billsportsmaps.com

May 6, 2016

Leicester City FC – the unlikely champions of England in 2016: chart of Best Eleven/primary squad (the 11 primary starters + 4 other player-options (15 players profiled/with 2015-16 league stats & international stats/ plus, manager Claudio Ranieri, with his CV).

Filed under: 2015-16 English football — admin @ 2:07 pm

By Bill Turianski on 6 May 2016; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.

    Leicester City FC – the unlikely champions of England in 2016 (at 5000-to-1 odds)…

Question: where is Leicester? Answer: As you can see in the small map below, Leicester is near the centre of England – in Leicestershire – which is in the East Midlands. Leicester is 144 km (89 mi) NW of London, by road. Leicester’s nearest major city is Nottingham (which is also in the East Midlands)…Leicester is 44 km (27 mi) S of Nottingham, by road. Also, Leicester is nearby another major city – Birmingham (which is in the West Midlands)… Leicester is 53 km (33 mi) ENE of Birmingham, by road. {Source: distancefromto.net.} There is something which makes Leicester stand out from other British cities..”This is the first city in the United Kingdom with less than 50 percent of the population identifying as “white British”…” {quote from We’ve Come to Win the League, by Wright Thompson at espn.go.com}.

With about 755,000 people residing in Greater Leicester, Leicester is the 16th-largest metropolitan-area in the United Kingdom, and the 12th-largest metro-area in England. {Source/2011 figures: List of metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom (en.wikipedia.org).}
leicester-city_2015-16-english-champions_king-power-stadium_location-map-for-leicester_h_.gif
Photo and Image credits above -
Aerial view of King Power Stadium (home of Leicester City FC), with the city of Leicester in the background, photo by Plumb Images via gettyimages.in. Leicester City 2015/16 home jersey, photo by blsec.com. Aerial view of Leicester city centre, photo by AeroEngland.co.uk at aeroengland.co.uk/leicester. Blank map of the UK [segment], by Daniel Dalet at d-maps.com/[UK]. Shot of Eden Hazard scoring goal against Tottenham (which evened up the score 2-2 and thus clinched the title for Leicester City), photo by Reuters via dailymail.co.uk. Shot of Leicester City fans who were watching, in a pub, celebrating their club’s title-win, photo by Eddie Keough/Reuters via nytimes.com. The Leicester City Premier League winners bus parade (16 May 2016), photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images Europe via zimbio.com. Title-winners LCFC banner, photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images via gettyimages.com. Bus with Ranieri and squad at victory parade, photo by Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images via fansided.com/2016/05/16/enormous-turnout-leicester-city-team-parade.





-From 2 May 2016, from the New York Times, by Sam Borden, The Remarkable Rise of Leicester City – A year after narrowly avoiding relegation, the Foxes beat 5,000-to-1 odds to win the Premier League title (nytimes.com/sports/soccer).

-From 29 April 2016, from Guardian/football, by Paolo Bandini, Claudio Ranieri: a gentle and principled man on the verge of immortality (theguardian.com/football).

-From 2 May 2016, from Guardian/football-blog, by Barney Ronay, The Leicester Supremacy – a triumph that was never supposed to happen
Champions have vaulted an impassable gulf of finance and privilege in modern‑day Big Football to re‑energise the most inspiring sporting principle of open competition (theguardian.com/football/blog).

-From 4 May 2016, from Sky Sports, by Nick Wright, Leicester’s N’Golo Kante the signing of the season after stellar campaign (skysports.com/football).

-Recommended (cool animation + informative)…From ESPN, with illustrations by Martin Laksman • Animation by Rich Hinchcliff, Leicester’s heroes [animated article profiling Leicester players] (espn.go.com).

    Leicester City FC – the unlikely 2015-16 English champions: chart of primary squad (Best Eleven)
    (11 primary starters + 4 other player-options (15 players profiled/with 2015-16 Premier League stats & international stats/ plus, manager Claudio Ranieri, with his CV)…

leicester-city_squad-chart_2015-16-champions-of-england_claudio-ranieri_jaimie-vardy_riyad-mahrez_n-golo-kante_k_.gif"

