BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: keberoxu
Date: 12 Jun 21 - 05:11 PM

Meanwhile, over at Gillette Stadium,
the MLS team known as the New England Revolution
is to start having 100 per cent spectator capacity
beginning June 23 for their home games,
thanks to the relaxation of pandemic protocols in Massachusetts.

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 11 Jun 21 - 07:08 PM

Damn fine show by the Azzurri tonight: really positive football played by a bunch of blokes with a team ethos, no superstar in sight. If Engerland ever get close to playing them, we're stuffed.

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 30 May 21 - 06:51 AM

I always think of Fluff (aka Alan Freeman) advertising Brentford Nylons...

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Rain Dog
Date: 30 May 21 - 04:31 AM

Congratulations to Brentford for winning what is probably the richest prize in world football. Good luck to them next season in the premier league.

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Rain Dog
Date: 30 May 21 - 04:19 AM

Meanwhile, back in the real world

Champions League final: Dover Athletic face ruin in 'dog eat dog' football world

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 29 May 21 - 08:09 PM

I was rooting for Chelsea. I know they were oligarch vs oil sheikh, but Chelsea are an actual TEAM, superstarosity not welcome. I like that. They are very good to watch. But wotchit, Chelsea. We are Liverpool and we are coming to get you next year...

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Senoufou
Date: 17 May 21 - 10:54 AM

Yes Jon, Alex Tetty has given good service to the team. My neighbour has bought a Norwich City FC piggy bank thing and calls it "Tetty". It was originally for her grandchildren, but she decided to keep it for herself. It's now become a 'swear box' so if her husband says a 'norty word' he has to put 50p into Tetty!

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 17 May 21 - 04:37 AM

I was too busy looking at his head to make that distinction...

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Raggytash
Date: 17 May 21 - 04:04 AM

Tracky bottoms ............. looked like a pair of tights to me!!

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 16 May 21 - 05:21 PM

I remember where I was when Kennedy was assassinated. For the rest of my life I'll remember where I was when Alisson headed THAT goal at the death, wearing tracky bottoms...

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 06 May 21 - 08:47 AM

I see Alex Tetty is leaving Norwich, Sen. Probably expected but I think he will be missed after 9 years good service for them.

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 05 May 21 - 06:17 PM

Bejaysus, Chelsea were brilliant tonight. But it means oil vs oligarch in the final. I'll put that to one side and look forward to what should be the final footiefest of the season. I was in an hotel in Sicily two years ago when Liverpool beat Spurs to win the Champions League. The guy (Alfio Puglia, you can look him up) who owns the restaurant up the road, the one with an amazing sunset view of Etna (we'd been there many times before and he always remembers me) rushed up to me the following evening to embrace me and give us a free glass of Prosecco (before) and limoncello (after). We will go there again next year, Deo and coronavirus volente. The hotel is the Villa Angela and it's owned by Jim Kerr!

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 04 May 21 - 12:03 PM

Good to see you, Sen.

I might have posted this to another thread but on birthdays, I made dad a ”Norwich City football” for his birthday. It’s got a mini mp3 player and a tilt switch inside it so if you turn it over, it plays the next in a sequence of On The Ball City, The Canaries and The Norwich City Calypso.

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Senoufou
Date: 04 May 21 - 11:20 AM

Well Jon, here comes Sen, and just to say husband and I are overjoyed Norwich is back 'up there'. Man down our road has a large flagpole and has hoisted the Norwich City FC flag.
Husband's birthday in a few days' time, and he's having yet more Canaries' kit as part of his stash of presents.
"Come on you Yellows!"

