Rugby World Cup 2011: All Blacks and the Kiwis

September 8, 2011 at 3:45 PM · Filed under Sport ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

All Blacks at the official welcome ceremony for the Rugby World Cup in Auckland.

Being in New Zealand for the Rugby World Cup wasn’t particularly my plan last year, but boy am I glad I stayed. Tomorrow, in less than 19 hours, the first game of the 2011 Rugby World Cup will kick-off at Eden Park in Auckland.

Right now, it’s just after midnight and Queen Street, Auckland’s main street, is buzzing with activity. Flags of all nations adorn every shop, car, lamp-post and person.

The World Cup celebrations start at 3pm tomorrow with free concerts, performances and fireworks to mark the start of this historic event.

After the Opening Ceremony, chances are you’ll see thousands of people with silver ferns painted across their cheeks watching the live telecast of New Zealand v Tonga with bated breath.

It has often been mentioned by the various media that the Rugby World Cup is the third largest sporting event in the world, but for rugby novice like me the trivia sounds trivial till I saw the emotion for the sport on the street.

I have been lucky to be in the country long enough to make friends and watch their beloved sport with them. Over the weekend I saw a Rugby League match between NZ Warriors and the New South Wales Cowboys from the comfort of a welcoming Kiwi home where proudly displayed on the piano was a picture of the All Blacks with the man of house cheekily Photoshopped in to be a part of the team.

People of this house got behind their team.

So imagine my surprise when every one of the 6 people in the room shouted out in disgust when one of the Warriors’ players body-checked a player from the other team.

I can’t really tell the difference between an overly physical rugby tackle and a normal rugby tackle. The entire sport seems overly physical to my football-tuned brain.  But my savvy rugby friends were appalled at the harsh treatment meted out to the player and more so because it turned out he used to be an ex-Warriors player. What made them livid was the way their player had treated a former teammate.

I am still trying to understand the game and am often left puzzled by it. But this reaction left my football- fuelled brain which has been numbed by ‘fan-thinking’ more puzzled than ever before.

Not give Wayne Rooney the stick when he goes to play at Everton or even Anfield?

How incredible.

This is when I got a rare insight into Kiwis’ relationship to Rugby and the All Blacks. The All Blacks are the country’s oldest franchise and probably their most recognisable brand the world over.  Every Kiwi loves one or the other form of Rugby and I’d put money on the fact that even those who claim to not care one bit about the game will say a little prayer if they think it’d help the All Blacks win.

But unlike the British obsession with football, Kiwis’ love of Rugby isn’t toxic. They see their team, as an extension of themselves and their country’s character and that is why it is unacceptable to them when one of their Rugby players is unfairly harsh to a fellow player.

Their love for the game is well- known but that doesn’t make them lose sight of it being just a game – important but not more important than being the good guys and being human

They realise that rugby in the end is just a game and they don’t let their love for the game taint their love for their ideals. And because of this, the All Blacks are so much more than just a team and Rugby so much more than just a game.

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Tables turned: Skysports apologises to John Terry

July 20, 2011 at 10:09 AM · Filed under Chelsea, Chelsea FC, English Premier League, EPL, Football, premier league ·Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

Photo by: Александр Мысякин.

‘I am too lazy for revenge, I just wait for karma to kick in’ could have been John Terry’s facebook status today.

Karma really is shinning down on JT who has often been the victim of unfair media coverage. In February last year, media organisations the world over scrambled to publish details about John Terry’s alleged affair with ex-teammate John Bridge’s former wife.

These alleged revelations splashed on front pages of publications all over the world lead to the footballer losing the England captaincy and almost/ nearly ended his marriage.

Leading the brigade was New of the World. The 168-year old tabloid was forced to shut-down after a Guardian investigation revealed a shocking, soul-less culture and turned the tables on the dirt-digging publication.

