Gut-Wrenching: Football seems to be bad for your gut. During the 1997-98 season, doctors in Florence, Italy, noticed that a significant rise in people, almost all of them males, coming into hospital with stomach upsets in the days after Fiorentina had lost a match. Many of these upsets were attributed to the Elico bacterium, which produces ulcer-like growths when stimulated by anger and frustration.

Bookworms' Fav: Steven Gerrard led the autobiography sales in Britain last year. His book 'Gerrard' sold 76,459 copies in an Oct 15 figure. Second was Wayne Rooney, whose book 'My Story So Far' sold 36,973 copies.

Get Shirty: Shirt sponsors are the norm these days. But it was only 28 years ago when Britain saw its first professional club don a brand name for their jerseys - Liverpool, sponsored then by Hitachi.

Fab Four: The Beatles were, of course, from Liverpool. But only Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are football fans. McCartney is an Everton fan, while Starr - surprisingly - supports Arsenal.

Bare Facts: If a streaker scores a goal, would it count? The answer is no. Law 10, The Method of Scoring, says that a goal can only be given if no infringement has been made by the team scoring the goal. A streaker would be an ineligible player; a team cannot field more than 11, so there would be no goal.