Vauxhall Home Nations Football Media Bulletins

The Vauxhall Home Nations Football Media bulletins will be available later this week.

The Road to Brazil starts here with double headers for all of the Home Nations.

England travel to Moldova before meeting Ukraine at Wembley, Northern Ireland take on Russia in Moscow and Luxembourg at Windsor Park, Scotland play both games at Hampden Park against Serbia and Macedonia whilst Wales play Belgium in Cardiff before travelling to Serbia in the same group.

The Vauxhall media bulletins are designed to help the media with their coverage of Home Nations football and are packed full of useful stats.

To find out more contact Ben Thompson - click here

Chris Coleman Puts Media Under Pressure

Chris Coleman turned the tables on the media this week and put them through their paces, courtesy of Vauxhall, The Wales team sponsor.

The Wales manager oversaw a specially organised media training session for the national media at the Vale Hotel before naming his squad for the World Cup qualifying fixtures against Belgium and Serbia.

Coleman put the correspondents through a rigourous warm up before testing their skills in some short and sharp passing drills on the Wales training ground.

Providing an insight into life in the camp the Wales supremo then cast his eye over a shooting and penalty taking exercise before letting the media battle it out between themselves in a short sided game.

He said; “I had a great time putting the media under pressure for a change and to be fair to them I was pleasantly surprised at how skilful they were.

“I think a few of them had hopes of a late call up for the squad but I don’t think that will be happening anytime soon!”

Peter Hope, Vauxhall Marketing Director, said; “We would like to thank the FAW, Chris Coleman and the Welsh media for making such a superb event happen.

“With such a busy schedule we are very grateful to Chris for giving up his time. It gave the media an insight into like inside the Wales camp and have no doubt he will have enjoyed putting them under the microscope on the field for a change.”

View more photos from the training session at Facebook

You can follow Vauxhall Wales on Twitter

Pukka Pies Band Give Hockey a Boost

Great Britain’s hockey squads are in tune for medals with help from the Pukka Pies GBBand.

Normally to be found at England football internationals, the band have been rechristened by Pukka Pies to perform at all of Great Britain Hockey's matches at the Riverbank Arena.

Results are going well so far for GB men’s and women’s team and they are both on course to reach the semi finals later this week.

The Pukka PiesBand have certainly added to the atmosphere at the games and given Team GB a boost.

The band have been in London throughout the Olympics to support the Team GB and have been sending their inimitable video diaries to give us a flavour of what is happening inside the Olympic Park.

Check out the videos - click here and also click here

Follow @PukkaPiesBand - click here

Become a fan of the Pukka Pies Band on Facebook - click here

New Awards for the Business of Football

A brand new set of awards has launched to recognise excellence and effectiveness in the business of football. The Football Business Awards will be held at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge in November this year and are designed to recognise the essential role that business plays in football, the positive impact of football on the community and vital role played by the businesses which serve the game. The awards are open to clubs and to any business connected to football.

The high-profile panel of judges comes from a wide range of football, business and media environments include Chelsea FC, Chairman Bruce Buck, Vauxhall Head of Sponsorship Chris Hornbuckle, Lawson Muncaster, Managing Director of City AM, Nick Harford Head of Partnerships at EA Sport and FCbusiness’ Editor Ryan McKnight.

The award categories cover a broad range of football business and commercial issues from Commercial team of the Year to Best Community Scheme, Best Professional Business Serving Football to Most Innovative Use of Technology, retail operations, community schemes and catering are also covered. In several categories there are separate awards for Premier and Football League entrants. 

Chairman of the judges Bruce Buck said, “Chelsea Football Club is delighted to be hosting the inaugural Football Business Awards at Stamford Bridge and I am proud to be chairing the judging panel. As anybody who works in the football industry will testify, there is a huge amount of hard work that goes on behind the scenes at clubs to support the efforts of the players on the pitch; I know that from personal experience here at Chelsea. In my opinion, these awards are extremely important, and long overdue, in giving recognition to those who have excelled in the wide array of businesses involved in the football industry.”

Simon Burton, one of the team behind the Football Business Awards commented, “It’s timely to recognize and acknowledge the excellent commercial endeavour that goes on behind the scenes in football, both within the clubs themselves and as importantly, those thousands of businesses which serve football. Football clubs make a hugely positive impact on their communities and on the businesses which work with them. These awards celebrate that impact.”

Vauxhall and FAW to Host Social Media First

Vauxhall and the Football Association of Wales will score a social networking first with a live Twitter takeover event next week with Head Coach Chris Coleman.

The newly appointed Wales Head Coach has agreed to become the first Home Nations Manager to answer questions from fans live via Vauxhall's dedicated Wales football Twitter page.

This live Twitter takeover forms part of a series of player and coach live feeds over recent and coming months.

Simon Culley, Vauxhall’s Football Sponsorship Marketing Manager said; "We're very grateful to Chris and the FAW for facilitating this activation. It is a ground breaking opportunity for us to host a live interaction between Welsh football fans and their head coach.

“We have made a significant investment in our digital football platforms and the response to our activity has been very positive from the fans.

“As sponsor of all four Home Nations we are in a very unique position and throughout the campaign we have worked hard to give fans a behind the scenes view of International football.”

Ian Davis, FAW Commercial Manager, commented; “This is a major coup for the FAW and Vauxhall and we are delighted to be able to make it happen.

“As an association we are always looking to innovate and offering the fans a chance to interact with the Head Coach via Social Media is an exciting opportunity for everyone involved.”

The Twitter takeover will take place at the FAW Headquarters at 11am on Thursday 19^th of April, the same day that a group of Welsh football fans get the chance to play in Vauxhall’s Big Pitch game at the Millennium Stadium.

Vauxhall launched their football social media platforms in October 2011 and currently have close to forty thousand followers across all four Home Nations.

Follow @Vauxhall_Wales on twitter at https://twitter.com/vauxhall_wales

Become a fan of Vauxhall Wales on Facebook at www.facebook.com/vauxhallwales

For more information on Vauxhall Football go to http://www.vauxhallfootball.co.uk/