. And what she may not want to say out loud herself, at least not so directly, agent Klaus Granlund can formulate for her: "We still have one big goal, and that is to win the Champions League."

Bitten by sports

Granlund himself lives in Ikast and is an acquaintance of Harder's parents, the town is not bigger either, and he can tell about a family who is bitten by sports. With a father who was a postman and even played football - and handball at a high level - in Ikast. And a mother who was a pharmacist and the first female handball player from the city of Central Jutland to be selected for the Danish Handball Association's Jutland talent team. Despite this, Pernille Harder is not one of those sports children who has been paced, she says, but her parents have driven across Jutland and back again for their daughter, just as many times a week it required to help her practice the sport she was passionate about. "My mother was my coach from the time I was 8 until I was 13, while my father was always on the sidelines and sometimes he was also a referee for the local football club. They have always supported me and I remember there was a summer where I got some running exercises to take home from the youth national team. My father took me out and ran with me during the summer holidays to help me get it done. "From Tulstrup / Faurholt, the car trip first went a few hundred meters south to Ikast, then to Viborg and in 2009 on to Skovbakken in Aarhus, who at the time was playing at the top of the best Danish row, meanwhile Pernille Harder went to Ikast Brande Gymnasium, and on top of the four weekly trainings with her Aarhus teammates she was arranged that she could train in the morning before school with FC Midtjylland's best U17 team for boys at the club's academy in Ikast. The goal was already then to see how much she could push herself to become a better football player. "I was very nervous before the first training sessions, because they were some of Denmark's best U17 boys I had to play with," says Pernille Harder. "But there was no discrimination, I was treated well and the coaches made exactly the same demands on me as they did on all the other players. I was not the best, but it meant a lot to me to show that I could keep up, and I was very inspired by how focused the boys were at such a young age. This meant that I also started to set big goals for myself. "Greater diversity In 2012, Pernille Harder Skovbakken replaced Linköpings FC in the best Swedish series, where the level was higher then than in Denmark, and the top teams often came far in the international competition. On her new team, the one year younger Swedish defender Magdalena Eriksson also played, and after a year in the club, she and Pernille Harder fell in love. Since then, the two have formed a couple and made a choice to be open about their relationship. and their sexuality, in the hope that they can help fight one of football's old ghosts - homophobia. The football pair became really publicly known during the World Cup in France in 2019. The Danish national team had not managed to qualify, but Pernille Harder had turned up anyway to support her boyfriend when Sweden met Canada in the round of 16. In the stands, she was wearing a Swedish national team jersey, and when the couple shared a kiss after the match, it was captured by a photographer. The picture went viral, and in a few days, Pernille Harder gained several thousand new followers on Instagram, a platform that she today actively uses to work for greater diversity in football. "It occurred to both of us that that image ended up going around the world. It was probably there that I realized that Magda and I have a platform together where we can make a difference. There are many who write to us. "that we are role models for them by being so open about our relationship and that it has helped them to be more open about their sexuality."

Is women's football ahead of men's football at that point?

"I definitely think so. In women's football, you can be yourself without having to worry about getting death threats or being hung out. Unfortunately, there are many examples that you can not in men's football, where it is still very taboo to be gay. I think that diversity is something that women's football can offer that men's football does not have - both in terms of players and fans.

Injury treatment on Google

One can draw an almost parallel curve between Pernille Harder's career and the buoyancy of women's football. Danish star may have been born at a lucky time and has ridden on a wave of more money, more spectators, better training facilities, full-time professional players and now also TV income that is palpable, but today Pernille Harder can also rightly say that she is one of those who herself helps to drive the sport forward and lift the bar further. As a junior, if she got an injury, Pernille Harder had to google her way up to what she was failing, and in the gym, she had to make sure to organize her workouts herself. Meanwhile, she could look enviously at the men who had professional physiotherapists, club doctors and, in general, far better conditions for making football a way of life. Today, Pernille Harder trains at Chelsea's millionaire Cobham Training Center outside London with four physiotherapists attached to the women's team, and although there is still a long way to go for men, not least in terms of pay, she has been part of a development that she says , that far more female football players today dare to take the plunge and aim to become full-time professionals. “I’ve seen two different generations in my time as a football player,” she says. "When I was younger, I could feel that many of the older players did not have the great faith that they could become full-time professionals, because at that time there were only very few who succeeded in reaching that far. "that along the way they prioritized other things such as education. But the young players who come up on the national team today have only one priority, and that is to become professionals and get a contract abroad." With Harder on the jersey It can be difficult to pinpoint exactly when women's football really started to accelerate globally, but here at home there is one before and one after the European Championships in 2017. At the final round in Holland, the Danish national team wrote history and won silver medals. the women one TV record after another. The final, which Denmark ended up losing 4-2 to the host nation, was attended by 1.5 million. viewers - the most watched football match on Danish television throughout 2017. And subsequently, Pernille Harder could also feel that something had changed. "Something just happened at the European Championships in 2017. And since then it has gone really fast. Now all the matches are shown on TV, the production of the matches has improved with many more cameras in the stadium, and there have been more sponsors, greater media interest, but also greater respect.

