World Cup kicks off with musical extravaganza

The 19th Fifa World Cup isn’t that far away, a couple of month and the 11th of June will be here before you know it. The night before the first game kicks off there will be an impressive concert.
It will take place in the Orlando Stadium in Soweto/ Johannesburg, in South Africa on June the 10th at 8PM.
The event will feature musical performances by international superstars and popular African artists collaborating together, along with special appearances from past and present football legends.
Alicia Keys, Black Eyed Peas, Shakira and much more are expected that night.
Kevin Hall, the producer of the event says that ’2010 will mark the first time the FIFA World Cup will be played in Africa, so it seemed fitting to celebrate this momentous occasion with a festival of live music from Africa and beyond’.

Quite an exciting event coming up!

Hulu’s NFL network

Back in January Hulu, the free online video service, added to its online TV catalogue the NFL Network, including eight shows and highlights from every team in the National Football League. That was already good news for football fans.
Ever since, the network has been adding new content to the site, and this week Hulu has posted an impressive 400 hours of NFL-related videos. Hulu still plans to add 600 more hours before the next season starts.
There’s really a big boom happening in Sport’s web video coverage.
After the ESPN player, The NCAA has now launched ‘NCAA Vault’, a new website with videos of nearly a decade of games from the annual NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Users can isolate a specific play from each game, and share links of their favorites with friends through Twitter and Facebook.

Hulu is handling many deals at the same time, let’s not forget its own reality show ‘If I can dream’ that just started two weeks ago.

Give your Valentines day a kick

It’s hard to miss the fact that Valentines Day is just around the corner, but with it falling on a Sunday this year, there’s sure to be a few guys left with the difficult decision of watching the match or spending time with their loved one.

Well here’s the perfect solution for you, but don’t thank us, thank Puma.

In support of PUMAs Love = Football campaign they have created a Valentines Day video e-card which features football “hooligan” fans singing a love song. You can customise the e-card with a message of your choice and then away you go, just email it to your sweetheart in time for Valentines Day – which just in case you were wondering, is this Sunday. You can even post the e-card to your loved ones wall on Facebook. So have the best of both worlds this Valentines Day, it’s just a click away!

FIFA goes green with Yingli Green Energy

It started as mere mutterings from Asia Sponsorship News after learning the identity of the new global sponsor from invitations sent to the local media, but now FIFA have confirmed that Yingli Green Energy will be their global sponsor for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Not only is Yingli Green Energy the first Chinese company to sign a global sponsorship deal with FIFA, they are also the first renewable energy company to sponsor the world cup. And as one of China’s biggest solar panel and solar energy product manufacturers, this company is well positioned to answer FIFA’s call to make the world’s most popular sport not only a celebration of the game but also a sign of respect for the planet that we inhabit.

Sky airs first live 3D football match

At first glance it appeared to be an ordinary football match as crowds gathered with a beer in hand to watch Manchester United vs. Arsenal yesterday. However these spectators were part of a lucky few who got to watch broadcasting history in the making as Sky hosted their first live 3D football match yesterday ahead of the launch of their 3D channel in April.

All clad with dark 3D glasses the crowd watched on as graphics appeared to hang in mid-air and TV logos jumped off the screen. Giving the audience the feeling that they are right there on the pitch with the players.

Only nine pubs across the UK were included in the sneak preview, however by April Sky intend to be airing weekly matches in 3D in a larger number of pubs.

Sky operations director Darren Long said “It’s not a gimmick – 3D is going to get better and better. “You can see the swerve of the ball, where the players are in relation to one another. You have a perception of depth which you have never had before. When you watch a golfer putting in 2D it looks flat – it looks easy. When you see it in 3D, you can see every bump and contour on the green and you really appreciate their skill.”

Becks to back 2018 Bid

The Sun

England’s flailing attempt to secure the 2018 World Cup is to be boosted by the support of David Beckham when the draw is announced in Cape Town on December 4th.

Fifa vice-president Jack Warner sent a warning to the FA that their bid was “plodding along” and should involve personalities such as Beckham, who was instrumental in hos support for the 2012 Olympic bid.

“I was honoured to be involved in the Olympic bid and we were successful there and I was asked to be an ambassador of this one. So of course I accepted it and I’m serious about it.

“Just because we are England, love the game and we’re one of the biggest nations for the game, it doesn’t mean we are taking this bid lightly,” said Beckham.

“I think we’re right because we are a nation that loves the game. The facilities around our country are exceptional. You look at the stadiums and they are second to none. If we were given the World Cup and it was held next week, we would be ready.

“If we want something like the World Cup in our country it’s not just given to you, you have to get things right and make a lot of people happy. We plan on doing that. Hopefully we can get it.”

Dozey England Fans Discover Singing Estonian Beauty!

The forthcoming England football match may well be a meaningless one as England have already qualified for the World Cup, but that’s no excuse for dopey England fans to get the actual fixture wrong!

While searching for places that they can view the match online, some fans have been searching for an England vs Estonia game as opposed to the England vs Ukraine game!

As a result, hits on Estonian pop star Hannah’s youtube page have gone through the roof (with views now up over 100,000) as she once sung the national anthem at an England international

Judging by the way England have approached meaningless fixtures recently we’re not surprised that fans prefer to watch the gorgeous Hannah instead:

Having watched the video on her YouTube page there are also some Hannah Montana fans that are mistaking her for Miley Cyrus. Miley was all over the entertainment wires yesterday after deleting her Twitter account to the distress of her 1.2million followers!

England play live only on Internet

The forthcoming World Cup qualifier match between England and the Ukraine will only be available to watch live online. The Ukranian Football Federation appointed agents Kentaro to sell the game, originally to be screened by Setanta. When the broadcaster went bust, digital player providers Perform were granted the rights .

As England have already qualified for World Cup finals, none of the usual broadcasters were prepared to pay the fee for the game. Subscribers to the Perform player will have to pay between £4.99 – £11.99 to watch the game, depending on how far in advance they sign up and subscription will be limited to 1 million, ensuring that the best possible quality of stream is delivered.