Today, Sky Sports apologised for misquoting John Terry in an interview about Tottenham midfielder Luca Modric. I suspect, John Terry and most celebs can look forward to deluge of apologies coming their way in the following weeks as media organisations go into a NOTW spurred extra-cautious mode.

Photo by: Gene Hunt.

Although, the NOTW revelations make it impossible to argue in the tabloid’s favour. Romantics among us might have felt some remorse for a 168-year old establishment to have come to such a terrible and bitter end. Others who remember times when tabloids were publications that got some of the best scoops and set the tone for political debate and weren’t synonymous with dirty, sensationalist, (and now criminal) news reporting might go further and blame Rupert Murdoch for ruining a British tabloid.

But, there is no denying that the tabloid culture and the news culture as a whole needs to change. If a sesquicentennial publication has to die to set this change in motion, so be it.

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Andy Murray says no to pigging out

June 29, 2011 at 8:40 AM · Filed under Sport ·Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Andy Murray really is motivated to win the Wimbledon this year. He has reportedly resisted the urge to tuck into the massive delivery of tempting goodies that arrived at his door last week.

The Scot was surprised to get a delivery of 30 Percy Pigs from Marks & Spencer after his mum mentioned she often bought the sweets for her son.

Murray has in the past few years really become a lean, mean, tennis machine. He has been relying on his highly improved physical fitness to win matches from almost impossible positions.

At the 2008 Wimbledon and at last year’s French Open he came back from being two sets down to win in a dramatic fashion.

Murray says he is on a strict diet for the next 2 weeks and that the candy will just have to wait, reports the Sun.

“They’re just sitting in the house. I really like them but I’m being strict on my diet in the next couple of weeks, so I’ll wait until the tournament’s done.

“My girlfriend opened them last night and I had a bite out of one of them and that was it. But I have to try and resist the temptation for more.

The British No.1 who beat Richard Gasquet 7-6, 6-3, 6-2 plays Feliciano Lopez in the quarter-finals at SW19, today.

Surely, anyone who resists Percy Pigs (and looks like that) deserves a trophy.

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Tim Howard speak no Mexicana!

June 28, 2011 at 10:27 AM · Filed under Football, Sport ·Tagged , , , , , ,

Tim Howard is mad and you’d be forgiven for thinking it is because of USA’s incredible ability to snatch loss from the jaws of victory!

The USA were 2-0 up before they lost 4-2 but that is besides the point… for Tim Howard at least.

The US goalkeeper, who did a great impression of a fish out of water during the match, is absolutely livid about the Gold Cup post-match ceremony at the Rose Bowl being conducted in Spanish.

The final was played in front of a crowd of over 93,000 people, the vast majority of whom were Mexico supporters.

Howard felt his teammates were disrespected by the way the post-match formalities were conducted by arguably one of the most controversial football governing bodies (and we have a lot to choose from) – CONCACAF.

“CONCACAF should be ashamed of itself,” Howard said. “I think it was a f***ing disgrace that the entire post-match ceremony was in Spanish. You can bet your ass if we were in Mexico City it wouldn’t be all in English.”

Howard was seen gesturing angrily as the U.S. team left the field after receiving its runner-up medals, while team officials attempted to calm him down.

There are many things you may disagree with but Howard’s observation about CONCACAF not conducting the ceremony in English if the final was played in Mexico is spot on.

Because, just like in the predominantly Mexico supporting crowd in the Rose Bowl on Saturday night, people in Mexico speak in Spanish.

The faulty reasoning however, cannot be held against Howard. After all, the man isn’t even capable of coming up with an original rant and had to borrow Drogba’s ‘infamous’ lines to express himself.

PS: Watch the video and you’ll see that although most of the ceremony was in Spanish, the emcee, Fernando Fiore, did use English throughout, particularly when presenting the U.S. with the runners-up medals.

