Kick Off Merchants Blog

We opened up a discussion on Social Media about having pre-qualifying for European Championship and World Cup qualifiers. The conversation led down the route of every nation has “every right to try and qualify for a major tournament”. This was perhaps a misinterpretation of our blog. We were not saying that those countries did not have a right to try and qualify, but that they should face an additional round of qualifying. The discussion then moved on to club football with the argument being made that “every champion should be in the group stages of the Champions League” and they...

Football is back properly! We are 2 games into the Premier League season and 4 games into the Championship, League One and League Two seasons. By now most of us have been to at least one game; and whether your team have had a good, bad or indifferent start, it has just been good to be back. Back surrounded by mates, some of whom we have not seen in 18 months. Back in the boozers that we only frequent on a match day. And back chatting rubbish to each other. At this point it really does not matter how your...

Good morning. Are you read for the Beer Mat World Cup? 12 teams, 144 beer mats competing for the title of “Beer Mat World Champions”. It all starts today with the qualifiers. Each club will have its beer mat set compete against each other in qualifying groups via Twitter polls. Beer mats will be split on top 4 groups of 3, with beer mats facing off against beer mats of the same club. The winners of each group will qualify for the Beer Mat World Cup. Each clubs 4 winning beer mats will go into 12 groups of 4, with...

Yesterday summed up Gareth Southgate’s reign as England manager. Zero substitutions, very little in-game management, and end up not getting the result we wanted. Poland are a good team, but not a great team. There is a reason why they are currently 4th in the group behind Albania and Hungary and won just 3 of their last 12 games (against San Marino, Albania and Andorra). Beyond Robert Lewandowski and Wojciech Szczęsny, the team is made up from journeymen, mainly playing in minor leagues such as Greece or Russia; or in lower leagues across England, Germany and Italy. It feels odd...

After 3 weeks of scintillating competition, the Beer Mat World Cup came to its end yesterday. you, the people have been voting in your thousands. It started with 144 beer mats and ended with just one. And the winner is… Our Rocky & Wrighty beer mat is part of our classic Arsenal set. In the final it beat Everton’s Dixie Dean. Dean led from the kick off on Saturday. But a late surge on Sunday evening saw Rocky & Wrighty take the inaugural Beer Mat World Cup crown. Thank you to everyone that took part and our full beer mat collection are still...