Vesper

Boris Johnson refuses to condemn fans booing England taking the knee https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/jun/07/boris-johnson-refuses-to-condemn-fans-booing-england-taking-the-knee Boris Johnson has said he wants the “whole country” to get behind the England team but has refused to condemn those who booed players taking a knee, as a row over the anti-racism gesture threatens to overshadow the start of Euro 2020. With a slew of Conservative MPs and right-wing commentators stirring up further controversy, fan groups called on those who jeered before two recent friendlies to stop. England play their opening Group D fixture against Croatia on Sunday. Asked about the booing before England’s match against Romania at the Riverside on Sunday, the prime minister’s official spokesman seemed to offer support to both sides of an increasingly heated argument. The prime minister “fully respects the right of those who choose to peacefully protest and make their feelings known”, the spokesman said, adding: “On taking the knee, specifically, the prime minister is more focused on action rather than gestures. We have taken action with things like the Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparities and that’s what he’s focused on delivering.” The Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparities was widely criticised by experts for a selective use of evidence and concluding there was no evidence of institutional racism in the UK. On the subject of the team the spokesman struck a different note, however. “The PM is supporting the England football team and wants them to succeed and wants the whole country to get behind them in that endeavour,” he said. Gareth Southgate has confirmed his players will take the knee on Sunday and throughout the tournament. “It’s not going to stop what we’re doing and what we believe. It’s not going to stop my support for our players and staff,” he said on Sunday – and that they will answer no further questions on the subject. That may prove difficult should there be more booing at Wembley against Croatia, where a crowd of 22,500 is expected, twice the number at the Riverside where all tickets were sold to members of the England Supporters Travel Club. Free Lions, a part of the Football Supporters’ Association that represents England fans, called for unity. Observing how fans rebuked the racist abuse directed at some England players in Bulgaria in 2019, “we have to ask where that solidarity has gone”, the group wrote. “English football fans have a great reputation around the world for the numbers in which we travel, the passion we demonstrate in supporting our team, and our ability to party enthusiastically well into the night,” Free Lions said in an open letter. “The most-dedicated fans in the world shouldn’t be booing our own players before kick-off. We’d urge those of you booing players to have a think about your behaviour and its impact.” The Football Association is understood to be working with the ESTC on establishing new barriers to entry at England matches for fans found to be involved in antisocial or discriminatory behaviour. Other voices have called for unity too, but of a different kind. A leader in the Times on Saturday said England should stop taking the knee, arguing it had “exhausted its purpose and is now more divisive than it is helpful”. They were followed by the red wall MP Brendan Clarke-Smith, who called it “habitual tokenism” and “a divisive and confrontational matter” before comparing England’s actions to those of the team that gave the Nazi salute before a match in Berlin in 1936. “Focusing the debate about how we do anti-racism over time is probably the best way forward now,” said Sunder Katwala of British Future, an independent think tank that works on issues of identity and race. “If you want to put a reasonable challenge to the so-called criticism of these gestures, it would be to ask [critics] to be clear on how they would challenge the racism that is still there.” British Future will this week publish a report on race and identity and the lessons to be learned from football, with Katwala arguing it has played a central role in diminishing racism in England. “In the 1970s West Bromwich Albion in particular and the England team did more to change the idea of who could be English than the Commission for Racial Equality or the Race Relations Act ever did,” he said. “The England team of 2018 represented the young diverse England of the cities but also the England of leave voting towns in Yorkshire. The England team is one thing we have in common across England, and in some ways we’ve had something in football that we’re not confident we’ve got outside of these footballing summers. “That is now being contested again within football. I think there’s a danger the booing does ruin the feel good effect of this championship.”

