1.
M4 motorway
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The M4 is a motorway which runs between London and South Wales in the United Kingdom. Major towns and cities along the route include Slough, Reading, Swindon, Bristol, Newport, Cardiff, a new Severn bridge, known as the Second Severn Crossing, was opened in 1996 with the M4 rerouted to use it. The M4 runs close to the A4 from London to Bristol, after crossing the River Severn it follows the A48 through South Wales, using the Brynglas Tunnels at Junction 25a, Newport and terminates just north of Pontarddulais. It is one of three motorways in Wales, the other two, the A48 and M48, branch off it. The area of land along the M4, with its towns, european route E30 includes most of the M4, although it is not signed as such. The Maidenhead bypass opened in 1961 whilst J1-J5 opened in 1965, the stretch from J18 to the west of Newport was opened in 1966, including the Severn Bridge. The Port Talbot by-pass, also built in the 1960s and now part of the M4, was originally the A48 motorway, the English section of the motorway was completed on 22 December 1971 when the 50-mile stretch between Junctions 9 and 15 was opened to traffic. The Welsh section was completed in 1993, when the Briton Ferry motorway bridge opened, the Second Severn Crossing opened in 1996, together with new link motorways on either side of the estuary to divert the M4 over the new crossing. The existing route over the Severn Bridge was redesignated the M48, in June 1999 the section of the third lane between Junctions 2 and 3 was converted to a bus lane, first as a pilot scheme and then permanently in 2001. A lower speed limit was introduced along the bus lane section at the same time, between 2007 and January 2010 the section from Castleton to Coryton was widened to six lanes. The scheme was opened on 25 January 2010 by Ieuan Wyn Jones the Deputy First Minister for Wales. During 2009 the Newport section of the motorway between Junctions 23a and 29 was upgraded with a new concrete central barrier. A similar claim was made for a 30-mile section of road in Scotland close to Aberdeen in September 2009 with refuelling points at Bridge of Don, Ellon and Peterhead. Between 2008 and 2010, Junction 11, near Reading, was remodelled with a new four-lane motorway junction. It also involved the movement of the local Highways Agency and Fire Service offices, and the construction of a footbridge network, a new bus-lane. Sound barriers for nearby areas were also installed. In April 2008, the decision to preserve a rare Vickers machine gun pillbox, the table below shows the timeline for the construction of the motorway on a section by section basis. Tolls are charged in one only, westbound
2.
Reading, Berkshire
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Reading is a large, historically important town in Berkshire, England, of which it is the county town. The 19th century saw the coming of the Great Western Railway, Today Reading is a major commercial centre, with involvement in information technology and insurance, and, despite its proximity to London, has a net inward commuter flow. The first evidence for Reading as a settlement dates from the 8th century, by 1525, Reading was the largest town in Berkshire, and tax returns show that Reading was the 10th largest town in England when measured by taxable wealth. By 1611, it had a population of over 5000 and had grown rich on its trade in cloth, the 18th century saw the beginning of a major iron works in the town and the growth of the brewing trade for which Reading was to become famous. During the 19th century, the town rapidly as a manufacturing centre. It is ranked the UKs top economic area for economic success and wellbeing, according to such as employment, health, income. Reading is also a regional retail centre serving a large area of the Thames Valley. Every year it hosts the Reading Festival, one of Englands biggest music festivals, sporting teams based in Reading include Reading Football Club and the London Irish rugby union team, and over 15,000 runners annually compete in the Reading Half Marathon. In 2015, Reading had an population of 232,662. The town is represented in Parliament by two members, and has been continuously represented there since 1295, for ceremonial purposes the town is in the county of Berkshire and has served as its county town since 1867, previously sharing this status with Abingdon-on-Thames. It is in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway. Reading is 75 miles east of Bristol,25 miles south of Oxford,42 miles west of London,17 miles north of Basingstoke,13 miles south-west of Maidenhead and 20 miles east of Newbury. Reading may date back to the Roman occupation of Britain, possibly as a port for Calleva Atrebatum. However the first clear evidence for Reading as a settlement dates from the 8th century, the name probably comes from the Readingas, an Anglo-Saxon tribe whose name means Readas People in Old English, or less probably the Celtic Rhydd-Inge, meaning Ford over the River. In late 870, an army of Danes invaded the kingdom of Wessex, on 4 January 871, in the first Battle of Reading, King Ethelred and his brother Alfred the Great attempted unsuccessfully to breach the Danes defences. The battle is described in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and that account provides the earliest known record of the existence of Reading. The Danes remained in Reading until late in 871, when they retreated to their quarters in London. After the Battle of Hastings and the Norman conquest of England, William the Conqueror gave land in, in its 1086 Domesday Book listing, the town was explicitly described as a borough
3.
Berkshire
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Berkshire is a county in south east England, west of London. It was recognised as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of Windsor Castle by the Queen in 1957, Berkshire is a county of historic origin and is a home county, a ceremonial county and a non-metropolitan county without a county council. Berkshire County Council was the main county governance from 1889 to 1998 except for the separately administered County Borough of Reading, in 1974, significant alterations were made to the countys administrative boundaries although the traditional boundaries of Berkshire were not changed. The towns of Abingdon, Didcot and Wantage were transferred to Oxfordshire, Slough was gained from Buckinghamshire, since 1998, Berkshire has been governed by the six unitary authorities of Bracknell Forest, Reading, Slough, West Berkshire, Windsor and Maidenhead and Wokingham. It borders the counties of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Greater London, Surrey, according to Asser, it takes its name from a large forest of box trees that was called Bearroc. Berkshire has been the scene of notable battles through its history. Alfred the Greats campaign against the Danes included the Battles of Englefield, Ashdown, Newbury was the site of two English Civil War battles, the First Battle of Newbury in 1643 and the Second Battle of Newbury in 1644. The nearby Donnington Castle was reduced to a ruin in the aftermath of the second battle, another Battle of Reading took place on 9 December 1688. It was the only military action in England during the Glorious Revolution. Reading became the new county town in 1867, taking over from Abingdon, boundary alterations in the early part of the 20th century were minor, with Caversham from Oxfordshire becoming part of the Reading county borough, and cessions in the Oxford area. On 1 April 1974 Berkshires boundaries changed under the Local Government Act 1972, Berkshire took over administration of Slough and Eton and part of the former Eton Rural District from Buckinghamshire. 94 Signal Squadron still keep the Uffington White Horse in their insignia, the original Local Government White Paper would have transferred Henley-on-Thames from Oxfordshire to Berkshire, this proposal did not make it into the Bill as introduced. On 1 April 1998 Berkshire County Council was abolished under a recommendation of the Banham Commission, unlike similar reforms elsewhere at the same time, the non-metropolitan county was not abolished. Berkshire divides into two distinct sections with the boundary lying roughly on a north-south line through the centre of Reading. The eastern section of Berkshire lies largely to the south of the River Thames, in two places the county now includes land to the north of the river. Tributaries of the Thames, including the Loddon and Blackwater, increase the amount of low lying land in the area. Beyond the flood plains, the land rises gently to the county boundaries with Surrey, much of this area is still well wooded, especially around Bracknell and Windsor Great Park. In the west of the county and heading upstream, the Thames veers away to the north of the county boundary, leaving the county behind at the Goring Gap
4.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
5.
Seating capacity
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Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that seats two to a stadium that seats hundreds of thousands of people. The International Fire Code, portions of which have adopted by many jurisdictions, is directed more towards the use of a facility than the construction. It specifies, For areas having fixed seating without dividing arms and it also requires that every public venue submit a detailed site plan to the local fire code official, including details of the means of egress, seating capacity, arrangement of the seating. Once safety considerations have been satisfied, determinations of seating capacity turn on the size of the venue. For sports venues, the decision on maximum seating capacity is determined by several factors, chief among these are the primary sports program and the size of the market area. Seating capacity of venues also plays a role in what media they are able to provide, in contracting to permit performers to use a theatre or other performing space, the seating capacity of the performance facility must be disclosed. Seating capacity may influence the kind of contract to be used, the seating capacity must also be disclosed to the copyright owner in seeking a license for the copyrighted work to be performed in that venue. Venues that may be leased for private functions such as ballrooms and auditoriums generally advertise their seating capacity, seating capacity is also an important consideration in the construction and use of sports venues such as stadiums and arenas. The seating capacity for restaurants is reported as covers, a restaurant that can seat 99 is said to have 99 covers, seating capacity differs from total capacity, which describes the total number of people who can fit in a venue or in a vehicle either sitting or standing. Use of the term public capacity indicates that a venue is allowed to more people than it can actually seat. Again, the total number of people can refer to either the physical space available or limitations set by law
6.
