Sport

Represent Manchester in a free cross-city FIFA battle launching this month

FIFA fans in Manchester have the opportunity to represent their city and win up to £500 and 6 months free Future Fibre from TalkTalk, by taking part in a free cross-city virtual tournament, The Future Fibre City Clash, against rival cities.

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson - 24th January 2022

A new cross-city gaming battle is launching in Manchester later this month, giving FIFA fans the chance to play in a FIFA 22 tournament against fellow gamers in Liverpool, Birmingham and Leeds.

The Future Fibre City Clash will see gamers across the four cities will go head-to-head from the comfort of their own homes for a chance to win a £500 cash prize and six months free Future Fibre broadband, plus an Amazon eero, all courtesy of TalkTalk.

The top two players from each city who make it through to the qualifying stages will each take home a £100 cash prize too.

Registrations for The Future Fibre City Clash are open until 28 January, with the free tournament set to kick off on 29 January.

After the qualifying stages, the championship will take place on 12 and 13 February.

ADVERTISEMENT
FIFA 22. Credit: EA Sports

The virtual tournament will be hosted on Battlefy, the leading online esports tournament platform.

Anyone can enter and players can take part in as many games as they like between 29 January and 6 February.

ADVERTISEMENT

Players will need to enter their Manchester postcode to register their details, and have access to a PlayStation 4 or Xbox.

The Future Fibre City Clash will find the top FIFA gaming city but will also discover if Manchester has the best gaming skills, showcasing which city has the most goals and the most wins throughout the competition.

A cross-city FIFA battle is heading to Manchester. Credit: Supplied

Ben Cooper, head of marketing – FTTP at TalkTalk, said: “We’re so excited to launch The Future Fibre City Clash as we make fast, affordable, full fibre broadband more widely available in Manchester.

ADVERTISEMENT

“Our Future Fibre packages use the UK’s latest full fibre technology and next generation home Wi-Fi from Amazon eero, meaning they can handle multiple devices at once with ease and without lag or buffering – making it the perfect broadband package for gamers.

“We look forward to seeing gamers represent their city throughout the virtual FIFA tournament and would encourage anyone to join in and have a go at winning some points for their city.”

The Future Fibre City Clash follows the launch of TalkTalk’s Future Fibre packages, with top average download speeds of 900Mb/s in Manchester.

The packages combine the benefits of Wi-Fi 6 technology and 100% full fibre connection, making them up to 24 times faster and up to five times more reliable than standard broadband.

Read more: This company will pay noisy snorers £300 to test out new sleep products

ADVERTISEMENT

Future Fibre packages have enough bandwidth to handle 75+ connected devices at once.

TalkTalk is also the only major UK provider to include Amazon’s award-winning eero 6 series routers as standard with all its fibre packages.

To find out more about The Future Fibre City Clash, visit battlefy.com/futurefibre.

For more information on Future Fibre, visit new.talktalk.co.uk/broadband/fttp.

Featured image: Photo by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash

Sport

Old Trafford has the best atmosphere in the Premier League, according to a new study

Danny Jones Danny Jones Old Trafford best atmosphere Premier League

Every supporter likes to think their club has the best fans, the best ground and the best atmosphere, but if recent data is to be believed, Old Trafford has the best atmosphere in the Premier League.

Manchester United’s home has long been considered one of the most iconic stadiums in world football; the Theatre of Dreams is a place that almost every player in world football has literally dreamt of playing at, and while it might not be the most modern, a new study suggests it has what counts: the most buzz.

As per a survey conducted by sports and betting brand Midnite, Old Trafford was the highest-rated for best-home support in the Premier League, taking more than a fifth of the total share of votes with 20.46% of participants concluding it has the best atmosphere.

Furthermore, it wasn’t just Reds propping up the stats; breaking down the results into different groups, the Stretford End and co. also got lots of recognition from other fans, with some 39% of Newcastle fans even voting United as their favourite away day atmosphere. Here’s how the top five panned out:

While the votes have no doubt been boosted by the club’s upturn in results and performances since Erik ten Hag arrived, currently sat in third and having won their first trophy for six years, it’d be curious to see what people’s impressions of the 74,000 capacity venue have been in the decade since Sir Alex left.

As you can see, Anfield came in second with 17.64% of the votes and also topped the list when it came to the atmosphere for travelling fans, with more than 34% of the 1,002 surveyed declaring Liverpool as the best away day. Perhaps not the biggest sample size but many would argue still aligns with the general consensus, historically.

League leaders Arsenal came in third with over 11% of the votes — the way this current season’s going also helping no end — and equally resurgent Newcastle United’s St James’ Park seemed to live up to its reputation too, claiming fourth place.

Read more:

On the other end of the spectrum, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Fulham and Bournemouth all bottomed out the list, with just 1.31%, 0.71% and 0.60%, respectively; Wolves also recorded the lowest result for away atmosphere, only managing 4% of the votes.

