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Formed in 1905, Chelsea is an English Football club who are currently at the top of the English Premier League. They are homed at Stamford Bridge football ground which was opened in 1877. But until 1904, the ground was not used for soccer and ever since then Chelsea football club has played some of the most brilliant games at this stadium. One of the richest owners of the English premier league is Roman Abramovish, the owner of Chelsea, who acquired the club in the year of 2003.

Stadium

So far Chelsea has been housed at Stamford Bridge where the team has been playing ever since their foundation. Though the stadium was built in 1877, it was used by the London Athletics club until 1904 and was not used for football . The stadium can seat almost 42,000 spectators and has many other facilities apart from the football pitch. There is a Chelsea Mega store where you can buy football shirts including the blue Chelsea home football shirt, various apartments, bars, two major hotels and restaurants are part of the ground . These facilities bring in extra revenue to the football stadium. There are plans to extend the ground size so as to house over 50,000 spectators.  This will mean that the Chelsea Soccer club may need to move temporarily to another ground so as to comply with the health and safety regulations.

Crest

So far the Chelsea football club has had four different crests which all have undergone minor variations. The first crest for Chelsea was formed in 1905 which was an image of a Chelsea Pensioner. This was formed when the club was given its nickname “The Pensioners”. In 1953, the crest underwent a major change and has an image of a blue lion and apart from minor variations in color the crest remains the same till now.

Records

In the past Chelsea Football team has acquired so many records they are proving hard to be even broken by the current Chelsea players. The highest appearing marker for Chelsea is Frank Lampard and has so far appeared 460 times for the team . The all time top goal scorer of Chelsea is Bobby Tampling who has scored 202 goals in a total of 370 games   in between 1959 and 1970. The current top goal scorer of Chelsea Football club is Frank Lampard with a total of 136 goals. The highest home attendance is held by Chelsea which is against the home attendance of Arsenal which ranks second with 82,905.

Carlo Ancelotti is the current manager   of the club who was previously an AC Milan coach.

Bolton Wanderers were formed in 1874 by Thomas Ogden, a school teacher and were to begin with called Christ Church FC. After a discussion with the vicar, who objected to meetings being held in the school without his presence, the club moved its base to a local public house in 1877 and adopted the name of Bolton Wanderers. Four years later the club moved to a new ground and entered the FA Cup for the first time. Season tickets were made available at a guinea (£1.05) each . Although eclipsed by local rivals Blackburn Rovers, Bolton built a strong name for themselves within the county and in 1886 they won the Lancashire Cup, as well as the Bolton and Derbyshire Charity Cups. On the strength of their achievements, Bolton were asked to join the Football League in 1888. That same year, the club adopted what became their famous plain white football shirts and dark blue knickers . Previously the club had turned out in a motley assemblage including a unique white jersey with red spots as well as red, navy and white stripes.

Bolton played well in the League and in 1894 reached their first FA Cup final. Relegation became a regular event in the Edwardian period but on each affair the club bounced back more or less straight away . The 1920’s were a golden era for the club which brought three FA Cup wins in 1923 (the renowned “Wembley white horse final”) 1926 and 1929. The team adopted a simplified version of Bolton’s coat of arms in 1921 and this continued to appear on the home football shirt until the forties (although some team photographs show the crest was not always present). The reason for the inclusion of an elephant in the design are obscure but date from around 1799 and elephants appear on buildings all over Bolton.

During the nineteen thirties Bolton played out two seasons in Division Two but otherwise they continued as a reliable if unambitious Division One side, with an unbroken spell in the First Division from 1935 to 1964.

Immediately after the 2nd World War , black shorts were worn alongside the white football shirts, maybe because post-war austerity meant these were easier to get hold of than the traditional navy ones. It appears that the traditional colours were restored in 1950 when the club also adopted their own crest, a design that took its inspiration from the older version but which now incorporated the club’s initials as well as a Lancashire rose. This was dropped in 1966, when crests were considered old-fashioned .

The online football shirt market is definitely on the upswing right now. With the 2010 FIFA World Cup just few short months away, fans can find shirts for all of their favourite countries at several sites online. The shirts range in price and availability, so it’s a good idea to shop around until you find just the right position to purchase from. The beauty of online shopping is that you can have your shirt delivered directly to your door in a matter of days, and have it well broken in before the games begin.

