1.
Durham, England
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Durham is a historic city and the county town of County Durham in North East England. The city lies on the River Wear, to the west of Sunderland, south of Newcastle upon Tyne, founded over the final resting place of St Cuthbert, its Norman cathedral became a centre of pilgrimage in medieval England. The cathedral and adjacent 11th-century castle were designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986, the castle has been the home of Durham University since 1832. HM Prison Durham is also located close to the city centre, the name Durham comes from the Celtic element dun, signifying a hill fort, and the Old Norse holme, which translates to island. The Lord Bishop of Durham takes a Latin variation of the name in his official signature. The city has been known by a number of names throughout history, the original Nordic Dun Holm was changed to Duresme by the Normans and was known in Latin as Dunelm. The modern form Durham came into use later in the citys history, archeological evidence suggests a history of settlement in the area since roughly 2000 BC. Local legend states that the city was founded in A. D.995 by divine intervention, Aldhun, Bishop of Chester-le-Street and leader of the order, decreed a holy fast of three days, accompanied by prayers to the saint. During the fast, Saint Cuthbert appeared to a monk named Eadmer. After Eadmers revelation, Aldhun found that he was able to move the bier, the legend of the Dun Cow, which is first documented in The Rites of Durham, an anonymous account about the Durham Cathedral, published in 1593, builds on Symeons account. According to this legend, by later that day, the monks came across a milkmaid at Mount Joy. She stated that she was seeking her lost dun cow, which she had last seen at Dun Holm, the monks, realising that this was a sign from the saint, followed her. They settled at a wooded hill-island – a high wooded rock surrounded on three sides by the River Wear, there they erected a shelter for the relics, on the spot where the Durham Cathedral would later stand. Symeon states that a modest wooden building erected there shortly later was the first building in the city, Bishop Aldhun subsequently had a stone church built, which was dedicated in September 998. It no longer remains, having been supplanted by the Norman structure, during the medieval period the city gained spiritual prominence as the final resting place of Saint Cuthbert and Saint Bede the Venerable. The shrine of Saint Cuthbert, situated behind the High Altar of Durham Cathedral, was the most important religious site in England until the martyrdom of St Thomas Becket at Canterbury in 1170, Saint Cuthbert became famous for two reasons. Firstly, the healing powers he had displayed in life continued after his death, with many stories of those visiting the saints shrine being cured of all manner of diseases. This led to him being known as the worker of England
2.
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
3.
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
4.
2007 FIFA Women's World Cup
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Originally, China was to host the 2003 Womens World Cup, but the outbreak of SARS in that country forced that event to be moved to the United States. FIFA immediately granted the 2007 event to China, which means no new host nation was chosen competitively until the voting was held for the 2011 Womens World Cup. The tournament opened with a match in Shanghai, as Germany beat Argentina 11–0 to register the biggest win. The tournament ended with Germany defeating Brazil 2–0 in the final, the Germans became the first national team in FIFA Womens World Cup history to obtain two consecutive titles. The venues selected to host the competition are, Numerous TV stations across the world provide coverage of the tournament, one notable example is the Chinese-language channel CCTV-5 which is available as a free internet feed through TVUnetworks. The best three performing UEFA teams will qualify for the Olympics, originally it was thought that, should England make the top three European teams, they would compete under the United Kingdom banner. However, on 6 September 2007, FIFA issued a press release indicating that England are ineligible to participate in the 2008 Olympics as England does not have its own Olympic Committee. For the determination of the only first through fourth place. If there is a need to make a distinction between teams eliminated in the quarterfinal or between teams eliminated in the group phase these teams meet in a play-off match. In no case will the points or goals count for teams eliminated before the semi-final, Germany and Norway qualified for the Olympics at the World Cup, whereas Denmark and Sweden had to enter a play-off for the third Olympics spot. Sweden won both legs of the playoffs with a total of 7−3 agg. to qualify for the Olympics, the group draw took place on 22 April 2007 in Wuhan after the completion of the qualifying rounds. FIFA automatically seeded the host and defending champions, slotting China and Germany into Group D and Group A, the FIFA Womens World Ranking for March 2007 was used to determine the teams to occupy the other seeded positions, B1 and C1. United States were ranked first, Germany second and Norway third, so the United States and Norway were also seeded. Also, no two teams from the confederation could draw each other, except for those from UEFA. The same four teams were drawn together in Group A in the 2003 FIFA Womens World Cup, on occasion the USA. Also in 2015 The United States and Sweden would meet in the group of death again and this time it was with Nigeria and Australia as group mates. The four teams were paired in the same group in 2003. The following awards were given for the tournament, Marta of Brazil won the Golden Shoe award for scoring seven goals, in total,111 goals were scored by 64 different players, with three of them credited as own goals. com FIFA Technical Report
5.
