Great result for Hearts

As 7 of the last 19 Old Firm games have resulted in wins with the losers not scoring, that statistic seems very dodgy ;)

Yeah it’s looking a right mess. Very interested to see what happens between now and the tournament start and very glad I stopped doing England games about two decades back.

Trigg - this World Cup was always destined to be a shambles - choosing a country where football isn’t very popular (I know, some games are in Mexico…), making fans travel such huge distances between games, setting ticket prices so high, etc etc… But now it’s even more problematic…. 🤷🏻‍♂️🙄

Ledd - it’s something the commentator said, and it did sound weird… Maybe my ears deceived me 🤪 or I just wasn’t listening properly… 🤷🏻‍♂️😂

We were down to play in white at Bedford. Obviously from the original photo we didn't. Still, keep having your little digs.

Iran pulling out of the World Cup

I think that stat about the Old Firm derby needs some fact checking.

The matchday guide on OS says 3pm, so I assume thats right (even though other places on the OS still say2pm

So has 3pm ko for Stockport Co away on Sat the 28th been confirmed?

Amazing stat in the Old Firm game - the team scoring first has only won 6 times in the last 110 Old Firm derbies 😲

CW - I think AI stands for Altered Images rather than Artificial Intelligence… 🤪😂

Not sure the colours are right in that OTD pic, Bedford played in blue and we would have been in red shirts and white shorts

On that OI, we can agree. And similarly Pete - that is the issue. Increasing politicisation of sport in which the authorities are very muddled about in terms of what and what not is allowed.

If it's about player safety then you should insist that players have consumed enough food and drink before a game for them to not be at risk. It's different to games played in hot weather where they don't know what the temperature is going to be on the day.

I see the WC boat is being rocked by the orange one. I would've thought that was a far larger subject for debate than a few blokes taking on fuel before KO. It seems politics and religion are intent on forcing themselves into the game, despite long held resistance. Need some wise heads involved atm, but twiddling with VAR and other stuff seems to be the priority. Germany threatening a WC boycott woke 'em up though.

Fair enough Nick, it would be great if it was the biggest of football's problems.

Morning all. Proper SW19 report on Mansfield now up - [Link]

We’ll have to agree to disagree on this one OI as player safety in this instance does not hinge on the entire game being stopped.

*conclusive

They introduced breaks in hot weather for player safety, this is the same. One can argue about 'player welfare gone mad' and that is going to be prominent in the next decade as the evidence that heading the ball is a factor in dementia becomes more inclusive. I'm just not sure what harm is being done by a short break for the welfare of some players.

They build that in for all players OI, not just those who are choosing to fast for religious reasons. I don’t choose to be diabetic but no-one ever stopped a game for me when I was younger to take stock of glucose tablets, nor would I ask nor expect them to. I thought we all agreed that personal religious choices should not influence sport, but that was until yesterday it seems.

What do you mean by justified Spit? I can't see into the minds of Leeds supporters (that would a be cruel and unusual punishment on me) so I don't know why they were booing, but I am in general in favour of free speech including free booing. Personally I'm in favour of measures that improve player safety when they are fairly simple.

So were the Leeds fans justified to boo and whistle during the break oi?

They could do that in high temperatures too Nick. Do you want to stop that? If a break for Iftar is a significant problem for football at the moment then the game is in a far better place than I thought.