"So why is he called Pele?"

AQA 63336 answers its 14 millionth question amidst new football season texting frenzy

London, UK – 11 August 2008 - With the start of the new Premier League football season looming ever closer into view, fans have been warming up for the action by bombarding text service AQA 63336 (Any Question Answered) with a host of questions ahead of the big kick off. The footy mad texters have also helped AQA 63336 secure the first trophy of the season, passing a milestone of 14 million questions answered since launching AQA 63336 in 2004.

In the lead up to the season's start, AQA 63336 are answering 1000s of questions every day about football, with the trend set to continue as texters seek betting tips, score updates and arcane footie trivia throughout the season. For fans in search of definitive answers, there is even an answer for the greatest of footy imponderables, "Who is going to win the English Premier League this year?" The answer, "AQA 63336 predicts that Arsenal will win the Premier League next season on goal difference, with Liverpool second and Manchester Utd third."

Whilst knowledge may well be power, no place is this more true than in the terraces or in the pub, with AQA 63336 helping footy fans to stay top of the league when it comes down to that crucial debate, "Can you name seven footballers with food related names?", "which football teams have won the FA cup the most north or south?", or "What came first in football: linesmen, shirt numbers or the world cup?".

Some nuggets from the AQA 63336 football fact file to set you up for the new season:

Q. Name seven footballers with food related names?
A. Seven footballers with food related names are Mark Fish, Harry Haddock, Pat Rice, Barry Fry, Jason Cook, Tom Curry and Philipp Lahm.

Q. Who was last defender to score a hat trick in Scotland or England?
A. Everton's Steve Watson was the last defender to score a hat trick. This was in a Premiership match against Leeds on 28 September 2003. Everton won 4-0.

Q. In the English and Welsh Football league there are 21 different name endings e.g. "ROVERS", what are the others?
A. Wand's, Town, Alexandra, Dons, Co, Villa, Athletic, End, Vale, Argyll, Albion, Wed, Hotspur, Rangers, Palace, County, Forest, Utd, City, Orient.

Q. Accrington Stanley, who are they?
A. Accrington Stanley is a League 2 football team. They play at the Fraser Eagle Stadium. They were famously named in a 1980's milk advert. Exactly.

Q. How many minutes did Shevchenko play last season for Chelsea, how much does he get a week, and how much does each minute cost effectively?
A. Andrei Shevchenko has played 812 minutes for Chelsea last season. He gets paid £120,000 per week. 36 weeks (at £4.3m) equals £5,320 per minute on pitch.

Q. Which 5 football teams have the largest fan bases?
A. The 5 most popular football teams in the world are Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Real Madrid and Barcelona. Man Utd has 75 million fans.

Q. Which football teams have won the FA cup the most north or south?
A. Manchester United have won the most FA Cups with 11. Northern (north of Watford gap) teams have won 91; southern teams have won 36. Wanderers won it first.

Q. Who was the swedish footballer who played for arsenal and fiorentina who had it in his contract that he couldn't go into space?
A. When former Arsenal & Fiorentina midfielder Stefan Schwarz joined Sunderland in 1999, he had a clause in his contract that banned him from space travel.

Q. Has any footballer worn number 69 on his shirt?
A. Bixente Lizarazu wore shirt number 69 at Bayern Munich in 2005/6. His explanation was that he was born in 1969, his height was 1.69m & he weighed 69kg.

Q. What english football team has a name that starts with 5 consonants?
A. Crystal Palace is the only league football club in England whose name begins with five consonants. Palace's nicknames include The Glaziers & The Eagles.

Paul Cockerton, Communications Director AQA 63336, said, "It's fantastic to have reached the 14 million milestone, and great to see that the thirst for football knowledge is increasing as AQA 63336 gets bigger. We often see a surge in questions around times of major sporting interest, and the start of the new football season is no different, whether its picking a dream team, or finding out the team's all time top goalscorer."

The 14 millionth question, asked at 6.07pm on 10 August 2008 was: "So why is he called Pele?". AQA 63336 replied with "Pele's nickname arose from his mispronunciation of the Vasco da Gama goalkeeper Bile, when he was a schoolboy. He used to pronounce it Pele.".

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