Football

[Y961 XBU]

One thing that shocked me is the Celtic Manager has left the team to take charge or Bolton FC, he even brought most, if not all his backroom staff

 

[61653 HTAFC]

One thing that shocked me is the Celtic Manager has left the team to take charge or Bolton FC, he even brought most, if not all his backroom staff

Though there was quite a gap between Lennon leaving Celtic and joining Bolton... Neil Lennon was a manager several of our fans were hoping for prior to the appointment of Chris Powell, though personally I feel quite happy with what Powell has done so far. Don't think Lennon would do any better with the same players.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

One thing that shocked me is the Celtic Manager has left the team to take charge or Bolton FC, he even brought most, if not all his backroom staff

It was on 22nd May that Neil Lennon parted company with Celtic, so it is getting on for five months since then.

 

[Chapeltom]

The draw doesn't need to be split 50/50, as once we reach the next round all teams go into one pot- it's not like the Football League Trophy which stays regional until the final game. It makes sense really to split the preliminary and qualifying rounds- imagine the strain it would put on resources if Truro City had to travel to Workington Town, especially if a replay was needed! Of course, a Cornish side could still end up with a trip to King's Lynn or Louth, for example... which is almost as bad!

There would be a huge strain on resources if Truro City had to play a 2nd tier Rugby League team

The football team is simply Workington AFC...

 

[richw]

The draw doesn't need to be split 50/50, as once we reach the next round all teams go into one pot- it's not like the Football League Trophy which stays regional until the final game. It makes sense really to split the preliminary and qualifying rounds- imagine the strain it would put on resources if Truro City had to travel to Workington Town, especially if a replay was needed! Of course, a Cornish side could still end up with a trip to King's Lynn or Louth, for example... which is almost as bad!

Willand Rovers (a small village in devon) was at home against Aveley Town (somewhere in Essex) in the 3rd qualifying round. I'd guess easily 700-800 mile round trip.
They now have Maidenhead or Gosport at home in round 4, Gosport will be 250-300 mile round trip, Maidenhead further.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Willand Rovers (a small village in devon) was at home against Aveley Town (somewhere in Essex) in the 3rd qualifying round. I'd guess easily 700-800 mile round trip. They now have Maidenhead or Gosport at home in round 4, Gosport will be 250-300 mile round trip, Maidenhead further.

Did you note that I gave a mention to Willand Rovers in the third section of my posting # 13929 and their winning score in the last round?

 

[Cletus]

Only about 390/450 miles Aveley-Willand-Aveley depending on route. Some of our weirder fans (Dover Athletic) fancied being drawn away to Willand - very strange :roll:

 

[Antman]

Credit to the jocks for the singing of Flower of Scotland in Warsaw tonight, even the Poles applauded them. If only we had a rousing national anthem.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Euro 2016 Qualifying Group Matches...Group "D"

Poland 2...Scotland 2

Germany 1...Republic of Ireland 1

After three matches played, Poland and R.O.Ireland top the group with seven points.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Also a huge congrats to my beloved Northern Ireland tonight, 3 wins out of 3 for I believe the first time in history and sitting very nicely atop the table.

 

[ReverendFozz]

Also a huge congrats to my beloved Northern Ireland tonight, 3 wins out of 3 for I believe the first time in history and sitting very nicely atop the table.

Best of luck to Northern Ireland...There my 2nd International Team

 

[ReverendFozz]

Not looking good for football in the Balkans

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...lies-over-stadium-carrying-Albanian-flag.html

 

[Chapeltom]

Not looking good for football in the Balkans

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...lies-over-stadium-carrying-Albanian-flag.html

Big deal, its only because its a Euro 2016 qualifier that anyone gives a crap about this. The main story is the idiot sending a Greater Albanian flag over the stadium which was a highly provocative act and it was designed to cause trouble. This match always had the potential for trouble as it doesn't take a genius to work out Serbia and Albania don't get on, the K word is at the centre of much of the anger of course. Away fans were banned from attending, I neither think this incident is a surprise nor anything to worry about.

