Football Stadia « billsportsmaps.com

July 1, 2011

France: final table of 2010-11, with clubs playing in Europe in UEFA competitions for 2011-12 / Plus location of clubs in 2011-12 Ligue 1, with attendance data.

Filed under: Football Stadia,France — admin @ 9:02 pm

France: Ligue Un clubs playing in Europe for 2011-12
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Note: to see my latest map-&-post of Ligue Un, click on the following: category: France.
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This post has 2 charts – one chart, above, that features all 6 clubs from France that qualified for Europe in 2011-12; and the second chart, further on down, which includes a location-map of the 2011-12 Ligue 1 season and attendance data for the 20 clubs.

The chart page, which you can see by clicking on the image above, shows the 6 clubs in France that will play in Europe in 2011-12, including the 2 clubs – Lille OSC and Olympique de Marseille – who have automatically qualified for the lucrative promised land of the UEFA Champions League Group Stage. Lille won their first title in 57 years. And by winning the Coupe de France title, Lille became the 16th French club to win the double. Lille’s Rudi Garcia bucked the stereotype of the ultra-cautious, clean-sheet-obsessed French manager by having Les Dogues play with an attacking style. And so for the second straight year, Lille had the most goals scored in Ligue 1. Featured on the chart page is top scorer in the league, FW Moussa Sow, a Senegalese international, who netted 25 times. There are also photos of 3 other Lille players instrumental in their scoring onslaught…Côte d’Ivoire international FW Gervinho (who scored 14 times and accumulated 10 assists); MF Yohan Cabaye (9 assists); and Belgian international MF Eden Hazard (8 assists) [note: Cabaye was transferred to Newcastle United this off-season]. If I had more room, I would have added a photo of Lille’s goalkeeper Mickaël Landreau, whose shot-stopping ability was crucial to Lille’s title run. The photo of Rudi Garcia (who played for Lille as a midfielder from 1982 to 1988) was taken right after the final whistle had blown after Lille’s final match, in Paris, and Lille had clinched the title with a 2-1 win over PSG.

I have included an architects’ rendering of Lille’s new Grande Stade Lille Métropole, projected for a summer of 2012 opening, as well as a photo of the ongoing construction of the ~50,000-capacity stadium. So after the 2011-12 season, Lille will finally say good riddance to the inadequate and running-track-scarred Stadium Lille-Métropole, which only held 17,700. This, combined with the fact that Lille finally won a national title in the modern era, may signal a bit of a shift in the balance of power in French football…because if Lille can continue their fine form and regularly fill that new stadium, Les Dogues won’t have to sell players like Yohan Cabaye and (possibly) Eden Hazard, and Gervinho – because all that ticket revenue will allow Lille to afford such top-shelf talent.

Below is a graphic depiction of the formation, in 1944, of Olympique Sporting Club Lille Métropole, featuring old club crests – Click below for a larger image…

Old Lille OSC crests from this page at the following site: http://uefaclubs.com

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Below: attendance data from 2010-11, and location-map of clubs in the 2011-12 Ligue 1 – Click below for a larger image…

Photo credits -
Lille… Photo of construction on new stadium (Grande Stade Lille Métropole) from LilleMetropole.fr, here. Architect’s rendering of Grande Stade Lille Métropoe from Info-Stades.fr, here. Background art of architect’s rendering fromSkyscrapercity.com/thread, here. Interior photo of Stadium Lille Métropole from AgoraFoot.fr, here.

Photo of Moussa Sow by Bob Edme/AP via GreenwichTime.com, here. Photo of Gervinho from Goal.com, here. Photo of Yohan Cabaye by Alex Livesey/Getty Images Europe via Zimbio.om, here. Photo of Eden Hazard from RhazesFootballCrazy.blogspot.com, here.

Photo of Rudi Garcia from Getty Images via DayLife.com, here. Photo of new 2011-1 Lille home jersey from FootballFashion.org, here. Aerial photo of Stadium Lille Métropole from http://demeraux.jerome.pagesperso-orange.fr/Topf.html [Collection of Postcards of French football stadiums].

Olympique de Marseille… Photo of main stand at Stade Vélodrome with fans spelling out ‘O-M’ with placards by Fred GLLS at Flickr.com, here. Exterior photo of Stade Vélodrome at night from Football-pictures.net, here. Aerial image of Stade Vélodrome from Projets-architecte-urbanisme.fr, here.

Olympigue Lyon…Photo of Lyon ultras at Stade Gerland from Lyon v. Schalke UEFA CL match [14 Sept. 2010] by S. Guiochon/Le Progres via UltrasSpirit.com, here. Photo of the interior of Stade Gerland from Ticket$football.com, here. Aerial image of Stade Gerland from Bing.com/maps/Bird’s Eye satellite view, here.

Paris Saint-Germain…Photo of PSG ultras Boulogne Boys by ngari.norway at Flickr.com, here. Exterior photo of Parc des Princes by psgmag.net at Flickr.com, here. Aerial photo of Parc des Princes from Bouygues.com, here.

FC Sochaux…Interior photo during a match at Stade Auguste Bonal from fan-de-stade.skyrock.com, here. Interior photo of Stade Auguste Bonal by Arnaud 25 at en.wikipedia.org, here. Aerial photo of Stade Auguste Bonal from Skyscrapercity.com/thread, here.

Rennes…Interior photo of Stadee de la Route de Lorient by Kuso at en.wikipedia.org, here. Exterior ground-level photo of Stade de la Route de Lorient from FussballTempel.net, here. Aerial photo of Stade de la Route de Lorient from Skyscrapercity.com/thread, here.

Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedia.org, ‘2010-11 Ligue 1‘.
Thanks to E-F-S site, for attendances.
Thanks to European football Club Logos site at http://uefaclubs.com/html/Lille-OSC.html.
Thanks to Demis.nl, for the base map of France, Demis Web Map Server.

Comments (4)

June 18, 2011

England: final table of 2010-11 Premier League, with clubs playing in Europe in UEFA Competitions for 2011-12 / Plus, map with locations of clubs in 2011-12 Premier League, with attendance data.

Filed under: 2011-12 English Football,Eng>Premier League (Eng-1st Level),Football Stadia — admin @ 5:00 pm

Below: final table of 2011-12 Premier League, featuring the 8 clubs that qualified for Europe in the 2011-12 UEFA Champions League and in the 2011-12 UEFA Europa League…

Final table of 2010-11 Premier League featuring English clubs playing in Europe in 2011-12
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On this post, there is a chart, which you can see by clicking on the image at the top of this post, as well as a list of attendance data and a location-map, which you can see by clicking on the image 10 paragraphs down…

From DailyMail.co.uk, 2011-12 Premier League fixtures in a club-by-club guide, {click here}.
‘2011-12 UEFA Champions League‘ (en.wikipedia.org).
‘2011-12 UEFA Europa League‘.

The chart page shows the 2010-11 Premier League final table, with the 8 English clubs playing in European competitions for 2011-12 featured. For 2010-11 Premier League champions Manchester United, I have included photos of 4 key players – top scorer in the league Dimitar Berbatov, first-season sensation Javier Hernandez (who had 13 goals), Wayne Rooney (shown scoring his bicycle-kick goal that won the Manchester derby), and Premier League Player of the Year Nemanja Vidic. If I had more room, I would have shown a photo of Nani {his page at en.wikipedia.org, here}., whose 9 goals and league-leading 14 assists contributed to Man U’s title-run. There was another player on Manchester United who was in the leaders of assists, and that was Wayne Rooney who had 11 assists along with his 10 goals. Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson is shown in a photo just as the final whistle blew at Blackburn and Manchester United had clinched their 19th English title, which surpassed the 18 titles won by Liverpool, and makes Manchester United the all-time most-titled club in England.

The top three clubs – Manchester United, Chelsea, and Manchester City – have automatically qualified for the 2011-12 UEFA Champions League Group Stage.

The 4th place finisher, Arsenal, must get through a Play-off round tie to advance to the much-coveted and highly lucrative Champions League Group Stage. The draw for the 2011-12 UEFA CL Play-off round will be on 5th August. As instituted last season, all the teams who have qualified for the UEFA Champions League Play-off round will be split into 2 sections…one section for champions and one for non-champions. Each match-up will thus comprise one team from the champions section versus one team from the non-champions section. The Non-champions section will be seeded. As it stands now, Arsenal is in the set of seeded teams, along with Bayern Munich, Lyon, and Villarreal, with Udinese as-yet un-seeded. Here is en.wikipedia’s page on the 2011-12 UEFA Champions League, set at the Play-off round procedure, and the Group Stage set-up {click here}.

Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp might not have wanted the bother of it (and the possible damage to league-form that comes with a Europa League run), but 5th place finisher Tottenham Hotspur will be playing in Europe this season. Spurs are in the 2011-12 UEFA Europa League Play-off round {a link to that information is 6 paragraphs down). Harry says he’ll play youngsters, so we’ll see how that goes.

