Getafe turn shirt advertising inside out

When Spanish La Liga side Getafe unveiled their new range of shirts, there was no immediate indication they would prove to be innovative.

On the contrary, to most people they look like ugly 80’s throwbacks, but that’s only on the outside. Because inside contains a surprise.

This year, Madrid’s least fashionable top-flight club is being sponsored by Burger King, and on honour of that hackneyed “shirt-pulled-over-the-head” goal celebration, the fast food giant have changed the face of shirt advertising. And the face is that of the Burger King himself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For anyone unsure about this concept, BK have also helpfully provided full instructions on how to achieve this effect, in a move befitting the sort of company who feels it necessary to tell its customers that coffee may be hot.

Providing this secondary form of advertising is legal according to the Football Association’s regulations, the Getafe / Burger King concept does at least give some interesting new ways of getting the sponsor’s message across.

One thing we confidently predict, though, is that if you are looking for your own club’s new kit, then by visiting our website   you’ll find a wide selection of kit styles and colours, and all of them much smarter and stylish than that which the Azulones will be wearing this season, whichever way round.

www.bluemoonsport.co.uk

New Football Ranges Added

Blue Moon Sport has added some new lines to its football range in time for the 2009/10 season.
All of them are in the new tighter-fitting material containing elastene, and in a range of colourways.
New in from Legea are Deinze, Darwen, Delemont (with its white base and coloured sashes) and the sylish stripes of Dresda. The checked Lampedusa and hooped Galles kits have also been given a re-vamp in the new material.
Also added is Mass Sport’s stylish striped kit range, Atletico.

Home Made Teams Can Still Succeed

When Glasgow Celtic became the first British club to win the European Cup much was made of the fact that their team was composed of players born within 30 miles of their ground. It was quite some achievement. The fact that Celtic beat Internazionale in the final, a club whose very founding spirit was to include as wide a range of foreigners as possible, proved that home-grown could defeat the elite.
In the modern football era few players seem to even bear the nationality of their host club, never mind being local. Liverpool fielded more Spaniards than Real Madrid in this season’s Champions League.
England’s big top four possess only a sprinkling of English players in their squads and all of them are foreign-owned.
So when I saw the highlights of the Copa del Rey final between Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao it reminded me that there is still a club, unique though it is, that has steadfastly refused to abandon its roots.
In its entire history, Athletic Club has never signed a player who wasn’t born in one of the seven Basque provinces. It’s had foreign managers. Howard Kendall was there for a couple of years but its most famous manager was Mr Pentland, known for his bowler-hatted appearance. Taking charge in the 1920s he remains the club’s most successful manager, changing their style of play and winning titles. So revered is he that to this day the Spanish equivalent of “gaffer” is to call the manager “el mister” in his honour.
Myths about the club still abound. Their name “Athletic” is spelt the English way possibly due to the original club being formed by British miners and shipworkers, and there is some dispute as to why they play in red and white stripes. Is it homage to founders from Sunderland or Southampton?
At the start of this season the club had to break with another life-long tradition and for the first time ever a sponsor name appeared on their shirts.
Despite never having suffered a relegation, Athletic Club has struggled to avoid the drop in recent seasons and with a limited player pool to draw from it would be sad to see their unique player policy cast aside.
Having reached the Cup Final they were beaten by Barcelona, however that still meant they will at least qualify for the Europa League (UEFA Cup) for 2009-10.

Play Offs. Can’t They Be More Fair?

With end-of-season play-offs in full swing in football and rugby union, the excitement generated is usually accompanied by complaints about the unfairness of it all.

Unsurprisingly, the wronged side is always the one that finished its league campaign higher.

Let’s start with the Guinness Premiership. After a gruelling 22 rounds lasting eight months, why shouldn’t Leicester Tigers be called this year’s champions rather than having to compete in an end of season mini-cup competition? Will third-placed London Irish take that honour?

