Chevrolet unites LFC and MUFC in footie campaign... #FAIL

Words: Ronan Shields

In a sign that the world has GONE MAD and that ‘the people’s game’ is now the possession of corporate interests, Chevrolet has released a YouTube video showing Manchester United & Liverpool players as one.

The US car manufacturer – which has commercial relationships with both clubs – has just released a video showing four players from each team as one entity reading a monologue to camera, see below.

Ryan Giggs, Rio Ferdinand, Robin van Persie and Paul Scholes appear in the ad for MUFC, while Liverpool's representatives are Jordan Henderson, Joe Allen, Glen Johnson and Jonjo Shelvey.

The video has been dubbed ‘The Manifesto – Chevrolet FC’ and the accompanying social media campaign runs with the tag line ‘What Are You #DrivenBy?’

“Manchester United and Liverpool FC are unified by a mutual respect and driven by success…,” reads the blurb on the official ChevroletFC YouTube page. 

However, social media channels are already are awash with mixed responses with many fans claiming that the ad is simply a demonstration that the US brand does not get English football and that naïve minds are responsible for the campaign.

All three of the parties and associated players are of course paying lip service to the campaign. However, at TDF here we find it difficult to imagine MUFC stalwarts such as Ferdinand, Giggs and Scholes entered into the collaboration with their fiercest of foes wholeheartedly.

A LFC fan's interpretation of MUFC's home kit

After all, the Twitter spat between the two teams' sets of supporters over their most recent kit launches still remains the most popular post ever to have appeared on this blog! Remember the below?

MUFC fan's reaction to the Suarez race row incident

Anyway, the video has surfaced as the two teams prepare to square off at MUFC’s Old Trafford next Sunday (January 13) where I’m sure we’ll see a full house of supporters who’ll give us a reminder that there’s no love lost between the two.  

Chevrolet, what were you thinking?! 

If you have read this far then please feel free to leave your opinion on the matter, even if you disagree with TDF's #FAIL judgement or not... 

'Do I not Like that?!' - England's growing influence on Facebook

Source: The FA

Words: Art Bugmann 

England’s qualification for the Quarter Finals of UEFA’s Euro 2012 tournament was accompanied by a dominating performance over Ukraine earlier this week during the sides' final group stage game.  

Sound like a tenuous conclusion? That’s because we’re not talking football, we’re talking about the England Team’s performance on its Facebook page.

While England’s football was widely regarded as adequate on the night, its performance on Facebook was far superior to Ukraine’s according to research from social media agency.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Taking into account posts and fan engagement, Wildfire found that despite a slow start, the England’s Facebook fan page grew throughout the match, in terms of comments, ‘Likes’, score predictions and shares.

Source: Wildfire

Even after taking into consideration the vast disparity between the size of the two pages to get a fair comparison (England 1.5m fans - Ukraine 10,023), England’s posts still got up to twice as much engagement.

England was also ahead on the absolute figures. For example, regarding shares on Facebook posts, England scored more than 32,000 while Ukraine only got 711.

England’s Facebook page used comments and direct questions to boost engagement with fans, see below.

Meanwhile, Ukraine preferred to use more picture-based posts from the ground itself, see below.

Source: Wildfire

So what can we draw from Wildfire’s analysis?

England’s population is marginally greater than that of Ukraine, so it is evident that England’s fans are far more inclined to engage with their team on Facebook than Ukraine’s fans.

In a 60,000 seat stadium, England’s 4,000 fans were far outnumbered by the vociferous home crowd. Yet England’s Facebook performance showed that the team did not lack for support online. 

What of Ukraine’s lesser Facebook showing? It was the biggest game in Ukraine’s football history, so maybe Ukraine’s fans were in and around the Donbass Arena, rather than in front of their computers. 

Speaking of the English football team and ‘Likes’ we decided to link below to a documentary following the national side’s doomed bid to qualify for the 1994 FIFA World Cup where then manager Graham Taylor coined the malapropism: ‘Do I not like that?!’ 

