1.
Koper
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Having a unique ecology and biodiversity, it is considered an important national natural resource. The citys Port of Koper is the contributor to the economy of the eponymous city municipality. The city is a destination on a number of Mediterranean cruising lines, in 2016, the city expects 65 cruise ship arrivals with the season spanning from March to December. Koper is the urban centre of the Slovenian Istria, with a population of about 25,000. The city of Koper is officially bilingual, with both Slovene and Italian as official languages, sights in Koper include the 15th-century Praetorian Palace and Loggia in Venetian Gothic style, the 12th-century Carmine Rotunda church, and the Cathedral of St Nazarius, with its 14th-century tower. Koper is also one of the main entry points into Slovenia from Italy. The main motorway crossing is at Spodnje Škofije to the north of the city of Koper, the motorway continues into Rabuiese and Trieste. Koper also has a connection with the capital city, Ljubljana. On the coast, there is a crossing at Lazaret into Lazaretto in Muggia municipality in Trieste province, the Italian border crossing is known as San Bartolomeo. The Italian name of the city was spelled as Capo dIstria. Modern names of the city include, Croatian, Kopar, Serbian, Копар, Kopar, German, Koper developed from an ancient settlement built on an island in the southeastern part of the Gulf of Koper in the northern Adriatic. In Ancient Greek, the town was known as Aegida, later it became known by the Latin names of Capris, Caprea, Capre, or Caprista, from which the modern Slovenian name stems. In 568, Roman citizens of nearby Tergeste fled to Capris due to an invasion of the Lombards, in honour of the Byzantine emperor Justinian II, the town was renamed Justinopolis. Later, Justinopolis was under both Lombard and Frankish rule and was occupied by Avars in the 8th century. Since the 8th century, possibly even since the 6th century, one of Kopers bishops was the Lutheran reformer Pier Paolo Vergerio. In 1828, it was merged into the diocese of Trieste, trade between Koper and Venice has been recorded since 932. In the war between Venice and the Holy Roman Empire, Koper was on the German side, and as a result was awarded town rights. After 1232, Koper was under the Patriarch of Aquileia, and it was at this time that the city walls and towers were partly demolished
2.
Slovenia
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Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a nation state in southern Central Europe, located at the crossroads of main European cultural and trade routes. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and it covers 20,273 square kilometers and has a population of 2.06 million. It is a republic and a member of the United Nations, European Union. The capital and largest city is Ljubljana, additionally, the Dinaric Alps and the Pannonian Plain meet on the territory of Slovenia. The country, marked by a significant biological diversity, is one of the most water-rich in Europe, with a river network, a rich aquifer system. Over half of the territory is covered by forest, the human settlement of Slovenia is dispersed and uneven. Slovenia has historically been the crossroads of South Slavic, Germanic, Romance, although the population is not homogeneous, the majority is Slovene. South Slavic language Slovene is the language throughout the country. Slovenia is a largely secularized country, but its culture and identity have been influenced by Catholicism as well as Lutheranism. The economy of Slovenia is small, open, and export-oriented and has strongly influenced by international conditions. It has been hurt by the Eurozone crisis, started in the late 2000s. The main economic field is services, followed by industry and construction, Historically, the current territory of Slovenia was part of many different state formations, including the Roman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire, followed by the Habsburg Monarchy. In October 1918, the Slovenes exercised self-determination for the first time by co-founding the State of Slovenes, Croats, in December 1918, they merged with the Kingdom of Serbia into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. During World War II, Slovenia was occupied and annexed by Germany, Italy, and Hungary, with a tiny area transferred to the Independent State of Croatia, in June 1991, after the introduction of multi-party representative democracy, Slovenia split from Yugoslavia and became an independent country. Present-day Slovenia has been inhabited since prehistoric times, and there is evidence of habitation from around 250,000 years ago. A pierced cave bear bone, dating from 43100 ±700 BP, in the 1920s and 1930s, artifacts belonging to the Cro-Magnon such as pierced bones, bone points, and needle were found by archaeologist Srečko Brodar in Potok Cave. It shows that wooden wheels appeared almost simultaneously in Mesopotamia and Europe, in the transition period between the Bronze age to the Iron age, the Urnfield culture flourished. Archaeological remains dating from the Hallstatt period have been found, particularly in southeastern Slovenia, among them a number of situlas in Novo Mesto, in the Iron Age, present-day Slovenia was inhabited by Illyrian and Celtic tribes until the 1st century BC
3.
Yugoslavia
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Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast Europe during most of the 20th century. The Serbian royal House of Karađorđević became the Yugoslav royal dynasty, Yugoslavia gained international recognition on 13 July 1922 at the Conference of Ambassadors in Paris. The country was named after the South Slavic peoples and constituted their first union, following centuries in which the territories had been part of the Ottoman Empire, renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia on 3 October 1929, it was invaded by the Axis powers on 6 April 1941. In 1943, a Democratic Federal Yugoslavia was proclaimed by the Partisan resistance, in 1944, the king recognised it as the legitimate government, but in November 1945 the monarchy was abolished. Yugoslavia was renamed the Federal Peoples Republic of Yugoslavia in 1946 and it acquired the territories of Istria, Rijeka, and Zadar from Italy. Partisan leader Josip Broz Tito ruled the country as president until his death in 1980, in 1963, the country was renamed again as the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The constituent six socialist republics that made up the country were the SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SR Croatia, SR Macedonia, SR Montenegro, SR Serbia, and SR Slovenia. Serbia contained two Socialist Autonomous Provinces, Vojvodina and Kosovo, which after 1974 were largely equal to the members of the federation. After an economic and political crisis in the 1980s and the rise of nationalism, Yugoslavia broke up along its republics borders, at first into five countries, eventually, Serbia and Montenegro accepted the opinion of the Badinter Arbitration Committee about shared succession. Serbia and Montenegro themselves broke up in 2006 and became independent states, the concept of Yugoslavia, as a single state for all South Slavic peoples, emerged in the late 17th century and gained prominence through the Illyrian Movement of the 19th century. The name was created by the combination of the Slavic words jug, Yugoslavia was the result of the Corfu Declaration, as a project of the Serbian Parliament in exile and the Serbian royal Karađorđević dynasty, who became the Yugoslav royal dynasty. The country was formed in 1918 immediately after World War I as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes by union of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and it was commonly referred to at the time as the Versailles state. Later, the government renamed the country leading to the first official use of Yugoslavia in 1929, on 6 January 1929 King Alexander I suspended the constitution, banned national political parties, assumed executive power and renamed the country Yugoslavia. He hoped to curb separatist tendencies and mitigate nationalist passions and he imposed a new constitution and relinquished his dictatorship in 1931. None of these three regimes favored the policy pursued by Alexander I, Alexander attempted to create a centralised Yugoslavia. He decided to abolish Yugoslavias historic regions, and new internal boundaries were drawn for provinces or banovinas, the banovinas were named after rivers. Many politicians were jailed or kept under police surveillance, the effect of Alexanders dictatorship was to further alienate the non-Serbs from the idea of unity. During his reign the flags of Yugoslav nations were banned, Alexander was succeeded by his eleven-year-old son Peter II and a regency council headed by his cousin, Prince Paul
4.
Slovenian PrvaLiga
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The Slovenian First Football League, currently named PrvaLiga Telekom Slovenije Slovene pronunciation, due to sponsorship reasons, also known by the abbreviation 1. SNL, is the football league in Slovenia, and was formed in 1991 after Slovenia became an independent country. From 1920 until the end of the 1990–91 season, the Slovenian Republic League was a division of the Yugoslavian league football system. The league is governed by the Football Association of Slovenia. Between 2001 and 2012 the league was governed by the Association of 1, Celje, Gorica and Maribor are the only three clubs that have never been relegated from the league, since its foundation in 1991. Slovenian PrvaLiga is the highest league of football in Slovenia. Also known by the abbreviation 1, SNL, PrvaLiga is contested on a round robin basis and the championship awarded to the club that is top of the league at the end of the season. The league was established after the independence of Slovenia in 1991, Olimpija, Maribor and Nafta were the only Slovenian teams who participated in the top division between the end of World War II in 1945 and the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991. While being a part of the Yugoslav football system, most of the Slovenian clubs competed for the title of champions in the Slovenian Republic Football League. Following the independence of Slovenia, the Football Association of Slovenia separated from the Football Association of Yugoslavia, for the first time in history, top Slovenian clubs competed in the newly formed Slovenian football league for the title of Slovenian champion. Of the founding clubs in the PrvaLiga, only Maribor, Gorica, the format and the number of clubs in the league has changed over time, ranging from 21 clubs in the first season to 10 clubs in its present form. The top clubs at the end of the season are awarded a spot in the UEFA Champions League. They had a tradition of playing in the Yugoslav first league. Olimpija dominated the league and won a further three championships before Gorica won their first in the 1995–96 season, following Goricas success, Maribor won their first championship in 1997. This started a streak of seven successive league championships which came to an end when Gorica won their second title in the 2003–04 season. The club from Nova Gorica went on to win an additional two titles, becoming the club to win three consecutive championships. During the 2006–07 season Domžale, a club played in the Slovenian second division three seasons earlier, won their first title, a feat they repeated the next season. Following the 2008–09 season, Maribor became the dominant force in Slovenian football for the second time, Maribor is the most successful club, they have won the championship 13 times
5.
FIFA
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The Fédération Internationale de Football Association is the international governing body of association football, futsal, and beach soccer. FIFA is responsible for the organisation of major international tournaments, notably the World Cup which commenced in 1930. FIFA was founded in 1904 to oversee international competition among the associations of Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden. Headquartered in Zürich, its membership now comprises 211 national associations, although FIFA does not control the rules of football, it is responsible for both the organization of a number of tournaments and their promotion, which generate revenue from sponsorship. In 2013, FIFA had revenues of over 1.3 billion U. S. dollars, for a net profit of 72 million and those among these officials who were also indicted in the U. S. are expected to be extradited to face charges there as well. Many officials were suspended by FIFAs ethics committee including Sepp Blatter, in early 2017 reports became public about FIFA president Gianni Infantino attempting to prevent the re-elections of both chairmen of the ethics committee during the FIFA congress in May 2017. The need for a body to oversee association football became apparent at the beginning of the 20th century with the increasing popularity of international fixtures. The French name and acronym are used even outside French-speaking countries, the founding members were the national associations of Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Also, that day, the German Association declared its intention of affiliating through a telegram. The first president of FIFA was Robert Guérin, Guérin was replaced in 1906 by Daniel Burley Woolfall from England, by then a member of the association. Membership of FIFA expanded beyond Europe with the application of South Africa in 1909, Argentina in 1912, Canada and Chile in 1913, and the United States in 1914. During World War I, with players sent off to war and the possibility of travel for international fixtures severely limited. Post-war, following the death of Woolfall, the organisation was run by Dutchman Carl Hirschmann and it was saved from extinction, but at the cost of the withdrawal of the Home Nations, who cited an unwillingness to participate in international competitions with their recent World War enemies. The Home Nations later resumed their membership, the FIFA collection is held by the National Football Museum at Urbis in Manchester, England. The first World Cup in the world was in 1930 in Montevideo, FIFA is headquartered in Zürich, and is an association established under the Law of Switzerland. FIFAs supreme body is the FIFA Congress, a made up of representatives from each affiliated member association. Each national football association has one vote, regardless of its size or footballing strength, the Congress assembles in ordinary session once every year, and extraordinary sessions have been held once a year since 1998. The congress makes decisions relating to FIFAs governing statutes and their method of implementation and application, only the Congress can pass changes to FIFAs statutes
6.