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 04 May 21 - 09:42 AM

Of course we condemn that behaviour. I've just done it myself. But the fact is that thousands of fans turned out to protest, a couple of hundred got on to the pitch non-violently and two policemen were injured outside the ground. I'm quite happy for you to blame fans for those injuries but they were caused, probably, by a maximum of two people out of thousands, and we don't know what was going on between them and the police in any case. When the Marcos dictatorship was eventually brought down, which we all applauded, it was by what we called People Power, direct action. The same when Saddam's statue was hauled down. Not too much demurring when the actions chime with our personal principles then... I applauded the felling of the slave trader's statue in Bristol and noted that most of the huffers and puffers over that came from the right. I am not a Man U fan and I wanted to enjoy the match. But the principle for me, of the people who really matter in football, the fans, eventually taking action which was overwhelmingly non-violent, after sixteen years of frustration with uncaring and absentee billionaire owners, who, to cap it all, tried to get the club into the ESL without consulting the fans, easily overrode my temporary disappointment. Kudos to Man U fans and I'd like to see a lot more fan power in the coming weeks/months. There would be no football without the fans,you can't cut them out, and the Premier League, BT, Sky and those bloody owners had better believe it.

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Rain Dog
Date: 04 May 21 - 07:24 AM

"They have spent sixteen years protesting to no avail about an absentee American billionaire family who have kept the club in debt, under-invested to the extent that United have won nothing for years after a long spell of winning everything, presided over a rotting stadium, seen the area around the stadium decay yet use the club as their personal cash cow."

I think it was on MOTD that they showed a table which indicated only Manchester City had spent more on players than United in the Premier League while the present owners had been there. Fans wanting more spent? Isn't that unusual?

" I don't care for opportunistic knocking of fans for violence and unruly behaviour, etc. when something like this happens."

Opportunistic knocking? So none of us can condemn that behaviour? FFS. Next you will be condoning second home owners damaging cornish boats.

We live in strange times.

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 04 May 21 - 06:55 AM

Well you don't have to like football or its culture, but, more than any other sport, football is at the heart of many communities in working class areas, and even the biggest clubs in the world, Manchester United and Liverpool, still have something agreeably parish pump about them at fan level (which, to me, is at the top level, not the bottom). I'm not just talking about big league clubs either. You might not exactly regard footie as high culture (looking at the skill and fitness levels of the best players, many would disagree), but an integral part of our culture it is, from the very top right down to the most junior school team, and in the north of England at least we treasure the working class roots and traditions of the game. Don't just say God, say Shankly. And just look at how the women's game has burgeoned in recent years. It's magnificent. The Premier League, and especially those bloody foreign billionaire owners, have served football extremely badly in the last thirty years. Well they are the ultra-capitalist ugly side of the game, so the clash with the traditions of football is extremely jarring. An object lesson, in fact, as to how ugly capitalism in general is. I'm one hundred percent on the side of those fans (key word there) who protested and stopped the game on Sunday. They have spent sixteen years protesting to no avail about an absentee American billionaire family who have kept the club in debt, under-invested to the extent that United have won nothing for years after a long spell of winning everything, presided over a rotting stadium, seen the area around the stadium decay yet use the club as their personal cash cow. Well now the fans have taken direct action. I tuned in and was looking forward to that game with my team Liverpool but I unhesitatingly applaud those thousands of protesting fans, even the couple of hundred who got on the pitch. Things won't be the same again. I don't care for opportunistic knocking of fans for violence and unruly behaviour, etc. when something like this happens. Like everybody else I don't want to see flares or a cop in hospital. I have cousins up north who support United or City, and there's me with Liverpool, and it was Bury or Burnley when I was a lad, and a little lad at that. My grandad was a lifelong avid United fan. We are all mates but we can get sniffy with each other over the beautiful game, for about 22 seconds only, a bit like me and Mike here. It's in our blood, is footie. We want it back!

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 04 May 21 - 06:08 AM

I thought Sen would have been in this thread in the past few days.

Anyway, Norwich have won the Championship again. I wonder how they will fare in the Premier League this time round.

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 03 May 21 - 03:06 PM

It's time for the Centre and Left to reclaim true patriotism.

