Euro 2012

[Fudge]

Offense? None at all, but the 'no sponsors' thing has been going for years and is one of the main reasons behind the 'don't take your shirt off' booking, remember Ian Wrights goals milestone vest in association with Nike?

It's a daft one only designed to protect UEFAs sponsorship income, but that said I don't really want teams shaving Cillit Bang into their hair for a payday.

But that would be great.

[Matt]

Offense? None at all, but the 'no sponsors' thing has been going for years and is one of the main reasons behind the 'don't take your shirt off' booking, remember Ian Wrights goals milestone vest in association with Nike?

It's a daft one only designed to protect UEFAs sponsorship income, but that said I don't really want teams shaving Cillit Bang into their hair for a payday.

I really couldn't give a fuck. I'd much rather they spent their time cracking down on supporters who, in the 21st century, think it's acceptable to single people out because of the colour of their skin. But no, lets make sure Paddy Power don't get a cheap advert during a game.

[supergrass]

Perhaps it's just personal taste, but surely the amount of money Paddy Power are likely to have paid couldn't have been life changing enough to ruin having just scored for your country in a major Championships by doing that?

On the other hand, I'm all for it. Hopefully all this talk of his goal celebration still lingering on will remind people he scored a few goals, which can hopefully earn Arsenal a bit of increased money in transfer fee.

Edit - on the racism front aren't they now looking into points deductions? Might be effective, but it still feels wrong to punish the team for the actions of the minority of their fans. All parties concerned in any one incident should have a united front of condemning it then doing a lot more to prosecute and ban the offending parties.

[Matt]

Perhaps it's just personal taste, but surely the amount of money Paddy Power are likely to have paid couldn't have been life changing enough to ruin having just scored for your country in a major Championships by doing that?

On the other hand, I'm all for it. Hopefully all this talk of his goal celebration still lingering on will remind people he scored a few goals, which can hopefully earn Arsenal a bit of increased money in transfer fee.

I doubt he realised the controversy it was going to cause.

Edit: I'd love to see points deductions for racist chanting, it'll never happen though.

[Dan]

Sepp Blatter will probably suggest banning all black players to stop racism .

[Sam]

Sepp Blatter will probably suggest banning all black players to stop racism .

What a good idea... shall forward it on to him now.

[Summers]

Yeah, that was pretty infuriating.

Also, Olof Mellberg is a poof. He is from Sweden, he has awful beard, stop saying otherwise. There is nothing 'cool' about him. :/

Poof? He's the manliest man in the world. With the world's best beard. As for cool? When at Villa, In Flames stopped by to watch him train, meet him and give him tickets to their show. Rockstars sought him out, that's cool.

You're on the list now, pal.

So he is from Sweden AND has a horrible taste in music? Does two negatives give a plus, though?

Where did I state Mellberg was an In Flames fan? In Flames are Mellberg fans.

[Dan]

Erik Mellberg is alright, just a bit old.

This was cool as fuck though.

[Twist]

Perhaps it's just personal taste, but surely the amount of money Paddy Power are likely to have paid couldn't have been life changing enough to ruin having just scored for your country in a major Championships by doing that?

On the other hand, I'm all for it. Hopefully all this talk of his goal celebration still lingering on will remind people he scored a few goals, which can hopefully earn Arsenal a bit of increased money in transfer fee.

I doubt he realised the controversy it was going to cause.

Edit: I'd love to see points deductions for racist chanting, it'll never happen though.

Haven't Russia been deducted six points from their next Euro campaign? Or did I make that up?

[Matt]

It was a suspended deduction and it was for fireworks/flares rather than racism.

[supergrass]

I would guess the words "could be", "suspended sentence" or "successful appeal" to appear where Russia are concerned.

[Mongrel]

Offense? None at all, but the 'no sponsors' thing has been going for years and is one of the main reasons behind the 'don't take your shirt off' booking, remember Ian Wrights goals milestone vest in association with Nike?

It's a daft one only designed to protect UEFAs sponsorship income, but that said I don't really want teams shaving Cillit Bang into their hair for a payday.

I really couldn't give a fuck. I'd much rather they spent their time cracking down on supporters who, in the 21st century, think it's acceptable to single people out because of the colour of their skin. But no, lets make sure Paddy Power don't get a cheap advert during a game.

But it isn't as if they are doing one at the expense of the other - they have the ability to do both things effectively. It is fine to say that they should be fining clubs more for racist fans or whatever, but fining players who find ways to flog products against the rules isn't a waste of time because they aren't doing more about racism. The two things aren't linked. The federation is within their rights to protect their interests by stopping players from advertising brands where they probably have some sort of lucrative sponsorship deal with a competitor.

That being said, there's an argument that them actually issuing a fine gives the company far more exposure than they ever would have had in the first place which is probably why the company did it in the first place.

[supergrass]

It seems suspension is an effective way to solve this particular problem. The more you fine the player, the more advertising for the company who will gladly pick up the cost of the fine for all the attention it garners them.

However Bendtner now has a game suspension and presumably won't be doing it again. But then again this was the person tacky enough to do it in the first place, so there's no fool proof plan.

[Matt]

Offense? None at all, but the 'no sponsors' thing has been going for years and is one of the main reasons behind the 'don't take your shirt off' booking, remember Ian Wrights goals milestone vest in association with Nike?

It's a daft one only designed to protect UEFAs sponsorship income, but that said I don't really want teams shaving Cillit Bang into their hair for a payday.

I really couldn't give a fuck. I'd much rather they spent their time cracking down on supporters who, in the 21st century, think it's acceptable to single people out because of the colour of their skin. But no, lets make sure Paddy Power don't get a cheap advert during a game.

But it isn't as if they are doing one at the expense of the other - they have the ability to do both things effectively. It is fine to say that they should be fining clubs more for racist fans or whatever, but fining players who find ways to flog products against the rules isn't a waste of time because they aren't doing more about racism. The two things aren't linked. The federation is within their rights to protect their interests by stopping players from advertising brands where they probably have some sort of lucrative sponsorship deal with a competitor.

That being said, there's an argument that them actually issuing a fine gives the company far more exposure than they ever would have had in the first place which is probably why the company did it in the first place.

Yeah I know, I was just bitter about Bendtner being fined more than Croatia. As a fan, I'd much rather see racism clamped down on than a player having additional sponsorship on his underwear, but you're quite right they could easily do both.

[Matt]

In other news, the expected team is:

Hart

Cole

Terry

Lescott

Johnson

Young

Gerrard

Parker

Milner

Welbeck

Rooney

Glad to see Walcott not included on the basis of a deflected shot and a pass that went behind the player he aimed at. We'd have definietly lost without Milner to double up with Johnson. Disappointed Rooney's playing but I always knew he would, feel sorry for Carroll he played quite well in the last game but Rooney and Welbeck have experience playing together.

[Fudge]

I wish we had a game on at 5 still.

[Summers]

Me too. Life isn't the same.

[stokeriño]

The games at 5 stopped as soon as I started the new job that allowed me to be home at 5 instead of at 7.

I mean really. Fuck you, universe.

[Summers]

so it's yr fault?

dickhead.

[Robsturgh]

Young has had a terrible tournament so far, im suprised he got a start at all