Liverpool FC

Liverpool Football Club is a professional football club based in Liverpool, England which plays in the Premier League and is one of the most successful in the history of English football, winning more trophies than any other English club. Liverpool has won a joint-record eighteen league titles, seven FA Cups, seven League Cups, three UEFA Cups and five European Cups, an English record.

The club was founded in 1892 and won five league championships between 1900 and 1947. However, Liverpool spent several years in the Second Division during the late 1950s, and did not win promotion again until the appointment of Bill Shankly as manager in 1959. The club traditionally played in red and white, but this was changed to all red in the 1960s.

Under Shankly's management, Liverpool won three League Championship titles, two FA Cups and a UEFA Cup, the club's first European trophy. In the past 30 years, they have been one of the most successful clubs in English and European football; they won four European Cups between 1977 and 1984 and a fifth in 2005.

FC Porto

Futebol Clube do Porto or FC Porto, Porto, or FCP for short, is one of the Três Grandes, or Big Three, football clubs in Portugal, with Sport Lisboa e Benfica and Sporting Clube de Portugal being the other two clubs, FC Porto's two biggest rivals. It was founded in Porto in 1893.

FC Porto is an internationally lauded team, with a national record of six international titles, becoming European and World Champions twice each in the 1987 and 2004 seasons. In 1987, FC Porto also gained the UEFA Supercup (another first for Portugal) and, in 2004, it brought Portugal's first UEFA Champions League trophy, making FC Porto the most successful club internationally in Portugal. In 1987, FC Porto became one of a few teams in the World to hold in possession three major international titles simultaneously (the only one in Portugal). Domestically they hold the best record of five titles in a row, having won the Portuguese Liga 24 times. Other titles won by the club include the Portuguese Cup 18 times and Portuguese Supercup 16 times (58 national titles).

The football home ground is the Estádio do Dragão, which replaced the previous home, Estádio das Antas, in 2003. A new multi-sport arena near the stadium was recently completed to harbour FC Porto's other sports such as the handball and basketball teams, which are regular contenders for the national titles and the roller hockey section, amongst the best in the sport worldwide. Supporters and players of the club are nicknamed Portistas.

FC Porto was founded in the northern city of Porto on 28 September 1893 by wine-salesman António Nicolau de Almeida, who had his first contact with the game of football on one of his trips to England. The club was revived in 1906 by Monteiro da Costa.

Commercially, the club has several stores called Loja Azul (Blue Store) scattered around the city, including two used with official supplier Nike. Since 1994, a merchandising goods fair called Portomania is organized during the pre-season. FC Porto publishes one of the older club-related publications in Europe: a monthly 60-page full-colour magazine called Dragões (Dragons) that has existed since the early 1980s.

FC Porto played in the Portuguese championship 74 times, playing 2048 games, winning 1333, drawing 375, losing 340, scoring 4542 goals, and conceding 1909, having 3342 points as of the end of the 2007–08 season. They were also one of the founding members of the now disbanded G-14.

FC Porto's first official trophy, the Union of the North Cup, was won in 1911. In the following years, it became one of the biggest clubs in Portugal and went on to win the first national competition in the history of Portuguese football, the Campeonato da Liga 1934-35. Porto were always a struggling team after that championship, and went on to win only five championships in 41 years . But slightly before the new president Pinto da Costa took office, the history of Portuguese soccer saw a new title contestant, and a new European team. In the following years, since 1978, Porto won 19 titles, 11 Portuguese cups, 16 Portuguese supercups, 1 European Champions Cup, and the new Champions League, 1 UEFA Cup, 1 European Super Cup, and 2 Intercontinental Cup.

Two of the biggest reasons for this change of fortunes were Pinto da Costa, who took control of Porto in 1982 and José Maria Pedroto whom he had brought back with him to manage the team. The duo quickly caused the team damage, with Pinto da Costa as football director and Pedroto as manager, winning two titles previously, and making controversial remarks about the centralization of Portuguese football, which caused them problems with the directing board, and consequently they left. After quitting, in 1982, Pinto da Costa ran for presidency and won, bringing back Pedroto. The following decades turned what was the third team in the overall history of Portuguese football into the biggest title winner of the past 30 years. Since 1982, Porto has won 17 titles, achieving the record Penta (five leagues in a row) in 1999 and since 1976 never finished below 3rd place, 10 Portuguese cups, and has a majority of Supercups, having won 15 out of a possible 27.

New York Red Bulls

The New York Red Bulls are an American professional soccer club based in in the New York metropolitan area that participates in Major League Soccer (MLS). The team plays in Red Bull Arena, in Harrison, New Jersey, which opened for the 2010 MLS season. Previously the team played at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, where they had played their home matches since the team's founding. The team's headquarters are located in Secaucus, New Jersey.

The team is a founding member of MLS (1996), but has gone through several name changes. The team was originally known as the New York/New Jersey MetroStars through 1997. From the 1998 season until right before the 2006 season, the team was known as simply the MetroStars, though 'NY/NJ' continued to be displayed on the MLS Website in reference to the team through the early 2000s. On March 9, 2006, it was sold to Red Bull GmbH, and the name of the organization was changed to Red Bull New York while the playing team was to be called the New York Red Bulls, because they are located in the New York metropolitan area.