Kit launches spark Twitter-joust in ongoing LFC & MUFC saga

Words: Ronan Shields

^{Source: Liverpool Football Club}

Before a ball was kicked in anger on the last day of the domestic season, Liverpool’s kit-launch marked the UK entrance of Warrior Sports while Manchester United’s seemed to rub salt in the wounds. 

Friday saw the unveiling of next season’s replica kits of England’s two-most successful clubs with Nike unveiling its latest offering for the Manchester side and Warrior Sports with its debut Liverpool designs.

The Boston-based sports manufacturer has reverted to the Anfield side’s red with yellow-trimmed colour scheme and has dispensed with its Shankly Gate crest in favour of its original Liver Bird one, see video below. 

Source: YouTube

The move has won favour with traditionalists reminiscing for the days when King Kenny and the Koppites truly did reign supreme over Europe.

^{Source: Liverpool Football Club}

But Liverpool, a team and City traumatised by the Hillsborough tragedy of 1989, has also experienced criticism from some unhappy with the symbols commemorating the 96 that died that day being moved to the back of the jersey.    

Emotions aside, the partnership between Liverpool and Warrior Sports could presage the emergence of a major new sports brand in the football industry given that Liverpool is the fourth-biggest selling replica shirt in the world.

This is behind Spain's Real Madrid, Catalan giants FC Barcelona and of course Manchester United. 

Plus, if the hype purported by Warrior Sports on its website anything to go by, then we’re surely set for a swarm of high-impact marketing activity from next season onwards, see below.

^{Source: Warrior Sports}

How many more clubs it has in its sights is anyone’s guess but with this Liverpool deal you’d have to say it really is laying down a marker. 

Almost simultaneously, Manchester United and Nike revealed the kit Wayne Rooney, etc, will be lining up in at Old Trafford from next season, see left and below. 

Also interesting, was the fact that Manchester and Nike are highlighting the club's roots at the centre of its marketing activity 

The new kit, features “gingham check” which was supposedly synonymous with Manchester’s cotton mills which helped fuel the industrial revolution, as well as the rivalry with their Merseyside neighbours dating back two centuries. 

Have a closer look at the ‘gingham check' both below and left courtesy of Nike. A design Liverpool fans are likening to ‘table clothes’. 

Of course, the simultaneous nature of the launches has sparked with it a war of words between the respective teams’ fans and following their respective hash-tags on Twitter, the Koppites seems to be happier with their offering that those of the Stretford Enders. 

Famed for their wit and fondness of banter, Liverpool fabs also appear to have the upper hand on Twitter when it comes to  the gentle-ribbing of the other side although the Mancunians were able to retort although in sometimes more controversial terms, see further below to read more.

The joke made below (dated May 12 before the last day of the season) is arguably one of the more poignant given United relinquishing their Premiership crown to Manchester City, in the most dramatic last day of the season for many years. 

And of course those blessed with more IT skills really started to make things personal:

^{Source: Twitter}

^{Source: Twitter}

However, not taking things lying down, some Manchester United fans took aim at their rivals in a more controversially manner by speculating that Liverpool’s away kit might look like below, as mentioned above.

This of course references the horrible race-relations incident between Luis Suarez and Patrice Evra, one of the darker episodes of the last season, and an unwelcome phenomena that worryingly appears to be creeping back into the game, especially via online social networks.

Hopefully the game's governing bodies will take appropriate measures to assign such ugly incidents to the past by the time we kick-off for next season.  

However, on a much more positive note, the mixed reaction to the gingham kit and power of social networking has prompted similarly-creative Manchester United fans to share their ‘fantasy kits’. 

One even speculates what a Manchester United kit manufactured by Adidas might look like, all images were sourced via Twitter. 

Manchester City and Nike ink kit deal

Manchester City, the champions-elect of English football, has announced a new kit deal with sports behemoth Nike in the same week as the club overtook Manchester United at the top of the Premier League.

The terms of the deal, which does not kick-in until the season after next, means the Umbro brand will still be emblazoned on the chests of the Sky Blues until the end of next season.

However from the following season until 2019 all official Manchester City kit, training wear and related products will be designed, manufactured and distributed by Nike not by Umbro, which is actually a subsidiary of Nike itself according to its Wikipedia page.

