Wullie

Yeah.... that's what some people thought about Japan/Korea. sorry, but i just have to flag up the fact that you're seemingly comparing Qatar, a country that a few years back was one big sand dune, to the ancient cultures of Japan and Korea, with their rich heritages and many, many millions of people, cultural and technological accomplishments, legacies of artistic and scientific brilliance, high levels of human development, well respected civil societies, freedom of the press and so on. who the hell said Japan/Korea had no culture or atmosphere? idiotic in the extreme. qatar is just a few dozen rich royals who probably live in london or paris paying off some corrupt bastards in order to stage an event that they should never have even been considered for. Japan and Korea are some of the most well respected and most well developed countries on the planet. it's kind of like comparing newcastle with sunderland... What’s idiotic is your totally irrelevant and off the point post. Frankly, I couldn’t care less about those factors that you mentioned. Stick to football, thanks. When nessy asks “how any culture and atmosphere is going to be generated in the place” I instantly thought about the atmosphere and the passion in the stadiums. This is what I was certainly referring to. I don’t know how off the pitch events held a thousand miles away is going to spoil your enjoyment of the world cup. f***ing hell…. only few weeks back there was a thread saying politics and religion shouldn’t mix with football. Were you one of those people that agreed with that, by any chance? It shouldn't, but can't see what that's got to do with what he posted. Well, if you had read the thread you would notice posts from him and others referring to Qatar's lack of human rights, blah blah blah. Double standards....end of. So... because their obscene human rights record is based on religious grounds, you think it should be ignored and they should be allowed to get on with it and we should all flock there and agree to hold major world events there? Mohammad wept.

Canny easy to retain a high GDP/capita when your population is little bigger than that of Tyneside. It's smaller than the Falkland Islands ffs, it's barely a country. What next, Isle of Man 2034?

another Mystic Meg here Hey twatty bollocks. I made that comment afer the inspection team reported Qatar's bid as "very high risk"'due to the absurd temporary stadia plan. so fifa ignored its own inspection team............... They're FIFA, of course they did. Never trust an inspection team in that neck of the woods.

another Mystic Meg here Hey twatty bollocks. I made that comment afer the inspection team reported Qatar's bid as "very high risk"'due to the absurd temporary stadia plan. so fifa ignored its own inspection team............... Listening to Five Live before, one of their regular journalists was saying that during England's bid for 2006, the technical aspects had been rated lower than South Africa's and when the journalist questioned one of the FIFA members about it, he was basically told, very matter-of-factly, that the technical reviews basically means nothing and is pretty much ignored. FIFA needs ripping apart, the whole organisation is absolutely rotten to the core. It's run like a dictatorship, answers to nobody and therefore does what the hell it wants.

Our commitment to plough money into grassroots football might have backfired on us - the last thing Blatter wants is more successful English clubs and a more successful England side. He's made no secret of his disdain for English football in the past.

Yours, mine & many peoples does though. Eh? And? You think the world football revolves around us then? Does it revolve around Qatar like? as if that was the point I was implying! Every country has the right to go for hosting the world cup, if it meets the criteria. How does Qatar meet the criteria then? It even breaks one of the main rules, that there can only be two stadiums in one city - Doha is going to have six.

Yours, mine & many peoples does though. Eh? And? You think the world football revolves around us then? Does it revolve around Qatar like?

In a nutshell. Should have had Wogan doing the voice-over, might as well have had him doing the fucking bid presentation for that matter.

The most shocking for me is learning that anyone actually reads Kaka's posts.

Where was this 'essential for humanity' angle when they gave recent World Cups to Italy, USA, France and Germany? Surely the tournament is about football more than charity? Reminds me of when Newcastle lost the Capital of Culture title to Liverpool because the judges decided the latter was such a dump and needed the money more.

FIFA make Richard Nixon look squeaky clean.

I used to feel that way. However, I'm sick of teams not taking it seriously until the semifinal/final. If Man United played the same team that beat Blackburn then they most likely would have won tonight. It's their choice not to of course, but I hate when they field a weak team and still get to Wembley. Hoping for a Villa/Birmingham v. West Ham final or something similar. It wasn't that weak, actually a strong side.

Olivier Bernard. We didn't even get a free kick, Everton got the ball back and won a penalty in the same passage of play.

People are forgetting some of the players who play regularly in midfield for these massive clubs - Fletcher, Carrick, Anderson, Mikel, Song, Palacios, Barry, Denilson, Yaya Toure, a 34 year old Vieira and the crown jewel, Jermaine fucking Jenas. Good players, average players, shit players amongst them but it's hardly a list of true greats. On what we've seen so far, of course he's good enough to play for one of the better sides, can't believe it's even up for debate tbh.

This one's got history though. We need to smash the wankers.

Revenge? The only thing they'll get is I doubt he'll play. It'll be more like: http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/9430/alansmith22ve.jpg He better not, I want the first XI out there.

I'd be happy with that. Routledge has a lot more to offer us, I'm sure of it.

Fucking hell, I'd just managed to calm myself down thinking about that

His reluctance to shoot today when he went through reminded me of a certain young kid who didn't take the opportunity to shoot against Chelsea to beat them a few years ago and everyone said he would never make it...

I know Chelsea weren't at their best but IMO they were dominant for most of the game. I thought while it was an excellent point for you, there would have been few complaints if Chelsea had won. We had some great chances too though (Shola, Routledge, Ranger), plus I thought the goal we conceded was incredibly sloppy given the time and the way we conceded possession for it. Fair enough. I got the impression your team couldn't wait for the final whistle - you did get some openings, no doubt, but they set up camp in your half for the 2nd period really. I would have thought the overriding emotion at full time was one of relief. After Gutierrez had two great counter attack opportunities in injury time and wasted them, I definitely wouldn't say it was relief. Not displeased with a point though, don't get me wrong. We showed what I've been saying for a while, that when decent sides come up here to play football, we can match them, defend well and create chances and why our home form doesn't overly concern me. I think we'll beat Liverpool.

Obviously I know he's shite, out of his depth, no-hoper in the Premier League, bad attitude and steals from old ladies but he consistently frightens good sides when he comes off the bench.

I know Chelsea weren't at their best but IMO they were dominant for most of the game. I thought while it was an excellent point for you, there would have been few complaints if Chelsea had won. We had some great chances too though (Shola, Routledge, Ranger), plus I thought the goal we conceded was incredibly sloppy given the time and the way we conceded possession for it.

Thought Guthrie played quite well tbh, thought they all did really, ended up slightly disappointed with a point.

Can't wait to stuff these wankers. Two lots of revenge already served up this season, hope we go full strength for this one under instructions to batter them.

I'd love to know how much money they take on stuff like that. General rule is that you get your money back if the player doesn't play or only comes on after the first goal is scored anyway.