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Being Rafael Nadal

November 20, 2010 at 7:12 PM · Filed under Sport ·Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Rafael Nadal suffered an early pre-quarterfinals defeat at the Shanghai Open. Many top players would have been tempted to take a few days off from their hectic schedule before playing in the showcase Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London in November. Rafael Nadal however, decided to fly to India to inaugurate a tennis school set up by his foundation for underprivileged children in Andhra Pradesh.

But then Rafael Nadal has always been unlike anyone else. He wears capris and plays with his left-hand while being naturally right-handed. Even at the age of 15 when he won his first ATP title, ‘Rafa’ had bigger muscles and brighter clothes than anyone else. Charming and handsome, he stands out in any company. It is impossible not to notice him. But what really sets Rafael Nadal apart is his heart.

To succeed in the world of competitive sport is becoming more and more difficult. Never in the past has there been so much opportunity and help available to talented sportsmen. The sheer number of new entrants makes the competition tougher than it has ever been. The percentage difference in skills in the top 10 is so small, that it is impossible to guarantee continued success while the gazillions of dollars in sports makes losing painful in more ways than one. All this makes the job of being a successful athlete extremely stressful. What truly differentiates the ‘greats’ from the good of the game today is how they deal with adversity and with success. Who do they blame when they lose, how do they act when they win and what do they learn from it.

Till 2009, Rafael Nadal never really faced a major crisis is his career. Many will say winning makes being gracious very easy. However, if you win as much as Nadal does, you could easily become arrogant, bratty and obnoxious, everything he was taught, very early in life by his coach and uncle Tony, not to be. Uncle Tony taught little Rafa to take responsibility for his success as well as his failure. The story goes that once Rafael as a kid broke his racket after he lost a game. Uncle Tony talked to him and told him never to blame his failing on someone else and never ever to break a racket in anger again. And to this day, he never has.

From day one, ‘Uncle Tony’ was grooming his nephew to be one of the ‘greats’ of the game. And true to his training Rafa was quick to help Roger Federer cope with his remorse after he beat him in Melbourne in the Australian open. An inconsolable Roger could not stop crying and gasped, “God, it’s killing me”. Nadal was quick to remind him how good a player he is. He walked up to him, put his arm around him and said with compassion, “Remember you are a great champion and one of the best in history – and you will beat Pete Sampras’s 14 titles for sure.” Roger went on to do that and more. Here was an opportunity when a lesser person would have chosen to completely demolish an adversary but Rafael Nadal chose to edify him and build him up. It is this compassion that makes him so much more than just a good tennis player. That is the importance of being Rafael Nadal. A true role model.

When crisis struck, like it always does, Nadal had it worst than most. For a sports person the only thing worse than getting injured is getting injured when you are at the top of your game. That is exactly what happened to Rafa. In mid 2009, when he got hit by tendonitis in both his knees a lot of people believed that this was the end of the Spaniard. Not many knew that while he was recovering after his knee surgery, he was also coming to terms with his parents’ divorce. The final blow came when it became clear that he wasn’t fit enough to defend his Wimbledon title in 2009. It all seemed to be falling apart for the Majorcan.

Nadal could have become one of those players whose dazzling short careers are forever admired accompanied by a sigh and a rueful shake of the head. However, Rafael Nadal’s response was the stuff legends are made of. He got back in even better shape with a new, faster serve and is playing some of the best tennis of his career. But more importantly, he hasn’t let the challenges of last year, make him bitter or cynical. If anything, he has come back more grateful, more humble; something that shines through in his increased efforts in charity. The new 2010 version of Nadal is an even better human being than his last version. Dare I say, that someday, someone will probably catch up with him on his title count, but to match him as a person is where the real challenge lies.

It looks quite likely that he top off an extraordinary year with a win in the Barclays World Tour ATP Finals in London, where only the best 8 singles players and the best 8 doubles teams qualify to play. Vamos Rafa!

