Spanish Football Changes At Barcelona Fc

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After a tough football season 2007-2008, finishing in the third place of “La Liga”, losing to the Manchester United at the UEFA Champions League semifinals and a after a 4-1 drubbing by their arch-rivals Real Madrid, big changes have been announced at the Barcelona FC.

Just a day after the Real Madrid defeat, on May 8 the president of Barcelona Joan Laporta announced the first change: the Dutch Frank Rijkaard, head coach of the club since 2003, would be dismissed a year before ending his contract, however, Laporta praised Rijkaard for his achievements with the team and said that former Bara player and Barcelona B coach Josep Guardiola would be taking his place.

While Rijkaard was in charge, the club won the UEFA Champions League title in the 2005-06 season, the La Liga Championship in the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons and the Supercopa de Espaa in 2005 and 2006.

Besides Rijkaard dismiss, there will be many changes in the current team squad. Among the speculations that have wonder around since the beginnings of May, it has been mentioned that the Barcelona football team is going to be revamped. The list of players that would be leaving the club is headed for the Brazilian Ronaldinho, who was in the sight of the AC Milan though the general manager Ariedo Braido has said recently that they would rather the striker Samuel Eto’s, who’s also set to leave Bara as well as the Portuguese-Brazilian Deco.

The French Lilian Thuram and the Brazilian Edmilson would also finish their days with the team because their contracts end this season and they’re not going to be renewed. Brazilian Sylvinho’s contract also ends next June 30, but it’s not clear yet if he will sing again with the club. The Spaniards Santiago Ezquerro and Oleguer Presas and the Icelander Eidur Gudjohsen are also on the list of players that could leave the team.

As well, Barcelona intends to transfer the Mexican Rafael Marquez, who didn’t play much in the season and could be part of the Atletico Madrid; the Italian Gianluca Zambrota could be transferred to Milan and the Frenchman Thierry Henry could be transferred too, though his contract with Barcelona is for three more years and the team could be forced to keep him in the squad.

On the other hand, among the names that have been mentioned to enter the team, coach Gladiola’s first signing was the Malian Seydou Keita, who signed a four years contract with the club on Monday May 26. Barcelona paid 14 million buy-out clause to Sevilla FC for Keita.

The second confirmed signing occurred last Tuesday May 27 with Gerard Piqu, Manchester United’s center back, who expressed being very pleased to be back at Bara as it was his boy-hood club since 1997 until 2004. Piqu signed a four years contract with a buy-out clause of 50 million. That same day the club made Villareal a first offer to buy the Uruguayan Martn Cceres but it was considered not acceptable and was rejected, though Villareal is willing to negotiate, according to the president of the team Fernando Roig. The Arsenal player Byelorussian Alexander Hleb was also contacted by Barcelona and an offer was made, but Hleb is considering his options as this is not the only offer he has received for the next football season.

Amongst other players that may be in the Catalonian team’s sight, although they haven’t been confirmed yet, there are Mallorca’s striker Dani Giza, who left Barcelona in 2003 and has expressed recently that he’s eager to return, Daniel Alves from Sevilla and Valencia’s left-handed midfielder Daniel Silva. As well Guardiola may be interested in the Brazilian striker Juan of the AS Roma, according to the Italian newspaper La Gazetta dello Sport.

Spanish Football Academies Preparing For International Football Training

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Spanish football academies have a very unique style of training that focuses on technical skills and speed rather than sheer strength and endurance.

For smaller football players who have a lot of speed, a Spanish international football academy might be perfect for you. Here’s what to expect from Spanish football training.

Football academy training: speed vs. Strength

For football academies in Spain, precision and speed are a lot more important than power. For technical players whose greatest strengths are their speed and ball control, not their size, Spain football academies are the perfect place to hone their skills.

Unlike British football, which demands a strong upper body and a larger size because it’s so physical, Spanish football is all about speed and precision. (Take a look at the Spanish national team. Many of the players are small, around 165-170 lbs.)

Spanish football academy focus: team tactics

Training in Spain is very team-oriented and tactical. It’s important for players to be aware of their surroundings and know where teammates are on the field. The Spanish football style focuses more on short, precise passes to your teammates rather than long hopeful passes into space down the field.

Being able to control the ball, and pass fast is crucial in Spain. If you don’t have good control and can’t pass well, the opposition will be on top of you every time, and you won’t be able to adapt well.

Spanish football academy focus: technical excellence

Spanish football has a very technical focus: being able to control the ball perfectly, pass perfectly, and to shoot as well as possible. Spanish football academies focus on good control of the ball, and using both feet equally well.