If this is how they react to taking the knee, please keep politicians out of sport The rightwingers who condemn the players’ anti-racism protest are clearly people who don’t even like football https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/08/taking-the-knee-politicians-sport-racism-football Let’s keep politics out of football this summer,” intoned Nigel Farage, a politician, releasing his second video about football in a 24-hour period. Nigel has reached the top, which is to say that he now operates out of a loft conversion in an undisclosed location. From this nerve centre, he also kept politics out of sport by tweeting multiple times about the decision to suspend a test cricketer for historical tweets. Could fans get Nigel to say the exact opposite for coins on Cameo? It’ll cost you £75 to find out. Either way, Farage was joined in his Corinthian endeavours by culture war secretary Oliver Dowden, who informed the world that the England and Wales Cricket Board had gone “over the top … and should think again”. Like Boris Johnson, meanwhile, Oliver seemingly feels unable to condemn those people booing England footballers who take the knee before matches – but he would doubtless feel way more comfortable condemning the very noisy section of England supporters who bellow No Surrender on the fourth line of the national anthem at every single fixture. And yet, I’m going to shock you, Oliver: THEY’RE THE SAME PEOPLE. A small minority, yes, but the same small minority. If, as rather a lot of people are suggesting, we “need to listen” to the message they’re sending with the booing of the footballers’ anti-racist gesture, then I guess it follows that we “need to listen” to their message of totally incoherent sectarianism. I mean, I know it’s been linked to the BNP and the EDL and the National Front. But if people are doing a thing, then the government’s position seems to be that that thing needs to be listened to and taken on board, as opposed to treated as something a minority of nasty twats are getting up to after several pints. Speaking of several pints, it is of course no surprise that we’ve also heard on this front from Laurence Fox, the 18th toughest guy at Rada. Fresh off his London mayoral bid for the Reclaim party, which awkwardly saw him fail to reclaim even his deposit, Laurence now announces he will be boycotting all England games in the Euros and hopes the “millionaire woke babies” go out in the first round. To which the only sensible reply is: so what? YOU DON’T EVEN LIKE FOOTBALL. Trust us, we can tell a mile off. Why does anyone even care what Fox thinks about football – or even, after that London result, about politics? It’s like asking Marcus Rashford what he thinks of a mid-afternoon repeat of Lewis. There are plenty of politicians who are absolutely avid football fans with a long heritage of genuinely caring about the game, as well as the positive and negative aspects of our society that it reflects (yet crucially, does not create). Notably, these are the ones who don’t actually jump on every passing bandwagon. Instead, you get the likes of Farage or Fox or Johnson. And whenever one of these walks up to what I imagine they’d call the penalty crease to sky some completely basic point about football, all I can think is: SHE DOESN’T EVEN GO HERE. What are you even doing, guys? Why are you here? Without Googling, tell me where the last Euros were hosted. Let’s face it, you couldn’t even tell us which two teams were in the FA Cup final. Come back when you can beat a nine-year-old on the trivia. The fish-out-of-water format was typified this week by one Martin Daubney, a former Loaded editor who was briefly a Brexit MEP. Martin has been wetting his pants about the whole taking-the-knee thing and, following England’s friendly with Romania on Sunday, rushed to the airwaves to ask for the names of the “two England players” who did not take the knee, because he’d like to shake the hands of “those lads”. Oh dear. We don’t expect Martin to be able to identify Florin Răducioiu and Ianis Hagi on sight – but we do expect him to have glommed on that they are, in fact, Romanian. Without wishing to get too deeply into the arcana of England fandom approximately 10 minutes out from a major tournament, knowing which team is which is pretty much the price of entry to this particular conversation. On the one hand, it’s hilarious that Martin somehow charlatanned his way through the whole of nineties and noughties lad-mag culture when he appears somewhat clueless about the sport that was supposedly such a massive part of it (which in turn tells you a lot about how plastic lad-mag culture actually was). On the other, could he not just do whatever is the former politician’s equivalent of shutting up and playing? Likewise with Johnson and Fox. I’ve no idea whether Dowden genuinely likes sport, but if the culture secretary really wants to help he should be delivering on his promise to hold social media companies to account for the torrents of racist abuse black players receive on these platforms, instead of dicking around trying to pick the England cricket team. In the meantime, it remains significant that throughout this entire pandemic, the only group any cabinet minister has suggested should be made to take a pay cut are Premier League footballers. Top-flight footballers are the only super-high-earning UK taxpayer you will ever see a politician disparage. Despite the fact that English football is a hugely successful global business that makes millionaires out of extremely talented, young working-class individuals, there is just something about it that makes all this the wrong kind of success. I wonder if we’ll ever put our fingers on it. You can be quite sure the same politicians would listen to pretty much any other passing multimillionaire on any subject on which they cared to opine. A multimillionaire such as Wetherspoon’s boss Tim Martin, for instance, is permanently indulged by the government in his every political outpouring. One minute Tim’s doing joint appearances with Boris Johnson to push Brexit; the next he’s trying to get the government to reverse its EU immigration policy because he’s discovered he can’t get the staff. What a preposterous character. And yet, it’s only sportsmen and women who are continually urged to just shut up and play. You never hear politicians tell Tim Martin to just shut up and get them a pint. So as another Tory MP wades into the row to draw comparisons between taking the knee and the Nazi salute, we have to ask: please, please, please can we keep politicians out of sport this summer? Should that prove impossible, then all these politicians supposedly concerned about “the issues” embodied in the debates over racism in various sports need to look much closer to home for the solutions. They, and not any England sport’s management, are responsible for the country. Perhaps they could even consider the lessons of one FA executive’s reply to Margaret Thatcher in 1985. “What is football doing to keep its hooligans out of society?” ran Thatcher’s pious inquiry. “On the contrary,” came the reply. “What is society doing to keep its hooligans out of football?”

