Louis

The French Football Federation are having a problem, they want more players who go through their INF system and club academies to represent France. At the most recent World Cup, four players from the system were in France's squad whilst 26 were in others. In November the FFF apparently had a gentlemen's agreement to pick only players who were not eligible for another nations national team. They don't want to waste their money and resources training players who opt for other national teams. In essence, they are paying to improve their opponents. Is it racist ? Some media are saying that the FFF don't want black or Arab players which seems a bit of a nonsense to me.They simply want players who come through their system to want to represent France.

Belated happy birthday William

Hope speaks to the FA: http://www.thefa.com...011/hope-040511 They play Denmark later today (2pm). Live on Eurosport!

How has he proven himself at Championship level when his club is rock bottom of the league with the second highest goals against total?

Nevermind.. it seemingly doesn't expire until 2014.. There is a "sports marketing agreement of up to five years with Le Coq Sportif which will generate a further £3 million." The "up to" is odd though.

If that's true, it'll mean the end of the Sergio Tacchini clothing range too. The contract is not with LCS per se, it's with a company who are licensees of Le Coq Sportif, Ecko, Kickers, Segio Tachnnini etc. Have you heard who the replacement could be?

It's a farce that this still hasn't been decided either way and that the qualifying competition for European countries is only a month away.

I'm with Mike. The way I see it is that this will be the only referendum for many years on the procedure. FPTP isn't great, I think AV is slightly better than it, but not ideal. I see AV as a baby step in the right direction.

They can't win two months in a row.

That is the question.. http://www.bbc.co.uk...litics-11243595

I couldn't find anything, it wasn't even shown online. I'd have thought Eurosport would have covered it.

John Lundstram and Hallam Hope played against France U17 in the UEFA European U-17 Championship. Hope scored the opener. http://www.uefa.com/under17/matches/season=2011/round=2000072/match=2007998/index.html

I don't think it's so much expanding the fan-basing/building a brand.. more so to do with tour operators paying the club to take them on tour and taking payment on gate receipts. Don't forget, we were going to Ghana pre-season not long ago and that was cancelled because Ghana's FA refused to give their club permission to play EFC due to the league schedule. There is little value in expanding the Ghanaian fan-base. It was agreed because the Ghanaian's tour operator offered the most money. http://news.bbc.co.u...ica/8078543.stm

Never mind, should have read the article.. Houston (2004) Columbus and Dallas (2006) Salt Lake City and Los Angeles (2007) Chicago and Denver (2008) Seattle, Edmonton and Salt Lake City (2009) Let's go to Asia next year

How many times have they gone back to USA since 2004/2005 ? 3?

It's going to run and run.

£40m is a bit optimistic ?

One of Ian's tweets earlier made me chuckle. "Burying Bin Laden at sea will turn the whole world Al Qaeda. #homeopathy"

Would Emilio Izaguirrebe be considered "affordable"?

St. Louis Blues

Seemingly with a voice over.. http://www.youtube.c...h?v=F1OB_hzjr0I http://www.youtube.c...h?v=h8A6-XWnE_M http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNv4hagbLDM http://www.youtube.c...h?v=wpBQYC6Izf4

I wonder how long his contract would be for.

See the Twitter thread!

I mentioned it in another thread but I can see the club searching for Non-EU talent due to the lower transfer price and recent work permit criteria amendments. As a manager of a club, would you prefer to have a promising 17 year old from Tranmere Rovers or a full South American international (I'm not saying Ganso or Lucas but more of a Segundo Castillo type) for a similar outlay?

http://www.bbc.co.uk...acific-13032128