Tag Archives: Football

We Face Forward: Art from West Africa Today

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We Face Forward: Art from West Africa Today

Manchester celebrates London 2012 Festival

2 June to 16 September 2012

· City-wide exhibition of leading contemporary artists from West Africa

· Major new installations commissioned for galleries and parks

· Concerts with many world-renowned musicians, including AfroCubism

· Further exhibitions of fashion, photography, football and storytelling

· African art bus to tour creative activities around Greater Manchester

We Face Forward is a season of contemporary art and music from West Africa, celebrated across Manchester’s galleries, museums, music venues and public spaces, from 2 June to 16 September as part of London 2012 Festival.

The exhibitions, concerts, events and community activities recognise both the historic and contemporary links between Manchester and the various countries that make up West Africa. They will explore ideas of economic and cultural exchange, environment and sustainability, and the place of tradition in contemporary culture.

The core of the season is a city-wide exhibition of contemporary art from the region, the first major collaboration between Manchester Art Gallery, Whitworth Art Gallery and Gallery of Costume, Platt Hall. It will feature painting, photography, textiles, sculpture, video and sound work from a wide range of internationally acclaimed artists, including Georges Adéagbo, Meschac Gaba, Romuald Hazoumè and George Osodi. The exhibition will also be the first major display in the UK of work by emerging artists such as Lucy Azubuike, Emeka Ogboh, Charles Okereke, Nyani Quarmyne and Victoria Udondian.

New, large-scale installations have been commissioned from Barthélémy Toguo at Manchester Art Gallery, and from Pascale Marthine Tayou at Whitworth Art Gallery.

The Gallery of Costume will show work by three esteemed Malian photographers, Malick Sidibé, Abderramane Sakaly and Soungalo Malé, whose archives are being preserved by the National Museum of Mali. Their extraordinary studio and social portraits will be shown alongside West African dress from the gallery collection, photographs by Hamidou Maiga and contemporary fashion pieces from British-Nigerian designer Duro Oluwu.

A music programme, curated by Band on the Wall and The Manchester Museum, will feature world-renowned acts including: AfroCubism (the new international supergroup formed by Eliades Ochoa of Buena Vista Social Club and Toumani Diabaté); a multi-media concert by Niger supergroup The Endless Journey (Mamane Barka and Etran Finatawa); Angelique Kidjo; Jaliba Kuyateh; Kanda Bongo Man and many more to be confirmed. Taking place in music venues and galleries across the city, the season will open with AfroCubism at Bridgewater Hall on Sunday 3 June.

Exhibitions and events will also take place at The Manchester Museum and the National Football Museum. The city is hosting nine football matches during the 2012 Olympics and the National Football Museum will present African artists for whom football gives a means to explore protest, politics and social engagement.

The Manchester Museum is working with the African Caribbean Carers Group to present a re-interpretation of the Anansi spider stories using the Museum’s natural history and anthropology collections. The programme will be launched with Big Saturday: Manchester Anansi Spider on Saturday 2 June where the story will be performed by the Men’s Room community group, working in partnership with the Royal Exchange Theatre Company.

A summer-long creative programme will engage with a range of people right across Greater Manchester. Modelled on the highly decorated taxi-buses that ferry people across Dakar, Accra and Bamako, an art bus will take creative activities out beyond the participating galleries and parks to other locations across the city.

To draw the different locations together, artist Meschac Gaba has been commissioned to design an artwork which incorporates the flags of all the West African nations. This colourful motif will be on display at participating galleries and venues.

The title for the season is taken from a speech by Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah, made in 1960. Stating his resistance to Cold War super powers, Nkrumah’s full quote is “We face neither East nor West: we face forward.” The festival takes its direction from Nkrumah’s statement of independence, deriving inspiration from his sense of West African cultural dynamism.

Dr Maria Balshaw, Director of Whitworth Art Gallery and Manchester City Galleries, said: “Manchester’s connections to West Africa are part of its industrial and trading history. This exhibition brings the dynamism of West African art today to Manchester, as the world comes to the UK for the Olympics.”

Ruth Mackenzie, Director, London 2012 Festival, said: “I am particularly delighted that this exceptional exhibition of art from West Africa will be part of the London 2012 Festival programme bringing once in a lifetime opportunities to experience culture to people across the north west.”

www.wefaceforward.org

Calling all football fans! Win a training session with Anton Ferdinand

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Calling all football fans! Win a training session with Anton Ferdinand

A once in a lifetime opportunity is up for grabs for budding footballers and fans of Anton Ferdinand and Queens Park Rangers FC, all in the name of charity.

