Bohdan Gorodyskyi

Lucerne is the capital of the canton of Lucerne and part of the district of the same name. With a population of approximately 82,000 people, Lucerne is the most populous city in Central Switzerland, and a nexus of economics, transportation, culture, and media in the region. The city's urban area consists of 19 municipalities and towns with an overall population of about 220,000 people.

Owing to its location on the shores of Lake Lucerne (German: Vierwaldstättersee) and its outflow, the river Reuss, within sight of the mounts Pilatus and Rigi in the Swiss Alps, Lucerne has long been a destination for tourists. One of the city's landmarks is the Chapel Bridge (German: Kapellbrücke), a wooden bridge first erected in the 14th century.

The official language of Lucerne is German, but the main spoken language is the local variant of the Alemannic Swiss German dialect, Lucerne German.

Bali is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nusa Ceningan. The provincial capital, Denpasar, is the most populous city in the Lesser Sunda Islands and the second-largest, after Makassar, in Eastern Indonesia. The upland town of Ubud in Greater Denpasar is considered Bali's cultural centre. The province is Indonesia's main tourist destination, with a significant rise in tourism since the 1980s.Tourism-related business makes up 80% of its economy.

Bali is the only Hindu-majority province in Muslim-majority Indonesia, with 86.9% of the population adhering to Balinese Hinduism. It is renowned for its highly developed arts, including traditional and modern dance, sculpture, painting, leather, metalworking, and music. The Indonesian International Film Festival is held every year in Bali. Other international events held in Bali include the Miss World 2013 and 2018 Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group. In March 2017, TripAdvisor named Bali as the world's top destination in its Traveller's Choice award, which it also earned in January 2021.

Bali is part of the Coral Triangle, the area with the highest biodiversity of marine species, especially fish and turtles. In this area alone, over 500 reef-building coral species can be found. For comparison, this is about seven times as many as in the entire Caribbean.Bali is the home of the Subak irrigation system, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.It is also home to a unified confederation of kingdoms composed of 10 traditional royal Balinese houses, each house ruling a specific geographic area. The confederation is the successor of the Bali Kingdom. The royal houses are not recognised by the government of Indonesia; however, they originated before Dutch colonisation.

Bali was inhabited around 2000 BCE by Austronesian people who migrated originally from the island of Taiwan to Southeast Asia and Oceania through Maritime Southeast Asia. Culturally and linguistically, the Balinese are closely related to the people of the Indonesian archipelago, Malaysia, the Philippines and Oceania. Stone tools dating from this time have been found near the village of Cekik in the island's west.

In ancient Bali, nine Hindu sects existed, namely Pasupata, Bhairawa, Siwa Shidanta, Vaishnava, Bodha, Brahma, Resi, Sora and Ganapatya. Each sect revered a specific deity as its personal Godhead.

Inscriptions from 896 and 911 do not mention a king, until 914, when Sri Kesarivarma is mentioned. They also reveal an independent Bali, with a distinct dialect, where Buddhism and Shaivism were practised simultaneously. Mpu Sindok's great-granddaughter, Mahendradatta (Gunapriyadharmapatni), married the Bali king Udayana Warmadewa (Dharmodayanavarmadeva) around 989, giving birth to Airlangga around 1001. This marriage also brought more Hinduism and Javanese culture to Bali. Princess Sakalendukirana appeared in 1098. Suradhipa reigned from 1115 to 1119, and Jayasakti from 1146 until 1150. Jayapangus appears on inscriptions between 1178 and 1181, while Adikuntiketana and his son Paramesvara in 1204.[21]: 129, 144, 168, 180 

Balinese culture was strongly influenced by Indian, Chinese, and particularly Hindu culture, beginning around the 1st century AD. The name Bali dwipa ("Bali island") has been discovered from various inscriptions, including the Blanjong pillar inscription written by Sri Kesari Warmadewa in 914 AD and mentioning Walidwipa. It was during this time that the people developed their complex irrigation system subak to grow rice in wet-field cultivation. Some religious and cultural traditions still practised today can be traced to this period.

The Hindu Majapahit Empire (1293–1520 AD) on eastern Java founded a Balinese colony in 1343. The uncle of Hayam Wuruk is mentioned in the charters of 1384–86. Mass Javanese immigration to Bali occurred in the next century when the Majapahit Empire fell in 1520.[21]: 234, 240  Bali's government then became an independent collection of Hindu kingdoms which led to a Balinese national identity and major enhancements in culture, arts, and economy. The nation with various kingdoms became independent for up to 386 years until 1906 when the Dutch subjugated and repulsed the natives for economic control and took it over.

Subak irrigation system

The first known European contact with Bali is thought to have been made in 1512, when a Portuguese expedition led by Antonio Abreu and Francisco Serrão sighted its northern shores. It was the first expedition of a series of bi-annual fleets to the Moluccas, that throughout the 16th century usually travelled along the coasts of the Sunda Islands. Bali was also mapped in 1512, in the chart of Francisco Rodrigues, aboard the expedition. In 1585, a ship foundered off the Bukit Peninsula and left a few Portuguese in the service of Dewa Agung.

In 1597, the Dutch explorer Cornelis de Houtman arrived at Bali, and the Dutch East India Company was established in 1602. The Dutch government expanded its control across the Indonesian archipelago during the second half of the 19th century. Dutch political and economic control over Bali began in the 1840s on the island's north coast when the Dutch pitted various competing for Balinese realms against each other. In the late 1890s, struggles between Balinese kingdoms on the island's south were exploited by the Dutch to increase their control.

In June 1860, the famous Welsh naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace, travelled to Bali from Singapore, landing at Buleleng on the north coast of the island. Wallace's trip to Bali was instrumental in helping him devise his Wallace Line theory. The Wallace Line is a faunal boundary that runs through the strait between Bali and Lombok. It is a boundary between species. In his travel memoir The Malay Archipelago, Wallace wrote of his experience in Bali, of which has a strong mention of the unique Balinese irrigation methods:

I was both astonished and delighted; for as my visit to Java was some years later, I had never beheld so beautiful and well-cultivated a district out of Europe. A slightly undulating plain extends from the seacoast about ten or twelve miles (16 or 19 kilometres) inland, where it is bounded by a fine range of wooded and cultivated hills. Houses and villages, marked out by dense clumps of coconut palms, tamarind and other fruit trees, are dotted about in every direction; while between them extend luxurious rice-grounds, watered by an elaborate system of irrigation that would be the pride of the best cultivated parts of Europe.

The Dutch mounted large naval and ground assaults at the Sanur region in 1906 and were met by the thousands of members of the royal family and their followers who rather than yield to the superior Dutch force committed ritual suicide (puputan) to avoid the humiliation of surrender. Despite Dutch demands for surrender, an estimated 200 Balinese killed themselves rather than surrender. In the Dutch intervention in Bali, a similar mass suicide occurred in the face of a Dutch assault in Klungkung. Afterwards, the Dutch governours exercised administrative control over the island, but local control over religion and culture generally remained intact. Dutch rule over Bali came later and was never as well established as in other parts of Indonesia such as Java and Maluku.

In the 1930s, anthropologists Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, artists Miguel Covarrubias and Walter Spies, and musicologist Colin McPhee all spent time here. Their accounts of the island and its peoples created a western image of Bali as "an enchanted land of aesthetes at peace with themselves and nature". Western tourists began to visit the island. The sensuous image of Bali was enhanced in the West by a quasi-pornographic 1932 documentary Virgins of Bali about a day in the lives of two teenage Balinese girls whom the film's narrator Deane Dickason notes in the first scene "bathe their shamelessly nude bronze bodies".Under the looser version of the Hays code that existed up to 1934, nudity involving "civilised" (i.e. white) women was banned, but permitted with "uncivilised" (i.e. all non-white women), a loophole that was exploited by the producers of Virgins of Bali. The film, which mostly consisted of scenes of topless Balinese women was a great success in 1932, and almost single-handedly made Bali into a popular spot for tourists.

Imperial Japan occupied Bali during World War II. It was not originally a target in their Netherlands East Indies Campaign, but as the airfields on Borneo were inoperative due to heavy rains, the Imperial Japanese Army decided to occupy Bali, which did not suffer from comparable weather. The island had no regular Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) troops. There was only a Native Auxiliary Corps Prajoda (Korps Prajoda) consisting of about 600 native soldiers and several Dutch KNIL officers under the command of KNIL Lieutenant Colonel W.P. Roodenburg. On 19 February 1942, the Japanese forces landed near the town of Sanoer (Sanur). The island was quickly captured.

During the Japanese occupation, a Balinese military officer, I Gusti Ngurah Rai, formed a Balinese 'freedom army'. The harshness of Japanese occupation forces made them more resented than the Dutch colonial rulers.

Puputan monument

The island of Bali lies 3.2 km (2.0 mi) east of Java, and is approximately 8 degrees south of the equator. Bali and Java are separated by the Bali Strait. East to west, the island is approximately 153 km (95 mi) wide and spans approximately 112 km (70 mi) north to south; administratively it covers 5,780 km2 (2,230 sq mi), or 5,577 km2 (2,153 sq mi) without Nusa Penida District,[38] which comprises three small islands off the southeast coast of Bali. Its population density was roughly 747 people/km2 (1,930 people/sq mi) in 2020.

Bali's central mountains include several peaks over 2,000 metres (6,600 feet) in elevation and active volcanoes such as Mount Batur. The highest is Mount Agung (3,031 m, 9,944 ft), known as the "mother mountain", which is an active volcano rated as one of the world's most likely sites for a massive eruption within the next 100 years.[39] In late 2017 Mount Agung started erupting and large numbers of people were evacuated, temporarily closing the island's airport.[40] Mountains range from centre to the eastern side, with Mount Agung the easternmost peak. Bali's volcanic nature has contributed to its exceptional fertility and its tall mountain ranges provide the high rainfall that supports the highly productive agriculture sector. South of the mountains is a broad, steadily descending area where most of Bali's large rice crop is grown. The northern side of the mountains slopes more steeply to the sea and is the main coffee-producing area of the island, along with rice, vegetables and cattle. The longest river, Ayung River, flows approximately 75 km (47 mi) (see List of rivers of Bali).

Aerial photograph of Bali

The island is surrounded by coral reefs. Beaches in the south tend to have white sand while those in the north and west have black sand. Bali has no major waterways, although the Ho River is navigable by small sampan boats. Black sand beaches between Pasut and Klatingdukuh are being developed for tourism, but apart from the seaside temple of Tanah Lot, they are not yet used for significant tourism.

The largest city is the provincial capital, Denpasar, near the southern coast. Its population is around 725,000 (2020). Bali's second-largest city is the old colonial capital, Singaraja, which is located on the north coast and is home to around 150,000 people in 2020. Other important cities include the beach resort, Kuta, which is practically part of Denpasar's urban area, and Ubud, situated at the north of Denpasar, is the island's cultural centre.

Three small islands lie to the immediate south-east and all are administratively part of the Klungkung regency of Bali: Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Ceningan. These islands are separated from Bali by the Badung Strait.

To the east, the Lombok Strait separates Bali from Lombok and marks the biogeographical division between the fauna of the Indomalayan realm and the distinctly different fauna of Australasia. The transition is known as the Wallace Line, named after Alfred Russel Wallace, who first proposed a transition zone between these two major biomes. When sea levels dropped during the Pleistocene ice age, Bali was connected to Java and Sumatra and to the mainland of Asia and shared the Asian fauna, but the deep water of the Lombok Strait continued to keep Lombok Island and the Lesser Sunda archipelago isolated.

Moldova, sometimes UK: /ˈmɒldəvə/; Romanian pronunciation: [molˈdova]),officially the Republic of Moldova (Romanian: Republica Moldova), is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. Additionally, the unrecognised state of Transnistria lies across the Dniester on the country's eastern border with Ukraine. The capital and largest city is Chișinău.

Most of Moldovan territory was a part of the Principality of Moldavia from the 14th century until 1812, when it was ceded to the Russian Empire by the Ottoman Empire (to which Moldavia was a vassal state) and became known as Bessarabia. In 1856, southern Bessarabia was returned to Moldavia, which three years later united with Wallachia to form Romania, but Russian rule was restored over the whole of the region in 1878. During the 1917 Russian Revolution, Bessarabia briefly became an autonomous state within the Russian Republic, known as the Moldavian Democratic Republic. In February 1918, the Moldavian Democratic Republic declared independence and then integrated into Romania later that year following a vote of its assembly. The decision was disputed by Soviet Russia, which in 1924 established, within the Ukrainian SSR, a Moldavian autonomous republic (MASSR) on partially Moldovan-inhabited territories to the east of Bessarabia.

In 1940, as a consequence of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Romania was compelled to cede Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union, leading to the creation of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (Moldavian SSR), which included the greater part of Bessarabia and the westernmost strip of the former MASSR (east of the Dniester River). On 27 August 1991, as the dissolution of the Soviet Union was underway, the Moldavian SSR declared independence and took the name Moldova. The constitution of Moldova was adopted in 1994. The strip of the Moldovan territory on the east bank of the Dniester has been under the de facto control of the breakaway government of Transnistria since 1990.

Due to a decrease in industrial and agricultural output following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the service sector has grown to dominate Moldova's economy and is over 60% of the nation's GDP. It is the second poorest country in Europe by GDP per capita. Although Moldova has a relatively high Human Development Index, it is the lowest in the continent, ranking 90th in the world.

