Inspired by the Euro draw(er) today, our Friday pun theme was #furniturefootballers. Thanks very much to everyone that entered through our twitter and Facebook pages.  Did your suggestion make the team?

All November we’ve been growing our moustaches in support of Movember, here’s some of the results! The girls in the office also got involved today, having their moustaches painted on for the price of a small donation – all together the team here has managed to raise over £1,500, which we’re very pleased with! Right, where’s that beard trimmer…

Umbro would like to express its deepest sorrow regarding the passing of Wales national team manager Gary Speed.

Gary’s contribution to the game – both at domestic and national levels – made him one of the most liked and well respected people in football.

The thoughts of everyone at Umbro are with the family and many friends of Gary Speed.

Our Friday footballers were back today, inspired by Black Friday, apparently the busiest shopping day of the year. It could only be Shopping Footballers then, and you guys did an admirable job in coming up with some great puns – congratulations to everyone who made it into the final squad above, and thanks to everyone who got involved. Keep your eyes on our Twitter and Facebook pages in future for more terrible Friday pun action!

A scheme created to offer opportunities to youngsters in Ghana, the Right To Dream Academy helps footballers develop their skills both on and off the pitch. It’s been a tremendous success since it was established in 1999 as well – it’s grown from a dust pitch in Accra to an internationally recognised football school, with many of its graduates going on to learn at colleges and universities around the world or sign contracts with professional football clubs.

Umbro are therefore very proud to announce a 5-year sponsorship deal with the Right To Dream Academy, which will see us providing students and staff with a range of training gear and a specially-designed kit (which you can see in the picture above) featuring a new Right To Dream crest designed by us.

The sponsorship will also help Right To Dream with their next goal, which is to establish a girl’s football programme. The aim is to start a scholarship programme for talented female players in September 2012, as Right To Dream continues to expand the opportunities for young people in Ghana.

For more information on the Right To Dream project, take a look here.

We’ve already revealed the fantastic Football Gaming Live video earlier this week, in which Kasabian’s Tom Meighan and England striker Darren Bent go head to head in a football video game brought to life, but now we’ve also got a behind the scenes look into just how it happened. Offering some insight into the technology behind the special Sony Xperia Play controllers that were created for the occasion, it’s a great sneak peak into just how it all happened. If you haven’t seen the original video yet, here it is:

Those personalised Kasabian shirts are pretty smart, even if we do say so ourselves! Oh, and did we mention that we’ve got two of each team’s shirt to give away in a competition? And that they’re all signed by Tom and Darren Bent? Ah, thought that might get your attention! So how can you win them? It’s quite simple really…

Just watch the video, and tell us what the final score is. Head over to Twitter and give us your answer, using the hashtag #DBvsKasabian to make sure we can pick you out. You’ve got until 9am Friday morning (UK time) to get your answer in, and you’ve got to be following us on Twitter to be counted. Simple as that!

We’ve got more great pictures from the day we spent making the video, check them out here.

What if football video games could be played in real life? That’s the idea behind this awesome video featuring Kasabian‘s Tom Meighan and Darren Bent. Holed up in a special location, they used custom programmed Sony Xperia Play handsets to control a group of players in a five-a-side game. We kitted out the teams in some custom-made Kasabian kits and Umbro football shoes, and were also lucky enough to watch the game up close. The video above shows how they got on, and who came out on top in the battle between Darren and Tom…

It was another one of those ‘can’t believe we haven’t done that one before’ weeks with the Friday puns, as a story in the paper inspired us to suggest Art Footballers. We’re glad that we did, because we’ve ended up with some real crackers – thanks to everyone who got involved and sent in suggestions. Don’t forget to check out our Twitter and Facebook pages every Friday to see what theme we’ve stumbled upon for this week’s pun theme…

After a few weeks of waving flags, blowing whistles and arguing over exactly what makes someone offside, our Basic Referee Training came to an end last week with that most dreaded of things – the exam. Luckily we’d done a mock exam just days earlier to reassure us all of what would be involved, so there’d be problems with the real thing. Would there?

Just in case, I crammed in some last minute revision in the car park whilst wolfing down a sandwich – nothing was ever achieved by a man on an empty stomach. Strolling into the room we’d be using over the past few weeks, everyone seemed at ease, ready to get the exam out of the way before they got into the actual refereeing. Until we got the paper, turned it over and began…

It was harder than we thought. The mock exam, rather than calming our fears, had given us a false sense of confidence. An important point that the course tutors point out is that on the exam, your answers have to be according to the letter of the law. So, while you might let somethings go on a park on a Sunday morning – something that Premier League refs are often praised for – on the exam paper you had to play by the book.

Thankfully, the whole thing was pretty brief, and we didn’t have to wait long to find out how we’d done. Much like the quiz night at your local, you swop papers with another table, and then go through the answers one by one. You even get the same ‘oohs’ and ‘argh, I knew it was that!’ that you’d normally get in the general knowledge round as well.

Luckily, I passed. A few didn’t though, and will have to try the test again in a month if they want to continue on the road to being a ref. For me, I’m now on the first rung of the ladder. I have my kit! But no reason to wear it – yet. The next stage for a referee is to contact local associations, and ask to be assigned to a match. You have to go through six games and be assessed by a qualified referee before you can then step up to the next level. I’ve decided to stick a toe in the water by trying out in a junior game – less chance of abuse from the players being the theory! I’ll let you know how I get on with that one…

A love of football is certainly central to anyone’s desire to be a football referee, but not this weekend – our final training session was schedule to run all day on Sunday, right through the middle of the Manchester derby. So, there we were, 30 prospective referees, trying to concentrate on the activities and experiences we were being taught, whilst also trying to sneak a peak at our phones to check the score from Old Trafford. The once in a lifetime result meant that the tutors were as interested as us, so our lessons on the offside rule and how to award a penalty were soundtracked by shouts of “it’s 4-1 now!” and “surely not 6!”

Away from the matches, this Sunday’s exercise was probably the most enjoyable we’ve had so far. The outside activities on the actual football pitch is where you feel closest to the action, so it’s easier to imagine yourself in the midst of a game, making the key decisions. Doing some roleplay with an angry keeper disputing the penalty isn’t how you’d expect to spend a Sunday, but it’s a good way of getting experience for the real thing!

Offside was the other big topic of the day, and we spent plenty of time with those magnetic boards you see in changing rooms, deciding just what is and isn’t offside. We can all do it on TV, but it’s even harder out on a football pitch. It’s even more harder when you find out that most referees starting out at a local park level won’t have any assistant referees, so you have to make all the offside calls yourself. Thankfully, there’s some helpful advice on where to position yourself on the pitch, so you can get the best view of the action.

After all this practical activity, we ended the day in the worst way possible – with an exam! Having not had the exam experience for a good few years, it was a strange experience, but thankfully this mock version of the final test wasn’t too difficult. It’s the real deal tomorrow though, with the final exam for our Basic Referee Training. I’ll let you know how I get on….