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.

New customers of the Man Utd credit card have a choice of limited edition designs

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New customers of the Man Utd credit card have a choice of limited edition designs

The four limited edition credit cards available for eligible new Manchester United Credit Card customers

UK-based fans making a successful new card application can opt for one of four “heritage” designs

New designs launched as MBNA and Manchester United Football Club extend partnership

 

MBNA, the credit card specialist based in the UK, has partnered with premiership football giants Manchester United to launch limited edition versions of their joint credit card in order to extend their collaboration to 2016. Any fan of Mancheter United can apply for a credit card from today, and select from one of the four custom-made designs which include:

  •  The “Champions 2013” logo created to celebrate United’s 20th league title win.
  • United’s famous Old Trafford stadium and “Holy Trinity” statue of club icons George Best, Denis Law and Bobby Charlton.
  • Ryan Giggs’ famous FA Cup goal celebration against Arsenal in 1999.
  • A legends design with images of club icons through the years including Gary Neville, Andy Cole and Peter Schmeichel.

The new card designs have been launched by Manchester United as part of an extended three-year relationship with MBNA, one of the UK’s largest credit card lenders. The two brands have been working together for the past 15 years.

The Manchester United Credit Card is available for UK-based fans now at
https://apply.mbna.co.uk/UKNeoCCapp/entry?sc=1UASMUFIMS001EC&mc=UAMMUF0030P.

The credit card offers eligible new customers zero percent interest for 20 months on balance transfers and money transfers, plus three months at zero percent on purchases*.

The new card comes with Red Rewards, an array of benefits and incentives developed specifically for Manchester United fans. For every £50 spent on the card, the cardholder will also be entered into a monthly prize draw with a chance to win a range of fantastic prizes, including club memorabilia signed by the first team and once-in-a-lifetime days out; including the chance to watch the first team train at United’s training ground.

Manchester United Group Managing Director Richard Arnold comments: “MBNA is one of the UK’s largest and most well-known credit card providers and the club is delighted to be extending its successful 15 year partnership for a further three years. We have eight million followers in the UK and the new MBNA Manchester United Credit Card will give these fans a new way of showing their support, whilst taking advantage of the attractive incentives and rates MBNA has to offer.”

Michael Donald, MBNA’s Business Development and Commercial executive, added: “Throughout our 20 years in the UK, we’ve established credit card partnerships with some of the world’s most iconic brands; and Manchester United Football Club is certainly one of those. We’re delighted to extend our partnership for another three years, and to celebrate, we’re launching something unique for fans based in the UK.”

* Terms apply. Full details of these offers are available on the website and within customer’s terms and conditions. The Manchester United Credit Card offers new customers successfully applying for the card zero percent on balance transfers and money transfers for 20 months (a 3 percent handling fee and 4 percent handling fee apply respectively) and as long as they are made in the first 90 days of account opening. It also includes zero percent on card purchases for three months from the date an account is opened.

Representative example 16.9% p.a. variable on card purchases. This is equivalent to 16.9% APR representative variable based on a credit limit of £1200.

 

First e-book edition of Soccer in Sun and Shadow published by Byliner

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First e-book edition of Soccer in Sun and Shadow published by Byliner

First e-book edition of Soccer in Sun and Shadow published by Byliner

“Is there any book more evocative of ‘the beautiful game’ than Eduardo Galeano’s slim but buoyant paean to the players, goals, joys, and heartbreaks of a lifetime of soccer fandom?”  —Vanity Fair

“It’s all here. Everything you should know about soccer, the world’s game.”

Los Angeles Times

Soccer in Sun and Shadows ,which retails at $9.99, is one of the greatest sports books written in our times, and we have the internationally celebrated journalist and author Eduardo Galeano to thank for it. Mark Fried has translated it into English, and it is now available as an e-book for the first time.

Packed full of charm and wit and carrying the kind of insight only a true fan could relay, The New Yorker has said that it “stands out like Pele on a field of second stringer”. It has also been named one of the all time top 100 sports books by Sports Illustrated.

Originally appearing in Spanish in 1995, now revised and thoroughly updated, Soccer in Sun and Shadow traces the sport from its roots in China to the Brazilian slums where the dance form capoeira reshaped it into a soccer “made of hip feints, undulations of the torso, and legs in flight,” and finally through the great moments of a century’s worth of competition in all corners of the globe.

