Welcome all to the Carnival of Football/Soccer! This carnival was started by a a funny old game on July 18th, 2006 to bring all the football blogging community together to share commentary, information, ideas and news on the industry. This carnival is open to everyone in the football industry and we mean everyone! Friends of ours in other parts of the world may call the good old game of Football, “Soccer”. So that we all know which game this Blog is about, it is the round ball, not any other shaped ball. Sorry to any American football bloggers a carnival for that can be found here.

Carnival of Football/Soccer FAQ

Here are some general FAQs to explain the ins and outs of carnivals:

General:

Q. What is a blog carnival?
A. A weekly summary of the best blogging posts on a given subject that appeared in someone’s blog during the previous week.  A different Blog hosts the carnival each week. Read more about how carnivals work.

Q. Are there carnivals for other topics?
A. Yes. There are carnivals for general topics, niche topics and strange topics. See all sports topics here.

Q. When does a new Carnival of Football/Soccer post come out?
A. Every Monday by 3 P.M. (GMT) by that week’s host.

Q. Why would I be interested in the Carnival of Football/Soccer?
A. To stay up-to-date with the ever changing world of football; to see what’s being blogged about and discussed in the football community; to have your say on anything going on in the industry; to discover new bloggers; to network; to let everyone know about what your local team is up to!

Q. How are each week’s top posts picked?
A. Each week, the host will select the Blog posts they feel are most interesting and worthy to appear.  Please make sure your post is not 2 lines long with little content, as it is unlikely to be picked by the host.

Q. How is each week’s “Pick of the Week” entry determined?
A. To add some further fun to the carnival, a “Pick of the Week” will be named each week by the host Blog. It is entirely up to that week’s host to make that decision. Unique posts always stand out!

Submitting posts:

Q. How/where do I submit a post for review and possible addition to the carnival?
A. You can submit to any one of these addresses:

Blog Carnival Submission
Conservativecat Submission

Or, e-mail us your entry and please include the following: 

-> Article URL (permalink)
-> Article title
-> Author name
-> E-mail address
-> Blog URL
-> Brief summary of the post

Q. What are the requirements for submitting?
A. Ideally, anything that is relevant to football/soccer can be submitted. It should be original content and has to be a recent post. Don’t submit a post that is just be a compilation of someone else’s quotes or thoughts – the majority of it should be original content created by the author.  Posts on any team, cup, league, player in the world are welcome.

Q. How recent does the post need to be?
A. Less than two weeks old

Q. What topics are allowed?
A. Anything related to the football/soccer industry.

Q. What is the deadline for submitting?
A. Sunday afternoon, 3 P.M. (GMT).  If you are late, it is up to the host’s discretion to review your article for submission.

Q. Will any post that is submitted be included in the carnival?
A. No. Only the Top 10-20 posts should be listed.  But, the host can include additional posts if he/she feels they are really well done and deserve to be included.

Q. May I submit more than one entry per week?
A. No, please only submit one entry.

Q. What if my blog has multiple authors and contributors? Can we all pick our best entry and each of us submit one?
A. No, only one post from each blog address should be submitted per week.

Hosting:

Q. Who can host the carnival?
A. Anyone that regularly submits posts to the carnival can become a host. The key words here are “regularly submits posts,” since it wouldn’t be fair for blogs that don’t participate regularly to host the carnival if they are not sharing in doing the work by writing posts, submitting, and being active in the carnival.

Q. I want to host a future Carnival of Football/Soccer — how do I do that?
A. E-mail us to get on the list and then start submitting posts to the carnival on a frequent basis. Remember, only frequent contributors to the carnival can host a carnival.

Q. What is involved in hosting a carnival?
A. You will need to set aside about 2-3 hours to read and pick the best posts that were submitted to you. Then you create a post on your blog, summarizing and linking to the top 10-20 posts. Publish your carnival post by 3 P.M. (GMT) Monday and then sit back and watch the traffic come to your site. Please make sure you can commit to this!

Q. What is the schedule of who hosts the carnival?
A. You can check the schedule here on the Carnival of Football/Soccer site under “Carnival Hosts” in the right-hand navigation to see who hosted in the past as well as who is coming up.

Guidelines for Hosting the Carnival

In order to sign up to host the carnival, all that is asked of you is to regularly submit posts to the carnival.  For example, if you are not actively writing about football and producing original content to submit, you’re not considered a regular participant and don’t deserve all the goodness that comes with hosting the carnival. Sorry, but it’s like any team you play on — you have to show up for practices in order to play.  If you do actively participate and want to host, e-mail us to get on the list.  Please include dates for any weeks that you know you cannot host (e.g., going on vacation, out of town, too much work, left your blog at the pitch, etc…), because we’d prefer to give that week to someone else.