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Indian Media – The Sleeping Beauty at the Commonwealth Games

October 8, 2010 at 11:05 PM · Filed under Commonwealth Games 2010, Sport ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The opening ceremony of the Commonwealth games on October 3, seems to have been the game changer. From finding nothing right with the preparation for the Games the media now can find nothing wrong. The front pages of Indian newspapers and all the reporters and anchors of all the news channels are awash with happy, positive news about the Games. The broadcast media is ecstatic as each Indian win is reported by beaming  TV anchors grinning from ear to ear. They just can’t resist asking anyone who is willing to comment just how many medals they think India will win and whether they will end up hitting a new record in Gold medals.

The chaos, scandals and panic which formed the theme of the Commonwealth Games coverage till before the opening ceremony has been long forgotten. The opening ceremony which in my opinion was just about ordinary, has been built up as something of a super spectacular success.  So focused were they on the dazzling lights of the opening ceremony, that they forgot to report (thank God for the BBC!) on the damage to the field that was caused by the performers. True to form, the  Indian media has once again decided to go back to sleep after a 10-day burst of activity in the run-up to the Games.

It once again was left to the world media, to show the Indian media that there were problems that needed to addressed and reported.  The Telegraph and then the BBC and the Guardian let the world know how  a very high percentage of the English squad had been suffering from Delhi belly. That the Australian swimming team was also under the weather and that probably the practice swimming pool was contaminated. It probably needed to be checked. Mike Fennel finally intervened and that is around the time the Indian TV channels decided to run a  sorry little ticker story. It was only after everyone read somewhere else that the Indian print media actually ran a story.

Another news story that was doing the rounds all over the world and was mentioned in India only after it became impossible to ignore was about an accident involving Ugandan officials and how they were treated in the most inhuman manner. No Indian official offered to help them. They just stood there and looked at the poor Ugandans  disdainfully. It needed intervention and some arm twisting from the External Affairs Minister Krishna Kumar to get the Sports minister Gill to regret the ‘inconvenience’ caused to the Officials from Uganda. The Indian media chose to ignore the issue as they had better things like the India Medal’s Tally to report.

Yet another story that was deemed unimportant since our athletes were winning Gold medals was about the athletics fiasco about false starts and uneven running tracks at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium and the officials threatening to go on strike.

Judging from the coverage of the Indian media you would never relate empty stands, blocked lavatories, collapsing scoreboards, vomiting swimmers and striking officials to these Games.

The sad affair about a Welsh woman athlete being harassed in the Games Village was covered a little bit but then it is the kind of sensationalist story that the Indian media tends to enjoy covering. They have been very proactive in telling us exactly how many condoms are being used in the Athletes village on a day to day basis and how the numbers don’t match up to the the record set in Beijing!

The Indian media needs to realise that by not covering these stories, these terrible lapses in organization, they are in no way helping the country. They need to keep reminding people of how chaotic and miserable the games have been. Irrespective of how many medals India wins the Games have been a failure on many counts. Their responsible reporting will help bring the culprits to book. It is still possible to learn precious  lessons  from this fiasco if nothing else.

Empty stands, blocked lavatories, collapsing scoreboards, vomiting swimmers and striking officials

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Could the Indian media have averted the Commonwealth Games crisis?

October 8, 2010 at 10:55 AM · Filed under Commonwealth Games 2010, Sport ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

It didn’t seem like a big deal when Delhi came under severe flak a couple of weeks before the start of the 2010 commonwealth games as every nation, lucky enough to get an opportunity to host a big sporting event, usually draws some criticism in the run-up to the event. One thought it would blow off soon enough. But as the media found new holes in the preparations and its frenzy turned to fury it was realised that the story became murkier by the day. The media seemed to have suddenly dug up a scam that had been conducted undetected for more than half a decade and there in hangs the tale. The sordid tale that is trumpeted as a triumph but is actually a story of miserable failure and callous relegation of duty on the part of the media.

