Korean forward Park Chu-Young has made a move to Liverpool a ‘priority' over French sides Paris Saint-Germain or Lille, according to Goal.com.
Park's current side Monaco have been relegated from Ligue 1, and while the captain scored 12 goals during the season and was the star of the French outfit, Park has made his intentions clear to move to a side that can offer European football.

I've written about match day attendance and leagues' financial health before, so I thought it was interesting to see these figures from the latest report on the Bundesliga's financial situation. Here's the trend in spectators since the inception of the league in 1963.
While the league's annual attendance ranged between 5 and 7 million per season for almost three decades throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, we have seen a rapid and sustained increased since Germany's unification in 1989/90 from about 5 million then to almost 13 million during these last two years.

According to the football law, the referee is like an object inside the pitch, like a post or a flag. If the ball hits him, you just continue playing. If it hits him and it was reflected to the goal, it is a correct goal. It happens, especially when he just stands in a very bad position. I find it unfair.

This time last week, we trailed our round-up of the ten worst football films ever made. We meant it. This evening, we kick-off with the first two, and first up is Nick Love's re-make of the 1988 film, "The Firm".

Dipping one's toe into the world of hoolie-porn can be a dispiriting business.

No club in world soccer is perhaps as beloved by the cognoscenti as St. Pauli. To some, the smallish team from the Reeperbahn, Hamburg's red-light district, is a kind of anti-corporate utopia. St. Pauli celebrated its centenary last year, but it was in the 1980s when it became the darling of non-conformism in soccer.

Dutch soccer star Ruud Gullit was a legend in the 1980s. Now he is the new manager of Chechen team Terek Grozny as part of a pet project by Chechnya's hardman leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, who hopes football success can help rebuild his battered country. But critics accuse Gullit, who used to be an outspoken proponent of human rights, of selling out.

The Chicago Fire set up the Wall of Honor in 2008 to honor the passionate fans that have helped build the traditions of the club. Today on June 4th, 2011, the Wall of Honor will induct another distinguished member, Al Hack.

June 4th Induction - Section 8 Chicago

"I am writing to let everyone know that the Chicago Fire will be honoring our dad/husband this year by inducting him onto their Wall of Honor.

Spanning our coverage to three divisions would always present problems when deciding upon this season's best team. Just as the WBA, IBF and WBC versions of international boxing competed for eminence in the 1980s, Queen's Park Rangers, Chesterfield and Brighton and Hove Albion possess equal claims to be the top canines thirty or so years on.

By Amy Quinn, writing from Dublin

In the great, successful teams of the last few decades, it always seems to me that much care is taken, after due praise is given to the eleven on the pitch, to point out the names that sit on the bench. The now slightly worn out clichés of ‘strength in depth' are bandied about.

By Chris Wright

Another day, another 'it couldn't happen to anyone else' tale of Balo-madness.

According to the Beeb, Italian police have requested an interview with Mario Balotelli over a visit he paid to a known 'Mafia hotspot' in Naples almost a year ago.

AP photoBy Charlie Corr
ESPNChicago.com
Some Chicago sports fans need a refresher course that the 1980s were not completely centered on Mike Ditka's 1985 Super Bowl champion Chicago Bears and the phenomenon of Michael Jordan.
The Chicago Sting was the toast of this city at the start of the decade, winning North American Soccer League crowns in 1981 and 1984.

United States Women's National soccer team first choice goalkeeper and 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup Golden Glove winner Hope Solo delivered her Week 5 performance on the US version of Dancing with the Stars on Monday night. Solo and dance partner/coach Maksim Chmerkovskiy tangoed to 1980s rock classic Living on a Prayer.

Gary Gillespie played under Kenny Dalglish for much of his career at Liverpool, so he's well qualified to comment on the qualities that made Dalglish such a success at Anfield. What was the secret coaching ingredient that underpinned Liverpool's all conquering side of the late 1980s? It's not what you think.