Aintcha heard Billy Bragg banging on about that for the last 10 years..

But I promise I won't sing...


As for Nigel Fartage..

The smug smarmy arse owes Britain some genuine favours at least once before he shuffles off to well-deserved purgatory..

.. and it's in his own self-interest to earn some brownie points before he faces up to his maker..

(Disclaimer: religion might not be for real. Football can fulfill that void for a lot of individuals and communities)

In the meantime...

Fartage and his ilk..

.. Sometime we have to hold our noses and get our hands dirty with unholy alliances to get things done...???

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Rain Dog
Date: 03 May 21 - 02:49 PM

Pfr

If Nigel Farage makes yet another comeback with a "Local teams for local people" party, I will hold you responsible.

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 03 May 21 - 02:37 PM

It's many decades since I lost total interest in football..
Winning the world cup and singing along to world cup willie,
engendered far to lofty expectations of our world supremacy,
And then it was all too bitterly downhill from there.

Besides which my real childhood passion was fishing,
Then even that was abandoned for girls and rock music..

I don't like football, I don't like football culture, I especially don't like football fans links with the far right.

So, I think most mudcat folks will recognise that I'm no xenophobic nationalist..

But I've all along believed real British football, the sport of football, has been ruined by global corporate ownership, greed, and too many foreign players.
Even I lament that it's killing off grassroots local mud and blood football.

However, if I'm correctly getting an impression from the news that football fans are expressing disorderly protests at the dominance off their national sport /religion by foreigners.
Then to some extent I'll agree and support any attempts to strictly limit non-british ownership and control..

The time is right for football to be struck by its own equivalent of that meteorite event killing off the dinosaurs...

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Rain Dog
Date: 03 May 21 - 01:23 PM

The Premier League is to bring in a new owners' charter to stop future attempts to join a breakaway Super League.

BBC - Premier League says only 29 years since last breakaway

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Rain Dog
Date: 29 Apr 21 - 11:05 AM

Further to my previous posts about Dover Athletic of the National League, they have announced that they will be going part time next season. They are also going to appeal against the £ 40,000.00 fine and 12 points deduction for next season, which has been imposed on them by the National League for failing to complete their fixtures this season.

As the chairman himself puts it:

"With regard to next season, Hess (Andy Hessenthaler) will continue as Manager and obviously, we will be starting in a compromised position (regardless of the appeal outcome.

“We will not be able to compete financially with the big rich clubs in the league, but we are planning an ‘alternative approach’ because the financial madness which is prevalent in our league currently is not sustainable and is destroying the game aided and abetted by the hopeless administrative structure at our level.

“What we will need as a club is for the whole town and district to come together to help us regroup and show the establishment that we will not be bullied."

Dover Athletic

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: JHW
Date: 22 Apr 21 - 05:52 AM

Re Being Somewhere. I was at St.Chartier watching a concert (outdoors) when the news broke of France world cup victory (I think) A murmer went round the big audience and they floodlit the chateau in French red white and blue. Cars all hooting outside. Lovely atmosphere.

Thanks for Norwich stories. Doubt I'll get back thereabouts but one never knows.

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 21 Apr 21 - 08:52 AM

We just happened to be in Rome when there was a Roma-Liverpool Champions League match on. We were minding our own business not far from the Trevi Fountain on the afternoon of the game when a rather large and overly-jolly horde of scousers marched noisily across the square. The jorum had clearly been partaken of. They looked intimidating, and the police looked nervous (even the big lads who looked like they could have been Musso's goons in another age), but the fans were good-natured and all was well. They were amused to come across a Liverpool fan who was merely on holiday. I couldn't get a bloody ticket, could I...

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 21 Apr 21 - 07:53 AM

As people on here probably know I am no big football fan. I do follow the fortunes of Man City and will watch the occasional match involving them or England but I don't go out of my way to do so. I am so against this move to the super league that I got right narked when I found out Bozzer was against it to. Confused me no end!