Moldova is a parliamentary republic with a president as head of state and a prime minister as head of government. It is a member state of the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), and the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC).

Main article: Names of Moldavia and Moldova

The name Moldova is derived from the Moldova River; the valley of this river served as a political centre at the time of the foundation of the Principality of Moldavia in 1359. The origin of the name of the river remains unclear. According to a legend recounted by Moldavian chroniclers Dimitrie Cantemir and Grigore Ureche, Prince Dragoș named the river after hunting an aurochs: following the chase, the prince's exhausted hound Molda (Seva) drowned in the river. The dog's name, given to the river, extended to the Principality.

For a short time in the 1990s, at the founding of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the name of the current Republic of Moldova was also spelled Moldavia. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country began to use the Romanian name, Moldova. Officially, the name Republic of Moldova is designated by the United Nations.

The prehistory of Moldova covers the period from the Upper Paleolithic which begins with the presence of Homo sapiens in the area of Southeastern Europe some 44,000 years ago and extends into the appearance of the first written records in Classical Antiquity in Greece.

In 2010 N.K. Anisjutkin discovered Oldowan flint tools at Bayraki that are 800,000–1.2 million years old. During the Neolithic Stone-Age era, Moldova's territory stood at the centre of the large Cucuteni–Trypillia culture that stretched east beyond the Dniester River in Ukraine and west up to and beyond the Carpathian Mountains in Romania. The people of this civilization, which lasted roughly from 5500 to 2750 BC, practised agriculture, raised livestock, hunted, and made intricately designed pottery.

Carpian tribes inhabited Moldova's territory in the period of classical antiquity. Between the first and seventh centuries AD, the south came intermittently under the control of the Roman and then the Byzantine Empires. Due to its strategic location on a route between Asia and Europe, the territory of modern Moldova experienced many invasions in late antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, including by Goths, Huns, Avars, Bulgars, Magyars, Pechenegs, Cumans, Mongols and Tatars.

In the 11th century, a Viking by the name of Rodfos was possibly killed in the area by the Blakumen who betrayed him.[26] In 1164, the future Byzantine emperor Andronikos I Komnenos, while attempting to reach the Principality of Halych, was taken prisoner by Vlachs, possibly in the area of future Moldova.

The East Slavic Hypatian Chronicle mentions the Bolohoveni in the 13th century. The chronicle records that this land bordered on the principalities of Halych, Volhynia and Kyiv. Archaeological research has identified the location of 13th-century fortified settlements in this region. Alexandru V. Boldur identified Voscodavie, Voscodavti, Voloscovti, Volcovti, Volosovca and their other towns and villages between the middle course of the rivers Nistru/Dniester and Nipru/Dnieper. The Bolohoveni disappeared from chronicles after their defeat in 1257 by Daniel of Galicia's troops.

In the early 13th century, the Brodniks, a possible Slavic–Vlach vassal state of Halych, were present in much of the region's territory

The Principality of Moldavia began when a Vlach voivode (military leader), Dragoș, arrived in the region of the Moldova River. His people from Maramureș soon followed. Dragoș established a polity as a vassal to the Kingdom of Hungary in the 1350s. The independence of the Principality of Moldavia came when Bogdan I, another Vlach voivode from Maramureș who had fallen out with the Hungarian king, crossed the Carpathian mountains in 1359 and took control of Moldavia, wresting the region from Hungary. The Principality of Moldavia was bounded by the Carpathian Mountains in the west, the Dniester River in the east, and the Danube River and Black Sea to the south. Its territory comprised the present-day territory of the Republic of Moldova, the eastern eight counties of Romania, and parts of the Chernivtsi Oblast and Budjak region of present-day Ukraine. Locals referred to the principality as Moldova - like the present-day republic and Romania's north-eastern region.

The Principality of Moldavia and the modern boundaries of Moldova, Ukraine, and Romania

The history of what is today Moldova has been intertwined with that of Poland for centuries. The Polish chronicler Jan Długosz mentioned Moldavians (under the name Wallachians) as having joined a military expedition in 1342, under King Ladislaus I, against the Margraviate of Brandenburg. The Polish state was powerful enough to counter the Hungarian Kingdom which was consistently interested in bringing the area that would become Moldova into its political orbit.

Ties between Poland and Moldavia expanded after the founding of the Moldavian state by Bogdan of Cuhea, a Vlach voivode from Maramureș who had fallen out with the Hungarian king. Crossing the Carpathian mountains in 1359, the voivode took control of Moldavia and succeeded in creating Moldavia as an independent political entity. Despite being disfavored by the brief union of Angevin Poland and Hungary (the latter was still the country's overlord), Bogdan's successor Lațcu, the Moldavian ruler also likely allied himself with the Poles. Lațcu also accepted conversion to Roman Catholicism around 1370, but his gesture was to remain without consequences.

Petru I profited from the end of the Polish-Hungarian union and moved the country closer to the Jagiellon realm, becoming a vassal of king Jogaila of Poland on 26 September 1387. This gesture was to have unexpected consequences: Petru supplied the Polish ruler with funds needed in the war against the Teutonic Knights, and was granted control over Pokuttya until the debt was to be repaid; as this is not recorded to have been carried out, the region became disputed by the two states, until it was lost by Moldavia in the Battle of Obertyn (1531). Prince Petru also expanded his rule southwards to the Danube Delta. His brother Roman I conquered the Hungarian-ruled Cetatea Albă in 1392, giving Moldavia an outlet to the Black Sea, before being toppled from the throne for supporting Fyodor Koriatovych in his conflict with Vytautas the Great of Lithuania. Under Stephen I, growing Polish influence was challenged by Sigismund of Hungary, whose expedition was defeated at Ghindăoani in 1385; however, Stephen disappeared in mysterious circumstances.

Although Alexander I was brought to the throne in 1400 by the Hungarians (with assistance from Mircea I of Wallachia), this ruler shifted his allegiances towards Poland (notably engaging Moldavian forces on the Polish side in the Battle of Grunwald and the Siege of Marienburg), and placed his own choice of rulers in Wallachia. His reign was one of the most successful in Moldavia's history.

Built during the reign of Stephen the Great (pictured above), several authors believed the Soroca Fort was constructed on the site of a former Genoese fortress named Olhionia.

For all of his success, it was under the reign of Alexander I that the first confrontation with the Ottoman Turks took place at Cetatea Albă in 1420. A deep crisis was to follow Alexandrel's long reign, with his successors battling each other in a succession of wars that divided the country until the murder of Bogdan II and the ascension of Peter III Aaron in 1451. Nevertheless, Moldavia was subject to further Hungarian interventions after that moment, as Matthias Corvinus deposed Aron and backed Alexăndrel to the throne in Suceava. Petru Aron's rule also signified the beginning of Moldavia's Ottoman Empire allegiance, as the ruler agreed to pay tribute to Sultan Mehmed II.

The Age of Invasions

During this time, Moldavia was invaded repeatedly by Crimean Tatars and, beginning in the 15th century, by the Turks. In 1538, the principality became a tributary to the Ottoman Empire, but it retained internal and partial external autonomy.Nonetheless, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth continued to strongly influence Moldavia both through national politics as well as on the local level through significant intermarriage between Moldavian nobility and the Polish szlachta. When in May 1600, Michael the Brave removed Ieremia Movilă from Moldavia's throne by winning the battle of Bacău, briefly reuniting under his rule Moldavia, Wallachia, and Transylvania, a Polish army led by Jan Zamoyski drove the Wallachians from Moldavia. Zamoyski reinstalled Ieremia Movilă to the throne, who put the country under the vassalage of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Moldavia finally returned to Ottoman vassalage in 1621.

While the region of Transnistria was never politically part of the Principality of Moldavia, there were sizable areas which were owned by Moldavian boyars or the Moldavian rulers. The earliest surviving deeds referring to lands beyond the Dniester river date from the 16th century.[31][full citation needed] Moldavian chronicle Grigore Ureche mentions that in 1584 some Moldavian villages from beyond the Dniester in the Kingdom of Poland were attacked and plundered by Cossacks.[32][non-primary source needed] Many Moldavians were members of Cossacks units, with two of them, Ioan Potcoavă and Dănilă Apostol becoming hetmans of Ukraine. Ruxandra Lupu, the daughter of Moldavian voivode Vasile Lupu who married Tymish Khmelnytsky, lived in Rașcov according to Ukrainian tradition.

While most of today's Moldova came into the Ottoman orbit in the 16th century, a substantial part of Transnistria remained a part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth until the Second Partition of Poland in 1793.

Westfalenstadion is a football stadium in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, which is the home of Borussia Dortmund. Officially called Signal Iduna Park for sponsorship reasons and BVB Stadion Dortmund in UEFA competitions, the name derives from the former Prussian province of Westphalia.

The stadium is one of the most famous football stadiums in Europe and is renowned for its atmosphere. It has a league capacity of 81,365 (standing and seated) and an international capacity of 65,829 (seated only).It is Germany's largest stadium, the seventh-largest in Europe, and the second-largest home to a top-flight European club after Camp Nou and before the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium. It holds the European record for average fan attendance, set in the 2011–2012 season with almost 1.37 million spectators over 17 games at an average of 80,588 per game. Sales of annual season tickets amounted to 55,000 in 2015.

The 24,454 capacity Südtribüne (South Bank) is the largest terrace for standing spectators in European football. Famous for the intense atmosphere it breeds, the south terrace has been nicknamed Die Gelbe Wand, meaning "The Yellow Wall".The Borusseum, the museum of Borussia Dortmund, is located in the north-east part of the stadium.

The stadium hosted matches in the 1974 and 2006 FIFA World Cups. It also hosted the 2001 UEFA Cup Final. Various national friendlies and qualification matches for World and European tournaments have been played there as well as matches in European club competitions.

Plans to construct a new stadium were drawn up in the 1960s, as the need arose to expand and refurbish the traditional ground of Borussia Dortmund, the Stadion Rote Erde ("Red Soil Stadium").[citation needed] Following the historic triumph in the 1966 Cup Winners' Cup (Dortmund was the first German team to win a European club title), it became clear that the Stadion Rote Erde was too small for the increasing number of Borussia Dortmund supporters. The city of Dortmund, however, was not able to finance a new stadium and federal institutions were unwilling to help.

In 1971, Dortmund was selected to replace the city of Cologne, which was forced to withdraw its plans to host games in the 1974 FIFA World Cup.[citation needed] The funds originally set aside for the projected stadium in Cologne were thus re-allocated to Dortmund. However, architects and planners had to keep an eye on the costs due to a tight budget. This meant that plans for a 60 million DM oval stadium featuring the traditional athletic facilities and holding 60,000 spectators had to be discarded.[citation needed] Instead, plans for a much cheaper 54,000 spectator football arena, built of pre-fabricated concrete sections, became a reality. Ultimately, the costs amounted to 32.7 million DM, of which 1.6 million DM were invested in the refurbishment of the Stadion Rote Erde.[citation needed] The city of Dortmund, initially burdened with 6 million DM, only had to pay 800,000 DM, and quickly profited from the stadium's high revenues. On 2 April 1974, Borussia Dortmund officially moved into their new home and has played in the Westfalenstadion ever since. Having been relegated in 1972, Borussia Dortmund was the only member of the 2. Bundesliga (second Division) to host the 1974 World Cup games in a completely new stadium. In 1976, after promotion to the Bundesliga, Borussia Dortmund played its first game in Germany's highest division in their new home stadium.

On 16 May 2001, the Westfalenstadion hosted the 2001 UEFA Cup Final between Liverpool and Alavés.

Situated directly next to Stadion Rote Erde, the Westfalenstadion is composed of four roofed grandstands, each facing the playing field on the east, south, west and north sides. The eastern and western stands (Ost- und Westtribüne) run the entire length of the field, while the breadth is covered by the north and south stands (Nord- und Südtribüne).

Originally, the corners between the four grandstands remained empty and the spectators appreciated the extensive roof, which covered over 80% of the stands. The eastern and western stands housed the stadium's 17,000 seats, while the 37,000 standing places were housed in the northern and southern stands.

The panoramic view of Westfalenstadion

Located on the southern terrace of the stadium is Dortmund's "Yellow Wall", which is the largest free-standing grandstand in Europe with a capacity of 25,000. The "Yellow Wall" gives Westfalenstadion one of the most intimidating home atmospheres in all of Europe, aiding Borussia Dortmund to an unbeaten home campaign in 2012–13 UEFA Champions League. then-Bayern Munich midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger, when asked whether he feared Dortmund's players or their manager, more, responded by saying "It is the Yellow Wall that scares me the most.

The first expansion plans are dated back to 1961, although the funding required was not available until 4 October 1971 when the city council decided to rebuild the stadium between 1971 and 1974 for the FIFA World Cup. As part of the extensions an additional roof was added around the stadium that weighed 3000 tons.

The original capacity of 54,000 was reduced in 1992 due to UEFA regulations. As the standing rows on the entire northern, the lower eastern and the lower western grandstands were converted into seats, the capacity shrank to 42,800. With 26,000 seats (of which 23,000 were covered), the seating in the Westfalenstadion now outnumbered the standing rows.

Westfalenstadion seen from inside.

