The Background History of the FIFA Soccer World Cup

The FIFA World Cup is an international association football competition played between the men's national teams of the members of Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the governing global body of the sport. The tournament officially began in 1930, and the championship has been awarded every four years, except 1942 and '46, due to WWII.

Whether you refer to the sport as soccer, footy, futbol, or football, it is an international phenomenon which attracts more viewers than any other worldly event. The tournament consists of two parts: qualification phase, final phase. And 32 teams participate for the World Cup championship (Final). In 2006, the World Cup attracted 715-million viewers, shattering numbers put up by other sporting events such as the Super Bowl.

FIFA was founded in 1904 as a way to arrange an international football tournament between nations outside of the Olympic network. At first, the attempts were utter failures, and FIFA was on the brink of disbanding multiple times.

While the Olympics continued to only showcase amateur teams, Sir Thomas Lipton organized the Sir Thomas Trophy tournament in Turing in 1909. This tournament featured professional clubs from Italy, Switzerland, and Germany, and is thought to be the first "World Cup."

In 1914, FIFA agreed to recognize the Olympic tournament as an amateur-only world football championship, and took over the +managing responsibilities of the event. This ultimately paved the way for the world's first intercontinental football contest which took place at the 1920 Summer Olympic Games.

This game consisted of 13 European teams and Egypt, with Belgium winning the gold medal. Uruguay won the Olympic football tournament in 1924 and again in 1928. It was in '28 that FIFA decided to stage its own football tournament outside of the Olympic structure.

Because of the low popularity of football (soccer) in the United States, the game wasn't included in the 1932 Summer Olympics which took place in Los Angeles, California. Due to this news on the upcoming games, FIFA president Jules Rimet took preemptive action and planned the inaugural FIFA World Cup tournament in Uruguay in 1930.

Because of the long distance to travel, European teams would not commit to playing in the tournament. But after much convincing, Belgium, Romania, France, and Yugoslavia made the trek. Seven teams from South America played in the event, along with four European, and two North American, for a total of thirteen. Uruguay defeated Argentina 4-2 to become the first-ever World Cup champions.

The years to follow would be difficult in the growth and development of the World Cup. Travel was already a big concern, and World War II kept the tournament from happening at all in 1942 and 1946. Even after the war had ended, British teams withdrew from the World Cup, citing that they would not play against teams of nations with whom they were at war with years earlier.

In the years to come, Britain would put aside their grievances, means of travel became more convenient, and the World Cup began to grow exponentially. In 1982, the finals were expanded to include 24 teams, and then again to 32 in 1998. For the upcoming 2010 FIFA World Cup, 204 separate teams will attempt to qualify for the finals.

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FIFA World Cup - A History 1962 to 2002

1962 Hosts for the 1962 edition were Chile despite recently having suffered a devastating earthquake. Brazil were favorites to retain the trophy but Chile thought they had a world-beating plan of action. Before they played Italy they ate spaghetti and won. Before they played Switzerland they ate Swiss cheese and won. Before they played Russia they drank vodka and won (must have been an interesting game). So when they came up against Brazil in the semi finals, what did they do? Did they eat Brazil nuts? No, they drank coffee and promptly lost 4-2. Brazil once again claimed the trophy by beating Czechoslovakia 3-1 in the final.

Statistics Host Country: Chile

Countries: Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Czechoslovakia, England, Hungary, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, Uruguay, USSR, West Germany, Yugoslavia

Final: Brazil 3, Czechoslovakia 1

Top goal scorer: Drazen Jerkovic, Yugoslavia (5)

1966 In 1966 the World Cup came back to where the modern game of football began in 1863, England and the trophy was destined to stay there for four years. It might have stayed there permanently because when it was put on show at the Westminster Central Hall in London four months before the tournament was to start it was stolen. Seven days of acute embarrassment ensued while authorities tried to find the missing cup without any result. Eventually a black and white dog called "Pickles" found it underneath a hedge wrapped in newspaper whilst doing what dogs do under hedges. Pickles shot to stardom and the English Football Association had a replica of the trophy made - "just in case". The replica can still be seen at the English National Football Museum.

