Football 2014/15

[kwassa1]

There's absolutely no evidence that he isn't 'producing the enegy' (whatever the fuck that means) other than it seeming that in your opinion he doesn't seem to be performing as well as he used to. Energy and performance are not inextricably linked, there are a number of reasons why he may not be performing as well (in your opinon) as he used to (in your opinion) perform,but just because they arenlt known you dismiss them and say that it has to be the smokign because that's the only thing that we know? Nonsense. You're making massive leaps and assumptions, joining three dots together and saying 'look, if you squint it could be a snake'.

Alright pal.

[Essex_George]

Sturridge out for the season according to twitter? Anybody have any info on this or is it BS

Seems like BS as no one really knows at the moment. Sturridge did tweet that he is injured and his head had gone, read into that what you will. Looking at Twitter he will be out from anything from 2 weeks to all season!

[mrtourette]

Didnlt Wilshire also miss over a year with an ankle injury? I think that's far more likely to have hindered his development and affected his style of play that a few sneaky tabs.

[GodlikeYeezus]

Didnlt Wilshire also miss over a year with an ankle injury? I think that's far more likely to have hindered his development and affected his style of play that a few sneaky tabs.

If you watch old clips of Wilshere and compare it to now he is exactly the same player just more conservative when going in for tackles and dribbling with the ball.

[thetime]

It's pretty normal players not to run around like headless chickens as they got older.

Well maybe not Rooney.

[metallimuse]

There was a comparison on sky sports of Rooney for England recently which split his games up into the first half and second half of his England career and as an attacking threat he's actually better but the thing that has suffered is his distance covered and his tackles which for me I would just attribute to getting older not any other factors.

[pink_triangle]

I went to Forest Green today which is another one to add to my list. Apparently it is one of the most environmentally friendly stadiums in the world and one of the few meat free stadiums. However seeing Lee Hughes in the squad their ethics obviously don't go as far as the playing staff!

[TenInchToenaiIs]

Is Morrissey a Forest Green fan?

[metallimuse]

Losing 1-0 to the world champions, I'll take that.No looking that bad either.

[metallimuse]

Red card was a shocker.Thought we acquitted ourselves well though.

[pink_triangle]

Losing 1-0 to the world champions, I'll take that.No looking that bad either.

I think its a difficult result to interpret. While its always good to be competitive against one of the best teams in the world. It was the perfect time to play the world champions who peaked when needed and were back late from their holidays. Although the general trend seems to be Scotland are getting better which (considering I have Scottish roots) I welcome.

The reality is it will be results between the teams competing for 2nd -5th place which will decide the groups. The extension of the tournament to 24 teams definitely gives the home nations a chance.

[ThomThomDrum]

And now Henderson is injured. Is this some twisted pay-back plot Roy has got going on against Liverpool due to how he was treated while there? Its bizarre how often players pick up an injury while training for internationals compared to the rate they occur during club training.

[eFestivals]

it doesn't matter, England will get twonked anyway.

And then finally the world might wake up to the fact that Woy didn't have a great achievement with Switzerland.

[eFestivals]

And can someone shoot Blatter, please? I'll chip in twenty quid of the hit fee.

[Essex_George]

it doesn't matter, England will get twonked anyway.

It matters if you are a Liverpool fan...

[kaosmark2]

And can someone shoot Blatter, please? I'll chip in twenty quid of the hit fee.

TV referral or the rest of it?

I'm strongly opposed to a challenge system in football. Cricket and tennis are stop-start sports, football isn't. When does one challenge become 2 because 5 become endless? If we are to use television to monitor football decisions it has to use the rugby referee system where an OFFICIAL decides whether to tell the referee about something.

However, for all my dislike of that, the rest of it is worse. Qatar maintaining the WC but it being moved to winter; Boycotting homophobia being described as "having no benefit"; his desire for "respect, fair play and perhaps also the truth" regarding corruption; the going back on his promise to the world of quitting next year.

He's been ruining football for the last 16 fucking years, can't someone else have a turn yet?

[mrtourette]

The whole organisation is so crooked that nobody would want to rock the boat, so he's likely to stand unopposed. The last person to oppose Blatter was (rightly) kicked out for corruption, in an organisation so bent how are they going to find a clean candidate? Anyone with skeletons in the closet (everyone) who tries to stand against Blatter will just have their secrets exposed and be thrown out of contention. I think Platini has agreed to let Blatter stand one more time in order for his blessing next time, he may be as mad as a box of frogs but he isn't going to stand against Blatter and risk ruining his career. Also he seems intent on staying at UEFA to ensure that France have as good a chance as possible of winning Euro 2016.

