Gary Ablett gone but certainly not forgotten

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Gary Ablett gone but certainly not forgotten Gary Ablett, the former footballer for Everton and Liverpool has recently died after a battle with cancer, he was 46 years old. David Moyes and Kenny Dalglish led a tribute to the coach and player at Stanley Park. Mr Ablett won the FA Cup as well as two championships while he was at Liverpool and he was also the first player to win the cup  with both teams.

In 2010 he was diagnosed with lymphoma while he was working at Ipswich Town. In his career he also played for Birmingham City, Wycombe and Sheffield United. On Monday, the St Andrews club held a one-minute silence in memory of the player before the match.

Mr Dalglish commented, “This is a sad day for anyone who has connections with Liverpool football club and especially for Gary’s family. He faced a long and challenging battle with cancer and the only respite we get from his death is knowing that he is no longer in pain.

I can remember Gary as a great football player all the way back to the start of his career. He was not just dedicated to football itself but he was also dedicated to every club that he played for. He always served his team with outstanding pride.”

Mr Moyes, the current manager of Everton, has said, “My sympathy goes out to everyone who knew him and especially his family. He was a wonderful man who was liked by everyone and was a regular visitor to Finch Farm.”

Steven Gerard said of his death, “Everyone who plays for Liverpool and Everton has a huge amount of respect for Gary and we all learned a great deal from him, it is incredibly sad to hear of his death and everyone who knew him will miss his presence in football.”

If you are trying to find a pub showing the game MatchPint can help

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As there are more than 4.2m people who go to the pub every week to watch sport, it’s no wonder that so many don’t know where to go to see specific games. MatchPint, the newly launched website aims to remedy that. Visitors will be able to view a feed of the games for the next two weeks, as well as finding out which bars and clubs in their areas are showing the games.

Visitors to the website will also be able to search a list of sports pubs and bars by venue and can view the individual profiles of each pub to see how many screens it has and whether the games can be watched in HD or 3D. This will also give them a feel of the pub if it is one they haven’t visited before by looking at photos and reading the descriptions so they can make an informed choice about where to watch the game.

Matchpoint isn’t only an information platform however, and by using the My Profile account, for example, users can select their favourite teams, sports and areas allowing the website to recommend venues for them. The site is also integrated with Facebook so that visitors can publicise where they are to watch the game, making organising group visits to watch the game incredibly easy.

Fans will also be delighted to find that the games covered are not only those on Sky Sports. Of course, punters can find plenty of pubs showing Premiership football on Sky, Champions League on ITV, Six Nations rugby on the BBC and NFL on ESPN America. They can also, however, find pubs showing those elusive 3 o’clock kick-off games on Saturday, NRL Rugby League from Australia and even international table tennis from Germany.

The idea of listing pubs is not new, of course. There are plenty of comparison sites filled with punter comments informing the ‘online punter community’ which pubs serve the best ales, which have the best selection of Sunday Roasts and are staffed by barmen never to be engaged with in conversation Shortly, however, visitors to MatchPint will also be able to add their own comments to pub and bar profiles seeing MatchPint add its name to the list of sites for this ‘online punter community’. The difference is, of course, that this one is for sports fans.

The website has been live for the last month with hundreds of fans finding pubs and bars in which to watch their favourite matches. Though the service is mainly aimed at London, MatchPint already lists over 400 venues across the country with coverage in Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow as well as its venues in the capital.

With the free iPhone app due for release in January covering all of the same services, it seems that the days of desperate fans wandering from pub to pub in search of a game may finally be drawing to a close.

 

 

 

Scottish government to fight football racism

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Scottish government to fight football racism Recent proposals that have been drafted by the Scottish government to reduce the amount of racism that is seen at football matches will be put into law. Initially, the draft received quite a number of complaints where people were saying that it would be impractical to enforce the new law; however, the government has rejected these claims and will go ahead with implementation on Wednesday.

The bill is known as the offensive behaviour bill and will be easily passed because of the majority the Scottish National party hold in parliament. It has become unpopular with opposition parties but this does not matter for the government who intend to pass the law whether they approval or not. There is also criticism coming from other bodies such as the football clubs themselves and the Church of Scotland.

The police have welcomed the new law and it will allow them to arrest people for inciting racial hatred. The law extends from public spaces to the internet and the maximum sentence is five years in prison. The bill covers many areas, including all public places, pubs and football grounds. The bill was drafted because there was an increasing problem with football violence in Scotland and last year there were several bombs sent to Celtic fans.

Recently, Celtic have been fined because their fans sung songs that were pro IRA at a football match. Another Scottish club was recently banned from attending a European match because their supporters were known for racial attacks.