The team played its home matches at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey until the end of the 2009 season. During the team's first season, the MetroStars had solid black or solid white jerseys and during all other seasons, the home jerseys had red and black vertical stripes.

The team's best result in MLS play was the MLS Cup final in 2008. In the US Open Cup, the MetroStars reached three semifinals (1997, 1998, 2000), before finally reaching their first final in 2003, losing 1-0 to the Chicago Fire. On August 26, 2000, the Metros' Clint Mathis set an MLS record by scoring five goals in a game against the Dallas Burn.

Some famous players that have played for the team were Roberto Donadoni, Lothar Matthäus, Adolfo Valencia, Youri Djorkaeff, Amado Guevara. The team has had its share of famous coaches as well, including Carlos Queirós, Carlos Alberto Parreira, Bora Milutinović, as well as Bob Bradley, Mo Johnston, and Bruce Arena. American stars Tony Meola, Tab Ramos, Tim Howard, Alexi Lalas (who was also the team's General Manager, for a brief time), Clint Mathis, and Eddie Pope have all played for the team.

The team played in Giants Stadium until the end of the 2009 season. The stadium is located in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority (NJSEA) owns Giants Stadium along with the Izod Center. Currently, the New York Red Bulls training facilities are located at Giants Stadium.

The team moved to a new soccer-specific stadium, Red Bull Arena, in Harrison, located directly across the Passaic River from Newark, New Jersey. Due to various delays in construction, the stadium opened in 2010 with a 25,189 seating capacity. On November 16, 2007, Red Bull announced that it had purchased full ownership of the project, overseeing all aspects of construction and stadium management. Red Bull built the stadium without taxpayer money.

The Red Bulls' main rivals are fellow MLS teams DC United, against whom they compete for the Atlantic Cup, and the New England Revolution. These rivalries arise out of geographic proximity and as a reflection of longstanding rivalries between New York-area teams and Washington and Boston-area teams in other sports. It is expected that similar factors will lead to a strong rivalry with the Philadelphia Union when that team begins play in 2010.

Juventus FC

Juventus Football Club, commonly referred to as Juventus and familiarly as Juve, is an Italian professional football club based in Turin, Piedmont. The club was founded in 1897 and has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 2006–07 season, in the top flight First Division (called Serie A since 1929).

Juventus is historically the most successful team of Italian football and one of the most successful and recognized in the world. According to the International Federation of Football History and Statistics, an international organization recognized by FIFA, Juventus were Italy's best club of the 20th century and the second most successful European club in the same period.

Overall, the club has won 51 official competitions, more than any other team in the country; 40 in the national First Division, which is also a record, and 11 in UEFA and world competitions. It is the third most successful club in Europe and the sixth in the world, with the most international titles officially recognized by one of the six continental football confederations and FIFA.

The club was the first Italian and Southern European side to win the UEFA Cup. In 1985, Juventus, the only team in the world to have won all official international cups and championships, became the first club in the history of European football to have won all three major UEFA club competitions.

Juventus has the largest fan base of any Italian club, and at 170 million also has one of the highest numbers of supporters world-wide (it. the tifosi). The club is a founding member of the European Club Association, which was formed after the dissolution of the G-14, a collection of Europe's most elite clubs. The Torinese side is also recognized for its contribution to the Italian national team.

Juventus were founded as Sport Club Juventus in late 1897 by pupils from the Massimo D'Azeglio Lyceum school in Turin, but were renamed as Foot-Ball Club Juventus two years later. The club joined the Italian Football Championship during 1900. During this period the team wore a pink and black kit. Juventus first won the league championship in 1905 while playing at their Velodromo Umberto I ground. By this time the club colours had changed to black and white stripes, inspired by English side Notts County.

There was a split at the club in 1906, after some of the staff considered moving Juve out of Turin. President Alfredo Dick was unhappy with this and left with some prominent players to found FBC Torino which in turn spawned the Derby della Mole.Juventus spent much of this period steadily rebuilding after the split, surviving the First World War.

Fiat owner Edoardo Agnelli gained control of the club in 1923, and built a new stadium. This helped the club to its second scudetto (league championship) in the 1925–26 season beating Alba Roma with an aggregate score of 12–1, Antonio Vojak's goals were essential that season. The 1930s proved to be even more fruitful, the club won five consecutive league titles from 1930 through to 1935, most were under coach Carlo Carcano with star players such as Raimundo Orsi, Luigi Bertolini, Giovanni Ferrari and Luis Monti amongst others.

Juventus moved to the Stadio Comunale, but for the rest of the 1930s and the majority of the 1940s they were unable to recapture championship dominance.

After the Second World War, Gianni Agnelli was appointed honorary president. The club added two more league championships to its name in the 1949–50 and 1951–52 seasons, the latter of which was under the management of Englishman Jesse Carver.

