World Cup 2026

[Sheaf Saint]

9 minutes ago, Convict Colony said:

Am looking forward more to Babalyon v Norðrvegr and Manchuria v New Spain this week some great games.

Have Abyssinia qualified?

What about Ceylon?

[Badger]

17 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

Have Abyssinia qualified?

What about Ceylon?

Were they in the same qualifying group as Formosa ? 

[spyinthesky]

1 minute ago, Badger said:

Were they in the same qualifying group as Formosa ? 

or Van Dieman's Land?

[Badger]

1 minute ago, spyinthesky said:

or Van Dieman's Land?

Isn’t that conflicted as he was playing for Netherlands the other night ? 

[SNSUN]

Cracker of a game coming up at 8. I also hope to be awake for the Norway game and the Argentina game but I think I'll give Austria vs Jordan at 5am a miss. 

[East Kent Saint]

4 hours ago, John Boy Saint said:

Didn't the Maoris originate from South America or was it the other way round - there is something linking the Inca and Maori language I read or watched somewhere, and something from when I was at school, just as colour was coming in, about the Kon-Tiki sailing the possible route? Might have been them Polynesians - they got everywhere in that part of the world until the bloody Spanish gave them a cold! 

The Marois came from the East Polynesian islands . There was a story that there was an ancient people in NZ before them but that has been disproved . 

There is a lot we don't actually know there is thought that the Vikings got to America years before Columbus got to the Caribbean etc . As for immigration we are all of immigrate stock if you haven't decended from the Celts and all of America are immigrants apart from the Native Americans and there were some people there before them in some parts !

[Baird of the land]

Var officials looked very awkward, making sure there’s no chance of hand drama.

[Sheaf Saint]

Senegal looking pretty decent so far.

[Lord Duckhunter]

5 hours ago, suewhistle said:

Is Lord Duckhunter a parody account? Like that comedian The Pub Landlord?

If you don’t think George Best, Brian Clough & Greavsie are more qualified than the half wits, vanilla yes persons & assorted diversity hires currently dumbing down football punditry, than maybe it’s yours which is the parody account.

[S-Clarke]

7 hours ago, Saint86 said:

James Bree's moment? 
 

Why the fuck have we replaced him with Chalobah? 

Gutted for Tino, but this will be the story of his career.

[vectraman]

2 hours ago, pingpong said:

Do you still call Netherlands Holland? How do you think persia will do this time round?  

 

It is Holland to me and always will be! If I get on a plane at Southampton airport to go to Amsterdam for a good weekend, I’m going to Holland. Nobody I know calls it the Netherlands in everyday speech. 
Iran will always be Iran because Persia was before my time. 
Ceylon became Sri Lanka and is Sri Lanka to me.

[trousers]

2 minutes ago, vectraman said:

If I get on a plane at Southampton airport to go to Amsterdam for a good weekend, I’m going to Holland.

Correct. Amsterdam is indeed in Holland (North Holland, to be precise) 👍🏻

[Turkish]

17 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

If you don’t think George Best, Brian Clough & Greavsie are more qualified than the half wits, vanilla yes persons & assorted diversity hires currently dumbing down football punditry, than maybe it’s yours which is the parody account.

Remember who posted it, everyone she doesn’t agree with is a wanker or a wind up merchant 

[Turkish]

26 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

Senegal looking pretty decent so far.

Final ball from both teams is poor

[Holmes_and_Watson]

20 minutes ago, vectraman said:

It is Holland to me and always will be! If I get on a plane at Southampton airport to go to Amsterdam for a good weekend, I’m going to Holland. Nobody I know calls it the Netherlands in everyday speech. 
Iran will always be Iran because Persia was before my time. 
Ceylon became Sri Lanka and is Sri Lanka to me.

If you've a match in Constantinople
It's in Istanbul, not Constantinople
So if you've a ticket to Constantinople
The game will be in Istanbul

Football travel advice from They Might Be Giants

[Turkish]

26 minutes ago, vectraman said:

It is Holland to me and always will be! If I get on a plane at Southampton airport to go to Amsterdam for a good weekend, I’m going to Holland. Nobody I know calls it the Netherlands in everyday speech. 
Iran will always be Iran because Persia was before my time. 
Ceylon became Sri Lanka and is Sri Lanka to me.

It should be Netherlands Holland is only two provinces in the country of Netherlands, they were historically the wealthiest ones. but it’s only the last 5 or so years the Netherlands have insisted on being called the Netherlands 

Edited 1 hour ago by Turkish

[East Kent Saint]

I’ve been shouted down for saying it’s a poor match , multi million pound players who can’t even pass the ball to one of their own teammates !

[trousers]

Why the f*** does a team get penalised when one of their players is genuinely fouled and has to go off for 1 minute? How the f*** is that 'fair'...?

[AlexLaw76]

28 minutes ago, vectraman said:

It is Holland to me and always will be! If I get on a plane at Southampton airport to go to Amsterdam for a good weekend, I’m going to Holland. Nobody I know calls it the Netherlands in everyday speech. 
Iran will always be Iran because Persia was before my time. 
Ceylon became Sri Lanka and is Sri Lanka to me.

That may be so, but what ever you do, do not be a biggot and call Türkiye, Turkey

 

[vectraman]

1 minute ago, AlexLaw76 said:

That may be so, but what ever you do, do not be a biggot and call Türkiye, Turkey

 

Be afraid, Turkey is and always will be Turkey!