To answer that we can take a look at Rugby Union’s once disowned family member, Rugby League. Play-offs have been prevalent in Rugby League since the Northern Union first split away at the end of the 19^th century, when Hunslet and Bradford Northern tied for points at the top of the Yorkshire Competition. It was also used extensively when the two divisions were merged into one and an odd fixture list developed that prevented everyone playing each other twice.

That system ended in 1973 but Rugby League then invented an end-of-season competition, “The Premiership” to generate some more interest. At this point the League Championship was seen as far more important and the new play-off style idea didn’t carry much gravitas until the Super League itself was formed in 1998.

Despite the same resistance as is now seen in Rugby Union, it’s now accepted in Rugby League circles that the Super League Grand Final winners are the champions regardless of where they finished during the regular season. A lot of this can be put down to the play-off system itself, but more of that later.

Football League teams are also competing for promotion with the Championship (Division 2 in old money) play-off final routinely called the richest prize in football due to its opening up of Premier League bounty for the Wembley winners.

Despite the excitement produced by play-offs there’s still a considerable body of opinion opposed to them despite their continued existence since 1987.

To me, the problem is caused by the way they are organised, and this is where the other sports might like to copy the Super League format, itself a copy of the Australian version known as the McIntyre system after its inventor Ken McIntyre.

There are now McIntyre systems for four teams through to eight, but let’s see how the four team version differs from the simplistic models used by the Football League and Rugby Union.

In the 1^st round the highest two ranked teams play each other with the winner going straight through to the Grand Final, but the loser goes into the next round.

The lowest two ranked teams play each other with the loser being eliminated and the winner going into the next round.

The winner of the second round match goes into the Grand Final.

In this way, the top two ranked sides can each afford to lose a game yet can still make the final. Under this system, a side winning the play-off must beat all the teams that finished above it during the regular season.

This is a much fairer way of doing business and I am surprised it hasn’t already been adopted as the standard by other sports.

Whether your team gets itself into the play-off lottery, it can get its football kit, rugby kit or basketball kit from  www.bluemoonsport.co.uk

Sporting Superstitions

Sportsmen are a superstitious bunch. This statement surely comes as no surprise. In any team there’s always someone who insists on being last out of the changing room, another who always puts his right boot on first.

 But today’s revelation about Sierra Leone international Malvin Kamara has made me re-visit those obsessive compulsive disorders that players somehow think has a bearing on their performance.

 Kamara is currently playing in the lower reaches of English professional football at Huddersfield Town but his odd habit is to ensure that he watches Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory before every game.

 With a running time of 100 minutes, Kamara spends more time watching this Gene Wilder classic from 1971 than he does on the pitch because it “calms my nerves and gives me luck”. It has to be the Wilder version, though. Johnny Depp’s 2005 re-make doesn’t cut it. “The Depp on just offends me.”

 You could fill an entire book with the superstitious behaviour of sportsmen, let alone the fans who watch them, but here are a few examples.

 Like many players, Kolo Toure of Arsenal insists on being last out of the changing room, but this caused complications during his side’s Champions League game against Roma. Teammate William Gallas was receiving treatment and was late back out, so Toure felt he had to wait as well. The result was a yellow card from an impatient referee.

 All-time football great Pelé gave a shirt to a fan and immediately suffered a loss of form. He sent a friend to track down this fan and retrieve the “lucky” shirt. A week later the friend returned with the shirt and Pelé’s form returned. The friend decided not to tell the Brazilian legend that the search had come to nothing and he had simply handed him back the same shirt he’d worn in his previous, lacklusture performance.

 Argentine goalkeeper Sergio Goycochea had an unpleasant ritual that brought him some success. The 1990 World Cup quarter final against Yugoslavia went to penalties and the keeper was desperate to leave the field to relieve himself but, under the rules, could go nowhere. Discreetly, he urinated on the pitch and, because the Argentines won he did it during the semi final with Italy with the same result.

 Aussie rugby winger David Campese’s quirk was to sit next to the driver on the way to matches. He was also another who needed to be the last out onto the pitch.