Photo and Image credits above -
Leicester players (Okazaki, Mahrez, Drinkwater) celebrate Wes Morgan’s goal versus Southampton at King Power Stadium [1-0 final score, on 3 April 2016], photo by Reuters via dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3522008/Wes-Morgan-admits-quite-ill-just-day-scoring-against-Southampton-boost-Leicester-City-s-title-chances.
Manager, Claudio Ranieri, photo of Ranieri discussing tactics with Morgan, Okazaki, and Vardy during game-break [22 Aug. 2015 vs Spurs], photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images Europe via zimbio.com. Squad listening to Ranieri on touch line, photo by AP via screamer.deadspin.com/leicester-city-cant-really-be-this-good-can-they.
LCFC stats leaders, Vardy, photo by Action Photos via dailymail.co.uk. Mahrez, photo by PA via dailymail.co.uk. Kanté, photo unattributed at sportsmole.co.uk.
Leicester City 2015/16 home jersey, photo by blsec.com.
Player photos,
Goalkeeper, Kasper Schmeichel (GK), photo is a Getty Images photo unattributed at tarringa.net, here, 1.pictures.zimbio.com.
Defenders,
Danny Simpson (RB), photo unattributed at skysports.com/football/leicester-vs-man-city, here. Wes Morgan (CB), photo by Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images Europe via zimbio.com. Robert Huth (CB), photo unattributed at squaka.com. Christian Fuchs (LB/LMF), photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images Europe via zimbio.com.
Midfielders/Wingers…
Riyad Mahrez (RW/LW/AMF), photo by Rex Features via telegraph.co.uk/sport. Danny Drinkwater (CMF/RMF/DMF), photo unattributed at givemesport.com, here. N’Golo Kanté (CMF/DMF), photo unattributed at skysports.com.
Marc Albrighton (MF/MF/CMF), photo by leicestermercury.co.uk.
Forwards…
Shinji Okazaki (FW/LW/RW), photo by Plumb Images via gettyimages.ie. Jamie Vardy (FW/LW/RW), photo by Tony Marshall/Getty Images Europe via zimbio.com.
Other player-options…
Nathan Dyer (RW/LW), photo by Getty Images via sportsmole.co.uk. Andy King (CMF/AMF/DMF), photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images Europe via zimbio.com. Leonardo Ulloa (CF), photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images Europe via zimbio.com. Jeffrey Schlupp (LB/LMF/LW), photo by Ross Kinniard/Getty Images at gettyimages.co.uk.

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Thanks to all contributors at the following sites…
-Wikipedia page of Leicester City FC… Leicester City F.C. (en.wikipedia.org).
-Squad…LEICESTER CITY 2015-16/SQUAD (soccerway.com).
-Squad, with stats, incl. assists… Leicester, Squad [2015-16] (whoscored.com).
-Squad, with stats, incl. player-positions & market value… transfermarkt.com/leicester-city (transfermarkt.com).
Sites where I found stats which I used on the chart,
Interceptions: statspack.squawka.com [2015-16 PL]; whoscored.com/Regions/252/Tournaments/2/England-Premier-League.
Tackles: skysports.com/football/news/11712/10266844/leicesters-ngolo-kante-the-signing-of-the-season-after-stellar-campaign.
Assists, appearances: whoscored.com [2015-16 PL].
Nationalities: transfermarkt.com/premier-league.

December 18, 2015

Football Clubs of London (all Greater London-based association football clubs in the top 5 divisions of football in England – 16 clubs): location-map with current domestic leagues home average attendances.

london_football-clubs2015-16_5-premier-league-clubs_9-football-league-clubs_2-conference-national-league-clubs_16-london-clubs-in-the-top5-div_map_post_db_.gif
Football Clubs of London (all Greater London-based association football clubs in the top 5 divisions of football in England – 16 clubs): location-map with current average attendances




Links…
-London (en.wikipedia.org).
-Football clubs of London (top 8 divisions)…Football in London (en.wikipedia.org).
-A recent article on football in London, from the Two Unfortunates site…Football Cities: London (on 9 Nov.2015, by Rob Langham at thetwounfortunates.com).
-London Photos Archive (londontopia.net).
london-at-night_aerial-shot_thames_tower-bridge_west-london-view_d_.gif
Photo credit above – unattributed at londontopia.net.

    Map of the Football Clubs of London
    (all Greater London-based association football clubs in the top 5 divisions of football in England – 16 clubs)

By Bill Turianski on 18 December 2015; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.

Update: Welling United were relegated out of the 5th division in May 2016. Sutton United, of south-west London, were promoted to the 5th division in May 2016. If you are curious to see where Sutton Utd are located, click on the following, 2016–17 [Non-League] National League (aka the Conference) [5th division England], map w/ 15/16-crowds-&-finish./+ features on the 4 promoted clubs (Solihull Moors, North Ferriby United, Sutton United, Maidstone United).

Three clubs who will be moving to new grounds in the very-near or somewhat-near future (West Ham Utd, Brentford, AFC Wimbledon)…
On the map, I have included the details of the West Ham United stadium move. {See this, Boleyn becomes bygone: West Ham’s Upton Park upheaval a sign of the times (by Daniel Taylor, on 28 Nov.2015, at theguardian.com/football/blog).} The map has also been be updated with respect to Brentford’s new ground, now that it is 100% certain that Brentford will begin construction on their proposed new stadium, approximately 1.5 km E of Griffin Park. {See this, Go-ahead for Brentford FC stadium and 650 homes (on 14 Dec.2015, at constructionenquirer.com)./ Also see this, Brentford take significant step towards Lionel Road stadium as Hounslow Council activate CPO (getwestlondon.co.uk by Tom Moore from 2 Aug. 2016).} Similarly, the map has been updated now that fan-owned AFC Wimbledon has won council approval for their new ground and their return, east, near-to Wimbledon, in Merton. {See this, Go-ahead for new stadium – AFC Wimbledon is ‘delighted’ that Merton Council has approved the club’s plans to build a new stadium in the borough (on 12 Dec.2015, at thedonstrust.org).} AFC Wimbledon had recently secured a cash-raise-sale of their Kingsmeadow ground in south-west London, in order to fund their planned new stadium in Merton. {See this, AFC Wimbledon close on new stadium near Plough Lane after Chelsea sale (by David Conn, on 17 Nov.2015, at theguardian.com/football).}