Turkiye my arse! If I was Turkish fair enough (as in from Turkey, not the legendary Saintsweb poster) but I’m English so it is Turkey. End of!

[skintsaint]

That's some miss right on HT.

[Sheaf Saint]

1 hour ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

If you don’t think George Best, Brian Clough & Greavsie are more qualified than the half wits, vanilla yes persons & assorted diversity hires currently dumbing down football punditry, than maybe it’s yours which is the parody account.

In your opinion. Personally I couldn't stand Greavesie, and as knowledgeable as Clough was he wasn't exactly the most eloquent. Can't say I really remember Best as a pundit though.

You may lament the fact that football has moved on from being the exclusive domain of working class white men, but that's the reality of it. Those three were undoubtedly well qualified from their playing / managing careers to comment on football as it was in 1982, but football has changed since then and is now enjoyed by a much wider audience. It's time you dealt with that. 

And on a final note - I'm just watching the HT discussion on the France v Senegal game, including Wayne Rooney and Olivier Giroud. They were both absolutely brilliant on the pitch, clearly as well 'qualified' as Best and Greavesie, but they're terrible pundits.

Edited 14 minutes ago by Sheaf Saint

[RedArmy]

This France team on paper is ridiculously good. 
 

Put them on a pitch and they seem to play as 11 individuals, though. 

[AlexLaw76]

Penalty, surely

[Stripey McStripe Shirt]

Pitch seems pretty poor quality for a World Cup. Also not convinced it's been mown to strict Fifa standards with the lines.

Stonewall penalty.

[Stripey McStripe Shirt]

Why did that take so long. It was the most obvious penalty I've ever seen.

[Lighthouse]

Calling countries by their actual names is bloody woke nonsense. Bring back fixtures I’m familiar with.

Yugoslavia vs. Siam

Zaire vs. Czechoslovakia

Kingdom of Aragon vs. Belgian Congo

[Stripey McStripe Shirt]

Oh not given. WTF.

[AlexLaw76]

No penalty

Shit World Cup, shit officials. How the fuck did Mbappe initiate contact.. just what the fuck?

Or, are we really that spoilt in this country?

Edited 45 minutes ago by AlexLaw76

[trousers]

Lol... As stonewall a penalty as you'll ever see...not given... 😂😂😂

[whelk]

100% penalty. How do these useless fuckers land these roles?

[The Wyvern]

Is there anyone left that actually thinks VAR is good for the game?

[whelk]

2 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

Calling countries by their actual names is bloody woke nonsense. Bring back fixtures I’m familiar with.

Yugoslavia vs. Siam

Zaire vs. Czechoslovakia

Kingdom of Aragon vs. Belgian Congo

It’s inconsistent and your examples are shit

[Stripey McStripe Shirt]

Sweetening the deal having taken AFCON away from them? Probably not linked in any way, bit well, football and corruption isn't exactly unheard of.

[AlexLaw76]

Just now, The Wyvern said:

Is there anyone left that actually thinks VAR is good for the game?

VAR kind of did its job. Told the ref that he has probably not made the right decision. Ref gets to see a blatant penalty about 8 times and doubles down.

Fucking madness

[Saint Pete]

Brilliant from Olise. 

[The Wyvern]

1 minute ago, AlexLaw76 said:

VAR kind of did its job. Told the ref that he has probably not made the right decision. Ref gets to see a blatant penalty about 8 times and doubles down.

Fucking madness

VAR obviously didn’t do its job did it. It’s meant to correct refereeing mistakes. It doesn’t do that, just regularly kills the game off and creates chaos. 

[Lighthouse]

2 minutes ago, The Wyvern said:

VAR obviously didn’t do its job did it. It’s meant to correct refereeing mistakes. It doesn’t do that, just regularly kills the game off and creates chaos. 

VAR is a tool and it’s only as effective as the idiot using it. The technology is sound.

[Stripey McStripe Shirt]

2 minutes ago, The Wyvern said:

VAR obviously didn’t do its job did it. It’s meant to correct refereeing mistakes. It doesn’t do that, just regularly kills the game off and creates chaos. 

Under the way VAR is currently set up, he's right. It did it's job, but the ref is a fucktard and made the wrong decision. Again.

In instances like that, which are blatantly obvious to 99.999% of people, they should just overturn the decision. There are 3 qualified people in the VAR room to make that decision. There's no need for the palava of making the ref awkwardly run to look at the screen.

[Stripey McStripe Shirt]

They should swap ends after each hydration break, IMO.

[LiberalCommunist]

So VAR helps him clear up a mistake and he doubles down. So lets cut out the middle man and just go back to shit refs.

Fuck var. 

[AlexLaw76]

France have looked good in the 2nd half

[Sheaf Saint]

Well after a suspect first half, France are now looking annoyingly good.

[Patrick Bateman]

1 minute ago, Sheaf Saint said:

Well after a suspect first half, France are now looking annoyingly good.

Very ... so smooth

[Saint Pete]

2 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

Well after a suspect first half, France are now looking annoyingly good.

Yep, they are very strong. World class players on the bench, only just bringing on Cherki from Citeh! 

[whelk]

I missed the first half but on this showing France are going to win it. The players they can call on are different level. 

Edited 19 minutes ago by whelk

[Sheaf Saint]

Great goal Senegal.

[AlexLaw76]

Have that

[Saint Pete]

Wow. 

[Sheaf Saint]

And then an even better one from Mbappe.