The Football Thread

[titoli]

Surely not. This is a Harvard graduate who never had to do with clandestine bets like Paolo Rossi did.

Verdict confirmed for tomorrow at 6.00 p.m.

[Banjo]

Thanks Titoli
Sorry i forgot to show the final table standings.Marco got a point for France beating Portugal 1-0 in the semi's(i think )Well done to Le Bon

Le Bon       9
Marco         8
Banjo         7
Titoli          6
Half Soldier 2
Firecracker 1

This thread has been such as success that once the European qualifyers start i'm gonna change the subject title to keep it going
Titoli , Noodles Leone and Sundance we'll want updates on your teams performances please and that goes for any other European country other than my team England.

[titoli]

The new Manager of Italy has been announced today: Roberto Donadoni, former player with Milan AC.

[Leone Admirer]

baseball.

My fave sport  . Did you catch the All Star Game on Tuesday?

[titoli]

The verdict (1st degree):

Juventus relegated from Premiership to 1st division starting from minus 30 points. The last two titles are revoked.
Fiorentina relegated from Premiership to 1st division starting from minus 12 points
Lazio relegated from Premiership to 1st division starting from minus 7
Milan AC is saved in Premiership, but will start from minus 15 and won't be admitted to this year's Champions League.

I don't like this sentence.


Banjo, have you seen the movie "Hooligans"?

[Banjo]

I don't like this sentence.

Whys that Titoli?-i thought you wanted the authorites to come down hard on the offenders and it'll let the clubs that play fair like your Roma have a chance of winning the title and getting into the Champions league.BTW with the likes of Juventus and AC Milan being ousted out of Europe next season,are UEFA letting in the lower placed clubs?
I think its a great verdict  and an excellent deterent against future match fixing.Compared to all the English clubs which were banned from Europe in the 1980's for many years because of ONE teams(Liverpool) drunken fans is what i call harsh.
No i haven't seen Hooligans and although i used to avidly follow Brighton home and away i don't count myself in that category.

[titoli]

I didn't imply that you're a hooligan, I just wanted to know if yoiu have seen what I consider not a bad british movie. Actually I wanted also to ask you what language they are speaking in the film as I can't understand more than 1% of what is said.

About the Sentenza, it has many flaws and I can't help feeling cheated, like many comments pointed out yesterday and today. To relegate simply Juventus in 1st division with a minus 30 handicap may seem a harsh  measure, but in facts  it preserves Juventus integrity as it can still count on TV contracts and also keep some main players. And for a club which arranged 2 torunaments (but presumably even more). Had it been 2nd division, they should hace declared financial failure and start from scratch, with another name like it already happened with other clubs in the past for lesser crimes.
But the real scandal is in the Milan verdict. Just a handicap of 15 points for a team already strong and about to buy some ace players from Juventus like Zambrotta and Buffon, is ridiculous in a 20 teams tournament. They could easily win the Premiership in spite of the handicap. And as compared to the measures against the two other teams (Lazio and Fiorentina) which were debatably responsible for  lesser crimes (especially Lazio) it is a crying shame.
Really, if the verdict is going to be mantained  in the second degree sentence, I'll try to find something else to do on Sundays.   

[Marco Leone]

Titoli, with Juve being stripped of the title for the last two seasons, have Inter been awarded it? 

[titoli]

No. And rightly so.

[Marco Leone]

So presumably no-one will be awarded it then?

Looks like there may be a player exodus!  The big premiership clubs are sniffing around.

[titoli]

The president of Inter claimed the title, so there'll have to be a decision about it.


About players leaving, it seems that Zambrotta, Emerson and Cannavaro are already on the way to Madrid.

[The Firecracker]

This is really a question for USA members and as an Englishman i'm totally chuffed with our drawn group of England,Paraguay,Sweden and Trinidad-i'm sure we'll walk it-touch wood!!!
USA have drawn Italy,Ghana,and Czech Republic and i would like to know how many of you guys in the USA will be following your team?Soccer(we call it football) is our national game in the UK and i've always been under the impression that it is a minority sport in the USA played and enjoyed by teenagers at college,although saying that the are a small number of Amercans playing in our top league.I am amazed considering this that the USA team is ranked in the worlds top ten nations although some detracters claim that you play easy opposition all the time !How do you guys fancy your chances next year and do you think you'd stand a chance if you bumped into England?

To answer your question...

Kate Beckinsale (english actress) was on an American Talk show recently while visiting the U.S. . She says she goes to the bars every night and sees the next football game and she realizes nobody is in the bar watching it with her.

Football is of little interest to us Americans unless you happen to be central or South American.
However I do think the Football craze that you guys go mad for is starting to have a bit of a cult following over here, I dont know if this is from Europeans who moved over to the US or what but its happening.
Last year I dont remember the World Cup being mentioned at all but this year I have heard some buzz from the local news.
Maybe next year it will be even bigger. Quein Sabe?

I for one care not for Football nor do I care for American Football. In fact I dont care much for sports at all. Baseball is the only sport I can sit through when on the tele.

[Banjo]

Maybe next year it will be even bigger. Quein Sabe?

Well the next one in four years time will be in South Africa so it'll be interesting to see what happens with the difference in time zones.I didn't like having to watch games first thing in the morning during the 2002 Japan/Korea World Cup.

[Hippieoddball1]

Last year I dont remember the World Cup being mentioned at all but this year I have heard some buzz from the local news.
Maybe next year it will be even bigger. Quein Sabe?



Thats funny, i don't mean to have a go, but you do just remind me of the 2 american so called presenters on the budweiser adverts at the start of itv's coverage of the world cup this year.

The world cup is every 4 years, thats why you won't have heard anything last year, ha.

I don't know anything about the world series or american football, really so we are about even.

I heard a funny joke from chubby brown the other day, saying that america only win the baseball world series is becuase they don't let other countries play in it, ha, and the reason they aren't very good at football is because other countries play.

It just made me laugh that was all.

Each to their own, but i feel sorry for americans not being given the chance to really embrace the greatest game of all, they just don't know enough about it, it's not there fault.

[titoli]

I heard a funny joke from chubby brown the other day, saying that america only win the baseball world series is becuase they don't let other countries play in it,

No, it's because the other countries don't care playing it. Baseball sucks. Italy has won many european championships but if outside of the 4-5 (small) places where there's a following, nobody has any idea what the sport is like. 

 

ha, and the reason they aren't very good at football is because other countries play.

Which, in other words, mean that USA can't wave the flag each edition like they would like to, even if they became a leading nation in the game. That's the question, I think. Brasil has won 5 editions of the World Cup from 1950 on. Still they had a hyatus from 1970 to 1994 (when they won at shootouts) without a finale, not to mention a title. Italy from 1970, made a final every 12 years, winning those played in Europe. England made just a finale (which is incredible considering the wins with the clubs!). Those are not rhythms that would persuade sponsors to invest money in the game. I think the situation can change only if a growing presence of latinos will help developing the local movement that will see the World Cup not as the only event but just as the most important.