Football Media

FIFA.com’s first-ever Panini Virtual Sticker Album, presented by Coca-Cola, drives two million sticker swaps within two weeks of launch.

FIFA.com, the world’s official football website, announced that it is expecting record site traffic for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, making it the most visited football website in the world. The FIFA.com forecast is 5.5 billion page views, compared to 4.2 billion recorded for the 2006 event.

The site’s popularity has been boosted by the launch of the FIFA.com’s first-ever Panini Virtual Sticker Album, which is presented by Coca-Cola. Since its launch on Tuesday 14 April, the free application has generated 200 million page views and over two million sticker ‘swaps’.

Every day, each collector receives a virtual pack of five stickers featuring the superstars and teams of the 2010 FIFA World Cup(TM). The stickers can then be collected or traded with other fans all over the world.

Matt Stone, FIFA’s Head of New Media, says: “Our official forecast of 5.5 billion FIFA.com page views could even be conservative given we received 4.2 billion PVs in 2006. The Panini Virtual Sticker Album has really ignited our online World Cup activity. We’re delighted football fans are finding the application so engaging.”

Fans can raise their collecting power by forming a group, but only individual collectors will be eligible for a prize draw (deadline 16 July 2010) to win one of a 100 keepsake hardcover printed versions of the 2010 FIFA World Cup Sticker album, also produced by Panini.

FIFA.com, the world’s official football website, is the online heart of football.

Recognised as the world’s most authoritative football website, unrivalled for depth, insight and accuracy, FIFA.com reliably and impartially delivers the global football message across multiple digital platforms to an international community of millions of professionals and enthusiasts.

Constantly updated, FIFA.com (online 1995) offers the latest news, video highlights (with no cross-border restrictions on viewing), historical data, contact with the stars, behind-the-scenes access, and – through the free FIFA.com Club – a global meeting point for people who care about football.

In addition, FIFA.com supplies a one-stop shop for retail, event ticketing, accommodation and hospitality. Through serving the global football community it also delivers value to FIFA.com’s commercial partners (Adidas, Coca-Cola, Emirates, KIA, SONY, VISA) and World Cup sponsors (Budweiser, Castrol, Continental, McDonalds, MTN, Satyam, Seara, Yingli Solar).

In an average month, FIFA.com attracts approximately 5 million unique users and generates over 80 million page views. The 2010 World Cup is predicted to generate over 5.5 billion page views.

FC Barcelona have already beaten FC Internazionale Milano once at home this season and they need a repeat performance if they are to claim a place in next month’s UEFA Champions League final.

José Mourinho’s visitors may have performed well on their travels in recent rounds but they lost 2-0 at the Camp Nou in November and have never won a semi-final away leg in Europe’s elite club competition.

The Italian champions hold the upper hand in the tie, however, despite Pedro Rodríguez’s 19th-minute strike at San Siro. Wesley Sneijder levelled on the half-hour, and second-half goals from Maicon (48) and Diego Milito (61) left Barcelona with plenty of work to do in the second leg.

For two-time winners Inter, the goal is a first final appearance since 1972. Josep Guardiola’s Barcelona, by contrast, are looking to take the penultimate step towards becoming the first team since Inter’s neighbours AC Milan 20 years ago to win back-to-back European crowns.

In a contest rich in sub-plots, Inter coach Mourinho returns once more to the club he served as assistant coach and he is not alone, with Nerazzurri players Samuel Eto’o, Thiago Motta and Ricardo Quaresma all having enjoyed spells at the Camp Nou.

Mourinho served as an assistant to the late Sir Bobby Robson and Van Gaal at Barcelona from 1996 to 2000.

As Chelsea manager Mourinho oversaw a 5-4 aggregate defeat of Barcelona in the 2004/05 first knockout round but suffered a 3-2 overall loss at the same stage the next season. The 2006/07 campaign brought another reunion, this time in the group stage, with Chelsea finishing above Barça after a 1-0 home win and 2-2 away draw.