8th place finisher Fulham is back in Europe two seasons after their brilliant 2009-10 Europa League campaign, where they went all the way to the final (losing 2-1 to Atlético Madrid in AET). That Europa League run saw the West London-based Cottagers – an unassuming club with no major titles, less than 2 dozen seasons in top flight football, and a ground that cannot be expanded past its current capacity of 25,700 – take the scalps of some pretty big clubs in Europe, including Juventus, Hamburg, Wolfsburg, and Shakhtar Donetsk. Fulham qualified for Europe then by a 7th place league position in 2008-09. This time, Fulham gets in as the highest-ranked team from the Fair Play table not yet qualified for any European competition (which is another way of saying that Fulham were one of the least-penalized teams in 2010-11). Fulham will enter the first qualifying round of the 2011–12 UEFA Europa League. That means a late June/early July two-legged-tie. Fulham will play the Faroese club NSÍ Runavík. The 1st Leg will be on 30 June, in Runavík, Faroe Islands, with the 2nd Leg on 7 July at Craven Cottage. {Europa League First qualifying round, all match-ups {en,wikipedia.org)}.

13th place finisher and 2010-11 FA Cup finalist Stoke City qualified for European play by inheriting Manchester City’s spot as FA Cup winner. Stoke will play in a Europa League Third qualifying round tie. The draw for the Europa League Third qualifying round [incl. Stoke City] is set for 15 July, and the 1st Leg of the match-ups are to be played on 28 July…here is how the teams to be playing in the third and final qualifying round are shaping up – {‘2011-12 Europa League Play-off round}’. Stoke City played in Europe in 1972 and 1974 {see this {‘Stoke City FC in Europe’)} (from en.wikipedia.org).

Finally, the just-relegated Birmingham City will play in the Europa League Play-off round. The Blues definitely had a mixed-bag of a season, seeing as how they won just their second ‘significant’ title ever – beating Arsenal 2-1 to claim the 2010-11 Football League Cup title…only to fall through the trap-door of relegation on the final day of the Premier League season. In the middle of the Blues’ season, a riot was had. This from the BBC article linked below… ‘Sadly, thousands of Birmingham supporters chose to celebrate the win by charging the length of the field to taunt their Villa counterparts, sparking a predictably angry reaction, with police forced to move in as flares were thrown.’ This occurred in a 5th round League Cup match in January . So I am saying bad karma might have contributed to Birmingham City getting the drop.

For Birmingham City, this will be the fifth time the club has played in Europe, but not since the days of the old Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, last in 1961 {see this (‘Birmingham City FC in Europe’)} (from en.wikipedia.org).

The draw for the Europa League Play-off round [incl. Birmingham City and Tottenham] is set for 5 August, and the 1st Leg of the match-ups are to be played on 18 August…here are how the teams involved are shaping up – {‘2011-12 Europa League Play-off round‘}
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Below: attendance data from 2010-11, and location-map of clubs in the 2011-12 Premier League…

On the map page, 2010-11 average attendance (from home league matches) is shown for the 20 clubs which will be playing in the 2011-12 Premier League. Percent capacity and percentage change from 2009-10 average attendance is also shown. The map shows locations of the 20 clubs.

Photo credits on chart page -
Manchester United…Statues of Bobby Charlton, George Best, and Denis Law from Getty Images via news.BBC.co.uk, here. MUFC fans in green and gold photo from Getty Images via DailyMail.co.uk, here. Interior photo of Old Trafford from CNNconsumernews.com, here. Aerial photo of Trafford and Old Trafford from http://thesoccerwallpaper.com/theatre-of-dream-stadium/.

Photo of Dimitar Berbatov by Alex Livesey at Getty images Europe via Zimbio.com, here. Photo of Javier Hernandez by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images Europe via Zimbio.com, here. Photo of Wayne Rooney from Football-news.org.uk, here. Photo of Nemanja Vidic by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images Europe via Zimbio.com, here.

Photo of Alex Ferguson after Blackburn victory in May 2011 from Goal.com, here. Photo of new Manchester United 2011-12 home jersey – from Transatsports.com, here..

Chelsea…Photo of part of West Stand and part of Matthew Harding Stand by travelbadge R-in-circle s.com at Panoramio.com, here. Photo of Chelsea fans in the Matthew Harding Stand by cyberdees at Flickr.com, here. Exterior photo of Stamford Bridge with hotels in foreground from Ted’s Premier League Blog/Aerial photos of Premier League Stadiums [2009] (scroll three-quarters of the way down the page for photos).

Manchester City…Photo of moment’s silence for Malcolm Allison from PA via YesMakeItNow.blogspot.com, here. Interior photo of City of Manchester Stadium (aka Eastlands) from Football-Wallpapers.org, here. Aerial photo from TheSun.co.uk, here.

Arsenal…Photo of fans with Arsenal flags at Emirates Stadium by World of Good at Flickr.com, here. Exterior, gound-level photo of Emirates Stadium by Lumjaguaari at en.wikipedia.org, here.Exterior aerial photo of Emirates Stadium from ByrneGroup.co.uk, here.

Tottenham Hotspur…Photo of fans with flags at White Hart Lane from FootballQS.com, here. Interior photo of White Hart Lane from Soccerway.com, here. Aerial photo of White Hart Lane by Captain Snaps at Flickr.com, here; Captain Snaps’s photostream at Flickr.com.

Fulham…Photo of interior of Craven Cottage from EPLtalk.com [unattributed], here. Photo of cottage [rear of building] and entrances at Craven Cottage from Into A Far Country blog (frozenheads.net), here. Aerial image of Craven Cottage [facing east] from Bing.com/maps/Bird’s Eye satellite view, here.

Stoke City… Photo of Stoke City fans at FA Cup 6th round tie at Britannia Stadium from PA via uk.eurosport.yahoo.com, here. Photo of West Stand at Britannia Stadium from PremierFootballBooks.co.uk, here. Photo of Sir Stanley Matthews statue outside Britannia Stadium by tothe92.co.uk at Flickr.com, here. Aerial image of Britannia Stadium from Bing.com/maps/Bird’s Eye satellite view, here.

Birmingham City…Video image of the December 2010 St.Andrews’ Carling Cup riot from Sky News via DailyMail.co.uk, here. Photo of interior of St. Andrews by pinder22 at Flickr.com, here. Aerial image from Bing.com/maps/Bird’s Eye satellite view [view facing west], here.

Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedia.org, ‘Premier League‘.
Thanks to E-F-S site for attendance figures.

Thanks to Jeremy at Albion Road.com. Albion Road site can be found in my Blogroll here at ‘Football Club Guide’. This summer, Albion Road is featuring these Clubs playing in Europe charts that I have been putting together. France’s Ligue Un is coming up next in this series (Ligue 1 2010-11 Top of the table/clubs playing in Europe to posted here on Saturday 2 July.

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June 6, 2011

Germany: final table of 2010-11, with clubs playing in Europe in UEFA competitions for 2011-12 / Plus, map with locations of clubs in 2011-12 Bundesliga, with attendance data.

Filed under: Football Stadia,Germany — admin @ 5:17 pm

Top of the table -2010-11 Bundesliga/German clubs playing in Europe for 2011-12

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From When Saturday Comes.co.uk, by John van Laer, from 6 June 2011, ‘A good year for the underdog in the Bundesliga‘.
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This post is part of a new category I have started up…it will be listed in my Categories section under ‘UEFA-Clubs that qualified for Europe’. There is a chart page with illustrations, and on another page there is a map with attendance data.

Basically the chart page shows the final table of the league, with all clubs who have qualified for UEFA European competitions featured. In other words, the charts will feature all the clubs from the given country who have qualified for Europe – in either the UEFA Champions League Group Stage (in this case, 1st and 2nd place finishers in the 2010-11 Bundesliga – Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen)…or the UEFA Champions League qualifying rounds (in this case, Bayern Munich)…or the UEFA Europa League qualifying rounds (in this case, Hannover 96 and Mainz, plus Schalke 04). Usually that will literally mean the clubs that finished at the top of the standings, but in the case here, FC Schalke 04 will be playing in Europe despite finishing 14th in the league, because Schalke won the DFB-Pokal title (ie, the German Cup title).
2011-12 UEFA Champions League, Round and draw dates {here (en.wikipedia.org}.
2011-12 UEFA Europa League, Round and draw dates {here}.

On the right-hand side of the chart page are stadia photos and club information for all the clubs who have qualified for Europe. The title winner gets twice the space for photos, and I have included the three Borussia Dortmund players who accumulated the most goals and assists.- Parguayan national Lucas Barrios, and two young German midfielderrs who racked up a decent amount of goals and assists last season, Mario Götze and Kevin Großkreutz. If I had more pixel-space I would have shown more Dortmund players who were key to the club’s surprise championship, like the Japanese striker Shinji Kagawa, and the German-born Turkish international and midfield wizard Nuri Şahin. I did include a photo of the Dortmund manager, Jürgen Klopp, showing off the silverware. Plus I stumbled across Dortmund’s snazzy new 2011-12 home jersey, so I tossed that in too.

