Smirking_Saint

Africa just don't have the funds to develop one of their own into a WC winning side in the short term, IMO. The Asian teams are also looking stronger and have more money to help improve the national team, the japanese league isn't a bad league TBF, i have seen a few games and i wasn't bored watching it, its quick and technical. Their teams are also organised and seem to play with a lot of passion and togetherness, something i think todays cash bloated stars lack (in all countries). USA will be a massive massive team in around 10 years i would believe, the national league is getting stronger and improving in technical ability and football is beginning to become a household sport over there, especially for the youth element who now participate in their droves. This linked with the fact that IMO they have a fantastic youth development programme that is the same sort of thing as the NFL in the MLS pick at the start of the season enables the lesser teams to get hold of the brighter talents... well... in essance anyways. This means unlike over here the young stars actually get competetive football.

Nice to see someone else sees my point of view

Your not Greek

Good idea

meat and two veg

Is there any chance that there can be some sort of alert when someone qoutes one of your posts instead of trawling through every thread to ensure nobody has asked you a question ?? Obviously this could annoy some people so a simple alert or not alert button could be included ??

But it depends in what context though doesn't it ?? And it depends how you describe the action and what other factors you choose to include or exclude. If i go to football, have a skinfull and cause incitement then yes, i am going to face the consequences. Don't get me wrong, i am no angel, and have been involved in enough scrapes etc, but esentially a public violent order offence will count against you for merely being involved with others throwing missiles etc and so you will essentially be getting similar sentances to standing next to someone. It looked ugly, it could have gotten more ugly, if they were really worried about their livelihoods then they would have thought twice.

Shaking a fence and so IMO causing threatening behaviour towards a group of already aggrivated people is in essance incitement to violence. So yes, the punishment is fitting. The consequences that are loosing livelihood etc are a not entity really.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/s/southampton/8565914.stm Forgive me if this has already been heard by a lot of you but i actually had not heard this particular snippet from our commander and chief. I think it clears up a few issues.

But that is not THE punishment is it, that is a consequence to the punishment, the punishment is the consequence to the action. Should the action have happened ? No, but it did. If i was in their situation i would be p*ssed off but it is what it is, the maximum sentance is 5 years. They were warned, they were WATCHED by the OB and filmed. There is no excuse. Is it harsh that someone that drinks 2 pints gets in his car and gets done for drink driving loses his licence and livelihood ? Yes, its harsh, but it is the punishment to the crime. Everyone is aware of that.

Yeah ok, the paper bit was a bit of a misguided comment really. As for the 12 months, in all honestly yeah it is a little harsh IMO. But these people will be out in under that time. Hopefully the time away allows them to rethink their direction and those at home them have let down. Do i feel sorry for their children and wives etc ? Yeah of course but TBH they walked past and made a conscious choice TO get involved, they could have walked away, could have walked past, but they didn't. How did the 30k odd others manage to do it ? Unfortunately football violence tends to draw higher sentances, and so it should. Was 12 months a tad harsh ? Yes, but then it was their choice to commit a crime and tbf the crime will carry a maximum sentance (5 years), the law cannot hand out higher sentances than that so it's not like they have not been warned. Unfortunately for every over sentancing there will always will a few slack sentances, look at the yoevil incident. It is what it is.

Going to prison was a bit harsh really. But then if you are really going to incite an already baited mass of equal idiots in full view of the OB and in doing so hurl objects randomly into a crowd of people to do no more than to cause damage to someone with no regard to who else is in the group of people then you really deserve to be punished. They'll be out in 5-6 months anyways.

True. I maintain both comments however Difference is i wouldn't tear up someones livelyhood and hurl objects in his direction as he was stood with other innocent parties that could include women and children, in front of the police and recording equipment. But heyho, that is a different thread.

The man in questioned said he looked forward to going toe to toe with the rival fans !! As much as i feel sorry for the 14 that may lose their jobs i don't feel sorry for him, or his son that also went down and has previous.

But that problem with this form of 'violent disorder' is that in can also looked at as incitement, the police IMO failed to adequately control it and could have easily avoided it, however they also managed to stop it escalating into something far far more serious. This is what was obviously taken into account when handing out the sentancing and rightly so. A fight in a street between two people for example is just more or less going to be contained. The problem when the same happens between two groups of people that share a common bond (football teams) is that more and more will be dragged into the ensuing violence. As much as the Echo have clearly watered down the charges you can see the sort of people that you are dealing with, as well as a couple which obviously got carried away and drawn into it (see above). Add to this the fact that they caused 30k of damage to the car dealership. I really can't see how anyone can defend these thugs.

If you really can't understand what i am implying is there any point in trying to explain ?

Great game, Pepe should have been sent off, petulant idiot, if he did that to me on a sunday i would have lamped him. Hate all of the play acting i have seen in the world cup so far.

Lol at this thread getting to 13 pages worth of pointless boll*cks. Anyone that actually believes these guys got 12 months for shaking a fence and perhaps throwing a coin is almost as f*cking moronic as the goons that have gone down for acting like tw*ts in full view of the police and cameras. Everyone knows that football violence carries harsher sentancing, and saying 'think about the people and their families etc' Boll*cks, i feel sorry for their families for being related to such a bunch of idiots, i don't feel sorry for someone that goes out and commits a crime, i wouldn't feel sorry for someone that lost their driving licence for being over the limit, i wouldn't feel sorry for someone that went down for throwing a punch in town when 'he is not normally like that' and i certainly don't feel for these guys. Hopefully a stint inside will make them actually THINK about their families, jobs etc themselves.

Hard luck mate, However i would never have touched Italy with a barge pole

Her ?

Boll*cks, players on both sides will be harbouring the old rivalry don't worry about that. get over yourself FFS

Always English first, British second

Bring the ****z on, this is the game we needed to bring out our best IMO. No point in just poncing through the whole tournament, we need a test. If we fail it then so be it, but if we win it then it should set us up. Rooney needs a few days off before sunday, he is jaded.

I tell you what, one player that has really really impressed me was the Argie LB last night. Thought he was fantastic. And Tshabalala for RSA was pretty good.

Gonna cost ya