The 1966 World Cup was memorable for several reasons. It was the first World Cup to have a mascot - "World Cup Willie", a lion dressed in the English strip. It was a World Cup marred by vicious tactics on the field and by poor refereeing that saw Brazil literally kicked off the pitch in the first round. The final against West Germany was also memorable due to one of the most controversial goals in Cup history. In extra time Geoff Hurst of England launched a shot that hit the underside of the goal crossbar and bounced down. The referee ruled that it had landed behind the goal-line and was therefore a goal. The West Germans protested that it did not go behind the line but the linesman upheld the referee and the goal stood. Hurst put the matter beyond doubt in the last minute by scoring.

Statistics Host Country: England

Countries: Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, England, France, Hungary, Italy, Mexico, North Korea, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Uruguay, USSR, West Germany

Final: England 4, West Germany 2 (after extra time)

Top goal scorer: Eusebio, Portugal (9)

1970 Mexico 1970 was Brazil's and Pele's World Cup. After 1966 when Brazil were knocked out in the first round, Pele had vowed never to play in the World Cup again. Fortunately he was persuaded to make a final appearance in 1970. Hopes were high in England for a repeat of the 1966 success but matters were not helped when the England captain was jailed for four days on manufactured charges of stealing a bracelet in Guadalajara a couple of weeks before the opening game. Those, the humid playing conditions and Gerd Muller in devastating form, were enough to see West Germany take their revenge in the quarter final for the defeat in the previous competition's final. But Brazil seemed unstoppable thanks to their magnificent attackers but their defense was questionable. Could the Italian front line turn this to their advantage? At half time it seemed that they could with the score line at 1-1 and the Brazilians obviously demoralized. But after half time Pele took charge laying on passes that led to two Brazilian goals and finding the net himself. Brazil had won the World Cup for the third time and therefore was allowed to keep the Jules Rimet Trophy permanently. Some year later it was stolen and never recovered. It is presumed it was melted down.

Statistics Host Country: Mexico

Countries: Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, El Salvador, England, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, Romania, Sweden, Uruguay, USSR, West Germany

Final: Brazil 4, Italy 1 (after extra time)

Top goal scorer: Gerd Muller, West Germany (10)

1974 In 1974, West Germany played hosts for the competition for the new trophy, the FIFA World Cup. West Germany had a tremendously strong side but then so did Holland with its brand of "total football" and Poland. Holland beat Brazil 2-0 to face West Germany in the final in Berlin but the German ultra efficient football machine held out against the inspirational Dutch to grab a late winner.

Statistics Host Country: West Germany

Countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, East Germany, Haiti, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Scotland, Sweden, Uruguay, West Germany, Yugoslavia, Zaire

Final: West Germany 2, Netherlands 1

Top goal scorer: Grzegorz Lato, Poland (7)

1978 1978 saw the FIFA World Cup being held in Argentina and it was one of the most controversial with very strange refereeing and organizational decisions seeming to favour the home country. In a second-round match Argentina needed to score at least four goals against Peru. It scored six and Peru were heavily criticized for giving the game away. In the final Argentina seemed to have an extra man in referee Sergio Gonella. His decisions were so blatantly pro Argentina that there were calls (particularly by the Dutch) for the match to be re-played in a neutral country - calls that fell on deaf ears.

Statistics Host Country: Argentina

Countries: Austria, Argentina, Brazil, France, Hungary, Iran, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Peru, Poland, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Tunisia, West Germany

Final: Argentina 3, Netherlands 1 (after extra time)

Top goal scorer: Mario Kempes, Argentina (6)

1982 An expanded World Cup was launched in 1982 in Spain. Eight more teams participated bringing the total to 24. The idea was to allow the lesser footballing countries to enter the tournament. The idea was vindicated by impressive displays by Algeria and Cameroon. Italy proved to be unstoppable that year and defeated the strong West German side 3-1 in the final even after Antonio Cabrini of Italy became the first player to miss a penalty in a World Cup final.

Statistics Host Country: Spain

Countries: Algeria, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Cameroon, Chile, Czechoslovakia, El Salvador, England, France, Honduras, Hungary, Italy, Kuwait, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Peru, Poland, Scotland, Spain, USSR, West Germany, Yugoslavia

Final: Italy 3, West Germany 1

Top goal scorer: Paolo Rossi, Italy (6)

1986 Colombia had been chosen to host the 1986 World Cup but was unable to due to economic considerations so the venue was switched to Mexico despite strong efforts by Holland and the United States to have the competition on home soil. Brazil, the favorites were knocked out in the quarter finals by France on penalties. Another quarter final saw Argentina's Diego Maradona famous "hand of God" goal against England. Several billion TV viewers saw him use his hand to punch the ball into the back of the English goal but the referee did not. It was a blatant cheat that still rankles with English fans today as it saw their team go home. In the final against West Germany he showed that he didn't need to cheat to win as he brilliantly led his country to a hard fought win by 3 goals to 2.