Reading F.C.
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Reading Football Club is a professional association football club based in Reading, Berkshire, England. The team play in the Championship, the tier of English football. The club played at Elm Park for 102 years between 1896 and 1998, in 1998 the club moved to the new Madejski Stadium, which is named after the clubs co-chairman Sir John Madejski. Reading then finished eighth in the 2006–07 Premier League, their first ever season as a top flight club, Reading were formed on 25 December 1871, following a public meeting at the Bridge Street Rooms organised by the future club secretary Joseph Edward Sydenham. The early matches were played at Reading Recreation Ground, and later the club held fixtures at Reading Cricket Ground, Coley Park and Caversham Cricket Ground. The switch to professionalism in 1895 resulted in the need for a ground and, to this end. In 1913, Reading had a tour of Italy, prompting the leading sports newspaper Corriere della Sera to write without doubt. Reading were elected to the Football League Third Division South of the Football League in 1920, Reading lost their place in Division Two in May 1931, and remained in Third Division South until the outbreak of World War II. When League football resumed after the war, Reading quickly came to prominence once again, the sides moment of cup glory came in 1988 when they won the Simod Cup, beating a number of top flight sides en route to their Wembley win over Luton Town. Reading were promoted to the Second Division as champions in 1986 under the management of Ian Branfoot, the appointment of Mark McGhee as player-manager, shortly after the takeover by John Madejski, in 1991 saw Reading move forward. They were crowned champions of the new Division Two in 1994, in 1995, Reading had eased past Tranmere Rovers in the play-off semi-finals and looked to have booked their place in the Premier League only to lose against Bolton Wanderers in the final. Quinn and Goodings contracts were not renewed two years later after Reading had slid into the half of Division One. Their successor, Terry Bullivant, lasted less than one season before being sacked in March 1998, the year 1998 also saw Reading move into the new 24,200 all-seater Madejski Stadium, named after Chairman John Madejski. Tommy Burns had taken over from Terry Bullivant but lasted just 18 months before being replaced by Alan Pardew, the club finished third in 2000–01 qualifying for the play-offs, losing 2–3 in the final against Walsall at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. Reading returned to Division One for 2002–03 after finishing runners-up in Division Two, the following season, they finished fourth in Division One and qualified for the play-offs, where they lost in the semi-final to Wolverhampton Wanderers. Alan Pardew moved to West Ham United the following October and was replaced by Steve Coppell, Reading won the 2005–06 Championship with a league record 106 points, scoring 99 goals and losing only twice. Reading were promoted to English footballs top division for the first time in their history, the 2006–07 season saw Reading make their first appearance in the top flight of English football. Reading defied pre-season predictions of relegation to finish the season in place with 55 points
7.
Richmond F.C.
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Richmond Football Club is a rugby union club from Richmond, London. It is a member of the Rugby Football Union, and is one of the oldest football clubs. It fields teams in mens and womens rugby, with the mens first team recently promoted into the Greene King IPA Championship. In 1878 it hosted the first ever floodlit match and in 1909 played in the match at Twickenham Stadium. Richmond always traditionally played without a number 13 – the outside centre would wear 14, right wing 15, in 1996, the then third division club was bought by financial markets trader and Monaco tax exile Ashley Levett. Levett turned the club into the first professional team in England, and began buying in big names to push the club up the leagues, including Ben Clarke from Bath Rugby, the club outgrew the Richmond Athletic Ground and became tenants at the Madejski Stadium in Reading. But the crowds and revenues from competition meant that Levett was continually financing the club, the professional Richmond club and professional London Scottish F. C. were both merged into London Irish, who moved to the Stoop Memorial Ground before taking up tenancy at Madejski the following year. This period of hesitancy and uncertainty resulted in many of the players leaving the club pre-merger. The amateur club was reformed in 2000, and the club rejoined the leagues as a club at the bottom of the pyramid. After the professional era, hooker Andy Cuthbert remained at the club, however, the club seemingly stalled at that level, continuing to put together winning seasons, but failing to gain promotion in 2005–06 and 2006–07. For the 2007–08 season, the club recruited a number of players to boost Richmonds promotion chances. One of these players was USA international Jon Hartman, Richmond eventually achieved promotion, winning all but one of their League games. However, during summer 2008, London Scottish were boosted financially and subsequently signed Taylor as their head coach, Richmond appointed Geoff Richards to take his place. Following two years in National League Two, Geoff Richards decided not to renew his contract citing differences in opinion between the board and himself on how the club should move forward. In 2009–10 Richmond appointed Oxford University Director of Rugby Steve Hill to take over after fourteen years in charge of the university side. Within two years promotion was achieved and Richmond played in National League 1 until the end of the 2015-16 season when they achieved a promotion into the Green King IPA Championship. Yet another former Richmond Youth, Joe Simpson, winning his first full England cap in 2011 Rugby World Cup, also of London Wasps, was scrum half for the U20s. Simpson was in the England Sevens squad for the first round of the 2007–08 IRB Sevens World Series, Sevens being an important stepping stone for the development of the best youth talent
8.
London Irish
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It competed in the top division of English rugby union between 1996 and 2015-16, after which it was relegated into the Greene King IPA Championship. From October 2016 it will play in the British and Irish Cup in addition to the Championship, the club will continue to play its home games at the Madejski Stadium in Reading, Berkshire until at least 2019. The team plays in green and white colours, with a black away strip, London Irish won its first major trophy in 2002, claiming the Powergen Cup. Irish also reached the final of the 2009 English Premiership, narrowly losing 10–9 to Leicester Tigers at Twickenham Stadium, in the 2007–08 season the team came close to a place in the Heineken Cup Final losing out to Stade Toulousain 15–21 in a tense semi-final encounter at Twickenham Stadium. The clubs mascot is an Irish Wolfhound called Digger, London Irish was the last club to be formed in England by working and student exiles from the home countries, following London Scottish in 1878 and London Welsh in 1885. The first game took place on 1 October 1898 against the former Hammersmith club at Herne Hill Athletic Ground, the team benefited from the early recruitment of vet and Irish international Louis Magee. London Irish manage their own academy, with such as Nick Kennedy, Jonathan Joseph, Topsy Ojo and Delon Armitage having gone on to play for the senior side. London Irish play at the Madejski Stadium, in Reading, Madejski is the home of Reading FC and was opened in August 1998. The ground is a 24,161 all-seater capacity stadium, and was the largest used as a home ground in the premiership before Wasps moved to the Ricoh Arena in 2014. With the exception of the annual London Double Header at Twickenham, the largest crowd for a London Irish match was for a game against London Wasps on 15 March 2008 during the 2007–08 Guinness Premiership. The crowd of 23,790 was also the highest attendance for a regular season Guinness Premiership match until December 2008. The club announced on 15 August 2016 of their intention to return to London, on 10 February 2017 the club confirmed that Brentford had approved their application to use the stadium for rugby. Notes 2016-17 Note, Flags indicate national union as has been defined under WR eligibility rules, players may hold more than one non-WR nationality. Note, Flags indicate national union as has been defined under WR eligibility rules, players may hold more than one non-WR nationality. The kit is supplied by ONeills, the emerald home shirts features main club sponsor Powerday on the front with Etixx and FoodCloud on the right sleeve. On the back of the shirt, main sponsor Powerday is on the collar while Pump Technology is at the top. On the shorts, VGC appear on the right leg, the clubs logo is embossed diagonally across the bottom left in a different shade of emerald. The team play at the location of London Irishs training ground and offices, some players such as Justin Bishop and Kieran Campbell have come through the ranks to play for London Irish
9.
