Posts Tagged ‘manchester united’

The Football Rivalry To Top Them All

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

There’s been a healthy rivalry between Manchester United and Liverpool FC for over 100 years…but is that a good thing or a bad thing.

Think about some of the biggest sporting rivalries in history.  There was Muhammad Ali versus Joe Frazier in boxing, Chris Evert versus Martina Navratilova in tennis and Greg Norman versus Nick Faldo in golf.A healthy cricket rivalry continues between India and Pakistan.Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov have even made competitive chess seem exciting with their ongoing rivalry through the years.

But can any of these admittedly classic face-offs hold a candle to the colossal confrontation that occurs whenever the Red Devils of Manchester United clash with the Liverpool Reds?  In what has to be the greatest rivalry in football, if not all sports, there is a way to look at things analytically to determine why it exists, and why it continues:

1. The Northwest Derby – Matchups between the two clubs are often referred to using this moniker.The cities of Manchester and Liverpool have been in competition since industrial times, and that sense of being rivals has permeated into the football world.

2. “The Greatest English Football Club” – Manchester United and Liverpool both lay claim to the title of The Greatest English Football Club.  A similar number of trophies have been won by each club, and they are also the two most successful English teams in European competition.

3. Fans and Money – The two clubs are widely-supported throughout the world and boast some of the most devoted fans in any sport.  They also are two of the biggest earning clubs in the world.

4.  Player Haters – As with a lot of football clubs, the fans can be downright hostile to each other sometimes.  With Liverpool and Man U, though, the hostility spills over to the players too occasionally.  United striker Wayne Rooney has publicly stated how he grew up hating Liverpool.  Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard meanwhile once told a television crew how, although he regularly exchanges shirts with opposing players, he will never have a Manchester United shirt in his house.

5. Transfers? What Transfers? – There have been no direct transfers of players between the two clubs since 1964; the few who have played for both sides have always played for a different city’s club in between. As recently as 2007, United left-back Gabriel Heinze expressed a desire to move to Liverpool, and a bid was made, but Man U rejected the bid and stated that Heinze would only join a foreign club if he chose to leave – all due to the age old rivalry.

The way these clubs are so passionate about their long-standing rivalry is inspiring, in a way.I’m sure some people don’t understand how others can get so worked up about a game, and think the whole rigamarole is just silly.So, which side is obviously the best club in football?  That’s easy.  Everyone knows it’s Spurs.

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Alex Ferguson To Sign Serie A Star

Monday, December 28th, 2009

Midfielder Marek Hamsik it appears, has caught the attention of Alex Ferguson for the January transfer window.

Many critics believe Manchester United’s biggest weakness is the midfield and the fact that Paul Scholes form hasn’t been great and Ryan Giggs is not getting any younger may convince Alex Ferguson to make some new player transfers come January.

With interest from Liverpool and Chelsea as well, the signing of Hamsik would add attacking ability to Manchester United’s midfield. Snapped up by Brescia after proving his skill with Slovan Bratislava. He shone in Italy with Brescia scoring a hugely impressive ten goals from midfield and it wasn’t too long before Napoli paid over 5.5m Euros to take the player to the Sao Paolo.

Since joining Napoli in 2007, the goal scoring efforts of Hamsik have made him one of the best in Serie A. Many strikers would be proud to boast a similar strikerate as Hamsik with 25 goals from 81 games. The Slovakian midfielder has quickly been named the best midfielder in Serie A by experts throughout Italy after his two goals against Juventus.

Hamsik’s performances have been equally impressive for his national side, Slovakia. Expected to be one of the major stars of the upcoming World Cup his efforts might put him down into soccer history forever.

Interest and a big offer from major teams may not be enough however with sporting director Riccardo Bigon stating:

“Manchester United are after Hamsik? If we rejected the rumours regarding a friend like [Carlo] Ancelotti and his Chelsea, it is obvious we also reject these rumours.”