Statistics Host Country: Mexico

Countries: Algeria, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, England, France, Hungary, Iraq, Italy, Mexico, Morocco, Northern Ireland, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Scotland, South Korea, Spain, Uruguay, USSR, West Germany

Final: Argentina 3, Germany 2

Top goal scorer: Gary Lineker, England (6)

1990 The 14th World Cup was without doubt the most boring so far. Every team was so scared of losing that games became low-scoring brutal chess matches. Both semi finals went into extra time and then went on to be decided by penalty kicks. The final contested by West Germany appearing in its last World cup before unification and Argentina. In a dour and dirty struggle with two sendings off. West Germany won 1-0 by way of a penalty.

Statistics Host Country: Italy

Countries: Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Cameroon, Colombia, Costa Rica, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, England, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Romania, Scotland, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, United States, USSR, West Germany, Yugoslavia

Final: West Germany 1, Argentina 0

Top goal scorer: Salvatore "Toto" Schillaci, Italy (6)

1994 FIFA saw the United States as an untapped market as far as football (or soccer as the Americans call it) was concerned and so decided to award the 1994 tournament to them. Italy were on song with their play-maker Roberto Baggio playing some sublime football. Argentina were hopeful that a newly re-called Maradona could steer them to success but the hope evaporated when he proved positive for a banned substance and was sent home in disgrace. The U.S. on home ground had a better than expected tournament finally going out to Brazil. Earlier they had beaten Colombia thanks to an own goal by Colombian Andres Escobar who was shot dead when he arrived back home. The final between Brazil and Italy was an absorbing game of Brazil's irresistible attacking force meeting Italy's immovable defensive force. Predictably the match ended 0-0 after extra time so it went to the penalties and sudden death. Roberto Baggio of Italy sent his kick high over the cross-bar and Brazil were the winners.

Statistics Host Country: United States

Countries: Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Colombia, Germany, Greece, South Korea, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, USA, Sweden, Switzerland

Final: Brazil 1, Italy 0 (3-2 on penalty kicks)

Top goal scorer (Joint): Oleg Salenko, Russia and Hristo Stoitchkov, Bulgaria (6) 1998 France, played host to an expanded World Cup with the number of participants brought up to 32. Nobody thought that France had a chance of winning and everyone was very surprised when the made it to the final. Amazement took the place of surprise when the managed to destroy Brazil 3-0 in the final. To this day nobody who isn't French can explain how they did it. Serious hooliganism reared its ugly head during the early stages of the tournament when English fans rampaged through Marseille and German fans attacked a police officer with an iron bar and left him permanently brain damaged.

Statistics

Host Country: France

Countries: Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Paraguay, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Tunisia, United States, Yugoslavia

Final: France 3, Brazil 0

Top goal scorer: Davor Suker, Croatia (6)

2002 For the first time the World Cup had co-hosts in Japan and South Korea. It was also the first to be held on the continent of Asia. Fears of major rioting due to hooligans proved unfounded due to the superb preparations by the co-hosts and the whole tournament had a party atmosphere. It was also a tournament of upsets. In 1998 the United States had finished last but in 2002 they sailed into the quarter finals before being knocked out by Germany. France, the holders were eliminated in the first round without scoring a single goal and Italy left the tournament early after some poor refereeing. In the end it was Brazil and Germany who contested the final with Brazil winning by two goals.

Statistics

Host Countries: Japan, South Korea

Countries: Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Cameroon, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Denmark, Ecuador, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Tunisia, Turkey, United States, Uruguay

Final: Brazil 2, Germany 0

Top goal scorer: Ronaldo, Brazil (8)

Michael Russell

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The Future History of Soccer - Predicting the Next Sixty Years

Like a lot of people who went to elementary school in the 1980s, I grew up hearing wondrous tales of what the world would look like in the year 2000. Based on the fictions spread by my various teachers, we faced one of two future outcomes: the Soviet Union (remember them?) would either trigger a thermonuclear war, or we would all be zipping around in jetpacks and flying cars, wearing oddly matching jumpsuits and eating only large pills and colored liquid. Of course, neither of those things happened, and though my car is very much attached to terra firma, the intervening years have brought a number of changes to society, the likes of which nobody would have likely predicted in 1984.

