Todays fitba

[maverick sheep]

Czech Rep 0-1 Lithuania latest score.

 

hmmm.

[TENEMENTFUNSTER]

10 mins left as well

 

 

Oooft. Saw it was 0-1 at HT, thought there would be a 2nd half rogering.

 

Hearts for qualification!!

[bilbobaggins]

it will certainly nae be us

[Tyrant]

Spain pumped 4-1 by the argies.

 

 

Makes me wonder why Holland didn't bother trying to play football rather than kick the fuck out of them.

[maverick sheep]

 

Makes me wonder why Holland didn't bother trying to play football rather than kick the fuck out of them.

 

Fair point but looking at the number of times Spain hit the woodwork against Argentina and Pepe Reina having a spaz attack for the third, it could have been a different scoreline. Argentina's attacking players piss all over the Dutch attacking players so if they'd opened up they may well have been diddled.

 

I have no doubt we'll go straight for the jugular when we play them... 

[glasgowdon]

LOL!

 

[dave_min]

LOL!

 

 

 

Can't wait for Osasuna to win against the Kings XI

[Kowalski]

:hammer:

[Kowalski]

 

Spanish football! 

[Kowalski]

Yet again Richard Keys showing his ignorance.  Trying to make an amusing quip  about Sir Alex's playing career and his apparent lack of goals - Keys needs to check some facts before coming out with some of his shite.

 

And he's just done it again! 

[capitalsharpie]

According to the hun pundits on bbc scotland anti-football is perfectly acceptable for the hun to keep a respectable score away from home.

 

How come when the same tactics are applied (who are much and such the same players) to scotland, negative tactics are not good enough.

[BobbyBiscuit]

According to the hun pundits on bbc scotland anti-football is perfectly acceptable for the hun to keep a respectable score away from home.

 

How come when the same tactics are applied (who are much and such the same players) to scotland, negative tactics are not good enough.

 

The same tactics are derided when it comes to teams going to Parkned and Iprix.

 

Yet again Richard Keys showing his ignorance.  Trying to make an amusing quip  about Sir Alex's playing career and his apparent lack of goals - Keys needs to check some facts before coming out with some of his shite.

 

And he's just done it again! 

 

Noticed that as well. Seems to be a popular ignorant opinion that Fergie was shite. He maybe wasn't the best at that time but he certainly scored goals.  Seems to be an over eagerness to lump him in with Mourinho and Wenger as "guys who were shit at football but brilliant managers". It's simply not true.

 

In sayin that Fergie got it wrong tonight.  I'm a big fan of Jason Park but only when United may be up against it. Gibson is never good enough for United ... he can't tackle, can't run and can't pass, he can shoot. Be as well playing a cannon beside Fletcher to be honest.  Rooney was way out of sorts and should have made way at half time. Hey ho.

[BobbyBiscuit]

Nice comment from the artist formerly known as Big Eck:

 

Sky showing sending off of Schalke player for a studs up challenge, Sky pundits discussing it, Souness saying it wasn't a red,

 

McLeish says; "is that not known as a Souness?" 

 

The truth often hurts and it seems it did this time.

[Harcus]

According to the hun pundits on bbc scotland anti-football is perfectly acceptable for the hun to keep a respectable score away from home.

 

How come when the same tactics are applied (who are much and such the same players) to scotland, negative tactics are not good enough.

 

Apparently Walter has no choice because of finances.

 

Rangers manager Walter Smith believes it has become almost impossible for teams from smaller nations to compete in the Champions League.

 

After a stuffy defensive performance in the goalless draw at Manchester United, Smith said: "Uefa are allowing a situation to develop that is wrong.

 

"Bigger clubs in smaller countries are being drastically affected by the lack of finance. It is difficult to compete.

 

"There has to be more opportunity. It's not just Scotland, but elsewhere, too."

 

And the veteran Ibrox manager added: "In Holland, Portugal and other countries, they are all suffering badly.

 

"They have next to no chance of winning the Champions League, the same as 85% of the English teams have no chance of winning their league."

 

 

 

Smith was responding to questions about Rangers' successful defensive tactics, where they fielded five at the back in a formation that limited United to a few half-chances, chiefly shots from outside the box by Darron Gibson.

 

"Rangers and Celtic have handled the situation in the Uefa Cup, but it's very difficult for us to compete in the Champions League with the financial disparity," continued Smith, in his final year of management before retiring.

 

"Scottish teams are not in the position we were once in, where we could compete to sign the best players in the British Isles, so we have to find a way to nullify the opposition as best as we can.

 

"It's down to a manager to try to find a way. Unfortunately, in any walk of life it is easier to stop someone doing something than it is to actually create it.

 

"We don't feel proud of the fact that we are doing it but there is nothing else left for us."