These comments have since been substantiated by Napoli chairman Aurielo De Laurentiis who confirmed:

“Many clubs have requested Hamsik, it’s true, but he will stay with us for the long-term”

Manchester United hope to make their move in Summer and if Napoli’s stance will remain the same is still unknow. Whether Napoli really plans to keep Hamsik into the future only time will tell, with not a lot of cash in the club it can be hard to see them not be at least tempted to sell the player if the offer is right.

Chelsea’s desperation to buy players may push any deals between the two clubs away. Roman Abramovich has purportedly given manager Carlo Ancelotti the green light to make a £25m move for the player so they might beat Manchester United to the punch

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How to Safely Buy Manchester United Football Tickets Online

Monday, December 28th, 2009

When Purchasing for Manchester United football tickets online you should aware of how they operate because there will be some who are just scamming innocent Man United fans. The first thing that you can do to protect yourself if you plan to buy Manchester United football tickets is to only do business with an online ticket vendor with a good reputation. It is best to read customer reviews prior to making a purchase. In addition to worries about getting ripped off by some dishonest site, you also want to avoid vendors that don’t deliver their goods on time. Also ascertain if the review you are reading is legitimate and not simply written up by the vendor themselves. The best way to discern if a review is genuine or advertising is to look for a hyperlink towards the end of the review.

A legitimate customer reviewing a product doesn’t usually have a reason to post a link to the very product they are reviewing. Advertisers have found a new way to advertise since most email spam blockers today block their ads, and so they turn to reviews. There is a bigger chance for a review to be legit if a review is link free. Although tickets available on eBay are cheaper, buying from a website which specializes only in tickets is always a better idea. Sometimes ticket sellers on eBay ship the ticket too late, and sometimes not even at all. Most people you do business with on eBay are honest but if you decide to purchase this way make sure you read their feedback to get a better idea of how professional they are.

Another way to avoid being scammed is to make sure the checkout page is encrypted before you type in ANY purchasing information. This is a feature not many people look for when checking out, but the importance of it can not be understated. How do you know if a website utilizes ecryption? You will normally se HTTP at the beginning of all web addresses. If a web page is encrypted the HTTP will change to “HTTPS”. It is important to make sure the page is encrypted even if the company is completely honest,because sometimes it does not show respect for the customers and the security of their personal information. If you find an online ticket vendor that uses encryption and has good reviews, then this must be a site worth buying from.

It is also important to go with your gut and these guidelines are important to follow in order to avoid being scammed. Should a vendor’s pitch not seem plausible to you, avoid buying anything from that vendor. If something doesn’t sit right with you, then there is most likely something wrong with it. When it comes to avoiding a scam artist, a little scrutiny goes a long way. Your job now is to find a price that is the best! You can buy with confidence the next time you shop on the web if you remember the information presented in this article.

The next time you buy sporting events tickets, buy from your online concierge for global sporting events.. PremiumTicketHub.com.

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The Red Army and The Field of Dreams

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

Home games Manchester United tickets allows one the chance to see one of the most popular and dynamic football clubs in Europe play live, but also enables to ticket buyer to experience the unique atmosphere that permeates Old Trafford, also named the Field of Dreams, and to witness the excitement that is the Red Army.

  Apart from 8 years after it was bombed out during WWII, Manchester United tickets for home games at Old Trafford have been bought by fans since 1910.

The name Field of Dreams was bestowed upon the stadium by Bobby Charlton, one of the Club’s best known players.  

Best known for his midfield attacks Sir Robert “Bobby” Charlton also had a deadly long-range shot which helped him win the World Cup and get names the European Footballer of the Year in 1966.

Able to seat over 76,000 Manchester United ticket buying supporters, Old Trafford is the second-largest football stadiums in England and it is one of the two stadia in England to have been given a  “UEFA elite stadium” five-star rating by UEFA.

Old Trafford has hosted a fair number of FA Cup semi-final matches as a neutral venue along with a couple of  “English national football team” England international fixtures.

It has also hosted matches during the “1966 FIFA World Cup”  and  “UEFA Euro 1996″  and the “2003 UEFA Champions League Final”.

