Obviously, if FIFA wanted to expand the game in Russia and Qatar, getting behind the EPL's gam£ 39 and sending Wigan v Blackburn to Moscow and Wolves v Stoke to Doha would have done the trick?

BTW Ferguson is Scottish.

I agree with what you are saying. I hope your view isn’t similar to most United supporters in that you hate ‘England’ because rat-faced Neville was booed playing for England. It’s all very bitter and boring.




“in the slightest”? To me, you are trying to make the point that the PL is not even close to other countries when it comes to the best players in the World. Okay, smartie pants, name 3 leagues that have a higher standard of player.

Can you also explain that if the players in the PL are so poor, why have English clubs done so well in the CL in the last 10 years – Liverpool (two finals), Arsenal (one final), United (two finals), Chelsea (one final?) Is it the incredible coaching?





This says more about you than it does of England. It appears that your bitterness for England is stronger than your love for Scotland. Whatever keeps you warm at night… Can you be sure Scotland would not have benefitted? Maybe thousands of Scots, who live in both England and Scotland, potentially missed out on jobs. I think it’s sad that you take delight in that. Not to mention the effect it would have on Scottish tourism. And you accused the English of not knowing anything about finance?

BTW thank you for North Sea Gas.




Better to be disliked than ignored. ‘Humiliated’? Not at all. It’s like me going for a job as CEO of Apple and missing out, and you as a newspaper seller, laughing at me.

I am aware of that fact yes. I was meaning the English game as a whole as I also mentioned George Graham too



I don't hate England at all. I'm just not fussed if they win, lose or draw. And if not getting the World Cup means numerous toffs, no-nowts and some women (those that we ALL know, the ones who "love footy" every 4 years or so) leave our game well alone then that's fine with me.

Who's been reading the Scottish press too much?

Scots are so bitter these days it's laughable. At the end of the day, when the Scottish/Irish Euro bid was turned down by UEFA, out went your last chance of ever qualifying for a tournament, so to amuse yourselves, the anti-English propaganda has been turned up by yet another notch or two.

It's kind of cute in a way, even if slightly embarrassing.

http://www.leedsunited.com/news/2010120 ... 85_2236291 isnt this what most of us are thinking,im not a big bates fan although imo he has completly turned around leeds utd.you after admire the man for speaking how he feels instead of pussy-footing around the subject like many pundits have done in the past 24 hours.and for a change i argree with every word he says.

http://www.leedsunited.com/news/2010120 ... 85_2236291 isnt this what most of us are thinking,im not a big bates fan although imo he has completly turned around leeds utd.you after admire the man for speaking how he feels instead of pussy-footing around the subject like many pundits have done in the past 24 hours.and for a change i argree with every word he says.

Enfield Exile wrote: “in the slightest”? To me, you are trying to make the point that the PL is not even close to other countries when it comes to the best players in the World. Okay, smartie pants, name 3 leagues that have a higher standard of player. Can you also explain that if the players in the PL are so poor, why have English clubs done so well in the CL in the last 10 years – Liverpool (two finals), Arsenal (one final), United (two finals), Chelsea (one final?) Is it the incredible coaching? This says something doesn't it? http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uef ... k2011.html

Enfield Exile wrote: “in the slightest”? To me, you are trying to make the point that the PL is not even close to other countries when it comes to the best players in the World. Okay, smartie pants, name 3 leagues that have a higher standard of player. Can you also explain that if the players in the PL are so poor, why have English clubs done so well in the CL in the last 10 years – Liverpool (two finals), Arsenal (one final), United (two finals), Chelsea (one final?) Is it the incredible coaching? This says something doesn't it? http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uef ... k2011.html

I like Batesy, but he's talking 5hit about splitting from FIFA.

It wasn't FIFA that put us in last place in the voting, it was the rest of the football world that turned their backs on us. If other FA's aren't going to back us by voting for us to get a World Cup, they aren't going to jump ship from FIFA to join us, are they?

Blackpool v Man Utd is off

Frozen pitch

UEFA and FIFA claim to be against billionaire backing of clubs. They've introduced new rules to curtail it.

But without the billionaire backing for Russia, and especially Qatar, their bids would have been laughed at. Qatar are building 9 new stadiums, which will be dismantled at the end of the WC and shipped around the world to make stadiums for 3rd world countries. Qatar only has a population of 1.7m people. The attendances for the SA WC were over 3 million.

I think England whining about corruption is a bit rich. We had the argument with Germany when they won the WC. This time we're supposed to have agreed to go after the 2018 if the US went after the 2022. And then there's our press, which IMO rightly highlight just how bent FIFA are.

Ken Bates has been talking about this for a long time, back when he was still at Chelsea. And to be fair he is right.

FIFA use other people assets (players) to put on their tournaments, what if people denied them those assets?