Soccer

The Final Countdown - AFR Voice. Ep 19 The pod wraps up all of the last day action of the Premier League with a focus on the North London scrabble for a Champions League place and we wave off Sir Alex Ferguson, Jamie Carragher, Paul Scholes and Michael Owen to name a few. We even highlight the chance to own Sir Alex’s final piece of gum chewed as the Manchester United manager. With the final day in the English top tier proving relatively sedate, we headed to Europe for some end of season drama: AC Milan and Schalke stealing a last gasp Champions League spots, Atletico Madrid grabbing the Copa del Rey, and a tearful farwell in Paris to one man; one beautiful, moisturised man. Across the pond meanwhile, there’s all the breaking developments with NYC FC, and AFR chief Eric Beard’s not so subtle ways of potentially recruiting players for the new franchise. The European love-in continued at great pace courtesy of pod member and Chelsea fan Alex who regaled his experience of watching the Europa League final live in the Amsterdam Arena. Armed with the trusty AFR dictaphone, he provided an entertaining and pulsating account of another glorious night on the continent for The Blues. Whilst the match was a memorable one (no matter how much Benfica fans will want to forget it), the final is no match for the big daddy of them all – the Champions League final at Wembley this Saturday. As if you needed any further encouragement, we whet your appetite for the colossal clash with a match preview and prediction. Keep an ear out for our show next Tuesday, our final podcast of the season, when we’ll give a full debrief of the Munich-Dortmund game and pour out some champagne as we fondly (and hazily) look back on another sensational season of football. As always, you can get in touch with the team by tweeting @AFRvoice, or emailing afrvoice@gmail.com

Manchester City have officially unveiled their new home kit for the 2013-14 season. City, who just bought a MLS franchise today to become the majority owner of New York City FC, today launched their new kit to coincide with their tour of the United States where they’ll wear the new kit on Thursday in St. Louis and on Saturday in New York City. Designed by Nike, the new Manchester City home shirt is sky blue with dark blue and white trim. The design of the jersey is simple, clean and effective. The new shirt is part of a new six-year deal with Nike that will see the American company continuing to create shirts for City through 2019. View the photographs below to see close-ups of the crest as well as other features of the shirt. Share your thoughts on what you think about the new jersey in the comments section below. Manchester City Officially Unveil Their Home Kit for the 2013-14 Season [PHOTOS] is a post from EPL Talk - Independent voice of EPL soccer fans since 2005.

Timbers rely on Will Johnson's 'will to win'

Chelsea youngster Thorgan Hazard will continue his development in Belgium with another loan spell set for a Pro League club. read more

Manchester City chief executive Ferran Soriano admits the club are determined to break into the US soccer market. read more