Movements have to be quick, and players have to learn how to move the ball fast. In Spanish football, the ball is your friend. Players learn how to take care of the way that they strike the ball!

The most important thing: love of the game

For players considering a Spanish international football academy, one thing is most important: a love of the game. According to Nacho Mallo, the Head Coordinator at EduKick Madrid, players with a passion for football are the ones who are going to improve the most.

“All that passion they have, they’ll find a way to express it here,” Mallo said. “We care about all the technical things, so it’s a good place for anyone who’s a more technical player. They will enjoy Spanish football.”

Are you a player who’s all about speed and precision? Then training at a Spanish international football academy could be just right for you.

Wheelchair users call for better football access

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Going to the football is a weekly pass time for the more hardcore football fans. It can prove to be an expensive hobby but one which real football fans wouldn’t miss out on. A football clubs grounds are a busy place on a match day and people with disabilities can find it difficult to get the right level of access that they need.

Disability campaigners are looking to have improvements made by the SPL to wheelchair access facilities at football grounds. All Scottish Premier League footbal clubs meet the minimum legal standard of accessiblity but campaigners say that they are missing out on the chance of enticing new fans to come to games due to the current condition of facilities.

Campaigners accept that football clubs have made progress in recent years in improving access but are still critical that a lot more needs to be done. The chief executive of Capability Scotland had this to say on the matter: -It appears that the amount of accessible seating at football grounds does not currently reflect the needs of Scotland’s 100,000 registered wheelchair users. Improving accessibility for disabled people is good news for all fans who may experience mobility problems at some stage in their life.-

Campaigners are looking for extra wheelchair seats to be made available in sheltered areas of the grounds. Disabled football fans would also like to see food outlets become more wheelchair friendly. The number of disabled parking spaces is another aspect that has been deemed as insufficient in many cases.

SPL clubs are said to be conducting a review of the disabled access to their facilities in order to accommodate as many fans as possible.

For more information on disability issues or to buy a disabled vehicle visit Allied Mobility.com

Beating The Market – How To Win On Football Betting

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Value and fair pricing

The are many factors which have to be taken into consideration when placing a bet on a football event, no matter if fixed odds, Asian handicap, over/under or any other bet.

The general question you should ask yourself before placing a bet should be: What about the odds?

Odds are without any doubt the most important and deciding factor about your football betting results, no matter if you are betting on pro football picks, basketball, horseracing or anything else. It’s a proven fact of life that every event to happen has a certain chance of occurring.
Getting value on a simple coin flip
As an easy example we can start with a traditional coin-throw:
Throwing a coin, the chance for one side to drop on top is exactly 50% as there are only two sides of the coin. Given a huge number of throws, the result will get closer to a 50/50 situation.

Going on about this example, we start with the following: What’s the fair price for a coin-throw? Exactly, odds 2.00.
By dividing 1 / 0.5 (for 50%), we get a fair price of 2.00 for this situation. As a matter of fact, we should not bet in a coin-throw for a lower price than 2.00, as this would create negative value for our side. We would lose on long-term for sure. If you find somebody who offers a coin throw to you providing a price of 2.10 for example, the bet get valuable for you. The price offered in comparison to the real probability for a win (still 50%) is too high by 5% (2.10 / 2.00) – that’s what we call value. By staking on this valued price, you will end up achieving a return of investment of 5% in long-term.

Finding value on a football game
What has a coin throw to do about football betting? Probably much more than you initially thought. The situation given in a football game is actually pretty similar to this coin throw. Every team has a certain chance to win / not to lose / to lose (1 X 2) and you will find odds for every of this events.
Your job should be from now to estimate the probability for a team to win and compare it to the prices offered. By creating your own fair odds (1 / % to win), you will be able to determine whether to take a bet or to pass.

To enhance your winning chances and only end up in a Win / Lose situation (excluding the draw), I would advice you to focus on the Asian handicap market.

Asian handicaps
Football betting on Asian handicaps is (as the name indicates) very popular in the Asian areas, although getting more and more popular in the European market as well. In the world of Asian handicap, every team gets an advantage / disadvantage over the opponent. Due to this handicap, the price range is usually between 1.75 and 2.25.
Bookmaker odds on Barcalona vs. Real Madrid

An example of Asian handicap price offered: Barcelona hosts Real Madrid in La Liga and you are able to find a half-ball handicap. Pricing looks like the following:

Barcelona 2.00 | 0: | 2.00 Real Madrid (Asian handicap -0.50 on Barcalona and +0.50 on Real Madrid)

(This example excludes the bookmakers’ margin; therefore both prices are 2.00, just to make this example easier to understand.)

