Landlords who show live football at 3pm on a Saturday are not businessmen - they are criminals. In the same way that people who flog fake or copied DVDs are criminals. In the same way that people flog fake or stolen watches at service stations are criminals. They haven't paid the suppliers for the goods they are taking a profit from - and it's illegal. For all you do-gooders who "only watch away games" on dodgy TV - you're missing the point. For every one of you who doesn't travel away, there are several away fans who would shell out 30 quid to visit Ewood but who are in the equivalent pubs in London / Birmingham / Manchester. Rovers are far more affected by this than any other Prem club - income from visiting fans is hugely important over the season. Every away fan who trots down to the cockney / brum local for the illegal broadcast - who might otherwise travel to Ewood - is 30 quid lost. Most other grounds get filled anyway, but here in Blackburn our own fans are in the same pubs for home games!! People complain about Sky, but forget that a Sky game nets the club nearly half a million quid. Non-Sky illegal broadcasts are costing our club more than people think, and it's down to real fans to blow the whistle on the criminals who are raking in profit which should be going to Rovers.

We already know we can sell it out to Man City fans at premium prices for that fixture!! At £12 a ticket it'd be like handing them all 20 quid notes!! Sorry, that was quite cynical. I'll try and be more positive.

I'm afraid this just wouldn't work. Rovers already offer the best prices for kids in the entire Premier League. And alreadly we read and hear moans and groans when they have to start paying young adult and then full adult prices, because of the jump in cost. What you're suggesting is that Rovers should reduce the cost of kids watching a full season of Premier League football at Ewood Park to 19 QUID!! When they are no longer kids and someone tells them that it's gonna cost 10 quid more than that to watch ONE GAME, they're gonna say thanks for the memories and bugger off for good. I'm sure that Rovers will continue to offer one-off discounts for some games designed to tempt people - especially non ST holding youngsters - to sample the Ewood experience, but to discount as you suggest over a period of time would be commercial lunacy.

The (idiot) ITV commentators got all upset tonight, when at half time the ground staff at Benfica's Stadium of Light chose to only repair and re-water the end of the ground which Liverpool would be defending in the second half. Those commentators obviously weren't at Old Trafford for the League Cup semi final against little Rovers, when Manchester United appeared to use similar tactics when treating the playing surface at half time. Or perhaps because little Rovers shouldn't even be in a semi final, it was fine for MU to doctor the pitch in thier own favour for the crucial last quarter of the tie. Sentiment aside, I really don't like this latest installment in the "win at all costs" mentality which is threatening the integrity of our game. The Chelsea v Barcelona match tomorrow should be a classic football encounter, but is already marred by what happened last time and the unfortunate retirement of referee Anders Frisk which followed. That was caused by a war of words intended to create a psychological advantage - again just wrong in the context of fair play. This year Barcelona have instigated the war of words, using Chelsea's playing surface as the trigger. At least Chelsea's crap pitch looks like it will be the same for both sides tomo (although I wouldn't put it beyond them to helicopter in a new penalty area at half time and drop it at one end) - but the accusation by Barca that their own passing style will be disadvantaged just adds fuel to this particular fire. The phrase "level playing field" is a cliche for sure, but there is something very distasteful about clubs in top level football treating the playing surface as a potential tactical advantage. Especially if this extends to demarking different zones when they come to prepare the surface for the second half of a game. Players can still be punished on the pitch for ungentlemanly conduct. Maybe FIFA / UEFA / the FA should be looking more closely at the way clubs behave.

As well as slating Liverpool and United fans for their tasteless chanting, let's not forget that many of our own (including people who post on here) think it's been funny to sing about Souness "passing away" due to his heart condition. As for Smith - good luck to him, hope he can play the beautiful game again.

I'd be in favour. The key this season is the extra two weeks at the start of the summer break, for Sven's World Cup players. As we don't have any of those, there is every reason for Mark Hughes to want to pitch the players into challenging fixtures at the stage when the Intertoto kicks in. They can still get a really good break, and get the initial pre-season graft done, then instead of playing Swansea away and some Spanish minnow at Ewood, they can play Lokomotiv Wheresthatat over two legs with the outcome actually meaning something. If we get knocked out, it's been good pre-season work, and if we go through, then we've got an extra competition to play with. And as fans, it gives us something to get excited about, and whilst pre-season at Christie Park is romantic and spellbinding, there's nothing like enjoying a cup draw which suddenly takes you to far flung parts you'd never think of going to otherwise.

