Fancy playing football inside a bubble? Well now you can

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First there was the crazy inflatable ball, filled with some water, that you roll around inside typically down a hill, called Zorbing. Now, there is a new form of indoor bubble football from Bubble Sports Scotland that is developing a wave of interest from social channels like YouTube.

The basis of the game is not so different to regular football except that all the players are inside their own large inflatable ball. The ball does act as a protection against fouls and injuries that can occur on the pitch which is good news.

Players try to run around the indoor pitch inside their inflated balls, often bouncing around the pitch more than they are running around it, in order to try to score a goal. This is easier said than done because, remember, we said that all players have their own protective bubble. So the goal-keepers are similarly protected and their inflated ball covers most of the open goal making it damn hard to score with Bubble Sports!

The initial spark of interest to make this a business first came up for co-owner Jak Carlin when he saw bubble football being played on a clip on social tube channel, YouTube. He and his business partner tried to find something similar somewhere in Edinburgh, and then around Scotland, but couldn’t find this being offered anywhere.

Trying to buy the equipment proven expensive as it wasn’t something locally sourced. Instead, the founders located the inflatable bubbles over in China and imported them. His partner came in with extra funding to pay for the initial purchases. They played their first game and posted a video on YouTube. Many comments and over 10,000 views later, the team has a small hit on their hands.

 

Jack Wilshere picks his dream team on Match Attax

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Jack Wilshere picks his dream team on Match Attax

Jack Wilshere picks his dream team on Match Attax

Arsenal and England International footballer Jack Wilshere has named his ‘dream team’ players. 

As part of the role he plays as the brand ambassador for the new 2013-2014 season of popular game Topps Match Attax 21-year-old midfield star Jack has chosen his own top players. This is the official card trading game of the Barclays Premier League and 1.25m kids collect them every season.

Of his selection, Jacks says the in the Premier League at the minute, the player who is the best at reading the game is Santi Cazorla and Steven Gerrard is the man who has the greatest stamina and strength. He also said that when it comes to possessing the most skill it has to be Wayne Rooney, and when it comes to speed nobody can match Theo Walcott.

Wilshere stars in the leading collectible company’s TV advertising campaign for the new season of the world’s most successful football trading card game, which will air on 5th October. 

Available in shops now, the latest collection comes with a new look alongside a brand new game-play format and promises to be the best yet, offering football fans and collectors alike a fun-filled accompaniment to the new Barclays Premier League season. 

Match Attax star signing

Commenting upon his role as the 2013-14 Match Attax brand ambassador, Wilshere said: “I’m really excited to be supporting the launch of the new season’s trading card game; it’s a great way for children to get involved in football, particularly in developing the tactical side of the game. Having played it myself, it really makes you think about which players you field to win a match. 

“With all-new features alongside a full range of player stats, the latest collection offers fans of the Premier League a great way to follow all the action of the football season. I am really excited about being this season’s ambassador and look forward to meeting Match Attax fans in the coming months.”

Every Match Attax card in the 2013-14 collection features player star ratings and a range of statistics, so that collectors can rank the Barclays Premier League stars according to power, skill, passing, shooting, speed and tackling, alongside Attack and Defence categories, making it more exciting than ever. There are also the very latest players’ photos featured on the brand new look cards. 

£100m super-squad

For the first time ever, each player card now also features a player value, allowing collectors the chance to build their own £100million super-squad. The values will also act as an aid to help collectors trade cards fairly in the school playground.

Jack Wilshere explains: “This takes the game to a whole new level, as fans are now able to choose their very own ‘dream team’– I just hope they pick me!” 

Rod Pearson, Marketing Director for Topps, adds: “We’re incredibly excited to be working with Jack to launch the brand new Match Attax collection. It is important that our ambassador is someone that our target 8-12 age group of children aspire to. Clearly, his popularity amongst fans and his commitment to the game, as well as his footballing ability showcased in his recent matches for England, really resonates with our young audience, so we are delighted he’s supporting us this season.”

The 2013-14 Match Attax collection is on sale now and features over 400 cards to collect, including Star Player and Star Signing foil cards, stat-boosted Man of the Match cards and 100 Club cards. In addition, fans can collect all 20 team manager cards as well as referee cards.

Match Attax packets and Starter Packs can be bought from Tesco, ASDA, Co-op, One Stop, Martins & McColls, WH Smith, Toys ‘R’ Us, Smyths Toy Shop and all good local independent stores.

