Calling an emergency session of the Central Committee of the AEB

[EIM]

And I'd rather one of the only players in the England team who isn't a buy to let landlord didn't miss the decisive penalty.

Give him time. He'll do something appalling soon enough.

[Tactical Genius]

I think it's perfect. An excellent recruitment sergeant for the AEB. I had a conversation with my nephews about the folly of supporting England, they told me I don't understand, that things have changed etc.
Then the tweets came out and they have come around to my way of thinking. and the England shirts have been discarded.

[Sporting]

It's still perfectly feasible to support the team while hating some of the fans and press.

[DCI Harry Batt]

https://twitter.com/SharonMannion2/status/1414346845942423565

[Lang Spoon]

I'd just like to apologise for my facetious comment earlier, as FB said I was flippantly joking. But I really really wish it had been three pasty lads that missed.

[DCI Harry Batt]

And slightly more seriously - racism isn't caused by what happens in a football match. Young, likeable black footballers are subject to racist abuse cos racism, not cos penalties. "England to win all the time" is one of the least effective anti-racism strategies I've heard of, even in football, and that is in a world where Kick it Out exists.

Bad things happen around England games for lots of reasons, and different people will explain them differently. For me, "England" is a significant part of the reason.

(It's a funny old football where we're only allowed to wish one of two binary outcomes, and then the wishing must stop, and there's no wishing allowed about any of the details.)

[Tactical Genius]

And slightly more seriously - racism isn't caused by what happens in a football match. Young, likeable black footballers are subject to racist abuse cos racism, not cos penalties. "England to win all the time" is one of the least effective anti-racism strategies I've heard of, even in football, and that is in a world where Kick it Out exists.

Bad things happen around England games for lots of reasons, and different people will explain them differently. For me, "England" is a significant part of the reason.

(It's a funny old football where we're only allowed to wish one of two binary outcomes, and then the wishing must stop, and there's no wishing allowed about any of the details.)

Agree 100%,

[EIM]

Wish what you want.

[Bizarre Löw Triangle]

And slightly more seriously - racism isn't caused by what happens in a football match. Young, likeable black footballers are subject to racist abuse cos racism, not cos penalties. "England to win all the time" is one of the least effective anti-racism strategies I've heard of, even in football, and that is in a world where Kick it Out exists.

Bad things happen around England games for lots of reasons, and different people will explain them differently. For me, "England" is a significant part of the reason.

(It's a funny old football where we're only allowed to wish one of two binary outcomes, and then the wishing must stop, and there's no wishing allowed about any of the details.)

"Football" is another part of the reason. Forty years of demands for more policing of football fans have completely failed to address that much of the culture which surrounds men's football is a toxic sewer and the football industry itself is responsible for that.

[DCI Harry Batt]

Different people will explain them differently, for sure. But yeah, there are huge problem with football's culture. Do you think that's an essential part of football? Perhaps.

[EIM]

After careful consideration I would like to withdraw my comments from last night, and add my wish that Jordan Henderson had missed the final penalty instead of Saka. Please accept my apologies. Apart from Spoony, who remains in my Bad Books.

[Bizarre Löw Triangle]

Different people will explain them differently, for sure. But yeah, there are huge problem with football's culture. Do you think that's an essential part of football? Perhaps.

No it's not, it's not essential and it's not unchangeable and it's not organic. Women's football fandom doesn't have it to anything like the same degree (and the degrees to which it is seeping in are also linked to the game's professionalisation); they still have nonsegregated games (most of the time) and a largely healthy and collaborative supporter culture where rivalries can exist without it extending to emnity. But the key thing is the football industry has no interest in changing it because that culture is profitable.

[DCI Harry Batt]

Yeah that seems reasonable, BLT. I think I'd make that "football's current culture" rather than "football", if it were going to be in my list. That is, you can't have England without "England", whereas you can have football without "Football", from your list, kinda thing. If that makes sense.

