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Football

Xenophon PCDGS

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It’s no different to the VE celebrations or BLM protests.

But, yes personally I don’t think it was sensible, however we are now well into the easing of lockdown. The police HQ is about 500m away and they didn’t see fit to intervene.

Lockdown may well be in the process of being eased, but to assume that the Covid-19 virus is any less dangerous is rather foolish. Spikes of infection reported in different world areas where close proximity of populace is noted are not fairy tales. It makes me wonder if the politicians really believe what they say when claims that people will use common sense in not gathering in large groupage areas when recent examples such as the Bournemouth beach incident on a hot day and the young people who deliberately chose to attend "Covid Raves" showed total and utter selfishness in their attitude towards others.

To place personal football support over the Covid-19 viral death toll of over 44,000 in Britain alone shows how little such people care for all the NHS staff efforts by attending such gatherings when the club manager and club players, noted local politicians and the police request to celebrate at home, not near the football stadium. They are below contempt.
 
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Iskra

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Lockdown may well be in the process of being eased, but to assume that the Covid-19 virus is any less dangerous is rather foolish. Spikes of infection reported in different world areas where close proximity of populace is noted are not fairy tales. It makes me wonder if the politicians really believe what they say when claims that people will use common sense in not gathering in large groupage areas when recent examples such as the Bournemouth beach incident on a hot day and the young people who deliberately chose to attend "Covid Raves" showed total and utter selfishness in their attitude towards others.

To place personal football support over the Covid-19 viral death toll of over 44,000 in Britain alone shows how little such people care for all the NHS staff efforts by attending such gatherings when the club manager and club players, noted local politicians and the police request to celebrate at home, not near the football stadium. They are below contempt.

They are sentient human beings, capable of assessing the risks and bearing the responsibility of their decision.

Whether you like it or not, people are allowed to be idiots.
 

Xenophon PCDGS

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They are sentient human beings, capable of assessing the risks and bearing the responsibility of their decision.

Whether you like it or not, people are allowed to be idiots.

In your previous posting, you mentioned the fact that the police chose not to intervene, but I notice that you made no mention of what a senior force officer said concerning the reason why such a decision was made.
 

MontyMinerWA

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Leeds "fans" were out for the second time as well. The club also decided it would be a great idea to stage an impromtu open-top bus celebration as well only hours after urging fans to stay away. The club statement released afterwards to somehow justify it is nothing short of a nonsense.
As a Leeds United fan of 45 plus years I have to agree with you. As much as I love the club it was a stupid and reckless thing to do. The club at times appears to be run by idiot's.
 

scotrail158713

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Not knowing the scores, and not caring all that much about them, what a pleasure it was to watch Quest's coverage yesterday of the last night of the Second Division season.

It was great to see the pure joy or misery on the players' faces the moment they scored (or conceded) without having to worry about whether VAR would deem a toenail offside or the ball had accidentally brushed somebody's shoulder.

It really brought home to me how much VAR is taking the soul away from football.
I’d agree with you.
However, to play devils advocate, can we really complain if VAR disallows a goal because someone was a couple of millimetres offside? By the letter of the law it has given the correct decision.
I feel if VAR was now removed then the people who are very much against it just now would suddenly be calling for it to be returned after one “massive error”.
I’m personally happy to watch football without VAR. However, with that comes the odd refereeing mistake every so often, as referees are human and will make mistakes (just like players), but I’m happy to accept that.
 

61653 HTAFC

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In your previous posting, you mentioned the fact that the police chose not to intervene, but I notice that you made no mention of what a senior force officer said concerning the reason why such a decision was made.
As the news reports state, a small number of arrests were made. The implied suggestion your query seems to be alluding to, namely to have made many more arrests, is simply not feasible.
 

Xenophon PCDGS

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As the news reports state, a small number of arrests were made. The implied suggestion your query seems to be alluding to, namely to have made many more arrests, is simply not feasible.

Arrests were not what I was alluding to when I referred to the police statement, but the decision taken by the police not to aggrevate a situation, obviously with what had occurred at the Pier Head only a few days previously very much in mind.
 

SS4

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I’d agree with you.
However, to play devils advocate, can we really complain if VAR disallows a goal because someone was a couple of millimetres offside? By the letter of the law it has given the correct decision.
I feel if VAR was now removed then the people who are very much against it just now would suddenly be calling for it to be returned after one “massive error”.
I’m personally happy to watch football without VAR. However, with that comes the odd refereeing mistake every so often, as referees are human and will make mistakes (just like players), but I’m happy to accept that.

VAR is just shifting the problem to another person/people. Decisions still come down to referee's interpretation and whilst in theory they have more evidence and time to check it's still people making the decision and it's preposterous that the on the pitch ref should be able to overrule VAR which leads to the question of who checks VAR and how is it audited? We clearly see pundits talking about whether it was right or wrong but it's not like they're qualified to do so really - it's just their opinion.

It seems to me like they went in half cocked for VAR - as something to placate the fans calling for it but not really wanting to rock the boat. They've tinkered around the edges of the game - for example introducing minor changes to offside, the subs leaving the pitch, and handball but they've not bothered to tackle more systemic issues in the game such as rampant inequality, appalling behaviours (including diving, dissent and disgusting attitude to officials), rampant timewasting (ironic given the complaint that VAR takes too long to decide), and FFP designed to lock the top clubs in place.
 