Anyone else heard of anything like this?? Played 5-a-side with a colleague last night, he'd religiously followed the application rules to the extent of getting a new Mastercard especially for World Cup tickets. Last Thursday, the card issuer contacted him to ask for approval for an "unusual transaction" - an "out of character" request for payment. The request was from FIFA to debit around 500 quid. Of course he said yes yes yes, pay it now!!!! He was told there should be no implications - this was a "referral" not a "refusal". He waited in excitement to see what matches he'd got. He got the standard email from FIFA on Saturday saying his application for tickets had not been successful in the draw. And the card in question - with a 2 grand limit - has not been debited. So FIFA appoint Mastercard as a key sponsor, then they collude to set up a system where you can't use VISA or AMEX to pay for tickets ... and then, when you've been allocated some tickets on your new Mastercard, M/C won't pay FIFA because it's an "unusual transaction" so the ticket application is rejected?!??!??!? There must be other cases like Steve's - and this smacks of a football + money cock up that's just taken the p*ss a little bit too far.

That's unfortunate Paul - what they should have told you is to wait 10 minutes for those gates to be opened. I had to meet someone in the Halfords Lane stand hospitality entrance after the game, and the stewards said the options were a 10 minute wait or a 15 minute walk in the wrong direction.

I'm going to exactly the same games!!

I've still got your Cardiff programme from 2002 - should I bring it???!!!

"and when I got home my wine was corked, and I knew immediately how to be sour like Wenger"

I have to say that - whilst this is a welcome initiative to involve the fans in making this choice - it appears to be a half baked compromise. There is plenty of history of fans votes - the Bell End stand at COMS being the most recent high profile example - but I think the whole thing started with a vote on a Southampton away shirt about 7 years ago. It got loads of publicity via Sky (Soccer am) and Pompey fans were too slow to cause a hijack. I'm not suggesting that any one group will hijack this vote (there's not a lot to hijcak to be fair), but I am suggesting it's a complete waste of time and resource. Especially with the sceptical Rovers public. My personal favourite is 3 (home and away) but I'm not paying to vote because it's b*llocks. And if the few hundred idiots who do pay to vote choose the wrong shirt, I (and several thousand others) will just say tough, we preferred a different option, and won't buy the shirt. Whatever happens, I think the club should be totally honest about it. We are struggling to maintain 12,000 ST holders. If this vote only pulls in 6,000 votes then it hasn't worked. Given the published timescales they must be pitching everything on getting a response from the Man U home game. Once the voting deadline passes, the club should (under BRISA duress if needed) publish the figures.

If Sven goes then surely there's a dream ticket combo just waiting to be named... I'd have Clive Woodward as coach, Duncan Fletcher as director of football, with Freddie Flintoff as fitness coach and post-match refuelling advisor.

Don't know about anyone meeting up tomorrow in London - I'll be at Old Trafford (block 333)

There are ifs and buts - especially with hindsight - about any game of football, especially when the team you support gets knocked out. World Cups in 1986, 1990 and 1998 and the intervening Euros all produce questions / challenges to the incumbent managers (let's not even touch on the elimination from USA 94 in qualifying). We have to deal with the here and now, and replacing the well established England coach at this moment in time - because of a newspaper scam - would be barmy.

The only surprise is that this farce is being played out with several months still to go. It would be more England to wait until a couple of weeks before the tournament and cause total chaos then. It would be lunacy to replace Sven at this stage - whatever he's said to some devious dressed up hack after a couple of bottles of wine. He has worked with the players for 4 years since losing to Brazil aiming to succeed in Germany. There have been ups and downs, but the overall record is unquestionably positive, especially in tournament situations. For me the press should move on and concentrate on wrecking the lives and reputations of someone outside the England camp, at least until July. Surely there are a few Lib Dem MPs they can pick on - they won't even need to set up elaborate and expensive scams on boats to reel some of them in.

