La Liga

The Primera División (First Division) of the Liga de Fútbol Profesional (Professional Football League), commonly known as La Liga or Liga BBVA ^[1] since 2008, is the top professional football league in Spain. It is contested by 20 teams, with the three lowest placed teams relegated to the Segunda División and replaced by the top three teams in that division. La Liga is one of the top national football leagues in the world, currently ranked second in Europe behind the FA Premier League. It has been ranked as the top European league by UEFA more than any other European league.

A total of 58 teams have competed in La Liga, nine of which have been crowned champions. Since the 1950s, Real Madrid and Barcelona have dominated the championship. The former have won the title 31 times while the latter have won it on 18 occasions. However, during the 1930s and 1940s and in the last two decades, La Liga has seen other champions including Atlético Madrid, Athletic Bilbao, Valencia, Sevilla, Deportivo La Coruña, Real Sociedad and Real Betis.

La Liga is one of the most popular professional sports leagues in the world, with an average attendance of 29,029 for league matches in the 2007-2008 season. This is the eighth highest of any domestic professional sports league in the world and the third highest of any professional football league, behind the Bundesliga and the Premier League

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Clubs in 2008/09 season

Club	Position in 2007–08	First season after most recent promotion	Region	Stadium	Capacity
Real Madrid	1	n/a	Madrid	Santiago Bernabéu	80,400
Villarreal	2	2000/01	Valencia	El Madrigal	23,000
Barcelona	3	n/a	Catalonia	Camp Nou	98,772
Atlético Madrid	4	2002/03	Madrid	Vicente Calderón	54,851
Sevilla	5	2001/02	Andalucia	Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán	45,500
Racing Santander	6	2002/03	Cantabria	El Sardinero	22,271
Mallorca	7	1997/98	Balearic Islands	ONO Estadi	23,142
Almería	8	2007/08	Andalusia	Estadio Mediterráneo	22,000
Deportivo La Coruña	9	1991/92	Galicia	Riazor	34,600
Valencia	10	1987/88	Valencia	Mestalla	55,000
Athletic Bilbao	11	n/a	Basque Country	San Mamés	39,750
Espanyol	12	1994/95	Catalonia	Luís Companys	55,926
Real Betis	13	2001/02	Andalusia	Manuel Ruiz de Lopera	52,700
Getafe	14	2004/05	Madrid	Alfonso Pérez	16,300
Real Valladolid	15	2007/08	Castile and León	José Zorrilla	26,512
Recreativo Huelva	16	2006/07	Andalusia	Nuevo Colombino	21,600
Osasuna	17	2000/01	Navarra	Reyno de Navarra	19,800
Numancia	1st in Segunda	2008/09	Castile and León	Los Pajaritos	10,200
Málaga	2nd in Segunda	2008/09	Andalusia	La Rosaleda	29,000
Sporting Gijón	3rd in Segunda	2008/09	Asturias	El Molinón	25,585

Premier League 2008-2009

Premier League Official Website

Stadium

Team	Stadium	Capacity
Manchester United	Old Trafford	76,212
Arsenal	Emirates Stadium	60,355
Newcastle United	St James’ Park	52,387
Sunderland	Stadium of Light	48,707
Manchester City	City of Manchester Stadium	47,726
Liverpool	Anfield	45,362
Aston Villa	Villa Park	42,640
Chelsea	Stamford Bridge	42,055
Everton	Goodison Park	40,158
Tottenham Hotspur	White Hart Lane	36,310
West Ham United	Upton Park	35,303
Middlesbrough	Riverside Stadium	35,049
Blackburn Rovers	Ewood Park	31,367
Bolton Wanderers	Reebok Stadium	28,723
Stoke City	Britannia Stadium	28,383
West Bromwich Albion	The Hawthorns	28,003
Fulham	Craven Cottage	25,500
Hull City	KC Stadium	25,404
Wigan Athletic	JJB Stadium	25,138
Portsmouth	Fratton Park	20,688