Do you think that women's football has received too little recognition?

"Yes. When I played in Denmark ten years ago, I do not even think that the results in the Women's League were announced on the radio. It was also one of the reasons why I left Denmark to play abroad, because I think it was the meganeder not to get more recognition for something I spent so much time on compared to the men. I had a hard time understanding that. "Now you are the world's most expensive football player and captain of the national team. Do you also feel a responsibility on behalf of women's football?" I do not feel obligated to anything. But I have personally experienced how bad the conditions have been and how little focus there has been. It has given me the motivation to want to change it, both for myself but also for all the new players that are coming up. First and foremost, it has been about performing on the field, so I could achieve a certain status. But today I have a position and a platform that I can use to push women's football even further forward, and that is a driving force for me. When I was a kid, I could only buy jerseys with the names of the male footballers on my back, but today there are girls who run around with my name and stick with Chelsea because I play in the club.

An eye opener

In a week Pernille Harder's name also on the backs of red-and-white football fans, when the Danish women's national team for the first time ever has Parken as home - in a friendly match against Brazil - as part of the warm-up for this summer's European Championship finals in England. Viborg and been denied access to the national stadium, where the men have been able to report sold out for all the team's matches on top of last summer's European Championship euphoria, but perhaps the women's national team should just have the chance, because at the time of writing more than 16,000 tickets have been sold in advance; four times as many as usually come to the matches in Viborg. And Pernille Harder is in no doubt that Danish women's football is once again facing a milestone: "It will be a huge experience for me g personally and for the other players, but I also think it will be an eye opener for a lot of people, in relation to how far we have come with women's football in Denmark. The park has only a very special status. It's the stadium that everyone automatically thinks of when they think of the national team's home ground - now for both men and women.

#shoutout to magdasabs for the google lens idea #chelsea fcw #chelsea women #pernille harder #denwnt

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alexbkrieger13 · 2 years

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https://www.tvmidtvest.dk/midt-og-vestjylland/pernille-harder-vil-have-storklubber-til-at-investere-i-kvindefodbold-men-fc-midtjylland-er-ikke-klar

It was an early exit for Pernille Harder and the national football team at the European Championship finals this summer. But if you look at it positively, there has rarely been such great support among the population for women's football in Denmark.

But at the biggest football clubs in the country, it still lags. Both FC Midtjylland and FC Copenhagen do not have a women's team, while the additional Superliga teams here in the region (Silkeborg and Viborg) also do not have a women's team.

I think we in Denmark should get into the fight. MATHILDE KJELDGAARD, CAPTAIN, FC THY-THISTED Q

The lack of professional women's teams has led Pernille Harder to take the magazine by the mouth to BT.

- I think both that FC Copenhagen and FC Midtjylland should have a women's team, and I also hope that it will happen. It is an investment, and it may well be that they do not get that much back in the first years, but if you invest, I honestly think it is good that you can get teams that come in Champions League group games, says the football player, who hails from Ikast, to the newspaper.

Harder goes on to say that the Danish league must be better if the national team is to bite the bullet with the very large national teams. If the league's level does not improve, the football talents can not be seriously tested either. Therefore, they start playing at the highest level too late compared to talents from other countries.

Mathilde Kjeldgaard, captain of the league team FC Thy-Thisted Q, agrees with that argument.

- It's a little telling. We do not have many Danish league players on the Danish national team. They go abroad, because there are better opportunities and facilities, so I think we in Denmark should get into the fight.

Pernille Harder wants the national team in the future to be on a par with Germany and Spain, which were the teams that Denmark lost to in the European Championship finals. Therefore, the football star wants the money-rich clubs such as FC Midtjylland to invest in women's football to raise the level in Denmark.

They are part of it in the Central Jutland club - just not right now, says sports manager, Svend Graversen.

In FC Thy-Thisted Q, after several years of hard work, they have established themselves as a top 4 team in Denmark. A position that could be threatened if money-rich FC Midtjylland launches a women's team. But the director of TFC Elite, Peter Friis Jensen, welcomes the opposition.

In fact, it can only go too slowly. It is about improving the level of Danish women's football.

