anothersaintinsouthsea

So Miliband didn't actually make a link to anti-apartheid protesters? If not then the answer to our Tory friend who posted the orginal question: no he hasn't shot himself in the foot.

but is he a good boss?

The Taylor Report was quite clear - standing itself wasn't the cause of the Hillsborough tragedy it was dreadful crowd management. If there could "easily be another disaster" then how come we don't hear about injuries and crushes at German football matches all the time? Standing in seated areas is less safe than standing in standing areas - there are no barriers to prevent people falling forwards other than shin high seats and other people. Plus you have very little freedom of movement and are unless you buy your tickets at the same time as a friend you're unlikely to be located next to them. Further standing in seated areas is a problem for those who prefer to sit.

The difference being that you don't have a ruddy seat to bang your shins on, no one behind you moaning at you to sit down plus as long as you and your mates can get tickets in the same area you can stand next to who please. Obviously you also don't have a steward telling you to sit down every five minutes.

Come 'ere, there's more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/mar/23/standing-terraces-campaign-tour-grounds

You'll need to go a lot further than Level 1 before you can make any money out of it, even then you'll need some good contacts in the game. I did my L1 course last year and did it with the Royal Navy FA (they welcome Civies). It was cheaper than the Hampshire FA course and was done during the week rather than split over evenings and weekends. The tutor was very good and made it as challenging as possible even though a lot of the course content is pretty obvious stuff for anyone who's played any standard of organised football. I've heard that some other tuturs in other FAs don't manage to do this and some complain that it was too easy/waste of time. I really enjoyed it and it was a great workout - on the pitches for several hours a day doing drills. The L1 is the qualification that loads of coaches have, anyone who is making any sort of money will have several more qualifications e.g. L2, L3 and the new Youth Award modules. check out http://www.soccercoachingforums.com/viewforum.php is it a forum for grassroot coaches, mainly volunteers and parent coaches but also some who work in Centres of Excellence/Academies, is good source of information and opinions.

I read somewhere that a safe standing area could increase capacity by 80% e.g. 180 could stand in the space previously taken up by 100. On this basis at SMS you could easily get capacity up to the high 30s by introducing safe standing to the lower halves of the Chapel and Northam.

Sorry if done already but couldn't see it. Appears that the authorities still don't want it but are less strongly opposed than in recent years. Can be accessed here: http://www.fsf.org.uk/petitions/safestanding.php Guardian blog on the issue: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/david-conn-inside-sport-blog/2011/mar/23/football-supporters-standing-zones-hillsborough

Dune is the one holding the pole.

brilliant

Enjoyed that, not seen it before, sums up what a ****ty rag the Mail is.

Mmmm, more democratic than some but not exactly democratic - 80% of the cabinet are members of the Royal Family and one of the two houses of parliament is appointed by the King. The Prime Minister is the King's uncle. The other house is elected by universal suffrage but only nationals are eligible to vote - over half the population are foreign guest workers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahrain

Despite the risks I just think the West should let them get on with it. We've got a dreadful record of influence, interference and indeed invasion, I fear we'd make things worse. The obvious example being the Iraq War but going back a bit further: would Iran be such a ****ed up place and so anti-West if we hadn't have helped prop up the Shah and then backed Saddam during the bloody Iran/Iraq War?

Sorry but a massive earthquake has hit, one of the strongest in living memory, and you make a point about News Networks being left wing in their reporting - that's a bit loony in my view. I don't understand how are the reporters "pouring on more misery"? I hear that William Hague and David Cameron have both made official statements sending the condolences to the Japanese people and expressing their sympathy for their suffering - the bloody lefties!

You are a loon.

Trousers is the new Dune. Change the record. Kerry Katona and Jordan.

Sounds good, I can bash the perspex back boards at SMS really quick to this, will make it even better

Like - Fields of Anfield Road sung by Liverpool.

After 3 pages the shock news is that same old right wingers think that Cameron is a relatively good PM and it was all Labour/Brown/Blairs fault, the same old left wingers still think Tories are ****s and that Cameron is a bellend, and Dune is still out of his depth using words containing more than 4 or 5 letters.

You should definitely go for the Prudential HSBC Amanah (sharia compliant) fund, right up your alley I'd have thought.

5 mins of my life I won't get back. I couldn't give a **** about Brighton or Bournemouth, as long as we go up I'm happy.

bloody socialist muslim lefties, this is political correctness gone mad. seriously, interesting article.

Yes but West Bromwich and Wolverhampton are places in their own right. Birmingham the City has a population of 1m before you included any of these other places http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham plus there are places like Sollihull and Sutton Coldfield (each with 100k) which don't have teams of their own and are much closer to Birmingham than any other professional club. Southampton meanwhile has city population of 234k with a Greater Southampton population of 305k http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southampton_Urban_Area - we averaged 30k in Premiership.....

Stubai Glacier near Innsbruck in Austria.

They didn't even sell out for their derby match against Villa or their League Cup semi against West Ham. Villa don't exactly get massive crowds either. Considering it is the second biggest City in the UK you'd have to say that it really underachieves football-wise.