Fair enough, seems pretty surprising though.

I think the Letters and numbers prices are the same everywhere and controlled by the FA.

I think they are good enough to get the second spot in that group. Without home advantage i think the Japs will be poor.

Apparantly the aussies have just had a certain Johann Neeskens join up as assistant manager.....looking good for them.

I would have thought this would be the case - one of my old schoolmates fathers is head groundsman at Scunthorpe Utd - they make a decision around 24 hrs before a game whether to turn the heating on or not. Perhaps they did the same at Ewood and got it wrong?

cant see the Arse losing the Shootout after a last min goal.

Hes just a fat Eddie Murphy.....

weird question - is olly kahn in it?

sounds like depression? That'd explain the drugs making him more prone to muscle injuries i think...

and here come the pretzels!

Fraid thats not quite true. I spoke to a representative of a league one club recently regarding marketing (what i study at uni) and one of my questions was if they actually made any money from some of the novelty items they sold in the club shop, or if it was more about raising brand awareness - i was told it was a nice little earner, and this is for a club whos average gate is about a quarter of ours.... I don't think its the club that are unwilling to seek this small profit margin - i think its SWI (who i would class as the second grubbiest after intersport!)

Agree with you on everything but the strength of the England team compared to 1990. I don'y think we would be able to beat this England side even with Mattaus, Voller and Klinnsmann a la 1990. Barnes was awful for England and i don't remember Waddle being much cop either. England have a chance providing they don't rely on Beckham. I am very scared that the swedes will beat the English, the English heavily underestimte Scandinavians - that would leave us with the liklihood of a DE/ENG tie in the last 16 yes? Dont see us getting through that even if we had the whole of Germany in the ground.

You'd probably have that attitude if you were on his wages! He was probably looking to get sacked so he could sign on and get a raise.

If he wants to be a footballer he's going to have to learn to take abuse from both home and away fans.

I'll take that, although i don't think i have ever even seen Costa Rica play before - see you in the later rounds Rovermatt! Tough luck Italy

aussie aussie aussie annoys the hell out of you but U S A ! U S A! doesnt?

I cant remember exactly what publication i read it in but i was in Uni at the time, so i imagine it was in Marketing week or a german paper. I would guess at the former.

I thought Barca was owned and funded by some sort of co-operative business model? I understand when the decision was made to allow shirt sponsorship last week this was a vote?

Man Utd fans are now trying to win Best sports personality of the year with the BBC. Makes an absolute mockery of the competition, and as such i believe we should all join the Everton fans in voting for Peter Crouch

Bolton also had a massive marketing hit due to the success of Phonenix Nights/ Amarillo, at absolutely no cost to them, lucky goits. Doesnt sound like much, but believe me it is - the manufacturers of the Pakistan shirt Peter Kay wore in Max and Paddy have gone so far as to reissuing it. Also echoe the sentiments about the number of Lancs teams doing well - remember ten or so years ago the roverstore used to sell merch with 'lancashires premier league club!' written on it!

Is that just earnings from football?? I remember reading Bergkamp also has a large investment in a business (i think some cheese producer!!)

Germany over here. Don't really care about the groupings, home advantage should see us through. Spose some of the teams that are less organised but rely on stars such as the Ivory Coast or even the dutch - which is usually a worrying game - but they have (bar Robben) looked crap during recent months. I think we will go out as soon as we meet the Brazilians, English or the azzuri. Brazil are Brazil, the English will play as if their lives depended on it and the Italians have looked good recently, coupled with the fact they have a habit of getting stronger as the tournament progresses. For those that havent seen any of the Germany games since the Euros, i can promise you one thing - we will be far more exciting to watch than in previous tournaments!

If the papers are on your side, you can get away with anything Seriously, a lot of the investigations surrounding these 'dodgy' russians are so wrapped up in various forms of corruption that the Russian government realise if there is a great media interest, any wrongdoing on their part will be highlighted and other cases could be discredited or opened up to new evidence - or thats the way i look at it.

earlier than that, surely? late 95 early 96 at a guess.