One note about Dortmund’s manager Jürgen Klopp…before getting the Dortmund job, he made his name bringing Mainz up to the Bundesliga (for the first time) 6 seasons ago…and now Mainz has continued to punch above their weight after Klopp’s departure (in 2008), with the small club from Rhineland-Palatinate having qualified via league placement for Europe for the first time (Mainz have been in Europe before – getting a UEFA Cup qualifying spot in 2005-06, via the Fair Play draw). And Mainz are about to move into a new, ~33,000-capacity ground, so Mainz supporters are living the dream right now. I included a photo of the new ground, the Coface Arena, under construction. It is scheduled to open in July – {here is a Skyscrapercity.com thread with more photos}.
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The second gif, below, shows the locations of the 18 clubs in the 2011–12 Fußball-Bundesliga season {which will begin on the weekend of 5th to 7th August, see this}. Listed are these 18 clubs’ 2010-11 average attendances, their 2010-11 percent capacity, and their percentage change in average attendance versus the previous season. The two promoted clubs, Hertha Berlin and FC Augsburg, are included in the list. [Note - Borussia Mönchengladbach beat VfL Bochum in the promotion/relegation play-off, so there are only 2 clubs promoted to Bundesliga for the second straight year].

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I will make posts like this for the 5 biggest leagues in Europe. Coming up soon, in addition to Germany’s Bundesliga, there will be Top of the table charts for England’s Premier League, Spain’s La Liga, Italy’s Serie A, and France’s Ligue Un.
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Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedia.org, ‘2011–12 Fußball-Bundesliga‘.
Thanks to Demis.nl, for the base map of Germany, Demis Web Map Server.
Thanks to E-F-S site, for attendance figures.
Thanks to IconArchive.com for the Champions League icon.
Thanks to Dale for the idea {here, comment #5}.

Photo credits on chart page -
Dortmund… Photo of full south stand (Die Südtribüne) from FootballWallpapers.tv, here. Photo of Dortmund fans in stands with banners from Bundesliga.de, article on English fans of Dortmund, ‘ “We’ve always had a soft spot for Dortmund” ‘. Photo of yellow pylon by Mdortmund at en.wikipedia.org, here.
Lucas Barrios photo from Getty Images via UEFA.com, here. Mario Götze photo from BVB.de, here. Kevin Großkreutz photo from forums.soccerfansnetwork.com, here. Jürgen Klopp photo from digibet.info.com, here.
New 2011-12 Dortmund jersey image from BVB09shop.de, here. Aerial photo of Signal Iduna Park from SpainTicketBureau.com, here.

Leverkusen…Aerial photo of BayArena from nrw-tourism.com. Exterior photo of BayArena by H005 at en.wikipedia.org, here. Photo of Leverkusen fans with banners from Spox.com,here.

Bayern…Photo of Bayern fans with banners from Getty Images via Telegraph.co.uk, here. Close-up photo of exterior lighted panels of Alianz Arena by Marco Döhr at Panoramio.com. Exterior photo of Allianz Arena from MIMOA.eu [free architecture guide], here.

Hannover 96…Photo of Hannover fans with scarves by Maabpaa at Flickr.com, here. Photo of interior of AWD-Arena by hack man at flickr.com, here.Aerial photo of AWD-Arena from this site: http://www.lasan-hienvuong.com/Tuc%20Cau/Images/.

Mainz…Photo of new stadium (Coface Arena) under construction from coface-arena.de, here. Interior photo of Stadion am Bruchweg from DieBundesligaUK.wordpress.com, here. Aerial photo of Stadion am Bruchweg from StadiDelMundo.blogspot.com, here.

Schalke 04…Photo of Schalke fans with banners at Veltins-Arena from Skyscrapercity.com thread, here. Interior photo of Veltins-arena from StadionWelt.de, here. Aerial photo of Veltins-Arena from official site of the facility, http://arenapark.gelsenkirchen.de/Umfeld/default.asp

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May 12, 2011

League Championship, 2010-11 season: the 2 automatically-promoted clubs, and the 4 play-off clubs.

Filed under: 2010-11 English Football,Eng-2nd Level/Champ'ship,Football Stadia — admin @ 7:00 am

2010-11 Football League Championship, Top of the Table

2011 Football League Championship Play-off Final – at Wembley Stadium in London, on Monday 30 May, Swansea City v. Reading, 3pm GMT/10am ET.
From Guardian.co.uk, on Wed. 18 May 2011, by Smon Burnton,’Reading possess the crucial ingredient for play-off final – form…Brendan Rodgers’ Swansea have enjoyed the double over Reading this season but the best stat belongs to his rivals‘.

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Other 2011 English football promoted club(s)/play-off clubs maps …
6th Level/2011 Conference North – map posted Thursday, 28 April, at 12midnight GMT/7pm ET. – {click for post on Conference North}.
6th Level/2011 Conference South – map posted Sunday, 30 April, at 12noon GMT/7am ET. – { click for post on Conference South }.
5th Level/2011 Conference National – map posted Tuesday, 3 May, at 12midnight GMT/7pm ET. -{ click for post on Conference National }.
4th Level/2011 Football League Two – map posted Saturday, 7 May, at 7pm GMT/2pm ET. – { click for post on Football League Two }.
3rd Level/2011 Football League One – map posted Monday, 8 May, at 12midnight GMT/7pm ET. – ( a click for post on Football League One }.
2nd Level/2011 Football League Championship – map posted Thursday, 10 May, at 12noon GMT/7am ET.

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From Guardian.co.uk/football, from Press Association on Saturday, 7 May, ‘
QPR crowned champions and promoted after escaping points deduction
• FA punish QPR with £875,000 fine
• London club escape points deduction‘.

From Guardian.co.uk/football, from 3 May 2011, by Barney Ronay, ‘Paul Lambert one step ahead as he steers Norwich to Premier League‘.

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Final 2010-11 Football League Championship table (Soccerway.com).

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Top Scorers -Leading scorers in 2010-11 Football League Championship -

Photo credits – Danny Graham photo from London Evening standard site (thisislondon.co.uk), ‘here‘. Shane Long photo from GetReading.co.uk. Grant Holt photo from Football365.com, here. Lucciano Becchio photo by PA via DailyMail.co.uk, here. Scott Sinclair photo by John Walton/EMPICS Sport/guardian.co.uk, here. Max Gradel photo from uk.eurosport.yahoo.com, here. Adel Taarabt photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images Europe/zimbio.com, here. Jay Bothroyd photo by Action Images from telegraph.co.uk, here [from article 'The 10 best footballers in the Coca Cola Championship in pictures'].
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Photo credits on map page -
QPR/Loftus Road…Exterior photo of Loftus Road from FussballInLondon.de, here. Interior photo by ynysforgan_jack at Flickr.com, here. Interior photo of main stand from AwayGrounds.com, here. Aerial image of Loftus Road from Bing.com/maps/Bird’s Eye satellite view, here.

Norwich City/Carrow Road…Mskau at Panoramio.com, here. AwayGrounds.com/Championship Grounds. ColonelBlinker.blogspot.com.

Swansea City AFC/Liberty Stadium…Exterior photo of Liberty Stadium from 100 Football Grounds Club, http://100groundsclub.blogspot.com/2010/02/my-matchday-242-liberty-stadium.html. Tims92, ‘Swansea City – Liberty Stadium‘. InterestingPhoto.com. Aeral image of liberty stadium from Bing.com/maps/Bird’s Eye satellite view, here.

Cardiff City/Cardiff City Stadium…Interior photo with crowd by Phil Tucker at Flickr.com, Phil Tucker’s photostream @ flickr.com. Interior photo of empty stadium from Cardiff Blues.com, Cardiff Blues and Cardiff City FC sign stadium contract. Exterior photo from Cardiff City FC.co.uk, Cardiff City Stadium. Aerial photo from Colorcoat-online, Cardiff City Stadium, project summary/gallery.

Reading/Madejski Stadium… Exterior photo by LeamDavid at Fickr.com, here. East Stand photo by Shaun at 100GroundsClub.blogspot.com, ‘My Matcday – 150 Madejski Stadium‘, via Picasaweb.google.com, here. North Stand photo [from final home match in promotion season of 2005-06] by Jason Platt at Panoramio.com, here. Aerial image from Bing.com/maps/Bird’s Eye S\satellite view, here.

Nottingham Forest/City Ground… Aerial photo of Notts County and Nottingham Forest grounds from BBC/Nottingham, Aerial photographs of Nottingham. Photo of irregular-shaped roof of Main Stand from Inderendent Yeovil Town fansite Ciderspace.co.uk, Ciderspace-the independant Yeovil Town FC website. Photo of City Ground exterior from across the Trent River by NffcChris at en.wikipedia.org, City Ground by NffcChris. Aerial image of City ground from Bing.com/maps/Bird’s Eye satellite view, here.