UEFA
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The Union of European Football Associations is the administrative body for association football in Europe, although several member states are primarily or entirely located in Asia. It is one of six continental confederations of world footballs governing body FIFA, UEFA consists of 55 national association members. Until 1959 the main headquarters were located in Paris, and later in Bern, in 1995, UEFA headquarters were transferred to Nyon, Switzerland. Henri Delaunay was the first general secretary and Ebbe Schwartz the first president, UEFA was founded on 15 June 1954 in Basel, Switzerland after consultation between the Italian, French, and Belgian associations. The European football union began with 25 members, that number doubled by the early 1990s, UEFA membership coincides for the most part with recognition as a sovereign country in Europe, although there are some exceptions. Some UEFA members are not sovereign states, but form part of a recognized sovereign state in the context of international law. Some UEFA members are transcontinental states, countries which had been members of the Asian Football Confederation were also admitted to the European football association, particularly Israel and Kazakhstan. Additionally some UEFA member associations allow teams from outside their associations main territory to take part in their domestic competition, saarland Football Union 1954–1956 German football association of the German Democratic Republic 1954–1990 Football Federation of the Soviet Union 1954–1991, in 1992 became Russian Football Union. The newly independent 14 Soviet Republics created their own football associations, Football Association of Yugoslavia 1954–1992, became Football Association of Serbia and Montenegro. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Slovenia became independent, Football Association of Serbia and Montenegro 1992–2006, became Football Association of Serbia. Montenegro, which became independent, created its own football association, the main competition for mens national teams is the UEFA European Football Championship, started in 1958, with the first finals in 1960, and known as the European Nations Cup until 1964. It is also called UEFA or the EURO, UEFA also runs national competitions at Under-21, Under-19 and Under-17 levels. For womens national teams, UEFA operates the UEFA Womens Championship for senior sides as well as Womens Under-19. UEFA also organized the UEFA-CAF Meridian Cup with CAF for youth teams in an effort to boost youth football, UEFA launched the UEFA Regions Cup, for semi-professional teams representing their local region, in 1999. In futsal there is the UEFA Futsal Championship and UEFA Futsal Under-21 Championship, the Italian, German, Spanish and French mens national teams are the sole teams to have won the European football championship in all categories. A second, lower-ranked competition is the UEFA Europa League and this competition, for national knockout cup winners and high-placed league teams, was launched by UEFA in 1971 as a successor of both the former UEFA Cup and the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. A third competition, the UEFA Cup Winners Cup, which had started in 1960, was absorbed into the UEFA Cup in 1999, in womens football UEFA also conducts the UEFA Womens Champions League for club teams. The competition was first held in 2001, and known as the UEFA Womens Cup until 2009, the UEFA Super Cup pits the winners of the Champions League against the winners of the Europa League, and came into being in 1973
7.
Referee (association football)
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In association football, the referee is the person responsible for enforcing the Laws of the Game during the course of a match. At higher levels of play the referee may also be assisted by an official who supervises the teams technical areas. Referees remuneration for their services varies between leagues, Referees are licensed and trained by the same national organisations that are members of FIFA. Each national organisation recommends its top officials to FIFA to have the honour of being included on the FIFA International Referees List. International games between national teams require FIFA officials, otherwise, the local national organisation determines the manner of training, ranking and advancement of officials from the youngest youth games through professional matches. The referees powers and duties are described by Law 5 of the Laws of the Game, as per Law 9 of the game, if during the game the ball hits the referee there is no stoppage in play. However the officials would be expected to position themselves such that this would be unlikely to occur. Modern day referees and their assistants wear a uniform consisting of a jersey, badge, shorts and socks, since then, most referees have worn either yellow or black, but the colours and styles adopted by individual associations vary greatly. For international contests under the supervision of FIFA, Adidas uniforms are worn because Adidas is the current sponsor, FIFA allows referees to wear five colours, black, red, yellow, green and blue. Along with the jersey, referees are required to wear shorts, black socks. The badge, which displays the referees license level and year of validity, is affixed to the left chest pocket. All referees carry a whistle, a watch, penalty cards, a wallet with pen and paper. Most are encouraged to have more than one of each on them in case they drop a whistle or a pen runs out, often, referees utilize two watches so that they can use one to calculate time lost for stoppages for the purposes of added time. In matches with goal-line technology, the referee will have on their person a device to receive the systems alerts, Referees use a whistle to help in match control. The whistle is sometimes needed to stop, start or restart play but should not be used for all stoppages, fIFAs Laws of the Game document gives guidance as to when the whistle should and should not be used. Overuse of the whistle is discouraged since, as stated in the Laws, the whistle is an important tool for the referee along with verbal, body and eye communication. Before the introduction of the whistle, referees indicated their decisions by waving a white handkerchief, the whistles that were first adopted by referees were made by Joseph Hudson at Mills Munitions in Birmingham, England. The Acme Whistle Company first began to mass-produce pea whistles in the 1870s for the Metropolitan Police Force, Referees in football are first described by Richard Mulcaster in 1581
8.
UEFA Euro 2008
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It took place in Austria and Switzerland from 7 to 29 June 2008. The tournament was won by Spain, who defeated Germany 1–0 in the final, Spain were only the second nation to win all their group stage fixtures and then the European Championship itself - an accomplishment matched by France in 1984. Spain were also the first team since Germany in 1996 to win the tournament undefeated, Greece were the defending champions going into the tournament, having won UEFA Euro 2004. They recorded the worst finish in Euro 2008, losing their three fixtures and collecting the least amount of prize money. Throughout 31 matches, the participating nations totalled 77 goals, the same as the previous tournament, Austria and Switzerland automatically qualified as hosts, the remaining 14 teams were determined through qualifying matches, which began in August 2006. As European champions, Spain earned the right to compete for the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup in South Africa, Austria had previously bid to host Euro 2004 with Hungary, but they eventually lost out to Portugal. Austria/Switzerland, Greece/Turkey, and Hungary were recommended before the final vote, Greece and Turkey were rejected and let Hungary and Austria/Switzerland battle for the win. The Austria/Switzerland bid is the successful joint bid in the competitions history, following the UEFA Euro 2000 hosted by Belgium. The following tournament, held in Poland and Ukraine, became the third jointly hosted tournament, qualification for Euro 2008 started in August 2006, just over a month after the end of the 2006 FIFA World Cup. England was the only seeded team not to qualify for the tournament proper, in contrast, Germany and Portugal were deemed to have an easy draw, as the tournament structure meant they could not meet Italy, France, the Netherlands or Spain until the final. In the group stage, Croatia, Spain and the Netherlands all qualified with maximum points, Austria and Switzerland were not expected to progress, despite the advantage of being the hosts. In Group A, the Swiss lost their captain, Alexander Frei, to injury in their first game and became the first team to be eliminated from the tournament, Switzerland managed to beat the group winner Portugal in their last game. In Group B, Austria managed to set up a final game against Germany. However, they lost by one goal, making Euro 2008 the first European Championship not to have one of the host nations present in the knockout phase, in the same game, goalkeeper Volkan Demirel was shown a red card for pushing Czech striker Jan Koller to the ground. The Turks joined Portugal as the qualifiers from Group A, France were the high-profile victims of Group C, recording just one point from a goalless draw against Romania in their opening game. Italy beat the French, on the day, to finish on four points. Finally, in Group D, Greece failed to reproduce the form of their shock 2004 win, Russia qualified at the expense of Sweden, after beating them in a final game decider, joining Spain in the knockout phase. Turkey continued their streak of wins, equalising at the end of extra-time against Croatia
9.
2008 Summer Olympics
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A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events. China became the 22nd nation to host the Olympic Games and the 18th to hold a Summer Olympic Games. It was the time that the Summer Olympic Games were held in East Asia and Asia, after Tokyo, Japan, in 1964 and Seoul, South Korea. Beijing was awarded the Games over four competitors on 13 July 2001, the Government of the Peoples Republic of China promoted the Games and invested heavily in new facilities and transportation systems. A total of 37 venues were used to host the events, the official logo of these Olympic Games, titled Dancing Beijing, refers to the host city by featuring a stylized calligraphic character jīng. The Games were the second most watched Olympics in history, attracting 4.7 billion viewers worldwide, there were 43 world records and 132 Olympic records set at the 2008 Summer Olympics. An unprecedented 86 countries won at least one medal during the Games, Chinese athletes won the most gold medals with 51, and with 100 medals in total became only the 7th different Olympic team to top an overall medal tally. The United States won the most total medals with 110, the games were deemed highly successful with the rising standard of competition among nations across the world. Beijing was elected as the host city for the 2008 Summer Olympics on 13 July 2001, during the 112th IOC Session in Moscow, defeating bids from Toronto, Paris, Istanbul, and Osaka. Prior to the session, five other cities had submitted bids to the IOC, after the first round of voting, Beijing held a significant lead over the other four candidates. Osaka received only six votes and was eliminated, in the second round, Beijing was supported by a majority of voters, eliminating the need for subsequent rounds. Torontos bid was their 5th failure since 1960, the size of China, its increased enforcement of doping controls, and sympathy concerning its loss of the 2000 Summer Olympics to Sydney were all factors in the decision. Eight years earlier, Beijing had led every round of voting for the 2000 Summer Olympics before losing to Sydney by two votes in the final round. Human rights concerns expressed by Amnesty International and politicians in both Europe and the United States were considered by the delegates, according to IOC Executive Director François Carrard, Carrard and others suggested that the selection might lead to improvements in human rights in China. In addition, a number of IOC delegates who had formerly been athletes expressed concern about heat and air quality during the Games, China outlined plans to address these environmental concerns in its bid application. The Oxford Olympics Study 2016 estimates the outturn cost of the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics at USD6.8 billion in 2015-dollars and this includes sports-related costs only, that is, operational costs incurred by the organizing committee for the purpose of staging the Games, e. g. The Beijing Olympics cost of USD6.8 billion compares with costs of USD4.6 billion for Rio 2016, average cost for the Summer Games since 1960 is USD5.2 billion. They went on to claim that revenues from the Games would exceed the original target of $16 million
10.
Arsenal F.C.