[dentalplan]

BBC are asking "Is it really win or bust for Hodgson with England?"

Bit premature that ain't it? Especially in a game where we're the underdogs and a win would be a great result.

[pink_triangle]

BBC are asking "Is it really win or bust for Hodgson with England?"

Bit premature that ain't it? Especially in a game where we're the underdogs and a win would be a great result.

The media have turned against him, agree with someone on the radio who said there was so much going on in the world cup, that journalists were distracted and now they are going for him. The reality is that the new format makes it almost impossible for bigger teams to miss out.

[pink_triangle]

TV referral or the rest of it?

I'm strongly opposed to a challenge system in football. Cricket and tennis are stop-start sports, football isn't. When does one challenge become 2 because 5 become endless? If we are to use television to monitor football decisions it has to use the rugby referee system where an OFFICIAL decides whether to tell the referee about something.

However, for all my dislike of that, the rest of it is worse. Qatar maintaining the WC but it being moved to winter; Boycotting homophobia being described as "having no benefit"; his desire for "respect, fair play and perhaps also the truth" regarding corruption; the going back on his promise to the world of quitting next year.

He's been ruining football for the last 16 fucking years, can't someone else have a turn yet?

Im against the referral system for the same reason. What may start as one appeal will only increase, resulting in constant pauses in the game, they will probably even try and stick an advert break in!

As for FIFA, while they are a very flawed organisation, the reporting over here is very one sided. Its quickly forgotten that when Britain controlled the organisation, we held the smaller countries down. Now we ask those smaller countries to take our side against the evil Blatter. There is clearly corruption however I cant understand why this corruption seem to wind people up far more than corruption throughout our own politics, do people believe that party donors do it out of kindness??

While Qatar should have mentioned the change in timing during the bid, is a winter world cup necessarily bad? Do we want a summer world cup because that's the way its always been, or because we are sure that will produce the best tournament. We may find that the players are fresher and it makes for a better tournament, I think its worth a trial.

Whatever the pros and cons of FIFA there is no doubt that Englands approach has been completely ineffective. From bidding for tournaments that they have no chance of winning, to constant attacks of the hierarchy, they only insolate themselves further. If they want to have influence in FIFA they need to build relationships, sometimes with organisations who are relatively pro Blatter.

[kaosmark2]

Im against the referral system for the same reason. What may start as one appeal will only increase, resulting in constant pauses in the game, they will probably even try and stick an advert break in!

As for FIFA, while they are a very flawed organisation, the reporting over here is very one sided. Its quickly forgotten that when Britain controlled the organisation, we held the smaller countries down. Now we ask those smaller countries to take our side against the evil Blatter. There is clearly corruption however I cant understand why this corruption seem to wind people up far more than corruption throughout our own politics, do people believe that party donors do it out of kindness??

While Qatar should have mentioned the change in timing during the bid, is a winter world cup necessarily bad? Do we want a summer world cup because that's the way its always been, or because we are sure that will produce the best tournament. We may find that the players are fresher and it makes for a better tournament, I think its worth a trial.

Whatever the pros and cons of FIFA there is no doubt that Englands approach has been completely ineffective. From bidding for tournaments that they have no chance of winning, to constant attacks of the hierarchy, they only insolate themselves further. If they want to have influence in FIFA they need to build relationships, sometimes with organisations who are relatively pro Blatter.

I'm a big supporter of non-intrusive technology. I thoroughly agree with goal-line technology even though I think it's a fairly low priority. Challenge replays will just spread, and as you say, the breaks will start becoming ad breaks. The day football has ad-breaks mid half is the day I stop watching football on TV.

I rant about political corruption far more than FIFA corruption, although, sadly, I seem to be in the minority in the country.

A winter world cup in a homophobic, sexist, oppressive nation which barely has a professional football scene. I thoroughly support FIFA's drive to spread football around the world and to have WCs hosted in non-traditional nations. Non-traditional however, shouldn't mean that countries with no footballing impact whatsoever should be allowed to buy their way to a WC. I'm no fan of England's approach, and I'm aware that our media is biased, but 16 years barely opposed is a crazy dictatorship.

[pink_triangle]

A winter world cup in a homophobic, sexist, oppressive nation which barely has a professional football scene. I thoroughly support FIFA's drive to spread football around the world and to have WCs hosted in non-traditional nations. Non-traditional however, shouldn't mean that countries with no footballing impact whatsoever should be allowed to buy their way to a WC. I'm no fan of England's approach, and I'm aware that our media is biased, but 16 years barely opposed is a crazy dictatorship.