Thanks to Historical Football kits for the kit illustrations, http://www.historicalkits.co.uk/
Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedia.org, ‘Football League Championship‘.
Thanks to FootballGroundGuide.com, for stadium capacities.
Thanks to Soccerway.com, for attendance figures.

Comments (5)

May 9, 2011

League One, 2010-11 season. The 2 automatically-promoted clubs, and the 4 play-off clubs.

Filed under: 2010-11 English Football,Eng-3rd Level/League One,Football Stadia — admin @ 4:59 pm

2010-11 Football League One, Top of the Table

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League One Play-off Final at Old Trafford in Greater Manchester on Sunday, 29 May 2011 – Huddersfield Town 0-3 Peterborough United. Peterborough United win promotion the the 2011-12 Football League Championship (their second time promoted to the 2nd Level in 3 seasons), attendance 48,410.
From Guardian.co.uk, by Louise Taylor, ‘Three second-half goals see promoted Peterborough past Huddersfield‘.
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2010-11 Football League One final table (Soccerway.com).
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Brighton & Hove Albion FC, managed by the Uruguayan Gus Poyet, ran away with the title. The Seagulls could not have timed their storybook season any better, because the club will be moving in to their fantastic new stadium in August. Falmer Stadium (aka American Express Community Stadium) looks a bit like Huddersfield Town’s Galpharm Stadium (as well as Bolton’s Reebok Stadium). Falmer will seat 22,374, and has the capability to be expanded to around 30,000. Brighton, and their fans, had to endure two seasons of playing over an hour’s travel time away, in Gillingham, Kent in the late 1990s, followed by 12 seasons in the purgatory of the running track-scarred Withdean Stadium, an inadequate facility that only had a capacity of around 8,000. But that is now in the past, and Brighton & Hove Albion look to have a good future. The Seagulls have historically spent the most time in the third tier that they are now leaving, with 51 seasons in the 3rd Level. Brighton has spent 14 seasons previously in the 2nd Level, most recently for a 2-season spell from 2004 to 2006. Brighton has only played 4 seasons in the first division, from 1979-80 to 1982-83, with a 13th place finish in 1982 being the Seagulls’ highest league placement. When Brighton were in the First Division, they drew 24,745 in 79/80; 18,984 in 80/81; 18,244 in 81/82; and 14,662 in their relegation season of 82/83. It remains to be seen if Brighton can still draw in the 20,000-range, but I feel that if Brighton can make it through next season by avoiding the drop, they will be in a good position to cultivate a fan base that can regularly fill the 23,000-capacity Falmer Stadium. Brighton’s metro area is 12th largest in Britain {see this,’List of urban areas in the United Kingdom‘, from en.wikipedia.org}.

The other automatically-promoted club from League One to the League Championship are another club from the south coast of England, Southampton FC. Southampton returns to the second tier after 2 seasons in the wilderness of the third tier, which is a level that Saints supporters would have thought the club had outgrown. Because prior to their 2 seasons in the 3rd Level, Southampton had a 4-season spell in the 2nd Level, and prior to that, the club spent 23 consecutive seasons in the top flight. Southampton spent from 1978-79 to 2004-05 in the First Division/Premier League.Southampton’s highest league placement was in 2nd place in the First Division in 1983-84, while their best finish in the last 20 years was in 8th place in the 2002-03 Premier League. Southampton has an FA Cup title – they won the FA Cup in 1976, when the club was in the Second Division (they are one of only 8 teams to have ever won the FA Cup while not in the top flight. {see this, ‘FA Cup/Winners from outside the top flight‘, from en.wikipedia.org}). Southampton, who averaged 22,161 per game this season (up 5.6% from 09/10) have a pretty decent-sized fan base, and can come pretty close to filling their 32,689-seat St. Mary’s Stadium on a regular basis when the team is playing well, and even when they are not. For example, they drew 30,680 per game when they finished in 8th in the Premier League in 2002-03. And they were drawing almost exactly that figure (30,610 per game) when they got relegated from the Premier League on the last day of the 2004-05 season. Southampton fans must be pretty optimistic, because they have a solid manager, ex-Scunthorpe physio and ex-Scunthorpe manager Nigel Adkins, who took over in September 2010, and got the Saints first in to the play-off places by November 2010, and then into 2nd place on New Year’s Day. The club effectively clinched automatic promotion with 2 games to spare on 2nd May, 2011 (because their lead with 2 games to play was 6 points and a goal difference of over 15 more than the third place team). Adkins’ Saints broke the club record for clean sheets, with 20 out of 46 clean sheets this season. The other reason Southampton supporters will be looking forward to their return to the second tier is that this time, their arch-enemies, the nearby Portsmouth FC, are also in the second division, so the South Coast derby will resume next season. Portsmouth and Southamprton played in the FA Cup in 2009-10, but besides that there hasn’t been a regular league South Coast derby match since 2005.
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Photo credits on the map page -
Brighton…Withdean Stadium photos by Colin Smith at en.wikipedia.org, here. Falmer Stadium under construction, July, 2010, by Tescoid at en.wikipedia.org, here. Aerial photo from England.Brighton.blogspot.com, here.

Southampton…Exterior photo of St. May’s Stadium by Marcsfc at Flickr.com, here. Interior photo from Urban75.og/blog. Aerial view from Bing.com/maps/Bird’s Eye satellite view, here.

Huddersfield Town…Interior photo of the Galpahrm Stadium from Sky Sports.com, Huddersfield Town. Extreior night-time photo of the Galpharm by Matthew Ashton at The Guardian, “Huddersfield’s community stadium dream sours in ownership wrangle [6 May, 2009]“. Aerial image from Bing.com/maps/Bird’s Eye satellite view, here.

Peterborough United…Photo of London Road Terrace by ynysforgan_jack at Flickr.com, here. Photo of Norwich and Peterborough South Stand from ExtremeGroundhopping.blogspot.com, here/new address at ExtremeGroundhopping.woedpress.com, here. Aerial image from Bing.com/maps/Bird’s Eye satellite view, here.

Milton Keynes Dons…Exterior photo of Stadium mk from Rowecord structural Engineering site, RoweCord.com. Interior photo from SportyDesktops.com. Aerial image from Bing.com/maps/Bird’s Eye satellite view, here.

Bournemouth… Photo of Main Stand at Dean Court from Tims92.webs.com, here. Photo of parts of the three stands at Dean Court from DATM.info (Huddersfield Town fansite), here. Aerial image of Dean Court from Bing.com/maps/Bird’s Eye satellite view, here.

Huddersfield Town…Interior photo of Galpharm Stadium from SkySports.com/Huddersfield Town page. Exterior photo of Galpharm Stadium at night, by Matthew Ashton/EMPICS Sport, at guardian.co.uk, here. Aerial image from Bing.com/maps/Bird’s Eye satellite view, here.

Thanks to HistoricalFootballKits.co.uk, for the kit illustrationa, ‘Npower League One 2010-11‘.
Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedia.org, ‘Football League One‘.
Thanks to Soccerway, for for attendances.

Comments (7)

May 7, 2011

League Two, 2010-11 season: the 3 automatically-promoted clubs, and the 4 play-off clubs.

Filed under: 2010-11 English Football,Eng-4th Level/League Two,Football Stadia — admin @ 12:00 pm

2010-11 League Two, Top of the Table

2010-11 Football League Two final table (Soccerway.com).
League Two Play-Offs.
1st Legs,
Saturday, 14 May – Torquay United v. Shrewsbury Town.
Sunday, 15 May – Stevenage v. Accrington Stanley.
2nd Legs,
Friday, 20 May – Shrewsbury Town v. Torquay United.
Friday, 20 May – Accrington Stanley v. Stevenage.
League Two Play-off Final, Saturday, 28 May at Old Trafford in Greater Manchester – Stevenage 1-0 Torquay, attendance: 11,484.
From BBC.co.uk, ‘Stevenage 1 – 0 Torquay‘.
Stevenage win promotion to League One. [That makes it back-to-back promotions for Stevenage...a club that had never been in the Football League before 2010.]

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Chesterfield FC won the 2010-11 League Two title. The Spireites rode the wave of an inaugural season in their new 10,338-seat b2net Stadium in Chesterfield, north Derbyshire, and were energized by the 3,123 per game increase in crowds. Chesterfield ended up averaging 6,834 per game, which was third best in the 2010-11 League Two season (Bradford City and just-promoted Oxford United drew first and second highest in the league this season {2010-11 League Two average attendance (ESPN Soccernet.com)}. In John Sheridan‘s third season as manager, Chesterfield returns to the third tier for the first time in 4 years. The Spireites last spell in the 3rd Level lasted 6 seasons (2001-02 to 2006-07), and only saw Chesterfield reach a high of 16th place [in 2005-06]. The third tier is where Chesterfield has spent the bulk of their seasons {Chesterfield League history, here (Chesterfield-Mad site)}. Chesterfield has spent 51 seasons in the third division, but have never managed to win promotion to the 2nd Level.

