Back in the fifties many Brazilian sides toured Europe and one club who hoped to cash in on the success of the 1958 World Cup winning Brazilian national team was Bela Vista Futebol Clube de Sete Lagoas. They weren’t a big club by any stretch of the imagination though a resourceful Brazilian businessman with an eye for opportunity organised a tour of Europe by Bela Vista in the hope of making some money.

Trumpeted as one of Brazil’s leading and most popular clubs they played 16 games in continental Europe including an opening match against the mighty Real Madrid  which they narrowly lost 2-1. More fixtures in France, Germany, Italy, Denmark and Holland saw them win just two games. Things got much worse when they crossed over into the UK.

Their opening game of the UK leg of the tour saw them get beat 5-0 by Birmingham City. They then travelled up to Newcastle where a crowd of 25000 witnessed a goalfest as the hapless visitors were hammered 12-1. The next two games against Middlesbrough and Sheffield United saw 4-0 defeats for the Brazilians.

By this time word of the exploits or rather lack of them had reached Brazil and the Brazilian FA tried in vain to recall the team claiming they were an embarrassment to Brazilian football. Finally the team returned to Brazil but not before an 8-0 loss at Luton Town and a 3-1 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur.

Finishing with a playing record of P22 W2 D2 L18 with 20 goals scored and 76 conceded, the tour was an abject failure. However the team returned to Brazil as heroes and in their home town of Sete Lagoas were greeted with a fireworks display and granted a parade through the town.

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The S0ccket ball is a new concept soccer ball that contains a battery and generator. For everyone 15 minutes of play, the ball stores enough energy to light a small LED light for up to three hours.

“Early prototypes of the ball use an inductive coil mechanism similar to the technology found in shake-to-charge flashlights. The movement of the ball forces a magnet through a metal coil that “induces” voltage in the coil to generate electricity. For each 15 minutes of play, the ball can store enough energy to illuminate a small LED light for three hours. “

Anyone else think MLS should look into adopting the S0ccket ball to help power developmental players apartments?

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Fernando Torres, Didier Drogba and Akon have teamed up to shoot a music video for World Cup 2010 song “Oh Africa. Get ready to see tons of “oh” faces, Akon, paint and dancing.

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This is local news footage from back in August 1988 when Glanford Park, the new home of Scunthorpe United opened it’s doors to the public. According to the official Iron website the new ground brought “gasps of disbelief” from supporters. Costing £2.5m it was the first new football ground built in England since Southend United had moved to Roots Hall in 1955.

The inaugural match saw Scunthorpe, wearing a specially commisioned strip, take on a Football League XI. Kevin Keegan, who had started his career with Scunthorpe, guested for the Iron and his appearance prompted a boycott of the event by local Labour councillors protesting his coaching involvement in the then apartheid state of South Africa. The Football League XI included Peter Shilton, Peter Reid, Mike Phelan, Danny Wilson, Trevor Francis, Alan McInally and Mick Harford amongst others and ran out easy 5-1 winners.

Scunthorpe’s old stadium, the Old Showground had been the first in England to have a cantilever stand. Opened in 1958 it was demolished along with the rest of the ground when the club moved to Glanford Park. A supermarket was built on the site and a plaque was placed in front of the delicatessen counter to mark where the centre spot had been. Here’s an image of that stand, it doesn’t look like much but it’s a piece of English football history lost forever.

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Hear Umbro’s Creative Consultant Aitor Throup talk about the technology and inspiration behind the kit that Engalnd may choose to wear in it’s World Cup debut game against the United States:

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