- It's just getting started. I'm sure when they get started it will raise the league level. We need some of the big ones to bid on this. If we can lift in droves, then I am sure that we can kick in some doors, says Peter Friis Jensen.

The best women's team in Denmark right now is HB Køge, which in the last couple of years has invested heavily in their women's team.

#pernille harder #denwnt

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heathcare2912 · 1 month

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Manchester United in 2024: A Season of Struggle and Hope

Manchester United's 2023/24 season has been a rollercoaster ride of disappointment, glimpses of promise, and ongoing debate about the club's direction. Under the leadership of manager Erik ten Hag, the Red Devils are currently placed sixth in the Premier League table, far from the title race but with a chance to secure European qualification.

The season began with a wave of optimism. Ten Hag, a highly respected coach with a for attacking football, brought in new signings like Antony and Rasmus Højlund to bolster the squad. Manchester United started the season brightly, winning their opening three games. However, cracks began to show as the season progressed. Inconsistent performances, defensive frailties, and a lack of creativity in midfield plagued the team. A crushing 4-0 defeat to Crystal Palace on May 6th epitomized these struggles, leaving fans and pundits alike questioning the team's direction.

Despite the negative results, there have been bright spots. Bruno Fernandes continues to be a creative force, while young talents like Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo have shown glimpses of their potential. The January FA Cup victories over Wigan Athletic and Newport County offered some respite, showcasing the team's attacking prowess when firing on all cylinders.

The upcoming FA Cup final against Manchester City on May 25th presents a crucial opportunity for Manchester United. A win would not only bring silverware but also serve as a significant morale boost for the club and its fans. However, victory against their fierce rivals will be no easy feat.

Looking ahead to the summer transfer window, significant decisions await Manchester United. The futures of Cristiano Ronaldo and David De Gea remain uncertain, and reinforcements are needed in central defense and midfield. Ten Hag's ability to address these issues will shape the course of next season.

Despite the current struggles, there are reasons for Manchester United fans to remain hopeful. The core of a talented young squad exists, and Ten Hag's long-term vision for the club is starting to take shape. With the right investment and a renewed sense of belief, Manchester United can still challenge for trophies in the years to come.

#manchester city #manchester united #manchester derby

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livefootballtoday · 3 months

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The Unmatched Thrill of Champions League Matches

When it comes to European football, there's no competition quite like the UEFA Champions League. The tournament brings together the best clubs from across the continent in a battle for supremacy. Each match is a spectacle filled with drama, skill, and passion that captivates fans worldwide.

Tracking the Action: Football Live Scores

In today's fast-paced world, fans demand real-time updates on their favorite teams and players. Football live scores provide an essential lifeline for supporters, allowing them to stay connected to the action no matter where they are. Whether it's a crucial goal, a red card, or a last-minute winner, live scores keep fans informed and engaged throughout every match.

The Evolution of Football Broadcasting:

Gone are the days of waiting for the morning paper to get the latest football results. With the advent of technology, fans can now access live scores instantly through websites and mobile apps. This evolution has revolutionized how we consume football, allowing fans to follow the action in real-time from anywhere in the world.

A Global Community United by Football:

Football uniquely can transcend borders and bring people together from all walks of life. The Champions League matches, in particular, serve as a melting pot of cultures and identities, with fans from every corner of the globe rallying behind their favorite teams. In an increasingly divided world, football provides a common ground where differences are set aside in favor of shared passion and camaraderie.

The Drama Unfolds: Key Moments in Champions League History

From miraculous comebacks to heartbreaking defeats, the Champions League has produced some of the most memorable moments in football history. Whether it's Liverpool's famous Istanbul comeback or Manchester United's last-gasp victory in 1999, the tournament never fails to deliver drama and excitement. These pivotal moments are etched into the fabric of footballing lore as a reminder of the magic that the Champions League matches can conjure.

The Role of Live Scores in Fan Engagement:

In an era of dwindling attention, fan engagement has never been more crucial for football clubs and organizations. Live scores play a pivotal role in keeping fans invested in the action, providing constant updates and information. Whether through social media, mobile apps, or dedicated websites, clubs are harnessing the power of live scores to connect with fans on a deeper level and build a loyal supporter base.

The Future of Football Viewing:

As technology advances, the future of football viewing looks brighter than ever. Virtual reality, augmented reality, and other immersive technologies promise to take the fan experience to further heights, allowing supporters to feel right in the action's heart. Live scores will undoubtedly remain a central component of this evolving landscape, ensuring that fans stay connected and engaged no matter how the game may change.