Map of London-based football clubs (top 5 divisions/16 clubs)…
The map shows the locations of the football grounds of the 16 clubs. The grounds’ names are listed next to small crests of the clubs. To best view an enlarged map-section, I recommend clicking on the white-shaded City of London (right in the center of the map)…that should give you an enlarged map-section which includes all 16 clubs. I have included a few extra details for the Greater London map – the aforementioned City of London’s small confines are noted, as are the locations of the following: Regent’s Park; Hyde Park, Parliament [Westminster]; Trafalgar Square (in Westminster), Wembley Stadium (in north-west London); the Royal Observatory, Greenwich [home of 0 degrees longitude (the Prime Meridian), and Greenwich Mean Time]; and the Dartford Crossing. (The Dartford Crossing is a vital and heavily-traveled dual-tunnel/bridge crossing located on the River Thames just east of Greater London, which connects Dartford, Kent to Thurrock, Essex, and is the only fixed-road crossing of the Thames east of Greater London; the busiest estuarial crossing in the UK, it services around 130,000 vehicles daily). The four largest municipalities adjacent to Greater London are also noted (the Medway Towns [incl. Gillingham] in Kent, Southend-on-Sea in Essex, Slough in Berkshire, and Watford in Hertfordshire). Some other municipalities adjacent to Greater London are also listed, mainly to point out the closest-to-Greater-London clubs (Watford in Herts, home of Watford FC/1st Div/Premier League club; Borehamwood in Herts, home of Boreham Wood FC/5th Div club; and Dartford in Kent, home of Dartford FC/5th Div club). Though not officially located in Greater London, these 3 clubs could be considered de-facto Greater London clubs, owing to proximity and road-and-rail-connections to central London.

My first map of London teams was posted 6 years ago…
The first time I covered this topic – in mid-December of 2009 – it was a quick decision, a very-hastily-made map, and a swift posting {here, Football Clubs of Greater London, 2009-10 season [top 5 divisions/15 clubs]}. Then, through the past 6 years, that Dec. 2009 map-&-post of the Football Clubs of London has become my most-viewed map. (That is because lots of football fans from all over the world Google-search with queries such as “football teams in london [Image search]“, or “london football clubs [Image search]“.)

So I figured it was high time I re-visited this topic. Hayes & Yeading FC are no longer on the map (they are a 6th Division club now), while two South London clubs – Bromley FC and Welling United FC – have progressed to the 5th Division and are now featured on the new map here. This time, in addition to listing each of the featured clubs’ total-seasons-in-1st-division and major-titles-(w/-last-title-listed), the map page now includes a photo of each club’s stadium. Some of the stadium-photos I selected are aerial shots of the stadiums, some of the photos are exterior shots, and some are interior and interior-game-action shots…basically I just selected the coolest-looking photo I could find for each club’s ground. The stadium-photos at the foot of the map page are arranged left-to-right/top-to-bottom by average home league attendance figures [current attendance figures to 13 Dec.2015/sources linked to at the foot of this post]. Date of the stadium’s opening & stadium capacity is listed in the caption-box above each club’s stadium-photo. The chart at the right-hand side of the map page is also ranked from highest-drawing-London-club-in-top-5-divisions (Arsenal) to lowest-drawing-London-club-in-top-5-divisions (Welling Utd).

Oh, and in case you are wondering, there is one Greater-London-based club, in the current-6th Div/National League South, that has a decent shot at gaining promotion to the 5th Level, and that is Sutton United, who are located in South London and currently [18 Dec.2015] are in the play-off places in fourth.