While I have all those concerns about Qatar the reality is once the tournament starts people will be talking about the football. FIFA know people like me will talk about the social issues, but wont have the principles to boycott the tournament.

FIFA should have term limits as the priority is always to keep power, than reform the organisation. There is possible that England can lead these reforms if they can sell it elsewhere. However bidding for trophies that you don't have the allies to deliver, then throwing the toys out of the pram when the inevitable happens wont help this process.

[mrtourette]

No amount of apathy, distracting football or nice ideas like trialling a Winter World Cup should excuse the actions of FIFA. They may have fallen arse backwards into what might turn out to be an interesting concept (a Winter tournament) but that shouldn't absolve the corrupt and incompetent chain of events that lead to it.

As for the role of the English FA and British media the time is right to vocally challenge the idea and ideals being thrown around. We have already seen the head of the Dutch FA speak out against Blatter during a seminar in Brazil (shortly after Greg Dyke spoke against Blatter). As Blatter continues to make a bigger and bigger arse of himself, the corruption and hypocrisy is exposed even more and FIFA becomes a more of a joke with every passing Blatter press conference weight will be given to those who are challenging the status quo (although I agree bidding for the 2018 World Cup was a daft idea).

And as for why people complain more about FIFA corruption than political corruption, it's probably due to the misguided notion that sport should be free of such nastiness that blights politics and therefore those who defy that are held more accountable than those guilty of what has sadly become expected behaviour for politicians. And even politicians aren't as arrogantly self-righteous and dismissive as a number of FIFA officials are towards their behaviour. A little humility and transparency would go a long way towards people seeing it as a flawed organisation rather than a corrupt one.

Democracy, FIFA style:

Edited September 8, 2014 by mrtourette

[pink_triangle]

No amount of apathy, distracting football or nice ideas like trialling a Winter World Cup should excuse the actions of FIFA. They may have fallen arse backwards into what might turn out to be an interesting concept (a Winter tournament) but that shouldn't absolve the corrupt and incompetent chain of events that lead to it.

As for the role of the English FA and British media the time is right to vocally challenge the idea and ideals being thrown around. We have already seen the head of the Dutch FA speak out against Blatter during a seminar in Brazil (shortly after Greg Dyke spoke against Blatter). As Blatter continues to make a bigger and bigger arse of himself, the corruption and hypocrisy is exposed even more and FIFA becomes a more of a joke with every passing Blatter press conference weight will be given to those who are challenging the status quo (although I agree bidding for the 2018 World Cup was a daft idea).

And as for why people complain more about FIFA corruption than political corruption, it's probably due to the misguided notion that sport should be free of such nastiness that blights politics and therefore those who defy that are held more accountable than those guilty of what has sadly become expected behaviour for politicians. And even politicians aren't as arrogantly self-righteous and dismissive as a number of FIFA officials are towards their behaviour. A little humility and transparency would go a long way towards people seeing it as a flawed organisation rather than a corrupt one.

The question is do you feel strongly enough to not watch the games, avoid any product from a sponsor etc? I have to be honest (maybe it makes me a bad person) that I don't, but know there will be many in the same camp as me.

There may be others who will follow Englands lead in going after FIFA, but they don't have enough friends to make a difference and the time it will take to build those relationships is probably even longer than Blatters reign. England had their chance running FIFA and blew it, unfortunately they are now paying the price of their predecessors. As an African nation for example who will you throw your support behind, the nation who tried to keep you out of the world cup or the regime which offered your region opportunity. For all the faults in recent FIFA regimes you have to be balanced and also recognize the positives and opening up the world cup outside the traditional elite has definitely benefited the game in my view.

[mrtourette]

There's being balanced and then there's excusing horrendous behaviour. Just because England made a hash of it doesn't mean that the current powers should be looked on lightly or that the English FA should wind their neck in and accept the current situation, and opening up the world to football (at great expense to some of those nations and of course at great profit to FIFA) is not an acceptable explanation of the actions of the organisation. The next two World Cups are going to nations with terrible human rights records and appalling attitudes towards women and homosexuals, but it's OK because they're opening up the footballing world to new places and ideas? Bullshit I'm afraid. The exposed corruption and attitudes displayed by Blatter and other executives mean that they can't be afforded the benefit of the doubt when it comes to such situations. You're right that the general inclusion of more African and Asian nations at the top table of international football is a very good thing but it doesn't excuse other behaviour that Blatter and co must be held accountable for.