The real story from Belgrade this week won't even make the papers over here. On Saturday, 300 yards away at the Marakana Stadium there will be 7,000 police and members of the army out for one of the most fierce and dangerous rivalries in world football. That is no understatement, British rivalries don't even compare. I have been to Belgrade and can vouch for that, what happened tonight is completely small-fry compared to the scenes I witnessed last year. Yes Red Star play Partizan Belgrade in the Eternal Derby, at both fixtures last season, the away fans started fires in the stands. I was at the fixture at the Marakana last season and I have never experienced anything like it in my life, the game was stopped around the 55 minute mark as Partizan fires lit not one, not two but 13 fires of varying size in the stands. It could have killed people and whilst me and a friend joked about there being no evacuation procedure, it probably wasn't far off the mark. The match was not abandoned, merely stopped due to the smoke. Did it reach any paper in this country? Were people calling for Serbia to banned from football that night? Were they heck because it wasn't even publicized and yet if that happened here, football would probably be suspended by the government

The Marakana will be the same cauldron of noise and those traveling to see the game will experience something like absolutely nothing else in world football. Its not just a game, a rivalry, its beyond that, fans of both sides have died supporting their team. The fires may happen again, I can't wait to watch it on an online stream and just hope its a better game than the derby I attended!

 

[ReverendFozz]

Big deal, its only because its a Euro 2016 qualifier that anyone gives a crap about this. The main story is the idiot sending a Greater Albanian flag over the stadium which was a highly provocative act and it was designed to cause trouble. This match always had the potential for trouble as it doesn't take a genius to work out Serbia and Albania don't get on, the K word is at the centre of much of the anger of course. Away fans were banned from attending, I neither think this incident is a surprise nor anything to worry about.

The real story from Belgrade this week won't even make the papers over here. On Saturday, 300 yards away at the Marakana Stadium there will be 7,000 police and members of the army out for one of the most fierce and dangerous rivalries in world football. That is no understatement, British rivalries don't even compare. I have been to Belgrade and can vouch for that, what happened tonight is completely small-fry compared to the scenes I witnessed last year. Yes Red Star play Partizan Belgrade in the Eternal Derby, at both fixtures last season, the away fans started fires in the stands. I was at the fixture at the Marakana last season and I have never experienced anything like it in my life, the game was stopped around the 55 minute mark as Partizan fires lit not one, not two but 13 fires of varying size in the stands. It could have killed people and whilst me and a friend joked about there being no evacuation procedure, it probably wasn't far off the mark. The match was not abandoned, merely stopped due to the smoke. Did it reach any paper in this country? Were people calling for Serbia to banned from football that night? Were they heck because it wasn't even publicized and yet if that happened here, football would probably be suspended by the government

The Marakana will be the same cauldron of noise and those traveling to see the game will experience something like absolutely nothing else in world football. Its not just a game, a rivalry, its beyond that, fans of both sides have died supporting their team. The fires may happen again, I can't wait to watch it on an online stream and just hope its a better game than the derby I attended!

Serbia should have been banned years ago in my opinion, there fans are simply vile, but this time they are not the cause of the problem, as you rightly point out the person who sent the flag over is the cause of this latest outburst of violence in a Serbian football ground.

The return game in Tirana should be played behind closed doors and in future UEFA could avoid powderkeg games by keeping them seperate in the draw, I am sure UEFA already do this to keep Armenia and Azerbaijan and I am sure I read somewhere Spain and Gibraltar are purposely kept apart in draws

 

[ExRes]

Ticket price report on BBC today

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29614980

I find it quite amazing that people are prepared to pay so much to watch a match and let 71% of their entrance fee go straight into the pockets of the obscenely overpaid players

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Ticket price report on BBC today

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29614980

I find it quite amazing that people are prepared to pay so much to watch a match and let 71% of their entrance fee go straight into the pockets of the obscenely overpaid players

That is what the companies dream of...a captive market..

 

[Y961 XBU]

Though there was quite a gap between Lennon leaving Celtic and joining Bolton... Neil Lennon was a manager several of our fans were hoping for prior to the appointment of Chris Powell, though personally I feel quite happy with what Powell has done so far. Don't think Lennon would do any better with the same players.

Thanks for this, the way other Fans was talking they made it sound like he had just left

 

[Antman]

Ticket price report on BBC today

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29614980

I find it quite amazing that people are prepared to pay so much to watch a match and let 71% of their entrance fee go straight into the pockets of the obscenely overpaid players

So do I and it's often cheaper to jump on a plane to Germany and watch a top flight game there, Borussia Dortmund get English 'tourists' at all their home games, cracking atmosphere as well

 

[Cletus]

Robbie Savage article on the BBC, makes interesting reading.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29638128

Robbie Savage - players not worried about price of football

In his BBC Sport column, Robbie Savage says most footballers do not have a clue how much it costs to go to football and don't worry about ticket prices.