The point, I suppose, is that the prognostication business is at best a crapshoot, and at worst a chance for people to write things that subsequent events will make a mockery of. Soccer is not immune to stupid predictions, as anyone who has followed Pele's occasional commentary in the press knows all to well. So, wanting to look ahead to the future of soccer, but not wanting to expose myself to the ridicule of being proved wrong, I will look way, way head to the year 2062, and tell you what the footballing world will look like in 54 years. I'll be 85 by then, which means I'll either be dead, senile, or so happy that I finally got my flying car that I won't care that I wrote something 54 years ago that makes me sound foolish! If I'm lucky, I would have just seen my 19th World Cup. So what will 2062 Brian Fobi have seen?

1. England still won't have won another World Cup. At the close of the 2062 World Cup, England fans will look forward to the 2066 Cup, knowing that certainly fate will be on their side as they stare down the 100th anniversary of their last win. England is the consummate quarterfinalist, and can look back at a hundred years of Ronaldinho goals, Beckham red cards, Rooney red cards, and Brookyln Beckham red cards, and believe that they are jinxed, but the truth is that they are just not that good.

2. China will still be the next big thing. Based on everything you read in the news, in 40 years the Chinese will own, run, manufacture, manage, and dominate everything. FIFA expects great things from China, and certainly between then and now China will host at least one World Cup, but more likely two. The Chinese women will continue to do well, but unless a great many things change, I don't see China putting together the kind of league and national youth system necessary to produce 11 world class players. Also, beware the China bubble. China might continue to grow at 10% for the next 50 years, or we may find out that a managed state and economy cannot bear the burden of its first major economic downturn. That discussion is best served in another venue on another day, but suffice to say that I am not yet sold on China's perpetually bright future, and this goes doubly for football.

3. CONMEBOL and CONCACAF will merge. A merger of these two regions only makes sense. And, as a child of he 1980s, seeing these parts merge gives me memories of Devastator coming together to work at the behest of Megatron to drive the Autobots... sorry. Back to my point, a merger of the North American and South American confederations makes sense, and it will improve the quality of play all around. First, it would give America and Canada more consistent and meaningful exposure to top competition. Second, it would make the regional championship (Cup of the Americas? Americas' Cup? Copa de Americas?) a truly first rate event that upstages the Euros and takes its place as the second greatest soccer tournament in the world, after the World Cup. Third, the sheer size of the confederation would necessitate breaking the nations into groups, which would mean fewer games for qualifying for the South American teams.

4. The Caribbean nations will jointly host the greatest World Cup of all time. Building on their joint hosting of the Cricket World Cup, 10 Caribbean nations will treat football fans to the most fun, sun-soaked, and festive World Cup on record. Moving between World Cup venues by cruise boat or airplane, thousands of fans will gather to watch soccer in the daytime, then drink and party at night. The final in Port of Spain will take place to a steel drum soundtrack, and everyone, even the defeated fans, will leave happy.

5. The United States will win a World Cup. I'm not saying when, but in the next 56 years, it will happen. If you are skeptical (ahem, consummate America-hater Luis "Snacks" Bueno, I'm talking to you), you are way too pessimistic. Think about it: if my prediction is true, the grandmother of the team's captain might be in preschool right now. The USA has built a first rate youth system, has excellent corporate backing, has the best sports science in the world, and dadgummit, we're Americans and we don't lose. This the sporting equivalent of the Apollo moon mission. Hell or high water we will get it done.

6. Britain will finally get its act together and field a joint team. I know, this seems unlikely, especially with Scotland getting greater independence and all, but let's be honest. Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland all have to struggle just to qualify for the World Cup, to say nothing of actually winning it. And, since England is not itself a sovereign nation, it does not make any more sense that they should be a FIFA member than it would for say, Minnesota, to join FIFA. Frustrated by continued failures, and perhaps even a bit chastened by their experience with the Olympics in which the IOC did not allow England to send its own team, they will get their act together and kit up a British squad.

7. Africa will... wow, who knows? This is the toughest one. I have no doubt that Africa will continue to produce top-tier talent, and I expect that in 50 years most of the top players in the world will come from Africa. The real question, though, is whether Africa can begin to develop leagues that can compete at the highest levels and whether their football associations will stop interfering with and destroying their national teams. In the last decade, we have seen he football associations of Nigeria, Cameroon, Senegal and Cote d'Ivoire rightfully accused of theft, massive mismanagement of players, threats of violence, political coercion, and utter and complete incompetence on a scale heretofore unseen in soccer history. To make matters worse, African nations have not dedicated themselves to developing their own coaches, do not adequately prepare youth, and offer the most shoddy and dilapidated facilities in which to train and play.