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Arsenal Football Club is a professional football club based in Highbury, London, that plays in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The club has won 13 League titles,12 FA Cups, Arsenal was the first club from the South of England to join The Football League, in 1893. They entered the First Division in 1904, and have accumulated the second most points. Relegated only once, in 1913, they continue the longest streak in the top division, in the 1930s, Arsenal won five League Championships and two FA Cups, and another FA Cup and two Championships after the war. In 1970–71, they won their first League and FA Cup Double, between 1989 and 2005, they won five League titles and five FA Cups, including two more Doubles. They completed the 20th century with the highest average league position, Herbert Chapman won Arsenals first national trophies, but died prematurely. He helped introduce the WM formation, floodlights, and shirt numbers, Arsène Wenger has been the longest-serving manager and has won the most trophies. His teams set several English records, the longest win streak, the longest unbeaten run, in 1886, Woolwich munitions workers founded the club as Dial Square. In 1913, the crossed the city to Arsenal Stadium in Highbury. They became Tottenham Hotspurs nearest club, commencing the North London derby, in 2006, they moved down the road to the Emirates Stadium. Arsenal earned €435. 5m in 2014–15, with the Emirates Stadium generating the highest revenue in world football, based on social media activity from 2014–15, Arsenals fanbase is the fifth largest in the world. In 2016, Forbes estimated the club was the second most valuable in England, on 1 December 1886, munitions workers in Woolwich, now South East London, formed Arsenal as Dial Square, with David Danskin as their first captain. Named after the heart of the Royal Arsenal complex, they took the name of the complex a month later. Royal Arsenal F. C. s first home was Plumstead Common, though spent most of their time in South East London playing on the other side of Plumstead. Royal Arsenal won Arsenals first trophies in 1890 and 1891, Royal Arsenal renamed themselves for a second time upon becoming a limited liability company in 1893. They registered their new name, Woolwich Arsenal, with The Football League when the club ascended later that year, Woolwich Arsenal was the first southern member of The Football League, starting out in the Second Division and winning promotion to the First Division in 1904. Falling attendances, due to financial difficulties among the munitions workers, businessmen Henry Norris and William Hall took the club over, and sought to move them elsewhere. In 1913, soon after relegation back to the Second Division, Woolwich Arsenal moved to the new Arsenal Stadium in Highbury and this saw their third change of name, the following year, they reduced Woolwich Arsenal to simply The Arsenal
11.
A.C. Milan
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Associazione Calcio Milan, commonly referred to as A. C. Milan, is a professional football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 and 1982–83 seasons, in the top flight of Italian football, known as Serie A since 1929–30. With 18 officially recognised UEFA and FIFA titles, they are the fourth most successful club in the world, with 18 league titles, Milan is the joint-second most successful club in Serie A, along with local rivals Internazionale. They have also won the Coppa Italia five times, and the Supercoppa Italiana seven, Milans home games are played at San Siro, also known as the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza. The stadium, which is shared with city rivals Internazionale, is the largest in Italian football, inter are considered their biggest rivals, and matches between the two teams are called Derby della Madonnina, which is one of the most followed derbies in football. The owner of the club is former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, the club is one of the wealthiest in Italian and world football. It was a member of the now-defunct G-14 group of Europes leading football clubs as well as its replacement. A. C. Milan was founded as Milan Cricket and Foot-Ball Club on 13 December 1899 by English expatriates Alfred Edwards and Herbert Kilpin, who came from the English city of Nottingham. In honour of its English origins, the club has retained the English spelling of the name, as opposed to the Italian spelling Milano. Milan won its first Italian championship in 1901 and a two in succession in 1906 and 1907. In 1908, Milan experienced a split caused by disagreements over the signing of foreign players. Following these events, Milan did not manage to win a domestic title until 1950–51. The 1950s saw the return to the top of Italian football, headed by the famous Gre-No-Li Swedish trio Gunnar Gren, Gunnar Nordahl. This was one of the clubs most successful periods domestically, with the Scudetto going to Milan in 1951,1955,1957,1959 and 1962, in 1963, Milan won its first continental title by beating Benfica in the final of the European Cup. This success was repeated in 1969, with a 4–1 win over Ajax in the final, during this period Milan also won its first Coppa Italia, with victory over Padova in the 1967 final, and two European Cup Winners Cups, in 1967–68 and 1972–73. Milan won a league title in 1979, but after the retirement of Gianni Rivera in the same year. The club was involved in the 1980 Totonero scandal and as punishment was relegated to Serie B for the first time in its history, the scandal was centred around a betting syndicate paying players and officials to fix the outcome of matches. Milan achieved promotion back to Serie A at the first attempt, winning the 1980–81 Serie B title, in 1983, Milan won the Serie B title for the second time in three seasons to return to Serie A, where they achieved a sixth-place finish in 1983–84
12.
Stamford Bridge (stadium)
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Stamford Bridge is a football stadium located in Fulham, London. It is the ground of Chelsea F. C. The stadium is located within the Moore Park Estate also known as Walham Green and is referred to as simply The Bridge. The capacity is 41,663, making it the eighth largest ground in the Premier League, the club has plans to expand the capacity to 60,000 by the 2021–2022 season. It has undergone major changes over the years, most recently in the 1990s when it was renovated into a modern. Stamford Bridge has been used as a venue for England international matches, FA Cup Finals, FA Cup semi-finals and it has also hosted numerous other sports, such as cricket, rugby union, speedway, greyhound racing, baseball and American football. The stadiums highest official attendance is 82,905, for a match between Chelsea and Arsenal on 12 October 1935. Stamford Bridge is considered to be a derivative of Samfordesbrigge meaning the bridge at the sandy ford, 18th century maps show a Stanford Creek running along the route of what is now a railway line at the back of the East Stand as a tributary of the Thames. The upper reaches of this tributary have been known as Billingswell Ditch, Pools Creek, in mediaeval times the Creek was known as Billingwell Dyche, derived from Billings spring or stream. It formed the boundary between the parishes of Kensington and Fulham, by the 18th century the creek had become known as Counters Creek which is the name it has retained since. However, previous to this, in 1898, Stamford Bridge played host to the World Championship of shinty between Beauly Shinty Club and London Camanachd. Stamford Bridge was built close to Lillie Bridge, a sports ground which had hosted the 1873 FA Cup Final. It was initially offered to Fulham Football Club, but they turned it down for financial reasons. After considering the sale of the land to the Great Western Railway Company, noted football ground architect Archibald Leitch, who had also designed Ibrox, Celtic Park, Craven Cottage and Hampden Park, was hired to construct the stadium. In its early days, Stamford Bridge stadium was served by a railway station, Chelsea and Fulham railway station. Stamford Bridge had a capacity of around 100,000. It was used as the FA Cup final venue, as originally constructed, Stamford Bridge was an athletics track and the pitch was initially located in the middle of the running track. The stadium had a stand for 5,000 spectators on the east side
13.
UEFA Euro 2012
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The 2012 UEFA European Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2012 or simply Euro 2012, was the 14th European Championship for mens national football teams organised by UEFA. Poland and Ukraines bid was chosen by UEFAs Executive Committee on 18 April 2007, the two host teams qualified automatically while the remaining 14 finalists were decided through a qualifying competition, featuring 51 teams, from August 2010 to November 2011. This was the last European Championship to employ the 16-team finals format in use since 1996, from Euro 2016 onward, Euro 2012 was played at eight venues, four in each host country. Five new stadiums were built for the tournament, and the hosts invested heavily in improving infrastructure such as railways, Euro 2012 set attendance records for the 16-team format, for the highest aggregate attendance and average per game. Spain became the first team to win two consecutive European Championships, and also three major tournaments. Spain had already gained entry to the 2013 Confederations Cup by winning the 2010 World Cup, as at Euro 2008 in Austria and Switzerland, both 2012 host nations were eliminated in the group stage. The hosting of the event was contested by five bids representing seven countries, Croatia–Hungary, Greece, Italy, Poland–Ukraine. In November 2005, after a consideration of the bid data by UEFA. In May 2006, this was followed by a round of the selection process. The final decision was due to be announced on 8 December 2006 in Nyon, on 18 April 2007, the Poland–Ukraine bid was chosen by a vote of the UEFA Executive Committee, at a meeting in Cardiff. Poland–Ukraine became the successful joint bid for the European Championship, after those of Belgium–Netherlands. Their bid received a majority of votes, and was therefore announced the winner. There were some alterations from the initial bid plan, regarding the venues. The draw for the UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying competition took place in Warsaw on 7 February 2010, fifty-one teams entered to compete for the fourteen remaining places in the finals, alongside co-hosts Poland and Ukraine. The teams were divided into nine groups, with the using the new UEFA national team coefficient for the first time in order to determine the seedings. As defending champions, Spain was automatically top seeded, the qualifying process began in August 2010 and concluded in November 2011. At the conclusion of the group stage in October 2011. The remaining eight-second placed teams contested two-legged play-offs, and the four qualified for the finals
14.
2012 UEFA Super Cup
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Atlético Madrid defeated Chelsea 4–1, winning their second UEFA Super Cup. The Stade Louis II in Monaco was the venue for the UEFA Super Cup every year since 1998, built in 1985, the stadium is also the home of AS Monaco, who play in the French league system. The net capacity of the Stade Louis II was 18,000, over 70 percent of the tickets were reserved for the general public and supporters of the two clubs. Chelsea and Atlético distributed their tickets directly to their fans, the ticket category available for the general public was Category 1 opposite the main stand at a price of €70. The international general public ticket sales began, exclusively via UEFA. com, on 15 June. There had previously been four English-Spanish encounters in the UEFA Super Cup,2012 UEFA Super Cup, UEFA. com UEFA Super Cup History,2012, UEFA. com
15.
Chelsea F.C.
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Chelsea Football Club is an English professional football club based in Fulham, London, that competes in the Premier League. Founded in 1905, the home ground since then has been Stamford Bridge. Chelsea had their first major success in 1955, when they won the league championship and they then won various cup competitions between 1965 and 1996. The clubs greatest period of success has come during the last two decades, winning 21 trophies since 1997. Chelsea are the only London club to win the UEFA Champions League, and one of four clubs, Chelseas regular kit colours are royal blue shirts and shorts with white socks. The clubs crest has changed several times in attempts to re-brand the club. The current crest, featuring a lion rampant regardant holding a staff, is a modification of the one introduced in the early 1950s. The club have the sixth-highest average all-time attendance in English football and their average home gate for the 2015–16 season was 41,500, the seventh highest in the Premier League. Since 2003, Chelsea have been owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, in 2016, they were ranked by Forbes magazine as the seventh most valuable football club in the world, at £1.15 billion. In 1904, Gus Mears acquired the Stamford Bridge athletics stadium with the aim of turning it into a football ground, an offer to lease it to nearby Fulham was turned down, so Mears opted to found his own club to use the stadium. Chelsea were founded on 10 March 1905 at The Rising Sun pub, opposite the main entrance to the ground on Fulham Road. The club won promotion to the First Division in their second season and they reached the 1915 FA Cup Final, where they lost to Sheffield United at Old Trafford, and finished third in the First Division in 1920, the clubs best league campaign to that point. Chelsea attracted large crowds and had a reputation for signing big-name players, former Arsenal and England centre-forward Ted Drake became manager in 1952 and proceeded to modernise the club. The following season saw UEFA create the European Champions Cup, but after objections from The Football League, Chelsea failed to build on this success, and spent the remainder of the 1950s in mid-table. Drake was dismissed in 1961 and replaced by player-coach Tommy Docherty, Docherty built a new team around the group of talented young players emerging from the clubs youth set-up and Chelsea challenged for honours throughout the 1960s, enduring several near-misses. They were on course for a treble of League, FA Cup and League Cup going into the stages of the 1964–65 season, winning the League Cup. In three seasons the side were beaten in three major semi-finals and were FA Cup runners-up, under Dochertys successor, Dave Sexton, Chelsea won the FA Cup in 1970, beating Leeds United 2–1 in a final replay. Chelsea took their first European honour, a UEFA Cup Winners Cup triumph, the year, with another replayed win
16.