As the Indian media went ballistic in highlighting all that  was wrong with the preparation of Commonwealth games, the smug officials claimed to have everything under control. Every hour new stories about the squalid conditions began to be broadcast and printed in papers. We learnt that the Athlete’s Village was unsuitable for human habitation. Media was ecstatic in flashing pictures of dogs and snakes straying into the village to highlight the state of unpreparedness as the Indians began to panic. The outbreak of dengue and other diseases in the Indian capital city seemed to be the favourite topic for the journos.

The officials characteristically brushed aside the concerns of  the tribe with mikes and TV cameras (journalists is what they usually refer to themselves as) who with furrowed heads shot the same questions at them ad-nauseam . My point is why did the media wake up to the problem so late?  What were they doing for the seven years that India got for the preparation of the games? Was there no journalist- investigative or straight- who was tracking the development story for all these years?

To their credit the hype and hysteria (so typical of Indian media) created by the journos shook the PMO from its slumber. As the world media chipped in, some athletes and countries threatened to pull-out of the event. It was a national crisis.  The organisers were bailed out by the Indian government who called in the Indian Army to  build a bridge that had collapsed in just three days. The government also requisitioned help from other  government  departments to get the venues and the village  ready to receive the athletes.

The TV guys with their cameras and mikes and the newspapers reporters collectively felt triumphant and all smug in their success of  revealing just what a pack of clowns the organisers were. They felt they had done their job by India. And you can’t deny they did. Only it was five years too late.  Certainly a case of too much too late, which is perhaps worse than too little too late.

What the organisers did (or didn’t do) was bad but what was worst and most unusual was the fact that the Indian media was quite unaware of the Commonwealth Games till about 10 days before their commencement.  Why didn’t they  highlight the lapses in organisation and planning;  reveal the massive underlying corruption and get the Indian people involved 7,6 or even 5 years ago?  From the way they felt about India’s image being tarnished and had debates and discussions a couple of days before the opening of the games, it sure felt like it was an important issue worthy of their attention and coverage every single day from the day India was awarded the Games.

India prides itself on being the biggest democracy and the media definitely has a vital role to play in any democratic country. The Commonwealth Games might end up being called a great success depending on something as arbitrary as the number of gold medals India win but what has come across as one of India’s biggest failures is not just the corruption in our political system (we can fight that), but also the failure of Indian media. Indian media needs to get its priorities right and learn to be more professional in its approach if it wants to play a constructive role in helping India become the world power it dreams of becoming.

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Will John W. Henry be denied Liverpool FC?

October 6, 2010 at 6:42 PM · Filed under English Premier League, Football ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , ,

For most football clubs, the fight on the pitch is more important than what goes on behind the scenes in the boardroom. But for Liverpool FC, it is the fights in the boardroom that have become crucial for their survival.

So when it was understood that there were two “credible” bids, one from John W Henry, the multi-millionaire  owner of Boston Red Sox Major League Baseball team and the other from business interests in Asia to buy the debt-ridden club off the current American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett, everyone should have breathed a collective sigh of relief.

However, this set the stage for another low  for a club that has always prided itself  for keeping internal matters private. The boardroom war between the American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett, and the three other directors came into the full public view when an official statement from Liverpool said the board was preparing to approve the sale yesterday. However, Hicks and Gillett sought to block that decision by ousting the managing director, Christian Purslow, and commercial director, Ian Ayre, and appointing instead Hicks’s son and a close ally.

Hicks and Gillett both reiterated “commitment to finding a buyer” but said that they will not accept bids which in their view “dramatically undervalue” the club, which they say had nearly doubled its revenues since they took over.

What this whole mess  most likely means is that while both the offers commit to clearing the £237m Liverpool owe Royal Bank of Scotland and Wachovia (which is due for repayment in nine days’ time), they were not prepared to give Hicks and Gillett much for their shares.

