Aston Villa’s best FA Cup final moment: the decision to have booze delivered to the dressing room win or lose

Arsenal dominated Aston Villa in the FA Cup final, winning 4-0 to lift the trophy for a record 12th time. Though Villa were simply outgunned (puns!) from the start, they put in a dismal performance that made one pre-match decision their best of the day.

According to the day’s official running order, which was shared on Twitter by BBC commentator Guy Mowbray, Villa chose to have beer (eight crates) and champagne delivered to their dressing room after the match win or lose. Arsenal, meanwhile, opted to have their booze shipment sent to the team bus only if they won and the referees had a modest haul of 15 beers sent their way.

Read more

Chelsea fan mistaken for player signs autographs outside the team’s Bangkok hotel

Chelsea are in Bangkok as part of their post-season tour and the Thai fans couldn’t be happier, though some of them aren’t entirely sure what they’re so happy about. Chelsea supporter Ryan Weston had his Thai counterparts thinking he was a member of the squad and signed autographs for them outside the team hotel.

Ryan had a line of people waiting for him to pose for pictures and sign their Chelsea gear, which he did with the number 29 (which isn’t currently used by anyone in the first team squad).

In the Thai fans defense, offseason tours often include new faces, so many of them probably thought he was an up and coming prospect from the youth academy. But still, this is a bit sad. And a bit funny.

FIFA attempt to distract from crisis with fire, lies, and yodeling

A little more than 24 hours after seven FIFA executives were hauled out of their luxurious Zurich hotel rooms and threatened with extradition to the United States for an assortment of crimes, football’s world governing body held a supremely bizarre opening ceremony to their 65th congress.

Perhaps afraid of getting pinched for his own crimes against humanity, 2014 World Cup opening ceremony scourge Pitbull stayed away from this event, but in his place was an assortment of oddities.

Read more

FIFA 16 to feature women’s national teams for the first time

Just before the start of the Women’s World Cup, EA Sports has announced that FIFA 16 will finally feature women’s national teams for the first time ever. Twelve teams (Germany, USA, France, Sweden, England, Brazil, Canada, Australia, Spain, China, Italy, Mexico) will be playable in Match Day, an offline tournament mode, and in online friendly matches. The women’s teams will only be playable against other women’s teams.

Read more

Carlos Bacca goes from bus driver’s assistant at 20 to Europa League final hero at 28

Colombian striker Carlos Bacca was in tears on the bench when the final whistle sounded on Sevilla’s 3-2 win against Ukrainian underdogs Dnipro in the Europa League final. His two goals proved decisive in delivering the Spanish club’s second consecutive Europa League title and fourth in the last 10 years, giving them more Europa League/UEFA Cup titles than any other club in the tournament’s history (Juves, Inter, and Liverpool all have three each).

Read more

Joe Hart and James Milner try baseball with the Toronto Blue Jays’ Jose Bautista

As soon as that pesky Premier League season ended, Manchester City headed to Toronto so they could do something truly important: collect some more sweet, sweet North American friendly cash. Ahead of the match against Toronto FC, Joe Hart, James Milner, and Richard Wright visited the Rogers Center for a tour led by Jose Bautista.

Once the tour was over (and Joe Hart picked up his jaw after hearing that baseball teams play 162 games in 180 days), the footballers tried some batting practice and Hart realized that having a baseball fly in your direction is far scarier than a football.

Read more

It’s just another great day at FIFA headquarters and no one is terrified

Hello. I am FIFA director of communications Walter de Gregorio and I am here to tell you that I am very tired and everything is super cool. Yes, the United States Department of Justice and Swiss officials are conducting two separate, but coordinated investigations that resulted in early morning raids which saw FIFA officials being taken from their luxury hotel rooms in Zurich and processed for extradition while documents related to the allocation of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups were seized at FIFA headquarters, but this is all good for FIFA. All. Good. In the hood.

Read more