The wait is finally over. After 3 weeks of furious campaigning, a record 37k+ votes and an unbelievably positive response from fans, voters and nominees, the 2010 Soccerlens Awards winners have been decided. As is customary, the winners are decided exclusively through fan voting, although the SLA team picks the voting shortlist from nominations made by fans and readers.

Before we get to the winners, I’d like to thank the people who helped make this year’s Awards a success. Thank you fans, thank you voters and thank you nominees for making this year’s Soccerlens Awards the best ever. Last but not least, a special thanks to our sponsors Castrol Football and Studs Up Football Club, without whom this year’s SLAs wouldn’t have been possible.

Without further ado, here are the winners this year’s Soccerlens Awards:

2010 Soccerlens Awards Winners

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

After three weeks of sifting through hundreds (and thousands) of nominations for the 2010 Soccerlens Awards, we’re proud to announce that the shortlists have been decided and the Awards are now ready for your votes.

You can head over to the Soccerlens Awards website (or just click on the individual award category links below) and vote for your favourite football sites and writers.

The 2010 Soccerlens Awards are brought to you in partnership with Castrol Football, sponsors of the FIFA World Cup and the UEFA European Championships. Castrol have also created an objective, stats-based ranking system for footballers to establish who the highest performing footballers are in the last 12 months. You can see the rankings in action on the right (in the sidebar), and also on the Castrol Football Rankings website.

The Soccerlens Awards:

Best Football Website: The best of the best, no exceptions and no restrictions. The only award where every single football website is eligible for nomination and voting.

Best New Football Website: That outstanding football website who, despite only launching in the past year, has made an instant impact on the online football community. Always a popular category amongst bloggers, the site must have started in 2010.

Most Entertaining Football Website: The drama of football can be too much for the most hardened of us, but those in this category do their part to keep us entertained through the highs and lows of a long season.

Best Football Gear Website: We’ve broadened the category this year to include all sites devoted to football gear whether they’re selling products, writing reviews, or simply drooling over them. If it’s devoted to football gear, it belongs in here.

Best Football Videos Website: The Best Football Videos Website award is – as the name suggests – given to the best resource dedicated to football videos, and football videos only. The ultimate time waster.

Best Club Fansite: This award celebrates those websites dedicated to a single club.

Best Football Podcast: The best online ’show’ in football – radio or video. More than any other SLA category, the competition for this award gets better and better every year as production values and on-air talent keep improving.

Best Football Blogger: Whether they run the whole show on their own or are an invaluable part of a team, they stand out among all others.

Best Football Journalist: There are some journalists who struggle mightily with the transition to the online world, but we want to give kudos to those who remind us just how powerful quality journalism can be from breaking stories to expert analysis.

Best Niche Website: This award is for those websites who endeavour to stay away from what the masses are doing and give the football world something unique.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

You’d be crazy to miss the brand new episode of 3 Up Front – so tune in now!

Host Adrian Clarke, along with prickly pundits Iain Spragg and Iain Macintosh, debate a whole host of hot  topics that include;

Is the Premier League going downhill in terms of quality?

Fact or Fiction: Should we apologise to Torres and Hodgson for writing them off?

How good are Chris Hughton’s unpredictable Newcastle United?

The X-aggerated Factor: Harry Redknapp would make a terrible England boss. Or would he?

The Soccerlens Awards 2010 sponsored by Castrol – which podcasts should be nominated?

And last but not least the show will climax as always with the silly but slightly educational hit quiz, The 3 Up Front Shoot Out.

It’s just over half an hour of pure footballing pleasure. Enjoy.
Download link (mp3, 32mb, 34 mins)

Subscribe to the 3 Up Front Podcast

You can subscribe via iTunes or directly to the podcast feed. You can also follow 3 Up Front on Twitter and Facebook.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

The Soccerlens Awards are all about celebrating the very best in football from around the web from those breaking the news to those making it. A year is a long time for the web and so we make sure we spend time fine tuning the SLAs to reflect the changes and trends we see out there in the online football world.

This year, less is more. We’ve cut the categories down from 17 to just 10 of the very best, including some new ones that we’re really excited about like the prestigious Best Football Website. For each award we’ll still have both Editor’s Pick and Reader’s Choice as usual, we can’t wait to see where we agree to disagree this year!

The Soccerlens Awards have a new home now, so get over to the brand new Soccerlens Awards website and get your nominations in NOW!

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

And the winners are…

The Soccerlens Awards recognise the best websites and the best writers in football.. After the great success of the 2007 and 2008 editions, SL readers and editors gathered again to choose among 17 different awards categories and crown the best out of over sixty quality football sites and writers.

Yes people, YOU voted (over 9,000 times) for your favorites in football. The Soccerlens Awards provides you, the public, with the opportunity to give props to those who have kept you informed, amused, and entertained for the past year. The writers who have made you laugh, those who have made you cry, and all those kickass blogs of footy goodness that no matter how hard your boss screams, you just can’t keep away from at work.

Just like last year, there are two winners for each category in the SL Awards: a Readers’ Choice (voted by you) and an Editors’ Choice. Both choices bear equal weight. It’s just that we felt that to balance out the votes from some of the more popular sites, we needed editorial picks to reward quality as well. Sometimes the Readers and Editors selected different winners, and we’ll leave it for you to decide who made the better choice.