Premier League footballer Anton Ferdinand is taking time out from his rigorous training schedule to support Billi Mucklow and Cara Kilbey of The Only Way is Essex, who are aiming to raise a massive £10,000 for Samaritans. Anton is offering an hour’s football training session for ten lucky people, to help raise vital funds for the charity that answers more than 5 million calls a year from people who are struggling to cope.

To be in with a chance to win this dream prize, bidders need to take part in an online auction which is open now and will run until midday on Monday 2 April 2012. Place a bid now by visiting http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150786207098 The 5 highest bidders will win the opportunity for them and a friend to attend a training session with Anton which will take place at Lucozade Powerleague Docklands on Wednesday 18 April at 2pm.

Anton said: “I’m really pleased that I am able to offer this prize and support Billi and Cara in their marathon challenge. Samaritans is a fantastic charity that offers 24 hour confidential support to anyone, no matter what the problem. Get bidding, I will make sure this is a training session you will never forget!”

On Sunday 22 April Billi and Cara, from The Only Way is Essex are running the Virgin London Marathon in aid of Samaritans. As well as putting themselves through a punishing training schedule in preparation for the 26.2 mile race, the girls have been busy enlisting their celebrity friends to help them reach their fundraising target.

Billi said: “Massive thanks to Anton for donating this prize and supporting us in our crazy quest!”
Cara continued: “We really believe in the work of Samaritans and hope that the general public get behind us and help us raise as much money as possible so the charity can continue their lifesaving work.”

To help Cara and Billi reach their huge fundraising target, please sponsor them by visiting their Virgin Money Giving page: www.virginmoneygiving.com/BilliandCara

David Beckham For H&M

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David Beckham celebrates the launch of David Beckham Bodywear for H&M in London

This week in London, David Beckham celebrated the global launch of David Beckham Bodywear for H&M with an in-store launch, followed by a cocktail party at a pop-up gentleman’s club created especially for the occasion. At the in-store event at H&M on Regent Street, David showed the new television commercial, met with fans and signed the collection. Later, celebrities such as Bianca Jagger, Emma Bunton and Jessica Ennis joined David to toast his bodywear range. This debut collection is the first in a long-term partnership between David Beckham and H&M, and is available from today in 1,800 H&M stores worldwide, as well as online.

“I am very proud to launch my Bodywear collection for H&M in London. It was amazing to see the product at the in-store launch after so many months of development and meet with fans. I loved the pop-up gentleman’s club, which felt both traditional and brand new. It’s the same mix I hope men will find in the Bodywear collection. It was an amazing evening to launch my new collection.” David Beckham.

“The debut of David Beckham Bodywear is a very special moment for us at H&M. It marks the beginning of a new kind of long-term partnership for H&M, one based on quality and excellent design to H&M prices. I am very excited to see how our customers will receive the David Beckham Bodywear collection.”
Karl-Johan Persson, CEO of H&M.

At the cocktail party, guests were treated to a unique David Beckham for H&M experience, with decor, food and drink designed to reflect not only classic gentlemen’s clubs but also David’s British roots. Live music was provided by the James Pearson Trio, direct from the infamous Ronnie Scotts club, followed by a DJ set by ”Mani” from The Stone Roses and DJ the Queens of Noize.

The event marks the debut of David Beckham Bodywear for H&M, a new collection which focuses on fit, function comfort and design. Designed by David’s in-house team and sold exclusively at H&M in around 40 countries worldwide, this first collection presents the nine key products which will go on to form the core of the range. The collection will develop seasonally with new styles, new fabrics and new patterns.

“Lots of people have worked with H&M, so why not David Beckham? I think it’s a really good idea. It means that now everybody can have a bit of him.” Suzy Menkes, International Herald Tribune.

Life of a Super Sports Blogger

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—Independent bloggers drive sports industry—Fortune 500 companies engage with the citizen journalists —

It’s the ultimate dream for many a football fan. Swapping the nine to five for a career spent posting on a blog about the sport you adore. No editorial limits, no suit, no boss. For Alan Spurgeon and his blog Footy-Boots.com, that dream is reality.

What started as a series of niche articles in 2006, Alan’s blog which focuses primarily on reviews of football apparel now reaches four million people worldwide, three hundred thousand of whom read his words on average every other day. It’s the sort of platform any of the major football brands would pay serious sums to control, but Footy-Boots.com remains independent, relying upon a small team of mostly volunteer staff and freely available publishing technology to engage the fans.

