OzzieMandias

It is the CAF who has banned Togo, not FIFA. I think you'll find FIFA endorse the rule.

Sure, FIFA make a stand against their own rule, South Africa get punished for some other country's misdemeanour, and some non-African country has six months to get a WC together. Brilliant.

To be fair though the circumstances regarding the togolese government's demands were extreme to say the least. Extremely harsh by CAF/FIFA. Yeah, maybe. I guess it's the principle of the thing – you react to stop other governments doing anything similar. What the Togolese FA wanted should not have been forbidden by the state for its own reasons.

Fuck a points target. We should just be going out there and trying to win every game.

The "governmental interference" thing isn't out of nowhere, though. Isn't it the case that any national FA can be lumped out of FIFA if their government has been interfering in the game according to whatever criteria? Notion of keeping the sport free of interference from heavy-handed regimes etc etc? If the Togolese team/FA wanted to continue with the tournament but the government of Togo prevented that, that would explain it.

Don't see how he could have emailed it every fan, like, seeing as that's who he's talking to.

"Nil Ranger"?

Heavy penalty for performance-depleting drugs.

You're obviously not about to change your handle to Williamsonwatch.

NE and Cumbria only. The plight of the world's poorest people is obviously not of interest to anyone who lives further south.

Now would be a good time for any undercover Geordies operating in the mackem cyberverse to start stirring the shit about Bruce being a Mag.

What footballer isn't ? Er...

Thank heavens we had nothing like that from previous chairmen.

Not many in South London, though.

Well done!

Oh well, it makes a nice change having someone around who thinks the media is massively biased in our favour.

What news of Soccer Circus?

Sodexo "nets £38 million deal" reads to you like they've paid the club?

This article that was posted upthread:

From the article it sounds like the club is paying the catering company, not the other way around.

Aye, you're either paranoid as fuck, or else you can't read.

You can sing it until doomsday, but it won't make the slightest difference to what happens re Ashley. Will it lift the players during the game? Of course not. But at least you can kid yourselves you're "doing something".

Maybe if he hadn't wanted to make a profit in the xfer window last Jan we wouldn't have been relegated by 1 point and he may not be supposedly stumping up this £20m. I have to say, I'm surprised you continue to support this joker. Even for you, it's barely believable. So you'd favour the club getting back into debt? Not while Fat Ash is running the show obviously, his degree of ineptitude is beyond belief, but generally my answer would be yes. A club trying to achieve success on the field and has a debt that is managed is better than a club with no debt and going nowhere. I note you don't deny your full and continued support for this joker turning the club into a pile of dogshit. Why on earth should you expect a response to your cack-handed attempts to put words into my mouth? Ashley has proved inept on various levels, and he's even worse at managerial appointments than Shepherd. Incredible but true. That said, he's doing broadly the right thing by trying to get the club's finances under control, as watchers of recent developments at Man U, Liverpool, West Ham and Portsmouth will understand. It's not long ago that the dear departed NE5 was trumpeting Portsmouth as the very model of how an ambitious football club should be run. Well, they'll be paying a long time for that FA Cup, just as we're now also paying for the extravagances of old.

Maybe if he hadn't wanted to make a profit in the xfer window last Jan we wouldn't have been relegated by 1 point and he may not be supposedly stumping up this £20m. I have to say, I'm surprised you continue to support this joker. Even for you, it's barely believable. So you'd favour the club getting back into debt?

We're probably still paying for half of them. You're just grumpy 'cos you prefer a board that doesn't sign players at all. You're just grumpy because you're always fucking grumpy.