Valencia

Right tomorrow night / Thursday morning I am flying out to Valencia to meet up with my girlfriend who is studying out there. I must say that Ryanair was an amazing price for flights though, from London Stansted Airport return it has cost me £12 which is a bargain!!!!!

I cant say that I know alot about the city apart from it has a football team, that are playing Barcelona the weekend I am out there. But tickets are very expensive, at €65 for the cheapest ticket so I will have to give that a miss. But apart from that all I know is that it is a city in Spain.

So I have decided I would report back monday with what I have learnt about the city and what I recommend doing. If anyone has any tips that would be great. If you would like to keep up to date with my trip though add me on twitter where I will post photos and tweets from my trip.

Sunny spain (touch wood) here I come.

England vs Ukraine ruined by the Internet

Like every football fan in England I am shocked to hear the news that the England, Ukraine game (which is a world cup qualifying game) is only to be streamed on the internet.  Not only that it is only being streamed on the internet you will have to pay a minimum £4.99 and maybe even as much as £11.99 to watch the game.  Meaning you can not even go down to the pub with friends and support your country at its national game.  So for any normal England fan this is outrageous news.

The facts are that this game was originally meant to be show on Setanta Sports until the company went bust earlier this year. With the FA not able to control where away games are sold, the Ukraine football federation has now sold the rights to Perform.  leaving the English public to watch the game at home around the computer at http://www.ukrainevengland.com/.

There are a few thing that disappoint me about this move.  1) the game can only be brought by 1 million computers with the estimate of 2.5 million people watching. There is a population of around 51 million in England this means only 1 in 25 people are estimated to be able to watch the game.  2) people already pay for the television license, Sky and even ESPN and still we are unable to see every England football game. Leaving people now having to pay even more to watch the game on the internet.  3) Finally football and pubs go hand in hand. Be it a sunday football team playing for there local pub, to going for a for a beer with friends and watching the football on the pub television. Playing the England game on the internet will take that custom away from pubs around the country as they are unable to screen the game.

Dont get me wrong I think showing football on the internet is a great idea but dont make people pay for it and most importantly leave it on television so a wider audience can watch it. I personally love going to the pub and watching England play with my mates. Unfortunately I wont be able to do this with this game.

Overall I hope that football see this is a mistake, especial at a national football level and do not do it again. As a wise person once said we can only learn from our mistakes, and having the England vs Ukraine football game only being streamed on the internet is a huge mistake.

Fifa 10 cheapest price!!!!

After hearing rumors that Fifa 2010 was going to be at a very cheap price in Asda and Tesco I decided to look into it. I had all ready pre-ordered the game from ShopTo.net for around £35 which I thought was a very good price untill I called up a friend who works in the near by Asda to myself.  He found out that the game after scanning a copy that they have ready in the stor for the release date of friday the 2nd October would only be £26.71  yes thats right £26.71!!!!!!!!!  This was also a surprise for him due to him working at the store and not even knowing of this deal.

Im not to sure on the ins and outs of this great deal Asda is doing as it seems very much under raps but word has it the deal lasts from this friday 2nd till sunday the 4th so you better all be quick.

I hope this helps people to get the game cheaper. I have now canceled my pre-order of the game and will be down Asda on this Friday.

Football the next religion?

Being alot like of other men living in England I play for a football team on a wednesday night and support my local football club (Southend United FC) through good and bad times. In which I can say i have enjoyed the rollercoster ride in which football gives people. But do not get me wrong I started life being brought up as a child going to church on a Sunday but even this stopped due to football commitments I had made made as a 7 year old child. Now with alot of people choosing to watching and playing football on a weekend on the increase and number of people going to church on the decrease with in the UK you have to ask the question will football become bigger than religion? If so is football worthy of becoming a religion?

Looking at the similarities between football and religion you start to understand why myself and others start to ask this question. For example people  follow different football teams due to where your born and the way you are brought up as a child and this is the same with following different religions. People weekly go to a football ground have different songs and chants that they sing when watching their  football club and this is the same when people go and worship there religion. You could also say football clubs have their own gods or messiahs with in player and managers of clubs. A great example coming a few moths ago with the passing of Sir Bobby Robson and how it effected so many people. This being just a few similarities as this list could go on and on but i shall keep it short and sweet.

But we all know the beautiful game will never be recognized as a religion due to it being a sport, with there being so many sports played and watched around the world it would make it impossible to single out one being the greater.  In which myself am happy about as making football a religion might take away the very thing that makes football so great. The coming together of people from all walks of life, be it poor, rich, English or African we can all speak the language of football.  So leaves us to ask the question can football become an equal if not greater in popularity than religion?  Looking at the way in which the popularity’s of the two seem to be getting closer to meeting it looks like this may be the case.  But it does seem only time will tell if this becomes reality.