And so, after two weeks of intense voting and behind-the-scenes deliberations we’ve selected the winners of the 2009 Soccerlens Awards. What we have here is a solid collection of some of the best of football in the blogosphere. Organzing this ceremony sure was no easy feat, but we definitely hope you like the final product. For us, it was well worth the effort.

Best Football Writer of 2009

Celebrating the best (not the one with the most friends or the one supporting the biggest team) football writer. The award has stepped up a notch this year since we’ve combined the ‘blogger’ and ‘mainstream media football writer’ categories here, meaning that the best of the blogosphere go toe to toe with the best of print and online media.

Readers’ Choice: Ives Galarcep.

There was vocal support for Ives in last year’s awards and it shone through this time, with readers voting him in as their favourite football writer. Soccer by Ives has a significant online presence in the US and worldwide, and Ives does a stellar job giving football fans the world over their daily fix.

Runner Up: Barry Glendenning.

Editors’ Choice: Rob Smyth.

The Joy of Six series is hands down the best football column around, and Rob has been a key part of making it so good.

Runner Up: Phil McNulty.

Best Football Podcast Of 2009

What it says on the tin – the best online ’show’ in football – radio or video. There has been a rise in the number of podcasts started in 09, so the competition was fiercer this time around.

Readers’ Choice: The Football Ramble.

Top for quality, top for freshness, top for its wide coverage of football, top for the banter and top for having a fun cast to listen to.

Runner Up: Football Weekly (Guardian).

Editors’ Choice: The Football Ramble.

The Football Ramble is what every football podcast tries and fails to be. Kudos.

Runner Up: Two Footed Tackle.

Best Football Community of 2009

With the advent of social networks, we’ve merged the forum and community awards of last year to create a single award for the best ‘community’ of football fans. Social networks vs forums vs blogs – who has the best (or most) fans?

Readers’ Choice: Kickette.

Kickette has set the standard in what an online community should be like – loyal, passionate and incredibly dedicated to site.

Runner Up: The Offside and Big Soccer (tied).

Editors’ Choice: Kickette.

Several sites have more users and more traffic, but none of them put as much investment into community as Kickette does, and it shows throughout.

Runner Up: Footbo.

Best Football News Site of 2009

Your #1 source for football news. Everyone has their own favourite, but which site is #1 for the most fans?

Readers’ Choice: Goal.

Goal has significantly invested in improving their news coverage in 2009 – at a time when other major organisations were cutting back. They have an excellent crew of writers and while they will report just about anything – they are definitely the most popular football news site.

Runner Up: BBC.

Editors’ Choice: BBC.

If you’re looking for quality English football news, you can’t go wrong with the BBC. There’s no bias so the analysis can be dry but in terms of plain ol’ footy news, the Beeb gets it right.

Runner Up: Goal.

Best Football Team Site of 2009

The best team / club site. The biggest names and brands.

Readers’ Choice: Republik of Mancunia.

ROM proved to be the most popular team site this year – there may be other sites with as much following but ROM edges it for it’s consistent improvements in 2009 and month-on-month growth as the #1 destination for United fans.

Runner Up: This is Anfield.

Editors’ Choice: Republik of Mancunia.

See above.

Runner Up: This is Anfield.

Best Competition Site of 2009

Showcasing the best league / competition / region specific coverage. Be it the Premier League, US football, South American football or the World Cup, which site is the best in giving you the latest news, insight and everything else you want from it?

Readers’ Choice: EPL Talk.

EPL Talk edges out mainstream media sites like the BBC and the Guardian by giving you proper football analysis and wide-lens coverage of the English Premier League.

Runner Up: World Cup Blog.

Editors’ Choice: EPL Talk.

Over the years, EPL Talk has become a football blogging icon – coupled with the podcast, it’s quite possibly one of the best football blogs around.

Runner Up: Football Italia.

Best Team Writer of 2009

The best team-specific blogger / writer. This is primarily for unofficial fan sites – we’ve yet to see a great team-specific ‘official’ writer or MSM correspondent.

Readers’ Choice: Scott (Republik of Mancunia).

Like we said above, Scott stands head and shoulders above the competition when it comes to creating an online movement in football.

Runner Up: Arseblogger (Arseblog).

Editors’ Choice: Scott (Republik of Mancunia).

See above.

Runner Up: Adam Bader (Real Madrid Talk).

A special mention for Adam – there were a couple of very good bloggers who could have made this spot, but Adam edges out because of how he has established himself and his brand online using all the social media tools available to a blogger.

The Football Expert of 2009

The best pundit on a specific league, competition or region. Think Tim Vickery (South America), Sid Lowe (La Liga / Spanish Football) or … if Soccerlens writers were eligible … James Horncastle (Serie A). Open to all writers.

Readers’ Choice: Jonathan Wilson.

The walking talking football tactics bible. Possesses a rare ability to view a game as a grandmaster might view a chess board.

Runner Up: Tim Vickery.

Editors’ Choice: Tim Vickery.

Vickery is God.

Runner Up: Raphael Honigstein (Guardian).

Best Football Gossip Site of 2009

The top source for football gossip – from the usual transfer rumours to your more colourful gossip about the teams, the players and their lives outside football.

Readers’ Choice: Dirty Tackle.