Two new strikers were signed during 1957–58; Welshman John Charles and Italo-Argentine Omar Sivori, playing alongside longtime member Giampiero Boniperti. That season saw Juventus awarded with the Golden Star for Sport Excellence to wear on their shirts after becoming the first Italian side to win ten league titles. In the same season, Omar Sivori became the first ever player at the club to win the European Footballer of the Year. The following season they beat Fiorentina to complete their first league and cup double, winning Serie A and Coppa Italia. Boniperti retired in 1961 as the all-time top scorer at the club, with 182 goals in all competitions, a club record which stood for 45 years.

During the rest of the decade the club won the league just once more in 1966–67, However, the 1970s saw Juventus further solidify their strong position in Italian football. Under former player Čestmír Vycpálek they won the scudetto in 1971–72 and 1972–73, with players such as Roberto Bettega, Franco Causio and José Altafini breaking through. During the rest of the decade they won the league twice more, with defender Gaetano Scirea contributing significantly. The later win was under Giovanni Trapattoni, who helped the club's domination continue on into the early part of the 1980s.

The Trapattoni-era was highly successful in the 1980s; the club started the decade off well, winning the league title three more times by 1984. This meant Juventus had won 20 Italian league titles and were allowed to add a second golden star to their shirt, thus becoming the only Italian club to achieve this. Around this time the club's players were attracting considerable attention; Paolo Rossi was named European Footballer of the Year following his contribution to Italy's victory in the 1982 FIFA World Cup, where he was named player of the tournament.

Frenchman Michel Platini was also awarded the European Footballer of the Year title for three years in a row; 1983, 1984 and 1985, which is a record. Juventus are the only club to have players from their club winning the award in four consecutive years. Indeed it was Platini who scored the winning goal in the 1985 European Cup final against Liverpool, however this was marred by a tragedy which changed European football. The Heysel Stadium disaster, in which 39 people (mostly Juventus fans) were killed when a stadium wall collapsed, has been called by UEFA Chief Executive Lars-Christer Olsson in 2004, "the darkest hour in the history of the UEFA competitions", and resulted in the banning of all English clubs from European competition.

With the exception of winning the closely contested Italian Championship of 1985–86, the rest of the 1980s were not very successful for the club. As well as having to contend with Diego Maradona's Napoli, both of the Milanese clubs, Milan and Internazionale, won Italian championships. In 1990, Juventus moved into their new home, the Stadio delle Alpi, which was built for the 1990 World Cup.

Marcello Lippi took over as Juventus manager at the start of the 1994–95 campaign. His first season at the helm of the club was a successful one, as Juventus recorded their first Serie A championship title since the mid-1980s. The crop of players during this period featured Ciro Ferrara, Roberto Baggio, Gianluca Vialli and a young Alessandro Del Piero. Lippi lead Juventus to the Champions League the following season, beating Ajax on penalties after a 1–1 draw in which Fabrizio Ravanelli scored for Juve.

The club did not rest long after winning the European Cup, more highly regarded players were brought into the fold in the form of Zinédine Zidane, Filippo Inzaghi and Edgar Davids. At home Juventus won Serie A in 1996–97 and 1997–98, as well as the 1996 UEFA Super Cup and the 1996 UEFA / CSF Intercontinental Cup. Juventus reached the 1997 and 1998 Champions League finals during this period, but lost out to Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid respectively.

After a season's absence Lippi returned, signing big name players such as Gianluigi Buffon, David Trézéguet, Pavel Nedvěd and Lilian Thuram, helping the team to two more scudetto titles in the 2001–02 and 2002–03 seasons. Juventus were also part of an all Italian Champions League final in 2003 but lost out to Milan on penalties after the game ended in a 0–0 draw. The following year, Lippi was appointed as Italy's head coach, bringing an end to one of the most fruitful managerial spells in Juventus' history.

Fabio Capello became coach of Juventus in 2004, and led Juventus to two more Serie A titles. However, in May 2006, Juventus became one of the five clubs linked to a Serie A match fixing scandal, the result of which saw the club relegated to Serie B for the first time in its history. The club was also stripped of the two titles won under Capello in 2005 and 2006.

Many key players left following the demotion to Serie B, including Thuram, star striker Zlatan Ibrahimović and defensive stalwart Fabio Cannavaro. However, other big name players such as Buffon, Del Piero and Nedvěd remained to help the club return to Serie A while youngsters from the Primavera such as Sebastian Giovinco and Claudio Marchisio were integrated into the first team. The bianconeri were promoted straight back up as league winners after the 2006–07 season while captain Del Piero claimed the top scorer award with 21 goals. Since their return to Serie A in the 2007-08 season former Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri managed Juventus for two seasons. They finished in 3rd place in their first return season (2007–08) and qualified for the third qualifying round of the 2008–09 Champions League Preliminary stages. They qualified to the group stages, and did very well, beating Real Madrid in both home and away legs, but lost in the knockout round to Chelsea. Claudio Ranieri was sacked following a string of unsuccessful results, and Ciro Ferrara was appointed as the coach for the last two games of the season. Ferrara was subsequently appointed as the coach for the 2009–10 season.

Ferrara's stint as Juve head coach proved to be however unsuccessful, with Juve knocked out of UEFA Champions League and Coppa Italia, and just laying at sixth place in the league table at the end of January 2010, leading to the dismissal of Ciro Ferrara and his replacement with Alberto Zaccheroni.