I must add that there are fans who do the game no favours as well though. When I worked at Salford Quays a good few years back I used to get very narked about the hoardes of fans on Man U match days who thought it was perfectly acceptable to clog up the roads in slow moving droves, chant onscenities at opposing fans and dispose of their rubbish (including bodily fluids!) everywhere. Of course there are those who will say 'not us' :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 21 Apr 21 - 06:40 AM

I've seen Norwich City play a few times, JHW.

As a child, dad would always ensure that a holiday within the football season with his father in Norwich coincided with a Norwich home fixture.

We also had a few one off visits to other grounds. From first time round in N Wales, I remember Man United, Stoke and Wolves. From our spell in Kent, I remember Brighton, Millwall, West Ham and I got to Wembly to see them loose to Aston Villa in a League Cup Final.

I've lived in Norfolk for the last 20 years but my interest in football had dropped to only keeping an eye on the scores some time before that. The last time I went to Carrow Road was to see them play Ajax in a friendly, around the time I moved here.

My parents who moved to Norfolk a few years before me were season ticket holders. Firstly in the Barclay Stand and, later for easier access the Jarrold stand before the day became too much for them.

We did see one whole match in a posh bit behind the glass - nice view but lacking in atmosphere). I and my three brothers are Freemen of the City and we waited until my youngest brother was eligible before we went together for the ceremony. Dad contacted the club just to try to reserve a group of perhaps 10 seats together and the club responded by giving him tickets.

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: JHW
Date: 21 Apr 21 - 06:14 AM

My dad occasionally took me to see Norwich play (I'm a Norfolker) and usually lose to Newcastle. History.

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Rain Dog
Date: 21 Apr 21 - 03:25 AM

It has always been about the money. In the last 20 years or so, that has just become more obvious.

Who were the clubs that broke the transfer records in years gone by? I have been unable to find a quote by Lawrie Mcmenemy when he was manager of Southampton. He said about another club,whose name I have forgotten, that they made more from programme sales than Southampton did from gate receipts.

And do it goes. Look at my local club Dover, who play in the national league. Chairman is a local businessman who has furloughed the entire squad and pulled out of the remaining fixtures,due to worries that the club would become bankrupt.

"The league have stuck their head in the sand about it and seemed to think there was going to be some sort of a magic solution, which I personally can't see," Parmenter told BBC Radio Kent.

"We would be insolvent if we continued and I suspect there are some other clubs that would be the same.

"This just shows that the league have little regard for clubs that aren't big ex-English Football League clubs that have potential for promotion.

"The only reason to continue playing is to get promotion to the EFL, and only two clubs can get that.

"I guess 12 or 13 clubs think they have got a chance at this stage and that is why they have voted to continue."

Dover Athletic

I was a regular supporter at Dover for a few seasons during my schooldays. Not been back that often since.

Money talks.

As I said before, I think that our support for a football team is one of the few things we carry on from our childhood.

On another matter, am I the only one who feels uncomfortable about the relationship between a manager/coach and players? The gaffer/boss lads/boys lingo. I am sure the players would have to doff their caps if they were not worried about mucking up their haircuts.

Talking of hair cuts, who has been cutting the player's hair during lockdown? There should be an investigation and points deducted.

