Football

[RichmondCommu]

That's not necessarily true. The disaster happened due to a number of factors, the nature of the terrace being one of them (not the fact that it was a terrace). If fans weren't caged in like animals then fans wouldn't have been trapped in and crushed to death. If standing was unsafe then it would have been outlawed at grounds at any level across the country. Instead it's only the top two divisions.

Football fans would not have been crushed against those fences if they'd been sat on seats. No matter how many fans were pouring in they would not have been crushed against those fences.

 

[roversfan2001]

Okay, honest question here. Are all season tickets at Ewood priced £300 or less?

Not all, in the 'early bird' phase the only season tickets that are over £300 are the Adult (ages 22-64) in the Jack Walker Upper Tier. After the early bird phase all Adult season tickets are above £300. However the option is there for anyone to purchase a season ticket for below £300 if they so wished.

 

[roversfan2001]

Football fans would not have been crushed against those fences if they'd been sat on seats. No matter how many fans were pouring in they would not have been crushed against those fences.

Where would the excess fans go once all seats were occupied and they couldn't leave due to the amount of fans coming in?

 

[RichmondCommu]

Because MK Dons were the local team and I purchased a season ticket along with my aging father whom I treated upon his retirement (it was his idea!). Deciding to go and watch a game or support a team is not necessarily a rational thought process. At present I watch Woking where I can justify the outrageous £18 cost.

18 quid? Bloody hell What league do they play in?

 

[RichmondCommu]

Where would the excess fans go once all seats were occupied and they couldn't leave due to the amount of fans coming in?

Well that's good a question but you would not have had the surge down the terraces which killed all those poor souls. Terrace surges happened all the time but until the Hillsborough disaster we all came out largely unscathed.

 

[AlterEgo]

18 quid? Bloody hell What league do they play in?

I'll need you to define "play" first - I've seen them turn up but never seen them play much football!

They're in the National League and avoided relegation last season.

£18 is a laughable price. Now honest to God, if I'd have kept playing, fit and injury free I could have probably ended up playing in the National League! I can't claim I'd be worth £18 admission...

 

[EM2]

Exactly. Football clubs are exposing teenagers (many of whom are children) to on line gambling and that cannot be right. Unless you are Stoke City, West Ham or Newcastle United.

So what about Ray Winstone's looming face in TV ad breaks? What about dozens of ads in newspapers and on TV and radio for betting?
Why are the clubs to blame?

 

[RichmondCommu]

Well you can't, can you?

Continuously looking to score points! There are none for you to win. You claimed I said something which I never once suggested. I didn't say that every single Reading fan was middle class - that could be clearly silly - so I'm confused as to why you'd try and "disprove" that.

There you go, at it again.

I'm not looking to score points, after what is the point in doing so? I'm merely having an on line conversation with you and its your choice whether you reply to my posts or not. Surely that is obvious.

 

[RichmondCommu]

So what about Ray Winstone's looming face in TV ad breaks? What about dozens of ads in newspapers and on TV and radio for betting?
Why are the clubs to blame?

I've never said that they are solely to blame but they are certainly part of the problem.

 

[RichmondCommu]

I actually used to play for Watford in their youth team and the reserves until I was 18. Prior to that I had a trial at Luton. I have a soft spot for both.

Fair enough. I was offered a place at Forest as a YTS trainee but decided to go off and do my a levels instead. I don't regret it as deep down I knew wasn't good enough to make a career out of it.

 

[AlterEgo]

Fair enough. I was offered a place at Forest as a YTS trainee but decided to go off and do my a levels instead. I don't regret it as deep down I knew wasn't good enough to make a career out of it.

Nor me. I knew well enough that 9 out of 10 academy/youth players ended up never playing for the first team. I also knew I wasn't that one in 10.

 

[Old Yard Dog]

I paid a rare visit to Old Trafford the other week and was very glad that all the fans in front of me stood for the entire game forcing me to do likewise. It wasn't really an en masse decision. If people at the front stand then everybody behind has to stand until those at the front sit down. They have no choice.

