The Wikipedia Guide To Football

When I was first introduced to the Internet it was presented to me as an infallible fountain of truth and knowledge. It didn’t take me long to realise that any shite-hawk can set up a website and write whatever rubbish they fancy (that includes us). I’m currently addicted to a site that encapsulates this freedom…Wikipedia. This free online encyclopaedia walks a thin line between truth and tripe. Giving people the ability to contribute and share knowledge on possibly every single topic in the world is truly a fantastic concept but naturally it has its faults. One day it can potentially answer a niggling question about some long forgotten kids TV show you were addicted to when you were eight years old. On another you may read that Tony Blair is a bigger fascist than Hitler, which whatever you may think is an opinion rather than a fact. Although I tend to stay away on from Wikipedia politics and stick to football. Wikipedia is great for football.

Here are ten random things I’ve found out on the subject via the site this week that I've decided to share with you. Take one or two of them with a pinch of salt.

1. M.S.L outfit F.C. Dallas play their ‘soccer’ at Pizza Hut Park.

2. After retiring from football in 2001, lengendary Everton winger/diver Anders Limpar opened a bar in Stockholm called The Limp Bar.

3. "Swindon Town" is the only name of a professional UK football club which does not contain any of the letters in the word "mackerel".

4. Stuart Pearce has met The Stranglers nearly thirty times.

5. Alessandro Del Piero is a big Oasis fan and shares a friendship with Noel Gallagher. Del Piero claimed Gallagher was Italy's lucky mascot in their 2006 World Cup success and invited him to the final and then the team hotel after victory.

6. After appearing in an ad for a mobile phone company, Franz Beckenbauer specifically requested the number 0176 / 666666 for his mobile phone. However, he soon was flooded with phone calls by men who thought it was a phone sex number (in German, "6" translates to "sechs", very close to the word sex).

7. Villa Park was the first English ground to stage international football in three different centuries.

8. Phillip Schofield is a Cardiff City fan.

9. In 1995 Zidane could have become another high profile signing for Blackburn Rovers. Manager Kenny Dalglish had wanted to sign both Zidane and Christophe Dugarry who were playing in France for FC Girondins de Bordeaux, however chairman Jack Walker reportedly said to Dalglish: "Why do you want to sign Zidane when we have Tim Sherwood?"

10. Robbie Fowlers middle name is Bernard.