On the train home from Liverpool last night after their League Cup win at Everton, Chelsea supporters could have been forgiven having something on their minds. For today, considerations regarding the Champions League, the Premier League, the League Cup and even the investigation into comments which may or may not have been made by John Terry last weekend took a back step this afternoon in preference to a vote that would surely have had significant ramifications for the future of their club.

A couple of weeks ago, Gary Gillespie revealed that when he was at Liverpool under Kenny Dalglish, the players were 'just told to go out and play', and that during his 8 year spell at Anfield 'the days we were actually coached I can count on one hand'. Against Swansea yesterday, it seemed like the coaching had regressed back to Gillespie's 1980s heyday for the afternoon.

Currently in sixth place in the 2011/12 Italian Serie A table and into the Round of 16 of the Champions League, SSC Napoli is enjoying its most successful period since its glory days of the 1980s. The team from the south of Italy will meet Chelsea FC in a home and away series in [...]

LOS ANGELES, Cal. German second-division club Ingolstadt has signed United States forward Edson Buddle. Buddle's contract with Major League Soccer's Los Angeles Galaxy had expired. He was MLS's leading scorer for most of last season despite missing more than a month for the World Cup. Buddle ended the regular season as the second-highest scorer [.

This week's episode of Friday Flashback Videos takes a trip back to 1969 to a match played between West Ham United and Manchester City on a slippery pitch at Upton Park.

The match features some legendary English footballers such as Manchester City's Francis Lee, Mike Summerbee and Colin Bell against West Ham United featuring Geoff Hurst, Harry Redknapp, Frank Lampard Sr.

HARRISON, N.J. Jan Halvor Halvorsen has been hired as an assistant coach of the New York Red Bulls under Hans Backe. Halvorsen replaces Goran Aral, who left after the 2010 season. The 45-year-old Halvorsen has coached in Norway and Sweden since 1996, and steered Sogndal to an eighth-place finish in the Norwegian Premier League [.

Newcastle United's not so new assistant manager, John Carver, has given an interview on his reappointment at the club. In it, he gave a revealing glimpse into his previous time at the club. An odyssey which started playing with the club's youth teams in the 1980s. He then rejoined the club as an academy coach [.

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish is keen for the club to rediscover the style of their glory days — as it is the only way he knows how to play football.
The success of the late 1970s and through the 1980s was built on the pass-and-move doctrines instigated by Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley.
Dalglish flourished as a player in those teams and tried to continue the legacy in his first spell as manager.

This week's episode of Friday Flashback Videos features a very rare video of a Manchester City from 1968 against the Atlanta Chiefs played at Atlanta's Fulton-County Stadium, home to the baseball team the Atlanta Braves.

The friendly match was played just a few weeks after Manchester City had won the league championship under manager Malcolm Allison.

When a non-league club gets as far as the Fourth Round of the FA Cup, the goodwill shown by supporters of other clubs often transcends league and occasionally even local rivalries. Not so this year. Crawley Town have an excellent chance of making the Fifth Round of the competition, but there is at best a feeling of ambivalence surrounding this FA Cup run.

I have been bit slow in this blog as most of my time was going on watching the TV Channels and follow the Egyptian protests to change the government. As part of my support to Egyptian people and wish the best for them, I will post some wonderful historical goals from time to time.
This goal is from their legendary player Mahmoud Al-Khatib, I think in the early 1980s

Okay! I think this is bit too much to the extreme side.
Qatar has offered a blank cheque to Pepe Guardiola to coach the Qatari national team for the next ten years, and this offer expires at June. Guardiola have not commented yet, who has already turned down €10 million-a-year from Inter Milan and €20 million-a-year from CSKA Moscow.

Pep Segura has told his young players to enjoy the Anfield experience when the Reserves take on Everton in the mini-derby tonight.
Playing on the hallowed turf used to be a regular occurrence for the second string in the 1970s and 1980s but nowadays it is very rare when a reserve team game is staged at Anfield.

The Madison Area Soccer Hall of Fame is accepting nominations for its third class of inductees, and is hoping for a large group to consider for the Class of 2011.

That's because the group is focusing on the 1980s this year.

