Sir Tokyo Sexwale

So I am now the last person on this forum without 'contacts' am I?

feck

and a DAMN fine fella on this very forum

Mexes! So glad we didn't get him. Everything I've seen of him has been gash so far. And he seems to be a prick to boot!

except he'd be Cup-Tied in the LC

Fenerbache - good to see Anelka's ambition runs high Mido - 6 clubs in 6 years!

Weirdest Thread Ever

Got it for Christmas. Have only read the forst 70 or so pages, but it is a very good piece of writing. I was expecting it to be tough & very fact-based, much like 'No Logo' but, while obviously factual, is not turgid & is a simeltaneously compulsive & outraging read. If you've not read it, buy it. If you have read it but don't already own it, buy it.

Steve McClaren is investigating the possibility of persuading Chelsea to part with Carlo Cudicini, their highly rated reserve goalkeeper. Aware that Mark Schwarzer is refusing to sign a new contract - which Boro sources claim would boost his salary by 50% to £30,000 a week - Middlesbrough's manager is actively hunting replacements and Cudicini is his top target. But though Jose Mourinho is likely to sell Cudicini in the summer he is unlikely to risk selling his highly experienced and capable back-up for Petr Cech while Chelsea are trying to win four competitions. Much will depend on whether a leading club attempt to sign Schwarzer this month; otherwise the Australian will allow his contract to wind down and depart on a Bosman in the summer http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/...1392779,00.html

we know

Rafa has said Igor's going nowhere - I imagine this means he's sounded Igor out about a new contract & the signs have been positive

2 quid? I'd pay 5

After all these years, I am appalled that anyone - even the most ignorant pig-headed Scum reader - could write that. Let-alone someone who must have a brain - to write for that publication