Debbie Hewitt to become FA’s first chairwoman in its 157-year history https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/jun/08/debbie-hewitt-to-become-first-fa-chairwoman-in-its-157-year-history The Football Association has appointed the first female chair in its 157-year history, with the business executive Debbie Hewitt expected to take up the position in January. The appointment is subject to confirmation by the FA Council next month, but if the formalities are completed Hewitt will become the permanent successor to Greg Clarke, who resigned after making racially offensive remarks in front of a parliamentary committee. Hewitt has an extensive background in business that suggests a more polished approach to high-profile positions representing her employer. She is a former chief executive of RAC and the current nonexecutive chair at Visa Europe, the clothing brand White Stuff and the financial services group BGL, which owns price comparison site Compare The Market. Hewitt has also spent six years on the board of The Restaurant Group plc, which owns Wagamama and Frankie and Benny’s. She will step down from that role on taking up her FA position. “I’ve been passionate about football from a very young age and I’m excited by the opportunity to play my part in shaping the future of something that means so much to so many,” said Hewitt, who was awarded an MBE in 2011 for services to business and the public sector. Hewitt will take charge of English football’s governing body at one of the most precarious financial moments in its history. The FA has projected estimated financial losses from Covid-19 to reach £300m by 2024 and has laid off 124 members of staff. She also arrives at a time of turbulence, not only because of Covid. The consequences of the failed European Super League have caused ructions across the game and the government is conducting a review into the governance of football in England, which could lead to the introduction of an independent regulator. “As the events in recent months have shown, this is a significant moment in time for English football, with a clear purpose for all stakeholders to secure the long-term health of the game at all levels,” said Hewitt. “I’m looking forward to working alongside our CEO, Mark Bullingham, and the team across Wembley Stadium and St George’s Park, and relish the opportunity to chair an organisation that has the potential to be a very positive force for good throughout the game and across society.” Kate Tinsley, an independent non-executive director at the FA who led the appointment process said: “This is an excellent appointment for the FA and English football in general. “Debbie was the outstanding candidate from a talented and experienced field. She immediately demonstrated her passion and ability to positively influence the direction of the FA on a domestic and global stage, providing strong and principled leadership along the way.”

David Squires on … the unlikely Marxist takeover of English football Our cartoonist on the booing of England players taking a knee, radical leftist positions and Harry Maguire’s ankle https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2021/jun/08/david-squires-on-the-unlikely-marxist-takeover-of-english-football

he had a lacklustre season he is not Chels quality

an update we were at 67 we have 59 players to sort out, whether sell, keep on main team, loan out, renew, release, or keep on reserves/youth the 16 in bold black are big ones (in terms of money spent or their worth) that need to be sorted ASAP, many are damn near worthless now, or a small fraction of what we could have gotten if not for idiotic non sales bold red are ones who might or should have a future here down the road, or at least be able to be sold for decent money Tammy Abraham Marcos Alonso Ethan Ampadu Tino Anjorin Tiemoué Bakayoko Lewis Baker Thierno Ballo Ross Barkley Lewis Bate Michy Batshuayi Nathan Baxter Lucas Bergström Armando Broja Juan Castillo Trevoh Chalobah Jake Clarke-Salter Levi Colwill Jamie Cumming Danny Drinkwater Pierre Ekwah Elimby Emerson Bryan Fiabema Conor Gallagher Billy Gilmour Olivier Giroud Marc Guéhi Callum Hudson-Odoi Jorginho (doubtful he leaves) Kenedy Kepa Henry Lawrence Marcel Lewis Tino Livramento Ruben Loftus-Cheek Ian Maatsen Xavier Mbuyamba Sam McClelland Luke McCormick George McEachran Matt Miazga Victor Moses Charly Musonda Jr. George Nunn Myles Peart-Harris Abdul Rahman Baba Dion Rankine Jon Russell Malang Sarr Teddy Sharman-Lowe Dynel Simeu Jude Soonsup-Bell Dujon Sterling Fikayo Tomori Ike Ugbo Tariq Uwakwe Ethan Wady Davide Zappacosta Karlo Žiger Kurt Zouma gone now Willy Caballero Marco van Ginkel Izzy Brown Danilo Pantić Jack Wakely Jamal Blackman Declan Frith and renewed and kept Thiago Silva

