sport

I decided to visit Cardiff - the capital and the political, financial, industrial and sporting centre of Wales.

I had never been to Wales before, but knew a bit of its history and culture, as Welsh and Scottish nationalism was the topic of my Master's thesis. And it really is a bit different to England compared to the commuter's jungle of London where I live.

The weather was hot- enough to wear just a t-shirt. In London, a hoodie or an umbrella always comes handy. First up, I took a public transport bus to the Cardiff Bay (pictured above) to see the sea. An all day ticket was just £3.40. In London, this gets you just one peak-time journey on the Tube.

I know, I should not compare the incomparable, because there are reasons for the differences (maintenance costs, amortisation and replacement of the material abused by millions of travellers a day), but I cannot help it.

My trip continued in Cardiff Bay with the Wales Millennium Centre, Senedd (the Welsh National Assembly) and the Doctor Who Experience.

German football fans will be descending on London in their hundreds of thousands this weekend, with an all-German Champions League final at Wembley taking place on Saturday night. Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund will be battling it out to be crowned champions of Europe, whilst fans will be trying just as hard to get their hands on an elusive ticket to the match.

Wembley is hosting the showpiece match for the second time in three years, and each team will have 25,000 supporters inside the stadium. However, it is expected that those lucky enough to be at Wembley may be dwarfed by the number of those in London without a ticket.

When the tickets went on sale, a grand total of 502,567 Dortmund fans applied for one, with less than one in twenty of them getting allocated one. Similarly, over 250,000 Bayern fans applied for their allocation of just 25,000. All that adds up to a lot of fans willing to travel to London who are without tickets.

The Metropolitan police are (very) conservatively estimating that several thousand German fans will be travelling without tickets, plus there are the 300,000 Germans who are currently living in the UK. When they are all added up, experts are predicting as many as 150,000 German fans could descend on London.

In my home country, Slovakia, ice hockey is one of the national sports. Many people follow the ice hockey leagues and in their free time chase the little black thing called a puck. In May, during the Ice Hockey World Championship, the whole country follows the games of the national team. Actually, for two weeks we turn out to have 5.5 million experts ready to stand up for the team's manager.

Here in England, the football fools, rugby lads and cricket crazies do not care about ice hockey. But the eastern Europeans would not back down from their sport, nor would they abandon beer and vodka. Therefore I took the chance to experience the ice hockey atmosphere in a pub with a live screening.

Every year in May, the Famous Three Kings in West Kensington turns into an ice hockey den. I do not know why, and not even the most frequent visitors could tell me, but the pub is a meeting place for Slovaks. Long before the match, you could her Slovak hits from the jukebox- Elan, Peha, Palo Habera, No Name....Google the bands.

We played Russia and needed to win if we wanted our quarter final dream to live on. The atmosphere was excellent, but a friend reckoned that it was even better during last year's final when we took the silver medal. Today we lost, but the match was dramatic.

Erik Redli is a university graduate from Slovakia who is currently living in London. Each week he gives his view on the events of the last seven days. Today he looks at Alex Ferguson retiring, the importance of sleep and jelly wrestling at Cambridge. 

Fergie Retiring

Alex Ferguson retired after 26 years as manager of Manchester United yesterday.

"In the world of professional football, Sir Alex Ferguson is a synonym for longevity and permanence.

Yesterday I was walking in Westfield and came across an exhibition of photographs, capturing the most important moments in the history of the UEFA Champions League. Right in the entrance I was almost run over Liverpool players celebrating their triumph in 2005. Alongside that, I could not overlook the unforgettable Manchester United triumph from 1999, with David Beckham's blonde hair hidden behind the much bigger stars of that era.

However, Sir Alex Ferguson was clearly visible. His connection with Man Utd is even bigger than Paolo Maldini and AC Milan, who is also seen hoisting the trophy in the photo from 2003.

The sporting world was shocked this morning when Manchester United announced that Sir Alex Ferguson would be retiring at the end of this season- in less than two weeks time. After 26 years as manager, bringing unprecedented success, many football fans only know United with 'Fergie' in charge.

Unexpected rumours around his retirement started to swirl last night, before an official announcement was made by the club this morning. The statement revealed that Ferguson's last match will be in the league against West Brom on Sunday 19th May, after which he will step down as manager and take up the role as a United director and ambassador for the club.

Ferguson's Final Statement:

Ferguson also released a statement, which read as follows:

"The decision to retire is one that I have thought a great deal about and one that I have not taken lightly. It is the right time.

It was important to me to leave an organisation in the strongest possible shape and I believe I have done so. The quality of this league winning squad, and the balance of ages within it, bodes well for continued success at the highest level whilst the structure of the youth set-up will ensure that the long-term future of the club remains a bright one.