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 20 Apr 21 - 06:58 PM

When I was a little lad my dad took us to home games at Bury, occasionally to his boyhood team Burnley. Bury were usually in the third division and a crowd of five or six thousand was a good turnout. They were contenders for promotion to Division One one year but sadly didn't make it. Burnley was a town surrounded by big clubs, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, both Manc clubs, Liverpool, Everton, Blackpool, Rochdale, Oldham... They were in the first division and won the league in 1960 with a team that cost £9000. They regularly got crowds of 20,000-plus, often more. Without fans, football is nothing. They are not an inconvenience. Most of the games I've watched or listened to (on 5 Live) in the last year have had fake crowd noises. That's how important Sky, BT Sport and the Beeb think that crowds are. The foreign billionaires who rarely come to see their clubs play don't get that. They're fine with people paying a king's ransom for a match ticket or who have to fly all over Europe to see their proposed exhibition games. Football grew from grass roots. It's gone way too far away from that now but at least we still have things like qualification on merit, become the champions on merit and promotion and relegation, as we've always had. If we lose that we've lost the sport and the real fans will vote with their feet. We haven't got away unscathed tonight and these bastards will be back, make no mistake.

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: peteglasgow
Date: 20 Apr 21 - 06:32 PM

tonight partick thistle won to go top of the scottish 3rd division. i watched at home while doing my ironing and then having a pizza and a couple of beers. a jags fan streams the away matches (at dumbarton) and loads of us freeload on his stream and then send some money direct to partick thistle. i live in lancaster now - one major reason is that it is a lot easier for me to get to glasgow by train. however, i havn't been to a match since away at dundee united last march. i was more than happy to renew my season ticket to help the club though i won't get to any games this season. of course it's been tough (and we've been shite for much of the season) but well, football has kept us going. i wonder what the global capitalists who leech on our game would think of this or of the 6 jags fans who took ladders to dumbarton tonight to watch the game over the low boundary wall. distanced. i totally love football at this level - because we can always go up and if not we can enjoy a good moan. and of course - greed ain't going nowhere - without people you're nothing - said joe.

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Rain Dog
Date: 20 Apr 21 - 06:26 PM

Ah but what would Brighton fans give for an oligarch to buy their club and spend millions on players?

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 20 Apr 21 - 06:21 PM

And tonight it was Chelsea nil, Brighton nil. Chelsea, in the semi-finals of the Champions League, winning almost everything, going for the top four, owned by a Russian oligarch. Brighton, a little club struggling near the bottom of the Premier League, looking over its shoulder at the threat of relegation. That result alone makes a complete nonsense of the idea of an elites-only league.

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 20 Apr 21 - 06:11 PM

What we think has mattered a lot, actually. A huge amount of the outrage has come from football fans. Football fans own this game, not bloody foreign billionaires. They just own the clubs, and wouldn't it be great if they actually had season tickets. The latest is that all the six clubs have now pulled the plug, but make no mistake, this isn't going away. This is just the opening gambit from a bunch of wealthy cynics who don't give a shit about the fans, the fans who are the people who have made the beautiful game what it is. The same blokes who might be hailed as "heroes" for pulling out and wrecking the scheme were signing their clubs' souls to the devil just three short days ago, and they haven't had sudden moments of enlightenment. What they've had is fan power kicking them up their arses. What we think mattered more than anything.

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: JHW
Date: 20 Apr 21 - 03:35 PM

At last a topic where what you think doesn't matter. Loads of news on the new super league. I understood Divisions 1,2,3,4 but they are gone now, no-one asked me so WTH.

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Rain Dog
Date: 20 Apr 21 - 03:11 PM

BBC reporting that Man City have withdrawn from the group of six. Chelsea are set to follow

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Rain Dog
Date: 20 Apr 21 - 11:45 AM

I have seen Spurs live 5 times. Approx 50 years ago at White Hart Lane but cannot remember who they played. Once at the new stadium in 2019 to see them lose to Newcastle 0-1. Then three times at the new Wembley. In the league cup finals beating Chelsea and then losing to Man U. In the FA Cup semi final losing to Portsmouth.

As John Crace in The Guardian has said a few times,"Tottenham fans often say that it isn’t the despair that gets them, it’s the hope." False hope, forlorn hope.

I don't know if this breakaway will happen or not. I hope that it doesn't. As a Spurs fan even I find it laughable that Spurs think they deserve to be included.They certainly don't deserve to be included on past results.

