gingerjon

It may have been needed. But, ultimately, we have contracted the leadership pool and have a bunch of people who can’t even read to the end of a basic Sport England paper without getting bored. They have also, noticeably, failed to change course on the most immediate issue facing Super League, that of Salford. Strong leaders would have taken decisive action. These guys are not strong.

Also, for whimsy, love this line in the Wigan Athletic wikipedia entry: After 34 failed election attempts, including one controversial but headline-making application in 1972 to join the Scottish League Second Division, Wigan Athletic was elected to the Football League in 1978.

https://www.historicalkits.co.uk/Wigan_Borough/Wigan_Borough.htm Interesting little details about rugby v football in the write up

Thankfully I am not a journalist. But if I were and I put out that statement I would have checked that I understood what it means when a winding up petition is received by the entity the petition names. Turns out, all my thinking that journalists would learn the details of what they were 'reporting' on was misguided. Carter is asked what it means and says he doesn't know. It's one google click away: https://www.thegazette.co.uk/all-notices/content/101087. Probably still need some clarification but this really should be entry level stuff for coverage.

I have some sympathy for the clubs who got this season on at short notice but they have been clumsy and have acted since as if they want to be a perpetual clique. The issue with the refs appears to have been fault entirely on their (the clubs’) side. I like what I’ve heard from the incoming group. I don’t think they’re perfect but they seem realistic enough and are basing a lot on numbers that seem credible. Beyond that, I really couldn’t say. I vaguely follow London Lions scores but it’s not drawn me in. I know far far more about the WNBA and NCAA (men’s and women’s) which are properly fun completions. The NBA itself leaves me a bit cold - I tend to enjoy what European basketball I see.

Although, conversely, we are told that not all countries want to win because they either can’t afford or don’t have the venues to host.

We did have some multi sport clubs in the UK, traditionally cricket plus one other (either rugby or soccer), but, over time, these have completely separated even where there are still shared facilities. The model throws up some oddities. Thanks to my long standing support of Werder Bremen, I get a lot of links on the YouTube algorithm to the German table tennis league in which they enter a team.

Don’t worry. The same owners who voted for something they didn’t read, who failed to comprehend how to set up a legally valid sporting NGB, and who like to get drunk and go on the socials to tell people they can throw a kettle over a pub, will have sorted it all out. You don’t need to know how. You’re just the mark they want to milk.

They seem to be relying on the judges scoring Israel so low that the public vote - which, to repeat, Israel has openly said it is manipulating - cannot give Israel a win. I suspect they are scared to do more because the BBC, and potentially others, will withdraw funding if they do. The BBC, as far as I can tell, was pretty much alone in pitching the Israeli participation as a triumph against the odds in the manner of Ukraine's. It really wouldn't take much, given the anti European nature of the press, for an anti Israel move to wind up being seen as a European surrender to jihadists by the press and for the supine BBC to then, oh so reluctantly, give in to government pressure with regards to the EBU. We do get regular 'stop giving money to the EBU' stories anyway.

The answer is “no” then. Understood.

You’d think they’d at least try and pretend they’re different people, wouldn’t you?

Has the situation improved in the months that the new “board” have had to take control and correct the errors?

It does need a competitive element. What it doesn’t need is a state openly saying it is rigging national public votes and then getting anyone who so much as mentions what they have said publicly into trouble. Spain, good for them, now asking for the audit of app voting in particular.

A certain predictability at the top of the women's game with Chelsea barely getting out of second gear all season long to complete a domestic treble - whilst also announcing £20m investment that is specifically for the women's team. Maybe one day they'll get a crowd into Stamford Bridge. However, the Scottish title run was interesting. Glasgow City's crown has slipped with Rangers and Celtic starting to back their sides. Hibs have somehow, whilst still being pretty much a grassroots outfit, snatched this year's championship from all three of them.

This will never happen but it did occur to me during the week that the only time in recent years I have kept watching once the voting starts was the Sam Ryder year and that was entirely because it looked like the UK had a chance but I was also interested in the Ukraine scores in the public vote. That specific pairing is unlikely to happen again. This year, in common with most, I have dabbled with checking in on songs (qualified or not) picked out in comments and then watched parts of the performance section of the semi final and then all of the performance section of the final. As usual, 2-3 have found their way onto my Spotify list. I do look over the scoring etc afterwards but it's really not my reason for watching and, as it turns out, it's rarely something I watch as it happens.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/County_Borough_of_Salford Under the Local Government Act 1888 all municipal boroughs with a population of 50,000 or more were designated as "county boroughs" with the powers of both a municipal borough and a county council. In 1889, therefore, the town became the County Borough of Salford. Although independent of Lancashire County Council, Salford remained part of the county for certain purposes such as lieutenancy, shrievalty, custos rotulorum and administration of justice.

Sounds like the direction of travel was correct, then.

Quite a decent year in the end with enough controversy and gossip to keep it all rumbling on until the next cycle begins.

I don’t see how a goalkeeper deliberately and effectively handling the ball outside his area is anything other than a red card? I always thought it was one of those where there was no leeway and ignorance of the line of the box was no defence. Live and learn. Nice to see a new name on a trophy.

Connection between club and song goes back to 1968 apparently. That’s what Google reckons, anyway.

Bless, you found your ChatGPT log in.

It was, in this case, the fact that shares came with ownership, prospectus and requirements - unlike, say, those which are called 'shares' but you're effectively just buying a membership or some kind of 'ownership' at one remove from actual decisions. Nobody seemed to want to talk about what that meant - and they still don't.

It does seem that there is more of an issue around this than has been said publicly. Mind you, I was also quite staggered by how little interest or understanding those buying shares were able to say about what it meant.

Wood and his helpers not even bothering to read the easy to follow guide on how to set up a NGB means they can’t be remotely seen as effective leaders and are certainly, at best, on a par with whatever was going on before.

Sweaty has said on numerous occasions that he just makes things up. Once you read his posts in the knowledge that it’s likely to just be a wind up, it all becomes so much more explicable.