Monthly awards

Month	Manager of the Month		Player of the Month
	Manager	Club	Player	Club
August[26]	Gareth Southgate	Middlesbrough	Deco	Chelsea
September[27][28]	Phil Brown	Hull City	Ashley Young	Aston Villa
October[29]	Rafael Benítez	Liverpool	Frank Lampard	Chelsea
November[30]	Gary Megson	Bolton Wanderers	Nicolas Anelka	Chelsea
December[31]	Martin O’Neill	Aston Villa	Ashley Young	Aston Villa
January[32]	Sir Alex Ferguson	Manchester United	Nemanja Vidić	Manchester United
February[33]	David Moyes	Everton	Phil Jagielka	Everton
March[34]	Rafael Benítez	Liverpool	Steven Gerrard	Liverpool

League table ( may 06 , 2009)

P	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Manchester United (Q)	34	25	5	4	63	23	+40	80	UEFA Champions League 2009–10 Group stage
2	Liverpool	35	22	11	2	69	26	+43	77
3	Chelsea	35	22	8	5	59	21	+38	74
4	Arsenal	35	19	11	5	63	32	+31	68	UEFA Champions League 2009–10 Play-off round for non-champions
5	Aston Villa (Q)	35	16	10	9	51	44	+7	58	UEFA Europa League 2009–10 Play-off round
6	Everton	35	15	11	9	50	36	+14	56
7	West Ham United	35	13	9	13	39	38	+1	48	UEFA Europa League 2009–10 Third qualifying round
8	Manchester City	35	14	5	16	56	46	+10	47
9	Fulham	35	12	11	12	35	31	+4	47
10	Tottenham Hotspur	35	13	8	14	42	41	+1	47
11	Wigan Athletic	34	11	9	14	31	38	−7	42
12	Bolton Wanderers	35	11	6	18	40	51	−11	39
13	Stoke City	35	10	9	16	33	50	−17	39
14	Portsmouth	35	9	11	15	35	53	−18	38
15	Blackburn Rovers	35	9	10	16	38	58	−20	37
16	Sunderland	35	9	8	18	31	48	−17	35
17	Hull City	35	8	10	17	37	60	−23	34
18	Newcastle United	35	6	13	16	37	56	−19	31	Relegation to Football League Championship 2009–10
19	Middlesbrough	35	7	10	18	25	51	−26	31
20	West Bromwich Albion	35	7	7	21	33	64	−31	28

website address serie a team

Official Atalanta BC Site

bologna Official Website

Cagliari’s official website

Catania’s official website

Chievo Verona Official site

Fiorentina’s Official website

Genoa’s Official website (Italian)

Internazionale Milano Official Website

Juventus.com

Lazio’s Official website

Lecce’s official website

AcMilan.com

napoli’s Official website

Palermo’s Official site

Reggina’s Official site

Roma’s A.S Official Site

Sampdoria’s official website

Siena statistics

Torino FC, Unofficial Site Dedicated to Torino FC – The First In English Language

Udinese’s Official website

Rijkaard satisfied despite stalemate

Frank Rijkaard said the goalless home draw against Manchester United FC was “not a good result” but refused to be drawn on who is now favourite to reach the final in Moscow, saying his FC Barcelona team still “have a great chance” of reaching a second UEFA Champions League showpiece in three years. His counterpart, Sir Alex Ferguson, was satisfied with the outcome but was disappointed with the way his side built attacks and their lack of possession.

Frank Rijkaard, Barcelona coach
It was a very even match. United were very well organised in defence and put together some good counterattacks. A victory is what we wanted obviously but the semi-final is still open. We’re confident for the Old Trafford game. The team was good tonight and people are confident we can do it. It’s not a good result but we hope to score there, although this second leg won’t be easy for them either. The atmosphere, tension and crowd were fantastic tonight but I don’t think this was our best match of the season. It was a high-level game and the crowd responded well.