FC Bayern Munich

FC Bayern Munich is a German sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional football team, which is the most successful club in German football, having won 21 German titles and 14 cups.

The club was founded in 1900 by eleven football players led by Franz John. Although Bayern won its first national championship in 1932, the club was not selected for the Bundesliga at its inception in 1963. In the middle of the 1970s, the club had its period of greatest success, when the famous team led by Franz Beckenbauer won the European Cup three times in a row (1974–76). In recent years they have been by far the most successful team in German football, winning seven of the last ten championships. The club's last international title was the Intercontinental Cup in 2001.

Since the beginning of the 2005–06 season, Munich plays its home games in the Allianz Arena. Previously the team had played for 33 years in the Olympic Stadium. The team colours are red and white, and the team crest shows the colours of Bavaria.

Bayern is a membership-based club with more than 152,000 members. There are also more than 2,500 officially-registered fan clubs with about 181,700 members. The club has other departments for chess, handball, basketball, gymnastics, bowling, table tennis, referees, and senior football with more than 1,100 active members.

Bayern is one of three professional football clubs in Munich. Bayern's main local rival is TSV 1860 Munich, who were the more successful club in the 1960s, winning a cup and a championship. In the 1970s and 1980s, TSV 1860 moved between the first and the third division, but lately have settled in the second division. The rivalry has therefore, at least from a Bayern point of view, lost importance, reflecting the lopsided state of the achievements of the two clubs and the absence of players for whom local grudges would still matter. On the other hand the Münchner Stadtderby is still a much anticipated event, getting a lot of extra attention from supporters of both clubs. 1860 is considered more working-class, and therefore suffers from a diminishing fan base in a city where the manufacturing sector is declining. Bayern is considered the establishment club, which is reflected by many board members being business leaders and including the former Bavarian minister president. Despite the rivalry, Bayern has repeatedly supported 1860 in times of financial disarray.

SpVgg Unterhaching from the semi-rural southern outskirts of Munich, is the city's third team. They celebrated their biggest success in 1999 when they gained promotion to the Bundesliga and stayed in the top flight for a second season. Since then they have been playing in the second Bundesliga and the third division. In the 2008–09 season they will be playing in the newly founded 3rd Liga. There is no rivalry between Bayern and Unterhaching, the most notable event in the relation of the two clubs being the finish of the 1999–2000 Bundesliga season. Unterhaching defeated Bayer Leverkusen on the last day of the season, giving Bayern the chance to surpass Leverkusen in the standings and claim the title.

Since the 1920s, FC Nuremberg has been Bayern's main rival in Bavaria. Both clubs played in the same league in the mid-1920s, but in the 1920s and 1930s, Nuremberg was far more successful, winning five championships in the 1920s, making the club Germany's record champion. Bayern took over the title more than sixty years later, when they won their tenth championship in 1987, thereby surpassing the number of championships won by Nuremberg. The duel between Bayern and Nuremberg is often referred to as the Bavarian Derby.

Since the 1970s, Bayern's main rivals have been the clubs who put up the strongest fight against its national dominance. In the 1970s this was Borussia Mönchengladbach, in the 1980s the category expanded to include Hamburger SV. In the 1990s Werder Bremen, Bayer Leverkusen, and Borussia Dortmund, emerged as the most ardent opponents. Recently Schalke 04, Bremen and Hamburg have been the main challengers in the Bundesliga. Amongst Bayern's chief European rivals are Real Madrid, A.C. Milan, and Manchester United due to many classic wins, draws and losses.

Bayern also enjoys a strong rivalry with FC Kaiserslautern, originating in parts from a game in 1973, when Bayern lead 4-1 to lose 7-4, but also from the two clubs competing for German championship honors at various times in the Bundesliga as well as the city of Kaiserslautern having been part of Bavaria until the end of the Second World War.

Real Madrid CF

Real Madrid Club de Fútbol, commonly known as Real Madrid (and in Spain, in football circles, simply as el Madrid), is a professional association football club based in Madrid, Spain. It is the most successful team in Spanish football and was voted by FIFA as the most successful club of the 20th century, having won a record thirty-one La Liga titles, seventeen Spanish Cups, a record nine European Cups and two UEFA Cups. Real Madrid was a founding member of FIFA and the now-defunct G–14 group of Europe's leading football clubs as well as its replacement, the European Club Association. The word "Real" in the club's name is the Spanish term for "Royal", and was added in 1920 together with the royal crown in the emblem.

Founded in 1902, Real Madrid has spent its entire history in the top flight of Spanish football. In the 1940s, the club, the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium and the Ciudad Deportiva had to be rebuilt following the Spanish Civil War. The club established itself as a major force in both Spanish and European football during the 1950s. In the 1980s, the club had one of the best teams in Spain and Europe (known as La Quinta del Buitre), winning two UEFA Cups, five consecutive Spanish championships, one Spanish cup and three Spanish Super Cups.

The team's traditional home colours are all white, although it initially adopted a blue oblique stripe on the shirt. Its crest has been changed several times in attempts to modernise or re-brand it. The current crest is a modified version of the one first adopted in the 1920s. Real Madrid's home ground is the 80,354-seater Santiago Bernabéu football stadium in downtown Madrid, where it has played since 1947.