[ooh aah]

It's also ingrained in the men's game, and changing ingrained behaviour is very, very difficult. I don't really see too many groups or organisations in football who are willing to take on that challenge. For example, I think the FA's response to the booing and the online abuse should be to voluntarily play x number of games behind closed doors. Maybe the whole qualification campaign. Players are quite comfortable playing without the crowd now. It would show they were serious about dealing with the toxic culture within English football, and a good first step. Another thing would be allocating tickets to specific groups - 40% to families for example, a decent percentage to BAME supporters groups, cheaper tickets for under 25s etc, in order to try and reduce the percentage of 30-50 year white male fans who get pissed and cause trouble.

[Kevin S]

That is, you can't have England without "England".

I wish we could have England without "England". It'd be a much better place.

[Janik]

It's also ingrained in the men's game, and changing ingrained behaviour is very, very difficult.

I would phrase it slightly differently, in that it is an ingrained behaviour that has attached itself to the Men's game. And has had that attachment for 50 years or so. Getting rid of it from Football could be done by changing the behaviour, or changing the attachment. Neither is at all easy, but there is little evidence that the FA are even attempting to given that the first step is calling it out for what it is which they are seemingly terrified or doing or just not interested.

[Bizarre Löw Triangle]

It's also ingrained in the men's game, and changing ingrained behaviour is very, very difficult. I don't really see too many groups or organisations in football who are willing to take on that challenge. For example, I think the FA's response to the booing and the online abuse should be to voluntarily play x number of games behind closed doors. Maybe the whole qualification campaign. Players are quite comfortable playing without the crowd now. It would show they were serious about dealing with the toxic culture within English football, and a good first step. Another thing would be allocating tickets to specific groups - 40% to families for example, a decent percentage to BAME supporters groups, cheaper tickets for under 25s etc, in order to try and reduce the percentage of 30-50 year white male fans who get pissed and cause trouble.

End segregation of home and away supporters. We don't have it in other sports, we don't need it for football. It just entrenches tribalism.

It would have the added bonus of making tickets more accessible to everyone because without an away allocation there would need to be far more parity in ticket availability.

[anton pulisov]

https://twitter.com/chiellini/status/1414372966092218376?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

[Ray de Galles]

Variations on a theme ;

https://twitter.com/euro2020/status/1414349897772371968?s=21

[Janik]

Football has been far more at home in Italy (and Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Spain and France) than England for many, many years. If it did return to England ever, it would merely be re-visiting a very old childhood haunt that it had moved on and past many decades ago.

[Janik]

Based on the following scoring system;

World Cup win = 5 points
Euros win = 4 points
World Cup runner-up = 2 points
Euros runner-up = 1 point

Here is where Football kicks it's feet back and is comfortable when it's in Europe:
Germany - 43
Italy - 34
France - 21
Spain - 18
Netherlands - 10
Czechoslovakia/Czech Rep - 9
Soviet Union - 7
England - 6
Portugal - 5
Denmark - 4
Greece - 4
Hungary - 4
Croatia - 2
Sweden - 2
Yugoslavia - 2
Belgium - 1

[tee rex]

I imagine a triumphant cry of "it's coming to London!" would ruffle a few feathers from Cornwall to the North. Given Italy's well known regional divisions, will this line last? Does a pun beat provincial pride?

(not a very serious question, idle musing at best)

[ooh aah]

I would phrase it slightly differently, in that it is an ingrained behaviour that has attached itself to the Men's game. And has had that attachment for 50 years or so. Getting rid of it from Football could be done by changing the behaviour, or changing the attachment. Neither is at all easy, but there is little evidence that the FA are even attempting to given that the first step is calling it out for what it is which they are seemingly terrified or doing or just not interested.

Yeah I agree with your rephrasing, and of course with your statement about the FA.

[Janik]

Another re-phrasing

"It's coming to visit
It's coming to visit
Football is popping back to visi...

Oh, it's thought better of it, apparently
Again"

[Tactical Genius]

Bonucci and Chiellini seem like the kind of guys who would take intensive english lesson just so they can give Kane verbals for the whole game.