HawkMan

Harry Stottle on the football thread!! Shurely shome mishtake, happy new year to all.

The difference of course is the money. 100million for a season in PL, then subsequent parachute payments. Really wouldn't surprise me if Norwich were in the top 40 richest clubs in England. And as Norwich never spend enough to stay up, it's up, down, up, down etc My prediction is Norwich will be in PL, seasons '23-'24, '25-'26, '27-'28 ad infinitum . Edit - Norwich are rated 30th richest in England, not in top 50 Europe.

Christmas Dinner with Stevie G and guests. Secret Santa;

No, the yawnion teams came to covid infested U.K. and France and the games got played. Their rationale was, some in the U.K. are still getting covid so hey we may get it, and we need rest before the all important pre season games, oh and we don't run the RLWC so no thanks. Perhaps Covid will all be gone by October 2022, see you then. Unless the NRL hire clairvoyants who knew Omicron was coming, and then of course didn't tell anyone.

Hmm, okay I'll assume you rarely watch football, it's off season so you're giving it a go, fair enough. I've not seen a team outplay Liverpool like this this season. They're carving through them in midfield almost at will. What they don't have is a Salah, or Mane up front, and the reds goalkeeper has been exceptional, apart from Spurs 2nd goal.

The destruction of Everton football CLOOB gathers pace. Covert agent Rafa reports in.

You could be right ,watch this.

Why put this game on at the same time as Brighton vs Spurs. Isn't there any fans who'd like to see both ?

For those traditionalists among us, the always watchable FA Cup Round 3 draw tonight at 7pm on ITV 4

Financial considerations have to be taken into account. If you're a team of players on mega money and the game's rules allow you to in effect declare when the game is won, just wind down, then it seems human nature that players take their foot off the gas. Purely hypothetical speculation, but if RL introduced a rule whereby if the margin of score reaches 40 points both teams in agreement could declare like cricket and end the game. How many teams with games won (or lost) would take advantage of the rule and declare to avoid unnecessary injury. Just a thought. The point being the rules of Rugby don't allow players to ease off, but in football they do, integrity isn't in it.

I've thought about this a bit, and to see a football team get battered is mesmerising because it should not happen. You really have to be painfully, jaw droppingly awful to lose like that at football. I remember watching live Southampton 0 Leicester 9, I was cheering Leicester because it was just plain bonkers. In football you can just pack the defence, boot the ball out, roll over and waste time, you should not get tanked unless you are comically pathetic. In Rugby, both codes, if you are weak, can't take the hits, you inevitably get steamrollered. There's no humour just a procession of tries to one team, in football it's a sort of, " OMG , this is hilarious "

I've just been scanning social media and the fans are loving this. The England girls seem to get more popular by the game. This isn't going to hurt Women's football in the slightest. A lot of folk on here believe that at next year's RLWC a few England blowout wins will really galvanise the country, and I agree with that, so we can't have it both ways. Yep it's a blowout, an equivalent RL score would be about 100- 0 , but it ain't going to de- rail Women's soccer. Actually the fact of the matter is whereas in the men's game , in Europe alone 30 to 35 countries can give each other a good game, in the Women's it's about half that. Still I'd be interested to compare next year's Women's Euro's in England with the RLWC as far as attendance and media interest go.

FIFA can't be happy with that draw. There should have been a way to keep Italy and Portugal apart. I would have had the top three teams out of those twelve based on FIFA rankings in separate qualifying pathways.

Hate to say it but Ralf Rangnick's appointment at Man U is a masterstroke. He is a great coach and his Football Director role after this season looks a smart move, he and Pochettino could really do something. Ed Woodward has actually got something right. Grrr!

Football International competitions are based on meritocracy and equality. Men's and Women's WC qualifying tournaments, everyone plays. Not so RU with their closed shop 6 nations , who won't let Georgia play. Or Cricket with the elite Test playing nations, or RL with tier one and two categorisation. Football is global, the others aren't, 10 or 20 years ago the likes of Albania, Macedonia, etc were getting slaughtered, but exposure has increased the quality of these countries and I'm sure the women will improve. Hells bells last night my team Spurs lost to a load of Slovenians !

Why was it embarrassing? Did the fans misbehave, IIRC we won 2-0.

Mull Of Kintyre. Lexicartographicopolis Fluvimonsflorabellatopia Vinopharmanarcobibendopolis Philicredobenedeusangeles Morphopolyquantumopolis

This was my favourite radio team, Mike Graham and Mike " porky" Parry. This is the porky quiz, this edition about ducks. Parry tries to name the Marx brothers and comes up with Beppo and Bonio. And a highway code quiz.

Agreed, and football is a very fair sport in deciding who gets to play. All nations however small get a chance, to hopefully grow in stature by playing the big boys. San Marino and Liechtenstein etc are just too small and will never progress, but the likes of Albania Georgia Cyprus, Finland Norway were all no hopers 20 odd years ago, but Finland took it to the last game before elimination, Norway could have knocked Netherlands out, and North Macedonia are in the play offs. That's how to raise standards, let these teams play, no tier 1 and tier 2 bollo x in football.

My guess is if Anfield had never been considered as a venue, but then Liverpool came forward and said " we'd love a game , do our bit for TGG" many on here would be ecstatic and believe the tournament has gained prestige. But that isn't the case and it's disappointing what's happened but not a game changer either way. Good news is they'll be no pre-Qatar England games up against the RL, there aren't any pre Qatar games, the football will stop and the WC starts a week later. So October and most of November will be just RLWC as the International footy.

This is just for U.S. rights, added to 4.7bn for UK rights, plus everything else, eye-watering. However no one forces people to pay these amounts, so presumably the tv companies get money back from advertisers, subscribers etc.

I fear you are confusing " iconic" status with bricks and mortar. Anfield certainly needs a refit, and has seen better days, but that's not what iconic means. It's the atmosphere that makes it iconic, it's the hundreds literally hundreds of millions of fans worldwide who's icons play there that makes it iconic. Comfy seats and lots of bogs are irrelevant, which is why no new stadium can be iconic...yet. Any sport and in fact many football clubs would love an atmosphere like this, see below.

Enjoyed three matches yesterday and all came up with the result I wanted. Serbia and Croatia through to Qatar and North Macedonia into the play offs. All enjoyable for different reasons. Croatia/Russia a tactical stalemate until the weather turned it into a splash/splosh in the mud. Portugal/Serbia was high class and skill , but hats off to Macedonia for their enthusiasm and endeavour and Iceland for giving their all in a match of no importance to them.

Didn't think I'd find any football to enjoy this weekend, but I was wrong, it's all a question of finding International games with something riding on them. Bosnia vs Finland was very enjoyable, now watching Norway vs Latvia, a vital game. Wales play a crucial game tonight, and tomorrow two winner takes all matches in Russia vs Croatia and Spain vs Sweden.

I can't read the full article either but I'm guessing it's to do with the Qatar World Cup. The PL is pausing for about 7 weeks , but only extending by a week, so that's 6 weeks of games to be squeezed in both before and after Qatar, oh Champions League games as well to fit in too. That could be the reason.