Football Season 2012/2013

[Xanjori]

I dont understand how you can justify a "fine" of so little? I mean thats literally less than one players wage per week, its silly tiny amount.

[Demoncrash]

Do we really want Walcott though?

Personally, I'd rather see Vermaelen come over with all the defensive problems United has.

[Nerph-]

Personally, I'd rather see Vermaelen come over with all the defensive problems United has.

Some say he's been under-performing this season due to his ankle injury (it was his ankle, right?). Either way United need to do something in the defense department, I'm secretly hoping Ferguson brings in a defender at least in January.

[Northern Goblin]

Vidic is due back against Sunderland this weekend along with Evans, Kagawa and Nani.

Add to that the experience the younger defenders have been gaining playing a full strength Chelsea squad and a couple of matches in Europe, as well as the recent returns of Phil Jones and Chris Smalling. I think the back four is pretty solid, if anything is needed it's a world class replacement for Ferdinand come the end of the season.

---------- Post added 2012-12-14 at 01:01 PM ----------

£65,000 for Serbia, and £80,000 for Bentdner. So wearing sponsored underpants is worse than a race riot. Good job UEFA

The Bentdner fine was because he profited from rule breaking, makes sense to hit his wallet because it was where he gained.

Serbia still should have been fined more, other nations have been threatened with international tournament bans for less.

[laffling]

One day things will change and FIFA and UEFA actually dish out the bans/fines the teams/players actually deserve

[koodledrum]

if that ever happens the players/teams involved will go to court to stop it happening, that fine for Serbia is a joke but lets be honest, they were never going to do what SHOULD have happened and tossed them out of qualifying for the next 2 tournaments, only when you start doing that will you start to see impact.

[Xanjori]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20727929

Messi clearly overrated, still over 20 goals behind the goal scoring record!

Also the other guy wins points for being in a suit and looking awesome.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

Until they start banning national teams from competing in internationals or suspend/expulse them from UEFA and FIFA, they won't change a damn thing. Making them play to an empty stadium is just as much a punishment for the other side as it is for the offending team. Should be made to play in a non-domestic stadium with the spectator ranks stacked with supporters of the other team.

80000 euro fines are nothing. That's like being fined 10 euros for parking in the wrong spot. Fines need to be in the hundreds of thousands or even millions to have any effect on clubs and national associations.

To put this into context:

For getting into the PLAY-OFFs of the Champions League, a team gets €2.1M
For qualifying for the UEFA Champion's League each team gets €3M, and another €550,000 for each group match. A win nets the team €860,000 and you get €440,000 for a draw.
For getting through the group stage, that prize money goes up to €4M

In the 2010-11 CL, Manchester Utd (who came second place) got over €27M prize money. Barcelona (who won it) got nearly €31M prize money.

Prize money for International competitions (European Cup, World Cup) is similar in magnitude.

Just by getting to a play-off game for a major tournament, a team could afford over 20 €80,000 fines for racism.

[koodledrum]

I'm reminded of Marco Negri, played for Rangers in the late 90's & scored something silly like 25 goals before Christmas in his first season whenever discussing Messi's goalscoring, was on pace to score 60 for the campaign before suffering an eye injury "playing squash" with team mate Sergio Porrini - rumour has it Porrini smacked him for shagging his wife. After that blistering start finished up with 32 goals for Rangers over 4 seasons after missing a year with a "flesh eating bug" - then again, scoring a ton of goals in the SPL isn't exactly difficult, christ Messi would be sitting on well over a hundred if he was playing in this league!

[Northern Goblin]

Forgot my City/Newcastle predictions today, but it seems I'm right on the money about United and Sunderland. It's going to be a very long day for the Mackems.

[Nerph-]

Manchester United looking strong this match, lots of good chances and the ball is being played around well, especially in the midfield. Hope we can keep this kind of form going!

[Northern Goblin]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20738952

Don't take anything from this, but if Blatter starts to take the hard stance, it'll be a welcome one to see.

---------- Post added 2012-12-15 at 04:08 PM ----------

Also what the hell is going on at Anfield, I expected Liverpool to have that one wrapped up.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

Another win for the Canaries' tally, 7th in the league! Who'd have thought that after the first half-dozen games?

[koodledrum]

I wouldn't trust Blatter far as I could throw him, man's as up to his neck in the issues at FIFA as it gets and has proven himself to be absolutely useless - I mean this is the man who suggested women footballers should wear tighter shorts & low cut shirts to make the game better to watch....

fail.

[Deleted]

QPR not looking so doomed after today looks like Harry might be coming through as a good choice for fernandes, Fulham were outplayed today and if not for Cisse being so greedy and afraid to score simple goals inside the box rather than shooting from 40 yards all the time we could have had 5 or 6, Taarabt showing the class that got QPR promoted to the prem finally, COME ON YOU R's.

[Northern Goblin]

And that's why I like David Moyes, straight out said his player was wrong and expects to be punished.

Take Fellani out your fantasy teams for the next few weeks guys.

[koodledrum]

4-2 win for us today away at Montrose on a plastic pitch, result flatters a little (Montrose hit the woodwork twice) but 3 points in the bag is always good. Starting to get a little fed up of looking through SPL reports and seeing the crowd figures though, we've had two chairmen in the press over the last few weeks essentially saying "listen, if you don't come to matches we're screwed" yet still piss poor attendances. There were two SPL games today which had a smaller attendance than ours, now I don't have any sympathy for them, but when you see that happening it's soul destroying for anyone who loves football - we're not even talking Rangers playing at Ibrox, we're talking Rangers playing in some sunday league "stadium" outselling two matches in Scotland's top flight.

[Deleted]

Another win for the Canaries' tally, 7th in the league! Who'd have thought that after the first half-dozen games?

10 unbeaten for you lot, doing rather well. I think you will stay up and I bet thats all you wanted at the begining of the season.

---------- Post added 2012-12-15 at 06:26 PM ----------

The Goon that is Fellaini, I called him it before and got slated and he raised his head today. He should have seen red on multiple occassions.

[koodledrum]

Christ almighty that's terrible (more terrible given he didn't do it to Jamie Ness who I would suggest deserves it) I agree with Fengore, he's not gonna be helping anyone's fantasy side this side of 2013 after that!

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

10 unbeaten for you lot, doing rather well. I think you will stay up and I bet thats all you wanted at the begining of the season.

At the beginning of the season I thought we'd be left behind in the relegation zone with no hope of salvation, but now...we are effectively 1 point away from a Champion's League play-off place (and which positions go into the UEFA cup - or whatever they call it nowadays?)