Some of the players on the pitch hadn’t played in a while; Deco made a big effort, we still have to keep an eye on [Lionel] Messi and [Thierry] Henry has just recovered from a bout of fever. I don’t think about who are favourites – we do have a great chance so it’ll be a great match against a great team. We have to carry on like this. United were quite defensive and the important thing is to carry on creating chances to score. I wasn’t surprised by United being defensive and waiting to counterattack. The penalty was a big moment but fortunately Cristiano Ronaldo missed. It was a key point in the match but we worked hard. We will do all we can to reach the final.

Sir Alex Ferguson, United manager
Barcelona had a lot of possession but have had that in other games, especially at home. We’re satisfied to leave with a clean sheet but we’re a bit disappointed at the transition from defence to attack so I’m more concerned about our low ball possession. I don’t think the penalty will be a key in the semi-finals. If we draw or lose we’re out but I rely on our record at Old Trafford and the atmosphere at home, so that match will be different. The crowd at the Camp Nou was happy at the team’s performance and there were no white hankies. I hope our crowd will be just as happy at Old Trafford. Barcelona have fantastic players and you know it’s going to be a serious match but they didn’t get any clear chances to score.

[Nemanja] Vidić has stomach pains and as our hotel was near to a hospital we took him there. They think he has a stomach infection and he has a slight chance of playing on Saturday [against Chelsea FC]. We know we had to change the defence and I opted for Wes Brown rather than Gerard Piqué because I didn’t think it was fair on the boy to put him under the pressure of playing against his former club at the Camp Nou. We have to look at the positive side and the draw here isn’t bad at all. I don’t think we were fast or direct enough and we lost the ball too much tonight. We usually play better but we had to defend more and I thought Ronaldo could win the match himself but we didn’t back him enough, despite most of our chances coming from him. We will definitely attack more in the second leg.

©uefa.com 1998-2008. All rights reserved.

United and Chelsea seek home comforts

Manchester United FC and Chelsea FC will be looking to make the most of home advantage in the second legs of their UEFA Champions League semi-finals after securing hard-fought draws on their travels.

Recovery powers
The Premier League’s top two clubs may be slight favourites to reach the final, but they will need to show impressive powers of recovery after going head-to-head at Stamford Bridge on Saturday. Sir Alex Ferguson’s United and FC Barcelona remain the only unbeaten sides in the competition after a goalless statemate at the Camp Nou left the tie intriguingly poised ahead of Tuesday’s return at Old Trafford. “We’re satisfied to leave with a clean sheet but a bit disappointed at the transition from defence to attack,” said Ferguson, who downplayed the importance of Cristiano Ronaldo’s missed penalty: “I don’t think it will be a key in the semi-finals.”

Superior record
Barcelona possess a superior record at this stage, having won four of the eight semi-finals they have contested compared to United’s tally of two from nine, and Frank Rijkaard is convinced his side can progress. “We have a great chance,” said the Dutchman. Deco, Lionel Messi and Thierry Henry all featured last Wednesday and Rijkaard believes their influence will grow as they regain full fitness, saying: “Some of the players hadn’t played in a while but they worked hard and will only get stronger.”

Late leveller
Liverpool FC, meanwhile, must pick themselves up from the disappointment of conceding an added-time equaliser to Chelsea last Tuesday. “I was really surprised and of course very disappointed with [John Arne Riise’s] own goal,” said Reds manager Rafael Benítez. “The reaction in the dressing room was one of great disappointment.”

Historical record
The Spaniard can draw comfort from the history books, however. The Merseysiders have never lost a last-four tie to Chelsea, either domestically or in Europe, and have emerged victorious in this competition twice in the last three seasons, albeit after playing the second leg at Anfield. As the five-time European champions target their third final appearance in four years, Chelsea are bidding to reach the showpiece for the first time, having fallen at the last hurdle on three occasions since 2003/04.

©uefa.com 1998-2008. All rights reserved.

Zinedine Zidane

Why Is He Famous?

Zinedine Zidane is considered by many to be the best soccer players ever. Thanks to Real Madrid, he is one of the most expensive, having transferred from Italian giant Juventus for $66 million US — a record that still holds. He led France to a memorable World Cup in 1998 by scoring two goals in the final.