These stories come addictively fast and furious, vignettes with the searing impact of great photographs. And as would be expected of one of our most accomplished historians, Galeano sets every one of them against a greater context: the wars being waged, the cultural shifts transforming societies, and what inflames him the most: the inexorable influences of money, sponsorship, television, and any form of cold, hard calculation that aims to place winning for its own sake above the beauty and glory of the game.

“[I am] a beggar for good soccer,” writes Galeano, who grew up in Uruguay hoping to become a professional soccer player. “I go about the world, hand outstretched, and in the stadiums I plead: ‘A pretty move, for the love of God.’ ” The past century’s great players, from Di Stéfano to Cruyff to Maradona, reward him with such moves, and we are all the richer for it. At times hilarious, at others heartbreaking, one thing it never lacks is humanity. Soccer in Sun and Shadow is a fan’s book, and it’s much more. Featuring artwork designed by the author, it has been called by theSan Francisco Chronicle “a loving tribute to the game and its culture, and a celebration not only of soccer but also of life.”

 

The next generation of football games comes to apple devices

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The next generation of football games comes to apple devices

The next generation of football games comes to apple devices

The next evolution of tactical football games is here, courtesy of Gray Cooper Media and AppyNation. The pair have announced the launch of Fluid Football, with is now available from the App Store for the iPod touch, iPad and iPhone.

The game was developed by Chromativity, who worked in collaboration alongside professional commentators Richard Keys and Andy Gray.

The arrival on the market of fluid football heralds the arrival of a whole new kind of football games which offers players an unparalleled, complete freedom when working their way through a series of challenging scenarios. They can use any combination of real tactics that they deem to be suitable and will ultimately allow them to score and win the game.

Designed to appeal to any football fan’s inner strategist, Fluid Football puts real-time tactical decision making right at the player’s fingertips. Faced with a variety of real-world scenarios, players plan their strategy in real time via an overhead view of the pitch, stringing together passes, out-pacing defenders, setting up pinpoint crosses and any one of hundreds of possible strategies.

Players can devise complex sequences and strategies via simple finger swipes to direct their team’s actions to line up a shot on goal. The camera then switches to a 3D ‘player’s eye’ view in which the player must successfully direct their shot on target against the goalkeeper and defenders.

“We’re thrilled to be bringing such a unique tactical football title to the App Store,” said Andy Gray, Director, Gray Cooper Media. “We’ve been very closely involved with the game’s development from day one and we’ve invested a lot of our personal experience into the game to ensure it has as much authenticity as possible. If you can do it on the field you can do it in Fluid Football.”

Fluid Football is now available for free from the App Store on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch at http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/id524972269

 

Goal line technology expected to be given the go ahead on Thursday

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When the IFAB, International Football Association Board, meet on Thursday they are expected to vote for the go-ahead of goal line technology. The results of the recent testing are expected to be heard by the board before they vote in both the GoalRef and Hawk-Eye systems.

While this kind of technology has been called for for a long time by many in the game, a few are still unsure about Hawk-Eye will actually work. Basically, there will be 6 cameras per goal which will be tracking the ball as it moves around the pitch.

The software within the system will be using a ‘triangulation’ to pinpoint the ball’s precise location. When the ball crosses the goal line an encrypted radio is directly sent to a wristwatch the referee will wear to alert him that a goal has been scored. In keeping with the requirements that FIFA have made, the entire process will be completed in less than a second.

Once approval has been made, both the FA and the Premier League can introduce this technology into competitions. The chairman of the FA David Bernstein, as well as Alex Horne the general secretary, has travelled to Zurich in order to take part in the voting.. The FA in England, along with their counterparts in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have one vote each, while the governing body of world football, FIFA, has four. Hawk-eye needs 6 of the 8 votes to go through.

So to GoalRef, this works via a microchip that has been implanted in the football and uses low, magnetic waves in the area surrounding the goal. This system detects if any changes have been made in the magnetic fields along or behind the goal line to determine whether or not a goal has indeed been scored. This process also takes less than a second for the message to be relayed to the ref.