UEFA Women's Euro 2009
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The 2009 UEFA Womens Championship, or just Womens Euro 2009, was played in Finland between August 23 and September 10,2009. The host was appointed on July 11,2006, in a UEFA Executive Committee meeting in Berlin, the UEFA Womens Championship is a regular tournament involving European national teams from countries affiliated to UEFA, the European governing body, who have qualified for the competition. The competition aims to determine which national team is the best in Europe. The 2009 tournament was won by Germany for a time in ten events. They beat England, appearing in their first final since 1984, the Germans also boasted the tournaments leading goalscorer in Inka Grings. Twelve teams competed in the competition, an increase of 4 teams from 8 teams that played in previous tournaments, after a preliminary round,30 teams competed in a qualifying group stage. Those teams were divided into six groups of five, with teams playing each other on a home-and-away basis, the six group winners advanced to the final tournament. The six runners-up and the four best third-placed teams played a qualification playoff and those 11 teams and the hosts completed the 12-team lineup for the competition. In the opening round of Group A matches, Finland and the Netherlands showed that they would be contenders for qualification beyond the group stage. In the opening match of the tournament goals from Kirsten van de Ven, the evening fixture in the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki saw the host nation Finland begin their campaign with a 1–0 victory over Denmark. Maija Saari scored the first goal of the campaign, her first international goal, in Group B defending World and European Champions Germany set the marker, dispatching fellow contenders Norway 4–0. The champions and favourites to defend their title stuttered early on as they took a 1–0 lead, in the other match in Group B, France began their campaign with a win, recovering from a goal down to beat Iceland 3–1. Group C opened with a surprise, World Cup quarter-finalists England beaten 2–1 by Group C outsiders Italy, England led 1–0 thanks to a Williams penalty just before half-time however goals from Panico and Tuttino gave Italy the victory. England finished the game with ten women after Casey Stoney was dismissed, in Group Cs other match 2003 World Cup finalists Sweden opened their challenge with a comfortable 3–0 win over Russia. Finland continued their form in Group A, following up their 1–0 victory with a 2–1 win against the Netherlands. Kalmari scored twice as the nation moved into the Quarter-Finals as winners of Group A with a match to spare. The win for Finland would prove to be the end for Ukraine, earlier on the Ukrainian team had been beaten by Denmark 2–1, and a result of the Dutch and Danes meeting in the next round of Group games could no longer qualify for the Quarter-Finals. Maiken Pape scored three minutes from time to devastate the debut nation, Group B saw holders Germany progress after another thumping win, this time a 5–1 success against the French
6.