Premiership Rugby
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Premiership Rugby is an English professional rugby union competition. The Premiership consists of clubs, and is the top division of the English rugby union system. Premiership clubs qualify for Europes two main competitions, the European Rugby Champions Cup and the European Rugby Challenge Cup. The team finishing at the bottom of the Premiership each season is relegated to the second-division RFU Championship, the competition has been played since 1987, and has evolved into the current Premiership system. The most recently promoted side is Bristol, who have returned to the top flight after defeating Doncaster in the 2015-16 RFU Championship Play-Off Final, instead, clubs arranged their own friendlies and had traditional games. The only organised tournaments were the County Cups and County Championship — the former played by clubs, in 1972 the RFU sanctioned a national knock-out cup — the R. F. U. Club Competition, the predecessor to todays Anglo-Welsh Cup — followed first by regional merit tables and then, in the mid-1980s, One of the casualties of the move to competitive leagues was the loss of traditional games as the new fixture lists did not allow enough time for them. The league system has evolved since its start in 1987 when the Courage Leagues were formed — a league pyramid with roughly 1000 clubs playing in 108 leagues each with promotion and relegation, in the first season, clubs were expected to arrange the fixtures on mutually convenient dates. The clubs involved were Bath, Bristol, Coventry, Gloucester, Harlequins, Leicester, Moseley, Nottingham, Orrell, Sale, Wasps, the fears that leagues would lead to greater violence on the field proved largely unfounded. By the next season, the RFU allocated fixed Saturdays to the league season, there was no home and away structure to the leagues in those early seasons, as sides played one another only once. Initially two teams, Bath and Leicester, proved to be head and shoulders above the rest in the Courage League, in 1994 the league structure expanded to include a full rota of home and away matches for the first time. The 1994–95 season was the first to be live on Sky Sports. The league turned professional for the 1996–97 season when the first winners were London Wasps, joining Bath, the start of the 2000–01 season brought with it a re-vamping of the season structure. In 2000–2001 an 8-team playoff was introduced, however, the team finishing top of the table at the end of the regular season was still considered English champions. There was an outcry from fans and this proposal was dropped, from the beginning of the 2002–03 season, a new playoff format was introduced to replace the 8-team Championship. The format required the first placed team in the league to play the winner of a match between the second- and third-placed teams, critically, the winner of this game would be recognised as English champions. Although Gloucester won the league by a margin, they then faced a three-week wait until the final. Having lost their momentum the second-placed Wasps beat them easily in the play-offs, the playoff structure was reformatted in the 2005–06 season in which the first placed team would play the fourth placed team in a semi-final
10.
Association football
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Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball. It is played by 250 million players in over 200 countries and dependencies making it the worlds most popular sport, the game is played on a rectangular field with a goal at each end. The object of the game is to score by getting the ball into the opposing goal, players are not allowed to touch the ball with their hands or arms while it is in play, unless they are goalkeepers. Other players mainly use their feet to strike or pass the ball, the team that scores the most goals by the end of the match wins. If the score is level at the end of the game, the Laws of the Game were originally codified in England by The Football Association in 1863. Association football is governed internationally by the International Federation of Association Football, the first written reference to the inflated ball used in the game was in the mid-14th century, Þe heued fro þe body went, Als it were a foteballe. The Online Etymology Dictionary states that the word soccer was split off in 1863, according to Partha Mazumdar, the term soccer originated in England, first appearing in the 1880s as an Oxford -er abbreviation of the word association. Within the English-speaking world, association football is now usually called football in the United Kingdom and mainly soccer in Canada and the United States. People in Australia, Ireland, South Africa and New Zealand use either or both terms, although national associations in Australia and New Zealand now primarily use football for the formal name. According to FIFA, the Chinese competitive game cuju is the earliest form of football for which there is scientific evidence, cuju players could use any part of the body apart from hands and the intent was kicking a ball through an opening into a net. It was remarkably similar to football, though similarities to rugby occurred. During the Han Dynasty, cuju games were standardised and rules were established, phaininda and episkyros were Greek ball games. An image of an episkyros player depicted in low relief on a vase at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens appears on the UEFA European Championship Cup, athenaeus, writing in 228 AD, referenced the Roman ball game harpastum. Phaininda, episkyros and harpastum were played involving hands and violence and they all appear to have resembled rugby football, wrestling and volleyball more than what is recognizable as modern football. As with pre-codified mob football, the antecedent of all football codes. Non-competitive games included kemari in Japan, chuk-guk in Korea and woggabaliri in Australia, Association football in itself does not have a classical history. Notwithstanding any similarities to other games played around the world FIFA have recognised that no historical connection exists with any game played in antiquity outside Europe. The modern rules of football are based on the mid-19th century efforts to standardise the widely varying forms of football played in the public schools of England
11.
EFL Championship
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The English Football League Championship is the highest division of the English Football League and second-highest overall in the English football league system, after the Premier League. Each year, the top finishing teams in the Championship are promoted to the Premier League, the Football League Championship, which was introduced for the 2004–05 season, was previously known as the Football League First Division, and before that was known as Division Two. The winners of the Championship receive the Football League Championship trophy, the Championship is the wealthiest non-top flight football division in the world and the seventh richest division in Europe. With an average attendance for the 2015-16 season of 17,578. Bundesliga as the secondary league in the world. In the 2015–16 season, Burnley were the champions, Middlesbrough were the runners up. At present, Ipswich Town hold the longest tenure in the Championship, the total figures were aided somewhat by the presence of 24 clubs, compared to 20 clubs in both Serie A and Ligue 1, and 18 in the Bundesliga. A major factor to the success comes from television revenue. On 30 September 2009, Coca-Cola announced they would end their deal with The Football League at the end of the 2009–10 season. On 18 July 2013, UK bookmaker Sky Bet announced that signed a 5-year agreement to sponsor the league. Three points are awarded for a win, one for a draw, the teams are ranked in the league table by points gained, then goal difference, then goals scored and then their head-to-head record for that season. At the end of the season, the top two teams and the winner of the Championship play-offs are promoted to the Premier League and the three teams are relegated to Football League One. The Football League Championship play-offs is a competition for the teams finishing the season in third to sixth place with the winner being promoted to the Premier League. In the play-offs, the team plays against the sixth-placed team. The winners of each semi-final then compete in a match with the prize being promotion to the Premier League. From 2009 to 2012, Sky Sports had the rights to broadcast 65 live matches, the BBC had the rights to show 10 first choice live games for the regular season as well as the rights to show a highlight show. The deal is on a contract and is worth £264m that will mostly be paid by Sky. The deal included 75 live league games, all the matches,15 League Cup ties
12.
Rugby union
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Rugby union, known in some parts of the world simply as rugby, is a contact team sport which originated in England in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its most common form, a game is between two teams of 15 players using a ball on a rectangular field with H-shaped goalposts on each try line. Historically an amateur sport, in 1995 restrictions on payments to players were removed, World Rugby, originally the International Rugby Football Board and from 1998 to 2014 the International Rugby Board, has been the governing body for rugby union since 1886. Rugby union spread from the Home Nations of Great Britain and Ireland, early exponents of the sport included Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and France. Countries that have adopted rugby union as their de facto national sport include Fiji, Georgia, Madagascar, New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga, Rugby union is played in over 100 countries across six continents, there are 101 full members and 18 associate members of World Rugby. The Rugby World Cup, first held in 1987, takes place four years with the winner of the tournament receiving the Webb Ellis Cup. The Six Nations Championship in Europe and The Rugby Championship in the Southern Hemisphere are major annual competitions. The origin of football is reputed to be an incident during a game of English school football at Rugby School in 1823. Although the evidence for the story is doubtful, it was immortalised at the school with a plaque unveiled in 1895, despite the doubtful evidence, the Rugby World Cup trophy is named after Webb Ellis. Rugby football stems from the form of game played at Rugby School, Old Rugbeian Albert Pell, a student at Cambridge, is credited with having formed the first football team. During this early period different schools used different rules, with pupils from Rugby. Other important events include the Blackheath Clubs decision to leave the Football Association in 1863, despite the sports full name of rugby union, it is known simply as rugby throughout most of the world. The first rugby football international was played on 27 March 1871 between Scotland and England, by 1881 both Ireland and Wales had representative teams, and in 1883 the first international competition, the Home Nations Championship had begun. 1883 is also the year of the first rugby tournament, the Melrose Sevens. During the early history of union, a time before commercial air travel. The first two notable tours both took place in 1888—the British Isles team touring New Zealand and Australia, followed by the New Zealand team touring Europe, All three teams brought new styles of play, fitness levels and tactics, and were far more successful than critics had expected. After Morgan began singing, the crowd joined in, the first time a national anthem was sung at the start of a sporting event, in 1905 France played England in its first international match
13.