The other two automatically-promoted clubs this season in League Two were Greater Manchester’s Bury FC; and, qualifying on the last day of the season, 3rd Level/4th Level yo-yo club Wycombe Wanders, of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. Wycombe manager Gary Waddock, who took over in October 2009, has returned the Chairboys back to the third tier. Wycombe has a larger fan base than Bury, and were pulling in 5,544 per game in 2009-10, when they had just won promotion to League One (they went straight back down that season). Wycombe have spent 11 seasons previously in the third tier. The Wanderers drew 9th highest in League Two this season, pulling in 4,495 per game. At their 10,000-capacity Adams Park, Wycombe Wanderers have a ground share with the Rugby Union club London Wasps (Wycombe Wanderers own the ground).

Bury are pretty strongly overshadowed by the red and the light blue halves of Manchester, and they must fight for fans with Rochdale AFC, who are fron the adjacent town to Bury, and will renew their deby matches when Bury join ‘Dale in League One next season. Bury have considerable first division history (having spent 22 seasons there) and also own two FA Cup titles (won in 1900 and 1903). But the Shakers have not been in the top flight since 1929. Their last, two-season spell in the second division ended in 1999. Bury survived the abrupt departure of manager Alan Knill to Scunthorpe earlier this spring, and kept their league form under Knill’s replacement, caretaker manager Richard Barker, who had been Bury’s youth team coach. Bury drew 3,313 per game (13th highest in the league), which was an 13.5 percent increase from 2009-10. Bury play at Gigg Lane, which the club owns. They ground-share with supporter-owned 7th Level club FC United of Manchester.
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Photo credits for the map page -
Chesterfield…Exterior photo and first interior photo of b2net Stadium from 100groundclub.blogspot.com, here. West Stand of b2net Stadium photo by Kate Hall (aka ginger kate) at Flickr.com, here. Aerial photo of b2net Stadium from Chesterfield.co.uk, here.

Bury… Gigg Lane photo (furthest on the left) from PitchCare.com, here. Photo of Gigg Lane under the roof of the Main Stand from AwayGrounds.com, here. Aerial photo of Gigg Lane from BuryFCyouth.co.uk, here.

Wycombe… Interior photo of Adams Park from VisitBuckinghamshire.org, here. Exterior photo of Adams Park from Geograph.co.uk, here. Aerial image of Adams Park from Bing.com/maps/Bird’s Eye satellite view, here.

Shrewsbury Town…Exterior photo of the New Meadow [aka Greenhous Meadow] from TheGroundhog.wordpress.com, here. Interior photo of New Meadow by ChrisBrookesPhotography.co.uk at Flicker.com here. Aerial photo of the New Meadow by James Humphreys [aka Colds7ream], at en.wikipedia.org, here; Colds7ream’s wikipedia user page, user:Colds7ream.

Accrington Stanley…Photo of the Crown Ground [aka Fraser Eagle Stadium] with sign by Robert Wade, from Geograph.org.uk, here. Photo taken from the terrace from forums.electronicarts.co.uk, here. Aerial image of the Crown Ground from Bing.cpm.maps/Bird’s Eye satellite view, here.

Stevenage…Main Stand of Broadhall Way by Campdavemorecambe at Flickr.com, here. Photo of terrace by Ray Stanton at Panoramio.com, here. Aerial image from Bing.com/maps/Bird’s Eye satellite view, here.

Torquay United…Exterior photo of Plainmoor from EMPICS Sport, via DailyMail.co.uk. Photo of Plainmoor with terrace in foreground from ImageShack.us, here. Aerial photo of Plainmoor from Stadiums.Football.co.uk, here.

Thanks to HistoricalFootballKits.co.uk, for the kit illustrationa, ‘Npower League Two 2010-11‘.
Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedia.org, ‘Football League Two‘.
Thanks to ESPN Soccernet for attendances.

Comments (4)

May 3, 2011

Conference National, 2010-11 season: the 1 automatically-promoted club, and the 4 play-off clubs.

Filed under: 2010-11 English Football,Eng-5th level,Football Stadia — admin @ 7:00 pm

2011 Conference, top of the table
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Play-off Final – AFC Wimbledon 0-0 Luton Town in AET/Wimbledon 4-3 on penalties/AFC Wimbledon are promoted to the Football League (!!!). On 21 May 2011 at City of Manchester Stadium, Manchester, attendance 18,195.
From Guardian.co.uk, by Sachin Nakrani, ‘AFC Wimbledon beat Luton on penalties to reach the Football League‘.

Play-off results…
[Wrexham 0-3 Luton Town, at the Racecourse Ground, Wrexham, Wales, attendance 7,211]
From Conference National site, ‘Luton Take Commanding First-Leg Lead‘.
[Luton Town 2-1 Wrexhan / Luton Town wins on 5-1 aggregate, at Kenilworth Road, Luton, Bedfordshire, attendance 9,078']
From Guardian.co.uk, by Sachim Nakrani, ‘AFC Wimbledon beat Luton on penalties to reach the Football League‘.

[Fleetwood Town 0-2 AFC Wimbledon, at Highbury Stadium in Fleetwood, Lancashire, attendance 4,112]
From BBC.co.uk, ‘Fleetwood 0-2 AFC Wimbledon‘.
[AFC Wimbledon 6-1 Fleetwood Town / Wimbledon wins on 8-1 aggregate, at Kingsmeadow, Kingston upon Thames, southwest London, attendance 4,538.]
From Bluesqfootball.com, ‘ AFC Wimbledon 6-1 Fleetwood (agg 8-1) ‘.

Leading scorers in 2010-11 Conference National (goals scored in all competitions)…

Photo credits – Matt Tubbs – crawleyobserver.co.uk . Alan Connell – thisisgrimsby.co.uk . Danny Kedwell – surreyherald.co.uk – ‘AFC Wimbledon skipper Danny Kedwell taunts big-spending Crawley Town’ . Magno Vieira – Derrick Thomas at picasaweb.google.com, via fleetwoodtownfc.com/Photo Gallery .
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In the play-offs, second-place AFC Wimbledon’s grassroots-supporters-versus-club-stealing-franchise-operators creation-story and somewhat meteoric rise through the lower reaches of Non-League Football is pretty well known {see this, ‘Wimbledon march onwards and upwards with firm grasp of history – AFC Wimbledon, owned entirely by fans, have risen from adversity to be in touching distance of the Football League‘, from Guardian.co.uk, 4 Sept 2010, by Louise Taylor.}. AFC Wimbledon will face Fleetwood Town, a club who also have been progressing up the football pyramid in an impressive manner. Now Fleetwood Town has a visible monument to this rise…just look, on the map page, at that swank new curved-roof main stand (now called the Parkside Stand) at Fleetwood’s Highbury Stadium in coastal Lancashire.

Fleetwood Town FC are known (brilliantly) as The Cod Army. This incarnation of the club is it’s third, with the first FTFC existing from 1908 to 1976, and FTFC (II) existing from 1977 to 1996. FTFC (III) began in 1997-98 in the North West Counties Football League Division Two, [then a 9th Level league/now a 10th Level League], as Fleetwood Freeport FC (for sponsorship reasons). The club’s first promotion ensued in their second season, in 1999, and in 2002, their name became Fleetwood Town FC (III). Successive promotions in 2005, and then in 2006 saw Fleetwood Town reach the 7th Level in the Northern Premier League Premier Division. Two seasons later, in 2008, Fleetwood Town won automatic promotion to the Conference North by winning the Unibond Norhern Premier League. At this point, the Cod Army already had an impressive fan base for a club at this level, drawing 721 per game in 2007-08 – this in a league that was averaging 313 per game {see these tables from Tony’s Non-League Football site, here}.

Fleetwood Town had a rough go of it initially in the 6th Level in 2008-09, and had to replace their manager with Burnley youth team manager (and former Blackpool and Tranmere midfielder) Micky Mellon. By January, 2010, Mellon became the first full-time manager at Fleetwood, and began introducing a number of new signings that upped the talent quotient in this corner of Lancashire. That season included Fleetwood Town’s first-ever appearance in the FA Cup Second Round Proper, with a then-record-crowd of 3,280 at Highbury Stadium seeing them fall to League One’s Harlepool United by a score of 2-3. Fleetwood Town’s fan base had grown to the point where the club was averaging 920 per game in league matches, and further progress on the pitch was shown by their 8th place finish in their first season in Conference North.

As a pre-season favorite for promotion in 2009-10, Fleetwood Town established themselves as one of the two strongest teams in the league, with the other being their very nearby rivals, Southport FC (who are 28 km./17 miles down the road in Merseyside). Because of the demise of Leeds-based Farsley Celtic during the 2009-10 Conference North season, that club’s matches were expunged, and this led to Fleetwood Town losing 3 points and missing out on automatic promotion, with Southport instead winning the league title [Southport are now back down, having been relegated, by goal difference, out of the Conference National on Saturday, 30 April, 2011]. Fleetwood won promotion via the play-offs, though, winning it over Alfreton Town at Highbury Stadium last May in front of 3,592 (the current record crowd there).