Interestingly, despite being the most technologically and architecturally up-to-date in the English top flight, Spurs’ sparkly new stadium didn’t appear in the top five and neither did Man City‘s equally impressive Etihad, even despite its wider campus and fan facilities which are reportedly set to be developed ever further.

On the other hand, they didn’t find themselves in the relegation zone of the Premier League table for atmosphere either, so that’s something, I guess.

So, Old Trafford apparently has the best atmosphere in the Prem, but what grounds up and down the EFL and wider football pyramid are the unsung heroes?

We imagine they’re in Greater Manchester, of course.

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Image — Gary Steele/mtr_shots(via Instagram)

Sport

Qatar and Sir Jim Ratcliffe set to submit ‘world record’ offers to buy Manchester United as other bidders are expected to join the race

Danny Jones Danny Jones Qatar Jim Ratcliffe world record bit to buy Manchester United

The deadline for the second round of bidders in the race to takeover Manchester United football club has officially passed, with multiple world record offers reportedly on the verge of being submitted.

Following the first round of bids, which saw a Qatar investment group headed up by Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani, and British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe both put in their initial offers, Manchester United set a second deadline of 9pm on 22 March for them to increase their offers and welcome other offers.

While the opening bids matched each other at £4.5 billion, working with financial advisors Raine Group who are brokering in the deal from the US, neither reached the Glazer family ownership’s estimations, who value the club closer to £6bn.

As a result, both went on to carry out further negotiations — each visiting Old Trafford last Friday and staying for upwards of six hours (more than 10 in the case of the Qataris) — but it is now thought they may no longer be the only parties involved in the bidding war. Whether it will be in time is the issue.

Kaveh Solhekol trying to clear up the confusion over Qatar and Jim Ratcliffe’s United bids.

Despite earlier reports that Sheikh Jassim and his associates had submitted a “world record offer” before the Glazers and Raine Group’s 9pm deadline (5pm New York time), Sky Sports‘ Kaveh Solhekol has now clarified that the bid was not submitted in time and that they have asked for an extension.

Man United are said to have agreed to the extension and Sheikh Jassim still remains confident that they have the “best bid” of the bunch.

Moreover, as per the likes of Mike Keegan, Jim Ratcliffe was also set to enter his second bid, with both offers said to have increased to around the £5bn mark. However, the INEOS chief exec is also said to have failed to meet the deadline and been granted an extension, according to a senior source.

Kaveh also went on to detail that multiple other offers have in fact been submitted, with the numbers said to be “approaching eight” different bidders.

Any bid of more than £3.75bn would break the world record fee for a sports club set when the Denver Broncos were sold last summer.

As for the frontrunners, both offers are still around a billion short of the Glazer’s asking price and not only have Sheikh Jassim and co. already warned they will ‘walk away’ if the price is too high, but it’s unclear how far Ratcliffe’s wealth can stretch if he is to continue pursuing a deal.

The key difference between the two bids is that Qatar’s bid will apparently make the club debt-free given the sheer mass of state wealth behind them, whereas the Failsworth-born businessman’s financing may be more complex to put together.

Trying to clear up the confusion, The Times‘ Matt Lawton said on Twitter that “both Qatari and INEOS representatives said their bids were in, United sources [are] saying they haven’t yet bid and have asked for an extension”, with offers now set to be made by tomorrow.

Read more:

As reported by Sky Sports earlier this week, it was thought that “at least five other bidders” and as many as eight in question could join the race along with Ratcliffe and Qatar, who were the only two parties to have submitted an official offer for United during the first round of bidding.

However, a detailed list of the other candidates and precisely how many are still yet to be confirmed; Kaveh did go on to suggest that some could simply be a form of “hot air” designed to hopefully urge the ‘serious bidders’ to edge their offers up even higher.

As for next steps, neither of the parties in the supposed two-horse race expect an immediate decision from the board, especially after the unexpected delay, and those who submitted new offers in the second round of bidding will have to wait at least seven days to hear back from the club and brokers Raine Group regarding their progress.

However, it is worth noting that these subsequent bids may not necessarily be attempts to buy the club outright and not only is there a feeling that a third round of negotiations could take place, but there is also a growing sense that the Glazers could still pull out of a potential buyout altogether.

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Image — pxfuel

More Sport

Altrincham gran new Adidas running advert

Manchester

85-year-old gran from Altrincham stars in new Adidas running advert

Soccer AM cancelled after 30 years

News

Soccer AM cancelled after nearly 30 years on the air

Blackburn matchday bus service Ewood Express

Sport

Blackburn Rovers are being praised for ‘breaking down barriers’ with their matchday bus service, the Ewood Express

Audio

Clint Boon takes us around Manchester's iconic Deaf Institute

Eats

We go meatballs deep with Mira's traditional Neapolitan sandwiches