Re: England Football. I thank ...

[ancientnloyal]

I had stupid people having a go at me when i said I was glad South Africa won the RU world cup... lets see how many of those people will slate you and call you unpatriotic.


0


Im not bothered, France are through so thats good. Allez les Bleus!

[luke_robinsons_angel]

God posted:
I am happy and jumping for joy that the England football team has not qualified for the Euros

And do you know why im happy? well let me tell you

1.No hangers on.
2.No band wagon jumpers.
3.No stupid euro football song destroying my ears.
4.Nobody pulling a sicky at work to go to the pub.
5.No block holidays by loads of people part time supporting the national team, thus leaving me to do all the work.
6.Not forced to read it in the papers.
7.Not forced to listen to it on the news.
8.No reports of viloence abroad when England eventually get knocked out thus giving England as a country a bad name.

And most of all......

England and the Rugby League World Cup just might get a look in and a fair crack of the whip with extra media coverage and full attention.Without the moronic football and Euro championship over shadowing our beautiful game.

Thankyou Mr Steve Mclaren you should be honoured by the Queen.

AMEN to that, hate the round ball band wagoners, painting their houses with St Georges flags and putting stupid flags in their cars.

[highland convert]

Just announced on BBC news. The firing squad meets at 8.30 tomorrow morning.

[turf]

highland convert posted:
Just announced on BBC news. The firing squad meets at 8.30 tomorrow morning.

:badg: :badg: :badg:

[Cruncher]

God posted:
I am happy and jumping for joy that the England football team has not qualified for the Euros

And do you know why im happy? well let me tell you

1.No hangers on.
2.No band wagon jumpers.
3.No stupid euro football song destroying my ears.
4.Nobody pulling a sicky at work to go to the pub.
5.No block holidays by loads of people part time supporting the national team, thus leaving me to do all the work.
6.Not forced to read it in the papers.
7.Not forced to listen to it on the news.
8.No reports of viloence abroad when England eventually get knocked out thus giving England as a country a bad name.

And most of all......

England and the Rugby League World Cup just might get a look in and a fair crack of the whip with extra media coverage and full attention.Without the moronic football and Euro championship over shadowing our beautiful game.

Thankyou Mr Steve Mclaren you should be honoured by the Queen.

There's no question about that whatsoever, though McLaren - I have to say - does seem like an unusually decent bloke for a football coach. No doubt he'll now lose his job, despite the reality of the situation, which is that the FA themselves have cheerfully presided over a competition in which the elite players have become multi-millionaires before they're 24; you don't need to be a genius to work out that well-fed lions will not go out and eat any gladiators.

However, it's all to the good. I'll be a much happier bunny when, next year from roughly February onwards, I won't have to endure motorised chavs who think that just because they've got a flag of St George on the bonnet of their car, they can have right of way at all junctions. Likewise, I won't have to endure gangs of people in my local, who never normally go in there, sitting and shouting raucously in front of the telly, or women who are usually demure running around in face-paint, slugging from tins of lager and flashing their t1ts at the urging of men they don't even know.

Frankly, it's going to be Heaven.

I don't even care if it DOESN'T mean that RL gets a fairer crack of the whip (the networks are bound to find something else anyway - maybe the World Tiddleywinks Championships). So long as it doesn't mean we have to watch news programmes where football gets bigger headlines than wars in the Middle East, so long as we don't have to watch TV commercials that take it for granted the entire country is obsessively following the tournament, so long as we don't have to suffer Frank Skinner and David Badiel on that couch every evening, or listen to some jingoistic (and totally crap) little ditty specially written for the occasion every time we turn the radio on, or listen to Gordon Brown completely mendaciously saying that he hopes England do well, or watching the stars come out to espouse the England cause in the hope that it gives them kudos, or seeing Prince Harry and his cronies getting the best seats in the house at all the big matches when in reality they've never been to a football match before in their lives ...

But most of all, I'll be happy that, just for once, the opportunity will not be there for our nation's flag to be defamed by hordes of yobs and ladettes, who'll use it as justification for all types of foul and pathetic behaviour.

What was particularly telling last night, at the end of the coverage, was when various gloomy pundits were being interviewed, and Ian Wright quoted a list of all those he felt sorry for. Among that list, I'm sure I heard him say: "I feel sorry for me."