In a year which has seen every major sports brand jump on the social media bandwagon, Alan’s seen a shift in attitude when it comes to dealing with the marketing departments representing the kit he reviews—

“Our job is to review everything we can get hold of and when a product comes with an already established online fan-base that can explain the benefits in our terms, an invitation to meet the people who produce the product and a willingness to engage in feedback, there’s an obvious advantage. For years we struggled away ordering products as soon as we could get hold of them, crawling through the maze of PR departments to get comment or information and then taking the stuff to the field to run it through the paces before posting our opinion online. These days it’s a little different. Whilst we’re still just a couple of lads operating from their laptop, it’s not unusual for us to be invited to meet the people who produce the kit or to go down to the pitch to chat to the premiership players who are wearing it. The biggest names in the world like Nike, adidas and Puma have got used to the fact that if you want to sell your boots to a digital generation, it’s not just the print media and broadcasters you need to engage with celebrity endorsement, it’s the little guys like us. We need data and it’s in their interests to make sure we have it.”

Whilst the manufacturers are falling over themselves to accommodate the ‘super-bloggers’, some team brands have been better than others at adjusting to the social media era. Manchester United and Arsenal rule Facebook with 20million and 7million fans respectively. Arsenal in particular have embraced the digital revolution, recently hosting web chats for up to 2.5million international fans at a time. The players themselves are thrust into this world, somewhat dazed, to play their part. In May this year Rio Ferdinand posted on Twitter “Yesterday I’m signing a few autographs + a guy pulls out his phone + says ‘can you follow me’! A follow is the new autograph!”.

So what does it feel like being taken from your backroom office to the glorious highs of sports stardom? According to Alan, whose site is successful enough to “pay the bills”, some things will never change. “We are now considered de facto I guess in our niche, particularly for the Football Boot Awards we run every year where the public come to us to vote for the product of the year. That’s great and it’s astonishing of course to get to meet your heroes through your work as we have done when premiership players are lined up to take part in things like the awards sessions, but other things remain the same. We’ve not yet been able to get to some of the international product launches, not because of the cost, but because we’re a simple set up, a couple of guys and a few computers, we just wouldn’t be able to take the time for a long flight which would mean being offline for 9 or 12 or 24 hours. We miss out on that sort of stuff. We’re still geeks attached to our umbilical tech.” When asked if they would accept a private flight sponsored by a major sports brand, their reaction is typical of the new generation of citizen journalists— “No way, the fans of the blog would slaughter us. Our greatest asset is being unbiased. You can’t buy our opinion.”

Nobody at Footy-Boots.com has made a dot com million, but the site owners need an income. The key to success might be seen in the addition of sponsors and affiliates on the boy’s website which help to bring in stable financial support whilst they focus on reviewing kit and steering conversation in the forums. “We’re not salesmen, we never have been, never could be. We’re not good at going out there to find sponsors. I’m sure there are plenty of ways the site could make more money, but it’s never been about the money for us so we’re happy to just let a couple of sports shops link through the site as long as we get positive feedback about them. It’s a happy compromise between running a basic blog and being a commercial website.”

As someone who has tested every major boot released since 2006, Alan has a few pointers for those wanting to be on the Christmas list this year and next. “The best boot in the world is only good for one man. Reading our forums (especially the “ask geeks” channel), you know every player has their own strength, speed, accuracy, strength, ability and confidence to take risks on the pitch. No one cleat is going to fit them all. Just like social media has opened up a million different varieties of opinion, the manufacturers of the product are going to have to follow too. Bespoke might be the way to go. I’m sure the technology will exist to let players pick every aspect of their kit through an app very soon.” Which raises an interesting question- what will be the value of celebrity if and when every boot is customised not to the famous foot, but to every man or women on the pitch? There will be bigwigs in PR breathing a sigh of relief in some cases— we all know Football and Twitter don’t always a happy marriage make. Alan has a list of social media disasters on his site to tell that story.

So where next for Alan and his happy team of sports bloggers? “2011 was a great year, we saw some astonishing products hit the pitch and through our relationships with the brands, we felt like we were pretty much front row. We’ll continue to offer a space where your opinion matters and we’ll be bringing that to a climax with this year’s awards which launch online December 5th and we’re expecting tens of thousands of votes again.”

The one difference between this year and last for Footy-Boots.com, a 1765% rise in the number of visits originating from mobile phones. Let’s hope that Nike and co have their iPhone apps in order when voting kicks in.

Sports Memorabilia Company Teams Up With FA And England Squad.

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SPORTS MEMORABILIA COMPANY FORMS UNIQUE PARTNERSHIP WITH THE FA AND ENGLAND SQUAD

Sportsrabilia has collaborated with the England football team to produce a unique and exclusive collection of memorabilia to offer fans the chance to buy a piece of football history.