Conclusion:

In the fast-paced football world, every fan must stay updated with live scores. Whether you're following the drama of the Champions League or keeping tabs on your local team, Livefootballtoday.co.uk provides the latest scores and updates to keep you in the loop. Join their global community of football enthusiasts and never miss a moment of the action.

#Champions League matches

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wearemilan · 6 months

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16.12.1899 - AC Milan were officially founded

However, not everyone knows, that Il Diavolo was founded a bit earlier. Referring to the reports of the then-active press, such as La Gazzetta dello Sport, Milan Football and Cricket Club was founded on December 13, 1899 in one of the rooms in the hotel du Nord, near the old central station, which was demolished after World War I. The hotel no longer exists and was replaced by the Principe di Savoia, which is located in Piazza Della Repubblica.

Herbert Kilpin is considered to be the founding father of Il Diavolo. In fact, there were six founders of the Rossoneri team:

- Herbert Kilpin

- Alfred Edwards, British Consul in Milan, first president of the club

- Daniele Angeloni

- Camperio

- Dubini

- Valerio

The club's statute was drawn up as follows:

"The undersigned declare that they will establish a sports community to be named Milan Cricket and Football Club with the aim of promoting the game of football and the practice of cricket as widely as possible."

"We will be a team of Devils. Our colors will be red as fire and black as the fear that will appear among our opponents." - Herbert Kilpin

In 124 years, Rossoneri have won 58 cups (we are talking about competitions that are officially recognized by FIFA, UEFA and FIGC):

Italy:

* Scudetto x 19

* Serie B x 2

* Italian Cup x 5

* Italian Super Cup x 7

* King Umberto Medal x3

* Federal Cup x 1

Europe:

* European Cup / Champions League x 7

* Cup Winners' Cup x 2

* UEFA Super Cup x 5

* Latin Cup x 2

* Mitropa Cup x 1

World:

* Intercontinental Cup x 3

* FIFA Club World Cup x 1

Tanti auguri, AC Milan 🎂 Forza Milan 🔴⚫️

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brookstonalmanac · 7 months

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Events 11.24 (before 1950)

380 – Theodosius I makes his adventus, or formal entry, into Constantinople. 1190 – Conrad of Montferrat becomes King of Jerusalem upon his marriage to Isabella I of Jerusalem. 1221 – Genghis Khan defeats the renegade Khwarazmian prince Jalal al-Din at the Battle of the Indus, completing the Mongol conquest of Central Asia. 1227 – Gąsawa massacre: At an assembly of Piast dukes at Gąsawa, Polish Prince Leszek the White, Duke Henry the Bearded and others are attacked by assassins while bathing. 1248 – An overnight landslide on the north side of Mont Granier, one of the largest historical rockslope failures ever recorded in Europe, destroys five villages. 1359 – Peter I of Cyprus ascends the throne of Cyprus after his father, Hugh IV of Cyprus, abdicates. 1429 – Hundred Years' War: Joan of Arc unsuccessfully besieges La Charité. 1542 – Battle of Solway Moss: An English army defeats a much larger Scottish force near the River Esk in Dumfries and Galloway. 1642 – Abel Tasman becomes the first European to discover the island Van Diemen's Land (later renamed Tasmania). 1750 – Tarabai, regent of the Maratha Empire, imprisons Rajaram II of Satara for refusing to remove Balaji Baji Rao from the post of peshwa. 1832 – South Carolina passes the Ordinance of Nullification, declaring that the Tariffs of 1828 and 1832 were null and void in the state, beginning the Nullification Crisis. 1835 – The Texas Provincial Government authorizes the creation of a horse-mounted police force called the Texas Rangers (which is now the Texas Ranger Division of the Texas Department of Public Safety). 1850 – Danish troops defeat a Schleswig-Holstein force in the town of Lottorf, Schleswig-Holstein. 1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Lookout Mountain: Near Chattanooga, Tennessee, Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant capture Lookout Mountain and begin to break the Confederate siege of the city led by General Braxton Bragg. 1877 – Anna Sewell's animal welfare novel Black Beauty is published. 1906 – A 13–6 victory by the Massillon Tigers over their rivals, the Canton Bulldogs, for the "Ohio League" Championship, leads to accusations that the championship series was fixed and results in the first major scandal in professional American football. 1917 – In Milwaukee, nine members of the Milwaukee Police Department are killed by a bomb, the most deaths in a single event in U.S. police history until the September 11 attacks in 2001. 1922 – Nine Irish Republican Army members are executed by an Irish Free State firing squad. Among them is author Erskine Childers, who had been arrested for illegally carrying a revolver. 1929 – The Finnish far-right Lapua Movement officially begins when a group of mainly the former White Guard members, led by Vihtori Kosola, interrupted communism occasion at the Workers' House in Lapua, Finland. 1932 – In Washington, D.C., the FBI Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory (better known as the FBI Crime Lab) officially opens. 1935 – The Senegalese Socialist Party holds its second congress. 1940 – World War II: The First Slovak Republic becomes a signatory to the Tripartite Pact, officially joining the Axis powers. 1941 – World War II: The United States grants Lend-Lease to the Free French Forces. 1943 – World War II: At the battle of Makin the USS Liscome Bay is torpedoed near Tarawa and sinks, killing 650 men. 1944 – World War II: The 73rd Bombardment Wing launches the first attack on Tokyo from the Northern Mariana Islands.

