Robsk II

I am coming. yay! One other may turn up, but he won't let me know first if he does.

Young Enthusiastic Lacking

Right, I think I'm still in but there is a chance I won't be; one of my friends sisters has been involved in a bad car accident and I promised to take her to the hospital in portsmouth to see her etc. As such.. dunno how my day's going to go.

Is that a Paul Gadd protestor, with a press-censored sign?

I was wondering why you wrote that. How many fathers should walk around their child with a boner? :-|

Thank God.

That's a fairly good point Martini, but even then, growing up here you'd think there would be more uptake. I would still say there is interest, but.. yeah. it gets lost somewhere. I also know they have had / do have Muslim only leagues. Not entirely sure what I make of that. I suppose it could have a negative effect on quality in many ways, purely because the pool of coaches etc might be limited and the footballing culture would be different.

Coyr!

I think we're due a win. I think we'll get on the scoresheet today, maybe two goals, but a lot depends on whether the defence sort themselves out a bit. I can see 2-2 or 2-1 to us.

Woop!

Well, I guess that's dependent on how.. hmm. How devoted they are, to what level they practice Islam and their interpretations of it. It's certainly the case that a lot of Muslims in this country are more devout than many Christians, and their faith carries with it certain requirements that may impact on a footballing career, it's true. On the other hand - I've seen a good number of young muslim players who are very talented, passionate about the game, via my jobs. This includes some who are currently observing Ramadan. So.. there must be a problem somewhere along the line. I'm sure we'd see at least a few more home grown Muslim players otherwise. The same applies to other religions I guess.

Some would suggest this may be due to institutional racism or lack of opportunity etc. To support this fact, these players are all supposedly Muslim, some less practising than others, I suspect, and none are from England. - Omar Frederick Kanoute - Zinedine Yazid Zidane - Nicholas Anelka - Khalid Boulahrouz - Franck Bilal Ribery - Mohammed 'Momo' Sissoko - Radhi Abdel Majed Jaidi - Hossam Ghaly - Ahmed 'Mido' Hossam - Kolo Abib Toure - Yaya Toure - Vasiriky Abou Diaby - Mahamadou Diarra - El Hadji Diouf - Salomon Kalou - Nihat Kahveci - Diomansy Kamara - Samir Nasri - Zlatan Ibrahimovic - Hassan Salihamidzic

While I agree almost entirely with your post - I feel I should point out that Muslims have not been fasting for longer than Christianity existed. Islam stems from around the 7th century, whereas Christianity as a recognised faith can be traced to around the 1st century. The manager has every right to drop people who are not 100% fit to play. The fact that his observation of Ramadan has not prevented him from getting a contract shows that this is not a religious prejudice. It's merely pragmatic, and I sincerely hope the player recognises that. Anyone with religious convictions must be aware of how their faith may impact on their career etc and make decisions with this in mind. Equally, employers etc take people on in the knowledge (or should do) of the implications of a faith on their business, etc. If I said that my religion prevents me from working 3 days out of 5, no-one would employ me. It would not be because of what I believe, but because of the practical requirements of a job and common business sense. Sure, you may have a few Islamic fundamentalist nutters who fail to see reason, just as you will have a few bigoted idiots who will be stirred up by this sensationalism - but I hope most people do see this is a non issue. [Ah, OK, Vectis saint just got in first!]

At least she didn't give it to the Tories.

If you seek permission, at least.

no.

Interesting.

Lolscott.

It was weird. I can't say for sure, but I MIGHT have 2 extra.

Same boat Scott. I'll be playing before I buy. I did play the PC version, yeah, and it's always good because you can download patches pretty easily that do the whole thing. Editing is worth it for a good version, but it's always nicer to just go "click, fiddle a bit" and have "full licensing". In my case I got all the championship clubs etc, up to date teams and so on. So while I agree it was a let down, I would still say it had more longevity and variability etc than Fifa, and that's having played both. I'm not bad at PES anyway, but clobbering United 10-0 sort of.. yeah. Let's hope 09 is better.

Pending anything unforeseeable, I'm in.

Lol!

Despite not being a fanboy, I am clearly a g33k as I understood and loled at this reference.

Perhaps made up by the same think tank who developed the notorious pen island dot com.

Totall agree. You can turn a mediocre photograph into a good or interesting piece with editing, "ehancing", etc. Even quite simple tools. It remains valid as a product, but not as a photograph. The photo itself is the raw (RAW??) image, mise-en-scene and all that.