EURO 2012

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/may/28/italian-match-fixing-fury-resignation

I really hope they turn up in Poland as a complete shambles.

I fail to see how a team containing both Antonio Cassano and Mario Balotelli can be anything other than a model of professionalism, teamwork, and humility

I echo that sentiment, how could anyone possibley think that Italy won't be the on form team built from team work, passion, love and joy who will win the Euro.

Are you all BLIND?!

Domenico Criscito is cut from the provisional Italy squad as he's caught in this year's Serie A matchfixing scandal.

So England's players are worried about racism in Poland and Ukraine - and not from John Terry either: http://nz.sports.yahoo.com/football/news/article/-/13803044/campbell-warns-of-racist-violence-at-euros/

First thought: hypocritical to say the least giving the Terry incident. Sure he hasn't been found guilty but still... Also English fans aren't exactly paragons of moral virtue. Chanting "2 world wars and 1 world cup" at German fans is pretty damn offensive too - not just to Germans who are probably ashamed of their history of which they played no part at all, but also to minorities such as Jews and Rom who were massacred at the hands of the SS. I know they would argue that's just good-natured ribbing, but so would a lot of those guys doing monkey chants to black players.

I don't know what to make of this overall - I know racism is an issue in Eastern European club football but will that translate to international games? I suspect this is making a mountain out of a molehill but I'm willing to concede I probably don't know enough about the specifics to say that.

Also noticed that 3news lead their sports news with this story last night which really pissed me off - they ignore football when its positive stories but the moment there's a chance to portray it negatively they jump right in. No one in the NZ media has even mentioned the calls to boycott Ukraine because of their imprisonment and mistreatment of political dissidents, but as soon as there's a reason to boycoott which makes football fans look bad they jump on it for the news. I honestly believe that sports editors in NZ deliberately treat football poorly because they all love rugby and are afraid of football's popularity. But that's a debate for a different thread...

I'm not sure about the anti-football sentiment by the media here, I feel like that's usually very overstated by paranoid feverites. Like you said, that's for a different thread.

Agree with the rest of your post though. My gut feeling is that this whole story is;

1. Making a mountain out of a molehill
2. The pot calling the kettle black
3. The misinformed misinforming the yet-to-be-misinformed. I'm tempted to call it ignorance but I don't think it goes quite that far.
4. Potentially a little good old fear-mongering by the pillar of all that is good and proper, the BBC

Plus I don't think we'd have heard a single word of it had England been red hot favourites to win the thing. Seems like a pretty convenient way to avoid going to see Woy's team get absolutely spanked.

I'm not sure what was shown on TV here but I have seen some of the footage from the BBC Panorama episode and it does show poor crowd control practice, which hopefully is only indicative of the league and better systems should be place for Euro's, and pretty strong racist behaviour, not just chants but unprovoked physical attacks on tourists from the Indian sub-continent sitting supposedly in the family section of the home side while supporting the home side. Again, I think better systems of crowd control will be in place but I can totally see how someone of a non-european ethnicity may feel uncomfortable to travel if the risk of racial abuse is too high for them. 

"hypocritical to say the least giving the Terry incident. Sure he hasn't been found guilty but still"

Remind me not to be accused of something in your world: don't worry about a judge or jury: simple

" he said she said " is enough...sheesh...

I guess my point should havbe been more the way in which the FA treated the Terry case - just ignoring it and letting the courts sort it out doesn't exactly show that the English FA is serious about addressing these issues. And the excuse that they can't do anything while there is a criminal case pending seems weird when cricket adminstrators addressed spot-fixing allegations internally while criminal charges were pending. Racism is clearly still a major issue in English football which has not been addressed well so it seems hypocritical to act this way about those dastardly foreigners. Obviously there's a difference of scale though.

interesting article about racism in English football here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/may/15/black-players-reluctant-complain-racism

Well how far could the FA take matters in the Terry v Ferdinand case? It quickly became a criminal investigation and Terry has been charged: should they have pre-empted the law, or elect to wait for the court case to be resolved? They chose the latter, and who's to say(yet) that they were wrong? Terry has lost the England captaincy so he's paid a price, but to do more i.e. drop him, would be ludicrous: whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty? Imagine they'd dropped him over this issue and the court finds him not guilty: a farcical situation all round. I feel soiled just sort of defending Terry, but it's really about the issue of innocence until proven guilty, even though I personally think he said that muck...