Update: Sutton United did win promotion to the 5th division. Here is a recent map-and-post (Aug 2016) I made which has the location of and information about Sutton United, 2016–17 [Non-League] National League (aka the Conference) [5th division England], map w/ 15/16-crowds-&-finish./+ features on the 4 promoted clubs (Solihull Moors, North Ferriby United, Sutton United, Maidstone United).
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Thanks to all at the following links below…
Photo credits on the map page -
-Arsenal (Emirates Stadium), exterior entrance with cannons in foreground, photo by Ronnie Macdonald at File:Emirates Stadium -canons.jpg.
-Chelsea (Stamford Bridge), aerial photo by Tom Shaw/Getty Images Europe via zimbio.com.
-Tottenham (White Hart Lane), exterior roof-top view of stadium, photo unattributed at tottenhamhotspur.wikia.com/wiki/White_Hart_Lane.
-West Ham Utd (Boleyn Ground aka Upton Park), aerial photo by Tom Shaw/Getty Images Europe via zimbio.com.
-Crystal Palace (Selhurst Park), photo of exterior of Holmesdale Road Stand, by Rosella Scalia at thecroydoncitizen.com [article: The road to Selhurst Park, by Rosella Scalia].
-Fulham (Craven Cottage), photo of the actual Craven cottage there at the ground, unattributed at premierleague.com/fulham.
-Charlton Athletic (The Valley), aerial photo by Mark Fosh at File:Charlton Athletic football ground.jpg.
-Queens Park Rangers (Loftus Road), interior of the ground during a match (action shot), photo by Lee Abbamonte at leeabbamonte.com/sports-weekend-in-london.
-Brentford (Griffen Park), aerial photo by David Levene at theguardian.com/travel/interactive/2013/mar/15/brentford-football-club-pub-each-corner-interactive.
-Millwall (The New Den), street-level exterior photo of the New Den, photo by fussballinlondon.de [Millwall/The Den].
-Leyton Orient (Brisbane Road), aerial photo by Tom Shaw/Getty Images Europe via zimbio.com.
-AFC Wimbledon (Kingsmeadow aka Cherry Red Records Stadium), photo unattributed at getwestlondon.co.uk/afc-wimbledon-2014-15 .
-Barnet (The Hive), photo taken from the Jubilee line by Paul50, uploaded by Dave H at onlybarnet.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5329&start=570 [thread: The Hive ground].
-Dagenham & Redbridge (Victoria Road aka Chigwell Construction Stadium), photo by Rambler1977 via stadiumdb.com/stadiums/eng/victoria_road.
-Bromley (Hayes Lane), photo from stadien-in-baden-wuerttemberg.de/England.
-Welling Utd (Park View Road), photo by the Onion Bag.blogspot.com [Saturday 26th February - Conference South Welling United 1 v Weston-Super-Mare 0.] (onion-bag.blogspot.com).

Also, Thank You, to…
-All who contributed to…Football in London (en.wikipedia.org).
-Nilfanion…Blank relief map of Greater London, by Nilfanion (using UK Ordnance Survey data), at File:Greater London UK relief location map.jpg.
-Soccerway.com: attendances on map page are from from soccerway.com.
-Non-League clubs’ attendances from NonLeagueMatters.co.uk.
-Lanterne Rouge at the Two Unfortunates, for the great article on football in London circa 2015 and for re-tweeting recent tweets from @billsportsmaps.
-Àxel Aguilar, @aguilaraxel, for several re-tweets and for solid advice this year – he told me i needed a better banner at twitter :l (he was right).
-Martín Donato, @martindonato, for several re-tweets and recommends, etc.

Happy Holidays & best wishes for 2016, to all who visit here.

August 7, 2015

England: Premier League [1st division], 2015-16 location-map with: 14/15 attendances, all-time seasons in 1st division + major titles listed./ Plus, a few words about each of the 3 sides promoted for 15/16 (Bournemouth, Watford, Norwich City).

Note: to see my latest map-&-post of Premier League, click on the following, category: Eng>Premier League (Eng. 1st division). Otherwise, if you really do want to see an out-dated map. scroll down.
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http://billsportsmaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/2015-16_premier-league_post_d_.gif
England: Premier League [1st division], location-map with 14/15 attendances, all-time seasons in 1st division + major titles listed




Links…
-Teams, etc…2015–16 Premier League (en.wikipedia.org).
-News, fixtures, results, table, etc…Premier League page at BBC.
-My favorite site for articles on the Premier League, etc…The Guardian.com/football (theguardian.com/football).
-Table, fixtures, results, stats, etc…soccerway.com/national/england/premier-league.
-Kits…Barclays Premier League 2015 – 2016 [home, away & alternate kits] (historicalkits.co.uk).

    England: Premier League [the first division], location-map with 14/15 attendances, all-time seasons in 1st division + major titles listed…

By Bill Turianski on 7 August 2015; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.com.

Promoted from the League Championship for 2015-16…

-AFC Bournemouth (aka the Cherries) – This is the top-flight-debut-season for the cherry-red-&-black-striped Cherries, who hail from the south coast of England in Dorset. Bournemouth is about 40 km (or 25 mi) SW of Southampton. It might surprise you to know that Bournemouth is actually the 16th-largest city (metro area) in the United Kingdom {see this} [Bournemoth/Poole built up area has a population of around 466,000]. Bournemouth, with only an 11.7 K-capacity ground (Dean Court), and a ~10-K-sized fan base, are certainly one of the smallest-ever Premier League clubs (ie, since the formation of the Premier League in 1992-93/ other contenders would be Wimbledon FC, Oldham Athletic, Swindon Town, and Blackpool).
{Sources for last sentence: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Premier_League_clubs;
european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn.htm}.

Bournemouth were almost liquidated in Feb. 2008, when the then-fourth-division club were stuck with around £4 million in debts…and after the automatic 17 points penalty they were handed, they narrowly avoided relegation out of the Football League the following season (in 2008-09). So…from the brink of banishment from the League in May 2009, to three promotions in the next six seasons incl. a Premier League debut in August 2015. Holy Cow.

Bournemouth are majority-owned (since 2011) by Russian petro-chemical-mini-oligarch Maxim Denim (cash-wise he’s probably one-twentieth, or less, as rich as Roman Abramovich [the Chelski owner]; Denim can also be compared to Abramovich in that both are discreet and publicity-shy in their ownership roles).