Stands, officially known as the North, East, South and West Stand surround the pitch at Old Trafford.

Each stand has at least two tiers, with the exception of the South Stand, which only has one tier because of construction restrictions.

The lower tier of each stand is split into Lower and Upper sections, the Lower sections having been converted from standing room only terraces in the early 1990s.

The best-known stand at Old Trafford is the West Stand, more famously, or infamously known as the Stretford End.

Originally designed to hold 20,000 fans, the Stretford End was the last stand to be covered and also the last remaining all-terraced stand at the ground before the forced upgrade to seating in the early 1990s.

Stretford End is where Manchester United’s most die-hard supporters, known as The Red Army are located.

Most of the noise and atmosphere at Old Trafford comes from this stand, and once the roar from the fans there was measured as louder than that of a jumbo jet lifting off.

Unless you’ve been subscribing to your season Manchester United ticket for many years  it is impossible to get a seat in the Stretford End, even for the most die-hard fan.

Manchester United’s fan club, usually called the Red Army was once the largest and most infamous group of followers British football has ever seen.

When the army of Manchester United fans followed their team to an away game, the town would get turned upside down:  Huge numbers of the Red Army would travel en-mass by train, coach, car or even by foot if necessary to get to the game.   

During the mid-seventies when Manchester United had been relegated from the top flight of English football and played in the  “Football League Second Division” Second Division for one season, the Red Army caused such chaos at games around the country when visiting stadiums where they would often outnumber the home fans, that it led to the introduction of segregation and fencing between of home and away fans at football grounds throughout England.

These days, the Red Army is nothing like it was in the 1970’s & 80’s.

This Manchester United supporters club, now has a fan base of over 300 million fans across the world.

The huge number of Manchester United supporters, all of whom would like to visit Old Trafford, both to see a live game and to experience the atmosphere there, result in it almost always being difficult to buy Manchester United Tickets.

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The True Cost of Manchester United Season Tickets

Monday, October 26th, 2009

The number of fans looking to buy Manchester United Tickets is almost always bigger than the number if tickets available.

That means for many supporters, the chance of obtaining a ticket to a single Manchester United game is never easy, and a season ticket to Old Trafford might be seen as the ultimate score.

However, if one looks more closely, the obvious advantages season ticket holders have of being guaranteed a seat for all home games and priority for away games, might be outweighed by the disadvantages.

Such as:
If the seat the season ticket holder scores in not in his area of choice, there is no way of getting it changed except by proving extreme medical hardship.

For this reason, there are those who choose not to renew their tickets at the end of the season, choosing instead to take their chances in the search for single tickets that may be in a more preferred stand.

There is a Manchester United Club policy called the Automatic Ticket Scheme which ensures that every season ticket holder is guaranteed a ticket for all Champions League and FA cup home games.

Initially this might appear to be a positive thing, however the season ticket holder is charged for each of these tickets even if he has no cannot go to one or any of the  games.

In  the 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 seasons, there were 10 of these extra games – and with a single game ticket starting at almost 50 pounds, this is a huge extra cost on top of the already very significant price paid for the season ticket.

Those Manchester United fans who buy a season ticket thinking they can sell the games they don’t intend to  see to might find that that is not as easy to do these days as it was once.

Manchester United has an official ticket exchange where season ticket holders can post their unwanted tickets for sale at face-value, but tickets cannot be listed for sale there until the club announces that the game in question has been sold out.

There is no guarantee that the tickets put up for sale get sold, and the prospective seller not only loses the ticket he is unable to use, he is out the substantial listing and handling fee it cost him to post the seat for sale. 

One cannot deny that the price of a season’s 16 single tickets is more expensive than a season ticket, but when the other costs – at least 500 extra pounds for the Cup games; the possibility of getting a seat in an undesirable part of Old Trafford; and the lack of guarantee of being able to sell any unwanted game tickets are added up, investing in season Manchester United tickets might not be worth it to even the most loyal fans.

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