Chairman Andy Pilley announced that the club would go full-time for 2010-11. The club’s best acquisition after their squad went full-time was Brazilian-born striker Magno Vieira, whom Fleetwood Town purchased from then-relegated Ebbsfleet United. [Vieira went on to score 22 goals for Fleetwood Town this season, which was fourth-best in the league.] By September, Fleetwood Town were in 3rd place. Captain George Milligan, out the door after the full-time policy began, returned in November, 2010. But a string of poor results led them to drop to the edge of the play-off places by the new year. However, Fleetwood Town caught fire near the close of the season and finished with 7 wins in their last 8 matches, and with the late season stumbling of Darlington. York City, and Kidderminster, Fleetwood ended up in the final play-off spot. Fleetwood Town ended up with a 1,753 per game average attendance, up 29 percent from last season.
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The other play-off match-up features two clubs both with over three-quarters of a Century of League history, but each with recent financial melt-downs… Bedfordshire’s Luton Town FC and Wrexham FC, of North Wales. Of the two, Luton Town have the bigger fan base – biggest in all of Non-League, currently, having drawn above 6,000 per game in both seasons the club has spent outside the League since their near-extinction, administration, and 30-point deduction in 2008-09. Luton Town, known as the Hatters, are the second club in the modern era to have First Division history (with 16 seasons in the English top flight, last in 1991-92) and then subsequent Non-League status [the other one was Oxford United]. Wrexham’s League history only goes up to the 2nd Level (with 4 seasons there, between 1978 and 1982), but the Red Dragons, North Wales biggest club, have 100 seasons of League history, versus 84 seasons accumulated by Luton Town. Wrexham drew 3,061 per game this season (up 7 percent), and are probably hurt by the fact that their Racecourse Ground (capacity 15,500) is too large for their current fan base. Luton Town actually have the exact opposite problem… because of how built-up the area is around their ground, Kenilworth Road (Luton being part of the heavily-populated commuter belt north of London), the club cannot expand or realistically renovate there. This has been a problem at Luton Town for decades. This is how cramped Kenilworth Road is…one of the ground’s entrances is through a portal under a block of flats! That is the Oak Stand entrance, and you can see that entrance-way in one of the three photos for Luton Town on the map page.

Meanwhile, Luton Town look to be of the woods, financial-crisis-wise, but it looks like Wrexham’s problems have only begun. So much so that there was talk for a while that the Conference top brass would not even allow Wrexham to compete in the play-offs, but they will.
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Crawley Town FC spent 500,000 pounds on a now-successful bid for promotion to the Football League. This was more than all 23 other Conference National clubs, combined, spent on new signings this season. This was in fact more than all 24 League Two clubs, combined, spent on new signings. Their manager, Steve Evans, is a manners-challenged convicted felon who got his previous for cooking the books at Boston United a decade ago {see this, ‘Shamed manager keeps his job‘ (bbc.co.uk/Lincolnshire, 4 Nov. 2006).

As noted in the following article from TwoFootedTackle.com…’There’s a genuine feeling within the lower levels of the game that Evans’ criminal record should have resulted in a lifetime ban.’ {see this article from Jan.30 2011, ‘Why many neutrals won’t be cheering on Crawley in the FA Cup’}.

From When Saturday Comes site, ‘Creepy Crawley buying their way out of the Conference‘ (WSC.co.uk, 13 Jan. 2011, by Matt Ramsay).

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Photo credits for map page -
Crawley Town/Broadfield Stadium…Broadfield Stadium interior photo with railing in foreground from WorldGroundHop.blogspot.com, here. Main Stand photo by Peer Pawelczyk at EuroPlan-online.de, here, via Soccerway.com,, here. Aerial image from Bing.com/maps/Bird’s Eye satellite view, here.

AFC Wimbledon/Kingsmeadow…Tempest Stand at Kingmeadow photo from DoingThe106.com, here, via ConferenceGrounds.co.uk, here. Main Stand from 100groundsclub.blogspot.com, here. Aerial image from Bing.com/maps/Bird’s Eye satellite view, here.

Luton Town/Kenilworth Road…Oak Stand entrance (between row houses) from SoccerWord.com. Kenilworth Road interior photo from Stadiums.Football.co.uk, here. Aerial image of Kenilworth Road from Bing.com/maps/Bird’s Eye satellite view, here.

Wrexham/Racecourse Ground… Interior photo from WikiStadiums.org, here. Photo of Mold Road Stand with The Kop (terrace) in foreground from Soccerway.com, here. Aerial image of Racecourse Ground from Bing.com/maps/Bird’s Eye satellite view, here.

Fleetwood Town/Highbury Stadium…New stand [construction on parts of the is stadium still ongoing] photo from Flower Design Events sire, here. Architect’s rendering of Highbury Stadium with new Main Stand from FWP Group.co.uk, here. Aerial image from Bing.com/maps/Bird’s Eye satellite view, here.

Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedia.org, ‘Conference National‘.
Thanks to Soccerway.com, for attendance figures.
Thanks to the BBC London Non-League Football show.

Comments (5)

March 10, 2011

2010-11 FA Cup, Sixth Round Proper, with match-ups.

Filed under: 2010-11 FA Cup,Football Stadia — admin @ 3:21 pm

FA Cup 6th Round

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Click on the box below to see the 4 match-ups, featuring profile boxes of each of the 8 clubs still alive in the 2010-11 FA Cup competition…

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BBC/FA Cup/ home.
Leading scorers on each club…
Arsenal – [tie] Samir Nasri (23 years old/born in Marseille, France) – 14 goals (9 LG; 1 FA; 2 LC; 2 EU), Robin van Persie (27 years old/born in Rotterdam, Netherlands) – 14 goals (10 LG; 1 FA; 2 LC; 2 EU).
Birmingham City – Nikola Zigic (30 years old/born in Backa Topola, Socialist Rep. of Serbia, FYR)- 8 goals (5 LG; 3 LC).
Bolton Wanderers – Johan Elmander (27 years old/born in Alingsas, Sweden) – 10 goals (9 LG; 1 FA).
Manchester City – Carlos Tévez (27 years old/born in Ciudadala, Greater Buenos Aires, Argentina) – 21 goals (18 LG; 3 FA).
Manchester United – Dimitar Berbatov (30 years old/born in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria) – 19 goals (19 LG).
Reading – Shane Long (24 years old/born in Gortnahoe, Tipperary, Ireland) – 20 goals (18 LG [League Championship]; 2 FA).
Stoke City – [3-way tie] Robert Huth (26 years old/born in East Berlin, East Germany) – 7 goals (6 LG; 1 FA), Kenwyne Jones (26 years old/born in Point Fortin, Trinidad and Tobago) – 7 goals (5 LG; 2 LC), Jonathan Walters (27 years old/born in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England) – 7 goals (3 LG; 3 FA; 1 LC).
West Ham United – Carlton Cole (27 years old/born in Croydon, south London) – 11 goals (5 LG; 2 FA; 4 LC).
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FA Cup Sixth Round matches on television…
United Kingdom
Birmingham City v Bolton Wanderers, Saturday 12th March, 12:45pm GMT (ESPN-UK).
Manchester United v. Arsenal, Saturday 12th March, 5:15pm GMT (ITV-1).

Stoke City v West Ham United, Sunday 13th March, 2pm GMT (ITV-1).
Manchester City v Reading, Sunday 13th March, 4.45pm GMT (ESPN-UK).

United States and Canada
Birmingham City v. Bolton Wanderers, Saturday, March 12, 7:45am ET (Fox Soccer Plus).
Manchester United v. Arsenal, Saturday, March 12, 12:15pm ET (Fox Soccer Channel).

Stoke City v. West Ham United, Sunday, March 13, 10:00am ET (Fox Soccer Plus).
Manchester City v. Reading, Sunday, March 13, 12:45pm ET (Fox Soccer Channel).
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Here are the clubs that have made it to the FA Cup Sixth Round Proper for the second consecutive season…
Birmingham City
Reading
Stoke City.
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Photo credits -
Birmingham City/St. Andrews…Bing.com/maps/Bird’s Eye satellite view, here.
Bolton/Reebok Stadium… http://www.helibott.com/stadiums.html .
Manchester United/Old Trafford… http://www.manutdpics.com/prints-234/old-trafford-gallery.html .
Arsenal/Emirates Stadium… http://www.byrnegroup.co.uk/p/h/Projects/Emirates_Stadium/234/
Stoke City/Britania Stadium…Bing.com/maps/Bird’s Eye satellite view, here.
West Ham/Boleyn Ground [aka Upton Park]…Fussball Tempel.net (West Ham/Boleyn Ground photo).
Manchester City/City of Manchester Stadium [aka Eastlands]… The Sun.co.uk (Manchester City/Eastlands photo).
Reading/Madejski Stadium…Bing.com/maps/Bird’s eye satellite view, here.
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Thanks to Historical Football Kits site, for the kit illustrations, http://www.historicalkits.co.uk/
Thanks to ESPN Soccernet, for current attendance figures.
Thanks to the FA Cup silversmiths, Thomas Lyte Silver, for the photo of the FA Cup trophy, here.