Dirty Tackle recently made the move to Yahoo! and it’s well-deserved – DT is a source of fun and entertaining gossip 7 days a week.

Runner Up: The Spoiler.

Editors’ Choice: Dirty Tackle.

Runner Up: Caught Offside.

COS may get a bad rep for their style of reporting but when it comes to rumours and gossip, they do a great job of bagging and tagging all of them.

Funniest Football Site of 2009

Or in other words, the football site that makes you laugh the most. It could be a comic, it could be satire, it could be banter, or it could be sheer stupidity. Take your pick.

Readers’ Choice: The Football Ramble.

The guys at Football Ramble have made a big splash in the blogosphere and it shows in the readers’ support for them – and yes, they’re funny too.

Runner Up: Dirty Tackle.

Editors’ Choice: Studs Up.

A few columnists get football humour right, but as THE football comic strip, there can be only one winner.

Runner Up: Dirty Tackle.

Best Mobile Football App of 2009

The cream of the crop from mobile football applications and mobile football games.

Readers’ Choice: Championship Manager 2010.

I point you to this comic.

Runner Up: FIFA 10.

Editors’ Choice: FIFA 10.

A FOOTBALL game on the iPhone – it sounds unreal until you actually play it – and then you can’t stop playing it. A smashing effort.

Runner Up: iFooty World.

Best Online Football Game of 2009

Strictly and exclusively ONLINE football games. Video-games are off the list this year (seriously, FIFA or Football Manager, it’s apples and oranges) and mobile games have their own category. Video-games with an online multiplayer option (e.g. FIFA, PES) are not eligible for this category, although online versions of popular video-games (FM Live) are eligible.

In addition, fantasy football games and football prediction games are part of this category (because, you know, they’re played online).

Readers’ Choice: Stick Football.

Just like FIFA 10 on the iPhone, Stick Football has created a simple yet addictive playing experience.

Runner Up: Premier League Fantasy Football.

Editors’ Choice: HatTrick.

A massive, massive football management game, you can’t beat it, although FM Live, OFM and Fantasy Football come close.

Runner Up: FM Live.

Best Football Babes Site of 2009

Who gives you the biggest and best centerfolds for the women of football? Well, not strictly ‘of football’, but they make following the game so much better.

Readers’ Choice: WAGs Offside.

The site that brings you in-depth analysis and fan opinion from football teams around the world also brings you the best looking wives and girlfriends of footballers from around the world.

Runner Up: The Spoiler.

Editors’ Choice: The Spoiler.

The pioneer of Football Babes galleries and despite the valiant efforts of other websites, they’re still the best.

Runner Up: WAGs Offside.

Best Football Betting Site of 2009

Betting odds, betting tips, maximization of earnings, etc. The terror of the housewife and paradise of the modern football gambler.

Readers’ Choice: FreeBetting.net.

A bucket load of tips, odds and news for punters new and old.

Runner Up: The Daily Punt.

Editors’ Choice: Betfair.

Bet365 may have the best incentives, Sporting Index the most intellectually stimulating and Paddy Power may have the most entertaining bets, but overall Betfair is perhaps the best all-round betting destination for football fans – and given the competition in that niche, that’s saying a lot.

Runner Up: FreeBetting.net

Best Online Football Store of 2009

More and more football fans are doing their footy shopping – kits, boots, gloves, balls – online. Which retailer is the best? Which site gives you the best product reviews? We look at both review sites and proper online stores here (i.e. both SoccerPro and FootyBoots count).

Readers’ Choice: Soccer.com.

With a name like Soccer.com, you can’t go too wrong can you?

Runner Up: Soccer Pro.

Editors’ Choice: Pro Direct Soccer.

A proper football store, comprehensive, carries any and every football product you might want, and the user experience is great too.

Runner Up: Soccer.com.

Best Football Videos Site of 2009

The top resource for football video clips – goals, highlights, etc. No, no YouTube.

Readers’ Choice: Footy Tube.

A football video community where football fans can share videos and other blogs can setup their own football video channels. It helps push FT into a league of it’s own for football video sites and we expect great things from the guys at FT in the future.

Runner Up: 101 Great Goals.

Editors’ Choice: 101 Great Goals.

Still the kings of football goals and videos.

Runner Up: Soccer Clips.

Best Football Stats Site of 2009

Who do you go to for football stats? For live scores? For the hard numbers after the game?

Readers’ Choice: IM Scouting.

IMScouting has become a popular destination for football fans looking to glean information on their club’s potential transfer targets.

Runner Up: F365 Stats.

Editors’ Choice: IM Scouting.

IMScouting is the first system of its kind to try & provide a full catalogue of football players in leagues from all over the world. As player stats go, this is the only site you need to bookmark.

Runner Up: Soccerbase.

Design Credits:

Major props to Nicolas Pin for his impressive design work on the award graphics.

Also see: Football bloggers pick the best websites of 2009.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

The second Soccerlens Podcast of the new decade sees Adrian Clarke and Iain Spragg hit the spot with more topical football banter and debate. 

As well as dissecting all the hottest topics in football, the duo nominate some of their own favourite writers, experts and websites in light of the upcoming Soccerlens Awards. Question corner covers Robbie Savage on the phone, a Manchester United buy-out and matches you’d like to save or suffer when it comes to snowy weather. 