Bournemouth are managed by the up-and-coming 37-year-old, Eddie Howe, who played for Portsmouth and for Bournemoth as a DF, before the injuries mounted up. And so, as a 27-year-old, he retired from the pitch – which led to his decision to acquire his coaching badges. Howe was first hired as Bournemouth manager in January 2009, when he was only 32. Bournemouth under Howe won promotion to League One in 2009-10. A half-season later in Jan. 2011, he left to manage Burnley, to lukewarm effect over a 2.7 season-spell. And then in Oct. 2012, Howe simply resigned from his manager’s role at Burnley, and immediately returned to his manager’s role at Bournemouth. He then led the Cherries to promotion to the Championship that season (2012-13), and, two seasons later, he led the Cherries to promotion to the Premier League. Howe likes his squad to move the ball around on the ground and constantly press for scoring chances – and they scored a League Championship-best 98 goals last season. Bournemouth could be shaping up to be a real neutral’s favorite for 2015-16.

-Watford FC (aka the Hornets) – This [2015-16] will be the 9th season in the top flight for Watford (last in 2006-07). The club usually draws around 13-16 K when in the second division, and are situated just outside of, and north-west of, the official boundaries of Greater London, in Hertfordshire. But the town of Watford’s real connection to London is apparent in the fact that one of the London tube [subway] lines reaches Watford. Watford FC are nicknamed the Hornets, but their crest features a domestic breed of deer with huge antlers (a hart; which is a reference to the club’s home county of Herts). Watford’s kit is yellow jerseys and usually black pants (and their gear usually has some red trim). Watford FC is rock legend Elton John’s club – he is lifetime President (a role he shares with former Watford manager and England coach Graham Taylor), and which is a title he has earned, for sure, by bailing out the club more than once, via solid cash, or via the odd benefit rock concert at the club’s Vicarage Road ground (present capacity 21 K).

Watford are now one of the 3 homes of the Italian experiment…see this, How the Pozzo family have fueled Watford’s Premier League dreams (theguardian.com/football by Simon Burnton from 3 Aug. 2015). Not sure if I am rooting for their business model, which involves a cartel-style approach with respect to farming a giant in-house roster amongst their 3 top flight clubs (the Pozzos also own Udinese Calcio [a top flight Italian club] and Granada CF [a top flight Spanish club]). As a commenter said in the Guardian article linked to above, “hmm its at least dubious to ‘acquire’ players without any fee, who no other club has access to. sounds like a form of cheating to me. certainly don’t see how it benefits other clubs.” (< comment by ID9782772.) Another thing bothersome about how Watford currently does business is that they shed managers like crazy...since the Pozzos took over the club in the summer of 2012, seven different people have managed the club (that is an average of 2.3 managers per season). And they had FOUR managers last season. The current person in charge (for now) is the Spaniard Quique Flores.

-Norwich City FC (aka the Canaries) – (2015-16 will be Norwich City’s 25th season in the first division; their highest finish was third place in 1992-93.) It is always good to see the Canaries back in the Premier League…this time they bounced straight back after winning the 2014-15 Football League Championship Play-off Final at Wembley, in front of 85.6 K, besting Middlesbrough 2-0, with goals from MF Cam Jerome in the 12th minute, and from Winger Nathan Redmond 3 minutes later (15′). Both Jerome and Redmond return for Norwich this season. This is one serious yo-yo club: Norwich City have won three promotions to the Premier League in the last 12 years (since 2002-03), a time-period which also included a one-season stint in the third tier in 2009-10 (where their solid ~24-to-26-K crowd-size did not drop at all…the club averaged 24,671 per game at home when they were in the third division, which, believe it or not, was the 19th best in all Leagues in all of England and Wales that season / fair play Norwich City fans).

The club is from the city which is the smallest perennial top flight city in England – Greater Norwich only has a population of around 213,000, and is just the 36th-largest city (metro-area) in the UK. And, for the longest time, Norwich was the largest settlement in the UK which was not connected to a major roadway…hence the club was sometimes mildly patronized as a club supported by country yokels (not). But, as pointed out by commenter R Groom in the Comments section futher below, the city of Norwich finally does have a proper major roadway connection to London, etc. Anyway, they sure can pack ‘em in up there in East Anglia, as Norwich City constantly draws to +95-percent-capacity (at around 26 K-per-game in the 27-K-capacity Carrow Road). Love their kit, too, which is, of course, bright yellow-orange jerseys and brilliant turtle-green pants. Managed by Scotsman Alex Neil, who is just 34, and was hired by Norwich City in Jan. 2015, when Norwich sat 7th, 3 points off the play-offs. Neil’s previous stint was as player-manager with plucky Scottish top-flight-minnows Hamilton Academical, whom he led to promotion in 2013-14.
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Thanks to all at the links below…
-Blank map of UK historic counties, by Nilfanion (using UK Ordnance Survey data), at File:United Kingdom police areas map.svg (commons.wikimedia.org).
-Blank relief map of Greater London, by Nilfanion (using UK Ordnance Survey data), at File:Greater London UK relief location map.jpg.