Assistant referee (association football)
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In association football, an assistant referee is an official empowered with assisting the referee in enforcing the Laws of the Game during a match. At most organised levels of football the match officiating crew consists of the referee, the assistant referee functions in an advisory role, and all judgements made by an assistant referee may be overruled by the referee. At higher levels of play the referee is assisted by a fourth official. The fourth officials duties are usually administrative in nature and vary depending on the match rules, depending on the local match rules, the fourth official may replace the referee or one of the assistant referees if they are unable to continue. Law 6 of the Laws of the Game specifies that two assistant referees may be appointed and it also outlines the general duties of the assistant referees, however, their duties in a given game remain subject to the decision of the referee. e. Their decisions are not binding and the referee is allowed to overrule an assistant, an assistant referee may also be called upon by the referee to provide an opinion regarding matters which the referee requires clarification on. Occasionally the assistant referee will assist in player management during free kicks, the assistant referees also usually assist the referee with preparatory and administrative functions. Assistant referees wear an identical to that of the referee and carry brightly-coloured flags which are used to indicate their decisions to the referee, players. During the game each assistant referee oversees one touch-line and one end of the field utilising the diagonal system of control, the more senior of the two assistants will normally occupy the side of the field containing the technical areas, to help oversee substitutions. Assistant referees were formerly called linesmen, in 1996, the name was changed, primarily to better reflect the modern role of these officials, and secondarily to become non-gender specific. They are also incorrectly referred to as referees assistants. The fourth official assists the referee in a variety of tasks, the fourth official is a recent addition to the officiating crew. The fourth official is simply instructed to assist the referee at all times and his usual duties can be broadly divided into assisting functions and a replacement function. The fourth official typically has a table a short distance from the touchline between the two teams technical areas, however his positioning is not defined by the Laws of the Game. The fourth official serves as a replacement official in the event that one of the other officials cannot continue officiating, in situations where an assistant referee is unable to continue, the fourth official replaces that assistant referee. Competition rules are supposed to clarify which of these options is to occur, if for some reason it is not stated, then typically the official with the most refereeing experience will replace the referee. Assistants beyond those discussed above are generally uncommon, however, extra official roles have been trialled in a few international tournaments. For matches in the 2006 World Cup, FIFA assigned five officials, if an assistant referee could not carry on his duties, the fifth official was to be the primary replacement, whereas the fourth official was the referees primary replacement
17.
2013 UEFA Champions League Final
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The match took place on Saturday,25 May 2013, at Wembley Stadium in London, England, between German Bundesliga clubs Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich. One week later, Bayern won the 2013 DFB-Pokal and, having won the 2013 Bundesliga. They would eventually go on to win both competitions, Wembley Stadium, Englands national stadium and home of the England national football team, was announced as the venue of the 2013 final on 16 June 2011. Having hosted the 2011 final, Wembley made history for being the first stadium in the history to host the final twice in three years. Discussing the short time between the two finals, UEFA President Michel Platini explained that the final would be in celebration of 150 years of the Football Associations existence. It was the occasion that Wembley hosted the final after hosting the 1963,1968,1971,1978,1992. The original Wembley Stadium hosted five European Cup finals, the 1968 and 1978 finals were both won by English sides, Manchester United beat Benfica 4–1 in 1968 and Liverpool defeated Club Brugge 1–0 in 1978. Benfica also lost in the 1963 final, beaten 2–1 by Milan, first opened for the British Empire Exhibition in 1923, the stadium was originally known as the Empire Stadium. That year, it hosted its first FA Cup Final, when almost 200,000 spectators attempted to watch the match between Bolton Wanderers and West Ham United. Wembley played host to all of Englands matches at the 1966 FIFA World Cup, including the 4–2 victory over West Germany in the final, and at UEFA Euro 1996. The original stadium was closed in 2000 and demolished three years later, to be replaced by a 90, 000-capacity arena, which opened in 2007. The new stadium hosted the 2011 UEFA Champions League Final, which pitted Barcelona against Manchester United in a re-match of the final played two years previously, Barcelona claimed their fourth European title as they ran out 3–1 winners. This was the first time in the history of the Champions League that the final was contested between two German sides, there were three previous Champions League finals between two clubs from the same country,2000,2003, and 2008. It was Bayern Munichs 10th European Cup/Champions League final, third all-time behind Real Madrid and they won four of those finals, in 1974,1975,1976, and most recently in 2001. The 2013 final was Bayerns third final in four years, they lost in both 2010 and 2012, adding to previous losses in 1982,1987, and 1999. For Dortmund, this was their second Champions League final, with them winning their first title in 1997, in 2003, Bayern provided a €2 million loan without collateral to the nearly bankrupt Dortmund which has since been repaid. Domestically there has been a rivalry between Bayern and Dortmund in recent years. In 2011–12, Dortmund won the Bundesliga and the DFB Pokal with Bayern finishing runners-up in both competitions, in 2012–13, Bayern bested Dortmund for both trophies, as well as the DFL-Supercup
18.
Real Madrid C.F.
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Real Madrid Club de Fútbol, commonly known as Real Madrid, or simply as Real outside Spain frontiers, is a professional football club based in Madrid, Spain. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the team has worn a white home kit since inception. The word Real is Spanish for Royal and was bestowed to the club by King Alfonso XIII in 1920 together with the crown in the emblem. The team has played its matches in the 85, 454-capacity Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in downtown Madrid since 1947. Unlike most European sporting entities, Real Madrids members have owned and operated the club throughout its history. The club was estimated to be worth €3.24 billion in 2015, the club is one of the most widely supported teams in the world. Real Madrid is one of three founding members of the Primera División that have never relegated from the top division, along with Athletic Bilbao. The club holds many long-standing rivalries, most notably El Clásico with Barcelona, Real Madrid established itself as a major force in both Spanish and European football during the 1950s, winning five consecutive European Cups and reaching the final seven times. This success was replicated in the league, where the club won five times in the space of seven years. In domestic football, the club has won a record 32 La Liga titles,19 Copa del Rey, nine Supercopa de España, a Copa Eva Duarte, and a Copa de la Liga. Real Madrid was recognised as the FIFA Club of the 20th Century on 23 December 2000, the club received the FIFA Centennial Order of Merit in 2004. The club is ranked first in the latest IFFHS Club World Ranking, setting a new ranking-points record, the club also leads the current UEFA club rankings. They founded Football Club Sky in 1897, playing on Sunday mornings at Moncloa and it split into two clubs in 1900, New Foot-Ball de Madrid and Madrid Football Club. On 6 March 1902, after a new Board presided by Juan Padrós had been elected, three years after its foundation, in 1905, Madrid FC won its first title after defeating Athletic Bilbao in the Spanish Cup final. The club became one of the sides of the Royal Spanish Football Federation on 4 January 1909. After moving between grounds the team moved to the Campo de ODonnell in 1912, in 1920, the clubs name was changed to Real Madrid after King Alfonso XIII granted the title of Real to the club. In 1929, the first Spanish football league was founded, Real Madrid led the first league season until the last match, a loss to Athletic Bilbao, meant they finished runners-up to Barcelona. Real Madrid won its first League title in the 1931–32 season, Real won the League again the following year, becoming the first team to have won the championship twice
19.
Manchester City F.C.
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Manchester City Football Club is a football club in Manchester, England. Founded in 1880 as St. Marks, they became Ardwick Association Football Club in 1887, the club moved to the City of Manchester Stadium in 2003, having played at Maine Road since 1923. After losing the 1981 FA Cup Final, the club went through a period of decline, having regained their Premier League status in the early 2000s, the club was purchased in 2008 by Abu Dhabi United Group and has become one of the wealthiest in the world. Since 2011 the club have won five major honours, including the Premier League in 2012 and 2014, by 2014–15, Manchester City had the sixth-highest revenue in the footballing world with an annual revenue of €463.5 million. In 2016, Forbes magazine estimated they were the sixth most valuable football club. City gained their first honours by winning the Second Division in 1899, with it promotion to the highest level in English football. A fire at Hyde Road destroyed the main stand in 1920, in the 1930s, Manchester City reached two consecutive FA Cup finals, losing to Everton in 1933, before claiming the Cup by beating Portsmouth in 1934. The club won the First Division title for the first time in 1937, after relegation to the Second Division in 1963, the future looked bleak with a record low home attendance of 8,015 against Swindon Town in January 1965. In the summer of 1965, the management team of Joe Mercer, in the first season under Mercer, City won the Second Division title and made important signings in Mike Summerbee and Colin Bell. Further trophies followed, City won the FA Cup in 1969, before achieving European success by winning the European Cup Winners Cup in 1970, beating Górnik Zabrze 2–1 in Vienna. City also won the League Cup that season, becoming the second English team to win a European trophy, the club continued to challenge for honours throughout the 1970s, finishing one point behind the league champions on two occasions and reaching the final of the 1974 League Cup. Former United player Denis Law scored with a backheel to give City a 1–0 win at Old Trafford, the final trophy of the clubs most successful period was won in 1976, when Newcastle United were beaten 2–1 in the League Cup final. A long period of decline followed the success of the 1960s and 1970s, Malcolm Allison rejoined the club to become manager for the second time in 1979, but squandered large sums of money on unsuccessful signings, such as Steve Daley. A succession of managers then followed – seven in the 1980s alone, under John Bond, City reached the 1981 FA Cup final but lost in a replay to Tottenham Hotspur. The club were relegated from the top flight in the 1980s. However, this was only a respite, and following Reids departure Manchester Citys fortunes continued to fade. City were co-founders of the Premier League upon its creation in 1992, after two seasons in Division One, City fell to the lowest point in their history, becoming the second ever European trophy winners to be relegated to their countrys third league tier, after 1. After relegation, the club underwent off-the-field upheaval, with new chairman David Bernstein introducing greater fiscal discipline, under manager Joe Royle, City were promoted at the first attempt, achieved in dramatic fashion in a play-off against Gillingham
20.
Single-elimination tournament
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Where more than two competitors can play in each match, such as in a shootout poker tournament, players are removed when they can no longer play until one player remains from the group. This player moves on to the next round, some competitions are held with a pure single-elimination tournament system. Others have many phases, with the last being a final stage called playoffs. The round before the quarterfinals is sometimes called the round of sixteen, Last Sixteen, or pre-quarterfinals, earlier rounds are typically numbered counting forwards from the first round, or by the number of remaining competitors. If some competitors get a bye, the round at which they enter may be named the first round, with the matches called a preliminary round. Many Olympic single-elimination tournaments feature the bronze medal if they do not award bronze medals to both losing semifinalists. The FIFA World Cup has long featured the third place match, the number of distinct ways of arranging a single-elimination tournament is given by the Wedderburn–Etherington numbers. Brackets are set up so that the top two seeds could not possibly meet until the round, none of the top four can meet prior to the semifinals. If no seeding is used, the tournament is called a random knockout tournament. One version of seeding is where brackets are set up so that the quarterfinal pairings would be the 1 seed vs. the 8 seed,2 vs.7,3 vs.6 and 4 vs. This may be done after each round, or only at selected intervals, in American team sports, for example, the MLS, NFL and WNBA employ this tactic, but the NBA does not. MLB does not have teams in its playoff tournament where re-seeding would make a large difference in the matchups. In international fencing competitions, it is common to have a group stage, participants are divided in groups of 6–7 fencers who play a round-robin tournament, and a ranking is calculated from the consolidated group results. Single elimination is seeded from this ranking, the single-elimination format enables a relatively large number of competitors to participate. There are no dead matches, and no matches where one competitor has more to play for than the other, the format is less suited to games where draws are frequent. In chess, each fixture in a single-elimination tournament must be played multiple matches, because draws are common. In association football, games ending in a draw may be settled in extra time, another perceived disadvantage is that most competitors are eliminated after relatively few games. Variations such as the tournament allow competitors a single loss while remaining eligible for overall victory
21.