#Events

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beardedmrbean · 7 months

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On Wednesday Finland's government postponed a press conference called to announce new measures to deal with increased numbers of asylum seekers from third countries arriving in Finland via Russia.

The delay was down to a last-minute move to stiffen measures to be taken.

That story dominates the news on Thursday, with Iltalehti reporting that the government will decide on closing border crossings before finally holding a press conference in the afternoon.

Finland suspects Russia is funnelling people to the border so they will claim asylum, as the numbers have increased dramatically since the summer, and the media followed up on those angles too.

IL went to the Joutseno asylum reception centre on Wednesday, meeting a man from Azerbaijan who said he had paid a Russian soldier 200 euros for assistance in reaching the Finnish border.

The soldier had then told him to leave Russia, as he would be forced to fight in Ukraine if he did not.

Helsingin Sanomat looks at social media videos aimed at asylum seekers looking to travel to Finland.

The videos claiming "Russia is opening the Finnish border" are available on TikTok and Facebook, in Arabic, and detail the locations of border crossings.

Russia's policy had been to check travel documents and prevent undocumented migrants from reaching the Finnish frontier. That has apparently changed in recent months.

Municipal money worries

Ilta-Sanomat has a story on the debts owed by Finland's 293 mainland municipalities.

The most-indebted council as measured by the amount owed per resident is Lestijärvi, in Central Ostrobothnia. The town owes some 19,080 euros per resident.

Next came Kajaani, with just over 18,500 euros of debt per resident, while Espoo was the third most-indebted council with more than 14,000 euros of debt per resident.

Overall Finnish local authorities owe some 42.4 billion euros, with the average debt per resident 7,850 euros.

The total debt figure is not as significant as future outlook and income streams, when evaluating municipal finances, according to experts interviewed by IS.

The only two councils regarded as crisis councils, according to the Finance Ministry's calculations, had debt well below average.

In 2023 Lemi (debt per resident 3,808 euros) and Pertunmaa (6,987 euros) were the only two to meet the criteria and enter a debt management programme with the ministry.

Honka sink without trace

Helsingin Sanomat reports on FC Honka, the Espoo football club about to disappear from Veikkausliiga, Finland's premiere division football league.

The team had a reasonable 2023 season, finishing fifth in the league and losing a playoff for a place in European competition. But then the problems started to come to light.

The club's first team entity has been named Esport Honka, after their main sponsor and owner, a firm that runs gyms.

However when Esport itself ran into financial difficulties, wages went unpaid and the club announced it would not seek a licence to play in Veikkausliiga in 2024.

Now HS is reporting that the team will not try to play in either of the next two levels either, as the repercussions of its financial problems play out.

They could potentially start in the fourth tier, as the club's reserve side has a league spot there. But that would entail a complex process of separating the two organisations' finances and ensuring every bill owed by Esport Honka has been paid.

Honka's difficulties mean that Espoo, the Helsinki suburb that is technically Finland's second-largest municipality, will be without representation in the top division of men's Finnish football or ice hockey in the coming season.

#nunyas news #updates from up north

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justforbooks · 1 year

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John Motson: The unmistakable voice of football known simply as ‘Motty’

John Motson, who has died aged 77, was BBC television’s “voice” of football for almost half a century, commentating for Match of the Day from 1971 until his retirement in 2018 and becoming affectionately known as “Motty”.

“I remember my first game, Liverpool against Chelsea,” he recalled. “They kicked off and my heart sank because I thought, ‘What do I say now?’ I still remember the feeling. I realised I had a lot of work to do.”

Alongside the energy and passion he brought to the game, that work was evident in his trademark style of reeling off statistics written on an A4 sheet of card in felt-tip pen for each match. Motson put this “obsession” for facts and figures down to being “terrified of not knowing enough or making a mistake” in his early days. He admitted to “overdosing” on it, and gradually used less background information in his commentaries.

