Official Football Thread

Our football is back since yesterday, 13 games left of the 2020 season. Rovers kick off in about 10 mins, first time since I can ever remember having to watch a home game on a stream/tv:lol:

There's hope that a limited number of social distanced fans will be allowed for the next game depending on a Government review next week.
 
Scottish teams are allowed to stream their home matches which are not on Sky. I just watched Dundee United vs St Johnston for £12.50. Pretty crap football as I expected and I wouldn't normally go to a football match anyway, but I'm happy to help out at the moment with the club struggling to make money at the moment without the matchday income.

At least the FA Cup final is on now. I'd prefer Arsenal to win but would at least like a good game of football which won't be as one-sided as last year's UEFA Cup final. The last Arsenal vs. Chelsea FA Cup final was the same day as Maidenfans 2017 in London. No Aaron Ramsey to win it for Arsenal this time and kill some celebrities as a result.
 
Our league have actually got their act together with streaming, I have to say fair play to them. It's €55 for all games of all teams for the rest of the season, free if you're a season ticket holder for any of the clubs. Obviously, with not being able to go to Rovers I'll be using the stream for Rovers games, but I also watched title rivals Dundalks game last night and if they keep up this streaming service next season I'll definitely buy it (presuming it won't be free for season ticket holders when covid is over). With being one of the only leagues in Europe with no TV money it could be a good way to bring a cash injection into the league.

Rovers 3-1 up at half time.
 
What a great way to end an otherwise nightmarish season for Arsenal. Credit to Arteta. I have some optimism for the future as an Arsenal fan for the first time in a while.

Also, Arteta has won more trophies in his first seven months as a manager than Spurs have in 12 years.
 
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Looks like Linfield could be getting a bye in the Champions League qualifying round as the team they are supposed to be playing has had players test positive for Covid. I suspect this won't be the last case of something like that happening.
 
There's no way UEFA and TV companies would allow a match to be forfeit if one of the big English, Spanish, Italian clubs were involved. Northern Ireland and Kosovo are fair game though.
 
Sure, the small teams in the qualifiers only get one-legged games because of covid :lol:

Imagine United or someone that size getting drawn away in a one legged qualifier and being knocked out
 
I hadn't realised that the qualifying rounds were one-legged for now.

Linfield are probably more than happy not to play that match. Those trips to South-East Europe in summer are really brutal and the facilities are not exactly great in some of these places. Scottish clubs generally lose money making those sort of trips and some people often call for a regional qualifying draw.

Kilmarnock still managed to lose to the Welsh club Connah's Quay Nomads in UEFA Cup Qualifying last year though. :facepalm:
 
Black Wizard said:
I hadn't realised that the qualifying rounds were one-legged for now.

Linfield are probably more than happy not to play that match. Those trips to South-East Europe in summer are really brutal and the facilities are not exactly great in some of these places. Scottish clubs generally lose money making those sort of trips and some people often call for a regional qualifying draw.

Kilmarnock still managed to lose to the Welsh club Connah's Quay Nomads in UEFA Cup Qualifying last year though. :facepalm:
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I'd be delighted if Rovers got a bye, significant prize money for doing fuck all. We got drawn at home against Tampere from Finland, happy enough with that.

I remember that Kilmarnock result, they drew Partizan in the next round and a fair amount of fans had already booked flights after winning the first leg away against Connah's Quay :lol:
 
srfc said:
I remember that Kilmarnock result, they drew Partizan in the next round and a fair amount of fans had already booked flights after winning the first leg away against Connah's Quay :lol:
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I didn't hear about the Killie fans buying tickets to Belgrade! :facepalm: There was a rumour one year that Manchester United booked a hotel in Cardiff for the FA Cup Final months in advance. They didn't make the final of course.

I have a friend who is a big Wolves fan and he was hoping to get Kilmarnock or The New Saints (Oswestry) in last year's UEFA Cup qualifying. I think he was quite content with a trip to Northern Ireland to play Crusaders. It would certainly have been a hell of a lot easier to organize at short notice that somewhere ridiculous like Kazakhstan or Armenia.

I was also hoping that Rangers would end up facing Cork City in last year's qualifiers just to see if the Rangers fans travelling down from Belfast would behave themselves. Sadly Cork didn't make it that far.
 
Black Wizard said:
I was also hoping that Rangers would end up facing Cork City in last year's qualifiers just to see if the Rangers fans travelling down from Belfast would behave themselves. Sadly Cork didn't make it that far.
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They played Boez in the 80's and there was murder at it, they also drew Shels in the mid 90's but the game was moved to Birkenhead as the police wouldn't let it go ahead in Dublin.
 
What are Boez and Shels? :huh: I seem to remember a Rangers match at Tranmere once though. Their fans are a bunch of thugs. It's twelve years since they rampaged through Manchester and they're still causing shit at away matches.
 
Shels are Shelbourne, that's the team they played at Tranmere's ground. Boez are Bohemians, our rivals.
 
So CL semis are likely to be:

PSG - owned by Qatar, which bribed its way to World Cup hosting, shrugged off dozens of workers dying while building stadiums for that World Cup, and is also a country in which homosexuality is illegal

RB Leipzig - a team with no fans, founded 11 years ago and owned by a global conglomerate

Bayern or Barcelona - two superclubs who at least have a tradition and actual fans, but...

Bayern is more sympathetic to me as they at least nurture young talents, but on the other hand poach a lot of them from other German teams, mostly for free
vs.
Barcelona who used to nurture young talents, but now just sell them off and buy players who don't fit but are 10x more expensive

most likely Manchester City - owned by UAE investors, another country with dubious laws where stoning people to death is legal, but homosexuality isn't

Lyon is really the most sympathetic team here, but I doubt they can get past Man City...

Sad and weak!
 
Night Prowler said:
Bayern is more sympathetic to me as they at least nurture young talents, but on the other hand poach a lot of them from other German teams, mostly for free
vs.
Barcelona who used to nurture young talent, but now just sell them off and buy players who don't fit but are 10x more expensive
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Combine these two clubs and you get Manchester United. The Red Devils indeed.
 
Manchester United doesn't poach young talent the way Bayern does; Bayern usually gets them to run down their contracts and then signs them for free. Or buys directly from competition. Bayern can easily get a player from any Bundesliga club, but Man Utd buying Liverpool or Man City players never happens. With Chelsea and Arsenal it's a bit more often, but apart from RVP it's rarely someone super important to either clubs.

Manchester United also has to pay loads of money to get these players. Also, since Fergie left, they've used a lot more players from the academy than the competition, and will use even more. Barcelona pretty much stopped promoting players since Pep left. Since then I don't think a single academy product broke into the starting lineup except maybe Sergi Roberto for a season or two.
 
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