Robbie Williams News: Sport

British pop star Robbie Williams is organizing a soccer extravaganza to raise money for UNICEF.

Soccer Aid 2008, which will take place at Wembley Stadium on September 7, will see two teams of celebrities go head to head in a match of epic proportions. The game will pit an English “All Star” team – featuring Alan Shearer, Kyran Bracken, Ben Shephard, Gareth Gates, Jamie Theakston and Williams’ Soccer Aid co-founder Jonathan Wilkes – against a Rest Of The World side that includes Gordon Ramsay, Nicky Byrne, Alastair Campbell, Patrick Kielty, Brian Lara, Jesse Metcalfe, and Peter Schmeichel. Read the rest…

Williams’s Hollywood football team lifted a league trophy last night – but the singer was nowhere to be seen.

As his LA Vale players bagged top spot in the LA Premier League, Robbie snubbed the pitch celebrations and the after-party. Earlier this week, Robbie, the side’s manager, reportedly had a blazing row with his players.

He was also said to have given £200,000 to invest in a New York fashion label to two hangers-on, who blew the lot partying instead. One club insider said: “Robbie hasn’t been too well lately.” (dailyrecord.co.uk)

Robbie Williams has revealed that top Premiership stars regularly turn out for his American Sunday League team LA Vale. But the 33-year-old pop star refuses to say who they are.

‘I can’t mention them because they come and play with me off-season and they’re not supposed to. I don’t want to get them in trouble,’ says Robbie. In return for donning the LA Vale strip, Robbie, 33, gives the footy stars unlimited access to his pair of £5m Hollywood mansions. He also makes sure the food and drink flows so they can fully enjoy their sun-bathing before being whisked off to the VIP sections of LA’s most exclusive clubs. It’s not just footy stars that make the trip across the Atlantic either – Robbie’s best pal Jonathan Wilkes, plus close mates Ant and Dec, are all regulars for the glorified pub outfit.

Rumour is Robbie has even tried to enlist French legend Zinedine Zidane, 35. ‘Fans would be staggered by some of the players who’ve turned out,’ reveals a Hollywood source to the Daily Star. ‘Robbie is a great host.’

nowmagazine.co.uk

Phil Hogan, September 30, 2007, The Observer

There’s still plenty of heat in the afternoon as my taxi makes the so-called ‘short’ journey up the spiralling road into the Hollywood Hills, and eventually – after countless twisting miles of Mulholland Drive – plonks me in a cloud of dust outside what I hope is Robbie Williams’s house. I say ‘hope’ because we’ve already been to two that weren’t. But, no, this is it. From the top of the path come shouts, and I see balls being hoofed around, and yellow shirts moving against the blue of the sky and the synthetic green of a five-a-side football pitch.

This is Robbie’s team – LA Vale, baptised in the name of his beloved Port Vale, the team he has followed since boyhood – loosening up for this evening’s game. It’s a fair old gathering – players, knots of friends and family relaxing, someone on crutches. It takes a moment to spot Chairman Williams, as his website calls him, sitting against the fence, in yellow, too, and wearing aviator shades as he confers with his lieutenants. I’m still queasy from the car and feeling white as a wuss amid all this tanned muscle and controlled energy. It would be a shame, after coming all this way, to announce my arrival by throwing up. Read the rest…

Soccer ace David Beckham has challenged pop superstar Robbie Williams to a charity showdown. The former England captain, who has just moved from Real Madrid to L.A Galaxy, has asked his new bosses if they would let the team play LA Vale – a celebrity squad headed up by Williams.

Beckham hopes the match will be broadcast worldwide and raise millions for charity. He says, “I’m not sure if we are allowed but we will see.”

starpulse.com

Robbie Williams’ football team LA Vale FC have started out in an over 30s league in Los Angeles. We went along to see if the footballing gods are smiling on them in the City of Angels.

The football team that Robbie built – LA Vale FC – are starting to cause a stir in Los Angeles…
visit : www.bbc.co.uk/stoke/content/articles/2007/06/26/robbie_williams_la_vale_feature.shtml to read all.

LA Vale joined Super Metro League. Robbie’s team will be state affiliated in the summer – autumn later 2007. Which means that they will be able to participate in state wide and maybe national competitions. Super Metro League plays games in a number of locations across the city. Over 100 teams participate in the program, each of which are allowed to play with a team of 22 players.

Singer shows off Maddie T-shirt at world title bout

POP star Robbie Williams gave heavy weight support to the search for Madeleine McCann yesterday. At the end of boxer Ricky Hatton’s world title bout in Las Vegas, the singer put on a white T-shirt appealing for information about the abducted child. As fans and photographers clamoured for his attention, Robbie stood up to show the shirt emblazoned with a striking image of the four-year-old. Fifty days after she went missing from a Portuguese holiday resort, Robbie’s shirt showed Madeleine dressed in an Everton football shirt. On the back, it had an image of her distinctive right eye and a plea for information.

There were 10,000 English fans cheering on Hatton in the Thomas and Mack Centre and millions more watching on TV around the world. Those around Robbie clapped and slapped him on the back in support. Gene Bennett, who flew from Manchester for the fight, was just yards away from the star. She said: “It was a touching gesture. “He must have known lots of TV cameras and photographers would be looking at him, so he used his fame for a good cause.

“I think everyone realised what a good thing it was that he was doing. “This certainly proved that Robbie has a heart of gold.” Madeleine, from Rothley, Leicestershire, was snatched from her bed onMay 3 while her parents dined at a nearby restaurant in Praia da Luz. Since then, her parents, Kate and Gerry, have launched a high-profile campaign to find her, travelling extensively around Europe and toMorocco.

Robbie was among a number of celebrities who watched as Hatton retained the IBO junior welterweight title with a stunning fourth round knockout of Jose Luis Castillo. Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney carried his friend’s world championship belt into the ring ahead of the fight and joined the celebrations at the end. Fellow England internationals Rio Ferdinand, Wes Brown, Joe Cole and Kieron Dyer were also in the crowd. Hatton is now undefeated in 43 professional fights.

K. Bale / dailyrecord.co.uk

His formidable music career means Robbie Williams is more than used to scoring in the charts. The former Take That star has been triumphing in a completely different field lately, however, going from Top Of The Pops to top of the league with his US football team LA Vale. The hunky Hollywood resident and his American and expat teammates currently hold the coveted number one ranking in the amateur Los Angeles premiere league.

The side – set up by footie-mad Robbie in 2005 and named after his beloved English favourites Stoke-On-Trent’s Port Vale – certainly looked the part when they took to a Santa Monica pitch for a match against rivals Penmar this week. Vale’s strip, which comprises a white T-shirt and black shorts, is almost identical to the home colours worn by the UK team.

And boosting the British quotient was special guest player Max Beesley, Robbie’s visiting Talk To Me actor pal. The pair – who met when they were teenagers and cemented their friendship touring together in Robbie’s Take That days – clearly still make a winning team.

Despite the team’s success, captain Robbie is on the lookout for new recruits. The 33-year-old recently placed an ad in an LA newspaper asking “serious ballers” aged between 18 and 35 to get in touch. Perhaps he’s looking to beef up his side in case fellow Brit David Beckham challenges them to a friendly kick about when he arrives next month to play for major league soccer team LA Galaxy.

hellomagazine.com

Robbie has placed an advertisement in a Los Angeles newspaper appealing for budding young soccer stars to play for his team LA Vale. The Angels hitmaker wants “serious ballers” aged between 18 and 35 to get in touch – because he reckons his current line-up isn’t good enough. Williams’ current squad took on O’Briens in Santa Monica, California earlier this week.

contactmusic.com