Stoke City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire that plays in the Premier League. Founded in 1863, it is the oldest club in the Premier League, and considered to be the second oldest professional football club in the world, after Notts County.

The club plays in the Premier League after winning promotion in 2008; prior to this Stoke had not participated in top flight football for twenty-three years. Its first, and to date only, major trophy was won in the 1972 Football League Cup Final, when the team beat Chelsea 2–1. The club has won the Football League Trophy on two occasions, first in 1992 and most recently in 2000. The club's highest league finish in the top division is 4th, which was achieved in the 1935–36 and 1946–47 seasons. Stoke have competed in European football in 1972–73, 1974–75; and most recently in 2011–12. Stoke played in the FA Cup Final in 2011, finishing runners-up to Manchester City and has reached three FA Cup semi-finals, in 1899 then consecutively in 1971 and 1972.

Football Club Internazionale Milano S.p.A., commonly referred to as Internazionale or simply Inter, is a professional Italian football club based in Milan, Lombardy. The club is commonly known as Inter Milan outside of Italy. They have spent their entire history in the top flight First Division (known as Serie A since 1929). Internazionale have won 30 domestic trophies, including the league eighteen times, the Coppa Italia seven and the Supercoppa Italiana five. From 2006 to 2010 the club won five successive league titles, equalling the all-time record. They have won the Champions League three times; two back-to-back in 1964 and 1965 and then another in 2010. The last completed an unprecedented Italian treble with the Coppa Italia and the Scudetto. The club has also won three UEFA Cups, two Intercontinental Cups and one FIFA Club World Cup.

Inter's home games are played at San Siro, also known as the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza. The stadium, which is shared with A.C. Milan, is the largest in Italian football, with a total capacity of 80,018. Milan are considered one of their biggest rivals, and matches between the two teams are called Derby della Madonnina, which is one of the most followed derbies in football. As of 2010, Inter is the second most supported team in Italy, and the eighth most supported team in Europe. The current president and owner of Inter is Massimo Moratti. The club is one of the wealthiest and most valuable in Italian and world football. It was a founding member of the now-defunct G-14 group of Europe's leading football clubs as well as its replacement, the European Club Association.

Anthony Richard "Tony" Pulis (born 16 January 1958) is a Welsh football manager and former footballer currently managing Stoke City. Pulis obtained his FA coaching badge at the age of 19, followed by his UEFA 'A' licence aged 21 – making him one of the youngest professional players ever to have obtained the qualification. His son, Anthony, is a professional footballer and played under Pulis at Stoke. Pulis had a seventeen year career as a defender where he played for Bristol Rovers, Newport County, Bournemouth and Gillingham. He did also have a short spell in Hong Kong with Happy Valley.

Pulis took his first steps into management at Bournemouth, where he was a player/coach and then Harry Redknapp's assistant. He then took control when Redknapp left the club. He then went on to Gillingham before leaving in 1999 after a dispute with chairman Paul Scally. Pulis then had unsuccessful spells at Bristol City and Portsmouth before being appointed manager of Stoke City in 2002. He guided Stoke through a tough 2002–03 season avoiding relegation to Division Two on the final day of the season. He spent two more seasons with Stoke before being sacked by Stoke's Icelandic board for 'failing to exploit the foreign market'. He spent the 2005–06 season at Plymouth Argyle before returning to Stoke along with Peter Coates. After narrowly missing out on a play-off spot in the 2006–07 season he guided Stoke City to the Premier League in the 2007–08 season by finishing runners-up in the Football League Championship.

Marc Muniesa Martínez (born 27 March 1992 in Lloret de Mar, Girona, Catalonia) is a Spanish footballer who plays for FC Barcelona B. Mainly a central defender, he can also play as a full back, usually on the left.

When Muniesa was only 15 years old, there were already transfer rumours that Chelsea wanted to sign him. At the La Masia youth academy, he developed quickly, and was ready to appear for FC Barcelona's first team at the age of 17.

Muniesa made his debut for Barça's first team aged 17 years and 57 days on 23 May 2009, as a substitute in a 1–0 La Liga home loss against CA Osasuna, for the already crowned league champions. This appearance made him the second youngest player ever to feature for Barcelona, but he only played a few minutes, being sent off after a challenge on an opponent. The following Wednesday, he was named amongst the substitutes for the 2009 Champions League Final against Manchester United.

Muniesa and four other FC Barcelona B players were promoted to the first team for the 2009–10 pre-season, but he appeared almost exclusively for the B's, in Segunda División B, contributing with 19 games and one goal as the Catalans returned to the second division after 11 years.

Leslie Mark Hughes, OBE (born 1 November 1963), is a former Welsh international footballer and the current manager of Queens Park Rangers having joined on 10 January 2012. As an international footballer, he made 72 appearances and scored 16 goals.

During his playing career he was most noted for two spells at Manchester United, but he also played for Barcelona and Bayern Munich, as well as the English clubs Chelsea, Southampton, Everton and finally Blackburn Rovers, before retiring in 2002.

He won a host of medals during his playing career, including two Premier League title medals, four FA Cups, three League Cups and two European Cup Winners' Cups. He also collected an FA Cup runners-up medal and a League Cup runners-up medal.

His reign as Wales manager was his first managerial post; he was appointed in 1999 and remained in the role until 2004. He failed to qualify for a World Cup or European Championship during his five years in charge, although his reign coincided with a marked improvement in results; he came particularly close to securing European Championship qualification in 2004.