ponsaelius

How is it pointless? Most teams either treat it as a consolation, a distraction, or a hinderance. It means the effort and quality is all over the place...bit like the league cup. It's certainly not a measurement of a team, it's too unpredictable. Of course you'll say that's a good thing, maybe it is for some but it's cheapened by the teams that don't want to be in it and it won't change until CL teams don't drop in for 3rd place and goes back to knockout right the way through. It's a lot more important now that CL qualification is guaranteed by winning it. It's important anyway for the teams that win it. You know what with it being a trophy and everything. I know you'd probably not realise that from your ivory tower of endless glory hunting success. Throwing in the token prize like that to try and make up for the terrible branding, formatting and scheduling decisions they've made to fuck up the UEFA Cup in the first place is a load of shite.

Also it produces so many good games. Bilbao - Torino right now on BT is brilliant.

Europa League provided fans of teams who go far in it/win it better memories than plodding about in the league ever did I'd imagine. Great competition and its ridiculous the way English teams turn their noses up at. Well I say that, that always seems to be the excuse when they get dumped out anyway.

He played in qualifiers for them but Sparta haven't been in the CL proper since Henry scored that brace against them.

The last time a side progressed from 2 goals down in a home first leg was Cruyff's Ajax in 1969. It's definitely over.

English clubs really showing they're spending those billions well

Tbf I'd be far more disappointed if my future son decided to be a 'keeper than if he was gay.

Not to mention the final being in a town that doesn't actually exist. Unreal hustle tbf to them

North Korea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_FIFA_World_Cup#Venues This really shows how fucking ridiculous it is btw. All but one of the stadiums in the greater Doha area The other one at the top: Ash-Shamal (Arabic: الشمال‎) is a municipality in the state of Qatar. Its capital is called Madinat ash-Shamal and it is considered to be one of the major cities in Qatar.[2] The name means "City of the north" - although the population is barely over 5,000. Ash Shamal will be home to the proposed 45,330-seat Al-Shamal Stadium, one of 12 venues used in the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

He was pretty underwhelming first couple of seasons but seems to be coming good this year now they're doing well. I've never been hugely impressed mind, a bit of a lump.

You say that as if the World Cup hasn't previously been awarded to fascist Italy in 1934, the Argentinian military junta in 78 and Colombia in 86 a country riddled with internal corruption and a full scale guerilla drug war. Both South Africa and Brazil arguably have societal problems that give Russia a run for their money and both are vastly more dangerous countries for visitors than either Qatar or Russia. FIFA don't really give a shite, basically. Especially not when there is dollar to be pocketed.

He certainly wasn't key in getting us promoted. Only played 8 games plus a handful of sub appearances.

That's the thing, he was pretty much always shite in the middle.

Sorry if giggs but this is hilarious https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMF5RnCelFE

Yeah Spanish roads and rail are better than here tbh. Still: England 130,000 square km Spain 500,000 square km

Basically the same as British pyramid just with regionalisation at a higher step

It's not war ffs. yep far more important than that

Unless the club moves, changes name or goes bust then ditching it is the cowards way out

I wouldn't know until it happens, but presently I watch the games and have zero connection to it, so its hardly like its NUFC to me in it's present state. Plenty of non-league clubs there to support if you want distracting from NUFC until Ashley keels over. Would be no different to supporting a new club in the Northern Alliance

Let's be honest AFC Newcastle at the Gateshead Arena would not be the same club, regardless of what Ashley is doing to NUFC.

Don't be daft

Kinda similar to the small minority of Wimbledon fans that stuck with MK Dons, although I understand them less than the Xerez fans who want to stick it out.

Xerez CD have had a long string of crooked owners, dropping like a stone through the divisions and being further relegated because of accrued debts. Fed up with the whole thing, fans and former players created a rival club from scratch in the lowest tier of Spanish football, named Xerez Deportivo FC. They have been promoted twice in two years and are currently attracting bigger crowds than the main one. Most people expect the new club to end up supplanting the old one, since they are only separated by two divisions right now. It would sort of be a pity, since Xerez CD is a very storied club, more than a century old. That's about what I thought. Is there animosity between supporters of the old club and the new one? Only 1 division between the two clubs next season, since the old one is hovering mid-table right now.