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3 hours ago, Pidge said:

He was ridiculously overpriced, but let's not pretend he's not a great fit for them. Turning the giving away shit free kicks in transition to potentially winning them...

I'm not just saying this because I am pissed off at the money they have to burn , but I genuinely think he will slow their build-up down a bit and give opposition teams more chance to get back into position.

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2 hours ago, TheDrowningMan said:

I wonder if FIFA’s ridiculous, greedy plan for a biannual World Cup might accidentally end up being good? You’d have to kill AFCON, Copa America, Nations League & Euros and presumably have a truncated qualification process. Yeah, it diminishes the World Cup but it’s a trifle of a competition in the current era anyway.

This is FIFA you'll just have

 

World Cup - Afcon/Copa/Euro's - World Cup - Nations League - World Cup - Afcon/Copa/Euro's - World Cup

 

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40 minutes ago, TD_LFC said:

This is FIFA you'll just have

 

World Cup - Afcon/Copa/Euro's - World Cup - Nations League - World Cup - Afcon/Copa/Euro's - World Cup

 

In which case I’d hope the biggest clubs in Europe use their weight to effectively bar players in their leagues from international football. Those who allegedly love representing their country above all else would just have to decide whether to continue being paid 100k + per week by their clubs or instead switch to whatever fee the local FA can cobble together on a per-game basis. 

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From a European perspective, a bi-annual World Cup sucks.

 

However, I could see why non-European or South American countries would go for it.

 

More chances to qualify, more chances to host, lesser nations playing against more prestigious countries and players…
 

It would also mean, these lesser countries get more funding, to hopefully, develop the game further outside of Europe & South America.

 

Unfortunately, by pandering to the lesser countries is how Blatter hung around for so long. First Asian, African, Eastern European World Cups and the first South American World Cup since 1978. Bigger tournaments, more countries qualify, more exposure for the lesser countries. He also changed the FIFA funding away from historically strong football countries to developing countries. 
 

Unfortunately, each country under FIFA has 1 vote. So England has the same amount of voting rights as American Samoa. 
 

I don’t like the idea of a bi-annual World Cup. Not at all. Unfortunately, due to its voting set up, it will keep expanding and expanding.
 

Again not ideal but I’d prefer the tournament be expanded to 64 teams (US, Canada & Mexico is 48 already). That can still be whittled down to a last 32 or 16 easily enough.
 

Make more, smaller, qualification groups so less games required to qualify. For example, South America having to play 18 games is ridiculous. Split it into 2 groups and play half the matches. Europe could do something similar.

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The idea needs fucking off, a World Cup every 2 years isnt feasible never mind one with more than 24 finalists.

 

There just isnt enough time in the year. It takes almost the 4 years between current tournaments to get all the qualifiers played.

 

Wenger needs to fuck off with his stupid ideas. We have squad numbers for players instead of 1-11 thanks to this divvie. He was always going on at arsenal that the players played too many games and here he is, fucking loading even more games all around the world onto them.

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Given UEFA have said they’ll boycott it, at the very least major concessions would be required to placate them and the European clubs who’ll hate the idea. A key thing, I think, would be nixing the vast majority of qualifiers (and mid-season internationals in general), which will require giving automatic places to countries with leagues that accommodate a substantial number of top-tier players.
 

I think you’d need a cast of 20-24 major teams as permanent fixtures in the tournament, with the remaining slots up for grabs via a qualification path.

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Bizarre!

 

A Trading Standards officer offered to ‘take out’ a Football League club owner by shooting him with a deadly sniper rifle ‘accurate from 1,000 yards plus’.

The extraordinary claim was made by David Bourne, a worker from Cheshire West council, while discussing the authority’s investigation into businesses owned by Fleetwood chairman Andy Pilley.

In an email to a member of the public, seen by this newspaper, Bourne wrote: ‘For 500k I would take out the problem with a .338 Lapua round. Dolphin Rifles (class F) do a nice one. Accurate 1,000 yards plus.’

As well as one Trading Standards officer proposing to shoot me in return for cash, I also returned home one Sunday afternoon with my partner and children to find another investigator attempting to peer into my garden,’ he told Sportsmail. ‘There can be no justification for this behaviour.’

Pilley, 51, is now suing Cheshire West and Chester Council’s trading standards department for more than £10million, with a High Court case due to begin in November.