Comments (3)

January 10, 2011

2010-11 UEFA Champions League, Knockout Phase – Round of 16, with match-ups.

Filed under: Denmark,Football Stadia,UEFA Champions League,Ukraine — admin @ 6:14 pm

2010-11 UEFA CL, Round of 16 map

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The UEFA Champions League 2010-11 Knockout Phase, Round of 16 gets underway on 15th and 16th February, with four matches; then resumes a week later for the other four 1st Leg matches. 2nd Leg matches are set for 8th and 9th / 15th and 16th March. If you want to see the 8 match-ups, with club profile boxes and 2 stadia photos for each club, scroll down a bit and click on the 2 dark blue boxes near the end of this post.

Teams that play at home for the 2nd Leg Leg were seeded higher for for the draw by winning their groups in the Group Stage. The biggest surprise in that category are Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk, who finished ahead of Arsenal in their group. This is the first time Shakhtar Donetsk have made it to the Round of 16 in the Champions League. Shakhtar come from the heavily industrialized Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, from the city of Donetsk, which is a grim city built on coal mining and heavy industry, offering little in the way of the things considered to be tourist attractions. In fact, enlarging the amount of total hotel rooms in the city is one of the most pressing issues facing Donetsk when the city hosts some of the matches for UEFA Euro 2012 (which Ukraine is co-hosting with Poland in June 2012). Shakhtar Donetsk are owned by Ukraine’s wealthiest citizen, Rinat Ahkmetov, who began his rise as an oligarch in the banking sector in Donetsk in the first half of the 1990s, when newly independent Ukraine was freeing itself from the grip of Russian imperialism and setting up a system of private enterprise. Akhmetov is an ethnic Tatar/ Ukraine-born son of a Donbass coal miner, and is 42 years old. In 2000, Akhmetov founded Systems Capital Management (SCM Holdings), which has stakes in metals, coal mining, power generation, banking, insurance, real estate, telecommunications, and media. Assets of the company, 100% owned by Akhmetov, have been recently disclosed as $18 billion {SCM.com.ua/Key Financial Indicators [to 2009]‘. Akhmetov has devoted considerable sums in turning Shakhtar Donetsk from a small cup-specialist club with no national titles to a force in Ukraine and now Europe. Their futuristic new Donbass Arena (cap. 51,504) is testament to this. Shakhtar are pulling in around 33,000 per game this season in domestic home league matches, and are running away with the Ukrainian Premier League title again (they have won 4 of the last 6 Ukrainian titles). Akhmetov has undertaken this by making sure players he lured to eastern Ukraine are treated like royalty – it is common knowledge these days among football players that Shakhtar Donetsk’s facilities and infrastructure are on par with the most elite clubs in Western Europe. Shakhtar Donetsk are managed by the Romanian Mircea Lucescu, who has also coached in Turkey (winning titles for Galatasaray in 2002, and Besiktas in 2003), and in Italy (with Internazionale in 1998-99). Lucescu has managed Shakhtar since 2004. For the past few seasons, Shakhtar has been fielding around 3 to 5 Brazilians in their starting lineups in most matches. By way of example, when Shakhtar Donetsk beat Werder Bremen in Istanbul to win the 2008-09 UEFA Cup title, Shakhtar started 5 Brazilians (including goal scorers Luz Adriano and Jadson), 3 Ukrainians, 1 Croat (captain and DF Dario Srna), 1 Romanian (DF Razvan Rat), and 1 Pole (Mariusz Lewandowski). Luz Adriano, Jadson, Srna, and Rat still figure prominently in Shakhtar’s current configuration.

The crucial match which propelled Shakhtar Donetsk to the Round of 16 this season was the 3 November, 2010 match in Ukraine which saw a 2-1 defeat of Arsenal in the Donbass Arena before 51,153. This had come two weeks after Arsenal had humiliated Shakhtar by a 5-1 score at the Emirates Stadium in North London. In the 3 November match, goals for Shakhtar were scored by western Ukraine-born DF Dmitro Chygrynskiy in the 28th minute (following a 10th minute Arsenal goal by Theo Walcott), and a 58th minute winner by former Arsenal player, the Croatian international/Brazilian-born Eduardo, who looks to be recovered from his devastating leg injury in early 2008. From uefa.com, 3 Nov. 2010, ‘Eduardo strike sinks former club Arsenal’.

Shakhtar Donetsk have drawn AS Roma for the Round of 16. They will meet for the 1st Leg on 16 February at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome. 2nd Leg is for 8 March in Donetsk.
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Of the 16 clubs still alive in the 2010-11 Champions League, the biggest surprise overall is the qualification of FC Copenhagen (in Danish, FC Kobenhavn). This is the first appearance in the Round of 16 for a club from Denmark. Like quite a few other football clubs in Denmark in recent history, FC Copenhagen was the result of a merger. In this case, it was between two historically successful but stagnating clubs from the country’s capital city, KB and B 1903. The two clubs had not won a Danish title between them for 12 years running when they merged; and immediately after the merger FC Copenhagen won the 1993 Danish title. KB (Kjobenhavns Boldklub) won 15 Danish titles, including the first in 1913, and most recently in 1980. B 1903 (Boldklubben 1903) won 7 national titles, their last in 1976. FC Copenhagen are the highest-drawing Danish club, and can draw in the 20,000 per game range (their peak has been 23.7 K in 2006-07).The club’s home is Parken, which is also the primary venue for the Denmark national football team. FC Copenhagen are coached by the Norwegian Stale Solbakken, who has been at the helm since 2006. Their goal scoring threats are Porto Alegre, Brazil-born FW César Santin, Senegalese FW Dame N’Doye, and Danish winger/supporting striker and former Ajax/Chelsea/Birmingham City/Atlético Madrid/VfB Stuttgart player Jesper Gronkjaer (age 33).

FC Copenhagen have drawn Chelsea for the Round of 16, with the 1st Leg on 22 February in Copenhagen, and the 2nd Leg on 16 March in West London. Judging by Chelsea’s recent form, Copenhagen can be seen as having a fighting chance of advancing. After all, FC Copenhagen beat Manchester United in the CL Group Stage in 2006-07, and Chelsea can’t beat bottom-of-the-table clubs like Wolverhampton Wanderers these days.
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Last season I posted a map of this round of the competition in December, 2009, right after the draw was held. I decided to hold off a little this season. The CL Knockout Phase still will not be starting for 36 days, but on the Sunday (13 Feb.) before the matches begin on 15 and 16 February, I will re-post the 3 gifs here (the map and the 2 match-ups pages), along with a map of the 2010-11 UEFA Europa League Round of 32 (which will begin on Thursday, 17 February).
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From Backpage Football.com, from 6 January, ‘Champions League – Reason to be excited‘, by Ger McCarthey.
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The following gif shows the 8 clubs involved in the first two match days of the 2010-11 Champions League Round of 16, on 15 and 16 February…
AC Milan v. Tottenham Hotspur
Valencia v. Schalke 04
Arsenal v. Barcelona
AS Roma v. Shakhtar Donetsk
Click on box below…

The next gif shows the 8 clubs involved in the second set of match days, on 22 and 23 February…
Lyon v. Real Madrid
FC Copenhagen v. Chelsea
Internazionale v. Bayern Munich
Marseille v. Manchester United
Click on box below…

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Photo Credits -
AC Milan/San Siro…Dankuna.com, here. RossoneriBlog.com, here.

Tottenham/White Hart Lane…Jazza5 at en.wikipedia.org, here. Daily Mail.co.uk, here.

Valencia/Mestella…A Life In Valencia.com, here. z6.invisionfree.com/Ultras Tlfosi, here.

Schalke 04/Veltins-Arena…VioletaS_gr at Flickr.com, here. ArenaPark.Gelsenkirchen.de, here.

Arsenal/Emirates Stadium…ByrneGroup.co.uk,/Projects, ‘Emirates stadium – Scope of Work [6-photo slideshow]‘, here. DailyMail.co.uk, here.

Barcelona/Camp Nou…kammourewa at Photobucket.com, here. Bing.com/maps Bird’s Eye satellite view, here.

AS Roma/Stadio Olimpico…Bing.com/maps/Bird’s Eye satellite view, here. ASRomaAlive.com, here.

Shakhtar Donetsk/Donbass Arena…Elparadiso19 at en.wikipedia.org (link is to a Donbass Arena gallery, here). Ultras.org.ua, 2010 Shakhtar gallery, here.

Lyon/Stade de Gerland…Bing.com/maps Bird’s Eye satellite view, here. Chasseurdestades.com/France, here.

