phantom

He's the same every game One of those if he plays for you it's hilarious, but if he's your opponent he drives you mad He certainly did and it's the reason the Lille supporters gave him lots of stick after winding the French support up in the World Cup One thing not mentioned in this thread, he got booked in both games so will miss the first leg of the semi final

The "rocket science" you refer to is the fact we've not come out in favour of it Where did you add a comment?

Have you been in touch with the heritage and Archive group? I'd imagine you must have an immense historical collection of City related memorabilia

FSA view on FA Cup replays? Keep them! Posted on 19th April 2024 The FA’s decision to scrap FA Cup replays in all rounds of the competition has been met with what can only be described as anger by many EFL and non-league clubs, football figures and supporters at all levels of the game. As well as replays there is real concern across football that many of the things which make the FA Cup special – its history, heritage and tradition – are also under threat. The level of anger at the decision to scrap replays should not come as a surprise to anyone at the FA as we have consistently made clear, in a number of recent meetings, what supporter feeling is when it comes to this issue. In addition we outlined the problems that stretching a “weekend” from Friday to Monday causes travelling supporters but the FA are still pressing on with that scheduling and even extending it during the 4th Round which will run from Friday to Wednesday. More TV disruption for matchgoers. Bottom line – the FSA supports FA Cup replays in all rounds of the competition. We are not exactly new converts to this either, as it’s something we’ve warned about for decades right back to when we passed a motion supporting replays at our 2004 AGM. In our submission to the Fan-led Review (July 2021, see p84) we also argued that the remit of an independent regulator should extend to the FA Cup in order to offer another layer of protection and supporter engagement. This was not included in the Football Governance Bill which is currently passing through Parliament but we’d certainly support any amendment which proposed it. Wrecking ball to replays? UEFA also to blame No football competition organiser exists in isolation and, while the FA are rightly being held to account and facing protests, neither UEFA nor the Premier League’s richest clubs should be allowed to dodge the bullet either. Their greed is the catalyst for this decision. The start of this process can be traced back to UEFA’s capitulation to the demands of the richest Champions League clubs for whom nothing was ever enough. The competition format never satisfied them as they wanted more and more games (translation – more and more money). This ultimately led to the expansion in European competition which we will see next season with an extra 4-6 Champions League games per club “thanks” to the Swiss Model – and it’s the FA Cup which has paid the price to free up those additional dates. We raised awareness at a continental level and lobbied UEFA with our friends at Football Supporters Europe (FSE) for many, many years warning that this could be the outcome and that “the FA Cup would become primarily a midweek competition without replays” if European competitions were allowed to bloat. Football fans across the continent backed an FSA motion at 2019’s European Football Fans’ Congress (EFFC) which opposed the increase in the number of European fixtures and established six key principles against which any reform should be measured. We were proud to lead that debate and establish something which supporters’ groups from a variety of countries could get behind. In summer 2022 we were a co-signatory to FSE’s #WinItOnThePitch campaign which argued that “more European games will make the rich richer and undermine competition… the extra pressure on domestic calendars would also endanger domestic cup competitions.” We predicted that this would happen if football executives were given the sole responsibility of determining the direction of the game. Supporters’ voices across the continent were ignored with greedy owners largely getting their own way on this one. We have met with the FA a number of times and told them every time that replays were a critical part of the FA Cup’s heritage and the majority of fans would oppose any attempt to scrap them. We pointed to FSA policy and supporter surveys. It’s yet another example of why an independent regulator is badly needed to rein in the power of clubs and give supporters a real voice in shaping our game and competitions. While our biggest football institutions argue amongst one another, supporters are left on the sidelines with no voice in the room or votes to cast when these big decisions are taken. How is FSA policy decided? The FSA supports the retention of FA Cup replays in all rounds of the competition – this is an established policy which was set by members at the 2004 Annual General Meeting (by one of our predecessor organisations the Football Supporters’ Federation) where policies are proposed, debated and voted upon. We test our headline policies against support opinion on a periodic basis and our National Supporters Survey (released August 2023) asked a range of questions relating to the FA Cup – they showed that support for replays still exists. 69.5% of fans said replays were an important aspect of the FA Cup. 26.1% were in favour of abolishing replays in the FA Cup. Meanwhile 38.8% of respondents felt that if both clubs agree in advance then they should be allowed to avoid a replay and go straight to extra time and penalties. Those stats are based on the responses of almost 10,000 individual supporters. Following that we ran a consultation amongst our member supporters’ organisations to dig into the views of our supporter groups in a little more detail. That work was, by design, more detailed and contextualised the feelings of those groups. Once again the majority supported the concept of replays with arguments often reiterating the importance of tradition, heritage and the magic of the Cup. Those who were agnostic or opposed replays tended to focus on practical matters – reducing fixture congestion and / or saving on tickets, travel and other matchday expenses

Am I missing something here? Where have we said we're in favour? It's just a list of clubs who come out and said they're against it

Answered my question during the match comms Kookaburra is machine made, the Duke ball is man made Completely different seam because of this Kookaburra seam is 1/4 depth in comparison to the Duke making the ball feel smaller to a bowler Kookaburra doesn't shine as well, and doesn't swing as well Kookaburra reverse swings better Duke is a waxier material Only England and West Indies use the Duke ball Still unsure why they are using both though

The Championship is looking really interesting to see who will be taking our place This Sunday (21/04) is: Lewes (11th) Vs Crystal Palace (1st) Sunderland (2nd) Vs Charlton (3rd) Sunday 28/04 is: Charlton (3rd) Vs Southampton (4th) Crystal Palace (1st) Vs Sunderland (2nd)

Hameed gone for a third ball duck !! Can someone answer what is going on with the balls being used please? Last week it was a Kookaburra ball, this week a Duke ball

I just got forwarded this

Exactly, they are never released for sale If you look it is the same gaps in specific parts of the stadium over time

Difficult to compare to this picture as the red line isn't the outline, where as the pic on the eBay account is It is odd though that they have no picture of the actual number

Personally I would say this has been most of the years I have been watching since 1987

Remember him playing for us, good to see him still playing to a decent standard

Here's an interesting angle of the celebrations https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeHmcKrE/

Highgate needed a 12 goal swing to make the play-offs in the ninth tier Midland League. Final match of the season last night

Taunton relegated after losing at home to Weston 1-0 Marlon Jackson with an 84th minute winner

Didn't know that rule either I assumed it was one of those instances where an official missed a booking

No, you've got it wrong He did show him the yellow Confirmed yellow during a game is separate to in the shoot out

I assume you realise we have been doing exactly this for years? Have a look at the sales for the Leicester game where extra sections (not just corporate) became available Do they want to move? Where are those extra supporters coming from?

Already raised about 5th round onwards, but why are replays still happening in the qualifying rounds? With the crazy backlogs for many non league sides at the moment, I am sure they could benefit from needless replays too How would a side with a capacity of 10k make more moeny being at home against a team that could hold 40k? If we think VAR takes a long time, imagine how long a board of directors would take to agree on this

Blimey that's a great flashback Appeared on the early pages in this thread a while back

You should see the graphics he has on his movement - it is epic

Is word pay the only option you can use? I genuinely don't know the answer - if it is can you let me know and I can raise for you at a higher level

Interesting, but how many top clubs consistently progress to the later rounds? Also many top clubs, especially Man City they play full strength sides all the way through so they are clearly not worried What it does take away is the potential money maker from an additional game, but personally I like the idea of playing to a result on the day It also means no stupid midweek trips Agree, but ultimately how often does a smaller club get a replay with a big club?