Reading Half Marathon
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The Reading Half Marathon is a half marathon road running event held on the streets of the English town of Reading. The race is held on a Sunday in March or early April of each year. It was first run on 13 March 1983, and has run every year since. The race is open to everyone from fun runner to elite athlete, the 2017 race was held on 19 March, and more than ten thousand runners started. The 2018 race will be held on 18 March, the Reading Half Marathon has had several courses over its life. The inaugural race in 1983, and several subsequent races, used University of Readings Whiteknights Campus for both the start and finish, the 1984 course appears to have been short of the full half marathon distance. In 1992 the course was shortened by approximately 700 metres due to a bomb-scare, the current course starts in Green Park Business Park, which it loops before proceeding eastwards through Whitley Wood to the Whiteknights Campus, which lies between the 4-mile and 5-mile markers. The route then heads north, passing close to the ruins of Reading Abbey, leaving the town centre by Oxford Road and a steep climb up Russell Street, the course then loops around West Reading until the 11-mile marker. The course then heads south to the Madejski Stadium, where it finishes within the stadium. The current male course record is 61 minutes 19 seconds, by Patrick Makau in 2008, the female record is 69 mins 35 seconds, set by Liz Yelling in 2008. The male wheelchair record is 45 minutes 59 seconds, set by David Weir in 2006, while the female record is 65 minutes 17 seconds. Reading Half Marathon official website Reading Half Marathon Forums at realbuzz. com Interactive Map of Reading Half Marathon Video report on the 2011 half-marathon
14.
John Madejski
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Sir John Robert Madejski, OBE, DL is an English businessman, with commercial interests spanning property, broadcast media, hotels, restaurants, publishing and football. He changed his name when his stepfather, a Polish airman during World War II, Madejski is the founder of the magazine which became Auto Trader and chairman of Reading F. C. as well as Chancellor of the University of Reading and Deputy Lieutenant of Berkshire. He is a benefactor to many institutions, especially in academia, education, in the Sunday Times Rich List 2009 ranking of the wealthiest people in the UK he was placed 222nd with an estimated fortune of £250million. Madejski was born Robert John Hurst on 28 April 1941, in Stoke-on-Trent, while still a baby, Hurst was moved back to his mothers home town of Reading and placed in a childrens home. His mother later married a Polish Second World War airman, Zygmunt Madejski, with Hurst eventually coming to live with them, while on holiday in Florida in the mid-1970s Madejski saw a car sales magazine that included pictures of the vehicles on sale. He immediately realised the potential of the idea and with the help of his business partners Paul Gibbons, initially the magazine advertised anything and everything, from houses to cars and even aircraft, but it soon concentrated solely on vehicles, and was renamed Auto Trader. Madejski partnered with the Guardian Media Group in 1982 to give the national exposure. By 1998,52 titles were being published with a circulation of more than 700,000. In 1998 he sold his company Hurst Publishing for £174 million. He owns a number of luxury cars, including two Rolls-Royces, two Bentleys, four Jaguars, an AC Cobra and two Ferraris, including a red 328 which sits inside a glass case in the gym of his home. He owns two personal number plates that read JM1 and 1 JM, Madejski has two daughters, but has never married. He made front-page headlines in UK tabloid newspapers in October 2004 due to his romantic attachment with singer. The pair became friends due to their affiliation with the Conservative Party. On 3 March 2007, Madejski was shown on the BBC programme Match of the Day seated between Cilla and Chris Tarrant watching the Reading F. C. game against Arsenal F. C. at the Emirates Stadium. Madejski became chairman of the Football League club Reading F. C. in 1990 and he said When Robert Maxwell was alive I offered him five pounds a share. When he fell off his boat I got them for 10p, in 2006 he led the Royals to the top tier of English football for the first time in their 135-year history and proposed to expand the stadium to 38,000 seats. Apart from Manchester United, unless youve got a sugar daddy with really deep pockets, the club achieved pre-tax profits of £6. 6m during the tax year ending in June 2007. On 21 January 2012 it was announced that Madejski planned to control of the club by selling a 51% stake to a Russian consortium headed by Anton Zingarevich for £40m
15.
Millennium Madejski Hotel
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The Madejski Stadium /məˈdeɪski/ is a football stadium located in Reading, Berkshire, England. It is the home of Reading Football Club playing in the Football League Championship and it also provides the finish for the Reading Half Marathon. The stadium is named after Readings chairman Sir John Madejski and it is an all-seater bowl stadium with a capacity of 24,161 and is located close to the M4 motorway. It is built on the site of a household waste dump and is surrounded by methane vents. The West Stand contains the Millennium Madejski Hotel, the stadium was opened on 22 August 1998 and replaced Elm Park as Readings home ground. In 1994, the Taylor Report made all-seater stadiums compulsory in the top two divisions, Reading were champions of the Second Division in 1994, and were promoted to the first division. Reading became subject to the Taylor requirements, converting Elm Park to an all-seater stadium was not practical, so a location in Smallmead was identified as the site for a new stadium. The location of a landfill, the site was purchased for £1. The last competitive match at Elm Park took place on 3 May 1998 against Norwich City, Reading began the 1998–99 season at the Madejski Stadium. It was opened on 22 August 1998 when Luton Town were beaten 3–0 with Grant Brebner having the honour of scoring the first ever goal at the stadium. Following the death of academy manager Eamonn Dolan in 2016, Reading announced that the North Stand would now be renamed The Eamonn Dolan Stand. The stadium cost more than £50m to build and the pitch incorporates a system of synthetic fibres interwoven with natural grass, the Eamonn Dolan Stand capacity is said to be 4,946 including 25 spaces for wheelchairs. Although in use for all Reading matches, the stand is normally closed for London Irish, the South Stand has a capacity of 4,350 including 29 wheelchair spaces and is where visiting supporters sit for Reading games. The initial allocation visiting teams receive is 2,327 and is the half of the stand joining onto the East Stand, under the terms of the original lease, London Irish only utilised the South Stand for the most popular matches. However, with the original renegotiation and extension of the lease, London Irish sold season tickets for South Stand between 2008 and 2014-15. Since 2014, with falling attendance at London Irish, the South stands remained closed for rugby, the East Stand has a capacity of 7,286 including 18 spaces for wheelchairs. The stand also contains the video screen which is located in the corner adjoining the South Stand. The stand was open for all London Irish fixtures only until the end of the 2015-16 season, the West Stand, the stadiums main stand, has a capacity of 7,579 including 15 wheelchair spaces and contains a lower and an upper tier
16.
Elm Park (stadium)
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Elm Park was a football stadium in the West Reading district of Reading, Berkshire, England. The stadium was the home of Reading Football Club from 1896 to 1998, in 1998 they moved to the new Madejski Stadium. In 1889, Reading were unable to continue playing at Coley Park as W B Monck no longer allowed due to rowdyism the rougher elements. With club membership exceeding 300 by the time the club went professional in 1895, a meeting the following year determined that funding would be difficult. £20 was donated by J C Fidler, on the proviso that no liquors were to be sold on site, the rest of the cost was financed through donations by wealthy supporters, as well as one large individual donation. A former gravel pit in West Reading was identified as the site, the first game at Elm Park was held on 5 September 1896 between Reading and A Roston Bourkes XI. The visitors were a team from Holloway College and thus not registered with the Football Association. Reading were later fined £5 and suspended for playing against an unregistered team, the away team was named after Arthur Roston Bourke, honorary secretary of the Referees Association. The match was abandoned due to weather, Reading were leading 7–1 when the match ended. £44 was taken on the gate, with an attendance of approximately 2,500, in 1908, the clubs annual general meeting proposed moving to a new ground near Reading railway station. As a result of Readings relegation to Division Four after the 1982–83 season, the teams merger and closure of the stadium was subsequently averted, and the following season saw Readings promotion back to Division Three under the guidance of Ian Branfoot. In 1994, the Taylor Report made all-seater stadiums compulsory in the top two divisions, Reading were champions of the second division in 1994, and were promoted to the first division. Reading became subject to the Taylor requirements, though converting Elm Park to a stadium would have been impractical. Instead, a location in Smallmead was identified as the site for a new stadium, the former council landfill site was bought for £1, with further conditions that the development of the stadium would include part-funding of the A33 relief road. Expansion of the home would also allow alternative commercial ventures. The last competitive match at Elm Park took place on 3 May 1998 against Norwich City, Reading began the 1998–99 season at the Madejski Stadium. Elm Park featured four stands, North South West East The north and south stands were covered, the east stand was reserved for away supporters, as was a small section of the north stand. In 1920, the seats in the stand were upholstered
17.