It’s well worth a listen!

You can listen to this week’s episode below:
Download link (mp3, 31mb, 32 mins)

Make sure you send in your feedback and questions through podcast@soccerlens.com and Clarke and Spragg will feature the best of them in next week’s show.

Subscribe to the Soccerlens Podcast

You can subscribe via iTunes or directly to the podcast feed.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

And the winners are…

The Soccerlens Awards recognize excellence in football blogging. After the great success of the 2007 edition, SL readers and editors gathered again to choose among 20 different awards categories and crown the best out of over a hundred quality football sites.

Yes people, YOU voted (over 16,000 times) for your favorite blogs. The Soccerlens Awards provides you, the public, with the opportunity to give props to those who have kept you informed, amused, and entertained for the past year. The writers who have made you laugh, those who have made you cry, and all those kickass blogs of footy goodness that no matter how hard your boss screams, you just can’t keep away from at work.

Just like last year, there are two winners for each category in the SL Awards: a Readers’ Choice (voted by you) and an Editors’ Choice. That is our way of saying “we’ll give you the public a right to vote, but if we don’t like who you vote for we’ll still get to pick the guy sitting on the president’s chair”.

But seriously guys, both choices bear equal weight. It’s just that we are so nice here at SL, we don’t want anyone to be left out. In some cases, the Readers and the Editors selected the same winners. However, more often than not, the Readers and Editors selected different winners, and we’ll leave it for you to decide who made the better choice.

And so, after two weeks of intense voting and behind-the-scenes deliberations we’ve selected the winners of the 2008 Soccerlens Awards. What we have here is a solid collection of some of the best football sites in the blogosphere. Organzing this ceremony sure was no easy feat, but we definitely hope you like the final product. For us, it was well worth the effort.
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Best British Football Blog Of 2008

And we don’t mean the best blog based in Britain, but rather the best blog covering UK football (i.e. English or Scottish Premiership… no we’re not counting you Ireland/Wales!! Get interesting already!!)

Readers’ Choice: Republik Of Mancunia.

ROM offers the best in news on Manchester United with a mix of daily news coverage and insightful commentary. Scott puts a lot of time and effort in his articles, and it shows in the support he got for these awards.

Runner Up: EPL Talk.

Editors’ Choice: Two Hundred Percent.

If you want a) the big picture on where English football stands and where it’s going and b) news about all tiers of English football – then Ian’s the man for you. Possibly the most well-rounded blog in terms of covering English football from top to bottom.

Runner Up: The Spoiler.

Best World Football Blog Of 2008

The best football blog to cover non-UK football, or at the very least not restricted to UK football. You may call this the “Soccerlens Ultimate Award”, or SUA.

And the SUA goes to…

Readers’ Choice: The Offside.

This isn’t really a surprise, is it? The Offside has the broadest and most in-depth news coverage of football around the world with dozens of writers working day and night to make it the best football blog around.

Runner Up: La Liga Loca.

Editors’ Choice: The Offside.

We admit it, we’re in love with The Offside too. If they keep winning like this, we’ll need to retire the award some day.

Runner Up: 101 Great Goals.

Best Football Blog Design Of 2008

The football blog which, by its artistic beauty, extreme Web 2.0-design, and ultra-fast loading speed puts Chris Pearson to shame.

Readers’ Choice: Kickette.

Designed by Michael Heald of Fully Illustrated, Kickette is the premier site for female football fans, and the new skin just pops off the screen. Kudos.

Runner Up: Premiership Talk.

Editors’ Choice: Studs Up.

I think we’re going to have to send this one directly to Michael, as Studs Up is another one of Fully Illustrated’s works of art. Studs Up is cool, the design makes it that much cooler.

Runner Up: This Is American Soccer.

Best New Football Blog of 2008

To be eligible, a football blog must have been created after 1 Jan 08. Or in other words: the “Rookie of the Season” award.

Readers’ Choice: The Chelsea Blog.

The Chelsea Blog has established itself as one of the best sites for Chelsea-related news and opinion in a short period of time, no mean feat considering that they’re up against some of the best in Ole Ole’s Chelsea blog and Blue Champions.

Runner Up: Premiership Talk.

Editors’ Choice: Premiership Talk.

PT is not even an year old yet and is already a reliable and comprehensive source for football news. Well done Brian.

Runner Up: Off The Post.

Best Football Podcast of 2008

The day when technology granted us football fans the ability to rant not only in writing, but through the repeated use of our vocal chords, was both a blessing and a curse. This award recognizes the most blessed (or least cursed) football podcast.

Readers’ Choice: Arsecasts.

The most popular Arsenal blog, the strongest online community, and one of the oldest football blogs around. Is it any wonder the Arsecasts are the undisputed winners?

Runner Up: Non-League Podcast (BBC London).

Editors’ Choice: Arsecasts.

Votes apart, the Arsecast is a quality podcast and non-Arsenal fans should give it a listen to decide for themselves (although I imagine bias trumps common sense, so you might be better off with Chris below).

Runner Up: Chris Harris (EPL Talk).

Best Football Blog Community of 2008

Let’s face it people: us bloggers would have one hell of tough(er) job if there was no one to read and comment on our daily footy ramblings. This award recognizes the best football blog community, both in quantity AND quality.