Real Madrid holds long-standing rivalries with other football clubs, most notably FC Barcelona, with matches between the two teams referred to as "el Clásico". Unlike most European football clubs, Real Madrid's members (socios) have owned and operated the club since its inception. The club is the world's richest football club (€401m) in terms of revenue and the second most valuable and was worth over €950m in 2008.

Real Madrid's origins go back to when football was introduced to Madrid by the academics and students of the Institución libre de enseñanza, which included several Oxbridge graduates. They founded Football Club Sky in 1897, playing on Sunday mornings at Moncloa. It split into two clubs in 1900: New Foot-Ball de Madrid and Club Español de Madrid. The latter club split again in 1902, resulting in the formation of Real Madrid Football Club on March 6 in 1902. Three years after its foundation, in 1905, Madrid FC won its first title after defeating Athletic Bilbao in the Spanish Cup final. The club became one of the founding sides of the Spanish Football Association on 4 January 1909, when club president Adolfo Meléndez signed the foundation agreement of the Spanish FA. After moving between grounds the team moved to the Campo de O'Donnell in 1912. In 1920, the club's name was changed to Real Madrid after King Alfonso XIII granted the title of Real (Royal) to the club.

In 1929, the first Spanish football league was founded. Real Madrid lead the first edition until the last match, a loss to Athletic Bilbao, meant they finished runners-up to Barcelona. Real Madrid won its first League title in the 1931–32 season. The Whites won the League again the following year, becoming the first side to have won the championship twice.

Santiago Bernabéu Yeste became president of Real Madrid in 1945. Under his presidency, the club, the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium and the Ciudad Deportiva were rebuilt following the Spanish Civil War. Beginning in 1953, he embarked upon a strategy of signing world-class players from abroad, the most prominent of them being Alfredo di Stéfano.

In 1955, acting upon the idea proposed by the French sports journalist and editor of L'Équipe Gabriel Hanot, and building upon the Copa Latina (a tournament involving clubs from France, Spain, Portugal and Italy), Bernabéu met in the Ambassador Hotel in Paris with Bedrignan and Gusztáv Sebes and created an exhibition tournament of invited teams from around Europe that would eventually become what today is known as the UEFA Champions League. It was under Bernabéu's guidance that Real Madrid established itself as a major force in both Spanish and European football. The club won the European Cup five times in a row between 1956 and 1960, which included the 7–3 Hampden Park final against Eintracht Frankfurt in 1960. Winning the competition five consecutive times saw Real permanently awarded the original cup and earning the right to wear the UEFA badge of honour. The club won the European Cup for a sixth time in 1966 defeating FK Partizan 2–1 in the final with a team composed entirely of nationally born players (known as the Ye-yé team) – a first in the competition. The name "Ye-yé" came from the "Yeah, yeah, yeah" chorus in the Beatles' song "She Loves You" after four members of the team posed for Diario Marca dressed in Beatles wigs. The Ye-yé generation was also European Cup runner-up in 1962 and 1964.

In the 1970s, Real Madrid won 5 league championships and 3 Spanish Cups. The club played its first UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final in 1971, being defeated by English side Chelsea with 2-1. On 2 July 1978, club president Santiago Bernabéu died while the World Cup was being played in Argentina. In his honour FIFA decreed three days of mourning during the tournament. The following year, the club organized the first edition of Santiago Bernabéu Trophy in the memory of its former president.

By the early 1980s, Real Madrid had lost its grasp on the La Liga title until a new batch of home-grown stars brought domestic success back to the club. Spanish sport journalist Julio César Iglesias gave to this generation the name La Quinta del Buitre ("Vulture's Cohort"), which was derived from the nickname given to one of its members, Emilio Butragueño. The other four members were Manuel Sanchís, Martín Vázquez, Míchel and Miguel Pardeza. With La Quinta del Buitre (reduced to four members when Pardeza left the club for Zaragoza in 1986) and notable players like goalkeeper Francisco Buyo, right defender Miguel Porlán Chendo and Mexican striker Hugo Sánchez, Real Madrid had one of the best teams in Spain and Europe during the second half of the 1980s, winning two UEFA Cups, five Spanish championships in a row, one Spanish cup and three Spanish Super Cups.

In the early 1990s, La Quinta del Buitre split up after Martín Vázquez, Emilio Butragueño and Míchel left the club. In 1996, President Lorenzo Sanz appointed Fabio Capello as coach. Although his tenure lasted only one season, Real Madrid was proclaimed league champion and players like Roberto Carlos, Predrag Mijatović, Davor Šuker and Clarence Seedorf arrived at the club to strengthen a squad that already boasted the likes of Raúl, Fernando Hierro, Iván Zamorano, and Fernando Redondo. As a result, Real Madrid (with the addition of Fernando Morientes in 1997) finally ended its 32-year wait for its seventh European Cup. In 1998, under manager Jupp Heynckes, The Whites defeated Juventus 1–0 in the final thanks to a goal from Predrag Mijatović.