Guardiola played in Italy between 2001 and 2003, making 24 appearances in Serie A for Brescia Calcio and another four for AS Roma. Inter forward Diego Milito, 30, could line up against his 29-year-old brother Gabriel of Barcelona. The Argentinian siblings played together for two seasons with Real Zaragoza between 2005 and 2007.

Watch LIVE Inter vs Barcelona on UEFA.com website

Stade de Gerland, Lyon
Tuesday 27 April 2010 – 20.45CET (20.45 local time)
Semi-finals, second leg

Olympique Lyonnais will look to their formidable European home record this season as they bid to overturn a 1-0 deficit and secure a first UEFA Champions League final place at the expense of FC Bayern München.

• Claude Puel’s side are unbeaten at Stade de Gerland in Europe this season and, having won their last three UEFA Champions League home outings, will hope to make it four in a row against their German visitors.
• Finalists seven times previously, Bayern lost on their travels in the last two rounds of the competition but are now within touching distance of their first UEFA Champions League showpiece since 2001, when they last lifted the trophy.
• Arjen Robben scored the only goal in the 69th minute of an eventful first leg in Munich. Both teams finished proceedings with ten men after Bayern’s Franck Ribéry was shown a straight red card in the 37th minute for a high tackle on Lisandro while Jérémy Toulalan collected two yellow cards early in the second half.

Previous meetings
• Before the first leg, the clubs had met six times in the UEFA Champions League over the past decade, recording two wins apiece.
• In the 2008/09 group stage, they drew 1-1 in Munich, Zé Roberto (52) cancelling out a Martín Demichelis own goal (25).
• Bayern secured first place in the section with a 3-2 win in Lyon on the final matchday that consigned their hosts to second. The Bavarian side raced into a three-goal lead through Miroslav Klose (11, 37) and Ribéry (34) before Sidney Govou (52) and Karim Benzema (68) narrowed the deficit.
• The full lineups for that meeting on 10 December 2008 were:
Lyon: Lloris, Gassama (Källström 64), Mensah, Boumsong, Grosso, Toulalan, Makoun, Govou, Ederson (Delgado 77), Mounier (Fred 64), Benzema.
Bayern: Rensing, Oddo (Breno 90), Demichelis, Van Buyten, Lahm, Van Bommel, Borowski, Schweinsteiger (Alt?ntop 89), Ribéry, Klose (Ottl 68), Toni.
• It was Lyon first and Bayern second when the teams met in the 2003/04 group stage. Then they drew 1-1 at Gerland – Péguy Luyindula’s 88th-minute equaliser rescuing the hosts – before Lyon won 2-1 in Bavaria through a goal from Bayern old boy Giovane Elber.
• Demichelis featured for Bayern in those games with Anthony Réveillère and Govou in the Lyon side.
• The clubs first met in the 2000/01 second group stage, Jens Jeremies scoring the only goal in Munich in November 2000. Govou is the only survivor of that encounter, having appeared as an 81st-minute substitute.
• Govou hit two first-half goals to set up a 3-0 Lyon victory in the return fixture in France on 6 March 2001, but Bayern still advanced and went on to claim the trophy that year while Les Gones were eliminated.