England national football team
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The England national football team represents England in international football and is controlled by The Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England are one of the two oldest national teams in football, alongside Scotland, whom played in the worlds first international football match in 1872. Englands home ground is Wembley Stadium, London, and the current manager is Gareth Southgate, England contest the FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Championship, which alternate biennially. In contesting for the World Cup seventeen times over the past sixty four years, England won the 1966 World Cup, when they hosted the finals, the England national football team is the joint-oldest in the world, it was formed at the same time as Scotland. A representative match between England and Scotland was played on 5 March 1870, having been organised by the Football Association, a return fixture was organised by representatives of Scottish football teams on 30 November 1872. Over the next forty years, England played exclusively with the other three Home Nations—Scotland, Wales and Ireland—in the British Home Championship, to begin with, England had no permanent home stadium. They joined FIFA in 1906 and played their first ever games against countries other than the Home Nations on a tour of Central Europe in 1908, Wembley Stadium was opened in 1923 and became their home ground. The relationship between England and FIFA became strained, and this resulted in their departure from FIFA in 1928 and their first ever defeat on home soil to a foreign team was a 0–2 loss to the Republic of Ireland, on 21 September 1949 at Goodison Park. A 6–3 loss in 1953 to Hungary, was their defeat by a foreign team at Wembley. In the return match in Budapest, Hungary won 7–1 and this still stands as Englands worst ever defeat. After the game, a bewildered Syd Owen said, it was like playing men from outer space, in the 1954 FIFA World Cup, England reached the quarter-finals for the first time, and lost 4–2 to reigning champions Uruguay. Although Walter Winterbottom was appointed as Englands first ever manager in 1946. In UEFA Euro 1968, the reached the semi-finals for the first time. England qualified for the 1970 FIFA World Cup in Mexico as reigning champions, and reached the quarter-finals, England had been 2–0 up, but were eventually beaten 3–2 after extra time. They failed in qualification for the 1974, leading to Ramseys dismissal, under Ron Greenwood, they managed to qualify for the 1982 FIFA World Cup in Spain, despite not losing a game, they were eliminated in the second group stage. Despite losing to Italy in the third place play-off, the members of the England team were given bronze medals identical to the Italians’, the England team of 1990 were welcomed home as heroes and thousands of people lined the streets, for a spectacular open-top bus parade. However, the team did not win any matches in UEFA Euro 1992, drawing with tournament winners Denmark, the 1990s saw four England managers, each in the role for a relatively brief period. Graham Taylor was Robsons successor, but resigned after England failed to qualify for the 1994 FIFA World Cup, at UEFA Euro 1996, held in England, Terry Venables led England, equalling their best performance at a European Championship, reaching the semi-finals as they did in 1968
22.
Iceland national football team
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The Iceland mens national football team is the national mens football team of Iceland and is controlled by the Football Association of Iceland. Although Iceland is one of Europes smaller football nations, the team has enjoyed success in the 21st century. In the qualifying rounds for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Iceland reached the play offs before losing to Croatia, Iceland reached its first major tournament, UEFA Euro 2016, after a qualification campaign which included home and away wins over the Netherlands. In doing so, they became the smallest ever nation to qualify for a major tournament, Iceland was allocated to Euro 2016 Group F. Birkir Bjarnason scored Icelands first major tournament goal in the 50th minute against Portugal in a group stage match. After advancing to the stages of Euro 2016, Iceland defeated England in the Round of 16, advancing to the quarter-finals. Iceland finished eighth in the tournament, with two wins, two draws and one defeat, although Úrvalsdeild, the Icelandic Football League, was founded in 1912, the countrys first international match was only played on 29 July 1930, against the Faroe Islands. Although Iceland won 1–0 away, both teams were at the time unaffiliated with FIFA, the first match officially recognised by FIFA took place in Reykjavík on 27 July 1946, a 0–3 defeat to Denmark. The first international victory was against Finland in 1947, for the first 20 years of the Football Association of Iceland s existence, the team did not participate in qualifying for the FIFA World Cup or the UEFA European Championship. In 1954, Iceland applied to part in qualification for UEFA Euro 1956. In qualification for the 1958 World Cup, Iceland finished last in their group with zero wins, since 1974, the team has taken part inempted to qualifying for every World Cup and European Championship, but until recently without success. In 1994, the team was awarded their then best ever position in the FIFA World Rankings, in qualification for Euro 2004, Iceland finished third of their group, one point behind Scotland. If they had finished second, they would have made a playoff spot, in 2014, Iceland almost became the smallest nation to reach the World Cup Play offs. Finishing second in Group D, they played Croatia in a playoff for qualification. After holding them to a 0–0 draw in the home leg, during the qualification, they reached their then highest ranking in the FIFA World Rankings, 23rd. Iceland were drawn into a group with Portugal, Hungary and Austria for the final tournament, at the tournament finals, Iceland recorded 1–1 draws in their first two group stage matches against Portugal and Hungary. They then advanced from their pool with a 2–1 victory against Austria, Iceland qualified for the tournaments quarter-finals after a surprising 2–1 win against England in the Round of 16. However, they were eliminated by France in the quarter-finals, 5–2, as of 28 March 2017 This is a list of Icelandic national team complete records, both friendlies and competitive matches. Countries that are in italics are not members of FIFA or are former countries, UEFA, Rest of the World Last updated 23 November 2016
23.
Wales national football team
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The Wales national football team represents Wales in international football. It is controlled by the Football Association of Wales, the body for football in Wales. During their history, Wales have qualified for two international tournaments. They reached the quarter-finals of the 1958 FIFA World Cup and they reached the semi-finals of UEFA Euro 2016 after beating Belgium in the quarter-final match on 1 July 2016. This was, therefore, the first time that Wales had reached the semi-final of a major tournament, Wales also progressed through UEFA Euro 1976 qualifying to the quarter-final, which was played on a home and away leg basis but they did not feature in the finals tournament. At all levels including the teams the Welsh national team draws players primarily from clubs in the English football league system. The main professional Welsh clubs play in the English leagues, with some full-time and part-time professional clubs playing in the Welsh football league system. Wales played its first competitive match on 25 March 1876 against Scotland in Glasgow, Scotland took the spoils winning 2–0. Wales first match against England came in 1879 – a 2–1 defeat at the Kennington Oval, London and in 1882 Wales faced Ireland for the first time, the associations of the four Home Nations met in Manchester on 6 December 1882 to set down a set of worldwide rules. This meeting saw the establishment of the International Football Association Board to approve changes to the rules, the 1883–84 season saw the formation of the British Home Championship, a tournament which was played annually between England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, until 1983–84. Wales were champions on 12 occasions, winning seven times whilst sharing the title five times. As a result, Wales did not enter the first three World Cups, in 1932 Wales played host to the Republic of Ireland, the first time they played against a side from outside the four home nations. A year later, Wales played a match outside the United Kingdom for the first time when they travelled to Paris to take on France in a match which was drawn 1–1. The top two teams were to qualify for the finals in Brazil, but Wales finished bottom of the group. The 1950s were an age for Welsh football with stars such as Ivor Allchurch, Cliff Jones, Alf Sherwood, Jack Kelsey, Trevor Ford, Ronnie Burgess, Terry Medwin. Wales made its only World Cup finals tournament appearance in the 1958 FIFA World Cup in Sweden, however, their path to qualification was unusual. In the Asian/African qualifying zone Egypt and Sudan had refused to play against Israel following the Suez crisis, as a result, FIFA proclaimed Israel winners of their respective group. However, FIFA did not want a team to qualify for the World Cup finals without actually playing a match and so lots were drawn of all the second placed teams in UEFA
24.
Belgium national football team
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The Belgian national football team has officially represented Belgium in association football since their maiden match in 1904. The squad is under the jurisdiction of FIFA and is governed in Europe by UEFA—both of which were co-founded by the Belgian teams supervising body. Periods of regular Belgian representation at the highest international level, from 1920 to 1938, most of Belgiums home games are played at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels. Belgiums national team has participated in three major football competitions. Other notable performances are victories over four reigning world champions—West Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Belgium has long-standing football rivalries with its Dutch and French counterparts, having played both teams nearly every year from 1905 to 1967. The squad has been known as the Red Devils since 1906, during the national player career of forward Paul Van Himst, the most-praised Belgian footballer of the 20th century, Belgium took third place at Euro 1972. After that, they experienced two golden ages with many gifted players, in the first period, which lasted from the 1980s to the early 1990s, the team finished as runners-up at Euro 1980 and fourth in the 1986 World Cup. In the second, under guidance of Marc Wilmots in the 2010s, between September 2016 and October 2017, they are competing in the European qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup. Belgium was one of the first mainland European countries to play association football and its practice in Belgium began on 26 October 1863, after an Irish student walked into the Josephites College of Melle with a leather ball. Initially an elitist pastime, during the following decades association football supplanted rugby as Belgiums most popular football sport, on 11 October 1900, Beerschot AC honorary president Jorge Díaz announced that Antwerp would host a series of challenge matches between Europes best football teams. After some organisational problems, on 28 April 1901, Beerschots pitch hosted its first tournament, in which a Belgian A-squad, Belgium won, and beat the Netherlands in all three follow-up games, FIFA does not recognise these results because Belgium fielded some English players. On 1 May 1904, the Belgians played their first official game, against France at the Stade du Vivier dOie in Uccle, twenty days later, the football boards of both countries were among the seven FIFA founders. At that time, the Belgian squad was chosen by a committee drawn from the six or seven major clubs. From 1912, UBSSA governed football only and was renamed UBSFA, during the Great War, the national team only played unrecognised friendlies, with games in and against France. This triumph led them to a high second place in the World Football Elo Ratings. In the three 1920s Summer Olympics, they achieved results, and played their first intercontinental match. Over the following decade, however, Belgium lost all of their matches at the first three FIFA World Cup final tournaments, according to historian Richard Henshaw, The growth of in Scandinavia, Central Europe, and South America left Belgium far behind. Although World War II hindered international football events in the 1940s, Belgium qualified for only one of eight major tournaments during the 1950s and the 1960s, the 1954 World Cup
25.