 According to Dr Tony Westbury of Napier University in Edinburgh, these superstitions hark back to one of the oldest theories in psychology, that “if you execute a certain behaviour and get a pleasurable outcome then that strengthens the link between the behaviour and the result.

 “You get into the habit of doing something because it is associated with winning, and once you get the momentum going it becomes part of something I would call the ‘pre-performance routine’. That then becomes very hard to break.”

 Another all-time great of football, Johan Cryuff, would slap his goalkeeper Gert Bals in the stomach when at Ajax and then spit his chewing gum into the opposition’s half before kick-off. When he forgot this gum in the 1969 European Cup Final, Ajax lost 4-1 to Milan.

 But time has made Cryuff wiser and he advised coaches to make sure players are not affected by superstition. “If it does influence them” he warned, “you can’t play them in the next match.”

 Whether you put your shirt on first or last, right sock before left, you can get team kit from Blue Moon Sport  www.bluemoonsport.co.uk .

Respect. Do We Need All These Campaigns?

 First we had the Football Association’s “Respect” programme. Now the MCC have launched their “Spirit of Cricket” campaign. The Rugby Football Union has its own “Fair Play and Respect” Guidelines. Rugby League has its own “Fair Play Index”. FIFA’s “Fair Play” concept has been on the go since 1986 when it was set up in response to the infamous “Hand of God”.

When you have so many organisations, each with their own charter, whether it’s called “Fair Play”, “Respect”, “Spirit” or any other name you care to give it, you’re forced to question why attitudes to sportsmanship have changed so much for the worse. Or even if they have at all.

 Usually, perceived bad behaviour on the field, especially when children are involved, focusses on the top-down belief that the attitudes of sports stars as shown on television are negatively influencing grass-roots participants.

Interestingly, spectators of professional sport don’t seem to share that belief. UK Sport (a government body) found that 89% of Rugby Union fans, and 88% of Rugby League followers said their players acted in fair and sporting way. In fact, 59% of Rugby League fans questioned thought players attitudes have actually improved in the last ten years. And fans of both rugby codes overwhelmingly agreed that players are good role models for children. Even the first phase of this survey found that 80% of spectators said there was a play-fair approach by sportsmen in football, cricket, tennis and golf.

I’ve always found the argument that televised sport is somehow an incitement to bad behaviour in itself spurious. If players are allowed to get away with “unacceptable” behaviour this is the fault of rule enforcement. Dangerous tackles, dissent and other unsportsmanlike activities should be stopped by the referee. If the referee doesn’t see an incident, all the major sports now refer televised indiscretions to disciplinary panels. There’s surely no doubting the message that unfair play is punished and not rewarded. Even outright cheating, whether it be the ludicrously-named “simulation” in football or something else, is always derided by commentators and pundits.

On the other hand we’re regularly presented on television with just the sportsmanlike images the authorities wish to promote. Hand shakes all round before games, hugs and embraces afterwards. To the best of my knowledge the latter has never been extended towards the referee but who knows what the future holds?

There’s more evidence that fair play is understood within the boundaries of what the sport’s own governing body deems acceptable. According to the UK Sport poll, 37% of spectators said it is acceptable to stamp on someone who is deliberately preventing the release of the ball, whilst 18% said that, in certain situations, punching is an acceptable part of the game. You wouldn’t dream of applying these standards to say, football or basketball.

I’m a bit long in the tooth and my playing days are well behind me. But when I played there were always cheats and villains; the reckless and the feckless.

I’m not decrying these campaigns but I do wonder how necessary they are. Those of us interested in sport have grown up with a moral sporting code given to us by parents, teachers and coaches amongst others. We all pass that on to the next generation. Most people prefer to win fair. I don’t think so much has changed.

 Please visit the Blue Moon Sport website www.bluemoonsport.co.uk

New Ranges

For the benefit of anyone who is familiar with www.bluemoonsport.co.uk, you will have noticed some changes to our range of football and basketball kits.

So, let us introduce them.

