It seems that nicknaming your team The Red Devils is a surefire way to guarantee your club’s success. Manchester United seem the most obvious example, but there is a host of other teams who share this nickname. Al Ahly, America de Cali and Hapoel Tel Aviv have trophy cabinets overflowing with honors. AC Milan could…

We tend to think of the Copa Del Rey as a purely Spanish affair, which probably sounds like the most obvious statement ever. This statement however is wrong, because nearly 100 years ago, two foreign teams were invited to play in the tournament and one of them actually won it.   The Copa Del Rey…

It’s difficult to look further than the dominance of PSG in recent years, the club was acquired by Qatar Sports Investments in 2011 and have embarked on a relentless spending spree in an attempt to obtain silverware. To some degree, it has been successful as Les Parisiens have won eight Ligue 1 titles since the…

Rival fans and football snobs call them a plastic club and pill pushers, but Bayer 04 Leverkusen is an institution of football that has stood for more than 100 years. As the more eagle-eyed of you might have spotted, the club has a 04 in their name and their badge, marking the year 1904. One…

Fulham are the oldest professional football club founded in London, but have not had a history as glamorous as clubs like Arsenal, Spurs or Chelsea have. Despite this, they are, if nothing else, a very likable club. The atmosphere at their stadium, Craven Cottage, is just what a football romantic could wish for. The Cottagers…

Since the arrival of Qatari money, PSG have mostly dominated Ligue 1, but during the first few years of their Qatar Sports Investment takeover, it’s fair to say Les Parisiens struggled. In the 2011-12 campaign, the newly super-wealthy club spent €82 million under Carlo Ancelotti’s leadership. The Ligue 1 champions that year? Montpellier. Yes, La…

Arthur Schopenhauer, a German Philosopher in the 19th century stated in his work “On the Sufferings of the World” that “unless suffering is the direct and immediate object of life, our existence must entirely fail of its aim”. Being born as a human means that suffering is the general rule of life and not the…

Long before the takeovers of Roman Abramovich and Todd Boehly, another Chelsea takeover would create an arguably even bigger shift in the club’s fortunes. In 1982 businessperson and former Leeds owner Ken Bates acquired the club for one pound. The price tag may seem like a bargain to many, especially knowing the monster Chelsea are…

The debate has raged online about the most dominant and competitive leagues in Europe for some time now. Premier League fans love to throw the “farmer’s league” moniker around to show the perceived superiority of their league over its continental counterparts. But as we will see, the Premier League is one of the least competitive…

Few rivalries have captured the attention of the entire world quite like El Clasico. Barcelona’s 3-1 victory in the Supercopa de España on January 15 was the 251st time that Real Madrid and their Blaugrana rivals faced off against each other in official competition, with Real winning 101 of them, Barcelona claiming 98 wins, as…