-Attendances from E-F-S site, european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn.htm.
-2014-15 stadium capacities (for league matches) from soccerway.com, us.soccerway.com/national/england/championship/20152016/regular-season/r31555/.

-League histories of clubs:
-England – First Level All-Time Tables 1888/89-2013/14.
-Footy-Mad sites’ League History pages, such as Swansea City-mad, here, swanseacity-mad.co.uk/league_history.

-Titles…
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_football_champions.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_FA_Cup_finals.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Football_League_Cup_finals.

July 25, 2015

England: 2015-16 League Championship [2nd division], location-map with 14/15 attendances, all-time seasons in 1st division + major titles listed.

Filed under: 2015-16 English football,Eng-2nd Level/Champ'ship — admin @ 9:21 pm

Please note: to see my most recent map-and-post of the English 2nd division, click on the following: category: Eng-2nd level/Championship.
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England: 2015-16 League Championship [2nd division], location-map with 14/15 attendances, all-time seasons in 1st division + major titles listed.




Links…
Teams…2015–16 Football League Championship (en.wikipedia.org).
News, fixtures, results, table, etc…Football League Championship page at BBC.com.
Table, fixtures, results, stats, etc…soccerway.com/national/england/championship/20152016/regular-season/r31555/.
Kits…Sky Bet League Championship 2015 – 2016 [home, away & alternate kits] (historicalkits.co.uk).

By Bill Turianski on 25 July 2015; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.com.

Promoted to the Championship from League One for 2015-16:
-Bristol City
This is the club’s first appearance back in the 2nd division in 3 years [last in 2012-13].
-Milton Keynes
This is the franchise’s 1st appearance in the 2nd division since Milton-Keynes-&-Winkleman stole Wimbledon’s place in the League (May 2002) [/and then were relegated out of the 2nd division in 2003-04]). Excerpt from the Milton Keynes Dons page at Wikipedia…”The result of Wimbledon F.C.’s relocation to Milton Keynes from south London in September 2003, the club officially considers itself to have been founded in 2004, when it adopted its present name, badge and home colours.” So, bearing that in mind, this [2015-16] can be considered Milton Keynes’ first season in the 2nd division.
-Preston North End
This is the club’s first appearance back in the 2nd division in 5 years [last in 2010-11].

-Relegated to the Championship from Premier League for 2015-16:
Hull City (after a two-season spell in the Premier League, Hull City are back in the 2nd division).
Burnley (a yo-yo club, going up then back down).
Queens Park Rangers (a serious yo-yo club, going up then down then back up then back down once again).
___
Thanks to all at the links below…
-Blank map of UK historic counties, by Nilfanion (using UK Ordnance Survey data), at File:United Kingdom police areas map.svg (commons.wikimedia.org).
-Blank relief map of Greater London, by Nilfanion (using UK Ordnance Survey data), at File:Greater London UK relief location map.jpg.

-Attendances from E-F-S site, european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn.htm.
-2013-14 stadium capacities (for league matches) from soccerway.com, us.soccerway.com/national/england/championship/20152016/regular-season/r31555/.

-League histories of clubs:
-England – First Level All-Time Tables 1888/89-2013/14.
-Footy-Mad sites’ League History pages, such as Hull City-mad, here, http://www.hullcity-mad.co.uk/league_history/hull_city/index.shtml.

-Titles…
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_football_champions.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_FA_Cup_finals.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Football_League_Cup_finals.

July 11, 2015

England: 2015-16 League One [3rd division], location-map with 14/15 attendances, all-time seasons in 1st division + major titles listed.

Filed under: 2015-16 English football,Eng-3rd Level/League One — admin @ 9:02 pm

Please note: to see my most recent map-and-post on the English 3rd division, click on the following: category: eng-3rd-level-league-1.
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2015-16_football-league-one_post_k_.gif
England: 2015-16 League One [3rd division], location-map with 14/15 attendances, all-time seasons in 1st division + major titles listed




Links…
Teams…2015–16 Football League One (en.wikipedia.org).
News, fixtures, results, table, etc…Football League One page at BBC.com.
Kits…Sky Bet League One 2015 – 2016 [home, away & alternate kits] (historicalkits.co.uk).

    England: 2015-16 League One [3rd division], location-map with 14/15 attendances, all-time seasons in 1st division + major titles listed

By Bill Turianski on 11 July 2015; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.com.
This is the second post in my newest category (2015-16 English football). As I am going backward-up to the Premier League, we now take a look at the third tier {fourth-tier map, here,
England: 2015-16 League Two [4th division], location-map with 14/15 attendances, all-time seasons in 1st division + major titles listed.}.