Premier League
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The Premier League is an English professional league for mens association football clubs. At the top of the English football league system, it is the primary football competition. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football League, Welsh clubs that compete in the English football league system can also qualify. The Premier League is a corporation in which the 20 member clubs act as shareholders, seasons run from August to May. Teams play 38 matches each, totalling 380 matches in the season, most games are played on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, others during weekday evenings. It is colloquially known as the Premiership and outside the UK it is referred to as the English Premier League. The deal was worth £1 billion a year domestically as of 2013–14, with BSkyB, the league generates €2.2 billion per year in domestic and international television rights. In 2014/15, teams were apportioned revenues of £1.6 billion, the Premier League is the most-watched sports league in the world, broadcast in 212 territories to 643 million homes and a potential TV audience of 4.7 billion people. In the 2014–15 season, the average Premier League match attendance exceeded 36,000, most stadium occupancies are near capacity. The Premier League ranks third in the UEFA coefficients of leagues based on performances in European competitions over the past five seasons. While 47 clubs have competed since the inception of the Premier League in 1992, only six have won the title, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City, Blackburn Rovers, the current champions are Leicester City, who won the title in 2015–16. Despite significant European success in the 1970s and early 1980s, the late 80s marked a low point for English football, the 1988 negotiations were the first signs of a breakaway league, ten clubs threatened to leave and form a super league, but were eventually persuaded to stay. As stadiums improved and match attendance and revenues rose, the top teams again considered leaving the Football League in order to capitalise on the influx of money into the sport. At the close of the 1991 season, a proposal was tabled for the establishment of a new league that would bring money into the game overall. The Founder Members Agreement, signed on 17 July 1991 by the games top-flight clubs, the argument given at the time was that the extra income would allow English clubs to compete with teams across Europe. The managing director of London Weekend Television, Greg Dyke, met with the representatives of the big five clubs in England in 1990. The meeting was to pave the way for an away from The Football League. The FA did not enjoy a relationship with the Football League at the time
18.
Football League First Division
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The Football League First Division is a former division of the Football League. Between 1888 and 1992 it was the division in the English football league system. Following the creation of the FA Premier League it was a second-level division, in 2004 it was rebranded as the Football League Championship. The Football League was founded in 1888 by Aston Villa director William McGregor and it originally consisted of a single division of 12 clubs, known as The Football League. When the League admitted additional members from the rival Football Alliance in 1892, for the next 100 years, the First Division was the top professional league in English football. Then, in 1992 the 22 clubs making up the First Division elected to resign from the Football League, the Football League was consequently re-organised, with the Second, Third and Fourth Divisions now renamed the First, Second and Third respectively. Thus, the First Division, while still the top level of the Football League, the First Division was renamed as the Football League Championship prior to the start of the 2004–05 season, as part of a league-wide rebrand. Liverpool were the most frequent winners of the First Division when it was the top flight of English football, winning it a total of 18 times. After the creation of the Premier League, the new Division One title was won more than once by one club, Sunderland. The First Division initially consisted of 12 founder clubs, since then it has undergone a series of expansions as football became more popular, as of the 1975–76 season players had to make 14 appearances for their club during the season in order to qualify for a winners medal. See List of English football champions, see List of winners of English Football League Championship and predecessors
19.
A33 road
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The A33 is a major road in England, situated in the counties of Berkshire and Hampshire. The road currently runs in three disjoint sections, a two-year redevelopment scheme ran from early 2008 until late 2010, widening the northern section of the dual carriageway and significantly expanding and improving the motorway junction. The Mereoak Roundabout south of the motorway was replaced two separate junctions with traffic lights. The section south of the M4 is dual carriageway up to the county boundary with Hampshire, the second section of the A33 starts near Popham, southwest of Basingstoke at a junction with the A30. The road from here to Winchester is a mix of single and dual carriageway. The route runs through much of the borough of Basingstoke and Deane, at Kings Worthy, the road diverts onto part of the original Winchester Bypass, constructed in the late 1930s, up to the A34. The third section of A33 starts at the Chilworth Roundabout, a junction with the M3 and A27, and runs south into the centre of Southampton and further south to Ocean Village. It then turns west & into dual carriageway at a roundabout near the Isle of Wight ferry terminal, past the docks & through Town Quay to run along West Quay Road, continuing past Leisure World & Ikea. The A33 then bears left slightly to carry on along the Millbrook Road West dual carriageway to meet the M271 & A35 at Redbridge Flyover and this section of the route became part of the London - Southampton Trunk Road. The road was progressively detrunked as the M3 was extended, the Winchester Bypass was constructed in the mid 1930s. While a significant improvement at the time, as parts of the road were improved around it, it became increasingly ineffective. The bypass was subsequently replaced by the completion of the M3 over Twyford Down, media related to A33 road at Wikimedia Commons A33 route on OpenStreetMap
20.
Norwich City F.C.
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Norwich City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club currently plays in the Championship, the tier of English football. They were first promoted to the top flight in 1972, Norwich have won the League Cup twice, in 1962 and 1985. The club has never won the top flight, but finished third in 1993, the club was founded in 1902. The fans song On the Ball, City is regarded as being the oldest football song in the world which is still in use, the club plays in characteristic yellow and green kits and are nicknamed The Canaries after the history of breeding the birds in the area. They joined the Norfolk & Suffolk League for the 1902–03 season, but following a FA Commission, the club was ousted from the amateur game in 1905, deemed a professional organisation. Later that year Norwich were elected to play in the Southern League and with increasing crowds, they were forced to leave Newmarket Road in 1908, moving to The Nest, a disused chalk pit. During the First World War, with football suspended and facing spiralling debts, the club was officially reformed on 15 February 1919 – a key figure in the events was Charles Frederick Watling, future Lord Mayor of Norwich and the father of future club chairman, Geoffrey Watling. When, in May 1920, the Football League formed a third Division and their first league fixture, against Plymouth Argyle, on 28 August 1920, ended in a 1–1 draw. The club went on to endure a mediocre decade, finishing no higher than eighth, the inaugural match, held on 31 August 1935, against West Ham United, ended in a 4–3 victory to the home team and set a new record attendance of 29,779. The biggest highlight of the four seasons was the visit of King George VI to Carrow Road on 29 October 1938. However, the club was relegated to the Third Division at the end of the season, the league was suspended the following season as a result of the outbreak of the Second World War and did not resume until the 1946–47 season. City finished this and the season in 21st place, the poor results forcing the club to apply for re-election to the league. The 1958–59 season saw Norwich reach the semi-final of the FA Cup as a Third Division side, in the 1959–60 season, Norwich were promoted to the Second Division after finishing second to Southampton, and achieved a fourth-place finish in the 1960–61 season. In 1962 Ron Ashman guided Norwich to their first trophy, defeating Rochdale 4–0 on aggregate in a final to win the League Cup. They made their first appearance at Wembley Stadium in 1973, losing the League Cup final 1–0 to Tottenham Hotspur. Relegation to the Second Division in 1974 came after Saunders had departed and been succeeded by John Bond, a highly successful first season saw promotion back to the First Division and another visit to Wembley, again in the League Cup final, this time losing 1–0 to Aston Villa. Bond departed to Manchester City in the autumn of 1980 and the club were relegated six months later, Norwich had also been the beneficiaries of one of English footballs first million-pound transfers when they sold striker Justin Fashanu to Nottingham Forest in August 1981
21.
Luton Town F.C.