Match background
• Lyon have never played in the final of a major European competition – the closest they got previously was the last four of the 1963/64 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, losing to Sporting Clube de Portugal after a replay.
• Bayern, by contrast, are competing in their 13th semi-final in Europe’s elite club competition and aiming to qualify for their first final since they beat Valencia CF to win the UEFA Champions League in 2001 – when, as now, they overcame Manchester United FC in the quarter-finals.
• Four-times winners, Bayern’s record in European Champion Clubs’ Cup semi-finals is seven wins and five defeats:
2000/01 Real Madrid CF: 1-0 (a), 2-1 (h)
1999/00 Real Madrid CF: 0-2 (a), 2-1 (h)
1998/99 FC Dynamo Kyiv: 3-3 (a), 1-0 (h)
1994/95 AFC Ajax: 0-0 (h), 2-5 (a)
1990/91 FK Crvena Zvezda: 1-2 (h), 2-2 (a)
1989/90 AC Milan: 0-1 (a), 2-1 (h)
1986/87 Real Madrid CF: 4-1 (h), 0-1 (a)
1981/82 PFC CSKA Sofia: 3-4 (a), 4-0 (h)
1980/81 Liverpool FC: 0-0 (a), 1-1 (h)
1975/76 Real Madrid CF: 1-1 (a), 2-0 (h)
1974/75 AS Saint-Etienne: 0-0 (a), 2-0 (h)
1973/74 Újpest FC: 1-1 (a), 3-0 (h)
• Overall Bayern have contested 20 semi-finals in UEFA competition, winning nine and losing 11. Their most recent semi-final was against FC Zenit St. Petersburg in the 2007/08 UEFA Cup when they drew 1-1 at home but lost 4-0 away.
• Lyon have been in fine form at Gerland this term, recording five wins and a draw in the UEFA Champions League – qualifying play-off included.
• Lyon’s home record against teams from the Bundesliga is W6 D1 L3. In two-legged ties, their record is two wins and three defeats.
• Furthermore, the French club have overturned a first-leg away defeat only twice in UEFA competition while suffering six aggregate eliminations. That tally of overall losses includes both occasions where the French side lost 1-0 away first time round – a 6-2 aggregate defeat by Germany’s VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach in the 1974/75 UEFA Cup second round and a 1-0 overall loss in the third round of the same competition against Nottingham Forest FC in 1995/96.
• Bayern lost 2-1 at FC Girondins de Bordeaux – Lyon’s victims in the quarter-finals – on their last visit to France in this season’s group stage.
• Bayern’s away record against Ligue 1 opposition is W3 D3 L6.
• They have won two out of three two-legged contests with French sides, most recently the 1995/96 UEFA Cup final against Bordeaux.
• Bayern recorded their third European Cup final victory by beating France’s St-Etienne 1-0 in 1976, Franz Roth the scorer.
• The German club have won through in 38 of the 46 UEFA competition ties in which they have won the first leg at home. When winning 1-0 in Munich their record reads two aggregate wins and two defeats, however, those setbacks coming against FC Dynamo Kyiv in the 1976/77 European Cup quarter-final and Tottenham Hotspur FC in the 1983/84 UEFA Cup third round with both away legs lost 2-0.
• Bayern did progress after their most recent 1-0 home first-leg win, eliminating CF Os Belenenses from the 2007/08 UEFA Cup first round with a 2-0 win in Portugal.
• Bayern coach Louis van Gaal is hoping to lead the German club to the UEFA Champions League 15 years after winning it with Ajax. Only Ernst Happel (Feyenoord 1970, Hamburger SV 1983) and Ottmar Hitzfeld (BV Borussia Dortmund 1997, Bayern 2001) have won the European Cup as coaches of two different clubs. FC Internazionale Milano’s José Mourinho, a winner with FC Porto in 2004, is also attempting the feat this time round.
• Bayern feature two players in their squad with experience of a UEFA Champions League final. Mark van Bommel won the 2006 showpiece while at FC Barcelona and Hans-Jörg Butt was on the losing side with Bayer 04 Leverkusen in 2002.

