The9

Anyway, residency rules (again) : http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/generic/01/66/54/21/fifastatutes2012e.pdf (PDF !) Article 5 : 1. Any person holding a permanent nationality that is not dependent on residence in a certain country is eligible to play for the representative teams of the Association of that country. 2. With the exception of the conditions specifi ed in article 8 below, any Player who has already participated in a match (either in full or in part) in an offi cial competition of any category or any type of football for one Association may not play an international match for a representative team of another Association. - Schneiderlin hasn't played any official matches for France so he's still, technically, able to play for another nation. But who ? Article 6 : Nationality entitling players to represent more than one Association - Schneiderlin as far as we know is only eligible for France. If he has German grandparentage or parentage this would be covered by points 1 b/c below. We know he was born in France (a) and has been resident in England (d). The key is that you must ALREADY have eligibility for another nation for the 2 year residency rule to be relevant. He doesn't have English elgibility so part (d) is irrelevant and he doesn't qualify under it. 1. A Player who, under the terms of art. 5, is eligible to represent more than one Association on account of his nationality, may play in an international match for one of these Associations only if, in addition to having the relevant nationality, he fulfi ls at least one of the following conditions: a) He was born on the territory of the relevant Association; b) His biological mother or biological father was born on the territory of the relevant Association; c) His grandmother or grandfather was born on the territory of the relevant Association; d) He has lived continuously on the territory of the relevant Association for at least two years. If however he chooses to take British nationality, section 7d (below) applies - but ONLY if he takes British nationality : Article 7 : Acquisition of a new nationality Any Player who refers to art. 5 par. 1 to assume a new nationality and who has not played international football in accordance with art. 5 par. 2 shall be eligible to play for the new representative team only if he fulfi ls one of the following conditions: a) He was born on the territory of the relevant Association; b) His biological mother or biological father was born on the territory of the relevant Association; c) His grandmother or grandfather was born on the territory of the relevant Association; d) He has lived continuously for at least fi ve years after reaching the age of 18 on the territory of the relevant Association. There are other sections about dual-eligible players changing nationality, but that wouldn't include England either. So, in short, unless he takes British nationality, he's not eligible even if he has lived here for over 5 years (and the 5 year residency applies only to England even if he gets British nationality, so he couldn't represent Scotland, Wales, NI unless there was an overriding agreement in place from the Home Nations to replace section 6.1 above agreed by the FIFA Exec Committee).

I had some vague notion as a kid of being told Strasbourg switched from French to German rule and back every 100 years in the sense of there being some kind of treaty, rather than just by virtue of war, but I can't find any evidence of that from a quick Google, so maybe my kid-brain misinterpreted it.

Interesting one based on the Bayern away. Is there a pinstriped template yet ?

Quick update on the club shop situation. Due to circumstance (and knowing I could get in and out in 15 minutes), I went to both the West Quay store and Megastore yesterday. Neither has currently got ANY item of home or away kit on display - in line with the adidas deal beginning on June 1. The West Quay store looks almost empty, there's no Umbro branding or kit pics left either, but no adidas stuff on display yet either. The Megastore is the same, though when I asked about the Umbro kit the guy working there said they "could sell me the home and away shirts" (from out the back) but they were still full price and they were definitely not going to be reduced. The implication was that they weren't able to sell shorts or socks for some reason - maybe they've already got a taker for that stock or they've already stocktaken it, who knows ? Anyway, nothing worth buying in either store, no reductions, and the only way to get the Umbro shirts if you want them (at the moment) is to pitch up at the ground and ask.

Anyway, I've just been outside, seems like a nice day.

I think paying £53 to go to Man City just to guarantee getting a ticket to Arsenal is more of that sort of thing, not sure it really relates to kit purchases, the club clearly doesn't give a toss about maximising their replica revenue or they wouldn't have left 8 month-old kit on sale at full price for the last month, or sold the yellow kit off cheap last year and not stocked it this season, etc.

I don't get that either, assuming they don't have 3 boxes full of football shirts in their garage and two on top of the wardrobe, like some people I could mention.