UEFA Euro 2016
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It was held in France from 10 June to 10 July 2016. Spain were the defending champions, having won the 2008 and 2012 tournaments. Portugal won the tournament for the first time, following a 1–0 victory after extra time over the host team, France, for the first time, the European Championship final tournament was contested by 24 teams, having been expanded from the 16-team format used since 1996. Under the new format, the finalists contested a group consisting of six groups of four teams. France was chosen as the host nation on 28 May 2010, after a process in which they beat Italy. The matches were played in ten stadiums in ten cities, Bordeaux, Lens, Lille Métropole, Décines-Charpieu, Marseille, Nice, Paris, Saint-Denis, Saint-Étienne and it was the third time that France hosted the finals, after the inaugural tournament in 1960 and the 1984 finals. As the winners, Portugal earned the right to compete at the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia, four bids came before the deadline on 9 March 2009. France, Italy and Turkey put in single bids while Norway, Norway and Sweden eventually withdrew their bid in December 2009. The host was selected on 28 May 2010, Round 1, Each of the thirteen members of the UEFA Executive Committee ranked the 3 bids first, second, and third. First place ranking received 5 points, second place 2 points, Executive members from the countries bidding were not allowed to vote. Round 2, The same thirteen-member committee voted for either of the two finalists, the qualifying draw took place at the Palais des Congrès Acropolis in Nice, on 23 February 2014, with the first matches being played in September 2014. A total of 53 teams competed for 23 places in the tournament to join France. Gibraltar competed in a European Championship qualifying for the first time since their affiliation to UEFA in 2013, the seeding pots were formed on the basis of the UEFA national team coefficients, with the Euro 2012 champions Spain and hosts France automatically top seeded. The 53 national sides were drawn into eight groups of six teams, the group winners, runners-up, and the best third-placed team qualify directly for the final tournament. The remaining eight third-placed teams contested two-legged play-offs to determine the last four qualifiers, in March 2012, Gianni Infantino, the UEFA General Secretary at the time, stated that UEFA would review the qualification competition to ensure that it was not boring. In May 2013, Platini confirmed a similar qualifying format would be discussed during the September 2013 UEFA executive committee meeting in Dubrovnik. Thirteen of the sixteen teams qualified for Euro 2012 qualified again for the 2016 final tournament. Romania, Turkey, Austria and Switzerland all returned after missing out in 2012, with the Austrians qualifying for just their second final Euro tournament, five teams secured their first-ever qualification to a UEFA European Championship final tournament, Albania, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Slovakia and Wales
26.
2017 UEFA Europa League Final
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It will be played at the Friends Arena in Solna, Sweden on 24 May 2017. The winners will earn the right to play against the winners of the 2016–17 UEFA Champions League in the 2017 UEFA Super Cup. The Friends Arena was announced as the venue on 30 June 2015, following the decision of the UEFA Executive Committee meeting in Prague. The ambassador for the final is former Swedish international player Patrik Andersson, who won the Champions League with Bayern Munich against Valencia in 2001. UEFA unveiled the brand identity of the final on 26 August 2016 in Monaco during the group stage draw. com from 17 to 28 March 2017 in four categories, €150, €100, €70. The remaining tickets were allocated to the organising committee, UEFA and national associations, commercial partners and broadcasters. The home team will be determined by a draw held after the semi-final draw. 2017 UEFA Champions League Final 2017 UEFA Super Cup UEFA Europa League 2017 UEFA Europa League Final, UEFA. com
27.
AFC Ajax
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Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax, also AFC Ajax, Ajax Amsterdam or simply Ajax, is a Dutch professional football club based in Amsterdam. Historically, Ajax is the most successful club in the Netherlands, Ajax is historically one of the most successful clubs in the world, according to the IFFHS, Ajax were the seventh-most successful European club of the 20th century. The club is one of the five teams that has earned the right to keep the European Cup and to wear a multiple-winner badge, in 1972, they completed the continental treble by winning the Eredivisie, KNVB Cup, and the European Cup. It also won the first organized UEFA Super Cup in 1972 against Glasgow Rangers, Ajax is also one of three teams to win the continental treble and the Intercontinental Cup in the same season/calendar year, This was achieved in the 1971–72 season. Ajax, Juventus, Bayern Munich, and Chelsea are the four clubs to have won all three major UEFA club competitions. They have also won the Intercontinental Cup twice, the 1991–92 UEFA Cup, as well as the Karl Rappan Cup, Ajax plays at the Amsterdam Arena, which opened in 1996. They previously played at De Meer Stadion and the Amsterdam Olympic Stadium, Ajax was founded in Amsterdam on 18 March 1900. The club achieved promotion to the highest level of Dutch football in 1911 and had its first major success in 1917, winning the KNVB Beker, the following season, Ajax became national champion for the first time. The club defended its title in 1918–19, becoming the team to achieve an unbeaten season in the Netherlands Football League Championship. Throughout the 1920s, Ajax was a regional power, winning the Eerste Klasse West division in 1921,1927 and 1928. This changed in the 1930s, with the winning five national championships. In 1956, the first season of the Netherlands new professional league, the team were again Eredivisie champions in 1960 and won a third KNVB Cup in 1961. A year earlier, Johan Cruyff, who would go on to become the greatest Dutch footballer of all time, between them, Michels and Cruyff led Ajax through the most successful period in its history, winning seven Eredivisie titles, four KNVB Cups and three European Cups. Ajax won the Dutch championship in 1966,1967, and 1968, during the 1966–67 season, Ajax scored a record 122 goals in an Eredivisie season and also won the KNVB Cup to achieve its first league and cup double. In 1969–70, Ajax won a fourth Dutch league championship and second league and cup double in five seasons, winning 27 out of 34 league games, after this success, Michels departed to become manager of Barcelona and was replaced by the Romanian Ștefan Kovács. In Kovács first season, Ajax completed a treble of the European Cup, the Eredivisie, in 1973, Michels Barcelona broke the world transfer record to bring Cruyff to Catalonia. Kovács also departed to become manager of the France national team, in 1976–77, Ajax won its first domestic championship in four seasons and recorded a double of the Eredivisie and KNVB Cup two years later. The early 1980s saw the return of Johan Cruyff to the club, as well as the emergence of young players Marco van Basten, the team won back-to-back Eredivisie titles in 1982 and 1983, with all three playing a significant role in the latter
28.
Manchester United F.C.
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Manchester United Football Club is a professional football club based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. Nicknamed the Red Devils, the club was founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to its current stadium, Old Trafford, in 1910. Manchester United have won a record 20 League Titles, a joint-record 12 FA Cups,5 League Cups, the club has also won three European Cups, one UEFA Cup Winners Cup, one UEFA Super Cup, one Intercontinental Cup and one FIFA Club World Cup. In 1998–99, the became the first in the history of English football to achieve the treble of the Premier League, the FA Cup. The 1958 Munich air disaster claimed the lives of eight players, in 1968, under the management of Matt Busby, Manchester United became the first English football club to win the European Cup. Alex Ferguson won 38 trophies, including 13 Premier League titles,5 FA Cups and 2 UEFA Champions Leagues, José Mourinho is the clubs current manager, having been appointed on 27 May 2016. As of June 2015, it is the worlds most valuable football brand and it is one of the most widely supported football teams in the world. In August 2012, Manchester United made a public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. The club holds several rivalries, most notably with Liverpool, Manchester City and Leeds United, Manchester United was formed in 1878 as Newton Heath LYR Football Club by the Carriage and Wagon department of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway depot at Newton Heath. By 1888, the club had become a member of The Combination. Following the leagues dissolution after only one season, Newton Heath joined the newly formed Football Alliance and this resulted in the club starting the 1892–93 season in the First Division, by which time it had become independent of the railway company and dropped the LYR from its name. After two seasons, the club was relegated to the Second Division, in January 1902, with debts of £2,670 – equivalent to £260,000 in 2017 – the club was served with a winding-up order. The following season began with victory in the first ever Charity Shield, Manchester United won the First Division for the second time in 1911, but at the end of the following season, Mangnall left the club to join Manchester City. In 1922, three years after the resumption of football following the First World War, the club was relegated to the Second Division, relegated again in 1931, Manchester United became a yo-yo club, achieving its all-time lowest position of 20th place in the Second Division in 1934. Gibson, who, in December 1931, invested £2,000, in the 1938–39 season, the last year of football before the Second World War, the club finished 14th in the First Division. Busby led the team to second-place league finishes in 1947,1948 and 1949, in 1952, the club won the First Division, its first league title for 41 years. With an average age of 22, the title winning side of 1956 were labelled the Busby Babes by the media. In 1957, Manchester United became the first English team to compete in the European Cup, despite objections from The Football League, who had denied Chelsea the same opportunity the previous season
29.
2018 FIFA World Cup
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The 2018 FIFA World Cup will be the 21st FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament contested by the mens national teams of the member associations of FIFA. It is scheduled to take place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, the final tournament will involve 32 national teams, which include 31 teams determined through qualifying competitions and the automatically qualified host team. A total of 64 matches will be played in 12 venues located in 11 cities, the final will take place on 15 July in Moscow at the Luzhniki Stadium. The winners will qualify for the 2021 FIFA Confederations Cup, the bidding procedure to host the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups began in January 2009, and national associations had until 2 February 2009 to register their interest. During the bidding process, the three remaining non-UEFA nations gradually withdrew from the 2018 bids, and the UEFA nations were thus ruled out of the 2022 bid. As such, there were four bids for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, England, Russia, Netherlands/Belgium. The twenty-two-member FIFA Executive Committee convened in Zürich on 2 December 2010 to vote to select the hosts of both tournaments, Russia won the right to be the 2018 host in the second round of voting. The Spain/Portugal bid came second, and that from Belgium/Netherlands third, Englands bid to host its second tournament fell at the first hurdle. For the branding, a typeface called Dusha was created by Portuguese design agency Brandia Central in 2014, apart from Russia, who qualified automatically for the tournament as the hosts, all FIFA member associations were eligible to enter the qualification process. On 12 March 2015, prior to the start of qualification, Indonesia were suspended and then expelled before playing a single qualifying match, as part of punishment for government interference in the Football Association of Indonesia. The qualifying draw took place at the Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna, qualifying matches for AFC and CONCACAF started in March 2015, prior to the qualifying draw. The allocation of slots for each confederation was decided to be unchanged by the FIFA Executive Committee on 30 May 2015 in Zürich, on 13 May 2016, Gibraltar and Kosovo became FIFA members and eligible for the World Cup qualifying. In October 2013, UEFA President Michel Platini proposed that the World Cup finals should be expanded from 32 to 40 teams starting from 2018, the format would have been the same, but in groups of five instead of four. This was in response to FIFA President Sepp Blatters comments that Africa and Asia deserved more spots in the World Cup finals at the expense of European and South American teams. Russia proposed the following host cities, Kaliningrad, Kazan, Krasnodar, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov-on-Don, Saint Petersburg, Samara, Saransk, Sochi, Volgograd, Yaroslavl, and Yekaterinburg. All the cities are in or just outside European Russia to reduce time for the teams in the huge country. The bid evaluation report stated, The Russian bid proposes 13 host cities and 16 stadiums, three of the 16 stadiums would be renovated, and 13 would be newly constructed. In October 2011 Russia decreased the number of stadiums from 16 to 14, the final choice of host cities was announced on 29 September 2012
30.