so (and this is not a trick or a gotcha question) who and what positions should we be addressing via an inbound transfer(s)?

its more than just 3 positions we are not going to play a rigid double pivot with just 2 wingers and one CF every game I will be shocked if that happens and even if we do, you know Mount will sometimes (for better or worse) be in that double pivot we need a scorer, BADLY Jorginho with SEVEN (and all were pens ffs) goals was our top league scorer Werner had 6 Mount had 5 plus a PK for 6 Tammy had 6 but is 90% likely gone Zouma had 5 and is likely gone that is it for 5 or more goals in the league

again you are locking those players into only a few positions, when they almost all can clearly play seeming other than LW RW CF I am going to dig my feet in on this there is ZERO chance bringing in a monster CF upsets the team ffs, we all have been talking about a CF for ages and lord knows we have a shedload of games to make sure all get playing time plus dare I say injuries

you are talking about players who can play (other than Håland) in multiple positions obviously not every single one in ALL of these positions, but many can play in multiple areas and some on either side if need be tossing Håland in (and with Giroud and Tammy leaving) certainly is not an 'upset the apple cart' manoeuvre RW LW CF SS False 9 AMF and in CHO's case, RWB same for Mbappe in a perfect world I want them both by season start of 2022/23 screw Ziyech and potentially CHO, especially if they fail again this coming season we have potentially 65 games coming up this season (the only game we deffo do not have is the CS, which would have made it 66, barring cup replays) we need a massively deep bench 38 league games The Super Cup The FWCC (2 games, and then the next year (we have already qualified), potentially 4 or 5 I think, as the format changes) League Cup (5 potential games) FA Cup (6 potential games) CL (13 games potentially)

define high profile here are the players we have, who (NOT counting injuries forcing them to start, like a Zouma) who are good enough to start at least some of the time Edouard Mendy Andreas Christensen Antonio Rüdiger Thiago Silva Ben Chilwell Reece James César Azpilicueta N'Golo Kanté Jorginho Mateo Kovacic Billy Gilmour (will be loaned out) Mason Mount Kai Havertz Hakim Ziyech Callum Hudson-Odoi Christian Pulisic Timo Werner there simply are not a lot of friction points there, especially as none other than the GK, the CB's (and Azpi is combo), and the DMF's are in a set position we are seriously short at CF (as Tammy and Giroud are likely gone), DMF (we really need true DMF, athletic, etc to spell Kante, Jorginho is not up to the double pivot without Kante as partner), and CMF, plus LB (unless we are going to wring another season out of Alonso) plus backup keeper is fucked (I do NOT trust Kepa for the month Mendy is gone) and I would like a better CB to replace Zouma (we can get another next season to replace Thiago) just buy Lacroix if Bastoni or Varane are impossible

yes mummy 🥴

Kante makes half that £144,231 per week thsi was sorted out here on TC two years ago the £290K PW figure was from stupid foreign sources who assumed UK salaries were quoted in net terms, so they just doubled it for the gross, and the duncey brit press picked up on it the highest paid Chels player atm is Chilwell, at £190K per week Spotrac and Capology are the gold standards, all the major papers and sites use then https://www.spotrac.com/epl/Chelsea-fc/payroll/ https://www.capology.com/club/Chelsea/salaries/