Under the new deal between Sportsrabillia and The FA, limited edition pieces signed by stars such as Steven Gerrard, Ashley Young and John Terry will be available prior to Christmas 2011. There will be further collections released in the build up to and during the 2012 European Championships in Poland and Ukraine and the forthcoming 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

The product range will feature high-impact imagery, player biographies, landmark achievements, actual sections of match balls and full squad pieces and will carry the signatures and authentication of the England team.

The England Collection will be available to buy from www.sportsrabilia.com and will be competitively priced starting at £150. A selection of individual items will also be made available for auction at charity events around the UK, helping raise money for worthwhile causes.

The exclusive range will be authenticated and protected to levels previously unseen in the UK. Each piece will include a hologram, FA stamp and a certificate of authenticity signed by a member of The FA and a representative of Sportsrabilia present at the signing session. These lengths have been taken to both protect the players and The FA but most importantly the Sportsrabilia customers.

Commenting on the partnership, FA spokesperson Nicky Stanton said: “The Sportsrabilia range will give England fans a chance to buy a piece of football history and feel closer to the England team. They can also be assured that they are purchasing a fully licensed and authenticated product.’’

Danny Schindler, Chief Executive Officer of Sportsrabilia added: “We are delighted and proud to be working with the FA and the England squad. This partnership will create a unique range of items that will be ideal for collectors and make the perfect gift for football fans across the country in the run-up to Christmas.”

Riots Will cost Taxpayer £100 Million, Mark Duggan 'Did Not Fire at Police'.

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Mark Duggan ‘did not fire at police’

It has emerged that Mark Duggan had a blank-firing gun which had been converted to hold live ammunition

16,000 police on duty in London

England game against Netherlands at Wembley tomorrow called off

Jamie Olivier’s restaurant in Birmingham was targeted by rioters

Police Cells are now full and 44 more police officers have been injured

Three people arrested for attempted murder of police officer

Cost of cleaning up the riots could cost taxpayers £100 million

Prime Minister David Cameron has recalled Parliament for Thursday so he can make a statement

Sloane Square Tube station was among dozens that were closed last night during the rioting

Youths congregating at Piccadilly, riot police are there

People urged to stay indoors

In Clapham youths went on the rampage trashing dozens of shops and walking out stolen goods.
Residents complained that police were very slow to respond as a Debenhams store was ransacked.

This morning Clapham high street was cordoned off as a investigation and the clear-up got underway.

Rioting began in Hackney at about 4pm yesterday when hooded youths began hurling missiles at officers and setting fire to bins and cars. Masked rioters on BMX bicycles armed with batons attacked a crowded London bus during the evening rush-hour, chasing terrified commuters as they tried to escape.

Some of the thugs were as young as eight and they forced the driver to stop the double-decker by pelting it with champagne bottles stolen from a nearby Tesco. About 40 passengers ran away, some carrying their children.

Within hours similar scenes erupted in Lewisham, spreading to Peckham, Deptford and Croydon.
Hundreds of fires were started all over the capital, North London; Camden, Woolwich in the south, in West London; Ealing. People were forced to take the law into their own hands to protect themselves and their family.

In Dalston and Hackney, shopkeepers fought back against looting youths and protected their businesses. Surrounding areas were pillaged as members of the town’s large Turkish community stood up outside their homes and businesses to protect them.

Home Secretary Theresa May said this morning that there had been 450 arrests in the last two nights but she ruled out bringing in the Army and using water cannon. She told BBC Breakfast:

‘British policing has always meant and always depended on the support of local communities and that’s what we need now.’

She told Sky News the capital needed ‘robust policing’ – and claimed that police budget cutting had not had an impact on the violence.

‘Don’t let police budgets be used as an excuse for what is going on on our streets is sheer criminality and nothing else.’

Patrick Mercer, the Tory MP and former Army officer, hit out and told the Telegraph that tougher policing should be used.

He said: ‘I find it strange that we are willing to use these sort of measures against the Irish yet when Englishmen step out of line and behave in this atrocious and appalling way, we are happy to mollycoddle them.’

Met Police Assistant Commissioner Stephen Kavanagh seemed to contradict the Home Secretary and said using the military had not been ruled out.

‘All options were discussed last night and that means, not that we’re doing it, the people of London need to know that the Commissioner and his management board team are considering everything and working through those options as we go forward,’ he told BBC Breakfast.

Mr Kavanagh said it was ‘a shocking and appalling morning for London to wake up to’ and he was struck by the ‘sheer scale and speed with which the attacks took place across London last night’. It ‘was truly unprecedented’

He said there was a ‘changing nature’ in the make-up of the rioters, with the profile changing ‘dramatically’ last night from 14 to 17-year-olds to ‘older groups in cars doing organised looting’.