2011 FIFA Women's World Cup
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The 2011 FIFA Womens World Cup was the sixth FIFA Womens World Cup competition, the world championship for womens national association football teams. It was held from 26 June to 17 July 2011 in Germany, Japan won the final against the United States on a penalty shoot-out following a 2–2 draw after extra time and became the first Asian team to win a FIFA World Cup. The matches were played in nine stadiums in nine host cities around the country, sixteen teams were selected for participation via a worldwide qualification tournament that began in 2009. In the first round of the tournament finals, the competed in round-robin groups of four teams for points. These eight teams advanced to the stage, where two rounds of play decided which teams would participate in the final. Six nations, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Peru and Switzerland, the German Football Association announced its hopes to host the tournament on 26 January 2006, following a pledge from German Chancellor Angela Merkel to fully support a potential bid. All six nations officially announced their interest by a 1 March 2007 deadline, the final bidding dossiers had to be handed over before 1 August 2007. Switzerland withdrew on 29 May 2007, stating that Europe is heavily focused on France and Germany, on 27 August 2007, France also withdrew, reportedly in exchange for Germanys support for their bid to host the mens UEFA Euro 2016. Later Australia and Peru voluntarily dropped out of the race as well, leaving only Canada, on 30 October 2007, the FIFA Executive Committee voted to assign the tournament to Germany. Canada was eventually awarded the 2015 Womens World Cup four years later, after the German Football Association expressed its intention to bid for the Womens World Cup,23 German cities applied to host World Cup games. Twelve cities were chosen for the official bidding dossier handed over to FIFA in August 2007, on 30 September 2008, the DFB executive committee decided to use nine stadiums for the tournament, the original candidates Essen, Magdeburg and Bielefeld were not chosen as World Cup venues. The official opening game was held between Germany and Canada at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, the venue of the 2006 mens World Cup Final, however, it was not the first match of the tournament—it was preceded by a match at Rhein-Neckar-Arena in Sinsheim pitting France and Nigeria. The final of the tournament took place at the Commerzbank-Arena in Frankfurt, borussia-Park in Mönchengladbach and Frankfurts Commerzbank-Arena hosted the semi-finals. The third place play-off was held at Rhein-Neckar-Arena, since 2007, five of the stadiums were either newly built or remodeled. Six stadiums will be grounds for German First Bundesliga clubs in the upcoming 2011–12 season. Compared to the 2006 mens World Cup, several venues were chosen. All cities will stage a total of four matches, with the exceptions of Berlin and Mönchengladbach, the total capacity of the nine venues is roughly 330,000. Overall, approximately one million tickets will be available, several of the stadiums are officially referred to simply as FIFA World Cup Stadium, because FIFA prohibits sponsorship of stadiums unless the stadium sponsors are also official tournament sponsors
7.
UEFA Women's Euro 2013
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The 2013 UEFA Womens Championship, commonly referred to as Womens Euro 2013, was the 11th European Championship for womens national football teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament, held in Sweden from 10 to 28 July 2013 and it concluded with Germany, the defending champions, winning their sixth consecutive and eighth overall Womens Euro title after defeating Norway in the final. Sweden were selected as hosts by UEFAs Executive Committee in 2010, the other eleven finalists were decided by a qualifying competition, featuring 44 teams, staged between March 2011 to October 2012. It was the last time the finals featured twelve teams, as from 2017 onwards they will be expanded to sixteen teams. Sweden was awarded the hosting of the tournament on 4 October 2010 at a meeting of the UEFA Executive Committee in Minsk, the only rival host bid came from the Netherlands. Several other European national associations, including Switzerland, Bulgaria and Poland, had shown interest in staging the tournament, Sweden has previously co-hosted the tournament in 1997. A total of 44 teams entered the process to compete for the eleven available places in the final tournament, alongside host nation Sweden. Six teams were eliminated during an eight-team preliminary round staged in Macedonia. On 14 March 201138 teams – the 36 top-ranked nations, matches in these qualifying groups began in September 2011 and concluded a year later. The seven group winners qualified for the final tournament along with the best-ranked runners-up. The remaining six runners-up entered into two-legged play-offs held in October 2012 to determine the final line-up, the following twelve teams participated in the final tournament, The tournament was staged at seven venues in seven different towns with each group being staged at two different venues. At some venues, the capacity was reduced during the championship, the final draw for the tournament group stage took place on 9 November 2012 at the Swedish Exhibition & Congress Centre in Gothenburg. The ceremony was conducted by the UEFA General Secretary Gianni Infantino, with the drawn out by tournament ambassadors Patrik Andersson. As hosts, Sweden were automatically placed in the top-seeded pot, the eleven qualifiers were placed into the three final draw pots according to their UEFA coefficient ranking. It was decreed in advance the groups into which the three top-seeded teams would be placed, twelve referee trios were announced by the UEFA on 19 June 2013. All officials were based in Jönköping, the twelve national teams involved in the tournament were required to register a squad of 23 players by 3 June 2013 at the latest. Only players in these squads were eligible to take part in the tournament, the final match schedule for the tournament was confirmed on 6 December 2012. All twelve finalists began the tournament at the stage, with those not eliminated then advancing to the knockout stage
8.