Ahmed’s Note: NUFC Blog won the popular vote but were disqualified from the Readers’ Choice award after a couple of their readers cheated (and admitted to doing so on NUFC Blog). I’m sorry Ed, we’ve taken measures to ensure that this can’t happen again in the future.

Readers’ Choice: Arseblog.

Not hard to see this one coming. Arseblog truly is one of most popular communities around.

Runner Up: Kickette.

Editors’ Choice: Arseblog.

Runner Up: NUFC Blog.

Vote-rigging aside, NUFC Blog is the #1 community for Newcastle fans and Ed has done a fantastic job in building the site up.

Best Football Forum of 2008

A wise man here at Soccerlens decided to keep the “Blog Community” and “Football Forum” awards separate. When asked why, the wise man replied “because a blog’s a blog and a forum’s a forum”. Nuff said.

Readers’ Choice: Soccerpulse.

Soccerpulse is the first name we think of when we think ‘football forums’, and from the votes it seems that plenty of other voters think the same.

Runner Up: BigSoccer Forum.

Editors’ Choice: Soccerpulse.

Running a forum is a serious business, and making one as popular and universally loved as SoccerPulse is damned-near impossible. Props to Chris and the team for making SoccerPulse into what it is today.

Runner Up: BigSoccer Forum.

Best Football Blogger of 2008

Award recognizing the best individual writer. Give props to the guy (or girl!) who regularly blows you away with his/her razor-sharp wits, dead-on tactical analysis, or overwhelming bits of interesting/pointless-but-equally-funny footy news.

Readers’ Choice: Gerry McDonnell (GM Football).

Gerry’s column here on Soccerlens was possibly last season’s most popular column . If you miss his entertaining style and wit, be sure to follow his blog.

Runner Up: Laurie (The Offside).

Editors’ Choice: Brian Phillips (Run Of Play).

This is the most difficult award to give out. We’re huge fans of Laurie and Brian, and Tim is just fantastic anyway. Unfortunately only one blogger can win this, otherwise this would have been a three-way tie.

Brian, congratulations, you’re the best blogger this year. Laurie and Tim – sorry to see you guys miss out, best of luck for next season.

Runner Up: Laurie (The Offside).

Best New Football Blogger of 2008

Also an individual writer award. To be eligible, a football blogger must have started blogging after 1 Jan 08. A “Rookie of the Season, part 2″ award, if you will.

Readers’ Choice: Chris Taylor (It’ll Be Off).

Chris is a freelance writer who blogs about FC United and football in general – and hopefully we’ll be seeing him do some guest commentary on Soccerlens in 2009.

Runner Up: Alessio (Juve Offside).

Editors’ Choice: Fredorrarci (Sport Is A Show).

Alan Shearer is dead! Alan Shearer is dead! Long live Alan!

On a serious note (as if that’s ever possible), Fredorrarci is hilarious, outrageous and spot on with almost everything he says. As with Brian, a richly-deserved award.

Runner Up: Alessio (Juve Offside).

Best Football WAGs site of 2008

Looking for the latest Abbey Clancy spread, bikini pics of Nereida Gallardo (C-Ron, you dumbass!!), or ANY picture of Sylvie Van der Vaart? This award recognizes the best resource for WAG goodness.

Readers’ Choice: Kickette.

Kickette is the #1 source for anyone looking for the latest news and gossip on WAGs around the world.

Runner Up: TheSpoiler.

Editors’ Choice: TheSpoiler.

And if you’re looking exclusively for the photo galleries, The Spoiler has got your back (and then some).

Runner Up: WAGS Blog.

Best Football Goals Site of 2008

Best resource for goal videos and clips. No, YouTube isn’t nominated. If you could, would you really want to vote for a site where FIFA/UEFA clips are removed faster than the José puppet can say “I’m fantastic”?

Readers’ Choice: 101 Great Goals.

101 Great Goals, along with FootyTube, is synonymous with ‘football goals’ and football videos.

Runner Up: Timesoccer.

Editors’ Choice: 101 Great Goals.

FootyTube is a great site, but 101′s greater football coverage gets it the nod. Top stuff.

Runner Up: Footytube.

Best Media Blogger of 2008

Award for the best mainstream media blogger/journalist. Essentially, your favorite writer from the BBC, Guardian, Independent, Times, Fox Sports, etc.

Readers’ Choice: Bobby McMahon (Fox Sports).

You know how footballers who don’t make it to the top level are often better pundits than those who do make it? Bobby McMahon (no offense to the man) may not have been a crack footballer but he’s an excellent pundit and football writer.

Runner Up: Tim Vickery (BBC Sport).

Editors’ Choice: Bobby McMahon (Fox Sports).

Runner Up: Marcela Mora y Araujo (Guardian).

Best Football Game of 2008

This can be live action (FIFA, Pro Evolution Soccer, etc.) or management (Football Manager, etc.). Let’s face it: if we had separated this into two categories, FM would have stolen the term “landslide victory” away from Obama this year.

Readers’ Choice: FIFA 09.

The FIFA series has improved massively in the last couple of years with EA Sports working hard to make the game more ‘real’. It’s worked out well and FIFA 09 pretty much beats it’s other console rival, PES 09.

Runner Up: Football Manager 09.

Editors’ Choice: Football Manager 09.

