Most of the big clubs in English soccer have some under soil heating in place. It is considered an essential requirement by many of the clubs who do not wish to see matches staged at their home stadium fall victim to adverse weather conditions. This would result in the inconvenience of thousands of supporters and lead to the game being re-scheduled at a later date. It would also lead to the club suffering a financial loss.
I was born in January 1960, less than two years after the air disaster at Munich. The legends who lost their lives that day should have been the first team I supported. I should have watched Tommy Taylor and Duncan Edwards in their prime, but like millions of others, I was robbed of that privilege when the aircraft carrying the team crashed into the icy ground at the end of the runway aMunich Airpot in 1958. This is the true story about my love affair with Manchester United. My story obviously begins in the early sixties, when I started to play, watch and love football, but before I can tell it, I need to share a few facts and a little history.
The biggest 2 teams in the English Football scene face off tomorrow afternoon at Old Trafford. Who will win?
In the first showdown of January we see Chelsea visit Old Trafford. Chelsea, only second in the league to Liverpool are aiming to get the win that will propel them to within 1 point of top spot. With Terry back in action we can be sure that Chelsea will be raring to get going and to show that they deserved to be European Champions, and but for the mishap of Terry they surely would have.
They might not be the best team in the world according to the official ranking system, but there is no doubt that when it comes to fan following and media coverage, the English national football team is second to none.
Let us take a look at how the Three Lions have performed at world football's biggest event- the FIFA World Cup.
1950 Brazil: - England chose not to play the first three editions of the World Cup (1930, 1934 and 1938), and made their first World Cup appearance five years after WWII. They started well with a 2-0 win over Chile, but subsequent 1-0 defeats to the USA and Spain saw them make an early exit.
1954 Switzerland: - England improved upon their 1950 performance by reaching the last eight in 1954. They topped Group 4, which also consisted of Switzerland, two time world champions Italy and Belgium. Defending champions Uruguay beat them 4-2 in the quarterfinals.