Anyway, Boris is on the case with Starmer right behind. Will it become an issue in the forthcoming byelection?

We certainly are living in strange times.

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 20 Apr 21 - 10:14 AM

The nearest Premier League club to where I live is Southampton. It would take me five hours to drive there, if I were lucky. The nearest Football League club, in League Two, is an hour and a half away. I've been a fan of Liverpool for decades but have never seen them play live because of where I am. The one time I knew I was going to be in Liverpool, I couldn't get a ticket even four months in advance (they were playing Villa). I can watch Champions League matches on BT Sport Mobile, which I pay handsomely for. I'm considering my position. If they up their prices I ring them up and threaten to leave BT broadband. I always get a better deal for BT Sport that way. Most of the Premier League matches are on Sky. I had Sky Sports mobile for years until a few months ago when they hiked up their prices astronomically. I might watch a match a week on average for about seven or eight months a year. My annual subs cost me hundreds, or at least they did until I butted out of Sky. No club staff are needed to look after me, no police, no security, no facilities. I think I've been paying my way, but who knows where the money goes. I don't see how I've made things harder for those who go to games.

The kickoff times and days are spread out so that as many matches can be lucratively screened as possible. The international audience for our Premier League is massive, and they pay big, big money to watch the televised games, which is why the broadcasters and club owners don't give a damn about domestic fans. It was at least something to hear Klopp and Milner speaking out, though with one hand clearly tied behind their backs. This deal will give around half the number of Champions League clubs, or some that fail even to qualify, at least twice as much money. When I say clubs, I do of course mean the owners.

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Rain Dog
Date: 20 Apr 21 - 07:08 AM

Well at the moment UEFA still intend to run ever expanding European competitions.

I guess it is how you define fans and supporters. Lots of fans follow their favourite club but do not provide any financial support to that club. Other fans provide financial support to their clubs by signing up to the various pay as you view tv channels. Then you have the supporters who actually buy tickets to go see the games live. I think a lot of those supporters are probably season ticket holders and that costs a lot. In the olden days you had a season ticket I knowing that games would be at 15.00 on a Saturday or a Wednesday evening. Nowadays they cannot be sure what time a game will be played. Rarely seems to be 15.00 Saturday anymore.

Anyone who has signed up to a tv package has helped to make things harder for those who actually go to the games.

I have often thought that following/supporting a football team is one of the last things that we retain from our childhood.

Jumpers for goalposts?

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 20 Apr 21 - 06:21 AM

Those of us who are fans of the game have held our noses for almost thirty years, ever since the Premier League was founded. It meant way too much money at the top and not enough trickling down. It meant a Murdoch paywall with everyone else getting Match Of The Day 5-minute scraps only. It meant massive player wage inflation, inescapable as football became ever more international with capitalism and competition for the elite players taking its merciless grip. It became mostly about television rights. But at least fans still packed the stadiums and, on the whole, the clubs at least continued to value the fans, even if the owners, Sky and BT Sport didn't give a shit about them. A year without fans in the parks has made the owners see an even bigger cash cow that can pay for their serial overspending. That's what this is all about. The umbilical cord connecting fans to the clubs is about to be severed. The TV audiences in China are far more important to the owners than a few thousand inconvenient bums on seats in stadiums.

At least we've been having relegation and promotion, and the obligation to actually qualify for the Champions League (which is only a name, by the way). Wigan in the FA Cup Final and relegated in the same month. I'd even contend that modern-day football is at least as fine a spectacle as it's ever been. All that's going out of the window. We'll get exhibition matches with nothing to actually fight for. You'll pay big money to watch the games on telly and you won't be able to afford ticket prices or fly all over Europe to see games unless you're a millionaire. Fans can go to hell. If that happens, in the words of the Dragons, I'm out.

