Anzhi Makhachkala Home 2012

Anzhi Makhachkala are becoming more known over the world as the team who have loads of money. Their billionaire owner has a plan to make the club the best in the world and when you can offer someone like Samuel Eto'o £350,000 a week then you obviously mean business. Although the place itself where the team is situated is quite run down and notorious for criminal behaviour. The Anzhi players train in Moscow and live in Moscow and have to fly 1,000 miles to get to their home games. In the Europa League this season Anzhi have to play their home games in Moscow because of safety issues. Also if you think the E has been put on wrongly on the shirt then that is in fact the Russian spelling of Eto'o.

Ivory Coast Away 2011

 

Ivory Coast in a friendly against Russia 

   

Flag of Ivory Coast

First international: Ivory Coast 3-2 Benin (1960)

Biggest win: Ivory Coast 6-0 Botswana (1992)

Biggest loss: Ivory Coast 2-6 Ghana (1971)

Most caps: Didier Zokora (105 caps)

Top scorer: Didier Drogba (58 goals)

Star player: Yaya Toure (Man City FC)

Ivory Coast have only been well known to people thanks to their quality of players they have produced in recent years. Ivory Coast internationals have been present in English football for sometime now with players like Drogba, Eboue, Toure, Kalou and Gervinho all having starred in the premier league. Because of the quality of these players they have now reached the World Cup in 2006 and 2010 which is their only ever times. Although they have competed in the African Nations Cup 19 times and won it once in 1992. They came close to winning the 2011 African Nations Cup before losing on penalties to Zambia. With the quality of players they have you'd expect them to win another one soon.

Republic of Ireland Home 2011

 

Rep of Ireland after conceding a goal against Spain

  

Flag of Republic of Ireland

First international: Irish Free State 1-0 Bulgaria (1924)

Biggest win: Republic of Ireland 8-0 Malta (1983)

Biggest loss: Brazil 7-0 Republic of Ireland (1982)

Most caps: Shay Given (125 caps)

Top scorer: Robbie Keane (64 goals)

Star player:  Aiden McGeady (Spartak Moscow)

Republic of Ireland have been to five major finals before with their latest one being the European Championship in 2012. They did not do very well on that occasion and finished bottom of their group losing every game. In 1990 they appeared in their first ever World Cup in which they surprised a lot of people by getting into the quarter finals. Their only ever other World Cup appearances were in 2002 in which they lost on penalties to Spain in the second round and 1994 which they lost to the Netherlands 2-0 in the second round also.

Uruguay Away 2010

  

 

Flag of Uruguay

 First international: Uruguay 2-1 Argentina (1901)

Biggest win: Uruguay 9-0 Bolivia (1927)

Biggest loss: Uruguay 0-6 Argentina (1902)

Most capped: Diego Forlan (89 caps)

Top scorer: Diego Forlan (33 goals)

Star player: Luis Suarez (Liverpool FC)


Uruguay are one of the most successful teams in South America. They have in fact won 2 world cups (winning the first ever one) and have 15 Copa America titles, the latest one coming last year. They've competed in 41 Copa Americas overall and 11 world cups. For a country with just 3 million people this is quite an achievement and they recently managed to get up to as high as 2nd in the FIFA world rankings. The last world cup they got knocked out in the semi finals but Luis Suarez caused controversy when he handled the ball on the line in the last minute of extra time. Gyan then missed the penalty and Uruguay won the penalty shootout.

Uruguay Home 2008

 

 

Flag of Uruguay

First international: Uruguay 2-1 Argentina (1901)

Biggest win: Uruguay 9-0 Bolivia (1927)

Biggest loss: Uruguay 0-6 Argentina (1902)

Most capped: Diego Forlan (89 caps)

Top scorer: Diego Forlan (33 goals)

Star player: Luis Suarez (Liverpool FC)


Uruguay are one of the most successful teams in South America. They have in fact won 2 world cups (winning the first ever one) and have 15 Copa America titles, the latest one coming last year. They've competed in 41 Copa Americas overall and 11 world cups. For a country with just 3 million people this is quite an achievement and they recently managed to get up to as high as 2nd in the FIFA world rankings. The last world cup they got knocked out in the semi finals but Luis Suarez caused controversy when he handled the ball on the line in the last minute of extra time. Gyan then missed the penalty and Uruguay won the penalty shootout.

British Virgin Islands Home 2011

 

BVI in action against USVI

 

Flag of the British Virgin Islands

First international: Cayman Islands 2-1 BVI (1991)

Biggest win: BVI 5-0 USVI (2004)

Biggest loss: Dominican Republic 17-0 BVI (2010) 

The Virgin Islands is a British overseas territory which situates off the east coast of Puerto Rico. It has a population of about 27,800 and is made up of about 50 islands. One of these islands is owned by business tycoon Richard Branson who purchased the island with all this wealth he has. Sailing is actually one of their most popular sports in BVI and judging by the quality of the football team I should imagine it is not thought of too highly in the country. BVI recently lost 16-0 to Martinique, 4-0 to Suriname and 7-0 to Montserrat in the Caribbean cup. Their U17 side also lost 23-0 to Trinidad and Tobago recently so judging by these recent results I would not expect to see them at a World Cup anytime soon. 

 Did you know that at the age of 21, Andre Villas-Boas took his first managerial job by becoming manager of the British Virgin Islands. He later resigned a year later. I don't think any top manager could really make BVI into a good team. Rapper Iyaz who sung the song Replay also is from the British Virgin Islands.
 Did you also know that BVI were the only unbeaten side in the whole of the 2010 World Cup? They went out on away goals after 2 draws in the first qualification round which meant they were unbeaten. Many people say New Zealand are the only unbeaten side but they actually got beat in the qualifying stages so it is the mighty nation of BVI.

 I have to thank my friend Nick who managed to source the shirt and you can view his blog by clicking on his blog link at the bottom right of this page.

You can get rare shirts from Nick at his shop here

 http://www.footballshirtworld.co.uk/shop/all-shirts.html

Sealand Home 2012

 

 

Flag of Sealand

First international: Aland Islands 2-2 Sealand (2004)

Biggest win: Alderney 1-1 Sealand (Sealand win 5-4 on penalties) (2012)

Biggest loss:  Sealand 1-3 Chagos Islands (2012)

Despite only having 4 people in the principality of Sealand they do in fact have a football team which may surprise you all. In 2004 they were represent in a friendly match against Aland by a veterans side from Aalborg but they never played a game after that under the name of Sealand so in 2009 the head job of the Sealand football association was given to a man named Neil Forsyth. It took him a few years but in time they finally managed to arrange an international match but how can you play with 4 people? Neil Forsyth then managed to gather a squad together which included the likes of ex-footballer Simon Charlton and actor Ralf Little. Matt Di Angelo (former actor in Eastenders) now also plays in the team. The team then hosted the Chagossians in Godalming and lost the game 3-1. Soon after they managed to arrange a trip to Alderney to play a team that had only ever won 2 games in 102 games so they went into the game in good spirits. The game was finely poised at 1-1 and went to penalties were Sealand ended up the victors and won their first ever international match. They have now been entered into the NON-FIFA rankings being placed at 55.

Sealand was first used as a sea fort during the second world war and is situated about 7 miles of the coast of Suffolk. In 1967 a man named Roy Bates (who died a couple of days ago) took over the sea fort, taking it from a pirate radio station. In 1975 he established the place as a country and now it has it's own stamps, passports and so on. It has faced offers to buy the land over the year and invasions to. 

To learn a bit more about the place in brief and see highlights of their international against the Chagos Islands then watch this video in the link below.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17981522

 

The principality of Sealand