From the Footy Headlines site, Sheffield United 15-16 Home Kit Released (footyheadlines.com). On the map, you will notice that there is a larger red shield floating in the North Sea, and that is Sheffield United’s crest for this season – a 125-year anniversary nod to their first crest, from 1890-91. From the brilliant and invaluable site Historical Football Kits, …’ A crest appeared in the 1890-91 season that consisted of the badge of Sheffield, featuring three sheaves of wheat, apparently a typical heraldic play on words, Shef-field being interpreted as “the open space by the River Sheaf.” (quote from historicalkits.co.uk/Sheffield_United/Sheffield_United.htm). The following season (1891-92) was the first season the Blades wore their ‘butcher’s-stripes’ red-white-verticals, but they were pinstripe-width red verticals (fat-red-verticals appeared on Blades’ jerseys a few years later in 1894-95…and, much to the disgruntlement of many supporters, Sheffield Utd will be wearing the pinstripe-width red verticals this season).

Sheffield United, the highest-or-second-highest-drawing 3rd division club the last 4 seasons, will hope that the fifth time is the charm, as they try once again to get out of League One and back on to the path to the top flight, where they were last seen in 2006-07. One can’t help thinking that the black cloud hovering over Sheffield United settled into place there in South Yorkshire in May/June 2007, when the Blades went down from the Premier League only because of the independent Premier League commission’s outrageous decision to only impose a £5.5m fine instead of a points deduction. The Premier League thus rewarded anarchy and cheating by merely giving West Ham a slap on the wrist. Sure, it was expensive slap on the wrist for the Hammers big-shots, but guess who got to stay up? The claret-and-sky-blue cheaters. (You know, that whole affair – the West-Ham-cheating-via-signing-Carlos-Tevez-affair, despite the fact that WHUFC knew it was an illegal Third Party Ownership deal.)


Notes for 2015-16 League One
-Last season’s (2014-15) League 1 total league average attendance was 7,034 per game/ median avg crowd was the 5,694 drawn by Gillingham.
-Two seasons ago (2013-14), the League 1 total avg attendance was a bit higher [about 440-per-game-higher than 14/15] at 7,476/ median avg crowd was the 6,219 drawn by Gillingham.
-Three seasons ago (2012-13), the League 1 total avg attendance was a bit lower [about 700-per-game-lower than 14/15] at 6,319/ median avg crowd was the 5,522 drawn by Notts County.
-(Don’t try to read too much into the above, because League 1 avg crowd-size variability is largely a function of how many medium-to-big-ish clubs get stuck in League 1 in any given season. And this season, there are 5 such clubs: Blackpool, Bradford City, Coventry City, Sheffield United, Wigan Athletic. [Clarification - by 'medium-to-big-ish clubs', I mean to say: Clubs which can draw above ~15 K in a good year.])

-Promoted from League Two for 15/16:
Burton Albion
Shrewsbury Town (yo-yo club)
Bury
Southend United

-Relegated from Championship for 15/16:
Millwall
Wigan Athletic
Blackpool

-I know I have not been following English football for that long (since circa 2003-04), but I have never come across a season in the Football League which features one of the divisions having four times as many Greater Manchester-based clubs as Greater London-based clubs. The 2015-16 Football League One has 4 quasi-Mancunian clubs (Bury, Rochdale, Oldham Athletic, Wigan Athletic), and only one London-based-club (Millwall). OK, I know it was happening in, like, say, 1903-04 in the Second Division, because of course the Football League (est. 1888-89) initially grew from Northern-and-Midlands-based clubs, exclusively. But by 1907-08 there were [more than 1 London-based club, with] Clapton Orient and Fulham as lower-league-clubs in the Second Division. And I seriously doubt it [it being just one London team in a Football League division], has happened much at all since the 1920s. And this clustering up North in the third tier is even more pronounced than just that, because there are only 5 clubs in League One, currently, that can be considered Southern clubs (Colchester Utd, Southend Utd, Swindon Town, Millwall, Gillingham). Meanwhile Northern clubs are thick on the ground in the third tier now…2 clubs from Lancashire, 4 from Greater Manchester, 4 from Yorkshire, 1 from North Lincolnshire, 1 from North Derbyshire, and 2 from the Potteries/south Cheshire. It is such a thick cluster that many clubs (such as Chesterfield and Port Vale and Crewe) are going to have considerably less travel-time and less travel-costs this season.

-*Asterisk-note:
Because of a dispute between the venue-operators of the Ricoh Stadium (Arena Coventry, Ltd) and the Coventry City owners (a Bond-villian-worthy Hedge fund corporation called SISU), Coventry City played all their home matches in 13/14 and several of their homes matches early in 14/15 ~35 mi SE of Coventry, in the town of Northampton (at Sixfields, home of 4th division side Northampton Town). Supporter-protest resulted in very low attendances for these matches (ie, Coventry used to draw 14-16 K regularly, but were drawing only 2-3 K playing in Northants). CCFC have returned to their home-venue (the Ricoh Stadium), but more legal action (on both sides) is inevitable, and CCFC supporters are still stuck in the middle of this corporate farce.

-Finally, check out the rather-low-yet-rising attendance figures for one-quarter of the current League One… Six of the twenty-four current [2015-16] League One clubs drew under 4 K per game last season. And FIVE of those minnow-clubs have won promotion to the third division in the last two seasons:
-Bury, at 3.7 K (promoted to League One in May 2015).
-Scunthorpe Utd, at 3.6 K (promoted to League One in May 2014).
-Fleetwood Town, at 3.5 K (promoted to League One, for the first time, in May 2014).
-Rochdale AFC, at 3.3 K (promoted to League One in May 2015).
-Burton Albion, at 3.2 K (promoted to League One, for the first time, in May 2015).