"I'm anticipating and hoping that the pool should be bigger," Hall of Fame board member Chris Rumbelow said.

Way, way back, many years ago, not long before the Premier League began, yes kids we did have football in the 1980s, Gillingham played two home games. First up was Southend United who they beat 8-1. Next came Chesterfield, who James The Gill tells me, hadn't conceded a goal all season. Didn't matter to a rampant Gills who put 10 past them without reply.

One of the peculiarities of the history of Wembley Stadium is how few derby matches have been played there. Before we go on to look at the derby matches that have been played there, however, it is important to distinguish how we are going to define that phrase in itself. Like many phrases that have entered the terminology of football, the phrase "local derby" has come to have something of a fluid meaning, but we are clamping down on that sort of thing for the purposes of this article.

Earl Gardner has given Philadelphia Union fans the next great hit: "Harvey All The Time."

Based upon Eddie Murphy and Rick James' 1980s hit single "Party All The Time," Gardner brings to life a running meme on Twitter about the Union's starting left back, Jordan Harvey. It has been proposed numerous times through Twitter that the Sons of Ben should adopt a song around Harvey and "Party All The Time" for Harvey, along the lines of how Danny Mwanga sports his own song.

Contributing Editor Dillon Young
This Week in Soccer History: 1976 - Ace comes for the Kicks
On April 26, 1976, the Minnesota Kicks signed South African great Patrick "Ace" Ntsoelengoe for their inaugural season. During that season, Ace went on to score five goals in his first five games and became an instant fan favorite for amazing footwork on the field and his shockingly shy personality off of it.

Swansea City became the first Welsh side to make the promised land of the Premier League with a thrilling 4-2 win over Reading. The Championship final at Wembley saw former Premier League side Reading go 3-0 down in the first-half. Swansea manager Brendan Rogers was sacked by Reading last season and was looking for the sweetest revenge possible at Wembley.

What does race have to do with it? Nothing. The French national teams have seen Polish immigrants in the great 1958 team, Italian and Spanish in the dream team of the 1980s and the black-blanc-beur world champion team of 1998. The debate is only about how to put back the technical aspects in front of the physical ones, point la ligne.

There was a time when Hong Kong used to be the envy of Asian football. The territory hosted the first Asian Football Confederation Asian Cup in 1956 with its team finishing a creditable third. This was followed with a fourth place in 1964 and, from the 1950s to the 1980s, the Hong Kong team was one of the highest ranked teams in Asia.

Dress down friendly Forget dress down Friday. Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola is launching his own 1980s revival with dress down friendly. The general idea is that if you normally wear a suit to work then you go along to pre-season friendlies dressed a bit more casually. In fact, dress like you're on holiday.

Dress down friendly Forget dress down Friday. Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola is launching his own 1980s revival with dress down friendly. The general idea is that if you normally wear a suit to work then you go along to pre-season friendlies dressed a bit more casually. In fact, dress like you're on holiday.

Certain sections of the media have long had the mildly irritating habit of treating 1992 and the beginning of the Premier League as football's Year Zero. In this world, "the history of football" is substituted for "the history of the Premier League", as if nothing that happened prior to the twenty biggest clubs cutting themselves free in the pursuit of all the television money to which we can only say, mission accomplished and anything that happened prior to then is treated as at best an relevance.

What are the odds King Kenny's Liverpool will be crowned champions? Derek McGovern's Bets of the Day

We're in the middle of a huge recession, we've got Noel Edmonds on TV, rioting on the streets of London and King Kenny back at Liverpool. It's like being back in the 1980s.

It just might be Serie A's answer to a cold night at the Britannia Stadium. An icy December day at the Stadio Friuli is the kind of test that a pundit might think would be a step too far for a star foreign player, particularly a boy from Brazil. But, back in the 1980s, there was one golden player ready to prove them wrong.

Yesterday marked Dalglish's 30th game in charge since taking over last January. The side's record over that span is 15W-6D-9L. How does that compare with previous bosses?
Read the hexagonal diagrams from left to right, in rows of six. Just to make things confusing. Linearity isn't really the point anyway.