UEFA financial regulations to be challenged in court

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UEFA’s financial fair regulations are going to be challenged in the courts of Europe due to a players agent being upset that the rules are restricting the total amount of money that a player can earn.

The Belgium agent, Daniel Striani, has placed a formal complaint with the EC stating that the rules are unfair since they require clubs in the EC from 2011 forward to financially more forward. Lawyer Jean Louis-Dupont will represent Striani. Louis-Dupont successfully challenged contract rules in 1995 for Jean-Marc Bosman and won allowing Belgium players from that point forward to move without any costs at the completion of their contracts.

This time around Dupont believes that he will once again beat the rules outlined by UEFA even if they are argued additionally by the European Commission. He stated that the regulations that are supposed to help prevent financial losses from occurring at clubs will have many adverse consequences that are not competitive.

The very first argument he plans to make is that by not allowing a club to run at a loss they will not be able to make any proper investments. The second argument is that it will give an unfair advantage of rich clubs and will secure their power in the league making it hard for any other team to rise up as Manchester City has done in the past.

In addition, he plans to argue that the FFP simply wants to reduce wages and transfer fees which is obviously anti-competitive and not fair to the players because it will end up reducing the amount of transfers that take place on a regular basis as well as the number of players that actually end up on a contract with different clubs. Over time this will also lead to salaries of players decreasing.

Scotland teams to vote on the reconstruction of their football league

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When the ballot involving top-flight clubs in Scotland comes up in the following week, St Mirren has threatened to vote against the reconstruction of the league. The proposal will be put in front of a 12 Scottish premier league clubs, and is designed to merge the Scottish football league, and introduce a 12-12-18 structure.

The Paisley Club has stated that after studying the Articles of association, structure and shareholders agreement, The St Mirren Board Members have declined to support the motion set up in the proposal, which will be tabled on Monday.

The joining of the Senior Football League, and the Scottish League, into a single organisation is supported by the Saints Chiefs. Despite their perceived support for this proposal, they have expressed disdain at some of the terms which the SPL leaders want to put into place before the start of the next season.

A case in point is the proposal to split up the two divisions at the top of the league into 3 groups, with eight teams. These concerns are not just shared by the Saints Chiefs, but also by fans and coaching staff, who were included in the deliberations.

Although they support the proposal to have a new league structure, a single governing body, and a new model of distribution is one that is well thought out. But the way that the proposal is presented will not have the desired effect of promoting Scottish football.

The proposal outlays plans to have teams play 22 games before splitting into 3 groups of 8 teams. However, the middle 8 will lose all the points that they had won in the first round, and this will serve to demoralise players, and affect the game. The system has been tried in other countries and rejected for this reason. The fans would also have to get rid of their season tickets, a fact that will not go down well with them.

Novelist signs up as ‘The Daggers’ writer in residence

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Novelist signs up as 'The Daggers' writer in residence

Novelist signs up as ‘The Daggers’ writer in residence

Dagenham and Redbridge FC have announced that they have signed their first ever writer in residence, Ian Ayris, the sports fiction and crime novelist and lifelong fan of the Daggers. He will be joining the club in a number of projects that are community related in a bid to bring football and writing together.

Ian has been attending matches at Victoria Road for more than 3 decades and is delighted to be able to play a part in both the club and the community. Dagenham & Redbridge Football Club managing director, Steve Thompson said, “Ian is a great fan of the club and we are happy to be working with him bringing football and increasing literary skills into the community. This will involve projects in schools and at the club engaging young people and fans of the club.”

Ian said, “Football clubs have a lot of influence with young people and in the community in general, especially clubs like The Daggers who are still very much a family club with family values. So it’s great to be here at the club I love and be able to work with them giving something back. I am looking forward to working with the club not just in schools but also on a project charting the history of the club with fans which we hope to produce as a book.”

Steve Thompson continued, “As a club we want to reach kids who have an interest in football at all levels. Not all will want to play or have the ability to make it as a professional footballer, but by making the most of their education they can broaden their options. Some may want to write about football or just improve their writing skills, and that’s where we as a club working with Ian, can give them inspiration.”

Ian’s novel, Abide with Me published by Caffeine Nights Publishing, hit the number one spot in Amazon’s sports fiction chart and is still the highest rated title in that section with over 50 reviews, including 44 5 star reviews. Part East End crime fiction, part passage of rites tale with football at its heart, Abide with Me is a moving tale charting the life of two boys given a raw deal in life.