Apparently if Argentina reach the World Cup final, Michael Oliver would be disqualified from refereeing the match because of the Falklands War, which ended three years before Oliver was born.

Fixing It For Argentina, surely not.

A 2 game ban for a mistimed tackle vs effectively no ban for something not hugely dissimilar - Two Gear Gianni in action…. The sooner these corrupt weirdos are out of the game, the better!!

It was a bad tackle but I don’t think there was any bad intent there he just got it wrong.

Quansah banned for 2 matches.

It’s flying ants day on the south coast

There’s a payload or five heading towards the Middle East right now. Lot of big heavy bombers taking off.

They were. They’re underdogs for this fixture but they’re no minnows.

Weren't Morocco semifinalists in the last WC?

I see Starmer has hinted at a bank holiday should England win as well - so another nail in the coffin of hope.

Morocco being ranked 7th means that it would not be that massive an upset if they beat France. I know ranking don't mean a lot, especially when it comes to knock-out football, but they are hardly minnows.

Shearer jinxes England chances of winning the World Cup… [Link]

Hash - that’s very true.

I tend to think that the top four ranked countries will proceed to semi finals. So Spain vs France & Argentina vs England. On paper, the weakest of the four standing against them is Norway (31), then it's Belgium (9), Morocco (7), Swiss (19)

In Muslim families the name Muhammad is commonly used as a prefix and isn't actually used as the lads name in day to day life even if it is their first name on official documentation

I just don’t fancy our chances too much against France (if we made it that far…), so I’d much prefer Morocco to win - I suspect France will be way too strong for them…

And Spit's right about all this political stuff. Do stop it.

France for me. Their forward players are so wonderful to watch (when their oppos aren't being given carte blanche to foul them as they please).

DO - exactly, and I suspect they’ll say “just try to be more clear in the future please”, and that’ll be the end of the matter.

I suspect that Muhammad is one of a very limited number of choices when it comes to naming boys in an Islamic family, whereas the choice for white British families naming boys is huge in comparison - when you add Noah, Leo, Luca, Arthur, Oliver, George, Oscar, Theodore, and Freddie (the next few most popular) together, it’s going to be a much much bigger number than the total for Muhammad. Omar Bugiel is a relatively rare example of the use of a different first name (others are Ali, Yusuf, Ibrahim).

A4e - agree. If the donor and donee have stated it was a personal gift, how can anyone claim to be able to read their minds to determine it was not?

I agree, turnout will be very low, and he will win pretty comfortably, but a meaningless victory under the circumstances, and one that he potentially may need to try to repeat if the investigation finds against him (not sure they will though…).

My take is that most people wont bother to vote , so farage could well be beaten if a sensible politican stood,but too many looking for their 5 min of fame will split the vote and farage wins

Morocco all the way for me Trigg - it would be a massive upset, but I guess it’s not impossible….

Are we all Morocco til full time or do people want to see “the top teams” stay in?