Manchester City has released a statement with a quote from Nike’s global brand president, Charlie Denson, where he said the deal “reflects both the ambitions of the club and the Nike brand’s position within the world of football”.

For its part, Manchester City is looking to Nike's “unparalleled R&D capacity, leading global retail distribution networks and award winning marketing capabilities” as it seeks to eclipse its nearest rivals both off the pitch as well as on it, as evidenced by Manchester United’s tepid performance last Monday.

Clearly City is relying on the reflective glory of the Nike swoosh to aid its global expansion.  
The deal also emulates the kit deals negotiated by by Manchester United who also ended its long-standing kit agreement with Umbro, which is headquartered in Cheadle, Greater Manchester, to also pair with Nike.   

Of course, no prototype kits designs have been publicly unveiled yet and Umbro is currently looking to fans to help launch the official kit for the 2012-13 season, as demonstrated in the below video.

Show Your City - 2012 Manchester City Kit

However, Total Digital Football thought it was worth taking time to look at some Umbro’s previous offerings for Manchester City, some dating back to the early 80s. Prepare for a nostalgia-rush, apart from the first two, all images are courtesy of Umbro.

Old skool

From the early 80s, looks dated but still iconic, note the old club badge which was dropped because the club couldn’t register it as a trademark

MCFC's last Umbro jersey?

This image has been circulating around online fan forums sparking speculation that it will be the club’s home kit for the 2012-13 season

Maine-stay of the club

From the 80s/90s era, an image that will put proper City fans in mind of the Maine Road Massacre

Shirt of champion's?

Will this shirt adorn the first Manchester City captain to raise the Premiership trophy? My guess is yes...

And after all...

It was the mid-90s, and Oasis were high in the charts and spreading Maine Road-mania among the country’s student unions.

Words: Ronan Shields

Futera project points to unique online management experience.

Futera FC is a unique online football management experience involving the first online community to manage and make changes to a team, live during the game. I managed to catch up with Co-founder Adam Partlington to find out more.



Adam, what is Futera FC? 

 Futera FC is the first Football Team in History EVER to be managed by an Online Community. The team play just outside of London on a Sunday Morning. Fans of Futera World Football Online (Interactive Football Trading Card Game) come online and manage the team via our interactive platform at www.futerafc.com. We have Virtual Managers from all over the world, but predominately the South East Asia region. 

Sounds interesting, how does it work? 


Throughout the week the Futera FC Virtual Managers vist our Facebook page with their suggestions on what the team should focus on in training and vote on tactics for the coming game. On a match day, they come online at around 10am GMT before kick-off at 10:30am. Once the game begins the Virtual Managers watch the action via LIVE streaming to the website. The also offer their suggestions and we post polls on tactics and subs! They manage the game from the comfort of their computer screens! The information and decisions they make we relay to Pitch-side. It's great fun!


How has the project gone so far? 

It's going well, we have only pushed the idea within the realms of our customer base within our online game. We average a decent amount of Virtual Managers per-game and interaction is growing. It's a great idea but we believe these things take time if you want to produce the most fun. We've had some minor hiccups but on the whole things are moving forward.

How do the Players feel about the project?

They engage with the product incredibly well , they've become mini-internet celebs. A lot of these lads will never play professionally; the project gives them a chance to taste the life of a Footballer. The exposer and the ability to watch your performance back (due to highlights of each game being shown the website). There's also the pressure, the players have to perform as a lot of our Virtual Managers expect the team to do well. We've had players join from the Premier Division due to them hearing about the project. If I'm honest, I'm jealous I never got a chance to play within a project like this one! 


What does the future hold for Futera FC?

The sky’s the limit really. It's something that is so exciting to be involved in. There is still a lot of work to do and we still have certain things that will need tweaking before we let this loose to the masses. However, we are confident that this idea works given the results we've already received. I like to think we are giving Football back to the fans with a project like this; you support the club and manage it. It's great. 


If you want to get involved with Futera FC and become a Virtual Manager, like them on  Facebook and head over to Futera FC on Sunday mornings, kick off at 10:30am GMT.