HawkMan

I wonder how the 2026 WC will be played. Will it be 16 groups of 3, winners into last 16? As this is FIFA it will probably be top 2 to last 32 round. Possibly 16 x 3 with each team playing 2 group games and a third against a team from another group. Presumably USA, Canada and Mexico all qualify, leaving maybe just 3 other CONCACAF places up for grabs. I also have a horrible feeling Trump will be back as President glorifying the whole shebang with his presence.

Women's Euros upcoming , and I'm going to give it a watch. I don't usually watch Women's footy but perhaps I've just fallen for the hype. Sky bigging it up and they don't even have the rights to it. England squad announced and Steph Houghton, a name I do know, left out. Apparently England games sold out and I'm interested in how the BBC present it and compare it to RLWC in November.

The Leagues will be suspended the world over in November and into the WC quite quickly, so no time for pre WC warm up matches. So the Nations League games, 4 now and 2 in September will be invaluable for coaches. What UEFA should have done is tinkered with the format of the Nations League this time round and had groups of three teams instead of four, meaning 4 games not 6.

It's all very simple really....I don't think! Finals, promotion and relegation. In the top league, League A, the winners of the four groups go on to play in the Nations League Finals, with two semi-finals, one third and fourth place decider, and one final to decide which team becomes the UEFA Nations League champion. Teams can also be promoted and relegated to a higher or lower league. Starting in 2020–21, each group winner in Leagues B, C, and D is automatically promoted to the next higher league for the next tournament. Each team placing last in its group in the Leagues A and B is automatically relegated to the next lower league; as League C has four groups while League D has only two, the two League C teams that are to be relegated are determined by play-outs beginning in March of even-numbered years. Based on the Nations League overall ranking of the fourth-placed teams, the first-ranked team face the fourth-ranked team, and the second-ranked team face the third-ranked team. Two ties are played over two legs, with the higher-ranked team hosts the second leg. The two teams that score more goals on aggregate over the two legs remain in League C, while the losing teams are relegated to League D. If the aggregate score is level, extra time will be played (the away goals rule is not applied). If still tied after extra time, a penalty shoot-out will be used to decide the winner. The away goals was originally to be used, but was abolished by the UEFA Executive Committee on 16 December 2021. The UEFA Nations League is linked with the UEFA European Championship qualifying, providing teams another chance to qualify for the UEFA European Championship. There were play-offs for each of Leagues A, B, C, and D in October and November 2020. Each group winner earned a spot in the semi-finals. If the group winner was already one of the 20 qualified teams, rankings were used to give the play-off spot to another team of that league. If fewer than four teams in the entire league remained unqualified, play-off spots for that league were given to teams of the next lower league. This determined the four remaining qualifying spots for the European Championship (out of 24 total). The Nations League is linked with European qualification for the FIFA World Cup, although to a lesser degree than the UEFA European Championship qualifying play-offs. The first round of the World Cup qualification consists of ten groups. The winner of each group will directly qualify for the World Cup. Then, the second round (which follows a play-off format) will be contested by the ten group runners-up, plus the best two Nations League group winners (based on the Nations League overall ranking) that finished outside the top two of their qualifying group. The play-offs will be split into three play-off paths, played in two semi-finals (hosted by the six best-ranked runners-up of the qualifying group stage) and the final (with the home teams to be drawn), from which an additional three teams will also qualify.

I'm a fully paid up England supporter, always have been, but also a realist. It may seem negative but I really don't think England are as good as everyone seems to think. In 2018 WC let's face it they were in the easier half of the draw, and stumbled against the first decent opposition in Croatia. In the Euros they did well, but did have home advantage, IIRC except one game, beating a well passed their use by date Germany and lost to Italy who couldn't qualify for Qatar. In this year's WC I expect them to get out of an easyish group, Ukraine if they qualify today likely to be the toughest opposition. After that I fear an early last 16 exit. Apparently England are second favourites with the bookies, that doesn't seem right, I would put Brazil, Argentina, Germany, France and Spain all ahead of them. BTW I have Premier sports and their presentation of RL is far superior to their Nations League coverage, it's really cheap with minimal effort.

Given up with the England vs Hungary game after 30 minutes, dross, however much the Nations League is hyped up it's still pretty pointless. Back to the cricket for me. Sorry C4 you did have great sport on today, it was at Castleford.

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Nothing against Everton but please please get relegated, I want to see Agent Rafa celebrating. " doing the hoovering, bumped into the television and Richarlison fell over!" Gold!

What's the difference between picture above and below? Answer is nothing!

Well good luck to the guy, but I was hoping for Steven Toast, below, looked good !!

Don't worry about Leeds getting relegated. Leeds bring big crowds and glamour to the PL, Bournemouth just got promoted and there is already two teams on the South Coast and Bournemouth have a cr#p stadium, so they'll be kept back and Leeds will be given a reprieve. Only joking! No serious sport thinks along those lines.

