December 2009
31 posts
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“Everyone thinks they have the prettiest wife at home”
– May 2002 - Arsene Wenger reacts to Sir Alex Ferguson’s comments that Manchester United were the “better team” despite Arsenal winning the double.
Robin Hackett: Quotes of the decade - Review of the Decade - ESPN Soccernet
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Arsenal Rotherham 1960
The fifties were something of a golden era for Rotherham United. They were a second level club and in 1954/55 came so very very close to winning promotion to the top flight. They finished in 3rd place level on points with Birmingham and Luton in 1st and 2nd but missed out on goal average 0.1916 behind the runners up.
Their cup run of 59/60 was something of a marathon. Drawn against...
History of Russian football : an introduction →
Article on the influence of the British in the development of association football in Tsarist Russia.
Football in USSR →
Soviet soccer stats. USSR championship, cup, national team, player information.
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“Lying and deception and bad faith are standard operating procedure at FIFA”
– Adam C. Silverstein, a lawyer for MasterCard in their successful action against FIFA, New York, December 1, 2006 | Reasons why Sepp Blatter dare not sue
FIFA branded liars by a judge
Foul!: The Secret World of FIFA: Bribes, Vote Rigging and Ticket Scandals
Groundhopping.se →
Website run by a Swedish groundhopper who travels all over Europe visiting football grounds. Great articles & pictures.
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Swastikas Over Ibrox →
THERE IS a famous photo of the England football team giving the Nazi salute in Berlin in 1938. But less well known is the part Nazi politics played two years earlier, the last time a united Germany faced Scotland at Ibrox in 1936.
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1919 and all that
Plenty of shenanigans in the football world at the end of World War I. When the league started back up after the wartime break the Football League decided to increase the first division to 22 clubs. Custom and practice in cases of league expansion was to re-elect the bottom two clubs whilst promoting the top two clubs from Division 2.
So, both Chelsea & Spurs who had finished 19th and 20th...
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Wartime Football
You know for sure there’s a war on when you’re at the football and an air raid warden is scanning the sky for any sign of the Luftwaffe! This photo, possibly, shows a game between West Ham and Chelsea from 1940 but happy to be corrected if anyone knows any different.
Edit: Confirmed, the game was West Ham v Chelsea played on 7th December 1940 at Upton Park. The Hammers ran out 6-2...
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Vintage FA Cup Images
One of the most eagerly anticipated days in the English football calendar is nearly upon us. FA Cup 3rd Round day is on 2nd January 2010 so to whet the appetite here’s a few vintage images from bygone days.
The FA Cup at TheFA.com
The FA Cup on Facebook
Search LA84 Foundation →
Interested in sports history? Then you have just got to check out this massive searchable online digital archive.
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Protecting the pitch 1925 style
Groundsmen lay bundles of straw on the White Hart Lane pitch to protect it from frost in the winter of 1925.
The Political Economy of Football | UK and World... →
Independent website that follows business developments in football.
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Sheffield: The Home of Football
If you’re an afficionado of football and love to read about how the game developed then this new book is just for you. It explores how Sheffield became the cradle of association football. There’s a competition on the official Sheffield United website to win one of two copies that are available. Check it out. The book is also available to buy on Amazon. Click the link below.
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alerta! network →
antifascist football fan network. remember history. support resistance.
Ultras Hapoel Tel Aviv Since 1999 →
Hapoel Tel Aviv Official Club Site (English... →
THE VINTAGE FOOTBALL CLUB →
Quality retro football blog featuring stuff from the seventies & eighties.
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Bloglines | footysphere's Blog Roll →
the footysphere blogroll - football (soccer) blogs
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Penarol - Intercontinental Club Champions
Barcelona and Estudiantes go head-to-head on Saturday in the final of the 2009 FIFA Club World Cup. So we’ll take a trip back to yesteryear & revisit the competition in it’s former guise as the Intercontinental Cup. Above you’ll see a rather fetching postal cover commemorating Penarol’s 1966 success.
Penarol had taken part in the first World Club Championship in...
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Blog Explosion FAIL
Sorry for the non-football related post but feel I must share this with you all. I have it on good authority that Footysphere is not a blog. Yup that’s right, despite ticking all the boxes that defines a blog as per Google and Wikipedia definitions the muppets who operate the Blog Explosion blog directory have informed me that Footysphere is not a blog and is therefore denied an entry...
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European Football Weekends: Lewes FC Clubhouse -... →
We love worthy causes here on Footysphere and we’d like to draw your attention to a project down in sunny Sussex. Lewes FC clubhouse is apparently a little drab and they are wanting to brighten it up. They’ve decided to fill it with football colours of the world. Scarfs, pennants and any other football memorabilia that gets sent their way. Can you help them out? Of course it’ll...
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Hull City v Tampa Bay Rowdies 1984 Anglo American...
Beautiful programme from a rather mysterious match. I can’t find any information about this Anglo American Cup game, which according to the programme is the ‘first of it’s kind ever to be held’, nor the return fixture that was played on 13th June 1984. Even a search over at the American Soccer History Archives draws a blank. I’m gonna make it my business to find...