Monday June 7 2021 France have a challenging draw but anything short of lifting the trophy would be failure By Jason Burt, CHIEF FOOTBALL CORRESPONDENT Arsene Wenger is right. France are not just favourites to win Euro 2020 but are “super-favourites”. After all they reached the final of the competition five years ago, they then won the World Cup in 2018 and have an even stronger squad now. Any team with Kylian Mbappe, N’Golo Kante, Paul Pogba, Antoine Griezmann and an extraordinary array of defenders – France could actually field two sides to compete in this tournament – has a good chance. And that is without factoring in the return of Karim Benzema who could be the final piece in the jigsaw. What gives France the edge, though, is the fact that they can ally this talent with a ruthlessly pragmatic coach in Didier Deschamps, who won the lot himself as a player and is not afraid to rein in some of the attacking instincts of his players. Deschamps knows that tournament football is often based on a sound defensive base, and the discipline he gets from Pogba is a prime example of that. It makes France even harder to beat. The flip side of that is, does Deschamps sometimes hold them back? The wildcard factor is a fiendishly tough group that kicks off by facing Germany in Munich and then Hungary in Budapest, before a final tie against Portugal, the holders, also in the Hungarian capital. If they progress it certainly means that France will not be under-cooked for the knock-out stages. The only other imponderable is expectation. Not winning the Euros would be a failure for France given their status and pedigree, and that pressure may tell. Also this competition has a habit of throwing up unlikely winners – Denmark, Greece and, as France found out, Portugal the last time round. But still France should win and the taxing nature of these finals – multiple venues, after an intense season, the problems caused by Covid – will favour a team with great squad depth, organisation and a winning track record. Get a 12-month Telegraph Sport subscription today for £39. Best of our Euro 2021 articles Des Walker exclusive: How it felt to play for Brian Clough - and why I loved driving lorries Euro 2021 round table: Glenn Hoddle, Gordon Strachan and Mark Hughes sit down to discuss the Home Nations' chances Des Lynam interview: The BBC's decline, losing out to Cilla Black - and 'sexy football' at Euro '96 Euros one to watch: Ben White Ben White has made Gareth Southgate's final squad CREDIT: ADD CREDIT Brighton defender Ben White has been selected as Trent Alexander-Arnold's replacement in the final England squad. You can read more about the ball-playing centre-half here. Which player are you most looking forward to watching? Send your submissions to [email protected] - we'll feature the best in a future newsletter. This day's best stat 59 Number of England caps won by Jordan Henderson and he is yet to score his first goal. He missed the chance to do so with a penalty against Romania. The day in a picture CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK Not so friendly: Tempers flared as Wales finished their tournament preparations with a goalless draw against Albania.

He can play LB as well, and is a class CMF in his prime years. 80m euros is too high for this market though.

I want to see the fucking deadwood shipped. Really tired of seeing these twats still here on the books. Just staggering how many turds we have in the bowl. And no, not talking about Jorginho or Zouma in regards to this post. If Tuchel trusts Jorginho, I am fine with him staying. There are no players in the main roster who make me angry simply by being at the club. Even Kepa means well. There are some out in loan who do though. Barkley is a fucking dickhead drunk, same for Drinkwater. Embarrassing to have them tied to us.

Mount is a vastly more complete player. Foden does fuckall on defence. Foden could be replaced with so many wingers, Mount absolutely cannot.

all I want is a striker that can do this

N’Golo Kante keen to stay at Chelsea after Champions League success https://metro.co.uk/2021/06/07/ngolo-kante-drops-hint-over-his-Chelsea-future-after-champions-league-success-14729071/?ito=newsnow-feed

Chelsea have appeared for signing in ‘last few hours’ – Blues initiate contact for summer deal http://sportwitness.co.uk/Chelsea-already-asked-about-player-wanting-to-leave-club-welcome-sale-will-accept-e80m-fee/ Chelsea have ‘already asked’ about signing Atlético Madrid star Saúl Ñíguez, according to Mundo Deportivo. The midfielder lost prominence in the 2020/21 season as he made only 22 league starts in their title winning campaign. For the past few months, reports coming out of Spain have stated the 26-year-old has plans to leave Los Rojiblancos in the summer. Mundo now explain the La Liga winners ‘would not frown on’ the player leaving the Wanda Metropolitano because he is no longer an untouchable in the squad. Atlético ‘welcome the sale’ of Saúl, who is ‘determined’ to leave the club. The Spain international’s exit will help Diego Simeone’s side to make money and the funds can be used to undertake incoming operations. According to the claims, the Madrid based club would accept a fee of €80m for Saúl.