That said, the continent continues to produce fantastic players, and the march that began with Weah and Milla from Liberia and Cameroon, respectively, continues with true gems like Drogba, Eto'o, Adebayor, Essien, and a bevy of other stars. In the end, the fortunes of African soccer will rise or fall with the continent's ability or inability to right its economies, to produce wealth, to create infrastructure, and to purge its governments, and thereby its football associations, of the kind of kleptocratic, nepotistic, and capricious bureaucracy that has ground down the continent's best minds and talents. If the continent can turn itself around, there are a least ten nations that have the potential to become true world soccer powers (Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Egypt, South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, and Togo come to mind). If not, then we will see what we have seen in the last 25 years: stars arise, and every World Cup one or two African nations will impress, but the rest will fall flat.

8. The three best leagues in the world will be 1) The Brazilian league, 2) the MLS, and 3) French Ligue 1. Brazil has increasingly become more sure of itself as a nation, and as its economy grows, it will produce the kind of broad and deep wealth capable of supporting teams who develop and retain the best players in the world. When Santos, Flamengo and Gremio have he bankroll to prevent players like Kaka, Ronaldinho, or Robinho from leaving, the Brazilian teams will improve rapidly and exponentially. As for the MLS, soccer is growing steadily and surely in the United States, and within twenty years or so, the league will be among the best in the world. The United States has a real advantage because, as the world's cultural center, it will always have a cache and drawing power that other nations cannot match. In other words, once the MLS becomes a viable option, financially and competitively, with European leagues, the marketing potential and luster of the United States will allow the MLS to move past its European rivals. Twenty years might seem too soon, but the league recently celebrated its 10th anniversary, and anyone around for the inauspicious opening days of the league can attest to the manner and rate of its growth. As for France, it's just a hunch, nothing more. The league has long under-performed, and it seems like a nation of France's wealth and soccer pedigree should have a better league. Also, look out for the J-League.

9. Australia will rue the day they moved to Asia. The thinking was that by moving to Asia, Australia would have an easier road to qualification. In the past, the Oceania winner would have to face a home-and-home playoff against a South American team, and until this last World Cup, Australia could be counted on to lose that. As Japan, South Korea, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and China continue to improve, it will become the case that Australia faces an increasingly difficult road to qualifying, and will miss some World Cups that it may have made had it decided to instead take on teams like Uruguay or Venezuela.

10. Someone will take FIFA down a notch. In recent years, Sepp Blatter has become more and more sanctimonious and over-the-top in the way that he discusses soccer's role in the world, its ability to transcend national boundaries and, more troublingly, that the game (or, more pointedly, the administrators of the game: FIFA) is not subject to any national laws. There have been other sporting institutions that have tried to advance the same lame argument, and in the United States, at least, they have typically lost. FIFA needs to be subject to national laws, and talk to the contrary is utter rubbish, and if true would give FIFA a status that no other institution in the world possesses. Sure, this would cause administrative headaches for FIFA, but to assert that FIFA can do whatever it wants without, for example, concern for local labor laws, is both anti-democratic and completely unjustified. In addition, FIFA will have to learn a hard lesson as it attempts to fight the flow of history and enforce caps on foreign players employed and fielded by club teams. Globalization is a reality, and eventually FIFA will learn these lessons.

So, by the time I am on my deathbed, soccer will look quite a bit different. In most respect these changes will be positive. Now that I have offered my opinion on what the next six decades hold, I'm curious to hear your opinions on what you think will happen in the world of soccer.

Brian Tangang Fobi

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Real Madrid - a Brief History

Founded in 1902, Real Madrid Club de Futebol has been one of the superpowers in European football since the middle of the last century. Indeed, they were awarded the honour of "Best club of the 20th century by FIFA, an award for their huge domestic success and also for their domination of Europe. Real Madrid was not always named thus and the "Real" (or "Royal") part of the name was only added after the club received a blessing from King Alfonso XIII in 1920. The club play in a white strip and they are commonly known as "Los Merengues" (the whites). The club's home is at the Santiago Bernebéu stadium in Madrid, it is one of Europe's finest and holds over 80,000 fans and is now also a huge tourist attraction in the city. Since the start of the Spanish national league in 1928, Madrid have never been relegated from the top division.