Online football shirt gross sales have been steadily rising for a few years. Part of the reason they are enjoying such a large number of new sales is that football fans are really just beginning to realize that the online shops exist. It takes a while for internet consumers to feel they can entrust a company, but once that reputation is established there is a good chance that your sales will grow tremendously – and continue to remain steady over the long run. The ease of online sales is difficult to resist when all it takes is a computer and a credit card.

The Barcelona home football shirt sells very well even when the team are not doing very well, Barcelona are one of the few teams who patronize a charity on the front of their football shirts, both home and away shirt carry the logo of Unicef.

Another reason online football shirt sales have been on the upswing is that football itself is enjoying an increase in popularity. Satellite and cable television have brought the sport to a whole new audience, and the fan base is increasing by leaps and bounds. Countries that used to ignore the sport are now embracing it passionately, and the sales of football related merchandise indicate that it is truly a worldwide phenomenon. Football is even gaining more traction in the United States, where it has always enjoyed a more lukewarm response.

Aldyr Garcia Schlee may not be known to the vast majority of football supporters but his design certainly is. He is the man responsible for one of the most noted creations in sport – the yellow football shirts with a green collar and cuffs of the Brazilian national football team.  He nicknamed the new shirt as The Little Canary.

The 2-1 home defeat to Uruguay in the 1950 World Cup final hit Brazil extremey hard. Losing to near neighbours on home turf was regarded a national embarrasment with the teams goalkeeper Moacir Barbosa being vilified for what was deemed a culpable performance. The playing kit was also seen as not sufficiently patriotic with its white body and blue collars.  This was because it did not reflect every colour on the national flag.

As the decade progressed Brazil still suffered from the ignominy of the Uruguayan defeat and a competition was held to design a new home football shirt that encompassed all the colors contained in the national flag – yellow, green, blue and white.

Near to the Uruguayan border, in a small town named Pelotas, lived 19 year old Aldyr Garcia Schlee. He worked as a newspaper illustrator and entered the competition with a classically uncomplicated design. A yellow shirt with green collar and cuffs, blue shorts with white upright stripe and white socks. In December 1953 he was declared the winner and Brazil wore his kit for the first time in March 1954.

The 1970 World Cup was the first to be shown on colour television and the superb Brazilian team of Pele, Rivelino, Jairzinho and teammates brought the tournament to vivid, memorable life. The yellow football shirts became a romantic symbol of the beautiful game and that team in that tournament wearing that shirt hold a mythical status in the world of football.

In 1882 a group of North London teenagers formed Hotspur FC, named after the combative Henry Percy, “Harry Hotspur” of Shakespeare’s Henry IV (Part I) whose descendents owned land in the locality. The name changed to Tottenham Hotspur in 1884 to avoid confusion with London Hotspur. For a while the lads turned out on Tottenham Marshes and scuffles occasionally broke out with rival teams over the best pitches. In 1884 the club cancelled a fixture to watch the professionals of Blackburn Rovers win the first of three consecutive English Cup finals. So impressed were they that the club adopted Rovers’ blue and white halved shirts. In 1885 Spurs entered the London Association Cup and played their first competitory match against St Albans FC, winning 2-0 wearing their white football shirts

In 1888 Spurs moved to an enclosed ground on Northumberland Road and charged 3d (1p) price of admission. In 1890, playing in red shirts and navy shorts, Spurs were a respected side and five years later, they turned professional. In 1896, Tottenham were elected to the Southern League and adopted a new deep brown and old gold strip. In 1899 they moved into White Hart Lane.

There is some doubt over when they adopted their now celebrated white Tottenham home football shirt, a homage to the mighty Preston North End. Phil Soar in And the Spurs Go Marching On (1985) states the white shirts appeared in 1900 while Spurs. A account? of Tottenham Hotspur, (Julian Holland 1956) and Tottenham Hotspur: An Illustrated History, (Bob Goodwin 1995) suggest September 1899. However, the club’s historian, Andy Porter has provided HFK with a copy of an article published in The Golden Penny dated September 1898 which carries a photograph of the Spurs team wearing white shirts and navy knickers. At the time, no other team in the Southern League wore similar colours.

The white Totenham Hotspur shirt has been one of the most sought after football shirts for all Tottenham Hotspur football supporters.