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Luton Town Football Club /ˈluːtən ˈtaʊn/ is a professional association football club based at Kenilworth Road, Luton, Bedfordshire since 1905. Founded in 1885, it is nicknamed the Hatters and affiliated to the Bedfordshire County Football Association and its first-team is contesting the fourth tier of English football, League Two, during the 2016–17 season. The clubs history includes major trophy wins, several financial crises, numerous promotions and relegations, the club was the first in southern England to turn professional, making payments to players as early as 1890 and turning fully professional a year later. It joined the Football League before the 1897–98 season, left in 1900 because of financial problems, Luton reached the First Division in 1955–56 and contested a major final for the first time when playing Nottingham Forest in the 1959 FA Cup Final. The team was relegated from the top division in 1959–60. However, it was promoted back to the top level by 1974–75, Luton Towns most recent successful period began in 1981–82, when the club won the Second Division, and thereby gained promotion to the First. Luton defeated Arsenal 3–2 in the 1988 Football League Cup Final, between 2007 and 2009, financial difficulties caused the club to fall from the second tier of English football to the fifth in successive seasons. The last of these came during the 2008–09 season, when 30 points were docked from Lutons record for various financial irregularities. Luton thereafter spent five seasons in non-League football before winning the Conference Premier in 2013–14, Luton Town Football Club was formed on 11 April 1885, the product of a merger of the two leading local teams, Luton Town Wanderers and Excelsior. Initially based at Excelsiors Dallow Lane ground, the club began making payments to individual players in 1890. The following year, Luton became the first club in southern England to be fully professional, the club was a founder member of the Southern Football League in the 1894–95 season and finished as runners-up in its first two seasons. It then left to form the United League and came second in that leagues inaugural season before joining the Football League for 1897–98. The club continued to enter a team to the United League for two seasons, and won the title in 1897–98. A return to the Southern League was therefore arranged for the 1900–01 season, eight years after arriving at Dunstable Road, Luton moved again, settling at their current ground, Kenilworth Road, in 1905. Captain and left winger Bob Hawkes became Lutons first international player when he was picked to play for England against Ireland on 16 February 1907, a poor 1911–12 season saw Luton relegated to the Southern Leagues Second Division, the club won promotion back two years later. After the First World War broke out, Luton took part in The London Combination during 1915–16, a key player of the period was Ernie Simms, a forward. Simms was invalided back to England after being wounded on the Italian front, however, after Luton finished fourth in the division, the squad was broken up as Simms, Bookman and Mathieson joined South Shields, Port Vale and Exeter City respectively. Luton stayed in the Third Division South until 1936–37, when the team finished top and won promotion to the Second Division, during the early 1950s, one of Lutons greatest sides emerged under manager Dally Duncan
22.
Grant Brebner
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Grant Ian Brebner is a Scottish football player-manager at Australian Victorian Premier League side Richmond SC. Born in Edinburgh, Brebner joined Manchester United as a 16-year-old in 1994 and he was loaned out to Cambridge United and Hibernian before being sold to Reading for £300k in 1998. He then returned to Hibernian on a permanent basis, and made more than 100 appearances in a stint there that included a loan spell with Stockport County. In August 2004, he was transferred to Dundee United, before moving to Australia to play for Melbourne Victory, on leaving school in 1994, Brebner signed for Manchester United as an apprentice, playing in the FA Youth Cup winning side of 1995 and turning professional soon after. FourFourTwo magazine hailed him as the latest big talent to be produced by Manchester Uniteds youth system, after four years in Uniteds youth and reserve teams, Brebner was loaned to Cambridge United, where he scored his first senior goal while making six appearances. A further loan spell was spent back in Edinburgh at Hibernian, Brebner was then transferred permanently to Reading at the start of the 1998–99 season. He was already 21 years old, but had never played a single game for Manchester United. During his time at Reading, he scored 10 goals in 41 league games and he was also responsible for scoring the first ever goal at the Madejski Stadium, but he suffered from homesickness during his time at the club. After just one season with Reading, Brebner returned to Hibernian on a permanent deal, Brebner moved on loan again to Stockport County during the 2000–01 season, but then established himself in the Hibs first team, playing in the 2001 Scottish Cup Final and the UEFA Cup. Brebner scored a hat-trick against future employers Dundee United in a Scottish Cup match in February 2003 and he was latterly club captain at Hibs, and was a senior player in the side with young stars like Kevin Thomson and Scott Brown. Brebner was surprisingly transferred to Dundee United in August 2004, despite having just signed a contract with Hibs. He missed just three matches in his first season with United and scored seven times from 64 appearances in all for United, on 26 May 2006, Brebner was reported by BBC Sport to be attracting interest from Melbourne Victory. He subsequently flew to Australia for talks with the A-League club, Brebner came on as a trialist and scored for Victory with seconds remaining, in the QNI North Queensland Challenge Trophy game versus Central Coast Mariners on 18 June. Securing a 2–2 draw, Brebner then scored the penalty to seal a 4–2 shoot-out win. On Brebners performance, Victory manager Ernie Merrick said, Theres not too much more you can do when youre on trial than come in and win the game, is there. In Victorys second match on 20 June, Brebner completed the full 90 minutes, Brebner completed a successful trial period by netting a 28-yard free-kick as Victory won the trophy with a 6–1 win over the Chinese team in the final, on 24 June. On the back of his impressive displays during his trial, Brebner was signed to a contract with the Melbourne Victory. In his first season, he helped the Victory win the 2006–07 A-League premiership with five rounds remaining and he scored the last of the five goals against Newcastle Jets in round 3 of the 2008–09 season
23.
Technical area
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A technical area in association football is an area which a manager, other coaching personnel, and substitutes are allowed to occupy during a match. The technical area includes the dugout, bench and a marked zone adjacent to the pitch, the first football stadium to feature a dugout was Pittodrie Stadium, home of Aberdeen FC, where dugouts were introduced by trainer Donald Colman in the 1920s. He wanted a place to take notes and observe his players without sacrificing the shelter provided by a grandstand, the defined space of the technical area was established in the notes section of the Laws of the Game by FIFA in 1993. Managers may not cross the line during play, which restricts them from approaching the pitch, in 1999, FIFA put the fourth official in charge of enforcing this rule, although substitutes may warm up along the side of the pitch
24.
2006-07 Reading F.C. season
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The 2006–07 season was Reading Football Clubs first season in the Premier League, and their first season in the top flight of English football. Reading also participated in the League Cup, beating Darlington in the round before losing 4–3 to Liverpool at Anfield. Reading entered the FA Cup at the round stage, defeating Burnley 3-2. After drawing the initial game 1–1 at Old Trafford, Reading lost 2–3 at home in the ten days later. They finished the season in place, collecting 55 points from 38 matches. Readings first ever Premier League game came at home to Middlesbrough, Reading were 2–0 down after 20 minutes after goals from Stewart Downing and Yakubu, but ended up 3−2 winners through goals from Dave Kitson, Steve Sidwell and Leroy Lita. Kitson, however, was injured in a tackle by Chris Riggott. Readings next game was against Aston Villa, after an early lead through Kevin Doyle, Ibrahima Sonko conceded a penalty and was sent off. Juan Pablo Ángel scored the penalty for Villa, and Gareth Barry scored in the 61st minute to seal a win for Villa. The Royals next played Wigan Athletic, Emile Heskey scoring the goal in a 1−0 win for Wigan. In September, Readings first game was against Manchester City, live on Sky Sports at home, Ívar Ingimarsson scored the only goal, despite being knocked unconscious before scoring. The first game against a side promoted with Reading was Sheffield United, Kevin Doyle scored after 16 seconds and in the 25th minute, followed by Seol Ki-hyeon scoring a 25-yard belter. Rob Hulse pulled a back in the 61st minute, but it was not enough for Sheffield United. Readings first cup game came against Darlington, but Reading needed penalties after an exciting 3−3 draw, next up were league runners up Manchester United at the Madejski. Reading ensured it was goalless at half-time and went 1−0 up through a Kevin Doyle penalty after Gary Neville handballed, Cristiano Ronaldo, however, scored a 73rd-minute goal to make it 1−1. In October, Reading played West Ham at Upton Park where a second-minute goal turned out to be the winner, reading–Chelsea hit the headlines as both Chelsea goalkeepers were knocked out in a match where the visitors took a fortuitous 1−0 win. Frank Lampard scored Chelseas goal which took two deflections before going in, the goal was given as an Ívar Ingimarsson own goal. In the same match 2), Robin van Persie and Alexander Hleb scoring, shane Long made his first Premier League start in this match
25.
Queens Park Rangers F.C.