Ukraine's Euro 2020 football kit provokes outrage in Russia https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57379875 A new kit for Ukraine's football team, showing a map including Russian-annexed Crimea, has provoked anger in Moscow. Ukraine unveiled its shirt for Euro 2020, emblazoned with its borders including Crimea and the slogan "Glory to Ukraine!" Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, and considers it a part of its territory, something rejected internationally. A Russian MP called it a "political provocation". The head of the Ukrainian football association, Andriy Pavelko, revealed the kit in a video on his Facebook page on Sunday, days before the European Championship kicks off. The front of the yellow shirt shows the contours of Ukraine in white, including Crimea and the pro-Russian separatist-controlled regions of Donetsk and Lugansk. A slogan on the back reads "Glory to Ukraine!" - a patriotic chant used as a rallying cry by protesters who forced out a pro-Moscow president, Viktor Yanukovych in 2014. "We believe that Ukraine's silhouette will give strength to the players because they will fight for all of Ukraine," Mr Pavelko said. Is Russia preparing to invade Ukraine? Russia-Ukraine hostility explained But Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova criticised the kits, saying the football team had "attached Ukraine's territory to Russia's Crimea", creating the "illusion of the impossible". She said the slogan was nationalistic and echoed a Nazi rallying cry. MP Dmitry Svishchev called the shirt "totally inappropriate" and urged Euro 2020 organisers Uefa to take action. The tournament, postponed due to Covid-19, will run from June 11 to July 11 across 11 host cities, including Russia's Saint Petersburg, which hosts a quarter-final.

If they had true football culture and their best athletes played football since toddlers like other nations, then with their athletes they would be damn near unstoppable. That will neve happen, as the cream of the crop gets sucked into the fairytale that is yank football (the odds are staggeringly against a person making a living in it versus real football), plus some for basketball (better odds there as the less talents can go play globally, unlike almost all yank football players). Plus the RW culture there has always thumbed their nose at football, called it boring and a (insert nasty slur) game (which is ludicrous and so typically 'Murican). They are so insular when it comes to global athletic culture that they cannot dominate. I think yank football should be banned, it is a brutish, viscous, destructive game that leaves 99% + who play it from teen years on (or even before) physically and mentally damaged, and far too often financially too. Look at this FUCKED UP shit the NFL was doing until THIS YEAR insanity NFL agrees to drop race bias in concussion claims https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57336282 The NFL has said it will stop settling concussion lawsuits using a race-based formula that assumes black players have a lower level of cognitive function. America's top-flight football league also pledged to review previous brain injury claims that have been settled via the practice known as race-norming. Two black players filed a civil rights lawsuit over the practice. One black player involved in the litigation called the policy "classic system racism". More than 2,000 former NFL players have lodged dementia claims, but fewer than 600 have received compensation. Lawyers say more than half of NFL retirees are black. Attorneys have requested details on how NFL brain injury payouts have been apportioned along racial lines, but are yet to receive any details. Two former black players, Kevin Henry and Najeh Davenport, who were refused payouts under a $1bn (£0.7bn) NFL compensation scheme for brain injuries, launched a civil lawsuit over race-norming. But the judge dismissed the lawsuit in March and ordered the NFL and the main lawyer for the compensation scheme to negotiate a settlement. She also took the unusual step of calling for a full report on the racial bias allegations. In its use of race-norming, the league compares a given player's cognitive test scores with the supposed norm for his demographic group. Under the methodology, black players are assumed to possess a lower level of cognitive function than the average white player. But attorneys say the standard means that in order to qualify for compensation, the average black player must demonstrate a greater level of cognitive decline than a white counterpart. Ken Jenkins, a retired black player supporting the litigation, told the Hill: "This is classic systemic racism. Just because I'm black, I wasn't born with fewer brain cells."