After Borussia Dortmund won the Bundesliga in 1995, the Westfalenstadion was expanded yet again. In the first private venture stadium expansion in German history, the two main grandstands, the eastern and the western blocks, received a second tier. Covered by a new roof-construction, each section housed an additional 6,000 seats. Thus, the stadium's capacity was restored to the original 54,000, of which the majority (38,500) were now covered seats. Following Dortmund's 1997 UEFA Champions League victory, success and an ever-growing number of enthusiastic fans made it necessary to enlarge the Westfalenstadion yet again. The southern and northern grandstands were enlarged this time, boosting the total capacity to 68,800 spectators. The southern standing ranks ("Die Südtribüne", where the home team's supporters gather) became the largest free-standing grandstand of its kind in the whole of Europe, with a capacity of 25,000.

Now it is considered one of the biggest and most comfortable stadiums in Europe. The last renovation was made for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. The stadium has a glass front, under-soil heating (allowing matches in winter) and the biggest terraced stand. It is Germany's largest stadium capacity of 81,360. The expansion was realised by the German architectural firm of Architekten Schröder Schulte-Ladbeck. There are four video screens inside the stadium. The fifth screen on the outside of the north stands is smaller, measuring 28 square meters.

Since 1 December 2005, Westfalenstadion carries the name of Signal Iduna Park, under an agreement which lasts until 2021.

The Borusseum, a museum about Borussia Dortmund, opened in 2008.

When Germany won the World Cup bid in 2000, it became clear that Westfalenstadion would play a leading role in hosting the tournament. However, as the Westfalenstadion failed to fulfill FIFA requirements for hosting semi-finals, it had to be enlarged a third time. Four new stands were built to fill the corners between the existing grandstands, raising the seating capacity for international games from 52,000 to 67,000. Additionally, the new corner elements provide seating and catering to VIP guests, increasing the total number of VIP seats to 5,000. In order to provide the new sections with an unblocked view of the field, the existing interior roof supports were removed and replaced by exterior pylons, which were painted yellow to suit the Borussia Dortmund colors. During the course of those renovations, construction workers found an undetonated 1,000–pound (450 kg) bomb dropped by an Allied bomber in World War II that was only about one metre below the halfway line on the pitch. Bomb disposal experts had to evacuate the stadium and surrounding neighbourhood in Dortmund, which as part of Germany's industrial centre was bombed heavily, before taking an hour to defuse the device.

The stadium now hosts up to 81,365 fans (standing and seated) for league matches, and 65,829 seated spectators for international games where the characteristic Southern grandstand is re-equipped with seats to conform with FIFA regulations. As match ticket prices are among the lowest among Europe's Big Five football leagues (England, Germany, Spain, France and Italy), the stadium attracts many English fans to its games and has starting conducting stadium tours in English.

The stadium is set to undergo some renovation works in 2018 with the stadium's capacity to rise to 81,365 for Bundesliga Matches and 66,099 for international matches. Free wifi is due to be introduced but the club plans to shut off the signal while play is going on so fans will put their smartphones away and pay attention to supporting the team.

The property of the Westfalenstadion, originally belonging to the city of Dortmund and later sold to the club Borussia Dortmund, was sold to a real estate trust in 2002 when the club was facing serious financial problems. Following that, Westfalenstadion was in the possession of Florian Homm for about two years, it was sold back to a real estate trust with Borussia Dortmund intending to repurchase the stadium gradually up to 2017. However, the club was not able to pay the regular rates in spring 2005 and the holders of the trust agreed in cutting back the asset's interest rates and allowed the club to pay the rates after financial reorganisation. Because of these measures, bankruptcy of the club was avoided and the future of the facility was secured. In 2006, Borussia Dortmund became the new owner by buying the stadium back with the help of a loan from Morgan Stanley. Borussia Dortmund paid off the loan from Morgan Stanley in 2008.

In order to reduce debt, the naming rights to the stadium was sold to an insurance company, Signal Iduna. From 2005 until 2021, the stadium is known as the "Signal Iduna Park". During the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the stadium was called "FIFA World Cup Stadium, Dortmund" since Signal Iduna was not FIFA's sponsor.

A mouse (pl: mice) is a small mammal. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (Mus musculus). Mice are also popular as pets. In some places, certain kinds of field mice are locally common. They are known to invade homes for food and shelter.

Mice are typically distinguished from rats by their size. Generally, when a muroid rodent is discovered, its common name includes the term mouse if it is smaller, or rat if it is larger. The common terms rat and mouse are not taxonomically specific. Typical mice are classified in the genus Mus, but the term mouse is not confined to members of Mus and can also apply to species from other genera such as the deer mouse, Peromyscus.

Domestic mice sold as pets often differ substantially in size from the common house mouse. This is attributable to breeding and different conditions in the wild. The best-known strain of mouse is the white lab mouse. It has more uniform traits that are appropriate to its use in research.

Cats, wild dogs, foxes, birds of prey, snakes and even certain kinds of arthropods have been known to prey heavily upon mice. Despite this, mice populations remain plentiful. Due to its remarkable adaptability to almost any environment, the mouse is one of the most successful mammalian genera living on Earth today.

In certain contexts, mice can be considered vermin. Vermin are a major source of crop damage, as they are known to cause structural damage and spread disease. Mice spread disease through their feces and are often carriers of parasites.In North America, breathing dust that has come in contact with mouse excrement has been linked to hantavirus, which may lead to hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS).

Primarily nocturnal animals, mice compensate for their poor eyesight with a keen sense of hearing. They depend on their sense of smell to locate food and avoid predators.

In the wild, mice are known to build intricate burrows. These burrows have long entrances and are equipped with escape tunnels. In at least one species, the architectural design of a burrow is a genetic trait.

House mouse (Mus musculus)

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology have confirmed that mice have a range of facial expressions. They used machine vision to spot familiar human emotions like pleasure, disgust, nausea, pain, and fear.

In nature, mice are largely herbivores, consuming any kind of fruit or grain from plants.However, mice adapt well to urban areas and are known for eating almost all types of food scraps. In captivity, mice are commonly fed commercial pelleted mouse diet. These diets are nutritionally complete, but they still need a large variety of vegetables.

Mice do not have a special appetite for cheese. They will only eat cheese for lack of better options.

Mice are common experimental animals in laboratory research of biology and psychology fields primarily because they are mammals, and also because they share a high degree of homology with humans. They are the most commonly used mammalian model organism, more common than rats. The mouse genome has been sequenced, and virtually all mouse genes have human homologs. The mouse has approximately 2.7 billion base pairs and 20 pairs of chromosomes.[11] They can also be manipulated in ways that are illegal with humans, although animal rights activists often object. A knockout mouse is a genetically modified mouse that has had one or more of its genes made inoperable through a gene knockout.

Reasons for common selection of mice are that they are small and inexpensive, have a widely varied diet, are easily maintained, and can reproduce quickly. Several generations of mice can be observed in a relatively short time. Mice are generally very docile if raised from birth and given sufficient human contact. However, certain strains have been known to be quite temperamental.

Knockout mouse (left) and normal mouse (right)

Many people buy mice as companion pets. They can be playful, loving and can grow used to being handled. Like pet rats, pet mice should not be left unsupervised outside as they have many natural predators, including (but not limited to) birds, snakes, lizards, cats, and dogs. Male mice tend to have a stronger odor than the females. However, mice are careful groomers and as pets they never need bathing. Well looked-after mice can make ideal pets. Some common mouse care products are:

Cage – Usually a hamster or gerbil cage, but a variety of special mouse cages are now available. Most should have a secure door.

Food – Special pelleted and seed-based food is available. Mice can generally eat most rodent food (for rats, mice, hamsters, gerbils, etc.)

Bedding – Usually made of hardwood pulp, such as aspen, sometimes from shredded, uninked paper or recycled virgin wood pulp. Using corn husk bedding is avoided because it promotes Aspergillus fungus, and can grow mold once it gets wet, which is rough on their feet.

Pet mice

Mice are a staple in the diet of many small carnivores. In various countries mice are used as feed for pets such as snakes, lizards, frogs, tarantulas, and birds of prey, and many pet stores carry mice for this purpose.

Common terms used to refer to different ages/sizes of mice when sold for pet food are "pinkies", "fuzzies", "crawlers", "hoppers", and "adults". Pinkies are newborn mice that have not yet grown fur; fuzzies have some fur but are not very mobile; and hoppers have a full coat of hair and are fully mobile but are smaller than adult mice. Mice without fur are easier for the animal to consume; however, mice with fur may be more convincing as animal feed.[citation needed] These terms are also used to refer to the various growth stages of rats (see Fancy rat).

"Pinkie" mice for sale as reptile feed

Humans have eaten mice since prehistoric times. In Victorian Britain, fried mice were still given to children as a folk remedy for bed-wetting; while Jared Diamond reports creamed mice being used in England as a dietary supplement during WW II rationing. Mice are a delicacy throughout eastern Zambia and northern Malawi, where they are a seasonal source of protein. Field rat is a popular food in Vietnam and neighboring countries. In many countries, however, mouse is no longer a food item.

Prescribed cures in Ancient Egypt included mice as medicine. In Ancient Egypt, when infants were ill, mice were eaten as treatment by their mothers.It was believed that mouse eating by the mother would help heal the baby who was ill.

A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (literally without tail in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" Triadobatrachus is known from the Early Triassic of Madagascar, but molecular clock dating suggests their split from other amphibians may extend further back to the Permian, 265 million years ago. Frogs are widely distributed, ranging from the tropics to subarctic regions, but the greatest concentration of species diversity is in tropical rainforest. Frogs account for around 88% of extant amphibian species. They are also one of the five most diverse vertebrate orders. Warty frog species tend to be called toads, but the distinction between frogs and toads is informal, not from taxonomy or evolutionary history.

An adult frog has a stout body, protruding eyes, anteriorly-attached tongue, limbs folded underneath, and no tail (the tail of tailed frogs is an extension of the male cloaca). Frogs have glandular skin, with secretions ranging from distasteful to toxic. Their skin varies in colour from well-camouflaged dappled brown, grey and green to vivid patterns of bright red or yellow and black to show toxicity and ward off predators. Adult frogs live in fresh water and on dry land; some species are adapted for living underground or in trees.

Frogs typically lay their eggs in water. The eggs hatch into aquatic larvae called tadpoles that have tails and internal gills. They have highly specialized rasping mouth parts suitable for herbivorous, omnivorous or planktivorous diets. The life cycle is completed when they metamorphose into adults. A few species deposit eggs on land or bypass the tadpole stage. Adult frogs generally have a carnivorous diet consisting of small invertebrates, but omnivorous species exist and a few feed on plant matter. Frog skin has a rich microbiome which is important to their health. Frogs are extremely efficient at converting what they eat into body mass. They are an important food source for predators and part of the food web dynamics of many of the world's ecosystems. The skin is semi-permeable, making them susceptible to dehydration, so they either live in moist places or have special adaptations to deal with dry habitats. Frogs produce a wide range of vocalizations, particularly in their breeding season, and exhibit many different kinds of complex behaviors to attract mates, to fend off predators and to generally survive.

Frogs are valued as food by humans and also have many cultural roles in literature, symbolism and religion. They are also seen as environmental bellwethers, with declines in frog populations often viewed as early warning signs of environmental damage. Frog populations have declined significantly since the 1950s. More than one third of species are considered to be threatened with extinction and over 120 are believed to have become extinct since the 1980s. The number of malformations among frogs is on the rise and an emerging fungal disease, chytridiomycosis, has spread around the world. Conservation biologists are working to understand the causes of these problems and to resolve them.

Variegated golden frog (Mantella baroni) in the Ranomafana National Park of Madagascar

The use of the common names frog and toad has no taxonomic justification. From a classification perspective, all members of the order Anura are frogs, but only members of the family Bufonidae are considered "true toads". The use of the term frog in common names usually refers to species that are aquatic or semi-aquatic and have smooth, moist skins; the term toad generally refers to species that are terrestrial with dry, warty skins.There are numerous exceptions to this rule. The European fire-bellied toad (Bombina bombina) has a slightly warty skin and prefers a watery habitat whereas the Panamanian golden frog (Atelopus zeteki) is in the toad family Bufonidae and has a smooth skin.

The origin of the order name Anura—and its original spelling Anoures—is the Ancient Greek "alpha privative" prefix ἀν- (an-) 'without', and οὐρά (ourá), meaning 'animal tail'. It refers to the tailless character of these amphibians.

The origins of the word frog are uncertain and debated. The word is first attested in Old English as frogga, but the usual Old English word for the frog was frosc (with variants such as frox and forsc), and it is agreed that the word frog is somehow related to this. Old English frosc remained in dialectal use in English as frosh and frosk into the nineteenth century, and is paralleled widely in other Germanic languages, with examples in the modern languages including German Frosch, Icelandic froskur, and Dutch (kik)vors. These words allow reconstruction of a Common Germanic ancestor *froskaz. The third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary finds that the etymology of *froskaz is uncertain, but agrees with arguments that it could plausibly derive from a Proto-Indo-European base along the lines of *preu, meaning 'jump'.

How Old English frosc gave rise to frogga is, however, uncertain, as the development does not involve a regular sound-change. Instead, it seems that there was a trend in Old English to coin nicknames for animals ending in -g, with examples—themselves all of uncertain etymology—including dog, hog, pig, stag, and (ear)wig. Frog appears to have been adapted from frosc as part of this trend.

