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you can't have a world cup in qatar cmon that's loving ridiculous it's hotter than the sun out there

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In fairness they are so rich they are going to put air conditioning outdoors to keep the temperature down. Wish I had enough money to fight the sun...

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Won't be allowed to win it,
everything is secret from voting to instructions to referees
remember the Germany game and the goal that wasn't given,

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Here here fordy.

The more sanctimonious dribble I read and hear, the more I actually find myself sympathising with the 'hooligans'.

I was there, so I can speak with authority about what I saw. Yes, some people went on the pitch. Yes, some chairs were thrown. Yes, about ten people had minor injuries. And yes, there was a (gasp) firework let off. Well blow me down.

What there wasn't was any of the following:

'Missiles' - they are big things that rich countries use to blow up towns, not half empty bottles of pop.

'Ugly scenes' - anyone would think it was like Saw 4 or something if you believe the press.

'Violence' -unless of course you include the sometimes heavy handed use of batons by the Police.

'Intimidated children' - this one cracked me up! Most of the 'hooligans' themselves were about twelve.

'Frightened families' - I was with my Dad and my sister - we thought it was hilarious.

'Clashes outside the ground' - I walked through the 'clashes', and it was mostly the same 'intimidated children' on their mobiles trying to ape the overblown media-invention of the football hooligan stereotype.

At the end of the day mate, it was a bit of a laugh, and if you don't like it, don't go to Villa Park or St Andrews on Derby day. We know what to expect, and frankly for the most part, we enjoy the atmosphere of it.

Now bore off and worry about something important - like starving kids or something.

As for the World Cup, who cares? The last one was the equivalent of watching the last Manchester derby, only 3 times a day for a month. Russia (who, by the way, have possibly the worst hooligan problem in the world - which kinda blows your point out of the water), can keep it.

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I am a fan of both Chelsea and the Three Lions, I don't really know why England doesn't seem to produce the number of top-notch footballers that countries with a comparable population and love of football do. Part of it though, I think is that England elevates a lot of players for reasons of popularity or media savvy.

John Terry to me is the biggest example of this - in my opinion he has been Chelsea's third best defender and yet he still carries the cachet of being the English captain. Beckham has big appeal and is still good in set pieces, but in the first recent match with Cluj he looked totally smothered - and for a guy who doesn't score a bunch of goals this was a big problem - Fabio knows this. I don't know if Beckham will make it to the 2010 world cup. Wayne Rooney, and Frank Lampard always seem oddly out of place on the England squad... even though they are very good players, and Lampard was a transfer target to an Italain club over the summer. I get the impression there are too many egos...

Tsaedje posted:

There's no requirement for the PM to be Anglican, but they have a role in the appointment of CofE bishops, so the PM being Catholic throws up big (but utterly pointless) questions.

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Avram Grant is not having the best of starts for the hammers, i think all it will take is one or two consistent performances and were out of trouble. Some of the other teams around us are struggling to pick up points and playing badly, hammers are playing well in most games just been unlucky not to get a point out of some games. All the while Avram is in charge he has my support. Could a trip to Wembley be on the cards?? Lets hope so. COUI

ibroxmassive posted:

Hardflip posted:

irlZaphod posted:

Newsflash: every team has fans like this

luvd posted:

'cunts' is okay but you gotta blank out the s**t and f**k

irlZaphod posted:

Good thing Spurs have all those English superstars like Gareth Bale and Rafael Van Der Vaart.

vyelkin posted:

Yeah this is usually more the standard:

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Its carp, the sizes are carp and anyone who forks out £40 for what is essentially a t-shirt needs their heads testing. And that's an end to it.

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Stoke will go down this season. On Saturday they scored through a very dodgy pen, two stonewall penalties for Liverpool were turned down and sitter after sitter was missed by Suarez, Henderson etc. All the luck that Stoke were due this season has come in one game. They'd better be wary of beachballs when they play Sunderland.

SteadfastMeat posted:

would unironically love to see a modern team line up with 6 forwards and a single defender like it was 1930