More players, football now in 3D and a host of small improvements that make FM 09 a must-get for FM enthusiasts. FIFA may still be the game of choice if you’re with friends looking for quick entertainment, but FM is the only game for serious football gamers.

Runner Up: FIFA 09.

Best Online Football Game of 2008

Strictly and exclusively ONLINE games. Video-games with an online multiplayer option (e.g. FIFA, PES) are not eligible for this category.

Readers’ Choice: Hattrick.

Possibly the most popular online football game along with the excellent OFM.

Runner Up: Online Football Manager.

Editors’ Choice: Online Football Manager.

We’ve tried other online footy games but we keep coming back to OFM – it’s simple, it’s addictive and it’s brilliant.

Runner Up: Football Manager Live.

Best Fantasy Football Game of 2008

My friend Tim doesn’t understand the concept of a “balanced team”. Tim always blows his entire budget buying three overpriced strikers, ends up with a goalkeeper like Massimo Taibi and then wonders why he loses every game 5-0. We hope the people who voted in this award aren’t like Tim.

Readers’ Choice: Times PlayTheGame Fantasy Football.

PlayTheGame isn’t the simplest of fantasy football games but it’s easily the most innovative and much loved by hardcore fantasy football fans.

Runner Up: Fantasy Premier League Football.

Editors’ Choice: Fantasy Premier League Football.

The Premier League’s fantasy football offering keeps it simple and does it best. Perfect for a more ‘hands-off’ approach and for newcomers to fantasy football.

Runner Up: Times PlayTheGame Fantasy Football

Best Football Shirt of 2008

This award recognizes the most beautiful shirt (club or national team) of the year 2008. To be eligible, it must have been used during the current year, so “Spain’s Euro 2008″ shirt is IN, but Jorge Campos’ attempts at redefining goalkeeper fashion are OUT.

Readers’ Choice: Bayern Munich 2007-08 Home.

The Bayern, United and Spain shirts were in a very close contest but ultimately the Bayern shirt won out, and fairly too – on the pitch it’s probably the better looking of all 3.

Runner Up: Man Utd 2008-09 – 3rd kit (blue) & Spain Euro 2008 Home.

Editors’ Choice: Bayern Munich 2007-08 Home.

Runner Up: Marseille 2008-09 Away.

Best Football Player of 2008

The best player of 2008. Call it a “FIFA World Player of the Year” award à la sauce Soccerlens. Minus you know, the pricey silverware and hot female models presenting it (although Ahmed is available upon request).

Readers’ Choice: Cristiano Ronaldo.

For all his faults, it seems like more people like Ronaldo than they like Messi. Ok, I know that’s not true, but at least he didn’t win 1st, 2nd and 3rd place, did he?

Runner Up: Lionel Messi.

Editors’ Choice: Cristiano Ronaldo.

The numbers say that Messi was more influential per game whereas Ronaldo was more influential through the course of the season. Numbers say a lot of things, in this case 2 titles to 1.

Runner Up: Lionel Messi.

Best Football Team of 2008

This award recognizes the best club or national team of 2008. Call me crazy, but at the time the nominations were published I predicted either the UEFA Champions League or Euro 2008 champions were gonna win this one.

Readers’ Choice: Manchester United.

English and European Champions, it’s hard to contest against this one but nonetheless people will argue that Spain were the better team, albeit only for 3 weeks. The popular vote suggests otherwise.

Runner Up: Spain.

Editors’ Choice: Manchester United.

How do you measure the performances of a team? By percentage of wins? By the number of trophies? By the tough and trying circumstances in which victory was achieved? By the number of games played? It’s not an easy choice and your decision may change depending on which factors you consider the most important.

For us, it comes down to this: who went up against teams better than themselves and came out on the other side as winners? United’s Champions League triumph is built on beating teams bigger and possibly better than themselves, and it’s not something Spain can lay claim to.

Runner Up: Spain.

Best Live Football Site of 2008

The best website providing access to live football matches. Can be commercial (e.g. Setanta broadband) or P2P (e.g. my2p.eu).

Readers’ Choice: Live Soccer TV.

LiveSoccerTV.com gives you the latest tv schedules for live games for US and Canada. Although not necessarily a ‘provider’ of live football games, they nevertheless provide a very useful service.

Runner Up: MyP2P.eu.

Editors’ Choice: MyP2P.eu.

The premier site for live football streams (and other sports), hands down.

Runner Up: Setanta Broadband.

Best Football Betting Site of 2008

Betting odds, betting tips, maximization of earnings, etc. The terror of the housewife and paradise of the modern football gambler.

Readers’ Choice: OLBG.

Online Betting Guide (OLBG) is a comprehensive resource for football betting and one of the most popular betting sites around.

Runner Up: Betfair.

Editors’ Choice: OLBG.

We’ve discussed this before – not all the top sites on football betting were included in the nominations. Of those that were, OLBG (and Betfair) stood head and shoulders above the rest in terms of providing useful betting advice to their readers.

Runner Up: Betfair.

Design Credits:

Major props to Randa Clay for her impressive design work on the award graphics.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Who do you rate as the best football player in 2008? Ronaldo may be sweeping the awards but there are several other solid contenders for the player of the year title (including some, like Casillas and Aboutrika, who didn’t make the list here).