 

Last season Rangers' only Champions League points were earned on the road, at Stuttgart and Unirea Urziceni.

 

 

And Smith was evidently satisfied to have something to show from the visit to Old Trafford.

 

After the goalless draw, he said: "I am obviously pleased to get a point in our first Champions League game. We were always going to have to work very hard for it and I thought we did that.

 

"I'm pleased with the way my boys handled it. They showed determination and concentration throughout the game.

 

"We restricted Manchester United to very few clear-cut opportunities, which was pleasing.

 

"My boys do that extremely well. No team could work harder than they do in that sense."

 

Smith, however, felt that had his players shown greater care they might have done more to trouble Tomasz Kuszczak in the United goal.

 

"I'm a bit disappointed that at times we weren't tidy enough in terms of our overall possession," was his blunt assessment.

 

"With a little bit more care we might have had better opportunities."

 

The hypocrisy is stagerring.

[capitalsharpie]

In other words

 

No one wants to invest in scottish football (such as sky) because of the complete lack of competition in our league that the old firm have willingly created.

 

BTW re gordon smith's comments about our "co-efficient". Fuck our co-efficient. The old firm have been pissing this away for years. Why is it a concern now?

[capitalsharpie]

Indeed. I couldn't be arsed reading that whole article but Walter must have forgotten that the chumps league was actually a Rangers idea. They were so pissed off with getting pumped out of europe so early they put forward the idea of a league system to uefa.

 

So there would be more frequent Euro humpings?

 

Brilliant.

[Tyrant]

In other words

 

No one wants to invest in scottish football (such as sky) because of the complete lack of competition in our league that the old firm have willingly created.

 

BTW re gordon smith's comments about our "co-efficient". Fuck our co-efficient. The old firm have been pissing this away for years. Why is it a concern now?

 

 

Is it the lack of competition? There's virtually the same level of competition in England. I would have thought it was more down to the hopeless, horrible football that's on display week in week out?

 

The sooner the more skilful kids get picked ahead of taller ones the better. That's what's wrong with our game in a nut shell.

[Madbadteacher]

It's a PERCEIVED lack of competition.

 

To about 99% of non-Scots our football is just the o.f. and their "history".

[BobbyBiscuit]

It's a PERCEIVED lack of competition.

 

 

So you believe it's a competitive league then?

 

[Harcus]

Killie chairman says what we're all thinking -

 

RANGERS and Celtic have a better chance of winning the Champions League than any non-Old Firm club does of winning the Clydesdale Bank Premier League, claimed Michael Johnston, the Kilmarnock chairman, claimed last night.

 

Johnston had no sympathy for Walter Smith’s view that Uefa had loaded distribution of Champions League income heavily in favour of elite clubs at the expense of others such as the Old Firm, Ajax and Benfica. If that was true, said Johnston, the Old Firm were guilty of perpetuating the same scenario on their own doorstep in Scottish football.

 

Johnston called for a more equitable distribution of the Sky/ESPN broadcasting deal rather than the current split which is weighted heavily in favour of those clubs that finish first and second, ie nearly always the Old Firm. First and second places get almost a third of the entire income between them. The Glasgow clubs could afford to take a lesser amount given their much higher turnover, said Johnston, because it would benefit the 10 other clubs and create a more unpredictable and attractive domestic environment.

 

“The prospects of anyone else winning the SPL are probably even more unlikely than Rangers or Celtic winning the Champions League,” Johnston said. “It wouldn’t hurt them terribly to give up some of the top-loading that positions one and two have, to allow more money to be distributed further down the league.

 

“It doesn’t represent a huge percentage of their total revenues. We regularly see Rangers and Celtic featuring in the top 20 income earners in European football so we have two European giants on our doorstep. If they were prepared to be a bit more flexible on the financial distribution model it would certainly benefit the smaller clubs and it wouldn’t harm them to any great extent.”

 

But Johnston insisted the two clubs had their own agenda. “They don’t want to encourage too much competition in the SPL. As a business plan it’s fairly sound [for them], but it doesn’t do much for Scottish football, it doesn’t do much for the SPL, and the business of Celtic in particular talking about going to the Premier League is damaging for the SPL as a brand and doesn’t help build confidence in the product for sponsors or commercial activity. It’s frustrating for the other clubs to constantly have that debate opened up.

 

“We should be moving on to a more positive discussion about what can be done with the SPL and Scottish football to make it better with Rangers and Celtic in it.

 

“It would be nice if they adopted a slightly different approach and looked at how they could put something into the game in Scotland. They can help the top league become a more attractive proposition and make it more competitive with less predictable results and one-sided outcomes over the season. But to do that would mean they would have to give things up, and one of those things would be the virtual certainty of finishing first and second.”

