hi there!

Welcome to the First edition of the NEW BellaSoccer Newsletter.

My name is Alice Jones, I am the New Soccer Editor at BellaOnline and I will be releasing a bi- monthly (fortnightly) newletter about all the latest events in the World of Soccer and related topics which may interest you on BellaOnline.

I am looking forward to writing the Soccer Section on BellaOnline and I hope that you will send me suggestions for anything you would like to see a feature on, regarding the world of soccer.

I am from England and I am a keen follower of football as we call it here. I follow both men and women's football and enjoy writing about my experiences. Along with my spouse I watch a lot of football live and on television.

Over the coming weeks and months I will be writing across the whole spectrum of soccer: International, Women's Football, Grassroots football, Youth teams, League football, English and European Leagues. I will also be covering Major League Soccer when the new season starts again and special features on how to get involved as a supporter or player.

I always like to hear from my readers, so don't be shy.

I have posted some new articles on BellaOnline for you to read in the meantime, and will be writing a feature an International League review in the next couple of weeks. Please bookmark the soccer site or use the RSS feature to keep
updated regularly.

http://www.bellaonline.com/site/soccer

New Articles

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art54069.asp

ASSOCIATION FOOTBALL - THE STORY OF SOCCER

A brief history of football, from it's roots and branches.

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art54068.asp

GREAT GIFT IDEAS FOR SOCCER FANS

I hope you will enjoy this seasonal article, which might give you some gift ideas for the holiday season, for a birthday or special occasion.

What's going on in The World of Soccer, now?

Earlier this month the European Championship qualifiers were concluded, and the final teams were qualified for Euro 2008 in Austria & Switzerland. The biggest shock of the campaign, was probably England, or should that be, England were shocking!

They failed to qualify for the European Championships, losing to Croatia. Notwithstanding that Croatia are a very good team, and deserving of the victory, England's performance was not up to the standard you would expect from a team who have been in the Top 10 rankings for over a decade. The so called "Golden Generation" is over and taken the dream with it.

The loss also saw the end of the Steve McLaren era as manager. McLaren had been assistant to former boss Sven Goran Erikkson, and like his predecessor, was unpopular with the fans. Unlike his predecessor, he failed at the first attempt, the first time in over a decade that England had failed to reach a major championships. Since 1994 in fact.

Euro 2008 will of course survive without England, and be a great Tournament. In Austria and Switzerland next summer, it will feature the best Nations in Europe, Italy the World Cup holders, France and Germany as well as the hosts. Croatia now must be one of the favourite "outsiders" as they played some brilliant intelligent football in qualifying.

It just seems odd without England there, I thought this might be because I was biased, but Franz Beckenbaur thinks so too, as he touted Jurgen Klinsmann for the new vacant England manager's post.

Ah the England managers job. Somewhere out there is the perfect man... or so we England fans keep dreaming.... perhaps it should be a woman, as head coach Hope Powell seems to be well on her way to getting the England Women off to a flying start in their Euro 2009 campaign. England secured victory over Spain to lead Group 1 after 3 games, thanks to a goal from Karen Carney.

Jose Mourinho, Fabio Capello, Alan Shearer, Martin O' Neill... who will take on the "biggest job in football?" and try to lead England back on track for the World Cup Qualifying campaign which starts after next summer.

Which leads me to the World Cup Draw. This week saw the Draw for the South Africa 2010 Qualifying Rounds.

England once again got drawn with Croatia, the team who knocked them out of the European Championships a few days earlier. It was almost inevitable. As the draw featured teams from all the continents, there is too much to cover in a newsletter, so I will be writing a feature on the World Cup draw next week on BellaOnline. All the major International teams are in the draw, and it has thrown up some interesting ties!

Don't forget to bookmark the soccer site and look out for that soon.

http://www.bellaonline.com/site/soccer

I will also be more active on the Soccer forum so please join in there and you can also post new ideas for articles or features in the forum.

http://forums.bellaonline.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=356

I hope you have enjoyed this introductory newsletter, you will be hearing more from me in the coming weeks. I hope to hear from you sometime soon, either in the forum or in response to this email message. I thrive on your feedback!

Have fun passing this message along to family and friends, because we all love free knowledge!

Alice Jones, Soccer Editor
http://soccer.bellaonline.com

One of hundreds of sites at BellaOnline.com