The start of the clubs success really came under the Franco regime - he saw the club as an excellent propaganda vehicle and poured resource into the club to try to make them a dominating force in Spain and beyond. It is from this point that one of the greatest rivalries in football was born with Catalan club Barcelona. The suppression of the Catalan language and culture by Franco's regime immediately put Barcelona in opposition to Madrid, the team who seemed to represent the dictator's regime and some unsavoury match fixing incidents further soured relationships and made the rivalry all the more fierce.

Probably Madrid's finest period came between 1955 and 1960 when they won an unprecedented five European Cup's in a row. This really put the club on the map as a dominant force in Europe and no club has matched the feat since. Probably the finest display came in the 1960 final where they demolished their German opposition, Eintracht Frankfurt, 7-3. Real have since gone on to win the trophy four more times and this total of 9 is better than any other team. Amongst Real Madrid's domestic honours are a massive 29 league titles and 17 Spanish cup triumphs, equally unrivalled by any team in Spain.

In recent years Madrid have been extremely successful also, famed for the having the resource to buy the most high profile signings, it has seemed like no price tag is too big for Real Madrid. In 2000 they brought in Luis Figo from rivals Barcelona for EUR60million, the following year saw French wonder Zinedine Zidane arrive from Juventus for a world record fee of EUR71million. Further high profile signings were made in 2002 and 2003 when Ronaldo and England captain David Beckham were brought in by the club to further strengthen the squad of stars. This policy of buying the best players has earned Real Madrid the new nickname of "Los Galacticos".

The last few seasons however has seen a minor downturn for the fortunes of the club - three seasons since their last league victory and four since their last European triumph are not going to please many fans of the club. Huge pressure is put on the manager and the last couple of years has seen a fairly quick turnover of staff; this isn't a club that is used to losing so when the results don't come it is usually the manager who catches the bullet. Last season they saw the title go to rivals Barcelona and their European run came to an end against Juventus in the quarter finals - results that aren't acceptable at the Bernebéu and they'll be looking to improve on them this season and bring home some silverware.

Mike McDougall has five years experience working as a travel writer and marketeer. He is currenlty working to provide additional content for Babylon-idiomas, a Spanish language school with an excellent presence in Spain and Latin America.

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Manchester United the Global Brand and Club History

Manchester United are from a neutral perspective the cream of English football. Unlike some of their closest rivals they are a worldwide brand. This is something that Chelsea owner Roman Abromovich is trying to achieve. They are based at Old Trafford in Manchester otherwise known as 'The Theatre of Dreams' which is one of the biggest stadiums in the country and also Europe. Manchester United play in red and have acquired the nickname 'Red Devils' as a result. Manchester United are said to have around 300 million supporters worldwide which accounts for roughly 5% of the global population. It is estimated that 95% of Manchester United supporters have never been to Old Trafford. They are rumoured to be the richest club in existence.

Manchester United football club have an absolutely staggering amount of trophies and silverware to their name. They have won no fewer than 5 European trophies which includes one international cup, one European super cup, two European champions cups, and one cup winners cup. Domestically the side has a truly remarkable record too claiming 12 domestic cups and 16 Premier League trophies. Few sides in history can be proud of such a record. The club is managed by Sir Alex Ferguson who is considered to be one of the best managers in today's game. United fans would not want to see anyone else at the helm of their pride and joy.

Manchester United are currently owned by American businessman Malcolm Glazer. Glazer made investments in the club back in 2005 but it took him a further year until he has able to gain ownership. He is estimated to have paid a massive $1.47 billion to get his hands on the squad. Glazer had to win the approval of both the directors of Manchester United and even more difficult the fans. He had a difficult time with the directors as the deal is said to have made Manchester United $850 million poorer but an even tougher job with the fans. Fans do not want to see their team in the hands of a tycoon and were fearful of the future under Malcolm Glazer. Initially many fans protested by not renewing their season tickets and songs about Glazer can still be heard today around the stands.

Today the club seems to be moving forward faster than it has ever done before. In 2006/2007 season Manchester United reclaimed the Premier League title from their arch rivals Chelsea and in 2008/2009 won both the Premiership title and also the UEFA Champions League. The fan base is growing at an alarming rate and thanks partly to the fortunes and developments of Malcolm Glazer the club can bring in some of the best players on the world stage. It is thought that for the foreseeable future Manchester United will remain one of the greatest names in world football.

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