Roseanna Cunningham is the community safety Minister for Scotland and she has commented, “The situation with this kind of football violence in Scotland has got out of control and we had to do something about it. It was either we sit by and let this kind of bigotry thrive or we take action and introduce a law to let people know that it will never be tolerated.”

Many of the critics of the new law have said that it would be more effective to enforce existing laws more strictly. Other critics have said that it is confusing and too vague to have any effect. Scotland’s first Minister is Alex Salmond and he has resisted strong pressure to get rid of the bill, and has said that it is essential in tackling the most serious social problems that are found in Scotland.

While many football fans are protesting against the passing of the bill the popularity of the Scottish National Party has not fallen and a recent poll has suggested that support is at over 50%, compared with a 25% figure for Labour.

Alison McInnes is the justice spokeswoman for the Scottish Liberal Democrat party and she has commented, “The government are introducing two significant new laws without a consensus among parties. Worse than this, they are unable to answer basic questions about the enforcement of the law and why it is needed, I’m very concerned that this is going to have a negative impact on freedom of speech in Scotland.”

 

Memorial to Gary Speed planned for February

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Memorial to Gary Speed planned for February The Football Association of Wales has announced that when Wales play host to Costa Rica on the 29th February, it will not only be an international friendly, but also a memorial to Gary Speed.

Wales boss Speed, who was found hanged at home last November, made the first of his record 85 caps for Wales when they won a friendly against Costa Rica in 1990 with Dean Saunders scoring the only goal at Ninian Park. Speed, who was then 20 and a midfielder for Leeds United, was a 76th minute substitute, replacing Glyn Hodges in the match in May 1990 that set him on his way to his illustrious international career.

The Welsh FA confirmed that their first friendly since the death of Speed would be held at the Cardiff City Stadium. The return of Costa Rica will undoubtedly be a very emotional first international fixture for Speed’s team since he took his life on the 27th November. The FAW have also said that 10% of the profits from the friendly will go to charities chosen by Speed’s family.

The statement from the Welsh FA said that this was the perfect opportunity to celebrate both the life and the career achievements of someone who had been an excellent servant to Welsh football, as both a player and a manager. This is only the second time that Costa Rica have played Wales, and drew 2-2 against the European and World Champions Spain in November, and currently stand at number 65 in the FIFA world rankings.

Wales, who are currently in 48th place in the world rankings, are expected to name Speed’s successor as manager just before kick off at the Cardiff fixture. The Welsh FA have also confirmed the process they are using to select the 13th full time manager of Wales international team, and they have charged a managerial panel of 6 men, head by Phil Pritchard, the teams president, to appoint the replacement for Speed.

Speed’s assistant manager was Dutchman Raymond Verheijen, who has posted on Twitter that he thinks the FAW should give Speed’s hand picked back room team the opportunity to carry on his good work. Welsh star Gareth Bale has also backed both Verheijen and Osian Roberts to stay part of the Welsh management set up that was thrown into disarray due to Speed’s shocking and untimely death.

Bale, a winger at Tottenham Hotspur, has said that it would be absolutely ridiculous to make radical and significant changes to the management team. He told BBC sport that he knew personally that most of the players wanted to keep the same team in place.

 

 

 

 

Striker Superstars BETA from CyberSports

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Striker Superstars BETA from CyberSports Cybersports have today announced the launch of their much anticipated Striker Superstars BETA. This is the next stage of the Unity based browser games and reveals new and eagerly awaited features such as Pro Coaching, Inventory and Shop as well as the friends and grouping function.

During the past year, the Cybersports team have been working very closely with Unity Studios, Denmark to create this browser-based game and bring it to the masses. Striker Superstars delivers a a great gaming experience that is truly browser based and has simplified access. The addition of the new grouping feature gives players both the ability to organise their teams and also play with and against their friends.

Your performance is measured by a number of key statistics which are stored against your player profile. Your player rating is promoted to the masses across theStriker Superstars leader boards which give other users to compare their performance against yours.

Striker Superstars is free to play and delivers fluid game play through its use of fully motion captured character player animation. Unlike many casual games out there, Striker Superstars is a significant step-up from your usual browser based gaming experience.

Malcolm Clark, CEO of CyberSports, said

“Striker Superstars makes multiplayer virtual football accessible to the widest possible player-base. What the team have managed to deliver in a browser is unbelievable – a fast real-time multiplayer sports game.

“Gamers are becoming more sophisticated and demanding and are moving on from turn-based games which involve very little true competition or collaboration with their friends. They want a richer and more compelling real-time experience which they can share.

“Striker Superstars is the next generation of ‘social games’, where games become truly social and are not just called that because they are hosted on a social network.”