In a separate criminal case triggered by the Trading Standards probe, a number of individuals connected to Mr Pilley’s energy companies are due before Blackpool Magistrates on September 22. Pilley totally denies any wrongdoing. BES Utlilities and Commercial Power had their offices raided in July 2016.

F-class rifles are known for their deadly accuracy from distance. The .338 Lapua Magnum was developed in the 1980s as a high-powered, long-range cartridge for military snipers. It has been used in the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars.

‘This whole ordeal has been extremely distressing, not only for myself but also for my young family,’ Pilley said. He is seeking damages for the raids and has described the investigation as ‘a personal vendetta’.

Pilley also described the probe as ‘a shocking waste of time and public money’ and claimed he had offered to assist investigators on eight occasions in the 16 months prior to the raids. He also hit out at the move to press charges.

‘We totally deny any wrongdoing and will continue to fight for justice,’ he said. ‘We have no doubt we will be fully exonerated.’

Cheshire West and Chester council responded via National Trading Standards, for whom a spokesperson said: ‘Criminal Proceedings have been instigated in relation to a number of individuals. The fraud charges relate to the sale of non-domestic energy contracts to businesses across the country.

‘We will not be making any further public statements at this time.’

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-9975449/Cheshire-West-council-worker-offered-SHOOT-Fleetwood-Town-chairman-rifle-used-Iraq.html

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54 minutes ago, dockers_strike said:

Bizarre!

 

A Trading Standards officer offered to ‘take out’ a Football League club owner by shooting him with a deadly sniper rifle ‘accurate from 1,000 yards plus’.

The extraordinary claim was made by David Bourne, a worker from Cheshire West council, while discussing the authority’s investigation into businesses owned by Fleetwood chairman Andy Pilley.

In an email to a member of the public, seen by this newspaper, Bourne wrote: ‘For 500k I would take out the problem with a .338 Lapua round. Dolphin Rifles (class F) do a nice one. Accurate 1,000 yards plus.’

As well as one Trading Standards officer proposing to shoot me in return for cash, I also returned home one Sunday afternoon with my partner and children to find another investigator attempting to peer into my garden,’ he told Sportsmail. ‘There can be no justification for this behaviour.’

Pilley, 51, is now suing Cheshire West and Chester Council’s trading standards department for more than £10million, with a High Court case due to begin in November.

In a separate criminal case triggered by the Trading Standards probe, a number of individuals connected to Mr Pilley’s energy companies are due before Blackpool Magistrates on September 22. Pilley totally denies any wrongdoing. BES Utlilities and Commercial Power had their offices raided in July 2016.

F-class rifles are known for their deadly accuracy from distance. The .338 Lapua Magnum was developed in the 1980s as a high-powered, long-range cartridge for military snipers. It has been used in the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars.

‘This whole ordeal has been extremely distressing, not only for myself but also for my young family,’ Pilley said. He is seeking damages for the raids and has described the investigation as ‘a personal vendetta’.

Pilley also described the probe as ‘a shocking waste of time and public money’ and claimed he had offered to assist investigators on eight occasions in the 16 months prior to the raids. He also hit out at the move to press charges.

‘We totally deny any wrongdoing and will continue to fight for justice,’ he said. ‘We have no doubt we will be fully exonerated.’

Cheshire West and Chester council responded via National Trading Standards, for whom a spokesperson said: ‘Criminal Proceedings have been instigated in relation to a number of individuals. The fraud charges relate to the sale of non-domestic energy contracts to businesses across the country.

‘We will not be making any further public statements at this time.’

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-9975449/Cheshire-West-council-worker-offered-SHOOT-Fleetwood-Town-chairman-rifle-used-Iraq.html

Not sure about the contract being taken out on them but that Fleetwood owner is one mahoosive cuntspangle! A pox on him!

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1 hour ago, dockers_strike said:

Bizarre!

 

A Trading Standards officer offered to ‘take out’ a Football League club owner by shooting him with a deadly sniper rifle ‘accurate from 1,000 yards plus’.

The extraordinary claim was made by David Bourne, a worker from Cheshire West council, while discussing the authority’s investigation into businesses owned by Fleetwood chairman Andy Pilley.

 

If only they'd spoken to his brother, Jason.

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