Captain (association football)
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The team captain is usually identified by the wearing of an armband. The only official responsibility of a captain specified by the Laws of the Game is to participate in the toss prior to kick-off. Contrary to what is said, captains have no special authority under the Laws to challenge a decision by the referee. However, referees may talk to the captain of a side about the general behaviour when necessary. At an award-giving ceremony after a fixture like a cup competition final, any trophy won by a team will be received by the captain who will also be the first one to hoist it. The captain also generally leads the teams out of the room at the start of the match. The captain generally provides a point for the team, if morale is low. Captains may join the manager in deciding the first team for a certain game, in youth or recreational football, the captain often takes on duties, that would, at a higher level, be delegated to the manager. A club captain is usually appointed for a season, if he is unavailable or not selected for a particular game, then the club vice-captain will be appointed to perform a similar role. The match captain is the first player to lift a trophy should the team win one, a good example of this was in the 1999 UEFA Champions League Final when match captain Peter Schmeichel lifted the trophy for Manchester United as club captain Roy Keane was suspended. In the 2012 UEFA Champions League Final, match captain Frank Lampard jointly lifted the trophy for Chelsea with club captain John Terry, a club may appoint two distinct roles, a club captain to represent the players in a public relations role, and correspondent on the pitch. After Neville retired in 2011, regular starter Nemanja Vidić was named as club captain, são Paulos Rogério Ceni is the player who has worn the captains armband the most times. A vice-captain is a player that is expected to captain the side when the captain is not included in the starting eleven, or if, during a game. Examples include Manuel Neuer succeeding Philipp Lahm at Bayern Munich, Marcelo attaining from Sergio Ramos at Real Madrid C. F, gary Cahill being the understudy of John Terry at Chelsea FC and Lionel Messi taking over from Andrés Iniesta at FC Barcelona. Similarly, some clubs also name a 3rd captain to take the role of captain when both the captain and vice-captain are unavailable, during the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, Germany had three captains. Michael Ballack had skippered the team since 2004, including the successful qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup. Lahm ended up becoming the permanent captain of Germany, as Ballack was never called up for the national team
9.
North East England
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North East England is one of the nine regions of England that are classified at the first level of NUTS for statistical purposes. It covers Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear, the region is home to three large conurbations, Teesside, Wearside, and Tyneside, the latter of which is the largest of the three and the eighth most populous conurbation in the United Kingdom. The city of Durham is the county town of County Durham, other large settlements in the region include Darlington, Gateshead, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, South Shields, Stockton-on-Tees and Washington. The region is hilly and sparsely populated in the North and West. The highest point in the region is The Cheviot, in the Cheviot Hills, Peters Church in Monkwearmouth, Sunderland and St. Pauls in Jarrow also hold significant historical value and have a joint bid to become a World Heritage Site. The area has a strong religious past, as can be seen in such as the Lindisfarne Gospels. The work of the 7th-century Cuthbert, Bede and Hilda of Whitby being hugely influential in the church and are still venerated today. Bede is regarded as the greatest Anglo-Saxon scholar and his best known work is The Ecclesiastical History of the English People. This body of work is thought to have been done in honour of Cuthbert, British history changed forever that day and three hundred years of Viking raids, battles and settlement were to persist until William the Conqueror defeated King Harold at Hastings in 1066. The last independent Northumbrian king from 947–8 was Eric Bloodaxe who died in battle at the Battle of Stainmore, Westmorland, after Eric Bloodaxes death, all England was ruled by Eadred the grandson of Alfred the Great and so began the machinery of national government. Today the Viking legacy can still be found in the language and place names of Northeast England, the name Newcastle comes from the new castle built shortly after their conquest in 1080 by Robert Curthose, William the Conquerors eldest son. North East England has a climate with narrower temperature ranges than further south in England. Met Office operates several stations in the region. The stations nearest significant urban areas are Durham, Stockton-on-Tees and Tynemouth, the warmest summers in the region are found in Stockton-on-Tees and the Middlesbrough area with a 1981-2010 July average high of 20.4 °C. The summers on the coastlines are clearly cooler than in the southern and central inland areas. Moving further inland, frosts during winter gets more common due to the higher elevation and these companies are members of the Northeast of England Process Industry Cluster. The early chemical industry in this region was however primarily Tyneside based and associated with the manufacture of soap and glass. The most important chemical activity in the 18th and 19th centuries was the manufacture of alkali to make soap, what came out of the industrial revolution was a period when the Northeast of Englands economy was dominated by iron and steel, coal mining and shipbuilding
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South Africa
Slovenia
Croatia
France
Italy
Belarus
Norway
New Zealand
Cameroon
Brazil