These days, in the lower Leagues, minnows can run rampant.
___

Thanks to all at the links below…
-Blank map of UK historic counties, by Nilfanion (using UK Ordnance Survey data), at File:United Kingdom police areas map.svg (commons.wikimedia.org).
-Blank relief map of Greater London, by Nilfanion (using UK Ordnance Survey data), at File:Greater London UK relief location map.jpg.

-Attendance, at E-F-S site, european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn.htm.

-League histories of clubs: a lot I have used (here on the chart on the map page) came from research I had done ~5 years ago, via a source (at Football 360 site) that is now sadly gone (and has not been replaced, anywhere, it seems, on the Internet [I am talking about comprehensive League histories of all English football clubs who have been in the Football League]). Some of the info I have used here on the chart on the map page came from Footy-Mad sites, such as Bury-mad, here, bury-mad.co.uk/league_history…but that means you basically have to literally count, by hand, the seasons a club has spent in each division (it is a lot of thankless work, I’ll tell you). Also, some info was found at some clubs’ Wiki pages (some clubs’ Wiki pages have their League histories spelt out, such as w/ Sheff Utd, here, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheffield_United_F.C.#League_history).

June 15, 2015

England: 2015-16 League Two [4th division], location-map with 14/15 attendances, all-time seasons in 1st division + major titles listed.

Filed under: 2015-16 English football,Eng-4th Level/League Two — admin @ 7:34 pm

Note: to see my most recent post on the English 4th division, click on the following: category: Eng-4th Level/League 2.
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2015-16_football-league-two_map_crowd-sizes_seasons-in-1st-div_titles_post_f_.gif
England: 2015-16 League Two [4th division], location-map with 14/15 attendances




Links…
Teams…2015–16 Football League Two (en.wikipedia.org).
News, fixtures, results, table, etc…Football League Two page at BBC.com (bbc.com/football).
Kits…Sky Bet League Two 2015 – 2016 [home, away & alternate kits] (historicalkits.co.uk).

    England: 2015-16 League Two [4th division]
    Location-map with 14/15 attendances, all-time seasons in 1st division + major titles listed

By Bill Turianski on 15 June 2015; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.com.

New template for English Football League & Premier League maps, for the category ’2015-16 English Football’…
Map…
The map is a basic location-map which includes the traditional counties of England and Wales, and I have also listed the 9 largest metro-areas which emanate from a single city (London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Nottingham, Bristol). I have included regional names like the East and West Midlands, East Anglia, the West Country, the Black Country, etc. There is also an enlarged inset map of Greater London, at the lower-right-center of the map page. I have included a few extra details for the Greater London inset map – the City of London’s small confines are noted, as are the locations of the following: Regent’s Park; Hyde Park, Parliament [Westminster]; Wembley Stadium; the Royal Observatory, Greenwich [home of 0 degrees longitude (the Prime Meridian), and Greenwich Mean Time]; and the Dartford Crossing. (The Dartford Crossing is a vital and heavily-traveled dual-tunnel/bridge crossing located on the River Thames just east of Greater London, which connects Dartford, Kent to Thurrock, Essex, and is the only fixed-road crossing of the Thames east of Greater London; the busiest estuarial crossing in the UK, it services around 130,000 vehicles daily). The four largest municipalities adjacent to Greater London are also noted (the Medway Towns [incl. Gillingham] in Kent, Southend-on-Sea in Essex, Slough in Berkshire, and Watford in Hertfordshire).
Chart…
As for the chart, that will always be on the right-hand-side of the map page. The chart template is a bit different from ones I have used in the past. For the first time, I have included the last two seasons of league placement data – for all the clubs in the league – as well as the last two seasons of attendance data. Basically, the chart shows, from left to right, the following seven items…
1). light-grey column…league placement and average home attendance from 2 years ago (2013-14 season);
2). Club name/crest;
3). darker-grey column…league placement and average home attendance from last season (2014-15 season);
4). change in home average crowd size (2014-15 avg attendance subtracted from 2013-14 avg attendance);
5). percent-capacity (avg attendance figure divided by stadium capacity);
6). blue column…all-time seasons spent in the English first division (with date of last 1st div appearance listed);
7). major domestic titles listed…English titles [aka Football League First Division titles to 1992/Premier League titles], FA Cup titles, League Cup titles (with dates of last titles listed).
___
Thanks to all at the links below…
-Blank map of UK traditional counties, by Nilfanion (using UK Ordnance Survey data), at File:United Kingdom police areas map.svg (commons.wikimedia.org).
-Blank relief map of Greater London, by Nilfanion (using UK Ordnance Survey data), at File:Greater London UK relief location map.jpg.
-Attendance, at soccerway.com, us.soccerway.com/national/england/league-two/20142015/regular-season/r25245.
One crest on the map is partially from a photo [Leyton Orient crest], at leytonorient.com/news/article/new-kit-290714-1789322.aspx.

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