Meanwhile, the word toad, first attested as Old English tādige, is unique to English and is likewise of uncertain etymology. It is the basis for the word tadpole, first attested as Middle English taddepol, apparently meaning 'toad-head'.

About 88% of amphibian species are classified in the order Anura.[13] These include over 7,100 species in 55 families, of which the Craugastoridae (850 spp.), Hylidae (724 spp.), Microhylidae (688 spp.), and Bufonidae (621 spp.) are the richest in species.

European fire-bellied toad (Bombina bombina)

The Anura include all modern frogs and any fossil species that fit within the anuran definition. The characteristics of anuran adults include: 9 or fewer presacral vertebrae, the presence of a urostyle formed of fused vertebrae, no tail, a long and forward-sloping ilium, shorter fore limbs than hind limbs, radius and ulna fused, tibia and fibula fused, elongated ankle bones, absence of a prefrontal bone, presence of a hyoid plate, a lower jaw without teeth (with the exception of Gastrotheca guentheri) consisting of three pairs of bones (angulosplenial, dentary, and mentomeckelian, with the last pair being absent in Pipoidea), an unsupported tongue, lymph spaces underneath the skin, and a muscle, the protractor lentis, attached to the lens of the eye. The anuran larva or tadpole has a single central respiratory spiracle and mouthparts consisting of keratinous beaks and denticles.

Frogs and toads are broadly classified into three suborders: Archaeobatrachia, which includes four families of primitive frogs; Mesobatrachia, which includes five families of more evolutionary intermediate frogs; and Neobatrachia, by far the largest group, which contains the remaining families of modern frogs, including most common species throughout the world. The suborder Neobatrachia is further divided into the two superfamilies Hyloidea and Ranoidea. This classification is based on such morphological features as the number of vertebrae, the structure of the pectoral girdle, and the morphology of tadpoles. While this classification is largely accepted, relationships among families of frogs are still debated.

Some species of anurans hybridize readily. For instance, the edible frog (Pelophylax esculentus) is a hybrid between the pool frog (P. lessonae) and the marsh frog (P. ridibundus). The fire-bellied toads Bombina bombina and B. variegata are similar in forming hybrids. These are less fertile than their parents, giving rise to a hybrid zone where the hybrids are prevalent.

The origins and evolutionary relationships between the three main groups of amphibians are hotly debated. A molecular phylogeny based on rDNA analysis dating from 2005 suggests that salamanders and caecilians are more closely related to each other than they are to frogs and the divergence of the three groups took place in the Paleozoic or early Mesozoic before the breakup of the supercontinent Pangaea and soon after their divergence from the lobe-finned fishes. This would help account for the relative scarcity of amphibian fossils from the period before the groups split.[21] Another molecular phylogenetic analysis conducted about the same time concluded that lissamphibians first appeared about 330 million years ago and that the temnospondyl-origin hypothesis is more credible than other theories. The neobatrachians seemed to have originated in Africa/India, the salamanders in East Asia and the caecilians in tropical Pangaea.[22] Other researchers, while agreeing with the main thrust of this study, questioned the choice of calibration points used to synchronise the data. They proposed that the date of lissamphibian diversification should be placed in the Permian, rather less than 300 million years ago, a date in better agreement with the palaeontological data.[23] A further study in 2011 using both extinct and living taxa sampled for morphological, as well as molecular data, came to the conclusion that Lissamphibia is monophyletic and that it should be nested within Lepospondyli rather than within Temnospondyli. The study postulated that Lissamphibia originated no earlier than the late Carboniferous, some 290 to 305 million years ago. The split between Anura and Caudata was estimated as taking place 292 million years ago, rather later than most molecular studies suggest, with the caecilians splitting off 239 million years ago.

A fossilized frog from the Czech Republic, possibly Palaeobatrachus gigas.

In 2008, Gerobatrachus hottoni, a temnospondyl with many frog- and salamander-like characteristics, was discovered in Texas. It dated back 290 million years and was hailed as a missing link, a stem batrachian close to the common ancestor of frogs and salamanders, consistent with the widely accepted hypothesis that frogs and salamanders are more closely related to each other (forming a clade called Batrachia) than they are to caecilians. However, others have suggested that Gerobatrachus hottoni was only a dissorophoid temnospondyl unrelated to extant amphibians.

Salientia (Latin salire (salio), "to jump") is the name of the total group that includes modern frogs in the order Anura as well as their close fossil relatives, the "proto-frogs" or "stem-frogs". The common features possessed by these proto-frogs include 14 presacral vertebrae (modern frogs have eight or 9), a long and forward-sloping ilium in the pelvis, the presence of a frontoparietal bone, and a lower jaw without teeth. The earliest known amphibians that were more closely related to frogs than to salamanders are Triadobatrachus massinoti, from the early Triassic period of Madagascar (about 250 million years ago), and Czatkobatrachus polonicus, from the Early Triassic of Poland (about the same age as Triadobatrachus). The skull of Triadobatrachus is frog-like, being broad with large eye sockets, but the fossil has features diverging from modern frogs. These include a longer body with more vertebrae. The tail has separate vertebrae unlike the fused urostyle or coccyx in modern frogs. The tibia and fibula bones are also separate, making it probable that Triadobatrachus was not an efficient leaper.

The earliest known "true frogs" that fall into the anuran lineage proper all lived in the early Jurassic period. One such early frog species, Prosalirus bitis, was discovered in 1995 in the Kayenta Formation of Arizona and dates back to the Early Jurassic epoch (199.6 to 175 million years ago), making Prosalirus somewhat more recent than Triadobatrachus.[30] Like the latter, Prosalirus did not have greatly enlarged legs, but had the typical three-pronged pelvic structure of modern frogs. Unlike Triadobatrachus, Prosalirus had already lost nearly all of its tail and was well adapted for jumping. Another Early Jurassic frog is Vieraella herbsti, which is known only from dorsal and ventral impressions of a single animal and was estimated to be 33 mm (1+1⁄4 in) from snout to vent. Notobatrachus degiustoi from the middle Jurassic is slightly younger, about 155–170 million years old. The main evolutionary changes in this species involved the shortening of the body and the loss of the tail. The evolution of modern Anura likely was complete by the Jurassic period. Since then, evolutionary changes in chromosome numbers have taken place about 20 times faster in mammals than in frogs, which means speciation is occurring more rapidly in mammals.

According to genetic studies, the families Hyloidea, Microhylidae, and the clade Natatanura (comprising about 88% of living frogs) diversified simultaneously some 66 million years ago, soon after the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event associated with the Chicxulub impactor. All origins of arboreality (e.g. in Hyloidea and Natatanura) follow from that time and the resurgence of forest that occurred afterwards.

The structure of the feet and legs varies greatly among frog species, depending in part on whether they live primarily on the ground, in water, in trees, or in burrows. Frogs must be able to move quickly through their environment to catch prey and escape predators, and numerous adaptations help them to do so. Most frogs are either proficient at jumping or are descended from ancestors that were, with much of the musculoskeletal morphology modified for this purpose. The tibia, fibula, and tarsals have been fused into a single, strong bone, as have the radius and ulna in the fore limbs (which must absorb the impact on landing). The metatarsals have become elongated to add to the leg length and allow frogs to push against the ground for a longer period on take-off. The illium has elongated and formed a mobile joint with the sacrum which, in specialist jumpers such as ranids and hylids, functions as an additional limb joint to further power the leaps. The tail vertebrae have fused into a urostyle which is retracted inside the pelvis. This enables the force to be transferred from the legs to the body during a leap.

Webbed hind foot of common frog

The muscular system has been similarly modified. The hind limbs of ancestral frogs presumably contained pairs of muscles which would act in opposition (one muscle to flex the knee, a different muscle to extend it), as is seen in most other limbed animals. However, in modern frogs, almost all muscles have been modified to contribute to the action of jumping, with only a few small muscles remaining to bring the limb back to the starting position and maintain posture. The muscles have also been greatly enlarged, with the main leg muscles accounting for over 17% of the total mass of frogs.

Many frogs have webbed feet and the degree of webbing is directly proportional to the amount of time the species spends in the water. The completely aquatic African dwarf frog (Hymenochirus sp.) has fully webbed toes, whereas those of White's tree frog (Litoria caerulea), an arboreal species, are only a quarter or half webbed. Exceptions include flying frogs in the Hylidae and Rhacophoridae, which also have fully webbed toes used in gliding.

Arboreal frogs have pads located on the ends of their toes to help grip vertical surfaces. These are not suction pads, the surface consisting instead of columnar cells with flat tops with small gaps between them lubricated by mucous glands. When the frog applies pressure, the cells adhere to irregularities on the surface and the grip is maintained through surface tension. This allows the frog to climb on smooth surfaces, but the system does not function efficiently when the pads are excessively wet.

In many arboreal frogs, a small "intercalary structure" on each toe increases the surface area touching the substrate. Furthermore, many arboreal frogs have hip joints that allow both hopping and walking. Some frogs that live high in trees even possess an elaborate degree of webbing between their toes. This allows the frogs to "parachute" or make a controlled glide from one position in the canopy to another.

Ground-dwelling frogs generally lack the adaptations of aquatic and arboreal frogs. Most have smaller toe pads, if any, and little webbing. Some burrowing frogs such as Couch's spadefoot (Scaphiopus couchii) have a flap-like toe extension on the hind feet, a keratinised tubercle often referred to as a spade, that helps them to burrow.

Sometimes during the tadpole stage, one of the developing rear legs is eaten by a predator such as a dragonfly nymph. In some cases, the full leg still grows, but in others it does not, although the frog may still live out its normal lifespan with only three limbs. Occasionally, a parasitic flatworm (Ribeiroia ondatrae) digs into the rear of a tadpole, causing a rearrangement of the limb bud cells and the frog develops one or more extra legs.

A frog's skin is protective, has a respiratory function, can absorb water, and helps control body temperature. It has many glands, particularly on the head and back, which often exude distasteful and toxic substances (granular glands). The secretion is often sticky and helps keep the skin moist, protects against the entry of moulds and bacteria, and make the animal slippery and more able to escape from predators.The skin is shed every few weeks. It usually splits down the middle of the back and across the belly, and the frog pulls its arms and legs free. The sloughed skin is then worked towards the head where it is quickly eaten.

Being cold-blooded, frogs have to adopt suitable behaviour patterns to regulate their temperature. To warm up, they can move into the sun or onto a warm surface; if they overheat, they can move into the shade or adopt a stance that exposes the minimum area of skin to the air. This posture is also used to prevent water loss and involves the frog squatting close to the substrate with its hands and feet tucked under its chin and body. The colour of a frog's skin is used for thermoregulation. In cool damp conditions, the colour will be darker than on a hot dry day. The grey foam-nest tree frog (Chiromantis xerampelina) is even able to turn white to minimize the chance of overheating.

Many frogs are able to absorb water and oxygen directly through the skin, especially around the pelvic area, but the permeability of a frog's skin can also result in water loss. Glands located all over the body exude mucus which helps keep the skin moist and reduces evaporation. Some glands on the hands and chest of males are specialized to produce sticky secretions to aid in amplexus. Similar glands in tree frogs produce a glue-like substance on the adhesive discs of the feet. Some arboreal frogs reduce water loss by having a waterproof layer of skin, and several South American species coat their skin with a waxy secretion. Other frogs have adopted behaviours to conserve water, including becoming nocturnal and resting in a water-conserving position. Some frogs may also rest in large groups with each frog pressed against its neighbours. This reduces the amount of skin exposed to the air or a dry surface, and thus reduces water loss.Woodhouse's toad (Bufo woodhousii), if given access to water after confinement in a dry location, sits in the shallows to rehydrate.The male hairy frog (Trichobatrachus robustus) has dermal papillae projecting from its lower back and thighs, giving it a bristly appearance. They contain blood vessels and are thought to increase the area of the skin available for respiration.

Northern leopard frog (Rana pipiens) moulting and eating its skin

Some species have bony plates embedded in their skin, a trait that appears to have evolved independently several times. In certain other species, the skin at the top of the head is compacted and the connective tissue of the dermis is co-ossified with the bones of the skull (exostosis).

Camouflage is a common defensive mechanism in frogs. Most camouflaged frogs are nocturnal; during the day, they seek out a position where they can blend into the background and remain undetected. Some frogs have the ability to change colour, but this is usually restricted to a small range of colours. For example, White's tree frog (Litoria caerulea) varies between pale green and dull brown according to the temperature, and the Pacific tree frog (Pseudacris regilla) has green and brown morphs, plain or spotted, and changes colour depending on the time of year and general background colour. Features such as warts and skin folds are usually on ground-dwelling frogs, for whom smooth skin would not provide such effective camouflage. Certain frogs change colour between night and day, as light and moisture stimulate the pigment cells and cause them to expand or contract. Some are even able to control their skin texture.

The lion (Panthera leo) is a large cat of the genus Panthera native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, deep-chested body, short, rounded head, round ears, and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphic; adult male lions are larger than females and have a prominent mane. It is a social species, forming groups called prides. A lion's pride consists of a few adult males, related females, and cubs. Groups of female lions usually hunt together, preying mostly on large ungulates. The lion is an apex and keystone predator; although some lions scavenge when opportunities occur and have been known to hunt humans, the species typically does not.