There’s Messi, who has a better goals + assists to games ratio than Ronaldo, played fewer games and was outstanding in an international competition. There’s Torres with his stellar, record-breaking debut season in the Premier League and European championship. There’s Toni and Ibra with their free goal-scoring in domestic leagues. Then there’s Xavi, MVP at Euro 08 and outstanding for Barcelona throughout the season.

Vote for your pick as best footballer of 2008 here.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Which football team (club or international) delivered the most outstanding performances in the year of 2008?

Was it Juventus, who stormed to 3rd place in the Serie A after spending an year in Serie B?

Was it the Brazilian Women’s Team, who were arguably the best Womens’ football team in 2008? Or Spain, winners of Euro 2008?

Manchester United won the double but slipped in the league in the first half of 2008 and weren’t at their best in the second half. Chelsea were quite good till the Champions League final and have been imposing in the start of the new season, but have little to show for it just yet.

Or is it Zenit, UEFA Cup and UEFA Super Cup Champions?

Vote for your pick as the best football team of 2008 here.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

The Soccerlens Awards recognize excellence in football blogging. With help from our readers and editors, Soccerlens chose 14 awards categories (we’re definitely going to increase categories for next year as the football blogosphere expands) and nominated six candidates per category.

After 13 days of fierce voting (Readers’ Choice) and ongoing behind-the-scenes deliberation (Editors’ Choice) we’ve selected the winners of the 2007 Soccerlens Awards.

In some cases, the Readers and the Editors selected the same winners. However, more often than not, the Readers and Editors selected different winners. In those cases, it’s for you to decide who made the better choice

While putting these awards together was a labor of love (and I mean labor in both senses of the term!) it was well worth the effort. What we have here is a solid collection of the best football blogs in the world in some of the most important categories there are. It was no easy feat, but we sure hope you like the final product:

The Best Overall Blog Of 2007

Readers’ Choice: Who Ate All The Pies

Pies has set the standard for alternative football blogging, offering a fresh and often humourous perspective on the beautiful game. From their video links to WAG features to their strong community, they have established themselves over the last year as one of the top blogs in the football niche.

Runner Up: The Offside

Voting Results: Best Overall Blog Poll

Editors’ Choice: The Offside

The Offside have assembled a fearsome collection of writers (some of the best, I should say) and as such cover the broadest spectrum of football while still maintaining a high standard of quality.

Runner Up: Pies.

The Best EPL Blog Of 2007

Readers’ Choice: The Run of Play

It’s rare to come across articulate bloggers, even rarer to meet articulate football fans. The Run of Play would be a worthy candidate for a host of awards and with memorable articles like these, it’s no wonder that Brian’s blog got the most votes in this year’s awards. If you’re looking for news on the Premier League and English football in general, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better blog than Run of Play.

Runner Up: AVFC Blog

Voting Results: Best EPL Blog Poll

Editors’ Choice: The Run Of Play and Sniffing The Touchline

Yes, AVFC Blog, Arseblog and EPL Talk are all bigger blogs with more following, community and history. Yes, all 3 are award-worthy blogs in their own right (so is the H list, mind you).

But the sheer quality of writing and insight on display at The Run Of Play and STT is amazing and a refreshing break from the tripe we are force-fed through our regular footy news channels (i.e. the ilk of BBC, Guardian and Sun).

The Best Serie A Blog Of 2007

Readers’ Choice: Italian Soccer Serie A

Regular in-depth coverage plus a focus on building a strong community has helped Anna build one of the best Serie A blogs around.

Runner Up: Roma Offside

Voting Results: Best Serie A Blog Poll

Editors’ Choice: Italy Offside

The Offside win another award – although Chris at Roma Offside has built an excellent following, the Italy section as a whole deserves recognition for the great work Martha and Chris have done to provide us with the best English-language coverage of Italian football online.

Runner Up: mCalcio.

The Best La Liga Blog Of 2007

Readers’ Choice: FC Barcelona News

Nicholas Aldam’s FCB News blog has been the standard-bearer for quality Barcelona news since mid-2007 and he wins this award relatively comfortably. Here’s to hoping that he has more competition next year

Runner Up: La Liga Loca

Voting Results: Best La Liga Blog Poll

Editors’ Choice: La Liga Loca

Tim Stannard’s La Liga Loca is the best written English blog on Spanish football, and his extensive research and analysis deserves recognition.

Runner Up: FC Barcelona News.

The Best MLS Blog Of 2007

Readers’ Choice: This Is American Soccer

Adam Spangler’s TIAS is the authoritative source on the MLS, with insightful commentary giving us, in Adam’s own words, a glimpse into the soul of American soccer.

Runner Up: MLS Underground

Voting Results: Best MLS Blog Poll

Editors’ Choice: The Offside Rules

Although not in consideration initially, a reader nominated The Offside Rules and once we had gone back and stacked other blogs up against TOR, only one or two stood out (remarkable given the high quality of bloggers writing about the MLS) and in our humble opinion, TOR truly is king of MLS bloggers. For 2007, at least.

Runner Up: The Fullback Files.

The Best Blog Design Of 2007

Readers’ Choice: The Offside

Other blogs may be prettier, but The Offside does an excellent job of showcasing the enormous amounts of content they produce on a daily basis and for that they thoroughly deserve this award.

