Football !!!!

[Rodo]

I think they are right to hold onto him. Who else would they get who could do better? It is a lot of money, but when they pay the players obscene amounts of money they have to go some way towards matching it for the Manager or they would never get anybody for the job. It's a necessary evil.

[Suff]

I don't normally follow football, but I did notice one salient fact. When Dundee United had a "no buy in" policy, Scotland made it to the world cup every 4 years. When the manager changed and they started buying all their top players in and stopped scouting for local talent, Scotland started to fall out of the world cup.

I'm fairly sure they are not unrelated.

I recall reading about Fergie when he left Man U. He said that in the current climate of privately owned corporations as football clubs, traded on the stock market, he would never have survived as manager. Because it took him 5 years to build a winning team. Today you are lucky to get 2 years, normally if you have not succeeded in 1 year you are out.

Not a healthy place to build a world cup team. When managers only recourse is to buy in players from abroad where the initial work has already been done. It doesn't leave much of a talent pool at home.

[KateLMead]

I never watch football any more Aggers, the word "English" has become a dirty word, a farce "God Save Our Gracious Queen"
Should be replaced by "God Save Our English Nation" the money given to this bunch of ball kickers whose brains are generally in the same area, are no recommendation here or any where else in the world. The gyrating exhibition's to their fans when they score a goal !: I find nauseating, as I do the idiots who probably spend a fortune following these wastes of space.
As my dear husband used to say. "Football a game for gentlemen played by hooligans. Rugby a game for hooligans played by gentlemen."

[cruiser2]

TwentyTwenty cricket is more exiting. Too mch football on TV and not enough of other sports. Hardly a mention of the Rugby Union matches.
Then it will be wall to wall carpeting for Wimbledon.

[KateLMead]

TwentyTwenty cricket is more exiting. Too mch football on TV and not enough of other sports. Hardly a mention of the Rugby Union matches.
Then it will be wall to wall carpeting for Wimbledon.

Sadly Cromwell as we have been told, the corruption in sport is rife and widespread, hence another reason I don't watch these get togethers, my husband was a cricket addict, formed his own teams with locals and expats in Indonesia. I must admit I love Rugby a great rough and tumble

[Aggers]

I never watch football any more Aggers, the word "English" has become a dirty word, a farce "God Save Our Gracious Queen" should be replaced by "God Save Our English Nation"

You know, Kate, your views on many matters are so similar to mine.
I find this a comforting thought - It's nice to know I'm not the only one
who is so disappointed with the direction in which this country of ours
is going. I dread to think what the future holds for the young ones.

[Suff]

Football, Wimbledon... I like Wimbledon, not so happy about football although I did go to see France Paraguay at Lens in 98 with corporate hospitality tickets. That was worth it.

Last night I arrived in Brussels shortly before Belgium won. I knew they'd won even though I was not watching TV as just about every car horn in the city started hooting. They were still at it after midnight.

Then I looked at the Wimbledon order of play today and saw that Murray was opening with Daid Goffin of Belgium this afternoon. Not such a good day for them......

I'll keep on ignoring the football but keep my eye on Wimbledon. Sadly I'm going to be on a train when the mens final is on.

[TheOstrich]

There is far too much media money thrown at the top echelons of sport these days - and not just soccer. It's more or less ruined it for the traditional fan.

Last season I attended 67 soccer - and 17 rugby union - matches (you have to do something in retirement! ) and all of these were in the grassroots, non-league or associated structures. I've no interest in the hype of the Championship or the Premiership, gave up on the talking heads of Match of the Day two years ago, and haven't watched any World Cup football bar the last 10 minutes of the Costa Rica v Italy match, purely for the vicarious thrill of seeing England knocked out.

I won't pay silly money for 90 minutes of razzamatazz / dubious entertainment. I think the highest admission charge I paid last year was £16 at Tamworth in the Conference Premier; thankfully though I qualify for old-gits rate at most clubs these days.

But even the non-league scene is getting fraught - we've had Far-East betting scandals involving match-rigging at a couple of South-East clubs, and two well-known Conference sides have racked up such huge debts (and then been taken over by "shady" characters) that they've been forcibly relegated (Salisbury City) or thrown out of the league (Hereford United).

I'd like to see more of the media money being diverted away from the big egos and into grassroots sport. But it won't happen.