Nevertheless, his filing system continued to grow – as did his library of more than 500 football record books. On top of the stats, he displayed an eloquence for describing the occasion. When Liverpool were beaten 0-1 in the 1988 FA Cup final by the unfancied Wimbledon – known for the eccentric behaviour of their players and fans – he spontaneously summed up: “The Crazy Gang has beaten the Culture Club.”

Earlier, at the end of the 1977 FA Cup final, when Manchester United – captained by Martin Buchan – beat Liverpool 2-1, Motson must have been silently thrilled that it enabled him to put his research into action and say: “How fitting that a man called Buchan should be the first to ascend the 39 steps to the royal box”, recalling “ The Thirty-Nine Steps” celebrated spy novel by John Buchan.

His ability to remember every detail of each game he covered also made Motson ideal company away from the pitch. If, for example, he was asked about a Division One Southampton v Birmingham City match at the Dell in the 1973-74 season, he would not only recall the result and those booked, but describe in detail Peter Osgood’s perm and the pattern made by a set of studs on a shin.

However, he was not averse to the occasional “Colemanballs”, emulating the verbal gaffes of his fellow football commentator David Coleman, who was presenter of Match of the Day by the time he started on it himself. Among Motson’s were: “The World Cup is truly an international event”, “The goals made such a difference to the way this game went”, and “For those of you watching in black-and-white, Spurs are in the yellow strip”.

In his long career commentating on more than 2,500 televised games, Motson covered nine World Cups (1974-2006), 29 FA Cup finals (1977-2007, missing just two) and nine European Championships (1976-2008).

He stepped back from his position as the BBC’s lead commentator in 2008, saying he had thought about the forthcoming World Cup in South Africa two years later and “just didn’t feel quite up for it”. His last live commentary was the Euro 2008 final, with Spain beating Germany 1-0 in Vienna.

However, he continued commentating both for football highlights on Match of the Day and for BBC Radio 5 Live until 2018. His final TV commentary was for the Premier League match between Crystal Palace and West Bromwich Albion.

Motson’s standing meant that he became part of the impersonator Rory Bremner’s repertoire of characters, complete with the sheepskin coats that became another of his trademarks on screen after he reached for one when horizontal sleet started falling during an FA Cup tie at Wycombe Wanderers’ ground in 1990.

He had them made to measure in Savile Row, central London, able to afford them on an income that he said gave him security after growing up in a family where his father’s income was “very modest”.

John was born in Salford, which was then in Lancashire, to Gwendoline (nee Harrison) and William Motson, a Methodist minister, brought up in London and educated at Culford school, near Bury St Edmonds, in Suffolk.

His father took him to a Charlton Athletic football match when he was six and, spending childhood holidays in Lincolnshire, his mother’s home county, he supported the non-League team Boston United.

As a teenager, Motson played the game himself in the Barnet Sunday League, as well as becoming a Barnet and Potters Bar youth table-tennis champion.

On leaving school, he began his career in journalism as a reporter on the Barnet Press in 1963. He then moved to the Sheffield Morning Telegraph (1967-68), where he started covering football, qualified as an FA preliminary coach and freelanced for BBC Radio Sheffield.

In 1968, he moved to BBC Radio Sport in London and was first heard nationally as presenter of Radio 4’s Saturday-evening after-match Sports Session (1969-70) before commentating on live matches for Radio 2 (1969-71).

He switched to television and Match of the Day in 1971 following Kenneth Wolstenholme’s departure – becoming TV’s youngest football commentator, aged 26.

Motson found himself describing the disaster at the Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield for the 1989 FA Cup semi-final between Nottingham Forest and Liverpool, which resulted in the deaths of 97 Liverpool fans.

During three seasons from 2001 when the BBC lost rights to Premier League highlights to ITV, Motson commentated for Radio 5 Live. On leaving the BBC in 2018, Motson commentated for talkSPORT, as well as appearing regularly as a pundit on the commercial radio station’s football shows.

Ten years earlier, reflecting on the influence of money in football, he had observed: “It’s true that the game has changed so much, and in many ways not for the better, but it is still the game. It is still beautiful and it still has the power, as few others things, to move nations and continents and, every four years, the world.”

Motson, whose autobiography, Motty: 40 Years in the Commentary Box, was published in 2009, was named the Royal Television Society’s commentator of the year in 2004 and won a Bafta special award in 2018. He was made OBE in 2001.

In 1976 he married Anne Jobling, and she survives him, with their son, Frederick.