Savage was writing after the BBC Sport's Price of Football study, published on Wednesday, revealed the average price of the cheapest tickets across English football had increased at almost twice the rate of the cost of living since 2011.

I understand after reading the BBC's Price of Football study why there is concern over the rising cost of watching football in this country but, for most Premier League players, it is not something they are ever going to worry about.

To be completely honest, during my 20-year playing career, I never once thought about how much it was costing fans to go to games.

Other players might have been different, but I did not meet any.

I never discussed the issue with any of my team-mates at any of my clubs and, whoever I was playing for, ticket prices did not cross my mind once, let alone how much the pies or the programme were costing.

I cannot imagine things have changed much in the last few years.
Yes, someone like Everton forward Steven Naismith donates tickets to unemployed fans who cannot afford to go to Toffees games, but he must be in a tiny minority.
The truth is that most Premier League players live in a bubble. If you ask most of them what a ticket costs, they would not have a clue.

Even if you told them that a fan has to pay £100 to get in, players are more likely to say 'only £100?' than think it is expensive.

You have to remember that most of them would not know what a pint of milk costs either.

The big stars at the top clubs will have their own executive boxes for their family and friends to watch them, but no Premier League players ever have to buy tickets in the same way fans do.

At the teams I played for, if I was in the match-day squad then I got between four and six complimentary tickets. If, for whatever reason, I needed more, I could always get some from the players who would not be using theirs.

I appreciate I was in a fortunate position but, if someone had come up to me when I was a player and said that ticket prices are too high, I would not have been bothered at all.

There is a link between players' wages and the price of tickets but I cannot think of any player, myself included, who thought about that when they were negotiating a contract. I was always thinking of myself.

I don't feel guilty about saying that because I don't think you can blame anybody for getting the best deal that he can. Outside of football, it would not be seen as a problem.

And, even knowing what I do now, I have no regrets about the wages I was on.

An individual player is always going to take what a club is prepared to pay him and I think the only time he should feel bad about it is when he has not given 100% in a game.

That was never an issue for me. I might have been a bit flash and drove expensive cars but my relationship with the fans mattered to me at all of my clubs and I loved feeding off their support and passion, and giving everything I could.

The atmosphere they created made such a difference and I always appreciated that, but I never made the connection between the size of the crowd and what they were being asked to pay. None of my team-mates did either.

Not once when I ran out on to the pitch before a game did I think 'oh, only 20,000 here today - if it wasn't for ticket prices, there might be more in the ground'.

I had no idea what it was like for the working-class man with a family to go to a match once or twice a week, put petrol in the car to get to the stadium and buy food for his kids when he is there.

That might be one of the reasons Rio Ferdinand criticised Manchester City fans on Twitter for not filling their ground for their Champions League game with Roma in September.

Rio Ferdinand mocked Manchester City fans for failing to fill Etihad Stadium
Players do not automatically consider that there might be a financial reason for not going to games, because they never pay themselves.

Because of my media work, I still do not do that very often now I have retired from playing - the last time I paid for a ticket was to watch Wrexham play at Macclesfield in the Conference last season.

But I now understand more about how the prices have hit the man on the street, especially the next generation of football fans who have never been to a Premier League game.

There is more TV money coming into the top level of the English game than ever before but the Premier League seems to be more interested in taking their 'brand' overseas rather than looking after the supporters in this country, who should be the priority.

They are talking about playing one game a season abroad but if you are going to do something different then why not have a game where you charge a knockdown price so that families can get in for next to nothing and watch a game live.

For me, that would be much more beneficial.

 

[richw]

Robbie Savage article on the BBC, makes interesting reading.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29638128

And to be fair to him, if they are seeing almost full stadiums every week, they are going to think the ticket prices are reasonable.
The fact in this matter is that if ticket prices were too high the stadiums wouldn't be so full week in week out.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

The Raheem Sterling "media conspiracy theory" seems to be receiving the usual media "let's make up a conspiracy theory then argue as if it was a known fact" cynical outage....

