The Football Thread

[Banjo]

Match fixing, no matter which countries are involved or how it's done, takes the enjoyment out of the game for the majority of footie lovers. 

Yes it seems that the teams currently on trail for corruption - Milan,Juventus,Internationale FC and Fiorentina all took a leaf out of Mussolinis book.In fact Italys  Serie A was created by Italian fascism:-
http://www.threemonkeysonline.com/threemon_article_football_and_fascism_the_creation_of_serie_a.htm
 

[Le Bon]

England 1 Portugal 0
Brazil 1 France 2

[titoli]

Internationale FC is not involved in the current scandal.
About the "aggressive style", that reminds of a comment  I heard yesterday of the Germany match, which I do not think was particularly badly led by the referee. Still there were people who said he was systematically whistling against Argentina. So you can imagine what can be said of a match plyed 70 years ago with no support of the images like we have today.

[Banjo]

Internationale FC is not involved in the current scandal.
About the "aggressive style", that reminds of a comment  I heard yesterday of the Germany match, which I do not think was particularly badly led by the referee. Still there were people who said he was systematically whistling against Argentina. So you can imagine what can be said of a match plyed 70 years ago with no support of the images like we have today.

To my eyes and the opinion of the British media the referee in yesterdays game was a "homer".This sort of bias towards the home side always seems to favour Manchester United when they're playing at home.
I can't remember from that documentary whether some actual film footage exists of that tournament but it wouldn't be surprising if such a fascist tactic was used to win football games as well as influence all other things in society,would it not?
I remember that Austria were bribed by Hitler to lose against Germany for the "good of the Fatherland" .

[titoli]

Footage it does certainly exist but is scarce and qualitatively irrelevant. I don't want to say that arrangements weren't made in those tournaments, only that there wasn't much more of what was done in 1966 or 1978 or 2002. About the way some famous clubs are protected in their own Leagues or in Euro Leagues (like Real Madrid is) that is common knowledge of football fans. Still, compared to what was happening in Italy these last 10 years all the cases we have debated are boys stuff.

[Marco Leone]

I am really gutted by England's exit. But in truth, well we probably didn't deserve to get to the semi's despite our best performance. although, you have to say why did it take us to get to 10 men to start performing.

To me, I stand by my initial critiscism of Sven. The decision to only bring 4 strikers (2 of which weren't fit) slapped us in the face. Rooney was never going to be an out and out striker. and i'm sure it was largely through him playin that role that got him sent off - through frustration.

i just wish i fely more confident in Svens replacement (I have said for ages that Sven was a waste of space). Unfortunately, Maclaren is not the man. Possibly the best ever generation of England players wasted. 

Plus, am I also the only one that though that the much critisced Own Hargreaves was the best England player of the tournament? 
 

[franksgrandson]

Thank god England are out maybe the country can get back to important stuff, football hooligans go home and shut up as usual not good enough could have told you that before we started.
Get into music instead at that this fair isle excels.

[Marco Leone]

lol i see your point, but the World Cup (hooligans aside) does give us a few weeks of collective, if ultimately unfulfilled, hope.

[Banjo]

Thank god England are out maybe the country can get back to important stuff, football hooligans go home and shut up as usual not good enough could have told you that before we started.
Get into music instead at that this fair isle excels.

Don't worry franksgrandon the qualifyers for Euro 2008(Austria & Switzerland) start in September,and we've got rid of Sven,C'MON ENGLAND
Well done to Portugal today and i hope you go on to win the tournament-a new winner will be healthy for the "beautiful game"
I'm relishing the conclusion of Germany 2006

[Leone Admirer]

I'm in trouble at home, rest of the family are football suporters. Regarding the Rooney Red Card, I said if it was the other way round and England got a Portugal player sent off, we would be praising them for their ingenuiuty   

ahhh Back to Baseball 

[Banjo]

ahhh Back to Baseball 

Whadya mean,the World Cup doesn't finish until 11th July and i just watched the brilliant France v Brazil game.Titoli you must be rubbing your hands together now,eh?

[Leone Admirer]

Whadya mean,the World Cup doesn't finish until 11th July and i just watched the brilliant France v Brazil game.Titoli you must be rubbing your hands together now,eh?

I was only roped in to watch the England games, now I don't have to watch football I can go back to the sport I like.

[Banjo]

I don't want to say that arrangements weren't made in those tournaments, only that there wasn't much more of what was done in 1966

Titoli do you really think that one dubious linesman decision amounts to the same as match fixing?Don't forget that England scored a 4th goal in the final .I wasn't born then but the only other contentious issue i'm aware of in those championships was the sending off of Argentinas Rattin.

[Banjo]

Get into music instead at that this fair isle excels.

I enjoy  music(playing and listening) as well as sport and i don't allow a tiny minority of thugs to ruin either for me,and anyway you should respect other peoples interests.As a Brighton & Hove Albion supporter i'm more than used to taking defeats on the chin which makes winning all the more sweeter

[titoli]

I seem to remember that the portuguese team wasn't exactly enthusiastic about the direction of the semi-final. But I don't want to start a discussion on that because what is past is past and I also think that England got just the fair amount of favours a home team usually gets. And that is what Italy in 1934 did get, I also think, as there never was a great talk about scandalous directions. Maybe just because football wasn't as important as it is was going to be later.  

But to come to actuality, which I find more interesting, I had said when you first opened up this topic, that a european team was going to win. I never believed in Brasil (my predictions are there to confirm this from the start) and also Argentina didn't convince me. Now I must admit that France has become the favourite for the final win, but in this tournament   much of the results depend on athletic condition (which for some teams is going up) and referral decisions. So all the results are possible.

And when the tournament will be over we'll dedicate our attention to more important things like the trial on the arranged italian tournaments and the trading of players for the next season.