🔔 John Walker Motson, football commentator, born 10 July 1945; died 23 February 2023

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

#JUST FOR BOOKS #John Motson #Motty #in memoriam

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momentosdelfutbol23 · 8 months

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THE INCREDIBLE SEXTET OF FC BARCELONA

Before we begin, let's define what a sextet or sextuplet is. A sextet consists of winning the six titles for which a team competes in the span of one year. In the case of FC Barcelona, this meant having triumphs in the Spanish League, the Copa del Rey, the UEFA Champions League, the Club World Cup, the Spanish Super Cup and the European Super Cup in 2009.

Apart from Barça, there has only been one team that has managed to match this moment, Bayern Munich. This team managed to obtain victories in the Bundesliga, the DFB-Pokal, the Champions League, the European Super Cup, the German Super Cup and the Club World Cup during the year 2020.

What has become of the protagonists of the Barcelona sextet? The FC Barcelona team that won these six titles was made up of:

Victor Valdes

Currently, the former Spanish goalkeeper is not facing any team. His last time as his strategist was with UA Horta, a team in Spain's 3rd division, in May 2020.

Daniel Alves

Considered the best right back in history, Dani Alves now plays among the ranks of the UNAM Pumas.

Rafa Marquez

The Mexican Márquez retired from professional football in 2018. Currently, he works as technical director of Barcelona Atlètic.

Eric Abidal

After staying with FC Barcelona until 2013, he retired with the Olympiacos club. Some time later he became sports director of the Blaugranas until 2020.

Maxwell Scherrer Cabelino

Known simply as Maxwell, the player from Brazil retired in 2017 after spending six years with Paris Saint-Germain in France.

Carles Puyol

Considered the heart and captain of Barça, Puyol retired in 2014. Currently, he carries out activities as an ambassador of La Liga, in charge of promoting the principles and values of the Spanish league.

Gerard Piqué

The Spanish player is still among the ranks of Barcelona, where he demonstrates his abilities as a defender and captain.

Yaya Toure

The former Ivorian footballer, who belonged to the club during 2007 and 2010, retired from professional football in January 2020. Currently, he is preparing to become a coach.

Xavi Hernandez

The midfielder left the Spanish team in 2015 to play in Qatar, where he continued until 2019. Since 2021 he has been performing his role as technical director of the Barcelona Football Club in its First Division.

Sergio Busquets

Busquets continues to play among the FC Barcelona lineup as a midfielder and also fills the role of first captain.

Andres Iniesta

The nicknamed “Fantasmita” left the Spanish clubhouse in 2019, after 15 years playing among its ranks. After this, he headed to Japan where he plays for Vissel Kobe of the J1 League as a midfielder.

Seydou Keita

The former Malian footballer was with Barcelona from 2008 to 2012, from there he followed Chinese football and later returned with Valencia CF. Keita closed his career with AS Roma and El-Jaish Sports Club of Qatar in 2017.

Lionel Messi

Considered one of the best footballers today, Messi currently plays for Paris Saint-Germain as a striker. The legendary player was in the ranks of FC Barcelona for almost 20 years.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Swede Ibrahimovic currently plays his role as a striker for the Associazione Calcio Milan of Serie A in Italy. Despite his age, he still demonstrates his power in the elite of European football and is considered a central player for the Rossoneros.

Pedro Eliezer Rodríguez

One of the key players for the culé team, he left the team in 2015. Currently, he is in the Società Sportiva Lazio of Serie A playing as a forward.

Thierry Henry

Last but not least, Henry was considered one of the best strikers in the league; However, he spent only three seasons with Barcelona. Currently, he works as a technical advisor for the Belgium national team.

He got the sextet with the 6 desired glasses

KING'S CUP It was won on May 13, 2009 in Mestalla (Valencia). Barça beat Athletic (1-4) after coming back from 0-1 down.

LEAGUE Guardiola's team celebrated without playing on May 16, 2009, after Real Madrid lost at Villarreal. CHAMPIONS LEAGUE It arrived on May 27, 2009, in Rome. Barça beat Manchester United 2-0 with goals from Eto'o and Messi (header). SPAIN SUPERCUP On August 23, 2009, at the Camp Nou, the Catalan team won the fourth crown after a double duel against Athletic (1-2 and 3-0). EUROPEAN SUPER CUP The fifth title came on August 28, 2009, in Monaco and against Shakhtar Donetsk (1-0). The goal was scored by Pedro, in extra time. CLUB WORLD CUP The icing on the cake, on December 19, 2009, in Abu Dhabi and against Estudiantes de La

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joeyvimsantepoet · 3 months

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European Conferences In American Sports Leagues

European Conferences In North American Sports Leagues.

People often wonder how the major North American sports leagues like NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL,and MLS could grow.

My idea is there could be European conferences that play the majority of games against fellow European franchises and 10 games home and away against Eastern North American franchises in the regular season. Then the leading sides in the European conferences qualify for the play offs of the North American sports league.