According to the bookmaker, Barcelona has 50% to win this game (1 / 2.00 = 0.5). For getting the probability reflected by the odds, just divide 1 through the odds offered and you will get your percentage in a decimal number.
At the same time, this means Real Madrid has 50% not to lose (or to win / draw) in this fixture.
Set your estimations and calculate the value

After checking all news and stats about this bet, you have to create your own estimations now. By short, this means, how probable is the home win, a draw, or an away win. At the beginning, this is for sure quite a hard task, but it will get easier after a couple of months / years of experience.
For our example, we now take the following numbers:

Home win: 45%
Draw: 30%
Away win: 25%

Now the odds check:
Barcelona to win priced at 2.00 – our probability and our price: 45% & 2.22
Real Madrid not to lose priced at 2.00 – our probability and our price: 55% & 1.82

Assuming your estimation is correct or at least close to reality, the price you can get on Real Madrid not to lose is definitely too high. This bet’s fair price according to your own estimation is 1.82 but you can find 2.00 on the market. This creates a value of 10% (2.00 / 1.82) and it’s a valuable bet for you.

By creating estimations and numbers for games, you will get an edge over the market and find valuable bets. Usually, underdogs are quite underrated by the market, as the majority of people will tend to back the so-called big guns without thinking about their winning chances compared to the odds offered.

Important factors for football betting
This should be your first step to football betting on a professional level. Still of course there are many other factors which have to be taken into consideration generally before deciding to place a bet or not. Here is a short list of some of the most important facts about deciding to place a bet:

1. How much value does the price offered by the bookmaker include?

2. How big is your chance not to lose a bet?

3. Will the price rise before kick-off / how probable is it that the majority of the people will continue to bet on the big favourite?

1. How much value: Generally spoken, I would advice you not to take bets including lower than 7% value. 7% value means you have only a couple of points in your estimation left for being wrong. By taking bets lower than 7% value included, you risk quite a lot as you assume your estimation is a 100% correct – which will never be the case.

2. Chance not to lose: I would advice you not to take bets with a lower chance of not losing than 60% or not winning of 50%. This value theory may still work, but your risk increase while your hit rate will decrease by taking for example 10.00 priced value bets.

3. Rising prices: A rule I quite often follow is to wait just before kick-off when placing a bet on a big outsider. Usually the market moves towards the big favourite and you might be able to grab 5-10% higher odds than to the early market.

Liverpool Football News

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If you are a football buff, and Liverpool is one of your favourite clubs, then Liverpool football news is something you need to be constantly updating. With matches occurring at odd times, it is not always easy to keep one updated with the latest in Liverpool football news. For this very purpose, many sites have come up which offer the latest football news and the entire scoop on what is going on in the football world.
Liverpool, the legendary football club, is among the finest and most iconic clubs when it comes to the world of football. Shooting to fame in the 80s, their best years, Liverpool has remained among the top four clubs in the premiership league since its installation. In English football, Liverpool remains the only club with the maximum number of major trophies.
Unbeatable between the 70s and 90s, Liverpool has won the leagues 8 times and has been four time winner of the Champions League. The Heysel disaster of 1985 put a stopper on English clubs in the Champions League, but for which Liverpool might have gone further to win many more trophies.
Founded in 1892, Liverpool had a slow period after the Second World War. However, under the managerial skills of Bill Shankly, who took over in 1959, Liverpool won 3 league titles, 1 UEFA cup and 2 FA cups.
Liverpool is the perfect example of a rise from adversity after the Heysel disaster following which the club faced a 6 yr ban from the game. Overcoming these obstacles Liverpool was back with a bang in 2001 when it win a CUP TREBLE and also in 2005 when it claimed the Champions League final after beating AC Milan.
Having Played at Anfield since the time of its formation, the club now plans to relocate to a new facility in Stanley park, however the construction of the stadium which was to be completed by 2011 has been hampered due to economic downturn.
Commonly known as the REDS owing to their all red outfit, Liverpool is commonly called the Merseyside Club referring to the river Mersey. Youll never walk alone, the clubs anthem is sung and played at the Anfield Stadium and has been sung by many popular and well known artists.
Wherever there is talk of football, there is talk of Liverpool football news. These legendary players have been making headlines since time immemorial and will continue to do so for a long time.
To keep yourself updated with latest football news please visit: http://www.apnafootball.com