Re: The Football Chat Thread : Thu Dec 02, 2010 12:50 pm  

faxtastic wrote:

it does'nt exactly help us though does it.

i think that it will have some influence though, violence at a football match the night before the vote,

Spain are a rival bidder, Barcalona and Real Madrid the 2 biggest rivals in Spain met on monday and i have not heard of any violence off the pitch between rival fans

Obviously they can't cause trouble in the ground because of Fenses up around grounds in Spain to stop pitch invasions. outside the ground though from what i heard there didnt seem to be any bother between both sets of fans.

Not sure if you watch much Russian football mate, but did you not read about the Zenit fans before the game against Hajduk? Hooligans attacking a hotel full of Croats, I remember reading the fans reasoned something like “Serbs are our brothers and Croats hate them” as their reasons for doing it.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Thu Dec 02, 2010 12:55 pm  

just watched the game from last night. Iknow Mancini thinks Johnson needs sorting off the pitch but on it theres no doubt hes class give us real width. I dont think he will play Barry this saturday i think he will go with Johnson and Milner on the flanks with just De Jong and Toure in the middle. Balotelli is class theres no doubt about him the way he plays is effortless and the 1st goal was a awesome finish. I dont think its a lack of commitment from him just that he makes it look so easy, the problem is keeping him on the pitch if we can do that hes easily 1 of the 5 best strikers in the prem

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Thu Dec 02, 2010 1:57 pm  

richardviking wrote:

The racist element may not help Russia.

Like FIFA give a monkeys about racists. (pun intended)

How much did Spain get fined again for all the racist abuse the England players took over there?

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Thu Dec 02, 2010 2:02 pm  

In the last 36 hrs the England big has really gone into overdrive and I would say we are favourites right now.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Thu Dec 02, 2010 2:10 pm  

richardviking wrote:

The racist element may not help Russia.

FWIW I can't believe Russia are the favourites, having watched the feature on them on Sky News yesterday. There are 'plans' for improvements to their rail network, but half of the host cities won't even be connected via rail links come 2018.

England's bid has been favourite for around 24 hours now, England are odds on to win the vote.

England 8/13
Russia 9/4
Spain & Portugal 5/1
Holland/Belgium 50/1

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Thu Dec 02, 2010 2:15 pm  

When someone was bitching about SA hosting the World Cup I did a little digging to see what the attendances were like for the Euro we hosted. From memory our European Cup tournament was the best attended there had been.

That fact, along with the fact that we could host a World Cup right now with the stadia we have, should mean England will get it.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Thu Dec 02, 2010 3:02 pm  

Are all biddings for world cups this farcicle (sp)? Seems whenever England are involved in anything it adds to the circus factor about 1000%

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Thu Dec 02, 2010 3:07 pm  

100% Wire wrote:

Are all biddings for world cups this farcicle (sp)? Seems whenever England are involved in anything it adds to the circus factor about 1000%

What's farcical about it?

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Thu Dec 02, 2010 3:15 pm  

100% Wire wrote:

Are all biddings for world cups this farcicle (sp)? Seems whenever England are involved in anything it adds to the circus factor about 1000%

Only in this country, no one else gives a flying fig about us. Our media go into hyper mode, then cry and bitch when their unrealistic expectations aren't matched by reality.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Thu Dec 02, 2010 3:17 pm  

Billinge_Lump wrote:

Only in this country, no one else gives a flying fig about us. Our media go into hyper mode, then cry and bitch when their unrealistic expectations aren't matched by reality.

Hosting the 2018 World Cup isn't an unrealistic expectation though.