To their credit your officials aren't looking the other way. Plenty of countries aren't all that bothered to go after cheats. Still it's probably better to replace Lord Coe with someone that's willing to take a stronger stance against doping and that has an impeccable reputation. As the study from the article revealed (despite Lord Coe's reluctance to disseminate the info), i.e. the Tubingen paper, we greatly underestimate the true prevalence of doping. Spanish blood doping mastermind, dr. Fuentes, also confirmed doping was endemic, among footballers as well. Spain used to have a relatively modest history in cycling and almost overnight they became a dominant force. Hard to tell how much of an impact it has had in other sports (where the performance boost from doping is less than in cycling).
To any England fans, if you're interested in participating in a survey on English football it'd be much appreciated! It should only take a few minutes. The link is also below https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1...Ug2pMS0D-6rBUu6cjcMdgygQ/viewform?usp=sf_link
Hart's back in the West Ham team today. Not entirely sure how to feel about that, given the implications for his England position.
I've not seen much of Newcastle live tbh but I see many Newcastle fans really bigging up jamaal Lascelles. A realistic dark horse as for a call up for the next Internationals and possibly a World Cup place?
Took a while for me to turn on him but I think it goes without saying now that he absolutely should not be in the side. For me he'd be lucky to be 3rd choice.
Might be a little premature on this, but is there any talk of places for England fans to meet up at the World Cup (besides the obvious like a match).. e.g. a bar in Moscow or StP etc.. I'll be sure to soak up all countries atmospheres but would like what I know too.
And now it looks like Rose and Alli have gone off injured too. Hopefully nothing serious but just crazy with English injuries.
Hart with another big mistake. Hope he isn't even in the squad, he simply doesn't deserve to be by any measure.
I can't see that happening. I'm sure even the Conservatives will recognise that in boycotting the World Cup by ourselves, we'd only be punishing ourselves - Russia wouldn't care, and FIFA would inevitably sanction the FA, possibly with a ban from future tournaments. An EU-wide or UEFA-wide boycott would obviously have an effect, but no foreign government is going to look on that as anything but a massive vote-loser. Let's be honest: the government will pull some serious faces about this and there'll be an enquiry and all the rest, but nothing will really happen, any more than it did after Russia had Litvinenko murdered in London.
Yeah I agree, we would just punish ourselves as no one else would follow our lead and what would we gain from it other than sticking two fingers up at Russia when they wouldn't care and nor would anyone else. I can imagine the amount of players we would lose to the rest of the Home Nations, Nigeria, Ghana etc if we can't offer International football until after 2022 if we were to be banned by FIFA.
TEAM NEWS: Preliminary assessments have confirmed that @HKane has damaged lateral ligaments in his right ankle.The England striker sustained the injury following a challenge in our 4-1 win over Bournemouth on Sunday and is expected to return to First Team training next month. pic.twitter.com/q4sOSJHhPT— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) March 14, 2018 Could certainly be worse, right?
Any slim hope England had of winning the World Cup has gone out the window with the spy controversy and the allegations lobbed at Russia. I don't see England being allowed to do well this summer. Should England be looking good, a word from Putin and co. and a few dodgy refereeing decisions will intervene. That might sound a little paranoid, but the quarter finals will be the best they can hope for, in my opinion.
I would be happy just to get out of the group at this stage to be honest, that's how low we have dropped.
Isn't it at least as much about performances? I mean, if we play as averagely as Portugal did at the Euros and win the tournament regardless, I won't complain, but really all I want is to feel a sense of excitement and possibility going into every game, rather than gnawing dread of some imminent embarrassment. I'd rather surprise people with our performances and then go out to a good side in the quarters than bore/fluke/scrape our way to the final, for sure.
IMO I'll be happy if we get out of the group, but a huge bonus will be the quarterfinals. I want to win a knockout game and feel that's asking a lot at this stage, but we'll see.
We will arrive on match day in the world cup and Southgate will have Livermore and Henderson in the starting lineup. No way do I trust the pleb to pick a decent team .
Come now Sinner. I can understand your frustration, but if we're fully fit then Livermore probably won't be in the squad, however I'm certain he'll be on the plane if one or two are injured which will probably happen I have to say.
I must say I'm pleased to see Lewis Cook in the senior squad. The 97's have been the first age group I've been aggressively following around and he's one of the first players I saw in 2013. Great accomplishment for him.
FA being the FA once again and just shows how out of touch they are! 86 quid for kids England replica shirt & shorts and NO shocks! Terrible!
You can get that combo for £60 from SportsDirect and the price to get equivalent items from the big clubs is roughly the same. They are very much in touch with the rip off prices that get charged for this kind of thing (and besides it's probably Nike who have more say in the prices).