United provide less legroom than Thomson airlines and the back of the seat in front cuts painfully into your shins. The only ground I have been to that is worse is Loftus Road.

Are there any United fans on this forum who could advise which stand has the most legroom?

 

[Tetchytyke]

So what about Ray Winstone's looming face in TV ad breaks? What about dozens of ads in newspapers and on TV and radio for betting?
Why are the clubs to blame?

I think it's a combination of things, not just the clubs.

Personally I think the worst decision Labour ever made was deregulating the betting industry, allowing them to advertise. It is one of the nastiest addictions to get, it ruins your life entirely, and it is something you can do in the comfort of your own home without any social interaction.

I'll never forget the elderly woman I helped who owed £150,000 on credit cards...all through gambling. It was heartbreaking. Other than bankruptcy, losing everything (and getting an extended bankruptcy due to being culpable for the debt), there was nothing to do.

The house always wins. That's how they fund the advertising. To an extent I can't blame the clubs, or the organisers of sports tournaments, they're businesses and will take advertising money from whoever will pay the most. And, like tobacco companies in the 80s, the best money comes from the industry with the fewest morals.

But you can't have a situation where the entire Football League is sponsored by a betting company, and every shirt has a betting company badge on it, then act all shocked and surprised when people gamble.

 

[Old Yard Dog]

Moving on to another topic ...

Channel 5's FL highlights show starts with a short shot of a class 378 EMU seemingly arriving and departing wrong side at an unnamed station. Does anybody know which station this is?

 

[adrock1976]

Moving on to another topic ...

Channel 5's FL highlights show starts with a short shot of a class 378 EMU seemingly arriving and departing wrong side at an unnamed station. Does anybody know which station this is?

I'm not absolutely certain, but by using process of elimination, I would guess Wembley Central or Stonebridge Park. My reasoning is below.

Cannot be Stratford, as the Olympic Park is the (controversial) home of the fake claret and blue team West Ham. They have been in the top flight before Channel 5 showed the highlights.

Cannot be Norwood Junction or Crystal Palace, as Selhurst Park being the home of Crystal Palace FC, who have been in the top flight before Channel 5 started showing the highlights.

Cannot be White Hart Lane or Tottenham Hale, as Class 378s do not operate the routes out of London Liverpool Street. Anyway, Tottenham Hotspur are in the top flight.

Cannot be Brisbane Road, as I believe the closest station is Leyton Midland Road, which is not electrified (are Leyton Orient still in existence, or have they sadly gone into liquidation?).

Cannot be Vicarage Road, as the Croxley Green line closed in the mid 1990s.

Cannot be any of the Middlesex teams (e.g. Brentford, Hayes & Yeading, etc) as the Class 378s do not venture into those areas.

 

[AlterEgo]

Moving on to another topic ...

Channel 5's FL highlights show starts with a short shot of a class 378 EMU seemingly arriving and departing wrong side at an unnamed station. Does anybody know which station this is?

I don't know the station but it isn't a wrong side departure. The platform is an island platform.

It isn't Wembley Central or Stonebridge Park either, definitely not. The shot will have been done for convenience and won't necessarily be near a football ground. It looks like it could be on the Watford DC lines though as there are several running lines on the outside of the train.

 

[EM2]

Cannot be Stratford, as the Olympic Park is the (controversial) home of the fake claret and blue team West Ham. They have been in the top flight before Channel 5 showed the highlights.

What makes you say that?

 

[adrock1976]

What makes you say that?

When West Ham United formed in 1905, my team Aston Villa lent them their spare kit as they did not have their own at the time.

They subsequently plagiarised the design for themselves, with the only thing being different is the crest.

Still, out of all the teams in the UK that play in a claret and blue strip, Aston Villa are the only one to have won the European Cup.

 

[EM2]

When West Ham United formed in 1905, my team Aston Villa lent them their spare kit as they did not have their own at the time.