In July 2000, Florentino Pérez was elected club president. His campaign vowed to erase the club's debt and modernize the club's facilities. However, the primary electoral promise that propelled Pérez to victory was the signing of Luís Figo. The following year, the club controversially got its training ground rezoned and used the money to begin assembling the famous Galáctico side including players such as Zinédine Zidane, Ronaldo, Luís Figo, Roberto Carlos, Raúl and David Beckham. It is debatable whether the gamble paid off, as despite a European Cup win in 2002, followed by the League in 2003, the club failed to win a major trophy for the next three seasons.

Ramón Calderón was elected as club president on 2 July 2006 and subsequently appointed Fabio Capello as the new coach and Predrag Mijatović as the new sporting director. Real Madrid won the La Liga title in 2007 for the first time in four years but Capello was sacked. In the 2007–08 season, The Whites won the domestic league for the 31st time, achieving their first consecutive league title in eighteen years. On 1 June 2009, Florentino Pérez was again announced as the new president of Real Madrid. Pérez continued with the Galácticos policy pursued in his first term, first buying Kaká from A.C. Milan for just under £60 million, then purchasing Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United for a record breaking £80 million.

Aston Villa FC

Aston Villa Football Club (also known as The Villa, Villa and The Villans) is an English professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, who play in the Premier League. The club was founded in 1874 and have played at their current home ground, Villa Park, since 1897. Aston Villa were founder members of Football League in 1888. They were also founder members of the Premier League in 1992. The club was floated by the previous owner and chairman Doug Ellis, but in 2006 full control of the club was acquired by Randy Lerner.

They are one of the oldest and most successful football clubs in England, having won the First Division Championship seven times and the FA Cup seven times. Villa also won the 1981–82 European Cup, one of only four English clubs to win what is now the UEFA Champions League. Aston Villa has the fourth highest total of major honours won by an English club.

They have a long-standing and fierce rivalry with local rivals Birmingham City. The Birmingham derby between Aston Villa and Birmingham City has been played since 1879. The club's traditional kit colours are claret shirts with sky blue sleeves, white shorts and sky blue socks. Their traditional crest is of a rampant gold lion on a light blue background with the club's motto "Prepared" underneath; a modified version of this was adopted in 2007.

To date Aston Villa have spent 98 seasons in the top-flight, the only club to have spent longer in the top-flight is Everton with 105 seasons. As a result, Aston Villa versus Everton is the most played fixture in English top-flight football. Aston Villa is one of an elite group of seven clubs that has played in every Premiership season, they are: Arsenal, Aston Villa, Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur. Aston Villa is fifth in the All-time FA Premier League table. Aston Villa has the fourth highest total of major honours won by an English club with 20 wins.

Aston Villa currently hold the record number of league goals scored by any team in the English top-flight; 128 goals were scored in the 1930–31 season. Villa legend Archie Hunter became the first player to score in every round of the FA Cup in Villa's victorious 1887 campaign. Villa's longest unbeaten home run in the FA Cup spanned 13 years and 19 games, from 1888 to 1901.

Aston Villa are one of four English teams that have won the European Champions Cup. They did so on 26 May 1982 in Rotterdam, beating Bayern Munich 1–0 thanks to Peter Withe's goal.

Aston Villa's arch-rivals are Birmingham City, with games between the two clubs known as the 'Second City Derby'. Today, Villa also enjoy less heated local rivalries with West Bromwich Albion, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Coventry City. (These five clubs plus Walsall are collectively referred to in the West Midlands as the 'Big Six'.) Historically though, West Bromwich Albion have been one of Villa's greatest rivals, a view highlighted in a fan survey, conducted in 2003. The two teams contested three FA Cup finals in the late 19th century. Through the relegation of West Brom and Birmingham to The Championship in the 2005–06 season in the 2006–07 Premiership season Villa were the only Midlands club in that League. The nearest opposing team Villa faced during that season was Sheffield United, who played 62 miles (100 km) away in South Yorkshire. For the 2007–08 season Villa once again had two local derbies after Birmingham were promoted to the Premier League on 29 April 2007. Villa were victorious on the both occasions. Birmingham were relegated at the end of the 2007-08 season, as such, there was no Second City derby for the 2008-09 season. Both Birmingham and Wolverhampton gained promotion to the Premier League for the 2009-10 season and rivalries have been resumed.

Inter Milan

Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale and as just Inter in Italy, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy, founded in 1908. Inter are the champions of Italy, having retained their crown on 16 May 2009, their fourth successive title.

Inter are the only side in Italian football to have spent their entire history in Serie A, the top flight of Italian football which began its first season in 1929. Playing in black and blue striped shirts with black shorts, they have 17 Serie A titles to their name. Including the Coppa Italia and the Italian Super Cup, Inter have a total of 26 trophies won in Italy. Outside of their homeland, the club have also had success in European and World tournaments; they won the European Cup in two successive finals in 1964 and 1965. They have also won the UEFA Cup three times and the Intercontinental Cup twice also in 1964 and in 1965.