SteveM70

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VAR is perfect for line decisions like offside where the question is of fact rather than judgement. Definitely keep it for that.

I think the biggest issue with the other decisions is that the match referee one day will be the VAR referee another day, and there’s a desire to look after their own. They need to find a way to change that, but I suspect football has an arrogance about it where they’re unwilling to look at what works best in other sports and adapt it for football.

I like the rugby version where the ref and TMO review the evidence together and the TV audience can hear their conversation and therefore their rationale for the decision. Why can’t football adopt that?
 

adrock1976

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What's it called? It's called Cumbernauld
As a Leeds United fan of 45 plus years I have to agree with you. As much as I love the club it was a stupid and reckless thing to do. The club at times appears to be run by idiot's.

I can recall Peter Ridsdale was once in charge at Leeds United and caused financial problems in the early Noughties.

When Ridsdale became in charge at Cardiff City, he got the fans to renew their season tickets early under the guise of using it for bringing in new players, but it was really used to pay an overdue tax bill instead.
 

Iskra

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As a Leeds United fan of 45 plus years I have to agree with you. As much as I love the club it was a stupid and reckless thing to do. The club at times appears to be run by idiot's.

If a bit of over exuberance is our biggest problem, I'll take that after all the crooks and chancers we've had since we were last in the premier league. This lot are brilliant in comparison.
 

Iskra

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He certainly seems to be an ideal fit in many ways, and if anyone can get anything out of the lazy overpaid prima-donnas signed a couple of summers back, someone who's worked with Bielsa is as good an option as any.

It's a gamble, and personally as I said I'd have given the Cowley brothers another season to build something before pulling the plug (despite the football under them being rather, well, rudimentary). I do wonder if there's been a falling out behind the scenes though.

Not really sure what to think of the last few days, in a few years we'll look back and the decision will either be a moment of absolute genius or utter insanity!

I liked the Cowley brothers. To me this appointment is reminiscent of the appointment of Thomas Christiansen at Leeds. Time may prove me wrong, but Christiansen had us playing amazing football for a brief period but he couldn't garner the respect or instil the discipline required to produce consistent performances in the long term. Bielsa came in (after a dreadful Heckingbottom interlude) and look at those same players now... I think Town have a fairly difficult bunch of players to get performances out of, I'm not sure Corberan is up to the challenge. But, we will see. Obviously, I wish him the best of luck and it will be interesting to watch. He will at least try and get you playing attractive football.
 

61653 HTAFC

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I liked the Cowley brothers. To me this appointment is reminiscent of the appointment of Thomas Christiansen at Leeds. Time may prove me wrong, but Christiansen had us playing amazing football for a brief period but he couldn't garner the respect or instil the discipline required to produce consistent performances in the long term. Bielsa came in (after a dreadful Heckingbottom interlude) and look at those same players now... I think Town have a fairly difficult bunch of players to get performances out of, I'm not sure Corberan is up to the challenge. But, we will see. Obviously, I wish him the best of luck and it will be interesting to watch. He will at least try and get you playing attractive football.
The Cowleys did a decent job in keeping us up, I can only assume that there was a disagreement over who has control of transfers, as that was a sticking point initially when we approached them. The football wasn't the worst I've seen us play, but the lack of goals was frustrating. Those 0-0 draws post-lockdown were painful to watch, perhaps more than the defeats were.
If Corberán can mend bridges with the likes of Terence Kongolo and Adama Diakhaby, even if it's only to put them in the shop window, that'd be a start.
 

SteveM70

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I can recall Peter Ridsdale was once in charge at Leeds United and caused financial problems in the early Noughties.

When Ridsdale became in charge at Cardiff City, he got the fans to renew their season tickets early under the guise of using it for bringing in new players, but it was really used to pay an overdue tax bill instead.

Everywhere Ridsdale has gone, financial meltdown has followed. Leeds, Barnsley, Cardiff and Plymouth. Then in 2012 he was banned from acting as a company director for 8 years.
 

VauxhallandI

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Altrincham cruised their way into the Conference North play off final with a two nil win at “top of the table” York City.

York had Guy Mowbray doing the commentary which was weird.

That mean Alty have put York out of the FA Cup, FA Trophy and League this season all at Bootham Crescent.

To add insult that was the last ever such game in all three competitions at Bootham Crescent. The same Alty player scored in all three matches.
 

Xenophon PCDGS

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Hope they are not going to do that stupid thing on MOD tonight where they switch between the matches pretending we don't know the outcome.

MOTD made a rather thoughtless blunder in showing the Goal of the Season clip prior to all the matches being shown, as the tenth and final goal selected was one that was from the Manchester City game against Norwich that had yet to be shown.
 

JamesT

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I doubt if there are any reasons that could be put forward for not awarding a penalty, with two of the defenders scything Martial down simultaneously.

Brendan Rogers tried, though it seems more of a moan that Leicester don't get penalties than yesterday's wasn't one:
“You lose the ball and all of a sudden one pass takes him away,” Rodgers said. “I would have been interested to know if we would have got the penalty [if the situation had been reversed]. Jonny has got a touch on the ball, I know there was contact, but it could easily have not been a penalty.”
 

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