West Ham United were formed in 1895.
They adopted claret and blue in 1899.
Old Castle Swifts FC, one of the predecessors of Thames Ironworks FC (which is the club that became West Ham United), played in pale blue shirts, white shorts and claret socks as early as 1892.
The house colours of the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Limited were claret and blue.

And that's before we get on to the urban legend of the kit being won in a bet between Ironworks coach Billy Dove and four Villa players

 

[Darandio]

When West Ham United formed in 1905, my team Aston Villa lent them their spare kit as they did not have their own at the time.

They subsequently plagiarised the design for themselves, with the only thing being different is the crest.

Did you make that up all by yourself? Or is it some copy/paste bull**** from a fan forum?

 

[tony_mac]

There is some variation of that story on Wikipedia.
However, the two sites who Wikipedia list as a reference for this story both got their information from Wikipedia in the first place!

http://hammersnews.blogspot.co.uk/2009/09/history-of-west-ham-united-colours.html

According to the Historical Kits website, West Ham first began wearing claret and blue shirts in 1899: “There is a story that in the summer of 1899 Bill Dove, a sprinter of national repute who was involved in coaching the Ironworks team, was challenged to a race with four Aston Villa players at a fair in Birmingham. Dove won but the Villa men could not pay the wager so one of them pinched a set of claret and blue shirts from his club (he was responsible for doing the laundry) to settle the bet.”

This seems very unlikely and the author of the article admits that he got this information from Wikipedia. This story also appears in Brian Belton’s “West Ham United Miscellany” (2006). However, I do not find the story convincing. Nor is there any primary evidence of the club wearing these colours until the 1903-04 season.

Perhaps this should be in the 'Fake News' thread?

 

[AlterEgo]

I don't know the station but it isn't a wrong side departure. The platform is an island platform.

It isn't Wembley Central or Stonebridge Park either, definitely not. The shot will have been done for convenience and won't necessarily be near a football ground. It looks like it could be on the Watford DC lines though as there are several running lines on the outside of the train.

Having done some digging I can say with good certainty the station is Carpenders Park. The location of the signal gantry plus the location in a wooded section of the WCML with an island platform means it can't be anywhere else.

 

[Clip]

Did I mention that Newcastle got promotion as Champions of the Championship yet?

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Did I mention that Newcastle got promotion as Champions of the Championship yet?

Long way to go before you match Dave Whelan and his broken leg yet.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Long way to go before you match Dave Whelan and his broken leg yet.

At least that incident was not fake news.

 

[SteveP29]

I'm presuming you missed out on Andy Todd too, a man who once booted Christophe Duggary up the backside for no reason whatsoever, and informed a matchday program his dinner guest of choice was Hitler. Absolutely full-blown mental.

Toddy is from my hometown and used to live beside the school I went to, we used to go to the school after school to play football or cricket (nothing organised, just a bunch of lads climbing the fence to get in).
Toddy and his brother used to play golf on the school fields, then they'd argue, then they'd start on each other, if it wasn't fists, it was the golf clubs, they used to give each other huge batterings

 

[SteveP29]

In all fairness, if you're going to have a moan about a club's main sponsors would you not be better targeting West Ham, Newcastle United and Stoke City?

and Burnley, sunderland, Celtic, The Rangers, Aston Villa.

 

[SteveP29]

bet365 being plastered over shirts worn by children.

They aren't allowed to, clubs that have shirt sponsors that are alcohol or betting cannot carry that sponsor on kids shirts

 

[yorkie]

They aren't allowed to, clubs that have shirt sponsors that are alcohol or betting cannot carry that sponsor on kids shirts

How do you define a "kid"?

I would say it is a fact that kids will be wearing such shirts, by any sane definition.

 

[roversfan2001]

Long way to go before you match Dave Whelan and his broken leg yet.

He broke his leg!? First I've heard of it [emoji23] [emoji56]

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