para 2 being what springs to my attention - public enquiry, harsh judgement on the police...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/fromthearchive/s...1192339,00.html It was, individual acts of heroism apart, a tragedy without any redeeming feature. It was a professional event, organised by professionals. And it was the most awful, dislocated, deadly botch. If you look for an image to remember it by, think of the inert bodies carried to ambulances on advertising hoardings, because no one had enough stretchers. Nothing went right at Hillsborough on Saturday. What went wrong? Too many, from Liverpool of all tragic cities, arrived too late. Hold-ups on the motorway. Too many, from Liverpool, were syphoned for convenience into the smaller end of the ground. There were no early checks, as was normal and expected, for ticket holders. So there was a frantic scrum outside the ground, before the choked turnstiles, which threatened life. A gate was opened. Coincidentally, or not, a great surge of late fans poured into the central pen, crushing scores - mostly kids - who had arrived early, with tickets, against the wired remembrances of East Berlin that now ring our soccer grounds. But within that basic scenario, nobody knew what the hell was going on. Police central control - with television monitors - could not even control the death toll. The melee outside became a melee inside whilst, on adjacent terracing, there was space a'plenty. The computers relayed the wrong message. The public address system produced scant relevant information for almost an hour. Life-saving equipment wasn't to hand or in working order. Ambulances didn't realise the dimension of the disaster. The referee, lacking advice, started a game which wasn't ready to start on the stroke of three. There will, of course, be a public inquiry. It will, on present indications, pass harsh judgement on the performance of the police, condemning the decision to give Liverpool fans the smaller ticket allocation, condemning the lack of barriers far away from the turnstiles, condemning the confusion on the ground and the paucity of co-ordination on high. But that is only the beginning. We have had our fill of disasters these past two years, and we have begun to learn how to respond. After King's Cross, heads rolled and millions have been spent to make sure such a horror does not recur. After Lockerbie, the entire fabric of airport security has been taken apart, thread by thread, and woven together again. Sheffield on Saturday is a no less serious event - and, if we are honest, it demands as serious a response. Football is only a game. Our national game but only a game. It has been scarred, over the past ten years and more, by increasing violence. That was a social and a political problem. From Hillsborough you may piece together the story of how one problem gave birth to another. Liverpool fans were nonsensically given the Leppings Lane end because, since they had to be segregated, that was the easiest for from traffic flow from Merseyside. The perimeter fences against which they died were there to stop them, like their predecessors, pouring onto the pitch. The aim of the exercise was to prevent the kind of scenes customarily lamented as Our National Shame. But, in the process, a trap was sprung upon dozens of innocent victims. The perspective needs to be broad, for otherwise any inquiry will only produce 227 detailed recommendations which will miss the deeper point. Policing big football matches today may be a quasi-military operation but such operations, because they involve human beings, will always be prey to individual disaster unless the basic situation is seen clearly. It is this. Football fans are not animals, to be marched from one sub-Colditz to the next. The iron pens, which prevent escape, have to be dismantled. The European system of moats, allowing access in desperation to the pitch, has to be adopted. If that - or any parallel relaxation - produces additional hooliganism, so be it. The game, only a game, can always be stopped. There is always, to be sure, a financial restraint. Terraces on our big grounds pack in more spectators than the seated areas where no surges can occur. Scrapping the terraces, installing all seats, would cost money. So what? The clubs, gripped by market forces, have never struck a balance between transfer fees and civilised facilities for the millions whose five pounds a time make them possible. The paying customer has always come second to a good inside forward. If Hillsborough , one of the League showpieces with a good safety record, can stage a tragedy of this dimension, how many more of our decaying inner city stadiums are waiting in line? There was some debate yesterday about whether this FA Cup should continue. We agree with Liverpool's chief executive. It should not. This time it would wrong if the show just went on, because there would be the pretence that nothing had happened, that the game was what mattered. It isn't. What matters now - as after King's Cross - is the most fundamental investigation of safety at football grounds, and the opportunity to re-think priorities. Bits of politicking will, of course, float to the surface. (The relevance of football identity cards to the mayhem outside Leppings Lane is so tenuous as to be bizarre). But the question is really far wider. We have supped full of disasters. Here is one where the endlessly repeated challenge of complex professional organisation, long-range dilemmas of hooliganism and the pint pot of crammed turnstiles, choked side-streets and dark tunnels came together to spell disaster. With the futility of hindsight, one may see that statistically it had to happen. The iron pens, with their tiny gates, were always a menace. Unless there is now a mighty response to refurbish our football grounds - and to accept, along the way, that any additional risk of hooliganism will spell nemesis for the game - it will surely happen again.

It's an apology, yes, but I don't think enough. They should at least have the dignity to make specific what they're apologizing for, otherwise we don't know that it IS the Hillsboroough footage they are relating to.

First of all - apologies if this is deemed 'not in line with the HJC's agenda' or similar, it's merely meant as a suggestion. It's 15 years in April & the Gov't seems as disinterested now as it did then - despite it being a different party & the promise of the case being re-opened, it stank of whitewash. 15 years is a long time & I imagine our friends - both Liverpool fans & not, both footy fans & otherwise - all over the country have largely forgotten or simply do not know about what happened nor why. What I think would be a beneficial move would be an 'en masse' demonstration in London, something akin to the Reclaim The Streets events. It would require a healthy turnout - perhaps a couple/few thousand - to take to the streets, disrupt traffic, through volume of people, and peacefully walk to Downing St. What makes me think this is that the Gov't don't give a monkey's as long as the Campaign is mainly centered around Liverpool, it doesn't affect them & is 'out of sight, out of mind. Remember the 1970's? The IRA were blowing up everything between Newry, Belfast & Derry. The Gov't didn't care, they weren't losing votes. As soon as the campaign moved to the Mainland things changed & many people believe sped up the talks btw Gov't & those responsible. Not that that's a great parallel to draw, but it emphasises the point. The media don't really pay much attention o/s London, so take the campaign to them? Reignite their/someone's interest. Obviously cost would be an issue, but if it could be married to an away-game in London, surely many London/Southern reds could provide beds to sleep in, floors to sleep on? Forgive me if this is wide of the mark, insensitive to the methods of the HJC or barking up the wrong tree, it's merely a suggestion with the intent to help.