The lion inhabits grasslands, savannas and shrublands. It is usually more diurnal than other wild cats, but when persecuted, it adapts to being active at night and at twilight. During the Neolithic period, the lion ranged throughout Africa, Southeast Europe, the Caucasus, and Western and South Asia, but it has been reduced to fragmented populations in sub-Saharan Africa and one population in western India. It has been listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 1996 because populations in African countries have declined by about 43% since the early 1990s. Lion populations are untenable outside designated protected areas. Although the cause of the decline is not fully understood, habitat loss and conflicts with humans are the greatest causes for concern.

One of the most widely recognised animal symbols in human culture, the lion has been extensively depicted in sculptures and paintings, on national flags, and in contemporary films and literature. Lions have been kept in menageries since the time of the Roman Empire and have been a key species sought for exhibition in zoological gardens across the world since the late 18th century. Cultural depictions of lions were prominent in Ancient Egypt, and depictions have occurred in virtually all ancient and medieval cultures in the lion's historic and current range.

Male lion in Okonjima, Namibia

The word 'lion' is derived from Latin: leo and Ancient Greek: λέων (leon). The word lavi (Hebrew: לָבִיא) may also be related. The generic name Panthera is traceable to the classical Latin word 'panthēra' and the ancient Greek word πάνθηρ 'panther'. Panthera is phonetically similar to the Sanskrit word पाण्डर pând-ara meaning 'pale yellow, whitish, white'.

The upper cladogram is based on the 2006 study, the lower one on the 2010 and 2011 studies.

Felis leo was the scientific name used by Carl Linnaeus in 1758, who described the lion in his work Systema Naturae.The genus name Panthera was coined by Lorenz Oken in 1816. Between the mid-18th and mid-20th centuries, 26 lion specimens were described and proposed as subspecies, of which 11 were recognised as valid in 2005. They were distinguished mostly by the size and colour of their manes and skins.

Female (lioness) in Okonjima

The Panthera lineage is estimated to have genetically diverged from the common ancestor of the Felidae around 9.32 to 4.47 million years ago to 11.75 to 0.97 million years ago, and the geographic origin of the genus is most likely northern Central Asia.Results of analyses differ in the phylogenetic relationship of the lion; it was thought to form a sister group with the jaguar (P. onca) that diverged 3.46 to 1.22 million years ago, but also with the leopard (P. pardus) that diverged 3.1 to 1.95 million years ago to 4.32 to 0.02 million years ago. Hybridisation between lion and snow leopard (P. uncia) ancestors possibly continued until about 2.1 million years ago. The lion-leopard clade was distributed in the Asian and African Palearctic since at least the early Pliocene. The earliest fossils recognisable as lions were found at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania and are estimated to be up to 2 million years old.

Estimates for the divergence time of the modern and cave lion lineages range from 529,000 to 392,000 years ago based on mutation rate per generation time of the modern lion. There is no evidence for gene flow between the two lineages, indicating that they did not share the same geographic area. The Eurasian and American cave lions became extinct at the end of the last glacial period without mitochondrial descendants on other continents. The modern lion was probably widely distributed in Africa during the Middle Pleistocene and started to diverge in sub-Saharan Africa during the Late Pleistocene. Lion populations in East and Southern Africa became separated from populations in West and North Africa when the equatorial rainforest expanded 183,500 to 81,800 years ago. They shared a common ancestor probably between 98,000 and 52,000 years ago.Due to the expansion of the Sahara between 83,100 and 26,600 years ago, lion populations in West and North Africa became separated. As the rainforest decreased and thus gave rise to more open habitats, lions moved from West to Central Africa. Lions from North Africa dispersed to southern Europe and Asia between 38,800 and 8,300 years ago.

Extinction of lions in southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East interrupted gene flow between lion populations in Asia and Africa. Genetic evidence revealed numerous mutations in lion samples from East and Southern Africa, which indicates that this group has a longer evolutionary history than genetically less diverse lion samples from Asia and West and Central Africa. A whole genome-wide sequence of lion samples showed that samples from West Africa shared alleles with samples from Southern Africa, and samples from Central Africa shared alleles with samples from Asia. This phenomenon indicates that Central Africa was a melting pot of lion populations after they had become isolated, possibly migrating through corridors in the Nile Basin during the early Holocene.

The size and weight of adult lions varies across global range and habitats. Accounts of a few individuals that were larger than average exist from Africa and India.

The male lion's mane is the most recognisable feature of the species. It may have evolved around 320,000–190,000 years ago.It starts growing when lions are about a year old. Mane colour varies and darkens with age; research shows its colour and size are influenced by environmental factors such as average ambient temperature. Mane length apparently signals fighting success in male–male relationships; darker-maned individuals may have longer reproductive lives and higher offspring survival, although they suffer in the hottest months of the year. The presence, absence, colour and size of the mane are associated with genetic precondition, sexual maturity, climate and testosterone production; the rule of thumb is that a darker, fuller mane indicates a healthier animal. In Serengeti National Park, female lions favour males with dense, dark manes as mates. Male lions usually aim for the backs or hindquarters of rivals, rather than their necks. Cool ambient temperature in European and North American zoos may result in a heavier mane.Asiatic lions usually have sparser manes than average African lions.

Almost all male lions in Pendjari National Park are either maneless or have very short manes. Maneless lions have also been reported in Senegal, in Sudan's Dinder National Park and in Tsavo East National Park, Kenya.The original male white lion from Timbavati in South Africa was also maneless. The hormone testosterone has been linked to mane growth; castrated lions often have little to no mane because the removal of the gonads inhibits testosterone production. Increased testosterone may be the cause of maned lionesses reported in northern Botswana.

A six-year-old male with a large mane at Phinda Private Game Reserve, South Africa

The white lion is a rare morph with a genetic condition called leucism which is caused by a double recessive allele. It is not albino; it has normal pigmentation in the eyes and skin. White lions have occasionally been encountered in and around Kruger National Park and the adjacent Timbavati Private Game Reserve in eastern South Africa. They were removed from the wild in the 1970s, thus decreasing the white lion gene pool. Nevertheless, 17 births have been recorded in five prides between 2007 and 2015. White lions are selected for breeding in captivity. They have reportedly been bred in camps in South Africa for use as trophies to be killed during canned hunts.

Male with short mane at Pendjari National Park, Benin, West Africa

In Africa, the range of the lion originally spanned most of the central African rainforest zone and the Sahara desert. In the 1960s, it became extinct in North Africa, except in the southern part of Sudan.

In southern Europe and Asia, the lion once ranged in regions where climatic conditions supported an abundance of prey. In Greece, it was common as reported by Herodotus in 480 BC; it was considered rare by 300 BC and extirpated by AD 100. It was present in the Caucasus until the 10th century. It lived in Palestine until the Middle Ages, and in Southwest Asia until the late 19th century. By the late 19th century, it had been extirpated in most of Turkey. The last live lion in Iran was sighted in 1942 about 65 km (40 mi) northwest of Dezful, although the corpse of a lioness was found on the banks of the Karun river in Khūzestān Province in 1944. It once ranged from Sind and Punjab in Pakistan to Bengal and the Narmada River in central India.

The lion is the most social of all wild felid species, living in groups of related individuals with their offspring. Such a group is called a "pride". Groups of male lions are called "coalitions".Females form the stable social unit in a pride and do not tolerate outside females. Membership changes only with the births and deaths of lionesses, although some females leave and become nomadic. The average pride consists of around 15 lions, including several adult females and up to four males and their cubs of both sexes. Large prides, consisting of up to 30 individuals, have been observed. The sole exception to this pattern is the Tsavo lion pride that always has just one adult male. Male cubs are excluded from their maternal pride when they reach maturity at around two or three years of age.

Some lions are "nomads" that range widely and move around sporadically, either in pairs or alone. Pairs are more frequent among related males who have been excluded from their birth pride. A lion may switch lifestyles; nomads can become residents and vice versa. Interactions between prides and nomads tend to be hostile, although pride females in estrus allow nomadic males to approach them. Males spend years in a nomadic phase before gaining residence in a pride. A study undertaken in the Serengeti National Park revealed that nomadic coalitions gain residency at between 3.5 and 7.3 years of age. In Kruger National Park, dispersing male lions move more than 25 km (16 mi) away from their natal pride in search of their own territory. Female lions stay closer to their natal pride. Therefore, female lions in an area are more closely related to each other than male lions in the same area.

Lion pride in Etosha National Park

The area occupied by a pride is called a "pride area" whereas that occupied by a nomad is a "range". Males associated with a pride tend to stay on the fringes, patrolling their territory. The reasons for the development of sociality in lionesses—the most pronounced in any cat species—are the subject of much debate. Increased hunting success appears to be an obvious reason, but this is uncertain upon examination; coordinated hunting allows for more successful predation but also ensures non-hunting members reduce per capita calorific intake. Some females, however, take a role raising cubs that may be left alone for extended periods. Members of the pride tend to regularly play the same role in hunts and hone their skills. The health of the hunters is the primary need for the survival of the pride; hunters are the first to consume the prey at the site it is taken. Other benefits include possible kin selection; sharing food within the family; protecting the young, maintaining territory and individual insurance against injury and hunger.

Both males and females defend the pride against intruders, but the male lion is better-suited for this purpose due to its stockier, more powerful build. Some individuals consistently lead the defence against intruders, while others lag behind. Lions tend to assume specific roles in the pride; slower-moving individuals may provide other valuable services to the group. Alternatively, there may be rewards associated with being a leader that fends off intruders; the rank of lionesses in the pride is reflected in these responses. The male or males associated with the pride must defend their relationship with the pride from outside males who may attempt to usurp them.

Asiatic lion prides differ in group composition. Male Asiatic lions are solitary or associate with up to three males, forming a loose pride while females associate with up to 12 other females, forming a stronger pride together with their cubs. Female and male lions associate only when mating. Coalitions of males hold territory for a longer time than single lions. Males in coalitions of three or four individuals exhibit a pronounced hierarchy, in which one male dominates the others and mates more frequently.

The lion is a generalist hypercarnivore and is considered to be both an apex and keystone predator due to its wide prey spectrum. Its prey consists mainly of mammals, particularly ungulates weighing 190–550 kg (420–1,210 lb) with a preference for blue wildebeest, plains zebra, African buffalo, gemsbok and giraffe. Lions also hunt common warthog depending on availability, although the species is below the preferred weight range. In India, sambar deer and chital are the most commonly recorded wild prey, while domestic livestock may contribute significantly to their diet. They usually avoid fully grown adult elephants, rhinoceroses and hippopotamus and small prey like dik-dik, hyrax, hare and monkey. Unusual prey include porcupines and small reptiles. Lions kill other predators such as leopard, cheetah and spotted hyena but seldom consume them.

Young lions first display stalking behaviour at around three months of age, although they do not participate in hunting until they are almost a year old and begin to hunt effectively when nearing the age of two. Single lions are capable of bringing down zebra and wildebeest, while larger prey like buffalo and giraffe are riskier. In Chobe National Park, large prides have been observed hunting African bush elephants up to around 15 years old in exceptional cases, with the victims being calves, juveniles, and even subadults. In typical hunts, each lioness has a favoured position in the group, either stalking prey on the "wing", then attacking, or moving a smaller distance in the centre of the group and capturing prey fleeing from other lionesses. Males attached to prides do not usually participate in group hunting. Some evidence suggests, however, that males are just as successful as females; they are typically solo hunters who ambush prey in small bushland.

Four lionesses catching a buffalo in the Serengeti

Lions are not particularly known for their stamina; for instance, a lioness' heart comprises only 0.57% of her body weight and a male's is about 0.45% of his body weight, whereas a hyena's heart comprises almost 1% of its body weight.Thus, lions run quickly only in short bursts and need to be close to their prey before starting the attack. They take advantage of factors that reduce visibility; many kills take place near some form of cover or at night. The lion's attack is short and powerful; they attempt to catch prey with a fast rush and final leap. They usually pull it down by the rump and kill by a strangling bite to the throat. They also kill prey by enclosing its mouth and nostrils in their jaws.

Lions typically consume prey at the location of the hunt but sometimes drag large prey into cover.They tend to squabble over kills, particularly the males. Cubs suffer most when food is scarce but otherwise all pride members eat their fill, including old and crippled lions, which can live on leftovers. Large kills are shared more widely among pride members. An adult lioness requires an average of about 5 kg (11 lb) of meat per day while males require about 7 kg (15 lb). Lions gorge themselves and eat up to 30 kg (66 lb) in one session;[83] if it is unable to consume all of the kill, it rests for a few hours before continuing to eat. On hot days, the pride retreats to shade with one or two males standing guard. Lions defend their kills from scavengers such as vultures and hyenas.

Lions scavenge on carrion when the opportunity arises; they scavenge animals dead from natural causes such as disease or those that were killed by other predators. Scavenging lions keep a constant lookout for circling vultures, which indicate the death or distress of an animal. Most carrion on which both hyenas and lions feed upon are killed by hyenas rather than lions.Carrion is thought to provide a large part of lion diet.

Villarreal Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. (Valencian: Vila-real Club de Futbol, S.A.D.), usually abbreviated to Villarreal CF or simply Villarreal, is a professional football club based in Villarreal, Spain that plays in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football.

