Hull City Association Football Club is an English association football club based in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, founded in 1904. The club participates in the Football League Championship, the second tier of English football. In 2007–08 they achieved promotion to the top flight of English football for the first time in their history, by winning the Championship play-off final at Wembley Stadium. They finished the 2008–09 season 17th in the Premier League table, successfully avoiding relegation by one point. The previous highest position Hull City had finished in the Football League was third in the old Second Division in 1909–10, which they matched in 2007–08 when they gained promotion. Their greatest achievement in cup competitions came in 1930, when the team reached the semi-final of the FA Cup.

Hull play their home games at the KC Stadium. They previously played at Boothferry Park, but moved to their current home in 2002, with Boothferry Park set for demolition. They traditionally play in black and amber, often with a striped shirt design, hence their nickname The Tigers. The club's mascot is Roary the Tiger.

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.

Nigel Graham Pearson (born 21 August 1963) is an English football manager and former professional player. He is currently in his second spell as manager of Leicester City, having previously managed Hull City, Southampton and Carlisle United, and been assistant manager for England Under-21s and Newcastle United. During his playing career, he was a defender and played for Shrewsbury Town, Sheffield Wednesday and Middlesbrough.

Pearson was born in Nottingham where he attended William Sharp Comprehensive school, and began his playing career with non-league Heanor Town before joining Second Division Shrewsbury Town in November 1981. He made his first team debut in a 1–0 defeat at Oldham Athletic on the opening day of the 1982–83 season. Pearson's first Football League goal came on 12 March 1983 in a 3–1 win against Barnsley at Gay Meadow. Pearson ended the season with 39 out of a possible 42 starts as Shrewsbury finished in ninth place in the table.

The following season, Shrewsbury finished one place higher but injuries restricted Pearson to 26 games. Injury prevented him from playing at all in 1984–85, when Shrewsbury again finished eighth in the table, but he returned in 1985–86 making 35 appearances as Shrewsbury dropped to 17th.

Dr.Assem Allam is an East Riding of Yorkshire-based, Egyptian-born businessman, owner of Allam Marine, an industrial generator manufacturer, and owner of Football League Championship side, Hull City.

Born in Egypt in 1940, Allam fled to the UK from Gamel Abdel Nasser's regime in Egypt in 1968. He studied economics at the University of Hull before working as an accountant at Tempest Diesel. In 1981 he used a loan to begin a buy-out of the company, ultimately renaming the company Allam Marine, and leading the company to international success. Assem Allam and his son gained a place on the Sunday Times Rich List 2010. In 2006, he was named the Ernst & Young UK Entrepreneur of the Year.

Allam has frequently made reference to his gratitude for his adoptive home in the East Riding of Yorkshire, and has made several philanthropic gestures to the area including providing support to several local grassroots sports clubs, making donations to the Hull Truck Theatre, as well as becoming a trustee of the Daisy Appeal, a medical research fund at the local Castle Hill Hospital in Cottingham. He has stated he feels an obligation to pay back the region for his success. In September 2010, it was speculated that he was interested in investing in Hull City A.F.C., the local football team, which had been relegated from the Premier League earlier in 2010 with extensive financial problems.

Aaron McLean (born 25 May 1983) is an English footballer who plays for Hull City as a striker.

Born in Hammersmith, London, McLean attended Robert Clack School in Dagenham. He started his career with the Leyton Orient youth system in 1998. He then played for Aldershot Town.

He then played for Grays Athletic before joining League Two side, Peterborough on loan, on 31 October 2006. McLean then joined Peterborough permanently, for £150,000, when the transfer window opened on 1 January 2007.

McLean was initially signed by Peterborough on loan from Grays Athletic, however was then signed permanently for £150,000 in the following January transfer window. During this period he made 20 appearances and scored 10 times in both the FA Cup and League Two.

McLean had his best statistical year in Peterborough's 2007–08 campaign,^{[citation needed]} which resulted in promotion to League One. McLean scored 29 goals in the league in 45 appearances that season, which made him the League's leading scorer and earned him the League Two Golden Boot. He also scored three goals in four FA Cup appearances that year.