Colombia national football team
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The Colombia national football team represents Colombia in international football competitions and is overseen by the Colombian Football Federation. It is a member of the CONMEBOL and is ranked seventh in the FIFA World Rankings. The team are nicknamed Los Cafeteros due to the production in their country. Since the mid-1980s, the team has been a symbol fighting the countrys negative reputation. This has made the popular and made the national team a sign of nationalism, pride. Colombia is known for having a fan base. Colombia had its strongest period during the 1990s, a 1993 match resulted in a 5–0 win over Argentina which began a special mutual respect rivalry between both nations. The goalkeeper René Higuita achieved fame from his eccentric scorpion kick clearance against England at Wembley Stadium in 1995, stars from Colombias team included Carlos Valderrama and Faustino Asprilla. During this era Colombia qualified for the 1990,1994, and 1998 World Cups, following the death of Andrés Escobar after the 1994 World Cup, Colombias team faded in the latter half of the 1990s. They were the champions of the 2001 Copa América, which hosted and set a new Copa América record of conceding no goals. Prior to that success, they were runners-up to Peru in the 1975 Copa América, in total, Colombia has gained a top four result in seven Copa Américas. Colombia was the first team to win FIFA best mover in 1993 where the achievement was first introduced, Colombia missed three World Cups between 2002 and 2010. After a 16-year-long wait, in 2014 Colombia finally returned to the World Cup, where they were able to advance to the quarter-finals, Colombias midfielder James Rodríguez won two awards, the Golden Boot for most goals and Best Goal of the Tournament. The 1962 World Cup match against the Soviet Union finished in a 4–4 tie after Colombia had been down 4–1, in that game, Colombia also scored a direct corner kick goal, also making it the only direct corner kick goal in World Cup history. Colombia played its first official matches at the 1938 Central American and Caribbean Games, the Colombia national football team was composed mostly by all the players of the Club Juventud Bogotana. Alfonso Novoa was the manager of Colombia until 23 February, the first game was played on 10 February 1938 against Mexico. Colombia was defeated 1–3, Luis Argüelles, Luis de la Fuente and Horacio Casarín scored for Mexico, Colombia was able to obtain the bronze medal, with two wins and three losses. The same year, Colombia played at the I Bolivarian Games in Bogotá, fernando Paternoster was the manager of Colombia, the sides first foreign manager
31.
Japan national football team
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The Japan national football team represents Japan in association football and is operated by the Japan Football Association, the governing body for association football in Japan. The current head coach is Vahid Halilhodžić, the team has also finished second in the 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup. Their principal continental rivals are South Korea and, most recently, Japan is the only team from outside the Americas to participate in the Copa América, having been invited in 1999 and 2011. Although they initially accepted the invitation for the 2011 tournament, the JFA later withdrew following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake, the Japanese team is commonly known by the fans and media as Sakkā Nippon Daihyō, Nippon Daihyō, or Daihyō as abbreviated expressions. Although the team does not have a nickname as such. For example, under Takeshi Okada, the team was known as Okada Japan. Recently the team has known or nicknamed as the Samurai Blue, while Japanese news media still refer it to by the managers last name, as Halilhodžić Japan. Japans first major achievement in football came in the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. However Japan made its first appearance in the Asian Cup in 1988, where they were eliminated in the stage following a draw with Iran and losses to South Korea, United Arab Emirates. The following year Japan hosted and won the Asian Cup in their second appearance, the J. League was officially launched in 1993, causing interest in football and the national team to grow. Japans next tournament was a defense of their title at the 1996 Asian Cup. The team won all their games in the stage but were eliminated in the quarterfinals after a 2–0 loss to Kuwait. The nations first ever FIFA World Cup appearance was in 1998, the first two fixtures went 1–0 in favor of Argentina and Croatia, despite playing well in both games. Their campaign ended with a 2–1 defeat to Jamaica, in the 2000 Asian Cup Japan managed to reclaim their title after defeating Saudi Arabia in the final, becoming Asian Champions for the second time. Two years later, Japan co-hosted the 2002 FIFA World Cup with South Korea, after a 2–2 draw with Belgium in their opening game, the Japanese team advanced to the second round with a 1–0 win over Russia and a 2–0 victory against Tunisia. However, they exited the tournament during the Round of 16. On June 8,2005, Japan qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, its third consecutive World Cup, however, Japan failed to advance to the Round of 16, losing to Australia 1–3, drawing Croatia 0–0 and losing to Brazil 1–4. During the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification, in the round of the Asian Qualifiers
32.
Kaliningrad Stadium
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Kaliningrad Stadium is an association football stadium under construction in in Oktyabrsky Island, Kaliningrad, Russia. It will host some of the games of the 2018 FIFA World Cup and it will also host FC Baltika Kaliningrad of the Russian Football National League, replacing Baltika Stadium. This will be a stadium, equipped with ultramodern security systems. The project is based on the concept of the Allianz Arena, the project cost is planned around 11 billion rubles. The stadium following the 2018 World Cup will turn into 25,000 seating capacity, in April 2012, the regional government, it was decided to base the «Wilmotte & Associes Sa» stadium construction project of the French architectural bureau. The project itself is worth 720 million$, 50% of the sum will be allocated from the federal budget, and the other half from the regional budget. Construction will begin after the technical and estimate documentation. It is worth noting that the stadium after the 2018 World Cup will become a 25, to accommodate this downsizing, part of the roof will be removed. At the end of October 2012 the regional authorities announced a competition to develop the project. At the beginning of March 2013 Mostovik published stadium sketch, received the title of Arena Baltika. In June 2014 the Omsk Arbitration Court declared Mostovik bankrupt and in March 2015 was initiated termination of the contract with the company. The state contract was signed between the Government of the Kaliningrad Oblast and Crocus International to develop the project and working documentation on the design of the stadium, on June 10,2015 it was reported that the stadium project was sent to the state examination. On July 20 the layout of the stadium has been presented, at first, regional authorities considered the option with the construction of new sports facilities in the city center, on the place of the current Baltika Stadium. August 10 became known that the stadium will be named Stadium Kaliningrad or in the English version, work on soil compaction were completed in December 2014. In January 2015, started work in preparation for the construction of infrastructure, in July of that year testing for the stadium piles and foundation had begun. Work on consolidation and drainage of the Oktyabrsky Island, on September 2016, at the site of 43.75 hectares of the work completed and the natural weak soils stabilized. The area 20.02 hectares and 33.85 hectares of continued dumping prigruza, during excavation found utilities pre-war buildings that were not marked on the topographic survey. These issues are dealt with in an expeditious manner, the project includes construction of the overpass East from Oktyabrsky island and from the street
33.
Sweden national football team
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The Sweden national football team represents Sweden in association football and is controlled by the Swedish Football Association, the governing body for football in Sweden. Swedens home ground is Friends Arena in the Stockholm urban area, Sweden made their first World Cup appearance in 1934. Sweden has made eleven World Cup appearances and five appearances in the European Championships and they finished second in the 1958 FIFA World Cup, and third in both 1950 and 1994. Swedens accomplishments also include a medal in the 1948 Summer Olympics. They reached the semi-finals in UEFA Euro 1992, Sweden has traditionally been a strong team in international football, with 11 World Cup appearances and 3 medals in the Olympics. The Swedish team finished second in the 1958 World Cup, when it was the host team, Sweden has also finished third twice, in 1950 and 1994. Sweden played its first international game against Norway on 12 July 1908, other matches in 1908 were played agaisnt England, Great Britain, the Netherlands and Belgium, Sweden lost all five matches. In the same year, Sweden competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics for the first time, Sweden, however, lost a game in the Olympics against the Great Britain 1–12, the biggest loss in the Swedish national teams history. In 1916, Sweden defeated Denmark for the first time, Sweden played in the 1912 Olympics, the 1920 Olympics, and in the 1924 Olympics, where Sweden took the bronze and their first medal ever. The 1938 World Cup was Swedens second qualification for the World Cup, in the first round, they were scheduled to play against Austria, but after Germanys occupation of Austria, the Austrian team could not continue playing in the tournament. Instead, Sweden went straight to the match against Cuba. They beat Cuba 8–0 with both Harry Andersson and Gustav Wetterström scoring hat-tricks, in the semi-final match against Hungary, Sweden lost 1–5. Swedens next match was the match against Brazil. In that game the Swedes lost 2–4, and ended in fourth place for the first, in the first round, Sweden played against Austria. The Austrian team had qualified without their professional players, which was a surprise since the Austrian league had many players who were allowed to play in the tournament. The match was played at White Hart Lane in London and Sweden won 3–0, in the second game, Sweden played against Korea and won 12–0, one of the two largest margin wins Sweden has ever had. In the semi-final Sweden met their archrivals from Denmark beating them 4–2, the final was played at legendary Wembley Stadium in London. The attendance was around 40,000 people which was high for a game in those days
34.
Switzerland national football team
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The Switzerland national football team is the national football team of Switzerland. The team is controlled by the Swiss Football Association, the teams logo, ASF-SFV, represents the Swiss Football Associations initials in Switzerlands official languages, ASF represents both French and Italian, and SFV is German. In Romansh, the association is abbreviated as ASB and its best performances in the World Cup have been reaching the quarter-finals three times, in 1934,1938 and when the country hosted the event in 1954. Switzerland also won silver at the 1924 Olympics, the youth teams have been more successful, winning the 2002 U-17 European Championship and the 2009 U-17 World Cup. Switzerland co-hosted Euro 2008 with Austria, making their appearance in the competition. As with the two appearances, they did not clear the group stages. Switzerland earned the medal at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris. It was beaten 3–0 by Uruguay in the final, the team participated in its first FIFA World Cup in 1934, where it reached the quarter-final before losing to Czechoslovakia. Switzerland again reached the stage in 1938, losing to Hungary. Switzerland hosted the tournament in 1954 and reached the quarter-final for a third time, the Swiss also qualified for the World Cup in 1950,1962 and 1966, losing in the first round on each occasion. After the appointment of English manager Roy Hodgson in 1992, Switzerland rose to its highest ever position in the FIFA World Rankings, at the tournament finals, the team qualified for the second round by beating Romania and drawing with host nation the United States. Switzerland lost 3–0 to Spain in the second round, the team then qualified for its first ever UEFA European Championship. For the finals of UEFA Euro 1996, Hodgson was replaced by the Portuguese Artur Jorge, the team finished bottom of Group A after a draw with England and defeats to the Netherlands and Scotland. Switzerland qualified for the Euro 2004 in Portugal by finishing first in Group 10 of the qualifying, ahead of Russia, after a 0–0 draw against Croatia, they lost 0–3 against England and 1–3 against France to finish last in Group B. Johann Vonlanthen became the youngest scorer ever in the Euro championships when he equalised against France, the 2006 World Cup in Germany was the first World Cup for Switzerland since 1994. After finishing second behind France in qualifying Group 4, they defeated Turkey on the away goals rule in the play-off round 2–0, in the group stage, they played again against France in Stuttgart, a 0–0 draw. After defeating Togo 2–0 in Dortmund and South Korea also 2–0 in Hannover, there, they faced Ukraine in Cologne, with the match having to be decided via a penalty shootout after 120 scoreless minutes were played, Ukraine won 3–0. Switzerland was the team in tournament not to have conceded a goal during regulation time in their matches
35.