Astore is a Spanish sportswear company, a Basque one to be more precise.  Their football kits are worn by La Liga clubs Osasuna and Sporting Gijon as well as by some of the Spanish 2nd Division sides, most notably Real Socieded ( “La ReaL” are known asone of the “grandes” of Spanish football) as well as Eibar and Hercules (Alicante).

In basketball, Astore kits are worn by some of the bigger Spanish sides, Tau Baskonia, San Sebastian and Bilbao.

Mass is an Italian sportswear manufacturer based near Rome. Amongst their sponsorships are a number of Italian Serie B and Third Division clubs.

As ever, these companies have been chosen because of the great relationship between quality and price that they offer.  If you buy an Astore or Mass kit or tracksuit you won’t be disappointed.

Rugby Kits – They’ve Changed

 Rugby players. It wasn’t so very long ago that being crash-tackled and landing face down in a large puddle led to unpleasant experiences beyond the initial shock.

Those of us whose best playing days are, shall we say, behind us, remember the playing kit of old. Heavy cotton shirts that weighed you down and made you feel like you were carrying a team-mate on your back during the painful last ten minutes. This was made all the worse by on wet, muddy Saturdays when the absorption “qualities” of cotton really came into their own, effectively doubling the weight of the shirt and making you trudge around like a trainee paratrooper, but without the motivation. This, at least, was my experience.

The alternative back then, pioneered by Rugby League sides, was polyester, a man-made fibre at that time so coarse that even burly man’s-man players would baulk at the prospect of wearing one. At that time possibly the only real advantage of these polyester shirts was their inherent strength.

In terms of playing kit, those days are now well behind us. Increases in fabric technology have advanced to the point where polyester shirts are now the norm and the reasons are many.

Despite being man-made, polyester can now emulate cotton in it’s “wicking” ability. This is the way the shirt removes the moisture build up on the skin-side. Through the use of capiliaries, the moisture leaves the shirt via the outside, it doesn’t remain cloying to the skin.

The fibres themselves, too, are now much thinner than they used to be. This means the “handle” is much softer, more like a natural fibre and it avoids all that highly irritating abrasion.

Better yet, while natural fibres absorb water until it evaporates, polyester is much more water-resistant. The result; if you land in that puddle I mentioned before, or you’re playing in teeming rain, you won’t end the game carrying extra weight on your back.

At the top end of the game, the advantage of having the lightest shirt possible is obvious. Fine margins mark the difference between success and failure and anything that can be used to gain even a 0.1% advantage over your opponent can mean victory.

To be fair, to most of us, these fine margins are largely irrelevant. As a social player you can improve your performance dramatically by training harder or paying more attention to your diet, however the basic principles still apply.

But what also counts is how your kit looks. With polyester you can, with the introduction of a little elastene, have a sculpted-look, fitted tight into the body if you like. Or it can drape normally.

The biggest advantage though, is in the range of designs and colours. Traditionally, rugby shirts were hoops or quarters as cotton had to be knitted by machine. Polyester, though, can be printed by dye-sublimation process. This is achieved by printing special ink onto release paper and then pressing that (under high pressure and at high temperature) onto the polyester. The ink then turns to gas and dyes itself into the fabric.

This means that you can choose any design, no matter how outrageous, and for that matter print anything else at the same time without having to go through a separate process, whether that be for a badge, sponsor logo, name or number.

You can see some good examples of these on our site   www.bluemoonsport.co.uk

Why Blue Moon?

If I had a pound for every time I’ve been asked “are you guys Manchester City supporters?” …. then I’d have £177.

Actually, as a company Blue Moon has nothing whatsoever to do with Manchester City, which is not to say we would view that as a negative, nor a positive but….. well, you see how you can tie yourself up in knots answering that question.

Suffice to say, it’s entirely a coincidence.

Welcome

Hello, good evening and …… well, you know the rest.  As this is the 1st blog entry let’s just explain that we’re here at the behest of www.bluemoonsport.co.uk a manufacturer and supplier of sports kits, mainly for rugby, football and basketball teams.

In addition to “company” news, we’ll try to provide some readable material, but we’d welcome any feedback at all, either about our company, its website, or suggestions for articles on here.