True, but USA won't be one of them.

Here

I can play the BBC Selector thingy too! Group A Winners- Ecuador on GD Runners up- Germany (relying on the first game shock striking again) Group B Winners- Sweden on GD Runners up- England Group C Winners- Argentina Runners up- Holland Group D Winners- Portugal Runners up- Mexico Group E Winners- Italy on GD Runners up- Czech Republic Group F Winners- Brazil Runners up- Australia (Croatia are woeful) Group G Winners- France Runners up- South Korea Group H Winners- Ukraine on GD Runners up- Spain 2nd Round Ecuador v England - England Argentina v Mexico - Mexico Sweden v Germany - Sweden Holland v Portugal - Portugal Italy v Australia - Italy France v Spain - France Brasil v Czech Republic - Brasil Ukraine v South Korea - Ukraine Quarter Finals England v Mexico - England Italy v France - Italy Sweden v Portugal - Sweden Brazil v Ukraine - Brazil Semi Finals England v Italy - England Sweden v Brazil - Brazil 3rd Place Playoff Sweden v Italy - Italy FINAL England v Brazil - Brazil

Italy withdraw referee and linesmen nominations from the World Cup Buffon questioned Some of the telephone transcripts. The list of 21 games being investigated plus Fiorentina's grievance about being picked on.

Surprised nobody has commented but in his last column of the season in the Lancashire Evening Telergraph, LDRover has said that he won't be continuing next season. Well done and thanks for providing three seasons of first class reads. Jason is far better than the "pro" journalists on the LET IMO and will be sadly missed.

Brewing up very nicely now. I wonder if any of these Italian referees officiated in UEFA or FIFA games? We can start thinking about players we can pick up from Serie B sides Juventus, AC Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina. William Gallas must be feeling a bit foolish.

The Juve Board have resigned and Italy's super magistrate is on the case. At the moment, all we know is that the GM of Juve has been tapped asking the guy who allocates refs to games in Italy for a favourite ref to officiate in Juve games. Refs are completely unbiased so what's the big deal?

SGE has shown a certain genius here. Faced with two of the better strikers England has had in the past 50 years both injured and all other striking options so poor they wouldn't have been selected in any of the other World Cup squads in the past 50 years, he has pulled a master stroke. All the press can witter on about Walcott and let Owen and Rooney recover/moulder in peace. When the press get bored with Walcott, Lennon can go in the firing line. At the World Cup, facing a 17 year old kid who is so raw he doesn't even feature in Prozone could be a terrifying prospect for any ageing defender with a reputation at stake.

ALRIGHT WE'RE ###### AND WE WON'T WIN THE WORLD CUP. (happy now Ultrablue?) PS- it's all a con trick by Blatter so why get hot on bothered? Just treat it as a feast of great entertainment which doesn't matter so long as Emo and Lucas come back fit and greedy.

This is getting like intruding on private grief.

I would have taken Beattie and one fewer midfielder but I am OK with Walcott being in there alongside Lennon. Jol takes the biscuit fuming about Defoe not going- excuse me Mr Spud, who *******ed up Defoe's chances by not picking him?

Well done Shillito- I bow to your superior foresight. Just out of interest, unlike SGE, have you ever seen Walcott playing in the flesh?

Brum are off loading all high earners and the window opens today- someone posted thyat Bullard will complete his Fulham transfer today.

Neither Owen nor Rooney will play a game in this World Cup. Pretty well all the other English forward options don't unduly worry Rovers fans when they turn out against us so they won't cause any sleepless nights in Brasil, Argentina, Spain, Italy, France, Germany.... We can relax- there is no chance England will win the World Cup. The last time we won it, we had the luxury of not putting Jimmy Greaves in the squad. Bit of a difference compared with 2006.

From the pictures I've seen, the new shirt looks quite classy. Click for more pics At least this season's awful and embarassing away strip is headed for the dustbin. It didn't even do its job as it couldn't be worn away at any club playing in white and black (except at Fulham where the two teams were identical from the back).

Looks like there are going to be "afters" to this game. Sommeil is to be investgated by the FA for spitting at Dickov in the first half. Perhaps Tugay can appeal his red card if the camera does show that contact was as minimal as being claimed. Was it brutal in the second half?- six yellows and a red suggests that there were no prisoners taken and the ref was losing it. Anyway, a nice result and a fitting way to celebrate an excellent season.

Anyone going into chat today?

All very dramatic. No MGP, Reid or Bellamy for Rovers, RvN has walked out on the Mancs and Spuds are going to vomit and excrete if the ref's decision disagrees with them at West Ham.

BIG CLUB cannot even fire Steve Bruce without turning it into a two-week soap opera!

Woops! Anyway, Oxford has now replaced St Helen's as the largest town/city in europe without a league football team and I think Accy have just become the smallest English town (ignoring Berwick-upon-Tweed) with a football league team. I have to say seeing Accy come back and Oxford go out is utterly surreal.

They'll probably count the gate tomorrow.

Its going to be a game that needs an early goal and won't matter too much who gets it.

Seems he's overly familiar with drug dealers and black rappers to be much of a puritan.

The end result is a rise in TV money for the PL of 65% and Setanta winning two packages. Whether all this is sustainable beyond this three year deal is anyone's guess but for the time being the PL puts more distance between itself and all other leagues. I hope this doesn't reduce the pressure for a more even division of money between the 20 clubs. The EU pressure resulted in a doubling in the %age of money going into the grass roots of football but I don't think that much is being done re the Prem/gripe water Championship divide. The Guardian's take is that the deal will end up being worth a massive £2.5bn. 1) I really hope that clubs do pass on the benefit in terms of reducing ticket prices although I seriously wonder now whether price is the problem compared with lifestyle issues. 2) With the advance of technology, I have no idea whether this is policeable. To paraphrase, I don't think it is capable of being managed. I have found a way of watching any live soccer on my PC and if clubs/FA/Prem cannot manage the problem of pubs showing live football, how are they going to handle this? 3) But above all, I hope the clubs find a way of limiting the spiraling players wages. THE AVERAGE WAGE OF PLAYERS IN PREMIERSHIP SQUADS IS £13,000 A WEEK. (or £676,000 a year)

Rovers have nothing to play for except pride on Sunday. Citeh have a million upside in prize mney if they win and other results go their way. My hunch is on Sparky's motivational powers being better than Pearce's and Bellamy to grab a hattrick in a 3-1 win. I reckon Arsenal will do us all a favour and grab 4th as well.