Krestovsky Stadium
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The Krestovsky Stadium, also called Zenit Arena, is a football stadium in the western portion of Krestovsky Island in Saint Petersburg, Russia, which is currently under construction. It will host the matches of FC Zenit Saint Petersburg. The stadium was planned to be completed by December 2008, which was changed to late 2011 and it is now proposed that the stadium is scheduled to open in 2017. The stadium will have a capacity of 68,134 people and it will be called Saint Petersburg Stadium during the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup and 2018 FIFA World Cup. The competition between architectural project was won by Kisho Kurokawas The Spaceship, the design of the stadium is a modified and enlarged version of Toyota Stadium in Toyota City, Japan, which was also designed by Kurokawa. The stadium is being built on the location where the former Kirov Stadium used to stand before it was demolished. In January 2009 the The St. Petersburg Times reported that the project was now to be funded by the city government of St Petersburg, City Hall had to step in after Gazprom declined to invest any further money into the stadiums construction. On 25 July 2016 the general contractor, Inzhtransstroy-Spb, issued a statement that the city authorities have failed to pay 1 billion rubles worth of construction work, the next day the contract was terminated. On 1 August there were reports of damage to parts of metal sheathing. At the end of August 2016, new general contractor, Metrostroy, on October 27, the first match was held at the stadium. In a friendly game, the team of construction workers defeated the team of the Metrostroy company 6-2, in early November, a FIFA commission discovered that the retractable playing field was unstable, vibration levels were seven times higher than the accepted level. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko assured that a solution to the problem would be found, russian news outlets in March 2017 reported that at least some of the workers on the project were North Korean slaves. Official website Live webcam of construction at http, //ingtransstroy. ru Updated renders of the stadium after project adjustment Section about the stadium on the official website of Zenit
36.
Deniz Aytekin
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Deniz Aytekin is a German football referee of Turkish origin who is based in Oberasbach. He referees for TSV Altenberg of the Bavarian Football Association and he is a FIFA referee, and is ranked as a UEFA Elite group referee. Aytekin refereed his first Bundesliga match on 27 September 2008 when Hertha BSC played FC Energie Cottbus in Berlin, Energie Cottbus won the game 1–0, and Aytekin gave out four yellow cards, including one to Cottbus goalkeeper Gerhard Tremmel for time-wasting in the 90th minute. Aytekin lives in Oberasbach, Bavaria and is an internet entrepreneur, Profile at dfb. de Profile at worldfootball. net
37.
German Football Association
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The German Football Association is the governing body of football in Germany. A founding member of both FIFA and UEFA, the DFB has jurisdiction for the German football league system and is in charge of the mens and womens national teams, the DFB headquarters are based in Frankfurt am Main. Sole members of the DFB are the German Football League, organising the professional Bundesliga, Bundesliga, along with five regional and 21 state associations, organising the semi-professional and amateur levels. The 21 state associations of the DFB have a number of more than 25,000 clubs with more than 6.8 million members. From 1875 to the mid-1880s, the first kind of football played in Germany was according to rugby rules, later, association-style football teams formed separate clubs, and since 1890, they began to organise on regional and national levels. The DFB was founded on 28 January 1900 in Leipzig by representatives of 86 clubs, the vote held to establish the association was 62,22 in favour. Some delegates present represented more than one club, but may have voted only once, other delegates present did not carry their clubs authority to cast a ballot. The DFB consolidated the number of state-based German regional competitions in play for a single recognized national title for the season 1902/03. The German national team played its first game in 1908, before 1914, the German Empire was much larger than todays Germany, comprising Alsace-Lorraine and the eastern provinces. The borders of the associations were drawn according to suitable railway connections. Also, teams based in Bohemia, then part of Austria-Hungary, were eligible, as they were German Football clubs, thus, a German team from Prague was runner-up in the German championship. On the other hand, clubs of the Danish minority in Northern Schleswig refused to join the DFB and this area after World War I voted to join Denmark. Due to border changes imposed by the Treaty of Versailles, the DFB had to adopt its structure, the Saarland, Danzig, and the Memelland were detached from Germany and East Prussia was cut off from the main part by the Polish Corridor. The role of DFB and its representatives like Felix Linnemann under Nazi Germany was documented in 100 Jahre DFB, on a short general meeting on 9 July 1933 in Berlin, the DFB did so, at least formally. Later, the Hitler salute was made compulsory, Marxists and Jews were expelled, on the pitch, Germany had done well in 1934, but after a 0–2 loss in the 1936 Summer Olympics, with Adolf Hitler attending, the DFB and football fell from grace. Germany had made a bid to host the 1938 World Cup, following the Anschluss in March 1938 that made Austria part of Germany, the Austrian Football Association became part of the German federation. Four Germans represented West Europe in a FIFA friendly on 20 June 1937 in Amsterdam, during the war, Germany played international games until 1942. In the aftermath of World War II, German organisations were disbanded by the allies, FIFA decided in November 1945 to ban the no longer existing DFB from international competition, while the Austrian association was re-founded
38.
French Football Federation
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The French Football Federation is the governing body of association football in France, as well as the overseas departments and the overseas collectivities and also in Monaco. It was formed in 1919 and is based in the capital, the FFF was a founding member of FIFA and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the game of football in France, both professional and amateur. The French Football Federation is a member of UEFA and joined FIFA in 1907 after replacing the USFSA. The Fédération Française de Football was formed on 7 April 1919 following the transformation of the Comité Français Interfédéral into the Fédération Française de Football Association, the USFSA later developed friction with FIFA and the IOC, which led to disorganization and in 1913, became semi-affiliated with the CFI. On 7 April 1919, the CFI transformed themselves into the Fédération Française de Football with Jules Rimet being installed as the federations first president and its legal status is placed under the French Association loi de 1901 jurisdiction. The FFF has been affiliated to FIFA since 1907, when the CFI succeeded the USFSA as Frances representative, two years later after the CFIs transformation, the USFSA officially merged with the federation. On 28 June 2010, the current president, Jean-Pierre Escalettes. On 23 July, Fernand Duchaussoy was installed as the interim president and, on 18 December. On 18 June 2011, following as election, Nöel Le Graët was named as the federations 12th president, to defend the moral and material interests of French football. To maintain all appropriate relations with foreign associations affiliated with FIFA, as well as their sporting organizations, the LFP, however, still operate under the authority of the federation. The federation is responsible for appointing the management of the mens, womens. In 2010, the FFF had 2,107,924 licenses, the federation unveiled its new crest in 2007. The French Football Federation runs numerous competitions, the most famous of which is the annual Coupe de France, the Coupe de France is managed under the authority of the Federal Commission of the Coupe de France, which is directly attached to the Federal Council of the FFF. The federation also governs youth leagues, such as the Championnat National of the under-19s, the FFF also oversee the organization of the Coupe Gambardella and the Coupe Nationale for the under-15 and under-13 club teams. The federation organizes all three divisions of football in France and oversee the Challenge de France, the womens premier cup competition. Located 50 km southwest of Paris in Clairefontaine-en-Yvelines, Clairefontaine is arguably the finest football academy in the world and it has a high reputation of producing some of the most gifted French players including Nicolas Anelka, Louis Saha, William Gallas and national team top scorer Thierry Henry. Registration for new players at an academy begins in October the year before players enroll at the academy when prospective applicants are 12 years of age. Players have until December to register with their club for acceptance into the academy, the first set of trials are carried out by each district within its respective region
39.
Felix Brych
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Felix Brych is a German football referee who is based in Munich. He referees for SV Am Hart München of the Bavarian Football Association and he is a FIFA referee, and is ranked as a UEFA Elite group referee. Brych started refereeing in the Bundesliga in 2004 and was awarded his FIFA badge in 2007, in August 2013 he officiated an international friendly between England and Scotland at Wembley Stadium. On 14 May 2014, Brych refereed the 2014 UEFA Europa League Final between Sevilla and Benfica, the match finished 0–0 after extra time, and went to a penalty shoot-out, which Sevilla won 4–2 in a polemic match. Outside football Brych is a doctor of law, having written his doctorate about sports. Profile at dfb. de Profile at worldfootball. net
40.
Turkish Football Federation
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The Turkish Football Federation, also called the Turkish Football Association, is the governing body of association football in Turkey. It was formed on 23 April 1923, and joined FIFA the same year and it organizes the Turkish national teams, the Turkish football league and the Turkish Cup. The Turkish Cup changed its name to Federation Cup in the 1980–81 season and it is now known as the Ziraat Bank Turkish Cup due to the sponsorship reasons. Turkey had several unsuccessful bids to host the European Championship, Turkey tried a joint bid with 2004-European Champions Greece for UEFA Euro 2008, which failed. Their bid for UEFA Euro 2012 was also unsuccessful, with the going to Poland. The federation also submitted a bid to host UEFA Euro 2016, France beat bids of Turkey and Italy, which had the least votes in first voting round. Turkey had already hosted a Champions League final and the 2009 UEFA Cup final in Istanbul, at the youth-level, they hosted the UEFA European Under-17 Football Championship in 2008, as they already hosted the event back in 1993
41.
Willie Collum
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William Willie Collum is a Scottish football referee. Collum has refereed international matches, the 2008 European Under-19 final and he is also a regular referee of Scottish Premiership matches. Collum officiated his first Scottish Football League match in November 2004, on 11 June 2012 it was announced that Collum had been elevated to FIFA Elite Referee level joining Craig Thomson on the 24-strong list of the world’s leading referees. On 24 October 2010, Collum refereed his first Old Firm match at Celtic Park, on 19 December 2011, Collum was appointed to referee the second Old Firm derby of the season at Celtic Park. Contrary to his previous Old Firm derby match, this one passed without major incidents. He was credited for keeping control of what could have been a dangerous game. He then taught R. E. at St Aidans High School in Wishaw, eventually returning to Cardinal Newman High School as an R. E. teacher in August 2012
42.
Scottish Football Association
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Members of the SFA include clubs in Scotland, affiliated national associations as well as local associations. It was formed in 1873, making it the second oldest national football association in the world and it is not to be confused with the Scottish Football Union, which is the name that the SRU was known by until the 1920s. The Scottish Football Association sits on the International Football Association Board which is responsible for the laws of the game, the SFA is also a member of FIFA and founder member of UEFA. It is based at Hampden Park in Glasgow, in addition, the Scottish Football Museum is located there. Furthermore, Kilmarnock sent a letter stating their willingness to join, one of the most prominent roles of the chief executive is to hire and dismiss Scotland national football team managers. There was also a team, but this was disbanded in 2008. In womens football, there is the full Scotland womens national team, under-19. The Scottish Football Association encourages quality of governance in football clubs through a system of club licence awards, all SFA member clubs are assessed annually in four areas and, if appropriate, awarded a licence at gold, silver, bronze or entry level. As of January 2015, gold-level licences have been awarded to two clubs, Celtic and Hibernian. All clubs in the Scottish Professional Football League are required to be licensed at entry level or above, this has been extended to the Highland Football League and Lowland Football League
Colombia – 
Japan
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Belgium
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Switzerland