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Queens Park Rangers Football Club is a professional association football club based in White City, London, that plays in the Championship, the second tier of English football. Their honours include winning the League Cup in 1967, as well as finishing top of the tier in 1983 and 2011. QPR were also runners-up of the Football League First Division in 1975–76, Queens Park Rangers were founded in 1886 after the merger of Christchurch Rangers and St. Judes Institute. Owing to their proximity to other west London clubs, QPR maintain long-standing rivalries with other clubs in the area. The most notable of these are Chelsea, Fulham and Brentford, outside London, QPR also traditionally share rivalries with Watford, Luton and Cardiff, although in recent years these fixtures have become less prominent. For the current season see 2015–16 Queens Park Rangers F. C. season The club was formed in 1886, the resulting team was called Queens Park Rangers, because most of the players came from the Queens Park area of north-west London. QPR were promoted as champions of Division 3 South in the 1947–48 season, Dave Mangnall was the manager as the club participated in four seasons of the Second Division, being relegated in 1951–52. Tony Ingham was signed from Leeds United and went on to make the most ever league appearances for QPR, arguably the clubs greatest ever manager, Alec Stock, arrived prior to the start of the 1959–60 season. The 1960–61 season saw QPR achieve their biggest win to date, in time, Stock, together with Jim Gregory who arrived as chairman in the mid-1960s, helped to achieve a total transformation of the club and its surroundings. It is still the major trophy that QPR have won. It was also the first League Cup final to be held at Wembley Stadium, after winning promotion in 1968 to the top flight for the first time in their history, Rangers were relegated after just one season and spent the next four years in Division Two. Terry Venables joined from Spurs at the beginning of the 1969–70 season, during this time, new QPR heroes emerged including Phil Parkes, Don Givens, Dave Thomas and Stan Bowles. These new signings were in addition to home-grown talent such as Dave Clement, Ian Gillard, Mick Leach, after completing their 42-game season, QPR sat at the top of the league, one point ahead of Liverpool who went on to defeat Wolverhampton Wanderers to clinch the title. Wolves were relegated to the Second Division that same season, following Sextons departure in 1977 the club eventually slipped into the Second Division in 1979. In 1980 Terry Venables took over as manager and the club installed a plastic pitch, in 1982 QPR, still playing in the Second Division, reached the FA Cup Final for the only time in the clubs history, facing holders Tottenham Hotspur. Tottenham won 1–0 in a replay, the following season QPR went on to win the Second Division championship and returned to English footballs top division. After a respectable fifth-place finish, and UEFA Cup qualification, the following year, in 1988 the club had a new chairman, Richard Thompson. Who at 24 was the Premier Leagues youngest ever chairman, over the next seven years, various managers came and went from Loftus Road and the club spent many seasons finishing mid table but avoided relegation
26.
England national under-21 football team
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Englands national Under-21 football team, also known as England Under-21s or England U21, is considered to be the feeder team for the England national football team. It is also possible to play for one country at youth level, the U-21 team came into existence, following the realignment of UEFAs youth competitions, in 1976. A goalless draw in a friendly against Wales at Wolves Molineux Stadium was England U21s first result, England U21s do not have a permanent home. They play in stadia dotted all around England, in an attempt to encourage fans in all areas of the country to get behind England. Because of the lower compared to the senior national team. The match was one of the required two ramp up events the stadium hosted in order to gain its safety certificate in time for its full-capacity opening for the 2007 FA Cup Final in May. The original and most successful coach is Dave Sexton, who led the U21s from 1977 to 1990, in this period he combined his duties with managing the top-flight clubs Manchester United and Coventry City. After Coventry he took a position within the FA as their first Technical Director and he handed over U21 responsibilities to England manager Graham Taylors assistant Lawrie McMenemy for three years before resuming control from 1994 to 1996. Peter Taylor took over in 1996 and, although never winning a tournament, Howard Wilkinson took over afterwards, yet could only produce four wins in ten competitive matches and quit after a year and a half in charge. David Platt took charge upon his departure from Nottingham Forest, Platt was U21 boss from 2001 to 2004, but had little success before Taylors return. Taylor left in January 2007, as the national manager Steve McClaren wanted the U21s to have a full-time manager. Taylor, at the time, was combining his duties with his role as Crystal Palace boss, on 1 February 2007, Manchester City manager Stuart Pearce was appointed as head coach on a part-time basis until after the European Championships in the summer of 2007. Nigel Pearson, Newcastle Uniteds assistant manager, agreed to become Pearces assistant and their first match in charge was a 2–2 draw against Spain on 6 February 2007 at Derby Countys Pride Park Stadium. For the match against Italy Nigel Pearson took charge as Stuart Pearce had club commitments, Pearce was dismissed as Manchester City manager on 14 May 2007, before the 2007 European Championships, but on 19 July 2007 he was named full-time U21s coach. He remained in the post until June 2013, when it was announced that his contract would not be renewed, former England international Gareth Southgate was made manager of the under-21 team on 22 August. In September 2016, Southgate was appointed to the position of caretaker manager of the England senior side after the departure of Sam Allardyce. With Southgate overseeing the main team for four games, Aidy Boothroyd, as a European U21 team, England compete for the European Championship, with the finals every odd-numbered year, formerly even-numbered years. There is no Under-21 World Cup, although there is an Under-20 World Cup, for the first six European Under-21 Football Championships, England did well, getting knocked out in the semi-finals on four occasions and winning the competition in 1982 and 1984
27.
Luxembourg national under-21 football team
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The Luxembourg national under-21 football team is the national representative under-21 football team of Luxembourg. It is controlled by the Luxembourg Football Federation, the team is the feeder team to the Luxembourgs national team. The team competes in the biennial European Under-21 Championship, since the establishment of the UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship in 1978 the team has always finished bottom of their qualification group. As long as they are eligible, players can play for Luxembourg at any level, making it possible to play for the U21s, senior side and this has been the case for several senior team players like Billy Bernard, Lars Gerson and Maurice Deville. In their history they have ever won two qualification games. Their first win occurred in their 1986 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship qualification campaign where they defeated Belgium 3–1 and their second victory came in a 2011 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship qualification Group 3 away game against Bosnia and Herzegovina in a 1–0 win. ^A Wins were worth 2 points each until the 1990 tournament, the following players have also been called up to squad the within the last twelve months for UEFA Euro 2013 qualifying games. Luxembourg national football team Luxembourg womens national football team Official site Team profile & squad at UEFA. com
28.
Netherlands national under-21 football team
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The Netherlands national under-21 football team is the national under-21 team of the Netherlands and is controlled by the Royal Dutch Football Association. The team competes in the European Under-21 Championship, held two years. Following the realignment of UEFAs youth competitions in 1976, the Dutch Under-21 team was formed, the team did not have a very good record, failing to qualify for nine of the fifteen tournaments. The team did not enter for the 1978 competition, but since then has reached the semi-finals twice, since the under-21 competition rules insist that players must be 21 or under at the start of a two-year competition, technically it is an U-23 competition. For this reason, the Netherlands record in the preceding U-23 competitions is also shown, the first competitive match was in the Under-23 Challenge, a match which they lost. The team qualified for the last eight of each of the three U-23 tournaments, in 2006 the Netherlands national under-21 football team of coach Foppe de Haan won the 2006 European Under-21 Championship. The following year, Netherlands national under-21 football team successfully defended their title by winning the 2007 European Under-21 Championship in the final against Serbia with 4–1, maceo Rigters was the top scorer of the competition with four goals and Royston Drenthe was the Player of the Tournament. The win meant that the Netherlands qualified for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, the team failed to qualify for the 2009 European Under-21 Championship, after losing out to Switzerland in their final qualifying match. The Netherlands were randomly chosen to play cards Bulgaria for the title in a match in Sofia. 17 April 1968, Bulgaria 3–1 Netherlands, Finished 3rd of 3 in qualification group. Finished 2nd of 3 in qualification group, Finished 2nd of 3 in qualification group. Finished 2nd of 4 in qualification group, Finished 3rd of 4 in qualification group. Finished 5th of 6 in qualification group, Finished 3rd of 6 in qualification group. 2000, Finished 3rd of 4 in finals group, Finished 4th of 5 in qualification group. 2006, Winners 2007, Winners 2009, Did not qualify, Finished 2nd of 5 in qualification group. 2013, Semi Finals 2015, Did not qualify, Finished 2nd of 5 in qualification group. The following players were called up for the match against Portugal on 15 November 2016. Names in italics denote players who have been capped for the Senior team, caps and goals updated as 15 November 2016
29.
