The Road to Rio

by

Today sees the launch of The Road to Rio, a mini-guide to the destinations – San Marino/Rimini, Podgorica, Novi Sad, Stockholm, Split and Zagreb – hosting World Cup qualifying games this spring.

England, Scotland and Ireland travel to San Marino, Montenegro, Serbia, Sweden and Croatia – and the Libero Guide team has visited every stadium and half-decent pub, sports bar and hotel there to produce the Road to Rio website available at www.footballfansguide.co.uk

Libero (£1.49) is the football fans’ travel app, for Apple and Android smartphones, the most up-to-date travel companion to Europe’s most exciting destinations, city-by-city, club-by-club.

Packed solid with freshly researched information and thousands of original photos, Libero is massive – so massive it is best downloadable with a strong WiFi or via iTunes.

liberoguide.co.uk/liberoguide.com

Steven Gerrard tries to rally the fans for the 2014 World Cup

by

Despite a poor showing in recent international tournaments, Steven Gerrard is still convinced that England can lift the 2014 World Cup. The Liverpool and England stalwart has appealed to the football nation to keep faith, and has said that miracles do happen, and you should never stop believing in football.

The next step in Roy Hodgson’s road to Brazil is a stop off in Chisinau to play Moldova in the Group H qualifier. A team from Europe has never won any of the 7 World Cup finals that have been held in North, South or Central America, but Gerrard believes this will inspire England and not deter them.

He said in an interview that he is realistic and honest when he speaks and while England are not one of the current favourites for 2014, that shouldn’t mean that they stop believing or working hard to improve themselves and learn from the mistakes they have made in previous tournaments. He added that the team had time to improve and grow over the next 2 years, with a combination of experienced and new players.

The team have been training at the Zimbru Stadium, where the earlier fears regarding the playing surface unfortunately proved to be founded. The ground, that has a 10,500 capacity, has an uneven pitch with rather longer grass than is suitable for football, even though the local federation had claimed it would be cut. Hodgson also has to deal with losing 3 players he had selected for both this game and the home qualifier against the Ukraine on Tuesday.

The last manager of England who lost the first qualifying game of a World Cup campaign was back in 2000, when Kevin Keegan saw his side go down to old adversaries Germany. Hodgson has spoken out about his reluctance to jettison the likes of Gerrard and Lampard simply because of the public wanting a change, and he said it is very possible that they will both be in the starting line up.

Africa pushes for World Cup places

by

Africa pushes for World Cup places Fifa the football world’s governing body is meeting to determine for the World Cup 2014 how many places each continent will receive. In the 2010 tournament Africa received six selection since South Africa were the hosts, but Africa most likely will be reduced to only five selections, due to their poor showing in the 2010 Cup and could be lower even more because of the amount of pressure being applied from areas that want more representation.

What also cause an impact at the meetings is the expected political fight between present Fifa President Sepp Blatter and likely challenger Mohamed Bin Hammam. Bin Hammam wants more presence from his Asian Confederation presently their representation is four plus a playoff berth.

The North and Central American and Caribbean region (Conccaf) want to add to their current three places plus a playoff berth and because Brazil is hosting there will probably be another spot given to South America.

Following two-day meetings in Zurich, Fifa will hold a news conference and announce their decisions on Thursday they will also announce that the 2015 Women’s World Cup hosts will be Canada. Also in limbo is who will host the U17 World Cup for 2013 and the women’s U17 for 2014.