Whitey Grandad

Because it crowds the football programme and leads for calls for smaller leagues. Why can't they be played midweek?

That is the problem. These international weekends take up slots in the footballing calendar. Some of us are old enough to remember when internationals were always played midweek.

I don’t know if we’ve had this before?

I think the problem with the return of Bednarek was that he hadn’t been playing regularly and wasn’t up to speed and that he was introduced into a team of players with whom he hadn’t trained or played before. He was a rusty stranger.

Everybody knows where the borders are. They are internationally agreed. The real question is when will Russia accepts that it’s attempt at stealing land has failed.

Indeed it is. I was in a bar in Vermont one evening and I asked the bartender what the fans thought of such a thing. ”They’re pissed off”

There doesn’t have to be any contact for it to be a foul. The wording is “kicks or attempts to kick” and similar. Having said that, this incident didn’t seem too bad.

Thanks for that, very interesting. When I used to referee it was a Sunday morning and apart from the two teams there were only a couple of spectators. I always tried to be genuinely fair and even handed but I know I made some bad mistakes and they still haunt me now. Many people think that referees are useless but a competitive game without one is not possible. The players themselves are important in the way that they approach the game and some are a joy to referee but when big money gets involved dishonesty rears its ugly head.

Was that the 3-3 with the pitch invasion and the Ken Monkou own goal?

That shows the value of the loan mechanisms. We breed success, just not for our first team.

One of my last games that I refereed was a cup game down at Hamble and I was asked to sign a form before the game so that he could play. Considering his history he should have been dominating midfield but he just spent the game niggling and moaning. Your recollection of him would explain his body shape at the time. I have other stories about him from this game and some from a ‘proper’ referee that can wait for another time. There were other ex professionals in the same team who were a model of delight to referee. Quite an eye opener.

I think all his colleagues were male so that would make 90 seconds each.

In the 1950s my dad worked in a British Railways telegrah office and on his wall was a four minute warning siren triggered by the radar system at Fylingdales. I don't know what he was supposed to do in four minutes. Not even enough time to unlock his bike.

He made the rules. He should have known what they meant. Perhaps if he had turned up to one of the meetings he would have had a better understanding of wht he authorised. Ignorance r incompetence or perhaps both. Whatever, he carries the can.

Well I know I’m not one of those. Do you have any answer to my question?

Ideal government material I would have thought.

We are bottom of the table because of the cumulative result of what happened before our recent best run in a long time. The crucial part there is “in a long time”. We are picking up more points but have probably left it too late to pull out of trouble.

It’s not about rewarding anybody it’s about winning games and qualifying.

It’s quite a complicated system to administer and need to be simplified but in general I agree with your point.

Their pension pots won’t suddenly start growing. Not least because they don’t typically have a pension pot. It’s to do with the way that their pensions are evaluated.

Black

He would never have got there in time. He might just have got in Kane's face but I doubt it. Two defenders and one attacker wasn't it? And it was more than 4/5 yards out.

Your words, not mine

And the word ‘hero’ ‘Food heroes’ for goodness sake. It’s an insult to all those real heroes and heroines.

For a first offence.