gingerjon

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.

The games are bundled into the main TV deal and the RFL/SL/whoever has shown no interest in putting any work into raising visibility except as part of men’s events.

Compare and contrast with the preview for the WNBA that starts this weekend. Chicago Sky, since you ask.

On Sky, it is three regular season games for the whole season.

Three games in total

It’s a very low down the right hand side of the board staging of a not quite wow song performed by some nice enough but not exactly charismatic girls.

The most wonderful time of the year https://www.thefa.com/news/2025/may/15/nls-allocations

And some of the little asides on that video indicate that people know, they just can't be bothered, don't want, or aren't able, to write/broadcast anything clear and accurate about it all.

Really odd video. I half expected James Child to hold up a copy of today's English language paper and confirm that he was being treated well. But, in terms of what it says, a very small group of people have complete control but are somewhat lost as to what to do with that control. And, in terms of what it reveals, an abject failure by every aspect of the rugby league media and social media sphere in this country.