Real Madrid/Bernebéu…FCB Transfers.blogspot.com, here. Real Madrid Videos, here.

FC Copenhagen/Parken…Virtual Tourist.com, here. MTU.edu, here.

Chelsea/Stamford Bridge…cyberdees at Flickr.com, here. Eco Compact City.org, here.

Internazionale/San Siro…zerozerofootball.com/San Siro (gallery, 30 photos), here. oscar federico bodini at en.wikipedia.org, ‘Curva (stadia)/Italy‘.

Bayern Munich/Allianz Arena…Karl Leidorf at Leidorf.blogspot.com, here. Maximillian Dörrbecker (Chumwa), at en.wikipedioa.org, here.

Marseille/Stade Vélodrome… Projets-Architecte-Urbanisme.fr. fredGLLS at Flickr.com, here.

Manchester United/Old Trafford… ManUtd24.com, ‘Nervous Glazers tell ManUtd players not to wear Green and Gold!’. ManUtdPics.com , (Manchester United/Old Trafford photo).

Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedia.org, ‘2010-11 UEFA Champions League‘.
Thanks to E-F-S site, for attendance figures from 2009-10, and for Shakhtar Donetsk current attendance figures. Thanks to ESPN Soccernet for most of the current attendance figures. Thanks to Soccerway.com for FC Copenhagen current attendance figures {Danish Super Liga at Soccerway.com}

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December 20, 2010

England: Football League Championship, 2010-11 – Stadia map.

Filed under: 2010-11 English Football,Eng-2nd Level/Champ'ship,Engl. Promotion Candidates,Football Stadia — admin @ 3:05 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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League Championship Stadia map

Football League Championship table, here (Soccerway.com).
The map page, as is usual with this category of map, shows an aerial or exterior shot of each club’s stadium. Included in each club’s profile box are club info…the year the club was established, location, name of their football ground and it’s capacity, major domestic titles, and seasons spent at this level. ['This level', in this case of course means the 2nd Level of English Football.] At the far right on the map page are the clubs’ locations on the map, and below that are 2009-10 attendance figures (average attendance of home league matches). Also listed is percent change in attendance from 2008-09.
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Queens Park Rangers have held the lead since late August, but have now lost two straight matches. They were QPR’s first two defeats of the season, and came a week ago against mid-table Watford, and last weekend, versus Leeds United. There were 29,426 at Elland Road Saturday to see Leeds beat QPR 2-0 (on a brace by 23-year old Ivorian MF Max Gradel), which is a darn good turnout for United, especially when one considers the horrible weather that had descended upon Britain that day. Leeds are now unbeaten in 9 league matches (6 wins and 3 draws), their last defeat was at home versus Cardiff City. Few would have thought Leeds would be in such a good position come Christmas, after that 4-0 drubbing at the hands of the Bluebirds in mid-October. The following article explains what has happened since (basically manager Simon Grayson has got the midfielders and forwards to better support the defenders)…from The Guardian.co.uk/Football League blog, 20 December, 2010, by Richard Rae, ‘Great expectations as Leeds begin to see good times‘.

Clubs have played from 20 to 22 matches at this point in the season. QPR leads with 41 points (and a league-best +22 goal difference) and have a game in hand on second-place Leeds, who are at 38 points. Third are Cardiff City (also with a game in hand) at 37 points/+13 goal difference. The Bluebird’s fellow Welsh club and hated rivals Swansea City sit fourth at 37 points/+9 goal difference. Rounding out the playoff spots are the Canaries of Norwich City in 5th place, at 36 points; and the Sky Blues of Coventry City, who sit sixth and who are at 34 points. Coventry City are perhaps the biggest surprise of the top 6. Coventry are managed by Aidy Boothroyd, who got the job after his strong performance managing League One’s Colchester United to 5th place last season. His reputation was as a purveyor of ugly Route 1 football…hoof it up and smash and grab a goal. That’s how he got Watford into the Premier League 6 seasons ago. This reputation seems to be changing a bit, as he has Coventry City playing a more flowing game.

Back to Leeds United. The squad is playing with assurance under Simon Grayson, and features 3 players that look to have bright futures: Argentinian FW Luciano Becchio, hometown talent MF Jonny Howson, and Glasgow-born (but strangely overlooked as a Scotland international) MF/FW Robert Snodgrass. I think Leeds are going up. If you asked me a week ago, I must confess that my one lock for promotion would be Neil Warnock’s QPR, but that midweek, 3-nil home loss to Watford puts the Hoops in a less flattering light. The criticism about QPR is that if their mercurial wunderkind Adel Taarabt is not ‘on’, the team is not nearly the threat as when the Moroccan midfielder is on all cylinders. At any rate, QPR are a lot easier for the neutral observer to pull for, now that the egregious Flavio Briatore is gone from the QPR ownership ranks. Do you think it’s any coincidence that the now-three-years-on-’richest club in the world’-QPR finally got it’s on-field act together only once that imperious, bimbo groping, micro managing, blue-tinted-sunglasses-wearing, Formula 1 race-fixing sack of lard was forced to step down as chairman and drop his share in the club? There were ten managerial changes in less than 2 1/2 years at Loftus Road when Briatore was running the show.
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Here are current average attendances…note: click on ‘Attendance’ which is above the league table, on the far right click here {Soccerway.com}. Cardiff City are the one club in the second tier this season that has seen a significant, more-than-two-thousand-per-game attendance increase…the Bluebirds are pulling in 23,150 this season, which is 2,433 better than last season, when they finished 4th. Of course this increase can be attributed mostly to the fact that this is the first full season that the Bluebirds are playing in their new ground. But Cardiff are doing well, and might finally have it in them to become the first Welsh club to play in the Premier League. Those capacity crowds will certainly energize the Bluebirds in their promotion campaign. The second-best numerical attendance increase is by QPR, who are drawing 1,547 more per game this season than last season. They still are only filling the bandbox that is Loftus Road to just 78% capacity, though, at 14,896 per game.

Last season only one second level club drew higher than Derby County – the en route-to-promotion Newcastle United. Currently, Derby County are the highest-drawing club in the Championship, only this season they are actually decent. They feature one of the league’s top scorers in Kris Commons, a Mansfield, Nottinghamshire-born Scottish international, who has 12 league goals. [That tally is currently second best, behind Cardiff's Jay Bothroyd...photos of the top 8 goal leaders can be seen below.] The funny thing is attendance is down by 3,059 per game at Pride Park, despite the fact that the Rams were in the playoff places prior to their current 4-game losing slump (yet are still just 4 points off the playoff places). The Derby v. Nottingham Forest match has yet to be played, though, so that will fill the place up and push up that average gate.

As Yorkshire’s biggest club, the just-promoted Leeds United would be expected to see attendance increases, and Leeds has the third biggest numerical attendance increase in the league this season, up 1,139 per game. They are drawing the second best in the league this season, currently seeing an average of 25,957 pass their turnstiles. Third best drawing club are perennial capacity-fillers Norwich City. I think they could add 5,000 seats to Carrow Road and the Canaries would still be playing to an above 90% capacity. Rounding out the top five best drawing clubs this season are the aforementioned Cardiff City, then Leicester City. No, I am not going to talk about the charmed Swedish lothario who runs the Foxes these days (well I guess I just did). Incidentally, Leicester’s gates are down, but that can be explained by the fact that their gates were up last season because they had just won promotion, and this season they started out horribly.
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Leading scorers in the League Championship…
[Note: Below are leading scorers as of 25th December, 2010/Current leading scorers can be seen here (BBC)]

Photo credits for leading scorers- Yahoo Sport/PA images; Ross Kinniard/Getty Images at zimbio.com; SkySports.com; BBC/Getty Images. PA at DailyMail.co.uk; unattributed; ThisIsNottinghamshire.co.uk; Independant.co.uk.

Photo credits for map page…
Thanks to the Daily Mail.co.uk (Bristol City/Ashton Gate photo, here).

Thanks to Bing.com/maps/Bird’s Eye satellite view [set at Swansea City/Liberty Stadium, here].

Thanks to Colorcoat-online.com (Cardiff city/Cardiff city Stadium photo, here ).

Thanks to Noostairz at Skyscrapercity.com, in the Preston/Deepdale Redvelopment Thread ~May, 2008, for the Preston North End/Deepdale photo, here.

Thanks to Rob Dannatt at WorldStadia.com, for the Doncaster Rovers/Keepmoat Stadium photo, here.

Thanks to Premier Football Books.co.uk (Scunthorpe United/Glanford Park photo, here).

Thanks to the Norwich online newspaper The Pinkun.com (Norwich City/Carrow Road photo [wallpaper, second from bottom, here].

Thanks to SouthBank at the Skyscrapercity.com thread ‘Favorite Small Stadium (-20,000)’, here (Millwall/The Den photo, here).
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Thanks to the E-F-S site, for attendance figures.
Thanks to Historical Football Kits site for the kits, historicalkits.co.uk.

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