Founded in 1942, the club spent much of its history in the lower divisions of Spanish football and made their La Liga debut only in 1998. In the 21st century, Villarreal gained some league stability, and the club made its first appearance in the UEFA Champions League in 2005. The club also appeared in the UEFA Europa League during this time, but sustained relegation in 2012, rebounding the next year and then remaining in the top division to date. Villarreal won its first major honour in 2021, by defeating Manchester United in the 2021 UEFA Europa League Final.

The club is nicknamed El Submarí Groguet or El Submarino Amarillo (Yellow Submarine) due to its yellow home kit, and due to being a low-profile team compared to Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atlético Madrid, and regional rivals Valencia. They play their home games at the Estadio de la Cerámica,and have been touted as an example of a small but successful club.

1923–29: Early years

Villarreal CF was founded as Club Deportivo Villarreal on 10 March 1923 "to promote all sports especially Football." The stadium was rented for 60 pesetas a month and ticket prices were set at half a peseta for men and a quarter of a peseta for children. Women were granted free admission.On 17 June 1923, Castellón, a modern rival of the club, played the first match against a club named after Miguel de Cervantes. On 21 October of that year, Villarreal played their first game ever, playing against Castellón. Villarreal started off with a kit of white shirts and black shorts, reflected in their first badge.

1929–98: Time in lower divisions

Villarreal entered regional competitions within the Spanish football pyramid from 1929 to 1930 onwards. The 1934–35 season saw the team lose to Cartagena when a win would have seen them promoted to the nationwide Second Division.The following season saw Villarreal win the First Division of the region before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.

When the war finished in 1939, the club played again in the Second Division of the region. However, CD Villarreal was dissolved in the early 1940s, and in 1942, CA Foghetecaz, an acronym for the club's founders (Font, Gil, Herrero, Teuler, Catalá and Zaragoza), was one of several clubs established in its place. In 1946, the new club joined the Valencian Football Federation and renamed itself as CAF Villarreal, where the F stood for Foghetecaz.

The name changed again to the current Villarreal CF in 1954, with a badge similar to the present one. They finished seventh and then fourth twice in the First regional league before being promoted to the Tercera Liga (Third Nationwide) as champions in 1956. They were relegated in 1960–61 after finishing 14th.

The club adopted their present badge in the middle of 1966. In 1966–67, Villarreal returned to the Tercera as champions. In 1970, they reached the national Segunda for the first time. After narrowly avoiding relegation in their first season, they were relegated the following season. In 1975–76, they were relegated from the Tercera to the Regionals, but were promoted back again the next season. In 1986–87, Villarreal were promoted to the Segunda Liga B. In 1990, they finished 18th and were relegated back to the Tercera.

There were back-to-back promotions as the club returned to Segunda B and finished second, earning promotion to Segunda A for the first time. From 1992 to 1993, Villarreal were often in low or mid-table positions, but reached the play-offs in 1997–98 by finishing fourth. The two-legged play-off was against Compostela. Villarreal hosted the first leg which was a 0–0 draw, but the second leg at the home of the Galician team was a 1–1 draw, thus Villarreal were promoted on the away goals rule.

1998–2012: La Liga and European debuts

Villarreal's La Liga debut started with a match against reigning European champions Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium on 31 August 1998. The first home game was against Celta de Vigo the week after. Because of a difficult season, Villarreal were relegated to the Segunda División for the 1999–2000 season, but by finishing third, they were then promoted back to the Primera División.

Arsenal FC vs Villarreal CF UEFA Champions League 2008–09 quarter-finals.

After finishing seventh on their return to the Primera, Villarreal finished in 15th place for two-straight seasons. Villarreal competed in the UEFA Intertoto Cup in the middle of 2002, defeating FH of Iceland, Torino of Italy, and Troyes of France. They lost in the final to compatriots Málaga, 2–1 on aggregate.

In the middle of 2003, they defeated the Dutch team Heerenveen in the final of the Intertoto Cup, thereby qualifying for the UEFA Cup. In their major European debut, Villarreal reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup, losing to neighbours and eventual champions Valencia. In the league, Villarreal finished in eighth place. In the middle of 2004, Villarreal retained the Intertoto Cup, beating compatriots Atlético Madrid on penalties after the final finished 2–2 on aggregate. This qualified them to the UEFA Cup. They lost in the quarter-finals of the 2004–05 UEFA Cup to Dutch side AZ, losing 3–2 on aggregate. During the same season, Villarreal finished in third place in La Liga, earning the club their first direct qualification to a European tournament, the Champions League. The club's centre-forward Diego Forlán won the Pichichi Trophy for top scorer in the league, with 25 goals.

Arsenal FC vs Villarreal CF UEFA Champions League 2008–09 quarter-finals.

Villarreal defeated the English Premier League's Everton in a play-off for the Champions League group stages. The group saw Villarreal go undefeated, drawing both games against Manchester United and achieving a draw and a win each against Lille of France and Benfica of Portugal. The win over Benfica was away and both teams advanced to the last 16.

The club then drew 3–3 against Rangers of Scotland in the Last 16, advancing on away goals due to a 2–2 draw at Ibrox. In the quarter-finals, Villarreal beat Internazionale on away goals after finishing 2–2 on aggregate. The club bowed out in the semi-finals against Arsenal, losing 1–0 away at Highbury. Juan Román Riquelme had a penalty saved by Jens Lehmann in the home game, which finished 0–0. Arsenal went on to lose in the final in Paris to another Spanish club, Barcelona. Villarreal finished seventh in La Liga, which only earned an Intertoto Cup position.

Villarreal contested the Intertoto Cup in the middle of 2006 and was knocked out in its first game, to Maribor of Slovenia. The first leg was lost 2–1 at home and the away game was a 1–1 draw. The team finished 5th in La Liga and qualified for the UEFA Cup. Villarreal gained their best-ever league position in 2008, finishing second to Real Madrid by eight points, and also reached the last 32 in that season's UEFA Cup. After defeating BATE Borisov of Belarus in a play-off, the team won Group C unbeaten. Their group opponents were Fiorentina of Italy, Mladá Boleslav of Czech Republic, IF Elfsborg of Sweden, and AEK Athens of Greece.

In the last 32, Villarreal were defeated by eventual champions Zenit Saint Petersburg, losing the first leg 1–0 in Russia to a Pavel Pogrebnyak goal. The second leg was won 2–1 by Villarreal at El Madrigal, but Zenit advanced on away goals.

The club automatically qualified for the 2008-09 UEFA Champions League, due to them finishing second in La Liga the previous season. They drew Manchester United, for the second consecutive campaign, Celtic, and Aalborg BK. They made a good start by holding current European champions Manchester United to a goal-less draw at Old Trafford, a third 0–0 draw in a row against the English giants. A first win was sealed on 30 September by beating Gordon Strachan's Celtic 1–0 at El Madrigal, courtesy of a Marcos Senna free-kick. On 21 October, during a Champions League match against Aalborg, they scored six goals to three. The Spaniards went through to the knock-out stage after drawing 2–2 with Aalborg in Denmark and drawing goalless once again against Manchester United. In the last group-stage match, they lost to an already-eliminated Celtic.

In the knock-out stage, they faced Panathinaikos, who left Villarreal with a 1–1 away advantage, despite this the Greeks were to lose 1–2 in Athens. Villarreal reached the quarter-finals for the second time in two tries, and were once again paired with Arsenal. The first leg saw a 1–1 draw by a free-kick by Marcos Senna, equalised by an Emmanuel Adebayor volley. Theo Walcott, Emmanuel Adebayor, and Robin van Persie secured a 3–0 win for Arsenal on the return, knocking Villarreal out of the tournament.

Real Madrid vs. Villarreal in 2011.

Villarreal has supported a long rivalry with Castellón for geographical reasons, since both are from the province of Castellón. They also rival Valencia, since the two had been the most competitive teams of the Valencian Community; this clash is called the "Derbi de la Comunitat."

Villarreal's biggest league win at home was by a five-goal margin, achieved on four occasions. The club recorded 5–0 home victories against Salamanca (1998–99 La Liga), Celta Vigo (2002–03 and 2016–17 La Liga), and Tenerife (2009–10 La Liga). The most goals Villarreal scored in a league game was six, in a 6–3 home win against Racing Santander during the 2003–04 La Liga season.

The club's largest away league wins were a 5–1 victory at Las Palmas during the 2000–01 La Liga season, a 4–0 victory at Real Sociedad in the same division during the 2004–05 season, and 4–0 and 5–1 victories at Celta Vigo and Levante, respectively, both during the 2020–21 La Liga season.

Won the 2021 UEFA Europa League Final for the first time in the club's history, by beating Manchester United 11–10 on penalties, after the game had finished 1–1 after extra time.

El Madrigal

The club's famous yellow kit dates back to 1947. With the new season fast approaching, the son of the then Villarreal president travelled to Valencia to purchase replacements of the club's official kit of white shirts and black shorts. Discovering that the shop had neither in stock, he instead bought the only colour that they did have, which happened to be yellow. The players agreed that the shirts were suitable, although they weren't keen on the black shorts, so the president's son travelled to Castellón and purchased a batch of white shorts. The players voted that they should be dyed blue. After remaining as the club's official kit for some time, the yellow shirts and blue shorts combination was last worn in the 2002–03 season, and the club has since sported all yellow kits. Away colours have been navy blue.

From 2005 to 30 June 2011, the shirt sponsor was "Aeroport Castello", an airport. The current shirt sponsor is Pamesa, a ceramics company. From the 2016–17 season, the kit is made by Joma, having previously been produced by the Chinese company Xtep and Puma of Germany among others.

Sevilla Fútbol Club (Spanish pronunciation: [seˈβiʎa ˈfuðβol ˈkluβ]), is a Spanish professional football club based in Seville, the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. It plays in Spanish football's top flight, La Liga. Sevilla at the European level, have won the UEFA Europa League six times, the most of any club. It is Spain's oldest sporting club solely devoted to football. The club was formed on 25 January 1890, with the Scottish born Edward Farquharson Johnston as their first president. On 14 October 1905, the club's articles of association were registered in the Civil Government of Seville under the presidency of the Jerez-born José Luis Gallegos Arnosa.

Sevilla FC is also the most successful club in Andalusia, winning eighteen Andalusian Cups, a national league title in 1945–46, five Copa del Rey (1935, 1939, 1948, 2007 and 2010), one Spanish Super Cup (2007), a record six UEFA Cups/UEFA Europa Leagues (2006, 2007, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2020) and the 2006 UEFA Super Cup. They were also designated by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics as the World's best club in 2006 and 2007, thus being the first club to achieve this distinction in two consecutive years.

Its youth team Sevilla Atlético, founded in 1958, currently play in Primera División RFEF. The club was formerly affiliated to a side in Puerto Rico of the same name and their reserve team, but they dissolved. Other clubs related to Sevilla FC include their women's team and the now defunct Superleague Formula team and futsal sections. The rowing team that defends its crest in the yearly Sevilla-Betis regatta is not a section of the club but a call-up of registered-as-supporters professional rowers from the various rowing clubs of Seville.

The club's home ground is the 43,883-seat Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium. It is located in the neighborhood of Nervión, Seville, and owes its name to Ramón Sánchez Pizjuan, who was Sevilla's president for 17 years.

History

Foundation to Civil War

The practice of football was introduced in Seville at the end of the 19th century by the large British expatriate population in the city, composed by owners or managers of manufacturing companies based in the capital of Andalusia. Sevilla Fútbol Club was founded on 25 January 1890 as Sevilla Foot-ball Club (in English).

Sevilla FC was duly formed on 25 January 1890 while a group of young British, mainly Scots, along with other young men of Spanish origin, celebrated Burns Night in Seville. The club's founding document, published on the Dundee Courier's edition of 17 March 1890 describes in full detail the formation of the club and how those young founding members decided first to play under Association Rules, secondly to bear the word "football" within its name and thirdly, to elect their "office-bearers". The following paragraph is an extract of that article:

Some six weeks ago a few enthusiastic young residents of British origin met in one of the cafés for the purpose of considering a proposal that we should start an Athletic Association, the want of exercise being greatly felt by the majority of us, who are chiefly engaged in mercantile pursuits. After a deal of talk and limited consumption of small beer, the "Club de Football de Sevilla" was duly formed and office-bearers elected. It was decided we should play Association rules (...) We were about half and half Spanish and British

Edward F. Johnston, founder, and the first President

The club's first president was the Scot Mr. Edward Farquharson Johnston (Elgin, 14 October 1854), who was the British vice-consul in Seville and co-proprietor of the firm MacAndrews & Co., ship-owners with commercial lines between Spain and the UK, one of them being the transport of Seville oranges. Hugh Maccoll, another Scottish young man (Glasgow, 9 June 1861), a marine engineer who at that time had moved to Seville to work as the technical manager of Portilla White foundry, was their first captain. One of Maccoll's partners in the Portilla White foundry in Seville, Isaias White junior, was the club's first secretary. He was the son of an English entrepreneur who founded the aforesaid company, one of the major foundries in Spain at the end of the 19th century.

