The Great Old
Belgium finally has its very own galactico, no really. This week, their PM Herman van Rompuy romped to victory in the race to become President of the European Council. So how to celebrate this historic moment here on EFW!? Well, I thought we'd blow the cobwebs off our Belgian history books and delve deeper into this wonderful country. Click to continue reading...

According to James Riach at Sky Sports News, Manchester City striker Roque Santa Cruz admitted that Robinho has openly admitted that he would like to play for Barcelona. Santa Cruz told Catalunya Radio,

"Of course he talks to us about it .

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5. The stick-it-right-up-'em Scottish crowd
When I was a kid watching games at Ibrox, Parkhead or Hampden I sensed even then "the angry Scottish football crowd". To this day the Scots aren't too keen on the type of football which tends to succeed, ie, methodical, studied and careful in the build-up. Click to continue reading...

In the olden days, local aldermen and dignitaries would be the people that kept football clubs going. These butchers, bakers and candlestick makers were far from perfect they were often autocratic, completely insular and frequently treated the supporters of their clubs like dirt but, for the most part, they partly ran their clubs for the honour of their local communities.

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It requires some planning, quite a lot of peering of timetables and unintelligible weather forecasts, but we decided to go in the end. The bus chunters up through Kemptown and Hanover, eventually depositing us in the centre of Whitehawk, which feels like the very top of the world. The wind is gusting at sixty to seventy miles per hour and as we walk down to The Enclosed Ground the heavens open and rains falls horizontally, a lacerating experience made all the worse for the creeping suspicion that Whitehawk FC is hiding from us.

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Fantasy #1
The Roar women are champions and so far are in the champion position this season as well. To be accurate and fair, and to avoid being too hubristic, they have some serious competition this year in Sydney, Melbourne and Central Coast. Yesterday I reckon they barely outplayed Melbourne at Ballymore, but it couldn't be said that Melbourne didn't deserve their point (1:1). Click to continue reading...

Lock up your daughters, board your windows residents of Jakarta, Indonesia's most infamous football fans the Bonek of Persebaya are about to hit the capital city for this afternoon's game with Persitara at the Soemanti Brojonegoro Stadium in Central Jakarta.
Hundreds of security personnel will be on duty at the stadium as officials hope the first high risk game goes off peacefully. Click to continue reading...

We'll be back a little later on today with a report on the match between Paulton Rovers and Norwich City. In the meantime, however, The First Round of The FA Cup started yesterday evening with three matches. The remainder, of course, are to be played over the next three days. One of the traditions of The FA Cup is the press sending one of their hacks who is probably none too happy at not being to assigned to a Premier League match to write a few words about the smaller clubs that are taking their spot in the limelight.

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by Matt - US Soccer Daily It seems like Jim Mora and many fans around MLS have been on the same page lately. Five playoff matches have been played, and the crowds have been unimpressive, to say the...

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Mayor Bill White has proclaimed today as Dynamo Day. Are you wearing orange?

Mayor Bill White today proclaimed that Friday, November 6th, will be recognized as "Dynamo Day" in Houston. In observance of the day, the mayor encourages Houstonians to wear orange, the color of the Dynamo.

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The Big Puma was Back, at Least for a Night
Rare is the sight in Mexican futbol of a stadium packed to capacity. It happens in some places with regualrity: the two Monterrey stadia, Santos, and San Luis Potosí seems to have sell outs every game. The big teams, on the other hand, only seem to pack the place when it's either a rivalry game or a late rounder in the liguilla. Click to continue reading...

1. Not technically in Seattle, but you don't have to cast a wide net to get this one:
2. Check out these crowds below. Here's a team made mostly famous from Jim Bouton's stories of drugs and debauchery in Ball Four:
3. This courtesy of James Cooke:
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I turn my back for one minute and Creepy Jose Romero turns into a 14-year-old dick. On Houston selling lots of tickets for the weekend:

No Sounders FC practice today, but thanks to the Dynamo press crew that really does a nice job, I've learned that Houston's home field is down to upper level end zone and sideline seats.

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Last week, we reported on exhibit A in how to alienate fans in Australia by A-League expansion team Gold Coast United's billionaire owner Clive Palmer. The club closed three sides of their stadium, Skilled Park, and capped capacity to just 5,000, forcing supporters out of their usual position in the stadium.

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I guess some would look at this as a continuation of the war of press releases between the United Soccer Leagues and the Team Owners Association, but nonetheless it's still news.

According to the press release the USL First Division will move forward next year without the member clubs of the TOA, though Tampa seems to be on-board with the USL despite flirting with TOA over the last few months.

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Empty stands were a common sight at Pizza Hut Park this year. (Getty Images)

I hope everyone is getting use to the longer days again after the time change this weekend. Nothing like getting darker a bit earlier again here but that's just how it goes. I have a few goodies to discuss tonight leading off with a big time look at something former Chicago Fire GM Peter Wilt sent Alexi Lalas a few years back.

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- Barca's upcoming match against Rubin Kazan is no small deal. Weather conditions are looking to be pretty harsh, with the climate there at this time of year much colder than what our players are used to, and measures have been taken... from the team traveling to Kazan two days before match day to get used to the cold a bit, to the special gear designed by Nike to keep the players warm. Click to continue reading...

Sunday's edition of FSC's business minute sponsored by British Airways discussed the economic implications of David Beckham's arrival at Milan. Keith Costigan, Warren Burton, and Chris Miles all nodding in agreement that Becks arrival would bring back the crowds to the San Siro, boost T shirt sales, and relieve them from the desperate reality of rapidly emptying coffers.

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Local band The Jons have been named the winners of Southend's Battle of the Bands.