Runner Up: Pitch Invasion

Voting Results: Best Blog Design Poll

Editors’ Choice: Pitch Invasion

Like The Offside, Pitch Invasion is another blog that goes beyond the simple chronological format that blog themes present and displays its articles and features in an intelligent, user-friendly way.

Runner Up: The Offside.

Best Blog You’ve Never Heard Of – 2007

Readers’ Choice: The Run Of Play

There are many quality football blogs hovering under the radar but the Run Of Play was the pick of them all. A close contest with Ian’s 200 Percent here.

Runner Up: Two Hundred Percent

Voting Results: Best Blog You’ve Never Heard Of Poll

Editors’ Choice: Two Hundred Percent

We’re big fans of Ian’s work, what with his detailed research and analysis of anything and everything football (here’s a glimpse). Surely he should’ve been picked up by a big media corp by now (as should many of the people mentioned here)?

Runner Up: The Run Of Play.

The Best Blog Name Of 2007

Readers’ Choice: A Cultured Left Foot

A Cultured Left Foot is an excellent blog featuring strong community and insightful analysis – and of all the names up for voting, it is the best combination of both having a name that matches the content of the blog and being memorable to boot.

Runner Up: Sniffing The Touchline

Voting Results: Best Blog Name Poll

Editors’ Choice: Sniffing The Touchline

One of the toughest categories in the awards with some excellent names in the mix. As much as we like the idea of having our cultured left foot caught offside as the original winger in extra time with some people still on the pitch, it still doesn’t beat sniffing the touchline during the run of play sparking a pitch invasion.

Anyone for the best pun of 2007?

Runner Up: Caught Offside.

The Best Football Podcast Of 2007

Readers’ Choice: Okey Doke Football

Okey Doke Football is a great podcast featuring regular coverage of the latest and most important football news.

Runner Up: Football Fancast

Voting Results: Best Overall Blog Poll

Editors’ Choice: Arsecast

If Soccer Shout had still been around it would undoubtedly have been a strong contender but in its absence, the Arsecast wins this one for quality and following.

Runner Up: Football Fancast.

The Best Blog Community Of 2007

Readers’ Choice: The Offside

The Offside boasts coverage of a wide variety of news and thanks to this expanded focus they’ve created a strong community around their blogs.

Runner Up:

Voting Results: Best Blog Community Poll

Editors’ Choice: Arseblog

Narrow-minded bollocks? Maybe. Most biased blog on the planet? Perhaps.

But one thing you cannot deny is the community value of Arseblog – where the Arsenal community is often considered the most active football community online, Arseblog towers above the rest.

Runner Up: AVFC Blog.

The Best Blogger Of 2007

Readers’ Choice: Chris – Roma Offside

Chris from Roma Offside has developed a huge following because of his excellent blogging skills – his ability to go into great depths and still keep his audience interested is invaluable in an environment where most football writers aren’t worth the bytes they waste online.

Runner Up: Ian – 200 Percent

Voting Results: Best Blogger Poll

Editors’ Choice: Laurie – La Galaxy Offside

With due respect to Chris, football’s also about entertainment. Chris is perhaps the better writer but when Laurie writes she entertains; and that is even rarer in football and blogging.

Runner Up: Tim Stannard – La Liga Loca.

The Best Women’s Football Blog Of 2007

Readers’ Choice: Kickster

Kickster was started in late 2007 by a group of professional footy journalists but it has already taken the football blogging world by storm, providing quality coverage of women’s football.

Runner Up: Soccer Chica

Voting Results: Best Women’s Football Blog Poll

Editors’ Choice: Kickster

Runner Up: Soccer Chica.

The Best Mainstream Media Blog Of 2007

Readers’ Choice: Guardian Football Blogs

The Guardian Football Blog is most popular and most developed blog in mainstream media, so it’s little surprise that they win here (it also helps that they ‘understand’ blogging and know (most of the time) what they’re talking about).

Runner Up: Soccer Insider

Voting Results: Best Mainstream Media Blog Poll

Editors’ Choice: Reuters Soccer Blog and Soccer Insider

The Reuters soccer blog is better written than most football coverage (blog or mainstream), less prone to showing their bias and crucially, less prone to shoving their own narrative down the readers’ throats. Quality writers who understand blogging and can stay (relatively) impartial.

Steve Goff’s coverage at Soccer Insider is excellent (thanks in no small part to his sources) and a must-read for anyone interested in football.

The Best New Football Blog Of 2007

Readers’ Choice: Bayern Lounge

We normally don’t see good Bundesliga coverage in English, but lucky for us, Bayern Lounge is a great exception. In the last year the Lounge has built up a great following and is the top source for Bayern Munich news.

Runner Up: My Anfield

Voting Results: Best New Football Blog Poll

Editors’ Choice: Sniffing The Touchline

Easily the best new blog started in 2007 (with due respect to the great work done at the Lounge, My Anfield and Red Rants).

Runner Up: The Spoiler

Honorable Mentions: Republik of Mancunia for their valiant ballot-stuffing, Pitch Invasion for being the best blog to miss out on the big nominations (overall blog, epl blog, best blogger) and Red Rants for missing out on the best new blog and best community nominations. You guys will be up next year, for sure.

A shout out to Randa Clay for her impressive design work (Randa did the award graphics).

From Soccerlens.com - Football News