I pretty much agree with that. It's not always a logical thought process though, I haven't bought the away kit this season (which I like) because I don't like the home kit, which I own, but didn't buy from the club. In previous years I've also bought the shorts and socks for mix-and-matching at 5-a-side/training etc, this year I haven't bought any of it. But nevertheless I've had a current Saints kit to wear to matches, cos that's just what I do. Early in the season I was rotating retros for a couple of weeks, but I soon got bored of that and my mate won one so I bought it from him. But basically this season is the closest I get to a kit "protest". As for this adidas thing for 2013/14, if it's the West Ham away basically reversed, which seems likely, then I actually really like the design, though I hate it as a Saints kit. I've started wearing more adidas training stuff recently anyway with the Team GB stuff and I'll definitely get the black/gold away provided it doesn't look cheap, assuming that's what it is. I'm not sheeping it, I just find other reasons to justify buying it. Everyone needs a hobby, this is mine.

Not so keen on this Rapid Vienna template though (same as the West Ham away minus the pinstripes and underarm contrast), it needs contrast sleeves on both sides and that advert makes the aap3 and umbro flybe look subtle. The back must be plain green as well judging by the side panel colours :

Could use the same template as Basle (haven't seen their 2013/14 yet).

I'm not entirely against a halved kit or a sash kit every other year, I could even put up with the odd all red shirt, provided we wear stripes more often than not. This is frankly a significant climb-down on my part, but I was thinking about Lens kits the other day, and they've worn pretty much every combination of "sang et or" in the last 10 years - the difference being that "blood and gold" is a fairly unique colour scheme which is distinctive in itself, red and white is already the most popular colour combination in use, which is why a particular style or pattern is needed to provide the identity. As it is we're either Sunderland or Liverpool, at least Stoke are white shorts and socks. The halves would be unique, just as the sash is, both set in history and if we ARE going to "rebrand" away from stripes, those would be my preferences.

Isn't it ? I've spent all season wearing something I hate every other Saturday. On the bright side, I didn't pay the club a penny for it. Then again, as, if seems likely, they've hoiked all the Umbro kit without attempting to sell it off, they're not really bothered about appealing to fans with their merchandising anyway. I'll find out later, I'm going to West Quay so will take that opportunity to see what's in the club shop (assuming it's got anything in it now the adidas deal has started). And yes, I will be paying for parking, I'm actually going to SportsDirect to see if they have any random cheap kit on sale. I also have asked Granty to source me some cheap Brazilian stuff if he gets the chance, and had an England shirt BNWT delivered this morning that I got for under £10 on eBay. It's a curse, I tells ya.

Strange that, I remember another pinstripe apologist last season trying to claim "it was stripes", can't remember who it was... anyone ? Pinstripes are not stripes, Liverpool have never played in red and white stripes.

Yeah, they've only done that to use the light blue as an alternate to the white home shorts and socks, they'll probably play in all white most of the time where they can.

There are a few possible solutions here : http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2007-word/every-time-i-try-to-print-a-single-envelope-the/42618809-a4a2-45cd-9538-00df3d5d859d One of which is "Recent feedback suggests that this can occur if you have added a header/footer to the normal template. In any case renaming the normal template normal.dotm to normal.dotm.old should fix it".

Because Theo Walcott was the "leading English player in the Premier League last season", according to this article on England in Brazil ? http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2013/may/31/roy-hodgson-england-technique-brazil Suspect Frank Lampard and someone else might have something to say about that !

I don't think anyone's worrying, and I don't think anyone thinks it's going to happen (soon). It is an interesting hypothetical discussion though.

Point, counterpoint...

As we established on the Ramirez thread last summer, it depends on your font size, resolution or browser for page count, cos I'm on page 2235.

Yeah, when did Strasbourg stop switching countries every 100 years anyway ?

Won't be much point in putting the Bayern diamond weave pattern onto it though !

I'm sure he'd have stopped to measure the rooms.

You are so far off the mark with this it's unbelievable. They will all buy the blue away kit (assuming there is one), just like they did last season. None of them will buy a home shirt because they had the chance to decide the home shorts when they almost all hate the red shirts to begin with.

Pretty sure from what's been said so far that the West Ham away will be the same style as our home kit, if not both home and aways. That's the first of that template I've seen with only the underarm chevron (and not the arm piece) in the contrasting colour and that's exactly what I'm expecting. There's also a very subtle pinstripe, which I'm guessing could be our "stripes" get out again. Really like the West Ham shirts, classic and subtle. Would be a shame if we got dumped with some all red crap.

Cheers the trous, added to the list.