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Allan Conn
Date: 20 Apr 21 - 02:51 AM

The Champions League is such a misnamed competition. The old European Cup was truly a competition of champions. The only teams in it were the champions of each national league plus the winner's of the previous year's tournament with only one country (ie where the previous champions came from) having two representatives. The new format was all about getting maximum cash from TV audiences so for years the champions from the leagues of smaller nations need to pre-qualify against each other whilst four English etc teams automatically get in. Meaning over the years the differential between resources grows and grows.

Now it seems that big advantage of only needing to be fourth in your league to be classed as a champion is not enough for some clubs. The trouble is that thing called competition gets in the way! These uppity Leicester likes spoiling the party. The clubs know how much of a financial loss it is not to get into the league. So let's dispense with the competition and just self declare ourselves as permanent champions and onlyplay each other with no relegation being involved.

The only problem of course is the league could in fact turn out to be pretty sterile. There is often as much excitement and raw emotion and excitement about games featuring teams at the bottom of a league than there is for those at the top as teams strive to avoid relegation. Once a season is part way through and the points lead starts to stretch between the title challengers and the rest of the ten clubs then many of the games will be pretty meaningless as the outcome won't be that important. Certainly if those not challenging for the title itself are playing each other. Even if someone lower down is playing one of the challengers the outcome may only be really significant for the title challenging team. If there is no relegation then it doesn't make a huge amount difference whether you are 10th or 8th or 6th.

The club owners seem to have the rest of football and even their own club's fans united against them though!

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Donuel
Date: 19 Apr 21 - 04:56 PM

Blame the US investors.

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Rain Dog
Date: 19 Apr 21 - 11:07 AM

At the moment it is being talked about as an alternative to the European Cup competition. They are not talking about leaving the national leagues just yet.

UEFA have already expanded the European Cup and Europa Cup in recent years.they are supposed to be announcing further plans for the European Cup later this month.

I am sure a few of us here remember the olden days when only league champions could enter the European Cups. It's all about who controls the money. Always was and always will be.

Of course the Carabao Cup is the only one that matters

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Rain Dog
Date: 19 Apr 21 - 06:10 AM

And Mourinho getting the sack.

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Apr 21 - 05:41 AM

Well if this bloody Super League takes off, that's me done with football. I can't believe that this is what the managers and players want. Man U and Liverpool, clubs with proud working-class roots and incredible fan bases, signing up to this greed and selling their souls to the devil? Tell me it's a bad dream...

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Mar 21 - 07:44 PM

My post is hanging, moderator. Please consider binning it.

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Mar 21 - 07:38 PM

Raheem Sterling is not "of African origin." He was born in Jamaica and moved to this country when he was five. His nationality is British. He has explained the tattoo as having a deeper meaning for him than as a symbol of violence, in connection with the murder of his father when Raheem was two years old. After a very disturbed childhood, and several relatively minor glitches in behaviour since, he has become a superb footballer and a prominent fighter against racism. He contributed a large sum of money to help the survivors of the Grenfell fire. He has more than made good after a very difficult start in life and that's something we can applaud.

You made an inaccurate assertion about a young black man's origin and you picked on one fairly small feature to cast him in a negative light. So you said very little about Raheem Sterling but you spoke volumes about the flaws in your own character. We have a word for people who choose to highlight cherrypicked "negative" attributes of black people in order to demonise them. I'll stop there.

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 10 Mar 21 - 09:22 AM

Not at all confident.

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Raggytash
Date: 10 Mar 21 - 09:19 AM

Best of luck to Liverpool tonight, even though they are 2-0 up from the first away leg I think they will need it.

Subject: RE: BS: Football (not the U.S. kind)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 08 Mar 21 - 10:15 AM

Completely imploded. Too many personnel changes every game, nothing settled. Quite often they play fairly well except for getting the ball in the net. They'll be back, but we need Virgil, and the front three starting to actually communicate with each other again. Lessee if we can get past Wednesday night...

Best not to sack the boss just because of a bad run over several weeks. Wouldn't help.