Football

It’s a huge international competition which takes place every four years and involves the biggest footballing stars on the planet. The stakes are high with prestige and big rewards for those who succeed.

No I’m not talking about the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, I’m talking about the battle to create the most successful World Cup TV advert.

If the World Cup is a unique sporting event, it’s also a unique marketing opportunity. It’s estimated 25 million of us will be sitting down watching TV at the same time over the coming last weeks.

So which are the ads lining up to do battle?

‘105 years of history, we will not die without a fight’.

This is the message that greets me as I walk into the beer garden of The Albion pub in South Norwood. This is the message that the Holmesdale Fanatics (HF), a hardcore group of Crystal Palace supporters, wants to deliver as their beloved club stares into the abyss.

I ventured into the blogs and opinion section on the Sky Sports website this morning (which is something I hardly ever do) and found this blog on Paul Scholes. There has been a lot of press surrounding Scholes since his last-gasp winner against Manchester City on Saturday.

I appreciate it isn't everyone's cup of tea but if you are a Man Utd fan, a Paul Scholes fan or just a football fan, you might enjoy it.

Another weekend, another twist in the Premier League title race.

The way this season is going, it would be foolish to write Chelsea, Manchester United, or even Arsenal out of the race for top spot.

As the Manchester derby edged towards full time earlier on today, those of a blue persuasion in West London must have thought their slightly lighter blue cousins up north were about to do them a huge favour and hold United to a draw, surely ending any hopes they had of hanging on to their title.

Sky Sports’ fondness of hype is an inescapable part of the modern Premier League title race.

With David Haye fighting John Ruiz in Manchester on the same day and the fight being shown on Sky Box Office, the broadcaster was almost contractually obliged to adopt a fight theme for their coverage of Manchester United v Chelsea.

If Chelsea were looking for a boost ahead of their crucial clash with Manchester United this weekend, they got it in Munich on Tuesday.

Wayne Rooney’s awkward landing towards the end of his side’s 2-1 defeat to Bayern Munich simultaneously had England and United fans praying and Chelsea fans breathing a sigh of relief.

James Averill explains his experiences of supporting Northampton town

As I walked away from Stamford Bridge this afternoon having watched Chelsea beat Stoke City 2-0, my mind was already racing ahead of me.

Would we get Tottenham in the semi finals or would we have to wait until the final?

I switched on Five Live, made my way home and found out that it would be the latter. A semi final against Martin O’Neill’s talented Aston Villa stands between Chelsea and back to back FA Cup finals.

After the horrific broken leg sustained by Aaron Ramsey earlier it will be interesting to see what newspapers choose to do about the pictures that they use.

The News of the World have already found probably the most disturbing image of the injury: http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00096/ramsey_inj_516x350_96122a.jpg  (I wouldn't look at this if you have just eaten)

Will all newspapers go with this image? If so will they use it in a double page spread it choose it keep it relatively small?