tom_widdows

Uninspiring draw. Really wish it had been away for the novelty. Tic away at Partick Sevco home against the mighty Stranraer (well obviously giving them a non league team at home would looke too suspiscious) Arabs vs hibs seems to be the 'tie of the round'

Oh for Fuck sake.

Queens Park plans to redevelop Lesser Hampden https://www.urbanrealm.com/news/8440/Queens_Park_FC_pitch_stadium_improvement_plan.html

Copa Libertadores final was pretty uneventful til the last 5mins River Plate were 1-0 up from the 14th minute and Flamengo couldnt get anything organised They equalised in the 89th minute and then 2mins into injury time scored the winner. Both teams then had a player sent off (including the scorer of the winning goal). Glad River plate lost. Just don't like them for some reason. Great old style South American stadium in Lima too

I would fucking love to see the latter just to see how the local tories reacted.

We'd like to think so but I bet they give it to Iceland given they are the only Group A team not to qualify automatically. St Petersburg stadium potentiually changed to Millenium Stadium rather than stockholm as the former has slightly larger capacity that the russian venue. Stockholm stadium would see 14000 seats per match lost

According to BBC if by some miracle Scotland qualify we would be put in the same group as England-shire and have to play them at wembley with the 2 other group games at hampden. However there is some 'disclaimer' if Hungary or Romania end up in the group C playoffs which states the winner of the Group C would actually be put into two finals groups with the final group place being decided by a random draw. This is because there would be two host nations in the same play off group. Same scenario seems to be possible in the Group A and B playoffs. Playoff format not exactly kind to the fans given there is a 5 day gap between the semis and finals leading to some expensive travel for the 'away' nations

Liverpool just ended their interest in Mbappe.......

Update following today's games Qualfied so far England-shire Czech Republic Ukraine Spain Sweden Poland France Turkey Belgium Russia Italy Finland (First ever major finals) Germany Netherlands Austria Croatia Portugal Switzerland Denmark Wales Current Playoff contendors [Group A: Iceland, 2 from (Bulgaria/Israel/Romania), 1 from (Hungary/Slovakia/Republic of Ireland/Northern Ireland) Group B: Bosnia and Herzegovina, 3 from (Hungary/Slovakia/Republic of Ireland/Northern Ireland) Group C: Scotland, Norway, Serbia, 1 from (Bulgaria/Israel/Romania/ Hungary) Group D: Georgia, North Macedonia,Kosovo, Belarus It appears Scotland will end up playing either Bulgaria, Israel or Romania in the Semis

Their fans showing some charm today by fighting with scottish and welsh police today in the home section at Ibrox.

Easy Scotland have one more competitive home game. Then we wait about 6months till the next one

So starting to get the final line up. Qualfied so far England-shire Czech Republic Ukraine Spain Sweden Poland France Turkey Belgium Russia Italy Finland (First ever major finals) Possible teams for automatic qualification Portugal or Serbia (Probably Portugal as they are away to Luxembourg in final game) 2 from (Netherlands, Germany or Northern Ireland) 2 from (Denmark, Switzerland or Rep. of Ireland) 2 from (Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia or Wales) 1 from (Austria, North Macedonia, Slovenia or Israel) Current Playoff contendors Group A: Iceland, 2 from (Bulgaria/Israel/Romania), 1 from (Wales/Slovakia/Republic of Ireland/Northern Ireland) Group B: Bosnia and Herzegovina, 3 from (Wales/Slovakia/Republic of Ireland/Northern Ireland) Group C: Scotland, Norway, Serbia, 1 from (Bulgaria/Israel/Romania) Group D: Georgia, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Belarus Teams in Bold are guaranteed a playoff spot Some places will be determined by a random draw At the moment Scotland and Norway are best ranked teams in group C so will have home draws in the semi finals. Have to say I'm hoping for Bulgaria in the Semis

Stuart Mcaull to Hearts?

Right city, wrong club https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/50427779

setting the foundations for claiming Celtics 10(minimum) in a row doesn't count? Really hope Wrexham's reserves stuff them on Saturday. Wrexham had apparenlty sold over 750 tickets from a 1100 allocation as of yesterday.

Skye is now actually part of Ross & Cromarty.

Maybe its just a different mindset. Lot of people I went to school with grew up supporting other teams but have since changed to Ross County. Many did it after moving to Glasgow/ Edinburgh etc and experiencing much more of the baggage their former teams carried. I'll admit now I find myself drifting more towards Ross County and actually think Ive been to more County games than Dons matches in the last couple of years.

Population is about 5500 The key being the name of the club Ross County Ross and Cromarty population is about 50,000. Had Inverness Thistle gotten into the league back in 1974 or they just picked either them or Caley instead of amalgamating them back in 1994 then I reckon there would be much healthier crowds on the other side of the Kessock. County do so much (or at least used to when I was growing up) for schools and kids football around the highlands which probably helps so much with them attracting new fans.

