Euro 96 was another one. We had home advantage and yet celebrated reaching a semi final as a great achievement. I thought we were bang average through most of that tournament
🚨🗣️ Donald Trump on moving World Cup games from US cities he feels are unsafe:"If somebody is doing a bad job, and if I feel there are unsafe conditions, I would call Gianni, the head of FIFA, who's phenomenal, and I would say: 'let's move it to another location'.""And he… pic.twitter.com/WOEH4niv2X— The Touchline | 𝐓 (@TouchlineX) October 15, 2025 Donald Trump: Gianni Infantino will move World Cup games if I ask him tohttps://t.co/AMBrOtcpjQ— Martyn Ziegler (@martynziegler) October 15, 2025
🚨PREMIER LEAGUE TO VOTE ON SALARY CAP❌Controversial 'anchoring' system set to go to clubs next month☹️Some (including Manchester clubs) believe it will 'kill' the competition 🏆Fears PL will lose top talent abroad❌Warning of PFA legal challengehttps://t.co/kCV3ym6UTl— Mike Keegan (@MikeKeegan_DM) October 15, 2025 Knowing the PFA they will propose a strike but only for international football and hope that will succeed.
The PFA are a waste of space and the reason the costs soared for fans paying for tickets, TV packages etc is partly driven by the PFA who think the players should continue to get ridiculous salaries with a high percentage of the profits should be with the players! I haven’t read the article but what’s the proposed salary cap limit? Also, why would the PFA try to get players to strike from playing Internationals when it’s against the salary cap which has nothing to do with International football? That makes no sense!
Five times the income the lowest team in the PL gets. Both Manchester Clubs strongly opposed (Sir Jim Ratcliffe has publicly spoken against it a few months ago. And the current PFA leadership openly hate international football. Must be chance Newcastle vote for it just so their owners can benefit by poaching players for the Saudi League.
It's just a reality that in some Democrat cities certain types of crime is basically ignored for political reasons, whether it be looting from particular demographics or ICE facilities being attacked. They are petty and radical enough now to allow the tournament to become a farce just to spite Trump. It is partisan over there on a completely different level to the UK.
Looking on social Media it seems Italian Fans are mainly blaming the Qualification system than their team and players for them very likely needing the playoffs.
West Midlands Police (WMP) has requested that supporters of Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv not be allowed to attend the Europa League game against Aston Villa in Birmingham on November 6 due to concerns over unrest, sources briefed on the matter told The Athletic.The force has… pic.twitter.com/KtASdPNwDS— The Athletic | Football (@TheAthleticFC) October 16, 2025 Be interesting to see if UEFA actually agree with this (They have in the past opposed bans on away fans for security reasons) as well as if there is any political controversy about it (certainly can see some politicians saying the police are scared of protestors etc.
Wasn't there something in the Netherlands with Israeli football supporters basically bragging about the genocide and then getting battered by people who lived locally?
Well that is one side of the story but the other (And the view of the Dutch Government) is that is was mainly the opposite happened.
That is a disgraceful decision. We can’t guarantee the safety of opposition fans so they aren’t allowed to come and watch a football match. This is just appeasement to mob tactics.
I give it 48 hours at most till it’s changed . Even Goverment politicians are condemning it now so it’s hard to see the current line holding. But it’s possible it ends with no fans at all and a behind closed doors match or it getting moved to a neutral Venue. (Budapest is where home matches of Israeli teams have mostly been held)
Nothing is likely to change. Wast Midlands Police took a similar approach with Legia Warsaw a couple of years ago. https://www.avfc.co.uk/news/2023/november/30/club-statement-aston-villa-legia-warszawa/ Maccabi fans seem to attract trouble (to put it mildly). Other Israeli teams don't appear to generate the same violence when playing abroad. It's not just the Amsterdam situation as well - there were unprovoked attacks from them when they played in Athens last year. They're not a pleasant bunch of fans, known for directing racist abuse against their own players.
That was at very short notice (The evening of the match) and didn’t involve Israel and the polarising nature of the Middle East. I can’t see the Goverment supporting it when some of their peers and MP’s are speaking out against it. And if the Goverment doesn’t support it doubt WMP will be able to hold the line for too long.
‘they have public safety concerns outside the stadium bowl and the ability to deal with any potential protests on the night.’ The Warsaw statement is at pains to mention non engagement from the Polish club with regards to their fans. This statement doesn’t even mention opposition fans.
Maccabi fans really do have a sizeable (to put it lightly) contingent of fans that are completely awful. I'm not a fan of collective punishment but that's not exactly without precedent when it comes to sanctioning football fans for behaviour.
No, but it's clearly implied. A protest would only lead to safety concerns if there were the expectation of a reaction, and Maccabi's fans reputation travels with them. It's likely the police just don't want an escalation, and it's easier to restrict a few thousand known people traveling to the country than protestors who could be coming from anywhere relatively near. I can certainly see how it can appear over the top, but the job of the police is to protect and maintain order. The ability of some people to watch a football match is secondary to them.
Apparently Aston Villa are selling tickets for this as an open sale anyway so I’ve seen some of their fans worry that people will buy tickets just so they can invade the pitch or cause other trouble regardless of the absence of away fans. The protestors will still be there anyway because the team is obviously still there. And this decision means there is now more likely to be a bigger counter protest in support Maccabi/Israel. But I just don’t see it staying as it was decided today. Seems nailed on to be a debate in Parliament next week and that won’t be easy viewing for WMP and Aston Villa I suspect.
Not implied very well. The reaction to that statement means I am not alone in my bemusement. I’m not going to dive into it all but it was proven that events that were claimed to have been performed in Amsterdam by Maccabi fans were untrue. I’ve never even heard of them having a bad travelling reputation until recently. How many were even expected to have been coming? This decision looks like a spectacular own goal.
This is the wrong decision.We will not tolerate antisemitism on our streets.The role of the police is to ensure all football fans can enjoy the game, without fear of violence or intimidation.https://t.co/8aBeqE4qbA— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) October 16, 2025 (Presented without comment because I don't really know the facts about this)
It means it will be u turned by this time tomorrow. It’s going to be the most covered Europa league match ever now - probably see Sky and the BBC camped outside all day showing the buildup live and everyone waiting for and praying they won’t be any violence.
Nope, that pogrom nonsense has been bashed by footage showing exactly what the cause of the riots were. The police for a long while thought the lost evidence of the crimes committed by the Maccabi thugs ( to be clear, these were a known gang for the Israeli government and in Israel actively beating up opponents of bibi and did the same thing in Greece), so our DoJ couldnot ftle charges against them, but these footages somehow were found again. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...-how-fan-violence-became-a-political-football