"An increasing number of players have adopted a goal celebration where they appear to form the letter 'A' with two fingers from one hand pointing down and the index finger of the other hand forming the horizontal bit," writes Phil Horton. "All I can come up with is a similarity with the 'Anarchy' symbol. Do you know any better?"
Yes we do, Phil. The sign represents A-Star, an organisation set up by the QPR defender Fitz Hall, the Everton and England forward Andy Johnson, Ken Bonsu and Ronnie Wilson to counter the increasing problems of violence among young people in Britain today. Mirroring the government's message that "every child matters", A-Star operates "to influence young people to be the best they can be and to realise that they themselves are stars." A-Star also aims to offer real opportunities for all young people, by providing a wide range of activities in which they can take part and eventually even help them find employment in a chosen field.
"This is a great chance for professional footballers to truly give something back," explains Hall, who has benefited from the support of a growing number of fellow professionals, including Emile Heskey, Micah Richards and Leighton Baines. "Kids can come out from their local neighbourhood and win the A-Star contract," enthuses Baines, who is still awaiting his first opportunity to give his own celebration since moving to Everton in August.
For more information on A-Star, click here.
THE TALE OF JAMES RICHARDSON AND ITALIAN FOOTBALL
"Is it true that football was first introduced to Italy by an Englishman called James Richardson?" ponders Mark Parsons.
Well, you're almost right there. Not to be confused with our very own pioneering podcaster, who ironically brought Italian football into the British consciousness in the early 1990s, James Richardson Spensley helped introduce football to the Italians approximately 100 years earlier. A London-born doctor, Spensley originally arrived in the northern port town of Genoa to help treat English sailors on the coal ships. Once there, he joined the Genoa Cricket and Athletics Club, which had been set up by British consular officials in 1893, and formed a football section.
On April 10 1897 Spensley held the club's first training session and, in doing so, became the first football manager in the country. Upon Spensley's insistence, the club rules were changed to allow Italians to become members and play, and the good doctor appeared for Genoa as player-manager in the first ever Italian football match, against Football Club Torinese on January 6 1898, which was won by the Turin club.
However, on May 8 that same year, with Spensley playing in goal, Genoa claimed the first official Italian Championship - a four-team tournament held over the course of one day and watched by approximately 100 spectators - beating Internazionale di Torino in extra-time.
Spensley played in defence the following season, before reverting to his preferred role between the posts (there were no nets in those days) until his retirement from the game in 1906 after winning six league titles. Spensley then became a one of the country's earliest referees, was a key member of the embryonic football associations and is also accredited with co-founding the scouting movement in Italy in 1910. He died in 1915 of injuries sustained, it is said, while tending the injuries of an enemy soldier during the first world war.
However, Spensley was not the man who first introduced football to the Italians. That honour belongs to Italian/Swiss merchant worker Edoardo Bosio, who discovered football while working in London, and founded Italy's first club dedicated purely to football, Internazionale Football Club Torino in 1891, which was formed from players drawn from his workplace. Two clubs pre-existed Internazionale Torino - Torino Football and Cricket Club and Nobili Torino, which were both formed in 1887 - but these, like Genoa, were both mixed sports clubs.
STUCK IN A RUT
"What is the greatest number of consecutive games in which a team has repeated the exact same scoreline?" wonders Ian O'Flaherty.
Kindly football statistician Andrew Howe has come to your (and our) rescue on this one, Ian, explaining that in English football the answer is six. Or perhaps seven. "The greatest number of consecutive games in which a team has repeated the exact same scoreline is six," writes Andrew. "This has happened twice. QPR drew 1-1 for six league matches in a row in the Third Division South between December 14 1957 and January 11 1958. Bristol Rovers, meanwhile, won 2-1 for six league matches in a row between March 17 and April 7 1990 in the Third Division."
But what if you were to count the number of consecutive games in which a team has played in a match with the same scoreline, but not necessarily finished on the same end of it? In that case the answer is seven, says Andrew. "Watford were involved in seven 1-0 matches in a row in the 1999-2000 season (won three, lost four), Blackpool were involved in seven consecutive 1-0s in 2003-04 (won four, lost three), Blackburn were involved in seven 1-0s in a row in 2004-05 (won three, lost four) and Stoke City were involved in seven 1-0s in 2004-05 (won two, lost five). Incidentally this would have been an amazing streak of 12 matches with same scoreline had their match immediately before this seven-match run, against Preston on Boxing Day 2004, finished 1-0. It was 0-0."
KNOWLEDGE ARCHIVE
"Against which player did Peter Shilton make his only penalty save for England? It's got me stumped," admitted Carl Hollingworth in 2000. Shilton's only penalty success in an England shirt came when he saved a spot-kick from Andreas Brehme of West Germany in a 1985 3-0 victory in Mexico City. Sadly, Brehme had the last laugh, pelting one past the spring-haired custodian in some match or other in Turin five years later. And a few days after that, Brehme became the first man to settle a World Cup final from the spot. Ah well.
Click here for thousands more Knowledge questions and answers.
Can you help?
"This season's FA Cup third round has already had six shocks (shocks being defined as a lower-league side beating a team from a higher division). Is this a record?" asks Toby Jones. "And, on average, have there been more 'shocks' in the noughties than in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s?"
"In the recent Greek derby between Olympiakos and AEK Athens two late substitutions were made," writes Jon Watt. "Within minutes of each other, both teams sent on a substitute with the same name - Julio Cesar. Have two Roman Emperors ever played against each other before?"
"When recently watching highlights of the 1973 FA Cup final, I noticed both Billy Bremner and Mick Jones wearing a the crew-neck version of Leeds United's 'Cup final' kit, yet the rest of the team that day wore the then-fashionable collared version," says Brett. "Why?"
Send your questions and answers to knowledge@theguardian.com.