No the FA are actually right when they say they can't investigate while the criminal case is pending.

The difference is the standard of proof. In laymans terms the FA would likely find that the allegations are "probably true" and therefore decide to charge Terry. But a prosecutor would have to showing that the allegations are "almost definitely true" and if the case is borderline it might fall short of this standard. Then if the FA say he's guilty and the courts say he's not, then the FA is bringing the judicial system into disrepute and someone would be charged with contempt of court. The same thing would have happened had the Suarez incident been brought to trial.

But I digress. I agree that the general attitude taken by the FA towards racism is woefully inconsistent and hypocritical.

ESPN football commentator Derek Rae talks to Tony Veitch about the safety concerns around Euro 2012.

http://www.radiosport.co.nz/player/ondemand/525266577-Safety-concerns-around-Euro-2012

I saw that footage too on the news about the asian fans getting beaten up, they're ignorant c**ts

Ouais. I might be slightly biased but I reckon France will be there or thereabouts this tournament. Such attacking riches especially.

Fair call. John Terry is a despicable sub-human scumbag, but he does deserve to be treated as innocent until proven otherwise.

Good pisstake of him here: http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/sport/sport-headlines/terry-dedicates-champions-league-win-to-himself-2012052127828

Balotelli's got the problem covered - if anyone racially abuses him he will kill them. Jeez, English players' parents, why didn't you think of that?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/may/30/euro-2012-mario-balotelli-italy

What a great response from a brain dead bloke.

In the same article he said that he was a misunderstood genius. I love that man.

A wanker.

Leggy, if you were stuck on an island with one other person and you had to pick that person out of the following two people,  who would you rather it be:

a) Mario Balotelli, or

b) Alby the Racist Dragon?

b)

Racists are the scum of the world.

Hahahahahahahaha!

OK M'Vila now injured 4 mins into the Serbian friendly and looking like he might miss Euros at this early stage. Odds just got a bit longer I'd say. 

I think I'd take my chances and go for a swim.

Alby could light fires if you needed them and even fly you home. Balotelli might have some cocaine with him though.

Decisions, decisions...

I just swap him for one of this birds.

Italy got dicked 3-0 by Russia in a freindly. Now I'm even more convinced they are gonna win this thing!

Portugal lost 3-1 to Turkey at home overnight.

Anyone else keen to play Fantasy EURO? I've just made my team and have created a Yellow Fever league (just like what we do for Fantasy Premier League and Fantasy A-League). If you are keen, make a team at http://en.euro2012fantasy.uefa.com and join these league with the code 242272-55151.

http://realkiwifootball.blogspot.co.nz/

For a change here is some good news re tv coverage of Euro 2012.

Fans of European football will be delighted to hear Prime will be screening eight key UEFA Euro 2012 matches live, exclusive and free-to-air from June 9.

As well as four key matches from the four pool games, Prime will also screen live coverage of the two quarter-finals, the semi final and the grand final live from Kyiv, Ukraine on July 2, making for exciting breakfast time viewing!

Matches and screening times are listed below.

09/06/12 – Poland v Greece
3.50am
Warsaw, Poland

12/06/12 – France v England
3.50am
Donetsk, Ukraine

15/06/12 – Italy v Croatia
3.50am
Poznan, Poland

18/06/12 – Portugal v Netherlands
6.35am
Kharkiv, Ukraine

22/06 – 25/06 – Quarter-Final
6.35am
TBA

22/06 – 25/06 – Quarter-Final
6.35am
TBA

28/06 – 29/06 – Semi-Final
6.35am
TBA

02/07/12 – GRAND FINAL
6.35am
Kyiv, Ukraine

Wow, that's pretty cool.

Use a fake name on your account, we had Luiz Suarez comepting in our Fantasy A-League league last season :P

I want to many frenchmen in my team. SACRE BLEU.