So not altogether a successful English/Scottish Euro week. Liverpool should be okay, but Man City may have blown it despite winning 4-3. West Ham and Rangers lost and Leicester dew. My guesses for the finals, Liverpool vs Real Madrid West Ham vs Leipzig Roma vs Marseille

Those with delicate eardrums DO NOT click on. The thrash metal onslaught of Ministry. Spoken:] You know, they say it takes a whole pack of wolves to take down a moose 'cause one on one that moose would smack them down. It's like being in the music business: you got your managers, your ex-managers, your ex-bandmates, your ex-labels, your ex-wives, your lawyers, your tax attorneys... Hell! That sounds more like a pack of hyenas to me. You know, I was once told by an ex-manager, "Son, you're worth more dead than alive 'cause when you're dead we can sell you off in pieces." That's the way it works around here. You don't believe me? Why don't you try asking Jim Morrison Or Jimi Hendrix or Janis Joplin Or Kurt Cobain or Amy Winehouse. I'm pretty sure they're gonna take my side of the story. Sometimes I think they're the lucky ones. They don't have to deal with these douchebags 'cause they're already dead. But I'm not dead yet! You vultures want me dead What's up with that? You make more money off the carcass that is dead What's up with that? I'm not dead yet [8x] Ghouldiggers Vultures and thieves Ghouldiggers Shrouded in their greed Ghouldiggers They're always after me Ghouldiggers diggers diggers diggers diggers You vultures strike it rich What's up with that? There's just one little hitch I'm not dead yet And that's a fact I'm not dead yet [8x] Ghouldiggers Vultures and thieves Ghouldiggers Shrouded in their greed Ghouldiggers They're always after me Ghouldiggers diggers diggers diggers diggers [Spoken:] — Hello, Ghouldigger management. Can I help you? — Eh, yeah. I'd like to speak to my manager. Please. — And you are...? — My name's Al Jourgensen from the band Ministry and just wanna speak to my manager. — Am, let me check and ... then. One moment, please. I ... hold. — Dammit, they put me on hold again! What is wrong with these people? What is the major malfunction? You never return my calls What's up with that? No word from you at all What's up with that? I'm not dead yet [8x] Ghouldiggers Vultures and thieves Ghouldiggers Shrouded in their greed Ghouldiggers They're always after me Ghouldiggers diggers diggers diggers diggers [Spoken:] — Hello, Mr Jourgensen. I'm so sorry to keep you on hold. Ah, your manager is actually on a call at lunch at the meeting on vacation out of the country. However he did leave the message. He says to please call back after you're dead. — No, you're kidding me?

Gary Neville slams " broken" Man Utd. I saw the game, it was the worst United performance I've ever seen. Sympathy for Ten Haag if he takes job, he really shouldn't bother, his reputation will be damaged unless the Glazers do a Volte Face and invest in a whole new team.

Never before have I cheered so loudly at a Burnley win, if only so impressionist Darren Farley can produce another Agent Rafa video. There's a whole YouTube following urging Everton down. 48,000 views for above vid in just 13hrs Now we know why Everton lost, Sean Dyche masterplan works again.

Very underrated band, 10th album out in June, can't wait. One of those Brit bands that achieve success in US, OZ, Europe etc but not in the UK.

91,000 bl00dy hell impressive. How long before Women's soccer is the 2nd biggest team sport on the planet? https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/60934500

Really? For a competition that no one cares about it gets good crowds. Yes, National leagues are the bread and butter, but seeing the top talents go head to head, like PSG vs Real last week, Messi, Neymar Benzama et al was a joy. Fans of the big clubs tend not to care if their team cannot win it, but go potty with delight if they think they can. Do West Ham fans care at all for the Europa League? Judging by the 55,000 attendance on Thursday or whatever the capacity is, yes they care.

Up to this season the Europa League group stage has been a massive 12 groups with the top two of each group going into the last 32 along with the 8 third place teams from the Champions League groups. UEFA felt this was too much and decided to basically split the Europa League in two at the qualifying stages. The idea also is to give teams who finish further down their domestic leagues a place in Europe to widen the size of clubs who can enter, not just the big teams. This is to be applauded. So teams failing to qualify for the slimmed down Europa League were given another bite of the cherry as it were , and went into this new competition. And it's worked, teams left behind by the big bucks teams like Feyenoord for example have managed to get a bit of glory again. watching the Leicester/Rennes match yesterday, the stadium was full, not a seat anywhere, so it's all good, actually watching the highlights show on BT I saw packed stadiums at all Conference League games. Maybe important as well it is UEFA's intention to have possibly unfashionable venues for the final. Tirana will host the first one in their new National Stadium.

Champions League quarter-final draw Chelsea v Real Madrid Manchester City v Atletico Madrid Villarreal v Bayern Munich Benfica v Liverpool Champions League semi-final draw Manchester City or Atletico Madrid v Chelsea or Real Madrid Benfica or Liverpool v Villarreal or Bayern Munich Europa League quarter-final draw RB Leipzig v Atalanta Eintracht Frankfurt v Barcelona West Ham v Lyon Braga v Rangers Europa League semi-final draw RB Leipzig or Atalanta v Braga or Rangers West Ham or Lyon v Eintracht Frankfurt or Barcelona Europa Conference League quarter-final draw Bodo Glimt v Roma Feyenoord v Slavia Prague Marseille v PAOK Salonika Leicester v PSV Eindhoven Europa Conference League semi-final draw Leicester or PSV Eindhoven v Bodo Glimt or Roma Feyenoord or Slavia Prague v Marseille or PAOK Salonika

Unbelievable! PSG have blown it again, they just can't crack the Champions League. Pochettino devalues himself in the race for Man Utd job, the guy is just not a winner. Looks like Erik Ten Haag for O.T.

Listened to the new Tears For Fears album 5 times already, bl00dy brilliant!

Well that's the Championship title for next season decided , Everton no problem.