In order to celebrate the foundation of the club, Isaias White sent a letter to Huelva Recreation Club, to invite them to play a football match in Seville. That letter was published by the Spanish newspaper La Provincia. The Huelva club accepted the invitation and the match took place on 8 March 1890, being thus the first official match ever played in Spain. Sevilla FC won that historical match 2–0, with the first goal in an official match in Spanish football history scored by the Seville team player Ritson. Isaias lived at Calle Bailen 41 in Seville (the house still exists but has since been renumbered) making this the first home of Sevilla FC.

In 1907, Sevilla Balompíe was founded, followed by Betis Football Club in 1909, Recreativo de Sevilla and Español de Sevilla. More clubs were formed as the years passed and more competitive matches were organized between the teams, although Sevilla FC, the oldest club of the city, imposed its supremacy over the other clubs in this early period.

Sevilla Fútbol Club - Real Club Recreativo de Huelva (1909)

In 1912, the first Copa de Sevilla was played and won by Sevilla FC. From 1915 to 1940, the Copa Andalucia was organized by the "Federación Sur" (Andalusian FA) and these championships included Sevilla FC, Real Betis Balompié, Recreativo de Huelva, Español de Cádiz and the sporadic participation of other clubs such as Nacional de Sevilla and Córdoba. The domination of Sevilla was so evident that of the 21 Championships of Andalusia played, 18 were won by Sevilla FC, with the three remaining being won by Español de de Cádiz, Recreativo de Huelva and Real Betis Balompié, respectively.

In 1917, Sevilla FC participated in the "Copa de España" for the first time and became the first Andalusian team to reach the final round of the competition. In 1928, when the "Campeonato Nacional de Liga" (National League Championships) was organized, Sevilla FC was not part of the First Division due to their defeat to Racing de Santander in an elimination game that was set-up to decide which of the two teams would compete in the newly formed league.

At the end of the 1933–34 season, Sevilla FC was promoted to the First Division of the "Campeonato Nacional de Liga." In 1935, they were proclaimed "Campeón de Copa" (Cup Champions) for the first time by defeating Sabadell, repeated in 1939 against Racing de Ferrol and again in 1948 against Celta de Vigo. The club participated in two other finals, but conceded defeat to Athletic Bilbao in 1955 and to Real Madrid in 1962. Sevilla FC remained in the First Division from the 1933–34 season until 1968, when they were relegated to the Second Division, a tier from which they have never further been relegated from.

Sevilla's first crest, displayed on a former player's shirt in the club museum.

The 1945–46 season was one of high importance in the history of Sevilla, as it marked the first, and to date only, time in which Sevilla FC were League champions. On four other occasions, the club was proclaimed "subcampeón de Liga" (League Runner-up: 1939–40, 1942–43, 1950–51 and 1956–57).

Including this 2021/22 season, Sevilla has participated 78 times in the First Division and 13 in the Second Division, never dropping below the Second Division. Sevilla has also participated in four European tournaments, the "Copa de Europa" (European League Winners Cup) (1957–58); Recopa (Winners Cup) (1962–63) and UEFA Cup on nine occasions (1966–67, 1970–71, 1982–83, 1983–84, 1990–91, 1995–96, 2004–05, 2005–06 and 2006–07). Sevilla also participated in the UEFA Champions League in 2007–08.

There are more than 400 individuals who currently play for the Sevilla FC organization, which includes two semi-professional teams (in Second Division A – second national category) and 12 youth teams.

Club ball in the museum.

Sevilla has always counted on having international players within its ranks to aid in the pursuit of trophies. The first of these players were Spencer and Herminio in the 1920s. Juan Arza, an international player from the 1940s, was proclaimed top scorer of the Spanish League in the 1954–55 season, with 29 goals. About 30 Sevilla players have been chosen to play for the Spain national football team over the years.

Foreign players have always played an integral part in the success of Sevilla FC with Diego Maradona representing the most well known among them during his spell with the club during the 1992–93 season. During the same season, Sevilla FC was managed by Carlos Salvador Bilardo, a world champion manager.

Historically, Sevilla FC has fielded teams in a variety of other sports including: basketball, rugby, rowing, athletics, and weightlifting or petanca. Presently, Sevilla FC counts twenty-five professional teams on its ledgers (one of these being in the second national category) and a women's football team in the Honor Division.

Sevilla FC's stadium, the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán, was inaugurated in 1958 and is one of the largest stadiums in Spain, and has the honor of hosting a World Cup semi-final match in 1982. After its final completion, the stadium had a maximum capacity of 75,000 spectators, but since its latest remodelling, the stadium has been converted to an all-seat with a covering added to the main seating area, reducing the capacity to its current count of 45,000 spectators.

First successes

Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán's bust placed at the stadium.

Sevilla had their first spell of national success in the decade following the end of the Civil War, winning the 1945–46 La Liga title and two Copa del Rey titles. In the first season of this (1939–40), Sevilla won the cup on 25 June, beating Racing de Ferrol 6–2 in Barcelona.[20] That same season, the side lost the Liga title on the last day to Atlético Madrid after drawing 3–3 against Hércules.[21] The Sevilla forward line was known as los stukas after the German bomber aircraft, and scored 216 goals over four seasons. It comprised López, Torrontegui, Campanal, Raimundo, Berrocal and Pepillo.[15] [22]

In 1941, President Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán left the club to manage the Spanish Football Federation. After his departure, Antonio Sánchez Ramos occupied temporarily occupied the position until the permanent appointment of Jerónimo Domínguez y Pérez de Vargas, Marquess of Contadero, who was president of the club for six years until the return of Sánchez Pizjuán.[23] Sevilla was runner-up to Athletic Bilbao in the 1942–43 season and came third a season later. Sevilla won its only Liga title in 1945–46, edging FC Barcelona by one point.[24] Two years later, Sevilla won the 1948 Copa del Rey after beating Celta de Vigo 4–1 in Madrid on 4 July.[20]

The most significant signing of those years was the Spanish international striker Juan Arza. There was also the debut of the Campanal's nephew, defender Campanal II, with his uncle as a trainer. During the 1950–51 season, with Campanal acting as the coach, the team finished runner-up in La Liga, two points behind Atlético Madrid.[25] Before the 1953–54 season, Argentinean coach Helenio Herrera was hired. During his time in charge, the club came fifth in the 1953–54 season, fourth in both 1954–55 and 1955–56 and second to Real Madrid in 1956–57.[25] In 1954, the club put the construction of the new stadium out to tender because Nervión Stadium was becoming too small for the club's fanbase. In the 1954–55 season, Arza won the Pichichi Trophy as La Liga's top scorer, with 28 goals,[26] and the team was runner-up in the Copa del Rey. In 1955, for the club's 50th anniversary, a triangular tournament was organized against the French club Stade de Reims and the Swedish club IFK Norrköping; Sevilla won.

On 28 October 1956, President Sánchez Pizjuán suddenly died. As an appreciation to the deceased leader under whose chairmanship Sevilla had won three Copas del Rey, the fans decided that the club's planned new stadium was to be named in his honour.[27] In the 1956–57 season, the team were Liga runners-up behind Real Madrid, ensuring qualification for the first time to the European Cup. Herrera left the club at the end of the season.[28] The club needed a victory on the final day of the next season to avoid relegation but reached the quarterfinals of the European Cup before being knocked out by holders and eventual champions Real Madrid.

After the death of the President, Ramón de Carranza assumed the position for four years. It is said that he spoke these words at Sánchez Pizjuán's tomb:

"Dear Ramón, now your friends, among who I am honored to be one, is going to give you Christian burial, and on the following day, giving your body to the ground, we will start working and your dream that the Sevilla FC has a grand stadium will become a reality. Ramón, go in peace to heaven because your wishes will be fulfilled."

Being true to his words, Carranza made obligation bonds amounting to 50 million pesetas, and a month-and-a-half after Sánchez Pizjuán's death, the first stone in the stadium's construction was placed. The architect was Manuel Muñoz Monasterio, co-designer of the recently built Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, the home of Real Madrid. The Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium was ultimately opened on 7 September 1958 as Sevilla played an inaugural friendly against fellow Andalusian club Real Jaén. The stadium's first official match was on the opening day of the 1958–59 season, where Sevilla beat cross-city Real Betis 4–2.[29]

Crisis and stability

Campanal clearing a ball in the Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium on 15 November 1961.

In the 1970s, Sevilla was forced into selling its top players in order to pay off debts incurred from the construction of its new stadium; Manuel Ruiz Sosa transferred to Atlético Madrid, Gallego to Barcelona and Juan Batista Agüero to Real Madrid. Moreover, part of the adjacent land to the stadium was also sold to a bank. In the 1967–68 season, Sevilla returned to the Second Division for the first time in 31 years but was promoted back after one season. The next season, Austrian coach Max Merkel, nicknamed "Mr. Whip" for his usage of severe and harsh discipline techniques and training, was hired.[30] That season, the club finished third in the league. However, the club was relegated again at the end of the 1972–73 season. In 1973, Sevilla signed their first-ever black player, Gambian winger Biri Biri, from the Danish club Boldklubben 1901. He remained at the club until 1978 and became a cult figure, with an ultra group named after him surviving to this day. In the 1974–75 season, with the Argentine Roque Olsen in charge, the club returned to the First Division. In the late 1970s, Sevilla signed Argentinians such as Héctor Scotta and Daniel Bertoni.[31][32]

On 16 May 1976, Sevilla played its 1,000th game in La Liga.

Directed first by Miguel Muñoz and later by Manolo Cardo, the team participated in two consecutive seasons of the UEFA Cup from 1981 to 1983. The 75th anniversary of the club was celebrated with a variety of social events and a match against the Brazilian side Santos. In 1982, the World Cup was held in Spain and Sevilla's Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán was the venue for the semi-final match between West Germany and France.[33] In 1984, Eugenio Montes Cabeza finished his 11-year presidency and was replaced by the cattle businessman Gabriel Rojas, who as the vice-president had made several advancements to the club's stadium. In the 1985–86 season, Manolo Cardo left his management position after five years in charge, while Francisco played in the 1986 FIFA World Cup for Spain. Vicente Cantatore led the club to UEFA Cup qualification at the end of the 1989–90 season, with Austrian forward Toni Polster scoring a club-record 33 Liga goals.[15][34] In the 1992–93 season, after several months of negotiations, world-renowned Argentine Diego Maradona signed from Napoli for a fee of $7.5 million. His time at the club, however, was unsuccessful, and he was released in large part due to his periodic injuries and clashes with coach Bilardo.[35] In the following seasons, Luis Aragonés became manager and finished the 1994–95 season with qualification to next season's UEFA Cup.

At the end of the 1994–95 season, despite the pleas of the club's directors, Sevilla, along with Celta de Vigo, were one of two clubs relegated from the top flight on reasons of administration, provoking action from fans. The action resulted in both Sevilla and Celta being reinstated to La Liga.[36]

These events led to an institutional instability, with the season seeing four presidents and three managers take charge. Sevilla was relegated at the end of the 1996–97 season but returned in 1999.[37] At the beginning of the 21st century, the presidency of the club was assumed by the popular Roberto Alés.[38] The situation of the club was very delicate at the time; the team had dropped back to the Second Division in 2000 and the squad was weakened by player retirements and the sales of key players. The club opted for a relatively unknown trainer, Joaquín Caparrós, who helped the team win the Second Division with three matches to spare in just his first season at the helm.[39]

Successes in the 21st century

In May 2002, Roberto Alés resigned as president, and the Sevillian lawyer José María del Nido assumed the presidency. One of his first decisions was to confirm Caparrós as a coach and Monchi as sporting director.

Players and staff of Sevilla celebrating the UEFA Cup victory in 2006.

On 6 October 2002, before a Seville derby against Betis at the Sánchez Pizjuán, four Sevilla fans, including a minor, assaulted a security guard. The attack was punished by Sevilla being forced to play their next four home matches behind closed doors, the longest term ever given to a La Liga side. The club finished sixth in the 2003–04 La Liga, giving the club qualification for the 2004–05 UEFA Cup and marking a return to continental competition for the first time since the 1995–96 season. In the 2004–05 league season, Sevilla finished sixth and qualified for the following season's UEFA Cup, entering the competition in the third qualifying round. This set up Sevilla's first-ever European triumph in the 2006 UEFA Cup Final at the Philips Stadion in Eindhoven on 10 May 2006. The club defeated English club Middlesbrough 4–0 under new manager Juande Ramos, with the scoring opened by Brazilian striker Luís Fabiano. In the second-half, Italian substitute Enzo Maresca scored twice to be named Man of the Match, and Malian striker Frédéric Kanouté finished the scoring, to give the club its first major title in 58 years on the season of its centenary, which was celebrated in October 2005.[40]

Sevilla opened their 2006–07 season by winning the 2006 UEFA Super Cup on 25 August 2006 with a 3–0 victory over Champions League winners and compatriots Barcelona at the Stade Louis II in Monaco. The goals were scored by Renato, Kanouté and a late penalty by Maresca.[41] The season ended with a second consecutive UEFA Cup win, this time against fellow Spanish club Espanyol at Hampden Park, Glasgow.[42] The match went to penalties after finishing 2–2 after extra-time, with Sevilla goalkeeper Andrés Palop saving three of Espanyol's penalties. On 12 November 2006, Sevilla played its 2,000th game in La Liga. Sevilla defeated Getafe in the 2007 Copa del Rey Final, with Kanouté scoring the only goal in the game's 11th minute. In addition, Sevilla finished third in that season's La Liga to qualify for the 2007–08 Champions League, returning to the competition for the first time in 50 years.[43] As a result of these successes, Sevilla was voted as the IFFHS Team of the Year for the second consecutive season, becoming the first club to achieve this.[12]

Sevilla won the 2007 Supercopa de España against La Liga champions Real Madrid.[44] The season started to derail, however, after defender Antonio Puerta suffered a heart attack in the first game of the season and died three days later on 28 August. Three days after his death, Sevilla then lost 3–1 to Milan in the 2007 UEFA Super Cup in Monaco.[45] Juande Ramos, the individual largely responsible for Sevilla's recent successes, resigned as manager on 27 October to take the post with Tottenham Hotspur; he was replaced by Sevilla Atlético manager Manolo Jiménez.[46] In spite of the personnel issues, Sevilla nonetheless advanced in first place in its Champions League group ahead of Arsenal before later being eliminated in the round of 16 via penalties to Fenerbahçe of Turkey.

