GINOLA ON TV

August 29, 2013 |   |  Sports News

David Ginola is one of the well-recognised names in English football. He represented the likes of Newcastle United and Tottenham in a stellar career. The French winger will be making a return to English football, but this time as a presenter. BT have been one of the big entrants to the Premier league this season. They have been able to make a bid of close to £ 1 billion for the televised matches, which is the biggest threat Sky has seen since the inception of the Premier league more than two decades ago. They have already brought in former Manchester United and Liverpool striker Michael Owen as one of the presenters.

Ginola will be joining the striker, who retired from football at the end of last season. The likes of David James are also on the list of the television company, which hopes to become a serious threat to Sky. Sky have seen this threat and have decided to take action by choosing to use their first refusal advantage when it comes to live television matches in the first 20 weeks of the season itself. Sky will be broadcasting most of the Manchester United and Chelsea matches in the first few weeks. Despite this, Ginola and co certainly seem here to stay.

“I am incredibly happy to be joining BT and to be part of the fantastic line-up from the start. I trust that the viewers and sports fans are as excited as I am about this new channel, which promises a different approach to sports broadcasting,” said Ginola. “We are really delighted to have secured David Ginola to be one of our football experts. Every football fan knows that David was one of the most talented players in Premier League history, and he has proved to be one of the most accomplished broadcasters since hanging up his boots,” said BT director, Simon Green.

FOOTBALL MAKES GREAT TV

July 10, 2013 |   |  Sports News

The Confederations cup is proving to be extremely successful according to the latest TV viewing figures released by FIFA. The competition was started in 1992 and it has come a long way since then. It was a four-team tournament back then. There are still two matches left in the competition and it is already the second highest in terms of viewing figures. There was a real danger of the competition being suspended by FIFA due to several protests in Brazil, but the international football committee has decided to go ahead with the tournament and it is proving to be a great success.

The remaining two matches are expected to bring in a lot of viewers especially due to the importance. The third place play-off match between Italy and Uruguay will be followed by the final between Brazil and Spain. As the home team is involved in the final, FIFA has said that it expects record viewing figures for the final. The semi-final between Spain and Italy brought in just over 12.5 million viewers, which is better than the 10 million viewers for the 2010 World Cup semi-final.

The Confederations cup is proving to be incredibly popular in South America due to the involvement of teams like Uruguay and Brazil in the latter stages of the competition.

“FIFA has come out of this stronger. Football has played a positive part here and given emotion. When we say football connects people, it connected people in the stadium, perhaps unfortunately it connected people in the street. I can understand this social unrest, absolutely, but on the other hand, football brings at this time to the whole continent these emotions and hope,” said FIFA president Sepp Blatter after announcing the viewing figures.

Attendances for the matches have also been extremely encouraging according to FIFA.

LIVERPOOL MIGHT MISS OUT

April 25, 2013 |   |  Sports News

Despite the arrival of Brendan Rodgers, Liverpool look set to miss out on the Champions League football for next season. The club are currently seventh in the Premier league table, and they need to make up several points in order to finish in the top four. Rodgers arrived as a replacement for Kenny Dalglish in the summer. He made several changes to the squad by loaning out Andy Carroll and bringing in players like Daniel Sturridge. There have also been other significant signings in the form of Joe Allen. Despite this, Liverpool are yet to finish in the top four after more than four years.

Recently, Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard spoke about the importance of bringing in new players in the summer in the hope of pushing for a top four spot. Rodgers is also of the same opinion, as he is looking at a couple of players to sign in the summer. The players who have been signed by Rodgers has so far turned out to be excellent buys for the club. The likes of Daniel Sturridge and Allen have been in great form for the club this season.

Liverpool also signed the Brazilian midfielder, Coutinho, who has also been in magical form for the club this season.

“We would have liked to bring in a few more players in the summer but we didn’t, and the group were admirable with how they coped in that period because we had a lot of games. We knew we had to bring in reinforcements in January and the board worked superbly to get those players. We are hopeful that come the summer we can make more additions that will take us on to the next level. The business we did in January however was excellent and that’s a great credit to the club,” said Rodgers.

Extra fun for basketball fans

March 11, 2013 |   |  Sports News

Alongside playing fantasy league basketball, slots games like Slam Dunk can be a really good way of mixing basketball and betting – particularly if you support one of those teams like the Bobcats who have seriously long odds to win the actual NBA Championship. Although it is not the only basketball slots game around, Slam Dunk is certainly one of the best ones, because it manages to feature all the best elements of a modern slots game with a basketball theme which is more than window dressing. Read more

LIVERPOOL WIN BUT FALL SHORT

February 27, 2013 |   |  Sports News

Liverpool has defeated the Russian side Zenit Saint Petersburg in a Europa League match played at the Anfield on Thursday. Liverpool won the match by 3-1.

The first few minutes of the match were not that good for Liverpool. The Reds made some terrible mistakes in the initial moments and as a result of that, they got trailed by 0-1 in the 19th minute of the match. But, after conceding that goal, the Reds lifted the level of their game a bit and made a tremendous comeback to win the match by a profound margin.

For this match, Daniel Sturridge and Martin Skrtel were not included in the starting XI of Liverpool and on their places; Jamie Carragher and Daniel Agger came in.

On the other hand, there was only one change in the starting line up of Zenit. Aleksandr Kerzhakov went out and on his place, Sergey Semak came in.

The man who took the visitors ahead in the 19th minute was Hulk. This was an awful mistake by Jamie Carragher who tried to back pass the ball to the goal keeper Pepe Reina, but, he failed in placing his shot well. The ball went to Hulk who smashed the ball home.

Zenit’s lead didn’t last long. The Reds got a free kick in the 28th minute and the Uruguayan superstar Luis Suarez was asked to take that free kick. Suarez didn’t make any mistake in latching on that chance. With a flat drive, he sent the ball into the bottom corner of the net and made the score 1-1.

Liverpool took a lead of 2-1 when there were only a couple of minutes to go before the half time break. Enrique got the ball from Henderson and he gave Joe Allen a cross. Allen headed the ball towards the goal post, but, his shot was blocked by the Zenit goalie. Allen again got the ball on the rebound and this time, his shot was on target.

The Reds started the second half in an aggressive manner and it didn’t take them too long to enhance their lead. Luis Suarez took advantage of another free kick that Liverpool got in the 59th minute. The Reds got ahead by 3-1 with that goal and after that, it was a tall order for Zenit. They tried hard and created some chances, but, they failed in scoring any more goals.

Liverpool will lock horns with Wigan Athletic in its next match. That match will be played at the DW Stadium on 2nd of March.

Live Football Highlights

September 1, 2010 |   |  1 Comment  |  Live Soccer

Watching Saturday’s games in the Premier League, there’s no doubt that we’re spoilt for choice. Every single Premier League match was available for us to watch live thanks to a combination of Fox Soccer Channel, ESPN2, Fox Soccer Plus and FoxSoccer.tv. Cristiano Ronaldo fans could also watch Real Madrid on Fox.

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