So for instance places like Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dublin, Dundee, Cardiff, Leeds, Belfast, Swansea, Cork, Newcastle, Birmingham, Dortmund, Frankfurt, Liverpool, Turin, Naples, Bilbao, Lyon, Rennes, Vienna, Rome, Lisbon, Milan, Prague, Wroclaw, Copenhagen, Warsaw, Paris, Sevilla, Amsterdam, Liege, Nantes, Nice, London, Manchester, Hull, Athens, Vigo, Metz, Sockholm, Madrid, Barcelona, Zaragoza, Bratislava, Stuttgart, Munich, Coventry, Goteborg, Oslo, and other European cities and regions could support franchises in the European conferences of the Major North American Sports Leagues at male and female sport. So for instance the NFL could have a European Conference with Madrid, London, Munich, Paris, and Rome. This would add to North American sports and allow the big American leagues to grow in safe, wealthy markets. This could happen in baseball, soccer, basketball, American football, ice hockey, and other sports.

The same could also happen in other parts of the World like Asia, Africa, Oceania, South America, and Central America.

#Major League #Major leagues #Basketball #Baseball #Soccer #North american #Europe #London #Munich #Coventry

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jfbuckley · 8 months

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This was a finish that was on a par with - or even better than - the Champions League final in 1999. Obviously the circumstances are vastly different - you can’t really compare beating a struggling premier league team with winning the European Cup - but in a way it was just as momentous. It comes after the worst run I can remember United having since 1999. I felt that there was a real danger that this might be the end for Ten Hag if we lost - not necessarily immediately, but probably the start of a slide that he would not recover from. It seemed ominous at 90 minutes when Mark Goldberg said on United Stand: “He’s lost the players!! 100%”. Ten Hag then seemed to be starting his departure from the club, but five minutes later everything had miraculously changed. McTominay had suddenly changed from “McShite” to “Scotty”. How fickle football fans can be…

In 2009, I witnessed another late, late show by United that has gone down in the annals. Coming to the climax of the season it looked like United were going to throw it all away. Injury time was looming and we were 2-1 down to Aston Villa. A few minutes later, Federico Macheda gave us an extraordinary 3-2 victory. I was watching at home with my football correspondent as guest: I was treated to a display of exuberant victory celebrations that has surely never been equalled. Fourteen years later and he was at this match and I am led to understand that his celebrations exceeded even those of the Macheda goal. It really must have been something to behold!

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hi - most united fans would agree the highpoint last season was the victory over barcelona - the starting XI that night at old trafford was de gea, wan bissaka, varane, martinez, shaw, fred, casemiro, fernandes, sancho, rashford, weghorst

for this game united had a completely new defence whilst of the rest only fernandes, rashford and casemiro survived - and some fans would say that in general all 3 are not performing to their usual high standards

no wonder i wrote last week that united don't seem the same as they did last season - however we had a chance to look at the promising duo of maguire and evans in central defence

after recent results it was understandable that it was a low key start to the match - not much happened until 26 minutes when united rushed a free kick and put themselves under pressure - a ball into the box was weakly cleared by an off balance lindelof - eventually the ball fell to jensen whose effort would have been saved by a keeper from the womens super league - unfortunately onana is not playing well and the ball went thru his weak right hand - last week i said opposition only need to wait for a united mistake - well this was a perfect example

at half time i observed to a fellow fan that one day he'd be leaving old trafford smiling and full of joy but when that day was going to come i just didn't know

the 2nd half trundled on - brentford did a palace and set their stall out for a 1 goal win - united pressed without conviction - casemiro was replaced at half time, rashford went off after an hour - the final sub was mctominay after 87 - just before 90 minutes united found the net - relief was short - VAR ruled martial offside - we sank back into our seats

the announcer boomed 'there will be 6 minutes of added time' - after 3 minutes garnacho picked up the ball on the left - he worked his way to the bye line and pulled the ball back to the edge of the area - dalot fired at goal - it was spilled by the keeper and kicked away - it went to mctominay who controlled the bouncing ball and knocked an equaliser just inside the post - we roared with relief and stayed standing - martial had a chance a minute later but the keeper saved

in the last seconds dalot took a free kick from the half way line - it soared to the far edge of the area where maguire won the duel and headed forward - it was met by the on rushing mctominay whose header was touched but not saved by the keeper - joy unconfined - celebrations all around me - as for me ? i was once told that my reaction to machedas goal against villa in 2009 was something to behold - i suspect that was repeated and then some

as we calmed down i said to that fellow fan - you know what i said at half time, well ..... ITS TODAY !!!!!

bye

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