2021 International Friendly Belgium Croatia http://www.sportnews.to/sports/2021/uefa-friendly-belgium-vs-croatia-s1/ https://www.totalsportek.com/belgium-football/

Linfield has 271 Sr topflight trophies in its history 135 years of footie, so over 2 trophies per season that is just insane Active competitions Senior honours (152) Irish League Championship: 55 1890–91, 1891–92, 1892–93, 1894–95, 1897–98, 1901–02, 1903–04, 1906–07, 1907–08, 1908–09, 1910–11, 1913–14, 1921–22, 1922–23, 1929–30, 1931–32, 1933–34, 1934–35, 1948–49, 1949–50, 1953–54, 1954–55, 1955–56, 1958–59, 1960–61, 1961–62, 1965–66, 1968–69, 1970–71, 1974–75, 1977–78, 1978–79, 1979–80, 1981–82, 1982–83, 1983–84, 1984–85, 1985–86, 1986–87, 1988–89, 1992–93, 1993–94, 1999–00, 2000–01, 2003–04, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2007–08, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2011–12, 2016–17, 2018–19, 2019–20, 2020–21 Irish Cup: 44 1890–91, 1891–92, 1892–93, 1894–95, 1897–98, 1898–99, 1901–02, 1903–04, 1911–12, 1912–13, 1914–15, 1915–16, 1918–19, 1921–22, 1922–23, 1929–30, 1930–31, 1933–34, 1935–36, 1938–39, 1941–42, 1944–45, 1945–46, 1947–48, 1949–50, 1952–53, 1959–60, 1961–62, 1962–63, 1969–70, 1977–78, 1979–80, 1981–82, 1993–94, 1994–95, 2001–02, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2007–08, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2011–12, 2016–17, 2020–21 Irish League Cup: 10 1986–87, 1991–92, 1993–94, 1997–98, 1998–99, 1999–00, 2001–02, 2005–06, 2007–08, 2018–19 County Antrim Shield: 43 1898–99, 1903–04, 1905–06, 1906–07, 1907–08, 1912–13, 1913–14, 1916–17, 1921–22, 1922–23, 1927–28, 1928–29, 1929–30, 1931–32, 1932–33, 1933–34, 1934–35, 1937–38, 1941–42, 1946–47, 1952–53, 1954–55, 1957–58, 1958–59, 1960–61, 1961–62, 1962–63, 1965–66, 1966–67, 1972–73, 1976–77, 1980–81, 1981–82, 1982–83, 1983–84, 1994–95, 1997–98, 2000–01, 2003–04, 2004–05, 2005–06, 2013–14, 2016–17 Defunct competitions Senior honours (119) Charity Shield: 4 1993 (shared), 1994, 2000, 2017 Gold Cup: 33 1915–16, 1917–18, 1918–19, 1920–21, 1921–22, 1923–24, 1926–27, 1927–28, 1928–29, 1930–31, 1935–36, 1936–37, 1948–49, 1949–50, 1950–51, 1955–56, 1957–58, 1959–60, 1961–62, 1963–64, 1965–66, 1967–68, 1968–69, 1970–71, 1971–72, 1979–80, 1981–82, 1983–84, 1984–85, 1987–88, 1988–89, 1989–90, 1996–97 City Cup: 24 1894–95, 1895–96, 1897–98, 1899–00, 1900–01, 1901–02, 1902–03, 1903–04, 1907–08, 1909–10, 1919–20, 1921–22, 1926–27, 1928–29, 1935–36, 1937–38, 1949–50, 1951–52, 1957–58, 1958–59, 1961–62, 1963–64, 1967–68, 1973–74 Ulster Cup: 15 1948–49, 1955–56, 1956–57, 1959–60, 1961–62, 1964–65, 1967–68, 1970–71, 1971–72, 1974–75, 1977–78, 1978–79, 1979–80, 1984–85, 1992–93 Floodlit Cup: 2 1993–94, 1997–98 Top Four Cup: 2 1966–67, 1967–68 Belfast Charity Cup: 24 1890–91, 1891–92, 1892–93, 1893–94, 1894–95, 1898–99, 1900–01, 1902–03, 1904–05, 1912–13, 1913–14, 1914–15, 1916–17, 1917–18, 1918–19, 1921–22, 1926–27, 1927–28, 1929–30, 1932–33, 1933–34, 1934–35, 1935–36 (shared), 1937–38 Alhambra Cup: 1 1921–22 Jubilee Cup: 1 1935–36 Belfast & District League: 2 1915–16, 1917–18 Northern Regional league: 3 1942–43, 1944–45, 1945–46 Substitute Gold Cup: 2 1942–43, 1944–45 Manchester Charity Cup: 2 1945–46, 1946–47 All-Ireland honours North-South Cup: 1 1960–61 Blaxnit Cup: 1 1970–71 Tyler Cup: 1 1980–81 Setanta Cup: 1 2005

should be nil 1 Romania, what a blown chance