Carlton Cole has confirmed he will leave West Ham United this summer. read more

Plus: Tottenham's points misfortune, high-scoring semis (2) and the origin of the Black Cats. Send your questions and answers to knowledge@guardian.co.uk and follow us on Twitter"After the recent escapades at Brighton, have there been any other high-profile dressing-room misdeeds?" asks Victoria Jenson.We start, Victoria, at Upton Park in May 1999 and a fiery game between West Ham and Leeds. The two sides were both battling to qualify for the Uefa Cup and Leeds took the lead inside a minute when Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink scored from 20 yards out. It got worse from there for West Ham. Shortly afterwards, Ian Wright was booked for an elbow on Alf-Inge Haaland – why always him? – and then received a second booking after 16 minutes after sending Ian Harte flying. Wright didn't take it well. He had to be held back from confronting the referee, Rob Harris, by Trevor Sinclair and Steve Lomas but he was in such a rage that once he disappeared down the tunnel, he kicked open the door to the referee's room and caused damage to personal property and a TV set. "I was so upset I behaved in an unacceptable manner," Wright said later. "I don't even remember properly what I did."The FA did, though, and fined Wright £17,500 and banned him for three matches. "He [Wright] offered a full and frank admission for his conduct and apologised unreservedly for the distress he caused," said the FA. The match concluded in disaster for West Ham, who ended it with eight men after red cards for Shaka Hislop and Lomas in the second half. Leeds won 5-1 and finished fourth, a place above the Hammers, who ultimately qualified for the Uefa Cup after winning the Intertoto Cup.A year earlier, there had also been trouble during a match between Linfield and Glentoran in Northern Ireland. Players fought on the pitch, three Glentoran players were sent off, police baton-charged fans fighting in the stands and one fan broke into Glentoran's dressing room to confront the manager Roy Coyle. He was thrown out by the players. "What was a hard-fought, highly competitive derby turned completely with that player scramble," said Linfield's chairman Billy McCoubrey. "After that, the whole thing disintegrated."Fans of Huracan also recently broke into their own team's dressing room after training, beating up and robbing some of their players, before wrecking a few cars. Around 150 fans stole mobile phones and money from the Argentinian side's players. And Rafael Benítez thought he had it bad at Chelsea.A diplomatic incident erupted between Italy and Turkey after a Champions League match between Roma and Galatasaray at Stadio Olimpico in 2002. After a 1-1 draw, fighting began when Gabriel Batistuta appeared to punch the Galatasaray defender Emre Asik and, within seconds, both teams, several directors and up to 20 police were brawling near the tunnel. According to Turkish players, mass fighting and police beatings continued once they had left the pitch. The Turkish government condemned the incident. "A police that attacks and truncheons so pitilessly, that goes into the changing rooms and attacks our players and lays out our people again, after already having attacked them on the edge of the pitch, could only be Mussolini's police," said the Turkish foreign minister, Ismail Cem. Vittorio Surdo, Italy's ambassador to Ankara, said that "comments about fascism are unacceptable". All in all, an unsavoury affair.Politics was also at the heart of a curious incident at the 1978 World Cup, when there were allegations that Argentina's crucial second-round win over Peru had been the subject of match-fixing by Argentina's military dictatorship. The former Peruvian senator Genaro Ledesma even called for Argentina to hand back the trophy. "I want to propose the annulment of the 1978 World Cup," he told Channel 4 News. "Argentina should give it back. It should be investigated by Fifa and by the Argentinian judiciary."There were claims that Peru were pressured into losing and it has even been allege

EA Sports today announced their IGNITE game engine, which will power FIFA 14 (and other games) on the new Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles. Xbox One is scheduled to be released later this year. FIFA 14 is due out in September, 2013. With the timing, FIFA 14 will be one of the first games available to show off the new games engine in the game and what the Xbox One is capable of. According to EA, “With Human Intelligence, True Player Motion and Living Worlds, the way sports games are played will fundamentally change. EA SPORTS IGNITE is designed to harness the potential of next-generation consoles and will power FIFA 14, Madden NFL 25, EA SPORTS UFC and NBA LIVE 14 on Xbox One and PlayStation 4.” Here’s the trailer for FIFA 14 NextGen: Trailer for the Xbox One ‘Ignite Engine’: What do you think about the next generation of FIFA? Tell us what you think in the comments section below. EA Sports Previews FIFA 14 For Xbox One and PS4 [VIDEO] is a post from EPL Talk - Independent voice of EPL soccer fans since 2005.

The 19-year-old forward has courted interest from Italy and Spain following a series of impressive performances for Racing, but no offer has yet been tabled Racing striker Luciano Vietto is edging nearer to securing a move to Europe after attracting interest from some of the continent’s leading clubs. Juventus, Atletico Madrid and Sevilla are among those understood to be keen on luring the 19-year-old away from Argentina in the future, and are believed to be considering offers for the player. The company owned by the player’s agent, Jorge Cyterszpiller, confirmed it had been inundated with enquiries regarding the starlet, but stressed an official offer had yet to be tabled by any would-be suitors. A company spokesperson told Goal: “There is an interest from Juventus, Sevilla and Atletico Madrid for Luciano Vietto. “They haven’t made any formal offers for the player yet, but we are not surprised by this interest in him as we have been getting calls from top football directors from different clubs.” Vietto, who has been capped by Argentina at Under-20 level, was handed his professional debut by Atleti coach Diego Simeone, and the former midfielder is understood to be interested in teaming up with the youngster once more. “Diego Simeone considers Vietto to be a very valuable player and it is understandable that Atletico Madrid are interested in him,” the spokesperson added. Cyterszpiller is due to fly to Europe in the coming weeks, but it is understood to be part of a routine annual trip and therefore could have no impact on Vietto’s future. The striker has netted 11 times in 29 appearances for Racing this season.

City are currently in New York on the post season tour where they have just unveiled next seasons kit.They made us wait until very late this evening to officially unveil it due to the time difference in New York and having done so it ends up the shirt had already been seen as it had been leaked, nothing special in my opinion, what do you think?