Not at all Gordon. The only change was in Savage's behaviour. Where before he would clutch his face in agony and writhe upon the grass like a stranded eel ....... suddenly he bounced back into action with a nod and a wink at his aggressor. Is he approaching a ban or anything? Is there a risk he could've missed a big match with another yellow? Honestly I don't know the answer (and I don't care) ... but Savage played a new game on Saturday.

Oi!!!! Last time I went in the Riverside we got relegated and Uncle Jack cried. I have no plans to return to that stand in the foreseeable future. As for the wider issue, the idiot slug Allardyce is totally to blame for any bother, because he sent his players out to antagonise Savage. Which they did, it was so obvious it was unreal. The FA should take the tape of the game and analyse every single tackle on Robbie Savage and then ask Sam the Slug for a copy of his team talk. Such a clear instruction to his players gives SA no mandate to comment any further. His tactics, and his tactics alone, caused the match to degenerate and he must take the sole blame - Rovers have proved we're beyond all that now. I still think Savage is an idiot by the way (before I get accused of being inconsistent) but to his credit he managed to minimise the play acting on Saturday - if he can maintain that dignity and keep bouncing up from the 50-50 challenges we [at last] have a really useful player.

Hmmm ... doesn't sound like he had the best game from the match report in the Daily Telegraph ... You can get away (just!!) with missing chances against non league opponents but I subscribe to the view expressed by many that he just isn't good enough for the Premiership.

Sorry Jan - my bad. You keep mentioning it in this thread, and it's always in the singular (as just above). Fair play - isn't it just so nice how all these well paid professional footballers can't wait to talk to fans about the finer details of their contracts??! How's Croft getting on at Grimsby anyway?

Really - how fascinating!! That's surely not the ex-Rover who made his name by being almost - if not the - first pro to wear an electronic tag whilst playing is it? After his own wrongdoings which by definition threatened the lives and careers of anyone else who happened to be on the same public highway?? The one you used to go and watch for Ipswich Reserves and Cardiff, when you got bored of Rovers and Celtic? Tut tut Janice, I hope not. It would be awful to think you were quoting the words of a criminal to back up a dig at someone you don't like. After all, you only stopped referring to Matt Jansen as the "useless ballerina" after he got us promoted!! So, it must be another ex Rover you got close to. Good point - well made.

His corners aren't getting better and better - if anything they're getting worse and worse!! When he scored all those goals direct from corners in the one game he obviously got them all out of his system, because IT'S NOT WORKING IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE SO STOP ****** TRYING IT!!!!

The mega efficient Germans have made it impossible for people to apply for more than seven games. Unless the people involved accidentally mis-spell their names on the subsequent application, move next door and enter their passport numbers slightly wrong. If that happens then you can apply for 14 games - we've gone for 7 group games in Cologne / Dortmund / Gelsenkirchen (for ease of access via Amsterdam) and have taken a punt on getting 2nd round, quarter, semi and final tickets for England (if they top group B ).

I think this is really unfair, and people are in danger of developing this "persecution complex" so far that they're no longer objective. The only mistake the ref made today (IMO) was to book Dickov. He waited ages before producing his first yellow, gave players warnings (eg Tugay couldn't really complain - he'd been told it was coming), and really let the game flow. The melee involving Savage was instigated by Smiths' challenge, but because Savage reacted the way he did, the card had to be the same for both of them - credit to Stiles for producing yellows rather than reds. I can think of several of his colleagues who would have lost control at that point.

Another high profile TV game, another cringeworthy spell of acting from Savage. Don't get me wrong - his game is getting better and better - he is a properly useful midfielder for us. Also, in this incident, he was the victim not the culprit, and Smith should probably have walked. As philipl has pointed out, Sav's own reaction probably ensured it was yellows all round. What he didn't need to do was remain grounded for 4 minutes trying to pretend he'd taken a blow to the face, when he himself had raised his hands to Rooney in the form of a one handed strangle. His profile means that the pundits and the public zoom right in on his behaviour, and as I keep saying, it is harming the image of our club.