Inter play their home games at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, also known as the San Siro. The ground, which they share with rivals Associazione Calcio Milan, is the largest in Italian football, with a total capacity of 80,018. Inter train at the fields of sports center "Angelo Moratti" (better known as La Pinetina) in Appiano Gentile, near Como. The term Inter Milan is sometimes used in foreign countries to differentiate Internazionale from A.C. Milan, but is not used within Italy.

Internazionale have never been relegated from the Italian top flight in their entire history, which dates back all the way to 1908; a fact Nerazzurri fans hold in high regard. By comparison, Milan have been relegated twice. As of 2007, following Juventus' relegation to Serie B for the 2006–07 season following the Calciopoli scandal, Inter is the only Italian club that holds this honour, and its century in the top flight is one of the longest unbroken runs of any club in the world.

The current president and owner of Internazionale is Massimo Moratti. His father Angelo was the president of Inter during the club's golden era of the 1960s.

On 15 June 2005, Internazionale won the Coppa Italia, defeating Roma in the two-legged final 3-0 on aggregate (1–0 win in Milan and 2–0 win in Rome) and followed that up on 20 August 2005 by winning the Supercoppa Italiana after an extra-time 1–0 victory against original 2004–05 Serie A champions Juventus (before being stripped of this title). This Super Cup win was Inter's first since 1989, coincidentally the same year since Inter last won the Scudetto before 2006. On 11 May 2006, Inter retained their Coppa Italia trophy by once again, defeating Roma with a 4–1 aggregate victory (A 1–1 scoreline in Rome and a 3–1 win at the San Siro).

Inter were awarded the 2005–06 Serie A championship as they were the highest placed side in the season's final league table after points were stripped from Juventus and Milan — both sides being involved in the match fixing scandal that year. On 14 July 2006, the Italian Federal Appeal Commission found Serie A clubs Juventus, Lazio, Fiorentina, Reggina, and Milan guilty of match-fixing and punished the five clubs involved. As a result, with the relegation of Juventus to Serie B (for the first ever time in their history) and the 8-point deduction for city rivals Milan, Inter became favorites to retain their Serie A title for the upcoming 2006–07 Serie A season.

During the season, Inter went on a record-breaking run of 17 consecutive victories in Serie A, starting on 25 September 2006 with a 4–1 home win over Livorno and ending on 28 February 2007 after a 1–1 draw at home to Udinese. The 5–2 away win at Catania on 25 February 2007 broke the original record of 15 matches held by both Bayern Munich and Real Madrid from the "Big 5" (the top flight leagues in England, Italy, Spain, France, and Germany). The run lasted for almost five months and is among the best in European league football, with just Benfica (29 wins), Celtic (25 wins) and PSV (22 wins) bettering it. Inter's form dipped a little as they recorded 0–0 and 2–2 draws against relegation-battlers Reggina and slumping to Palermo (respectively), the latter game featuring a second-half comeback after Palermo went up 2–0 at halftime. They could not keep their invincible form up near the end of the season as well, as they lost their first game of the domestic season to Roma at the San Siro 3–1, thanks to two late Roma goals. Inter had enjoyed an unbeaten Serie A run for just under a year.

On 22 April 2007, Inter were crowned Serie A champions for the second consecutive season after defeating Siena 2–1 at Stadio Artemio Franchi. Italian World Cup winning defender Marco Materazzi scored both goals in the 18th and 60th minute, with the latter being a penalty. Inter started the 2007–08 season with the goal of winning both Serie A and UEFA Champions League. The team started well in the league, topping the table from the first round of matches, and also managed to qualify for the Champions League knockout stage; however, a late collapse leading to a 2–0 defeat with 10 men away to Liverpool on 19 February in the Champions League threw into question manger Roberto Mancini's future at Inter, and domestic form took a sharp turn of fortune with the team failing to win in the three following Serie A games (drawing with Sampdoria and major league opponents Roma, before losing away to Napoli, their first domestic defeat of the season. After being eliminated by Liverpool in the Champions League, Mancini then announced his intention to leave his job, only to change his mind the following day.

An improvement in results then gave Inter the chance to wrap up their Scudetto race twice, but a defeat to city rivals Milan and a home draw against Siena catapulted Roma to within just one point of Inter going into the final round of the Championship. Inter then managed to win at Parma thanks to two goals by Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimović, who was still recovering from a knee injury and came off the bench to score for his team.

Following this win, the club decided to sack Mancini on 29 May, citing his declarations following the Champions League defeat to Liverpool as the reason. On 2 June, Inter announced on their official website that they had appointed former FC Porto and Chelsea boss José Mourinho as new head coach, with Giuseppe Baresi as his assistant. This made Mourinho the only foreign coach in Italy in the 2008–09 season kick-off. Mourinho made only three additions to the squad during the summer transfer window of 2008 in the form of Mancini, Sulley Muntari, and Ricardo Quaresma. Under Mourinho's first season as Inter head coach, the Nerazzurri won a Italian Super Cup and a fourth consecutive title, being, however, also eliminated from the Champions League in the first knockout round for a third consecutive time, losing to Manchester United. In winning the league title for the fourth consecutive time, Inter joined Torino and Juventus as the only teams to do this and the first to accomplish this feat in over 50 years.