As far as I'm concerned, that says it all about football folk, and is yet another reason why I couldn't care less about the latest huge embarrassment English football has inflicted on itself.

[DaveO]

I don't watch football but I grew up doing so in the era of players like Francis Lee, Colin Bell, Bobby Charlton and other genuinely good sportsmen who played the game.

Back then I wanted England to do well and win things. I don't think many people didn't.

So when something like the Euro qualifiers are on if I happen to catch sight of a game and England are involved it seems fairly natural to me to want them to do well.

But that is me harking back to thinking of English football as it was when I grew up, not as it is now.

Now there is no doubt in my mind that the way the game dominates the country as a sort of religion is simply not healthy. The players earn obscene amounts of money which on last nights showing most are not worth a tenth of.

I don't hate the game but I dislike many aspects of it these days and it is mostly down to how it has become a sort of national obsession as opposed to a bit of sport you watch at the weekends. That and the ridiculous amounts of commercialism and money involved.

I have always argued that professional RL players deserve to be well paid (and better paid than they are) for playing a game that has a short career than can be ended at any time due to injury but I would never want to see RL end up so dominated by money like soccer. There is a fine line between paid appropriately and being paid far too much and once you get to the stage of soccer level wages then I think it completely distorts the game and the motivation for playing it.

Unfortunately I doubt England's failure to qualify will bring any sense of realism to the game. Commercial interests will still drive it and vast sums of money will still be paid to players and by TV companies to show the game live. It is too lucrative an business to let England's failure get in the way of making money.

It also seems the majority of the British public are are too gullible to notice they are being taken for a very big financial ride.

Dave

[dawbz]

pieater-alex posted:
Exactly my mentality , I wanted England to win HOWEVER.

Now there is no Euro 2008 for England , wales , scotland or Ireland it can only benefit the rugby league world cup.

I'm not to sure about that, you can be certain that most if not all the Euro games will be televised and will still get a lot of media coverage.
What made me laugh this morning watching the news was England fans saying it's because we have too many foreign players over here ?,
is it me or are they (the fans) the ones who scream and shout for the likes of Ronaldo every week ? but yet when the England team do badly they want them sent home?. pathetic.
I'm with everyone on this thread lets hope we et more coverage now for our fantastic game.

[Cruncher]

If you want an insight into the mentality of football people, check out Sky News now.

According to one of their sports reporters, this is all Steve McLaren's fault because he was standing under an umbrella rather than running up and down the touchline.

As always, instead of admitting a collective responsibility that they all share for allowing htis situation to come about, they're going all out for a fall-guy.

[DaveO]

dawbz posted:
I'm not to sure about that, you can be certain that most if not all the Euro games will be televised and will still get a lot of media coverage.
What made me laugh this morning watching the news was England fans saying it's because we have too many foreign players over here ?,
is it me or are they (the fans) the ones who scream and shout for the likes of Ronaldo every week ? but yet when the England team do badly they want them sent home?. pathetic.

But that attitude is one we see in RL as well. I have argued for a long time about there being too many overseas layers in our game for exactly the reasons the England football fans are now saying the same thing. When I have argued this it has always amazed me some people see no problem with over 50% of the players running around in a round of SL being foreign.

Sepp Blatter of FIFA wants to restrict overseas players in soccer but is coming up against EC bureaucrats so I am hoping the new rules that the RFL are introducing to ensure a higher percentage of British players in the game are workable and legal.

If the England soccer fans have changed their tune about wanting less overseas players then good for them. It is about time they saw sense and the more British sport does this the better. RU is also in danger of having too many overseas players in the game as well.

It seems RL is leading the way once again in attempting to address this problem.

Dave

[DaveO]

Cruncher posted:
If you want an insight into the mentality of football people, check out Sky News now.

According to one of their sports reporters, this is all Steve McLaren's fault because he was standing under an umbrella rather than running up and down the touchline.

That was also mentioned on the BBC web site. I found it rather a strange thing to focus on! Apparently it showed the passion of the Croatians that that their coach didn't mind the rain while it said McLaren was lacking involvement or something like that.

Quite bizarre.

As always, instead of admitting a collective responsibility that they all share for allowing this situation to come about, they're going all out for a fall-guy.

He was always going to be the fall guy umbrella or not!

Dave