Unless the height detailed in the applicaiton was as a result of initial discussions with the Planners then we can't actually establish if there is a formal 21m restriction on the site. Once you put dimensions on a planning drawing/ statement you are legally bound by them (there is a little bit of lee-way (mm)) so ideally at planning stage you want to leave yourself a bit of leeway by designing slightly bigger than is required. I'm a bit concerned at the suggestion the 21m might now be an issue when it is something that could and indeed should have been sorted before the application was submitted.

You need an additional separate Planning application if you wish to remove or change a condition(s) on an approved permission. This of course allows for new objections from neighbours and/or the general public so you would need to have a fairly detailed justification to apply for it. I've only skim read the planning documents and conditions but I didnt see anything about height restrictions and it seems bizarre to impose such a measure on a site in a semi-rural location. If the site was in the city centre or an established built up area i could understand it. Only mention of heights seems to be raising the ground levels to avoid potential flood issues. Does anyone have a link to a document which mentions this height restriction?

In my experience when you have height restrictions (be it for planning or building warrant purposes) the height is measured from the lowest external ground level in relation to the building ie if your site is on a small hill you wont get away with taking the measurement from the elevation which faces uphill. Whether or not restriction is just to the roof surface or includes cantilevered trusses etc I don't know as I have yet to work on an actual stadium (although my current employers have done one in the past) A trick to get around this could be to sink the pitch below ground level like Hampden partly is, however to do that on all 4 sides to the extent hampden is would push up the costs significantly and probably not feasible for club stadiums under a 40000 capacity. As for the gradient as I understand it the steepest you can have under Scottish Building regulations would be 34degrees (Tynecastle Wheatfield stand closest example). Once you go over that your stairs are too steep to be permitted for the general public (Stairs in private houses can go to 42degrees). If the pitch was built exactly at finished ground level at 34degrees it should be possible to get 30 rows of seating but that would be based on the roof surface being the level the height restriction applied to and not any cantilevered trusses. I have a rough cad section of a 34degree stand and one the length of the South or Main should get about 6000 seats with a goal end getting around 4000 which would of course = 20,000. I personally feel future permanant expansion is something that should be forgotten about. Any chance of a major sports tournament being hosted in Scotland is dead under the current FIFA/ UEFA capitalist wet dream but if by some miracle it did become a reality the best chance I reckon would be for temporary additional tiers to be added. That is something that is potentially sellable to planners as the benefits to the local area would outweigh the temporary disruption to the landscape.

I've only been in tory glen but the Aberdeen Sports village supposedly cost circa £28million. Toryglen certainly isnt freezing in the winter. Anyway estimated sizes based on 105m x 68m pitch 370m x 3m of blockwork (with steel windposts) Steel portal frame with pitched or barrel roof shape at a height which allows for an actual match to be played (15m?) 370m x up to 15m External cladding. This will need to have some form of insulation properties to maintain frost protection and prevent the building turning into a greenhouse in summer. Also need to be tough enough to withstand footballs being kicked against it, vandalisms, the salt content in the air, bird shite etc. 110m x 80m roof (composite cladding panels?) with deep flow surface water drainage. 74m x 110m reinforced concrete floor slab with suitable gas membrane protection (given what they dug out of that size). Cross flow ventilation system (passive or mechanical) to prevent condensation build up and over heating. Indoor flood lighting system Surrounding infrastructure for servicing/ maintenance. For building warrants a rough guide has the cheapest price per m2 for non-domestic buildings is £185 for general agricultrural buildings. The building ive described above is 8140m2 so if it was classed as a farm shed etc it would cost £1,505,900.00. The next cheapest price in the guide is £609 per m2 for warehouses.

Building control wont allow a basic breezeblock construction and hopefully neither would the club. Its not a case of just building a garage around a pitch. Full size modern articifial pitch completely enclosed in modern energy efficient structure with the required M&E/ lighting/fire alarm systems etc, Changing facilities & equipment store (no point players getting changed in one building then getting soaked walking across to the indoor pitch). £300k might get you a 5-a side one but I doubt you will get anything close to an 11-aside one for less than £3million. Ideally the indoor pitch should have been part of the current indoor facilities. Toryglen centre in Glasgow (1 indoor & 3 outdoor 11-aside astroturf, plus 2 smaller training pitches, and 3no 7 a side grass) apparenlty cost circa £17million back in 2006 although that does include a 700 capacity stand for supporters.

Its currently on BBC Alba Bizarre seeing the Kilie goalie trying to pretend the 2nd goal hadnt crossed the line when he palmed the ball off the underside of the net before catching it.