ACF Fiorentina

ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as simply Fiorentina, is a professional Italian football club from Florence, Tuscany. Founded by a merger in 1926, Florentina have played at the top level of Italian football for the majority of their existence; only four clubs have played in more Serie A seasons. After climbing back up the Italian football system in the early 2000s, Fiorentina are currently competing in the Serie A.

Fiorentina have won two Italian Championships, in 1955-56 and again in 1968-69, as well as winning six Coppa Italia trophies. On the European stage Fiorentina won the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1960-61, they finished runners-up in the 1956–57 European Cup losing against Real Madrid and also came close to winning the UEFA Cup, finishing as runners-up in the 1989-90 season.

Since 1931 the club have played at the Stadio Artemio Franchi, which currently has a capacity of 47,282. The stadium has used several names over the years and has undergone several renovations. Fiorentina are known widely by the nickname Viola, a reference to their distinctive purple colours.

The 2009–10 season started with Fiorentina again involved in the qualifying rounds of the Champions League, this time against Portuguese runners-up Sporting Clube de Portugal, who were defeated only on away goals rule (2–2 in Lisbon, 1–1 in Florence). The club was successively drawn a tough group in the following phase, with Olympique Lyonnais, Liverpool F.C. and Debreceni VSC as opponents. On September 24, 2009, Andrea Della Valle resigned from his position as chairman of ACF Fiorentina, and announced all duties would be temporarily transferred to Mario Cognini, Fiorentina's vice president until a permanent position could be filled. On 26 October 2009, Andrea Della Valle stepped down as chairman. Later, Fiorentina managed to reach the knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League for its first time ever after defeating Lyon 1-0 and finishing ahead of Liverpool.

Chelsea FC

Chelsea have recorded several "firsts" in English football. Along with Arsenal, they were the first club to play with shirt numbers on 25 August 1928 in their match against Swansea Town. Chelsea were the first English side to travel by aeroplane to a domestic away match, when they visited Newcastle United on 19 April 1957, and the first First Division side to play a match on a Sunday, when they faced Stoke City on 27 January 1974. On 26 December 1999, Chelsea became the first British side to field an entirely foreign starting line-up (no British or Irish players) in a Premier League match against Southampton. On 19 May 2007, they became the first team to win the FA Cup at the new Wembley Stadium, having also been the last to win it at the old Wembley. After the conclusion of the 2007/08 season, Chelsea became the highest ranked club under UEFA's five-year coefficient system used in the seeding of European club competitions in the following season, the first English club to do so in the 21st century.

Chelsea Football Club is an English professional football club based in West London. The team, founded in 1905, play in the Premier League and have spent most of their history in the top tier of English football. Chelsea have been English champions three times, and have won the FA Cup five times, the League Cup four times and the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup twice.

The club had their first major success in 1955, winning the league championship. Chelsea won several cup competitions during the 1960s and 1970s, but after that did not win another major title until 1997. The past decade has been the most successful period in Chelsea’s history, capped by winning consecutive Premier League titles in 2005 and 2006, and reaching their first UEFA Champions League final in 2008.

Chelsea's home is the 42,055 capacity Stamford Bridge football stadium in Fulham, West London, where they have played since their establishment. The club are based just outside the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. In 2003, they were bought by Russian oil magnate Roman Abramovich.

Chelsea's traditional kit colours are royal blue shirts and shorts with white socks. The club crest has been changed several times in attempts to modernize or re-brand; the current crest, featuring a ceremonial lion holding a staff, is a modified version of one first adopted in the 1950s. The club has sustained the fifth highest average all-time attendance in English football. Their average home gate for the 2008–09 season was 41,464, the fifth highest in the Premier League.

In 1930, Chelsea featured in one of the earliest football films, The Great Game. One-time Chelsea centre forward, Jack Cock, who by then was playing for Millwall, was the star of the film and several scenes were shot at Stamford Bridge, including the pitch, the boardroom, and the dressing rooms. It included guest appearances by then-Chelsea players Andrew Wilson, George Mills, and Sam Millington. Owing to the notoriety of the Chelsea Headhunters, a football firm associated with the club, Chelsea have also featured in films about football hooliganism, most recently The Football Factory. Chelsea also appear in the Hindi film Jhoom Barabar Jhoom.

Up until the 1950s, the club had a long-running association with the music halls, with their underachievement often providing material for comedians such as George Robey. It culminated in comedian Norman Long's release of a comic song in 1933, ironically titled "On the Day That Chelsea Went and Won the Cup", the lyrics of which describe a series of bizarre and improbable occurrences on the hypothetical day when Chelsea finally won a trophy.

The song "Blue is the Colour" was released as a single in the build-up to the 1972 League Cup Final, with all members of Chelsea's first team squad singing; it reached number five in the UK Singles Chart. The song was later adapted to "White is the Colour" and adopted as an anthem by the Vancouver Whitecaps in Canada. In the build-up to the 1997 FA Cup final, the song "Blue Day", performed by Suggs and members of the Chelsea squad, reached number 22 in the UK charts. Bryan Adams, a fan of Chelsea, dedicated the song "We're Gonna Win" from the album 18 Til I Die to the club.