 

[Minilad]

Ticket price report on BBC today

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29614980

I find it quite amazing that people are prepared to pay so much to watch a match and let 71% of their entrance fee go straight into the pockets of the obscenely overpaid players

They probably do it because they enjoy it.
And please let me know where the option was to not include payment to players when I paid for my season ticket this year. I am sure my 71% would have been missed by Gabby or Ron
I take it you also have the same opinion of people who go to the cinema. Should they be given the option not to have their ticket cost passed to the "obscenely overpaid" actors

 

[Butts]

They probably do it because they enjoy it.
And please let me know where the option was to not include payment to players when I paid for my season ticket this year. I am sure my 71% would have been missed by Gabby or Ron
I take it you also have the same opinion of people who go to the cinema. Should they be given the option not to have their ticket cost passed to the "obscenely overpaid" actors

As a Cineworld Unlimited Card Holder I must take objection to the last paragraph of you post.

Unlimited attendance for £16.40 per month at a Football Club ?

I don't think so

 

[Minilad]

As a Cineworld Unlimited Card Holder I must take objection to the last paragraph of you post.

Unlimited attendance for £16.40 per month at a Football Club ?

I don't think so

I wasn't on about the cost. Just the fact that footballers are always obscenely paid but you never hear the same said of film stars

 

[ExRes]

They probably do it because they enjoy it.
And please let me know where the option was to not include payment to players when I paid for my season ticket this year. I am sure my 71% would have been missed by Gabby or Ron
I take it you also have the same opinion of people who go to the cinema. Should they be given the option not to have their ticket cost passed to the "obscenely overpaid" actors

Thank you very much for your wise words, I actually reserve the right to think what I want about whom I want when I want, without your permission, if I think 71% is obscene then that's my opinion and, just for the sake of clarity, that is why I wouldn't ever attend a football match, who the hell Gabby and Ron are I don't know and neither do I have the slightest interest

Yes I do have the same opinion about actors, also about bankers actually and If anyone agrees with my opinion they, no doubt, don't throw their money at the obscenely paid either

You can do what you like with your money, you can also have whatever opinion you want, so stop being sarcastic and telling me what I think and what my, unexpressed, opinions are
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

I wasn't on about the cost. Just the fact that footballers are always obscenely paid but you never hear the same said of film stars

Absolute tosh, the level of actors 'salaries' are regularly spoken about

 

[Minilad]

Thank you very much for your wise words, I actually reserve the right to think what I want about whom I want when I want, without your permission, if I think 71% is obscene then that's my opinion and, just for the sake of clarity, that is why I wouldn't ever attend a football match, who the hell Gabby and Ron are I don't know and neither do I have the slightest interest

Yes I do have the same opinion about actors, also about bankers actually and If anyone agrees with my opinion they, no doubt, don't throw their money at the obscenely paid either

You can do what you like with your money, you can also have whatever opinion you want, so stop being sarcastic and telling me what I think and what my, unexpressed, opinions are
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---


Absolute tosh, the level of actors 'salaries' are regularly spoken about

Therefore take a leaf out of your own book and let people spend their money how they want without expressing amazement that they would want to

 

[ExRes]

Therefore take a leaf out of your own book and let people spend their money how they want without expressing amazement that they would want to

I can express my amazement at whatever I choose to, I'm absolutely amazed that anyone could choose to vote Labour but I'm not going to stop them if that's what they elect to do, if football watchers wish to pass their money to already overpaid players then I believe I'm entitled to disagree with that but I'm hardly likely to make them change their minds

Do I assume that you're actually telling me what I can think and what opinions I can hold ?

 

[Minilad]

I can express my amazement at whatever I choose to, I'm absolutely amazed that anyone could choose to vote Labour but I'm not going to stop them if that's what they elect to do, if football watchers wish to pass their money to already overpaid players then I believe I'm entitled to disagree with that but I'm hardly likely to make them change their minds

Do I assume that you're actually telling me what I can think and what opinions I can hold ?

You can hold whatever options you like. Just don't think everyone shares them

 

[Amberley54]

You can hold whatever options you like. Just don't think everyone shares them

I strongly suspect only a minority share his opinions, but as we still just about live in a democracy we must defend his right to express them.

 

[Minilad]

I strongly suspect only a minority share his opinions, but as we still just about live in a democracy we must defend his right to express them.

Indeed. One mans meat is another mans poison and all that