Liverpool chairman Martin Broughton thinks  that the attempt by the club’s owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett to block the sale of the club to John W Henry’s New England Sports Ventures group by changing the board, is a “flagrant abuse” of “written undertakings” and that he is the only person entitled to do such a thing.

In an interview on the Liverpool website the chairman said, ”We don’t think it was valid to do it. Essentially when I took the role they gave a couple of written undertakings to Royal Bank of Scotland. Those written undertakings included that I was the only person entitled to change the board and that was written into the articles of the covenant, and also that they would take no action to frustrate any reasonable sale.”

Broughton also believes that the proposed owners were committed to getting the winning mentality back into the team: ”I think the demonstration is: let’s look at what they have done at Boston, what they said in Boston, what they have done in terms of investing in players – and I think you get a high degree of confidence of their willingness to do that.”

The iconic Fenway Park stadium and two championship wins for the Boston Red Sox under John W. Henry’s ownership does seem to suggest that he is the right man to lead Liverpool back to winning ways.

However, Liverpool fans cannot be blamed for being sceptical of any US bid after their bitter experience with Hicks and Gillett’s “leveraged buy-out”.

Article first published as Will John W. Henry be denied Liverpool FC? on Technorati.

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Rafael Nadal: Yet Another Ace!

September 16, 2010 at 6:09 PM · Filed under Sport ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

The World Cup fever  it seems got me early this year. I didn’t quite realise how bad it had hit me, till I discovered a video by Shakira.  My fat head,( made fatter by lofty dreams of England returning home with the trophy) assumed that all Shakira was working on till World Cup was also football related. She however, made the video for her song ‘Gypsy’ and cast the newly crowned US Open Champion and World No. 1 Rafael Nadal in it as her lover. The song is a part of Shakira’s ‘She Wolf’ album and topped Billboard.com‘s weekly list of Top 10 videos.

“Shooting this video with Rafa was a great experience, he is very sweet and made it easy and fun,” said Shakira. “He and I have so much in common — starting out so young in our respective careers and traveling the world — I felt this would translate the spirit of the lyrics in the song and I was thrilled he wanted to be a part of it.”

“It has been a great experience and I had a lot of fun doing it. I had some time in between tournaments and preparation and could not miss this opportunity.”, said Nadal of his role in the video. “Shakira, as always, was spectacular. Working with a woman as charming as her, well, it makes it a lot easier to tell the truth. It was great, very easy, she’s really sweet and that always makes the hours go by faster.”

So if you are like me and love Rafael Nadal, music and Shakira and haven’t seen the video, blame it on Waka Waka, Vuvuzelas and the World Cup.

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A Guide to Champions League Group F

September 15, 2010 at 5:48 PM · Filed under Champions League, Football ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The top team in this group is Chelsea FC and I like believing that being in Group F is a sign that we are going to be in the Final. So the question is: Are any of the other teams from this group going to end up in the Final? Here is a quick guide to help you decide:

Chelsea FC

I don’t think anyone here would’nt know about Chelsea FC. But just in case I am going to tell you a little about them (it’s always  fun to revisit our greatness). So here goes, Chelsea FC, a South-west London club was founded on March 10, 19o5 at The Rising Sun pub (now The Butcher’s Hook). Despite their name, Chelsea are not based in Chelsea but in neighbouring Fulham. They have spent most of their history in the top tier of English football and are the current English champions. Not only do Chelsea play winning  football they are also extremely cool.  In 1930, Chelsea FC featured in one of the earliest football films, The Great Game. Chelsea also appear in the Hindi film Jhoom Barabar Jhoom. Our song “Blue is the Colour” reached number five in the UK Singles Chart and Bryan Adams is a Chelsea fan and he dedicated the ‘We are gonna win’ to the club.

Last season, Chelsea scored a massive 103 goals (an average of 1.89 goals per game) to be crowned champions and striker Didier Drogba won the Golden Boot award as the league’s top goalscorer.