In a musical spectacular, The Jons saw off competition from Lazarus Rose, Vacant Touch and The Peppermint Apes to win the seven-week competition, organised by Southend Radio 105.1.

The Jons, whose music is described as an infectious blend of bouncy ska, punk and indie, wowed the crowds at Southend's Marine Parade on Saturday night (31 October), with hundreds of fans enjoying their energy-charged performance, and then taking part in a text vote to make them the winners.

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"Scrap the Cap", "Fans not $$ ", "Greatest Team Never Seen", "Football is for the fans, not greedy hands, Justice for the GCU", "Want bigger Crowds Clive, Ask us How". Click to continue reading...

The good news was Robbie Fowler combining with Dave Williams, and a pen, to get to 8 goals this year.
The transport charges issue for the Gold Coast is a furphy. This type of direct cost - ie it is charged per ticket - is simply included in the ticket pricing model. At the start of the season Gold Coast's accountants - who worked out how to get the best squad in the A-League under the cap - would have assumed that crowds were going to be above 5,000 for every match and popped the $3. Click to continue reading...

No surprise there, then: in a tanking economy where even the nation's most popular league, the NFL, has had trouble selling tickets and Major League Baseball's attendance fell 6.9%, it's not a shock to learn that as Soccer America reports, MLS' attendance fell overall by 2.9% in the regular season just concluded, falling from 16,460 in 2008 to 16,037.

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The NFL's Giants Stadium was once a famous venue of American soccer, a must-be-seen place with packed crowds and Pele in the 1970s.

Then the New York MetroStars, later rebranded to Red Bull New York, started playing there almost two decades later in Major League Soccer.

As the Red Bulls laid the final piece of sod today at their new, impressive Red Bull Arena in New Jersey, some current players took the chance to express their feelings about Giants Stadium and the support they (did not) receive there.

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The Goal That Saved Fergie's Career
Uploaded by RepublikOfMancunia.

The legend goes that had Mark Robins not scored to put United through to the 1990 FA Cup final, which we went on to win, Sir Alex Ferguson would have been given the sack. This is a story that the manager denies but after almost four years in charge and not a trophy in sight it stands to reason that time might have been running out for the manager.

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One of the points in Frank Lowry's speech I failed to touch on in my last blog was the idea of moving the start time of the A-League Season to the first week in October.
After a honeymoon that was the first three seasons it has become blindingly obvious in the last two that the A-League struggles to make any impact in the mass media in the August/September period. Click to continue reading...

This will be the biggest thing in a couple of years. Just like UEFA have done with their Champions League, we will do with this. This will be to cricket what the... er... Champions League is to football.

-Lalit Modi, Chairman, Champions League T20

To all ye doubters who mocked at my observation of some other tournament being the clear inspiration for this tournament.

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Will Clive Palmer limit crowds to 5000 at Skilled Park? "We believe Clive's financial resources will support the bid – there's no question about that," Buckley said. "More importantly there's a demonstrated commitment to engage with the Gold Coast community. That's a very important part of the proposal as well" Courier Mail, June 3, 2008 "the club informed [. Click to continue reading...

Chris Hugthon is learning that's it's never going to be an easy job managing a club like Newcastle United. Chris Hughton defeat hard to take Hughton told the Evening Chronicle: "We have to learn very fast and wherever we go crowds will raise their game and crowds will raise their enthusiasm." "We have to rise above that. Click to continue reading...

The 2010 World Cup in South Africa looms ever closer as teams from around the world compete for a chance to play in the worlds most prestigious sporting event. The FIFA World Cup Games begin on June 1th this summer and will run until July 11th. Only 32 nations will be honored enough to play in the games.

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After the two-week international break, it was refreshing to see the return of the Premier League. Within minutes I could see why I had missed it so much. Vocal crowds singing songs, the fast pace of the football and the entertaining open style of play.

The four takeaways I had from this game were:

1. Is Aston Villa the reverse of a flat track bully?

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What's there to say?
The coach is sacked, a whole lot of laundry is aired, some no doubt utter bullshit, other true. Frank is scapegoated for a long period of administrative incompetence in the Roar and the FFA.
At the same time - quick, someone mentioned a 50% hike on the already most expensive tickets in the league might have 'contributed' to the disappearing crowds - the Roar announces a 15% price cut and a special promotion letting kids in free. Click to continue reading...

Here is more of my ongoing investigation into why the Somerset Premier Cup continues to be played even though no one wants to play in it (If you have not you would probably be best off reading my previous posts entitled Cup Kafkaesque and The Blue Blazers Speak first).
After Somerset FA Chief Executive Jonathan Pike's surprising response where he implied that the Somerset FA puts on the Somerset Premier Cup only because they are forced to by the FA, I sent him another email just to definitely make sure this is what he meant. Click to continue reading...

Here is what the Courier Mail said today:

'Farina's departure will spell the end for a handful of Roar players, sooner rather than later. Tiatto, 36, has already declared he will retire at season's end, while the Roar careers of Miller and Bob Malcolm – both off contract at the end of Brisbane's current campaign – seem clouded.

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Its been just over a month since I last put fingers to keyboard and tapped out a paragraph or two for this blog and a lot has happened in that time. Crowds continue to be a major talking point and I was very pleased to see Gold Coast and Brisbane take steps to reduce their ticket prices and make them more affordable for the general fan. Click to continue reading...

OK, I was pleasantly surprised. I went to this game with no expectations whatsoever and to be fair if you had to choose a Malaysia Cup tie to see this wouldn't have been on the list but it was all I had and it weren't bad.
The first 45 minutes were goaless before the visitors took the lead right on half tme with a sweet half volley from the edge of the area. Click to continue reading...