 

Walter Smith responds -

 

Rangers manager Walter Smith has dismissed accusations of hypocrisy over claims of an increasing financial disparity within European football.

 

Smith said the difference in financial wherewithal forced him to employ defensive tactics in the Champions League to try to be competitive.

 

Smith's critics say Rangers and Celtic are guilty of creating a similar lackof competition in the SPL.

 

"There's no hypocrisy about it. That's the way it is," said Smith.

 

Kilmarnock chairman Michael Johnston told Friday's Herald newspaper the Old Firm were unwilling to create a more competitive environment in Scotland by allowing television revenue to be weighted less towards the top two.

 

Smith, though, says his argument could ultimately benefit clubs like Kilmarnock. He wants Uefa to provide a means for big clubs from "smaller" countries, like Scotland, the Netherlands and Portugal, to increase their financial muscle.

 

The Rangers manager confirmed the previously-mooted Atlantic League was a possible answer to the problems cited.

 

"While Uefa are making noises about trying to restrict those at the very top level, they're not offering those at the lower level an opportunity to gain extra finance that they're unable to do at home, and that's where they have to try to make the adjustment," said Smith.

 

Somebody, somewhere has got to do something to allow Scottish clubs, or clubs in smaller countries to gain a level of finance that's going to allow them to compete

 

Walter Smith

"It would be a benefit for him (Johnston) and his club if that was to happen, because it would then offer the opportunity for any Scottish team to venture into whatever league was formed.

 

"So he can say whatever he likes, and he says quite a lot, but the situation has developed and we've got to try to do something about it.

 

"If he's happy with the way Scottish football is at the moment, then he's in the wrong job. Was the Kilmarnock chairman one of the people who agreed to the Setanta deal?

 

"I don't know if he was or he wasn't. But if he was, why is he still in a decision-making position in Scotland? They had the chance to get the money from Sky and they didn't take it. They took Setanta and it was the wrong move and it's cost them a fortune.

 

"So if he's wanting to turn round and say there's hypocrisy from the statements I've made, he should maybe look at his own self more than anything."

 

Rangers opened their Champions League campaign with a goal-less draw against Manchester United on Tuesday and Smith responded to comments about his team's defensive tactics with the assertion that it was the only way to bridge the financial chasm that exists between the two clubs.

 

"Somebody, somewhere has got to do something to allow Scottish clubs, or clubs in smaller countries to gain a level of finance that's going to allow them to compete," added the former Scotland boss.

 

"Otherwise we get what we're getting at the moment, where people criticise our level of football, our co-efficient drops down, we don't get the numbers of teams competing in Europe.

 

"That's not happening simply because it's a poor standard. It's the financial aspects that are allowing clubs in England, especially if you look at Arsenal, to employ 10 foreign players out of 11.

 

"I think Uefa's responsibility is to try to equalise that around the countries in Europe, and I don't think they're taking that responsibility."

 

Celtic manager Neil Lennon described Rangers' midweek result as "a great point" and feels the Old Firm clubs' collective appeal justifies the way they are financially remunerated in the Scottish Premier League.

 

"I don't know how the money is divided up but what I will say is that the Old Firm are the main attraction in Scotland - one of the reasons why Sky put their money in," said Lennon.

 

"We're a big draw, not just in Britain but in Europe too and further afield. We do bring the biggest crowds to away grounds so we do add a lot to the SPL."

[Harcus]

Walter Smith really is an arsehole of a man. His response is "that's just the way it is". Hope Platini turns round and says the same thing. Surely to cuntery he can see the hypocrisy in this situation? No, that would involve a degree of humility from the Old Firm.

[glasgow sheep]

I got half way through "wattie's" response and gave up. What a fucking tool.

so UEFA should help promote one or two clubs in small countries because one or two clubs from big countries dominate dominate european competition.

FUCK OFF

 

He is right in that the Champions League has totally distorted european and national football.  If, however, he believes his crazy new idea (sic) will solve the mess UEFA have created his more stupid than I thought

[Stewart]

At least we only have a season of his ramblings left.

 

Until Sally makes an arse of it that is.

[Madbadteacher]

So you believe it's a competitive league then?

No.

 

That wasn't my point.

 

My point is just ask any enlander or foreign johnny to name more than two "scottish" footbal teams and they're fucked!

 

And I suspect that's EUFA's vision too

 

Insert Quote

At least we only have a season of his ramblings left.

 

Until Sally makes an arse of it that is.

 

Oh yeah.......he'll be the TV/Radio's darling pundit til he dies from bowel obstruction caused by Chick Young.

[BobbyBiscuit]

No.

 

That wasn't my point.

 

My point is just ask any enlander or foreign johnny to name more than two "scottish" footbal teams and they're fucked!

 

that's simply bollocks.