Team ties
• Van Gaal faced France’s AJ Auxerre in the 1996/97 UEFA Champions League group stage while at Ajax. He oversaw a 1-0 win in France and a 2-1 home defeat.
• Klose has unhappy memories of facing Lyon – he was in the Werder Bremen side beaten 10-2 on aggregate by Les Gones in the 2004/05 UEFA Champions League round of 16.
• Ribéry had mixed fortunes against Lyon in French football. He never got the better of them in Ligue 1, in one game with FC Metz and three while at Olympique de Marseille. But he did help eliminate them twice from the French Cup. In 2005/06, he set up Mamadou Niang’s winner in a 2-1 quarter-final success at Gerland and the next season featured again as OM won 2-1 in a last-16 tie at Vélodrome.
• Daniel Van Buyten spent two and a half seasons at Marseille from 2001.
• Van Buyten, who did not manage a victory in five Ligue 1 outings against Lyon, scored against them in a 4-1 home defeat for Marseille in November 2003. Réveillère and Govou were in the opposition lineup.
• Butt faced Lyon with Leverkusen in the first group stage of the UEFA Champions League in 2001/02. While Leverkusen won 1-0 in France, Les Gones prevailed 4-2 in Germany with Govou among the scorers.
• Robben struck his first UEFA Champions League goal for PSV Eindhoven against Auxerre in a 3-0 home win on 30 October 2002. He also scored in the Netherlands’ 4-1 defeat of France at UEFA EURO 2008. Lyon’s Toulalan, Bafétimbi Gomis and Govou were in the France team along with Ribéry.
• Kim Källström was in the Sweden team beaten 2-0 by a Germany side including Klose, Philipp Lahm and Bastian Schweinsteiger at the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
• On 14 October last year David Alaba appeared as a substitute for Austria in a 3-1 World Cup qualifying defeat in France. Hugo Lloris, Govou and Gomis were in the opposition team.
• Lyon’s penalty shoot-out record in UEFA club competitions is: 2-4 v PSV Eindhoven, 2004/05 UEFA Champions League quarter-final
• Bayern’s record is:
5-4 v Valencia CF, 2000/01 UEFA Champions League final
9-8 v PAOK FC, 1983/84 UEFA Cup second round
4-3 v Åtvidaberg FF, 1973/74 European Champion Clubs’ Cup first round
• The victorious team will advance to the final at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium in Madrid on 22 May where they will play the winners of the Barcelona-Inter semi-final.

Hublot joined FIFA today to announce that the brand would be the ‘Official Watch’ for the next two FIFA World Cups™, which will be held in South Africa in June and Brazil in 2014. This new venture with football’s supreme authority is the high point of Hublot’s sports strategy in terms of football.

Hublot already has a long and illustrious history in the footballing world: a sponsor of the Swiss team in 2006 and an official partner of Euro 2008, with links to the Mexican Football Federation and the Spanish national team, the “Official Timekeeper” for Manchester United, and recently a partnership with Diego Maradona, the Brand has now signed one of its most prestigious agreements with FIFA.

I am delighted that Hublot will be with us for the coming FIFA World Cups. I have a lot of respect for Hublot and their ability to innovate and to stand apart.
FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter

Hublot’s CEO, Jean-Claude Biver, has just established a prestigious new association for the company, with Hublot as the “Official Watch” for FIFA and the two FIFA World Cups in 2010 and 2014: “We already have an in-depth understanding of the footballing world, as Hublot was the first luxury brand to become involved in this field. It is a great honour and an immense pleasure to become the “Official FIFA Timekeeper” for the next two FIFA World Cups, and to be a part of the largest televised event in the world”.

“I am delighted that Hublot will be with us for the coming FIFA World Cups. I have a lot of respect for Hublot and their ability to innovate and to stand apart, driven by Jean-Claude Biver’s own dynamism and passion! Hublot’s image is a mark of Swiss quality and accuracy”, added Joseph S. Blatter, FIFA President.

The Watchmaker’s role on the pitch as “Official FIFA Timekeeper” means that HUBLOT will be visible on the referee’s boards when they show substitutions or stoppage time. This will start at the forthcoming 2010 FIFA World Cup™. In addition, as the “Official Watch”, Hublot will create an exclusive limited edition series for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™, and special collections of watches linked to the FIFA World Cup™ , as of 2011 onwards.