He added: ‘And there was the far more focused attempt at injuring London Ambulance staff, there to help the community, trying to injure Fire Brigade officers and, of course, police officers.’

In Birmingham, West Midlands Police said it had made about 100 arrests and confirmed that a police station in Handsworth, Birmingham, was on fire. Merseyside Police said there were a number of incidents in South Liverpool and that cars had been set on alight.

Somerset Police reported 150 rioters were in Bristol city centre, with main roads closed and a number of shops damaged.

Councilors have said it will cost £227,000 to repair Tottenham

There is a brilliant article here on how the poverty these kids have is moral, not financial.http://www.thecommentator.com/article/359/london_rioters_are_the_pampered_children_of_the_welfare_state

And the Telegraph has a brilliant article with pictures of london before and after the riot

You can help people made homeless by the London riots by donating bedding, clothes, etc to Apex House, 820 Seven Sisters Road, London N15 5PQ

Valencia call to football fans to action with ‘My Champions League Moment’

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Tour Spain and the Valencia City, Province and Regional Tourist Boards are calling out to all British football fans to relive and share via Facebook their favourite Champions League moment, and stand the chance to win tickets to the Valencia CF v Schalke 04 match on the 15 February 2011.

‘My Champions League Moment’ would like to see football banter put in to action … instead of just talking about what was the best Champions League moment, show it.

Fans must upload a photo of themselves re-enacting what they consider to be a stroke of Champions League football genius or share their own treasured photo from a Champions League match to http://www.facebook.com/My.Champions.League.

From watching Liverpool triumph against AC Milan after being 3-0 down, to the heart-stopping two goals Manchester United scored in the last few minutes against Bayern Munich, or John Terry’s penalty miss that gave Manchester United the title – there are many ‘Champions League moments’ to choose from.

Entries must be uploaded and votes cast by the 23 January 2011. The photo with the most ‘likes’ will win this unique competition

The successful fan will win flights and accommodation for two people and the chance for two tickets to the match between Valencia C.F. vs. Schalke, on the 15 February at 20.45 at Valencia’s historic Mestalla Stadium

David Gomez from Tourism Valencia said ‘This season has already shown some fantastic football but held few surprises, and we want fans to show us what really makes the ‘beautiful game’ and what we have to look forward to for the rest of the season.”

‘My Champions League Moment’ is supported by Valencia CF, Valencia Tourism, Valencia Regional Tourist Office, Valencia Province Tourist Office and Tour Spain.

Do you want to Interview David Beckham? Here is your chance

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The World Interviews David Beckham Live Only on Yahoo!

Yahoo! calls upon its 600 million users around the world to ask the global sporting icon their ultimate question in an exclusive interview

If you could ask David Beckham one question, what would you ask him and why?

Yahoo! is today asking Beckham fans this very question as it prepares to host a unique global interview. The interview will take place in London at 2.30pm BST on July 14th and connect fans simultaneously by video from 20 other countries around the world. Over 90 minutes, David will then take quickfire questions from around the globe.

Yahoo! is calling upon its nearly 600 million global users to submit a question on Yahoo! Answers . David will then answer, live, the winning questions from each of the 20 participating countries.

The interview will be streamed live worldwide on Yahoo!, and viewers will have the opportunity to submit their own questions live during the event through Yahoo! Mail, Beckham’s Facebook page, the Yahoo! World Football Facebook page and Twitter.

David Beckham said: “It’s always great interacting with fans, but I’ve never been part of an interview quite like this – being able to take questions direct from people in 20 different countries across five continents. It’s definitely a first for me.”

The global interview will involve fans from the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Canada, USA, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, India and Dubai. Fans from each country will interact with David Beckham through video utilising Cisco’s TelePresence high definition video suites.

Earlier this month, David Beckham signed a global sponsorship deal to serve as Yahoo!’s Global Sports Ambassador. The partnership brings together the world’s largest online media company and the world’s most iconic sports star to offer exclusive content only found on Yahoo! for Yahoo!’s coverage of the World Cup and the 2010/11 football season.

“At Yahoo!, our vision is to be the centre of people’s online lives, and we do this through delivering unique, personally relevant content found nowhere else,” said Andrew Cocker head of Yahoo marketing in Britain. “David Beckham is one of those iconic personalities that captivates people – whether you are a football fan or not. He is the perfect partner for us because he is relevant to our users globally, and this is their chance to get up close to him like never before.”

Submit a question for David Beckham on Yahoo! Answers