The squad in 2010

In the summer of 2008, before Jiménez's debut season as first-team manager, Dani Alves and Seydou Keita were both sold to Barcelona, while Christian Poulsen left for Juventus. Sevilla finished third in La Liga with a club record-equalling 21 victories and a club record number of away victories.

The 2009–10 season saw a third-consecutive qualification to the Champions League. On 19 May 2010, Sevilla defeated Atlético Madrid 2–0 in the 2010 Copa del Rey Final at Camp Nou, with goals from Diego Capel and Jesús Navas.[47][48] Before the 2010–11 season started, Sevilla lost to Barcelona 5–3 on aggregate in the Supercopa and were eliminated in the Champions League playoffs by Portuguese club Braga.[49]

Unai Emery era

On 14 January of the following year, after a 0–2 away loss to Valencia that left the Andalusians in 12th place, Jiménez was relieved of his duties, and was replaced by Spanish manager Unai Emery. The club went through an organizational financial crisis and was forced to sell team stars Álvaro Negredo and Jesús Navas, transactions that gave the club a combined €40 million; the duo was replaced by a contingent of younger players including strikers Carlos Bacca and Kevin Gameiro. On 14 May 2014, Sevilla defeated Benfica on penalties in the 2014 UEFA Europa League Final to claim their third triumph in the competition.[50] After this season key midfielder Ivan Rakitić was sold to Barcelona for around €16 million (the deal was closed on 16 June 2014[51]). In summer 2015 top scorer Carlos Bacca, who had only joined two years previous, moved to Milan for €30 million.[52] Despite these exits, the club acquired players Grzegorz Krychowiak and Éver Banega to reinforce the squad.

On 27 May 2015, Sevilla repeated as Europa League champions after defeating Ukrainian club Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk 3–2 in the 2015 Final.[53] The goals for Sevilla were scored by Grzegorz Krychowiak and a brace from Carlos Bacca.[54] By defeating Dnipro, they became the only club to have won the Europa League four times.[55]

The club returned to the Europa League final for a third consecutive time, facing Liverpool in the 2016 Final. After being down 1–0 at half-time, Sevilla bounced back in the second half to eventually win 1–3, with one goal scored from Kevin Gameiro and two from club captain Coke. With its third consecutive Europa League title, Sevilla improved its record of most Europa League titles won, having lifted the trophy five times in the span of ten years.[56]

Post-Emery era

Despite Sevilla's continued success in the Europa League, the 2015–16 season proved to be another finish outside the top four, the side finishing in seventh. In response, Castro decided to engineer a resurrection of the club. Jorge Sampaoli was hired as manager – replacing Paris Saint-Germain-bound Unai Emery[57] – and the club began to invest heavily that summer. Additions to the side included goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu on loan,[58] playmaker Ganso, forwards Luciano Vietto and Wissam Ben Yedder, attacker Franco Vázquez, wide midfielders Hiroshi Kiyotake and Pablo Sarabia, as well as former Arsenal and Manchester City player Samir Nasri on loan.[59] In December of the 2017–18 La Liga, Vincenzo Montella was named as the third manager since Emery's departure in 2016 replacing Eduardo Berizzo.[60] In the 2017–18 UEFA Champions League season, Sevilla progressed into the knockout stages of the competition, and defeated Manchester United in the Round of 16,[61] reaching the quarter-finals of the competition for the first time in 60 years, though they ultimately lost to Bayern Munich 2–1 on aggregate in the quarter-finals.[62]

On 4 June 2019, Sevilla announced the signing of Julen Lopetegui as manager for the next three seasons.[63] On 16 August 2020, Sevilla won 2–1 over Manchester United in the semi-finals of the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League,[64] en route to lifting the trophy for a record sixth time, beating Inter Milan 3–2 in the final.[65] Sevilla are currently the most successful club in the UEFA Europa League competition, having won the competition six times, more than any other team.[6]

Board and finances

Presidency

Sevilla is governed by a presidential management system, but with a board of directors that discusses and approves those important decisions that must be carried out. The president is supported by a general director and a sports director.[13]

Throughout its history, Sevilla has had 28 presidents,[66] the first being Edward Farquharson Johnston, a Scotsman. Those who have occupied the presidency for the longest periods have been Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán, Eugenio Montes Cabezas, José María del Nido Benavente, Luis Cuervas Vilches and José Castro Carmona.

In 1992, Sevilla FC became a Sporting Limited Association, following the entry into force of the law that regulated this kind of sporting companies, and therefore the system of election of the president was amended from being elected by the members to be elected by the shareholders of the club.

Official Anthem of Sevilla FC: This anthem dates back to the year 1983. The lyrics were written by Ángel Luis Osquiguilea de Roncales and the music was composed by Manuel Osquiguilea de Roncales.

Centennial Anthem of Sevilla FC: Composed in 2005 by singer Javier Labandón 'El Arrebato' to commemorate the centenary of the registration of the club's articles of association, it became Spain's number one single and the best-selling anthem of a football club in the entire history of Spanish football, reaching the 2nd position of the best-selling albums in 2006.[68] On 9 October 2006, in the Estadio Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán, 'El Arrebato' was awarded the golden record his anthem.

Crest

From its foundation, the team used a double-circled crest. On the exterior circle, the name of the club and the date of its foundation were written, while in the interior circle on a white background the letters "SFC" were interlaced as they are on the current crest. This first crest was designed by Juan Lafita, who was a close associate of the club and was the son of the Sevillian painter José Lafita y Blanco.

The second crest was designed in 1922 by Pablo Rodríguez Blanco, a draftsman of the Water Company. He divided the shield in three parts and together they formed the silhouette of a heart. The three figures that appear are the Christian saints portrayed on the coat of arms of the city—Isidore of Seville, Ferdinand III of Castile and Leander of Seville. On the right side appear the initials "SFC," which were on the official shield from 1905 to 1922.[69] Where the three parts meet, a football of the era appears. Regarding the red and white stripes, there are various theories, but it seems that the most coherent is that from the first time, the club wished that the official kit would be red and white. Another version indicates that the lower part is inspired on the flag which King Ferdinand III of Castile carried in the reconquest of Seville in 1248.[13]

Flag

The definition of Sevilla's flag is in the articles of association of 1982, which is a modification of the old ones which were formed and deposited in the Record of Associations and Sports Federations of the Higher Council of Sports. Its title 1, article 6 states that this is a distinctive emblem of the club:

The flag, which will be rectangular, divided by a diagonal line that goes from the lower left angle to the upper right angle, which divides it into two triangles, the superior is white and the inferior red.

Kit

Sevilla wore shirts with a sponsor logo for the first time in the 1986–87 season, to promote the Seville Expo '92. Previously, before the 1980–81 season, the club signed its first kit-manufacturer deal with the German firm Adidas. Since 2018 the kit is manufactured by Nike.

Roshen Confectionery Corporation is one of the largest confectionery manufacturers in Ukraine and Eastern Europe and one of the thirty largest confectionery manufacturers in the world. The company is headquartered in Kyiv

Roshen Confectionery Corporation is a Ukrainian confectionery manufacturing group. It operates facilities in the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv, Ivankiv and Kremenchuk, as well as in Budapest, Hungary and Klaipėda, Lithuania. The name of the company was derived from the last name of its owner Petro Poroshenko - Poroshenko, who also was the president of Ukraine between 2014-2019.

A Roshen storefront in Ukraine

In 2012, the Roshen Corporation was ranked 18th in the "Candy Industry Top 100" list of the world's largest confectionery companies. It has a total annual production volume of 410,000 tonnes. It exports to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Moldova, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, the United States, Canada, Germany, Romania, Finland and Israel. It exported to Russia, with 40 percent of the company's grosses came from there until Russia stopped importing from the company in July 2013.In early 2017 Candy Industry put ROSHEN on 24th place in "2017 Global Top 100" of confectionery producers and estimated its annual revenue at $800 million.

Owners and management

Participating in the 2014 presidential election in Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko announced his intention to sell Roshen after the victory, in the avoidance of any conflicts of interest. At a press conference on June 5, 2015 in Kyiv, Petro Poroshenko assured that he intends to transfer his stake in the confectionery corporation "Roshen" to the management of a private investment banking company N M Rothschild & Sons, owned by the Rothschild family. In January 2016, he announced the signing of an agreement on the transfer of these shares.

Ban of exports to the Russian Federation

In July 2013, Russia banned all Roshen imports due to dissatisfaction with the packaging labelling. Soon after Roshen products were also checked in Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Moldova but this did not lead to complaints.On 21 October 2013, Russia's ambassador to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov said, "There are no problems with the quality of products, they are safe. But there are problems associated with the production technology, using some ingredients that are not certified in accordance with the law."According to the 17 December 2013 Ukrainian-Russian action plan by 1 March 2014 Roshen products should have been back in Russian stores. But on 12 March 2014, acting head of the Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare Anna Popova stated that Ukraine had not yet fulfilled their requirements to return Roshen products to the Russian market.

Late March 2014 the Roshen factory in Lipetsk (Russia) was closed down and its local manager director charged with "conspiring with unnamed others to use a registered trademark illegally to extract additional profits".Ukraine and the factory workers suspected the factory was closed because of Roshen's owner Petro Poroshenko involvement in Euromaidan and his participation in the 2014 Ukrainian presidential election. According to Reuters some of the Roshen factory workers in Lipetsk felt embarrassed to work for Ukrainians "swept up in a wave of Russian patriotism since Moscow annexed Crimea" and gossiped about rumours of how the management "paid Ukrainians more money and were cheating the Russians". On 13 May 2014 Russia banned the sale of Roshen products in Crimea. In April 2017 full production stopped in the Lipetsk factory; leaving 700 people jobless.

As noted, the seizure of property of the Lipetsk confectionery factory, imposed by the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation under a criminal case, made it impossible to sell the factory.

During the election campaign of the 2014 Ukrainian presidential election Roshen owner Poroshenko pledged to sell all his shares in Roshen if elected President; Poroshenko was elected President but by late December 2014 was not able to find a buyer for the company. Because of this in January 2016 Poroshenko transferred his share of the corporation to an independent blind trust. The Bank Ruling Trust has a four-year-old proxy to negotiate the sale of assets.

Production network changes

Roshen closed down its confectionery factory in Mariupol (Ukraine) in 2015 after the Donbass war in the vicinity and an export ban by Russia made production there unviable.

The corporation was earlier reported to operate facility in the town of Bershad (Ukraine),[citation needed] but it's not listed on the corporate web site.

Since March 2012, Roshen began co-production with a contract manufacturer in Hungary named "Bonbonetti".

The Company was founded in 2001 by Vyacheslav Klymov and Volodymyr Popereshnyuk.

In 2018, the company delivered over 174 million shipments, through the company's 6000 branches throughout the country. In 2015, the company expanded internationally to the nearby countries of Georgia and Moldova.

In 2020 The "Nova Poshta" brand became one of the TOP-3 most expensive in Ukraine.

The company has 32 thousand employees and is among the best employers of Ukraine in 2020-2021.

As a result of 2019, Nova Poshta paid over UAH 2.7 billion in taxes and was ranked 27th in the list of the top 100 largest companies in Ukraine by the amount of tax payments.

Nova Poshta is among the TOP-20 largest taxpayers in Ukraine. In 2020, the company paid 5 billion hryvnas.

Nova Poshta is the group of companies that provide clients — both businesses and individuals, logistics and related services, including express delivery of documents, freight and parcels. The group includes Ukrainian and foreign companies, in particular, NovaPay, Nova Poshta Global and Nova Poshta Moldova.

Nova Poshta has more than 8,700 branches throughout Ukraine - in all cities and in every fourth village. The Company continues to open new branches in the villages and builds the network of automated parcel terminals in the cities. For November 2021, the network of automated parcel terminals of Nova Poshta has more than 8,500 devices.

In 2020, the company delivered 327 million parcels and cargo for 14 million of its customers.

Nova Poshta has the modern sorting infrastructure in the million-plus cities and regional centers of the country. The largest of them are in Kyiv, Lviv, Khmelnytsky, Kharkiv and Dnipro. The terminals are equipped with automated equipment and can sort from 8.5 thousand to 50 thousand parcels per hour. In addition, the 1/3 of Nova Poshta's terminals use robots to sort small parcels and cargo.

The Nova Poshta also tests innovative delivery methods. In the summer of 2021, the company delivered cargo by drone from Kyiv to Kharkiv, covering the distance of 480 km.