Macedonia national under-21 football team
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This team is for Macedonian players aged 21 or under at the start of a two-year European Under-21 Football Championship campaign, so players can be, and often are, up to 23 years old. Also in existence are teams for Under-20s, Under-19s and Under 17s, as long as they are eligible, players can play at any level, making it possible to play for the U21s, senior side and again for the U21s. It is also possible to play for one country at youth level, the Macedonia U21 team was formed following Macedonias independence from SFR Yugoslavia in 1991 and is controlled by the Football Federation of Macedonia. A 7–0 win in a friendly against Estonia played on 31 May 1994 was Macedonia U21s first result. * Macedonias scores are listed first Squad named for the friendly game against Bulgaria on 28 March 2017. Caps. Players that have called up within the past 12 months and are stll eligible for the 2017 European U21 Football Championship Qualifiers. UEFA Under-21 website Contains full results archive The Rec. Sport. Soccer Statistics Foundation Contains full record of U-21/U-23 Championships
30.
Norway national under-21 football team
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The team has reached the European Championship finals twice, in 1998 and 2013, winning bronze medals on both occasions. The following players were called up for the friendlies against Portugal and Russia on 24 March 2017 and 28 March 2017, statistics correct as of 28 March 2017, after the match against Russia. * Players in bold have played at least one international match for Norways senior national team. The following players still eligible for the U21 team have called up since January 2016. com
31.
England national football B team
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England B is a secondary football team run occasionally as support for the England national football team. At times they have played other nations full teams, they have played matches against B teams from other football associations. Since the teams first use in 1947, there have been 54 official and 3 unofficial B team matches and it has been inactive since May 2007. Walter Winterbottom first proposed B team matches as a way of bringing players through into the national side and he organised the first recorded game held under the name of England B, which was played in Geneva on 21 February 1947 against Switzerland B team. The games proved useful as an introduction to the national team, the frequency of the games depends almost entirely upon the head coach of the England squad. For example, there were no B team internationals under Sir Alf Ramsey or Don Revie, ron Greenwood reintroduced them and Bobby Robson used them regularly - there were nine B team internationals in 1989 and 1990. This period saw the likes of Paul Gascoigne enter the England team via the B squad, graham Taylor continued Robsons practice of holding regular B team matches. Terry Venables held two in 1994, but a four-year hiatus followed, glen Hoddle also arranged two B team matches, as part of his build up to the 1998 FIFA World Cup, with a further gap until 2006. England lost 2-1, with a goal from Jermaine Jenas, the squad included a recovering Michael Owen, who captained the side, as well as seven uncapped players, five of whom have since gone on to receive full international caps. There have been no B team matches since May 2007, including in the whole of Fabio Capellos time as England coach, the aim of games has typically been to introduce younger or more inexperienced players into the national team set up, without giving them a full cap. Attendances at matches and opponents have varied widely, with matches against first teams, Olympics teams, youth teams, the most recent game against Albania had an attendance of 22,500 at Turf Moor. The matches have often struggled to interest fans, however, with games during the 1980s and 1990s attracting as few as 4,000 fans. The highest attendance at home for the B team was 43,068 at St James Park, Newcastle, players have also sometimes expressed a dislike for the B team. This boycott, however, ended Suttons chances of playing for the full national team again. Furthermore, Matt Le Tissier, who scored a hat-trick for the England B team against Russia B in that match, in 2006, the England B team game was seen as being useful for giving a glimpse of potential future England players. In particular, it proved useful for Aaron Lennon and Peter Crouch to stake their claims for places in the 2006 FIFA World Cup squad, furthermore, it provided match practice for Michael Owen and Sol Campbell, who were both returning from injury. Overall,12 players from the 2006 B team squad eventually made it to the final World Cup squad. However, a picked up in the game prevented goalkeeper Robert Green from playing at the World Cup
32.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
33.
Belarus national football team
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Belarus national football team represents Belarus in association football and is controlled by the Football Federation of Belarus, the governing body for football in Belarus. Belarus home ground is Borisov Arena in Borisov, Belarus has not yet qualified for a FIFA World Cup or UEFA European Championship. Since March 2017 the team is coached by Igor Kriushenko, after the split of Soviet Union, Belarus played their first match against Lithuania on July 20,1992. Before that, some Belarusian players played for the USSR national football team, the first FIFA-recognized international was a friendly against Ukraine on October 28,1992 and their first win came in a match against Luxembourg on October 12,1994. Belarus have never qualified for either the FIFA World Cup, or the UEFA European Championship and their Euro 2004 qualifying campaign was very unsuccessful as Belarus lost 7 of their 8 games. Around the same time a change occurred and a number of players from the U-21 team joined the senior national team. With each subsequent head coach the team improved their attacking skills, as a result, in each subsequent qualifying tournament starting with the 2006 World Cup Belarus scored more goals than in previous campaigns. However, problems in defense and a lot of missed goals prevented them from finishing higher than 4th in the group, belarusians achieved some success in minor tournaments. In 2002 the team beat out Russia and Ukraine to win the LG Cup, in 2004 and 2008, they won the 12th and 14th editions of Malta International Football Tournament respectively. The first with its Olympic Squad and the later with the first team, the team plays vast majority of its home matches at the 40,000 Dinamo Stadium in Minsk. In late 2012 Dinamo Stadium was closed for renovation and the team started alternating between different home venues, Central Stadion in Gomel, Borisov City Stadium and Torpedo Stadium in Zhodino, since 2014 Belarus moved to the newly opened Borisov Arena. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s Belarus played home games in all white, all green uniform or green jerseys/white shorts were used as away kits. Since qualifying campaign for UEFA Euro 2004 Belarus changed their colors to red jerseys and green shorts. In 2011 home colors were changed to all red, in August 2016, the Football Association announced that the teams nickname would be the White Wings. The name was influenced by the book The Land Beneath White Wings by famous Belarusian writer Uladzimir Karatkevich, caps and goals are correct as of 28 March 2017, after the game against Macedonia. The following players have also called up to the Belarus squad during last 12 months. Currently active players are listed in bold. by Fan Site of the Belarus National Team
34.
Australia national soccer team
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The Australian national soccer team represents Australia in international mens soccer. The team has represented Australia at the FIFA World Cup tournament on four occasions, the team has also represented Australia at the FIFA Confederations Cup three times. The first Australia national team was constituted in 1922 for a tour of New Zealand, during the tour, Australia suffered two defeats and scraped a draw. For the next 36 years, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa became regular opponents in tour matches, during that period, Australia also competed against Canada and India during their tours of Australia in 1924 and 1938 respectively. Australia recorded their worst ever defeat on 30 June 1951 as they lost 17–0 in a match to a touring England side, Australia had a rare opportunity to compete on the worlds stage during the teams very first major international tournament as hosts of the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. However, an inexperienced squad proved to be reason for the disappointing performance. With the advent of air travel, Australia began to diversify its range of opponents. However, its isolation continued to play a role in its destiny for the next 30 years. It would prove to be the appearance for the Australian team until the World Cup tournament returned to Germany more than three decades later in 2006. The teams previously poor record in World Cup competition was not reflected in their performances against strong European. In 1988, Australia defeated reigning world champions Argentina 4–1 in the Australian Bicentennial Gold Cup, in 1997, Australia drew with reigning world champions Brazil 0–0 in the group stage and then defeated Uruguay 1–0 in the semi-finals to reach the 1997 FIFA Confederations Cup Final. Many commentators and fans, most notably soccer broadcaster and former Australian captain Johnny Warren, on 13 March, the AFC executive committee made a unanimous decision to invite Australia to join the AFC. After the OFC executive committee unanimously endorsed Australias proposed move, FIFA approved the move on 30 June 2005. Australia joined Asia, with the taking effect on 1 January 2006, though until then. After a successful campaign, the team took the first steps towards qualification for the 2006 World Cup, after coach Frank Farina stood down from the position after Australias dismal performance at the 2005 Confederations Cup, Guus Hiddink was announced as the new national coach. Australia, ranked 49th, would then have to play the 18th ranked Uruguay in a rematch of the 2001 qualification play-off for a spot in the 2006 World Cup. The second leg of the qualifying play-off was played in front of a crowd of 82,698 at Stadium Australia, Australia led Uruguay 1–0 after 90 minutes following a goal by Mark Bresciano in the first half. The aggregate was tied, and extra time was played, neither team scored after two periods of extra time, bringing the game to a penalty shootout
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Luxembourg
Netherlands
Macedonia
Norway
Moldova
England B
Belarus
Australia
Jamaica
Oman
Narbonne
Cook Islands
