The laws of the game don't dictate that he had to get a red either. If the ref deems it violent conduct, then it is a straight red. The situation from Monday is written out explicitly. In addition, a player who, when not challenging for the ball, deliberately strikes an opponent or any other person...

Royal Rother Pretty pathetic decision that.

Has been the case since at least the mid-nineties*.

(*I had thought Le Saux had been sent off that game, but apparently not. Still got a broken hand for trying to give Batty a slap. That said, ref in that game should have sent Le Saux off, by letter of law then.)

While they have some fairly big stadia, the drop off is pretty rapid (6 stadia > 40k, but 6 20k and below in the top flight). Gut feeling is stadia are big but basic. Looking at the ten stadia they're planning on using, and they're all modern stadia - at least 21st century. Seems Turkey had a footb...

Final thought: I think people forget just how much Turkey improved its national football team in the late 80s to 90s. Mid-80s, the league was one of the worst in Europe, England donged them 8-0 twice and 5-0. While they have some fairly big stadia, the drop off is pretty rapid (6 stadia > 40k, but 6...

Obvs people on here and esp crappy Twitter were going to be negative etc after the game, but I’m not totally sure what people were expecting. Suddenly start pinging the ball round like prime Barcelona and smashing every team we come across? Same basic issues are there - lack of a suitable striker, ...

Semi-serious Richardson OUT comments will be posted on here by January. Same squad, reset the clock on it starting to gel, many of the problems are injury/fitness related rather than competency related so even if new team fix them it will take time to see positive results. But we weren’t shit and S...

Yeah, Italy/Former Yugoslavia would be much more preferable.

You’d think Turkey probably could host a 16 country tournament but then Austria/Switzerland and Poland/Ukraine probably tells you they couldn’t.

I don't mind it at all when its countries that that wouldn't typically be able to host it on their own. I like the idea of football taking place somewhere where they usually wouldn't get that kind of thing. Italy doesn't need to joint host it though. and I don't think Turkey really does either. Tur...

Semi-serious Richardson OUT comments will be posted on here by January. Same squad, reset the clock on it starting to gel, many of the problems are injury/fitness related rather than competency related so even if new team fix them it will take time to see positive results. But we weren’t shit and Sa...

https://uploads.dailydot.com/2024/09/swole-doge-template.png?auto=compress&fm=png "do you remember when the helicopters nodded to each other?" https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT8jCJc4_FODwCHkoMdhld6EFllKGSe8Oaswg&s "American man do fireworks :x "

any beefy tensions between these nations that could make games interesting? The only one that jumps out to me is Bosnia & Kosovo, but I think they are unlikely to play each other. The one tie that UEFA could have ruled out from being drawn but they've ended up in the same pot. Probably for the ...

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

They may turn out to be just as bad but hopefully BBC commentators and the (un?)necessary co-commentators will be better at the World Cup than ITV's Matterface and Dixon-they IMHO are even worse than Tyldesley. Yesterday they kept on and on about our record qualifying stats and Dixon just can't sto...

A successful qualifying campaign again but they did deign to point out that other teams in the past have had a perfect qualifying but then got knocked out when the real thing came around. Hmmm, while England have not lost a World Cup qualifying game since a dead rubber vs Ukraine in 2009 (! I know ...

I just press

QUOTE

In 2028, you can do the same. But in Cardiff.

Are you in any shaky camera footage from a Russian ultra’s go pro, getting KO’d by him as he runs through the streets? No. The only interesting thing on that front is that I was chatting about this with a previous colleague and we're both in some of each others photos, from about 4-5 years before w...

don't we usually go with a friendly against an African nation and a friendly against a Central American nation? They've sometimes seemed to want to match up vs the teams in the group but it depends on a whole bunch of factors. 2006 - group was Sweden, Trinidad and Paraguay, last three friendlies we...

Get recommendation to go on holiday on Île Su, Nouvelle Caledonie. Get there. Realised you've been cocked and balled. https://preview.redd.it/how-is-living-in-%C3%AEle-su-new-caledonia-v0-zf44wsk0aqyf1.jpeg?width=1080&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=3cbc7fb67cd706890732c33e2a38464e631f9ca7

Marseille 2016 was a strong vibe. Rented a flat by an old harbour, just along the coast. Sea swims in the morning, wander into the old town to watch the games, went to Iceland Hungary and Poland Ukraine, the Norwegian lads who booked their holiday after they drew Iceland in the playoffs, half the co...