Manager: Carlo Ancelotti

Stadium: Stamford Bridge (capacity: 41,841)

Nickname: The Blues

Honours: Chelsea have been English champions four times, FA Cup winners six times and League Cup winners four times. They have also won the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup twice. In 2008, Chelsea reached the Final of the UEFA Champions League.

Trivia: In the 1997-98 season, Chelsea played in one of the strangest matches against a Tromso, team based 100 miles into the Artic Circle. At one point, the match had to be stopped so that the lines could be cleared of snow.

Chelsea is owned by Roman Abramovich, the richest Russian in the world and the second richest person living in Britain. But did you know what Roman’s middle name is? It is Arkadievich, Roman Arkadievich Abramovich.

Quite simply, Chelsea FC is the best club in the world with  one of the most talented teams in the world, super fans and a world-class manager in Carlo Ancelotti.

Olympique de Marseille

Olympique de Marseille is a French club founded in 1899 and play in Ligue 1. They have spent most part of history in the top tier of French football and are the current French Champions. They were however relegated in 1994 over a bribery scandal. Most Chelsea fans know Marseille as Didier Drogba’s former club.

Manager: Didier Deschamps

Stadium: Stade Velodrome (capacity: 60,031)

Nickname: l’OM

Honours: Marseille have been Ligue 1 winners 9 times, and have won the Coupe de France a record 10 times. In 2005, they also won the UEFA Intertoto Cup. In 1993, Marseille became the first and only French club to win the UEFA Champions League.

Trivia: The Club’s motto is Droit Au But, which translates into Straight to the Goal.

Their home game song is ‘Jump’ by Van Halen, it’s played before every home game.

Their goal song is Puff Daddy’s ‘Come With Me’, it’s played every time they score a goal at home.

FC Spartak Moskva

FC Spartak Moskva is a football club based in Russia, Moscow. They play in the Russian Premier League and finished runners-up to the title. Chelsea supporters will remember this club as the club in whose stadium we lost the 2008 Champions League Final to Manchester United on penalties.

Manager: Valery Karpin

Stadium: Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow (capacity:78,360)

Nickname: Krasno-belye (The Red-Whites),  Myaso (The Meat)

Honours: Spartak have won 12 Soviet championships (second only to Dynamo Kyiv) and 9 Russian championships. They have also won the Soviet Cup 10 times and the Russian Cup 3 times. Spartak have reached the semi-finals of all three European club competitions.

Trivia: In the Soviet era, the club was owned by the Collective Production Farms which got them them the nickname ‘Meat’.

MŠK Žilina

MŠK Žilina is a Slovak football club, based in the town of Žilina. They are the current Slovakian champions and are one of the most successful clubs in the Slovak Superliga, having won 5 five championships since the league’s inception in 1993. This is MŠK Žilina first appearance in the UEFA Champions League.

Manager: Pavel Hapal

Stadium: Stadium Pod Dubnom (capacity: 11,181)

Nickname: Šošoni (after the Shoshone Native American tribe)

Honours: MŠK Žilina have won the Corgoň Liga 5 times and ended up runners-up 3 times since 2003. They have also won 4 Slovakian Super Cups and were UEFA Cup quarter finalists 1961.

Trivia: Stadium Pod Dubňom is named after the hill Dubeň adjacent to which it is located and literally means “Stadium under the Duben Hill”. However, the stadium is more outer-space than under the hill!  Due to specific instructions from the previous Chairman, when viewed from above the stadium is designed to look exactly like the Starship Enterprise as his children were huge Star Trek fans.

In 2003, Chelsea played MŠK Žilina in their first game after Roman Abramovich bought the club. Zilina play their first UEFA Champions League game against Chelsea today.

Honours: UEFA Champions League winners 1992/93, UEFA Intertoto Cup winners 2005, Ligue 1 winners 9 times including last season, Coupe de France winners 10 times.

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