As legendary Liverpool manager Bill Shankly once said: "some people believe football is a matter of life and death - it is much, much more important than that."
That sentiment will ring true for any football fan, from those who stand on freezing terraces on Tuesday nights to those glued to the television every Saturday afternoon.
We've rounded up our top ten football apps for iPhone, which help you enjoy football even more.
Whether it's following your team, enjoying the finest goals from around the world or passing those hollow days between games, these are the best football apps for your iPhone.
1. Sky Sports Live Football Score Centre - free
Every Saturday, millions of people around the UK spend their afternoon feverishly glued to their TV, watching four grey-haired men from Sky Sports watch football.
US readers may find this a bizarre phenomenon, but if your team is in action, it's essential viewing.
Unfortunately, Saturday afternoons often have other dubious functions such as family, shopping and kids. If this sounds familiar, try Sky Sports Score Centre, which puts Jeff Stelling and his silver-haired gang in your pocket, with up-to-the-minute action from every game from the Premier League and Serie A to the Evo-Stick League, with team line-ups, live commentary and stats.
2. ESPN Goals - free
Football coverage is notoriously draconian and like our fathers and forefathers, most people have to wait for hours to see the day's action, but not you.
ESPN Goals enables you to watch the Premier League's stunning strikes minutes after the net stops rippling, absolutely free on your iPhone.
It's up to the minute coverage like you wouldn't believe, with excellent quality and it works over 3G. Make the most of it, however, because ESPN only has the rights until the end of the season, before Murdoch's papers snap them up.
3. FourFourTwo Stats Zone - free
If you take your football more seriously than those halfwits in the pub who spout half-baked observations based on tired cliches the FourFourTwo Stats Zone is the app for you.
It offers full analysis of all the Premier League games, from the basic shot count and possession to full pass maps and work rates of the players.
It's not just a pool of meaningless information for football geeks, as it can also be used for evil, adding insight to your fantasy football teams, weekend sports betting and pub trivia worth its salt.
4. Football Manager Handheld 2013 - £6.99
A game for true football fans, Football Manager Handheld 2013 is a portable port of the classic PC game, which has sapped millions of collective hours from our youth.
It's made with footy-mad commuters in mind and while it's lighter on the options it retains all the compulsive enjoyment of its fully-featured predecessors.
The best thing about it isn't the breadth of teams or smooth learning curve, both of which are excellent, but that it can be picked up and put down easily, making it ideal for short journeys to work.
5. New Star Soccer - 69p
The game that took the world by storm last year, New Star Soccer is one of the best footy simulators out there. You command the career of an up-and-coming player who has to battle the conflicting interests of playing the modern game with gambling, sponsor commitments and high-maintenance girlfriends.
It may sound like a grown up version of The Sims because it is, but you get to score 40-yard wonder-strikes and enjoy your character having a better life than you.
6. Sky Go - Free (requires Sky subscription)
So you've been dragged away for the weekend, the biggest game of the season is live on Sky Sports, and you're not sure what's worse: missing the turning point in the title chase or that you pay for Sky Sports and you're stuck in a rainy caravan in Morecombe.
Sky Go is the essential app for any iOS rocking Sky Sports subscriber, and it lets you watch the game live on your iPhone. We'd urge you to tweet the hashtag '#winning' but you might miss a goal.
7. Score! Classic Goals - free
The App Store is filled with footy games which let you flick and swipe balls into the net with varying degrees of majesty, but Score does it best.
Why? Because each of the wonder goals hammered home by your index digit are reenactments of the finest strikes in international football history.
Eagled-eyed gamers will spot them from the tournaments of yesteryear, from Michael Owen's mazy England goal that humbled Argentina in '98 to Dennis Bergkamp's dreamy volley in '96.
The game's made better by the rating system of the goals, and you need to get them perfect to unlock the next set; think Angry Birds does football and you're there.
8. 101 Great Goals - free
Right, keep this one on the down-low because Rupert Murdoch will go mad if he finds out: 101 Great Goals has links to every decent goal in world football, usually with Middle Eastern commentary.
If your friend asks "did you see Messi's goal on Sunday where he beat 10 players and pirouetted the ball into the net?" you can find it in seconds.
The site also does a sideline in hilarious football GIFS, many of which feature Andres Villas Boas, who's hilarious in 10fps.
9. BBC Sport - free
The Beeb has just released its official sports app, which puts all the latest football news at your fingertips. Not only is it great for the fascinating soap opera of football, but it also has live text commentary of the biggest games from the BBC's World-renowned team of journalists.
It's also fully customisable, so you can choose to filter football stories from the vastly less important rugby, tennis and athletics news.
10. MatchPint - free
You're in a strange city and it's almost the lunchtime kick-off - time to find a pub. Leaving it up to your mate who reckons "he knows somewhere nearby" is a sure-fire recipe for missing the first half or ending up in a friendly local Millwall hangout.
Leave nothing to chance with MatchPint, which find the games on TV and tells you where's showing them, offering reviews of the establishment in question and will even guide you there using Google Maps.
It's one of many apps that do similar things, but the simple interface and multitude of users make it a top-scorer in our eyes.
Try this…
Football Week - £1.99 per week
Football Week is the essential weekly magazine for fans, made by Future Publishing, the parent company of TechRadar in partnership with the Press Association.
It's a brand-new digital magazine only available on iPad, which has previews of all the weekend's Premiership matches, with in-depth features as live coverage of the action.
It has the quality of a magazine, the interactive features of an app and the immediacy of a website. What's more, you can get the first five issues free.
Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/10-best-iphone-football-apps-for-2013-1131868
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