General Football 23/24

[Doc_Piptorious]

I see Arrigo Sacchi has not twigged that starting a sentence with "I'm certainly not racist" and then bemoaning that there are too many black players at youth level in Italy does not help make folk more likely to believe him.



http://www.msn.com/en-ie/news/other/...IM?ocid=HPCDHP

The former Italy manager Arrigo Sacchi has denied being racist after he was quoted as saying there are “too many black players” at youth level in Italy – evidence that the nation is now “without dignity or pride”.

Sacchi, speaking at an awards ceremony, was quoted by Italian media as having said: “I’m certainly not racist and my history as a coach demonstrates that… But look at the Viareggio [youth] tournament I would say that there are too many black players. Italy has no dignity, no pride. It should not be possible that our teams should have 15 foreign players in the squad.”

The 68-year-old, whose club coaching career included spells at Parma, Milan, Atlético Madrid and Real Madrid, later tried to clarify his stance after the comments were reported, telling Gazzetta dello Sport: “I have been misrepresented, how could I be racist?

“I just said I saw a game featuring a team who fielded four coloured boys. My history speaks for itself, I always coached teams with different colours and I bought many, both at Milan and at Madrid.

“I just wanted to point out that we are losing our national pride and identity.”

[Roboklopp]

Yeah but but but he played rijkaard you know!?

[Red_Polo]

I approached this from the pov of perhaps he had been misunderstood, in that he felt incoming players were disproportionately likely to be black meaning something racial was at play. Instead seems he's talking about loss of national identity as a result. Which is pretty difficult to see as anything other than racist. Unless someone can correct me somehow.

[ChesterDave]

How far off would my assumptions be that these black kids have heritage that encompasses the countries that Italy was colonising?

[EwarWoo]

He's not racist OK, he bought many coloureds whilst he was at Milan and Madrid. Someone had to pick his cotton for him!

Very unfortunate wording given the context.

[Shaggy]

[ame]https://twitter.com/BoyleSports/status/567977500267163648[/ame]

[Trippendicular]

https://twitter.com/BoyleSports/stat...77500267163648

**** me, it's like a spoof article come true.

[Bender]

what a useless bitch

[Rich]

Clearly he isn't an amazing athlete but the game was being played in La Paz; 3600 metres above sea level.

[Paddy]

http://www.gaa.ie/gaa-news-and-videos/daily-news/2/1902151330-bentley-impresses-on-crossmaglen-debut/

Former Arsenal, Tottenham, Blackburn and England midfielder David Bentley made his Gaelic football debut for Crossmaglen Rangers on Wednesday night, kicking 0-3 in a challenge match against Silverbridge.

Bentley is taking part in a forthcoming TV3 documentary called 'The Toughest Trade', commissioned by AIB, which will see Kilkenny and James Stephens hurler Jackie Tyrrell and Crossmaglen footballer Aaron Kernan swap their clubs for the professional sports of baseball and soccer respectively.

As part of the programme, a former professional soccer player - Bentley - and a former professional baseball player, Brian Schneider, will take up Kernan's and Tyrrell's roles with their GAA clubs, as well as their professional roles in Ireland for a short period of time.
Despite having never played Gaelic football before, Bentley - who transferred to Tottenham Hotspur for around £15 million in 2008 - has done well since linking up with Crossmaglen, and Kernan, whose swap will see him spend time with Premier League club Sunderland, says the town has been excited by Bentley's presence.

"Everybody tried to look after him and help him out but there was nothing staged about it, it was exactly what we are doing at the minute, particularly running, with a bit of ball-work to try help him out. He never backed away from anything," he said.

"The boys were really impressed with how he dealt with a typical pre-season training session on the third pitch. I think he came through it well and certainly enjoyed the camaraderie with all the boys, it's caused great excitement around the town."

[Chazza]

Nice Story.

Eleven-year-old Celtic fan wins Scotland’s goal of the month
• Jay Beatty, who has Down’s syndrome, receives 97% of the votes
• 11-year-old scored a penalty at half-time against Hamilton
• June 2014: Family forced to turn down World Cup trip

An 11-year-old Celtic supporter has won the Scottish Professional Football League’s January goal of the month competition by a landslide – collecting 97% of the votes.

Jay Beatty – who has Down’s syndrome – was invited to come on to the pitch at half-time during Celtic’s 2-0 win at Hamilton to take a penalty, which he converted to rapturous applause. Hamilton went as far as announcing the result as 3-0 on Twitter and after Beatty’s effort was included on the shortlist for goal of the month, there was only going to be one winner.

The Celtic striker Georgios Samaras, currently on loan at al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia, announced Beatty as the winner in a video message, in which he said: “Jay my friend, me and you are the same, scoring goals. I’m very happy to announce that you won the goal of the month. Well done pal, great job. I miss you and I love you. See you, Jay.”

The youngster first came to prominence last year after Samaras picked him out from the crowd to join Celtic’s lap of honour after winning the league. There was even a campaign to fly him out to Brazil to follow Greece’s World Cup campaign but Jay and his parents were eventually forced to decline an invitation from the Greek FA because they were on a family holiday in the United States.

Jay’s father, Martin Beatty, thanked the thousands of football fans who voted for his goal. He said: “Not many of us get to live our dreams and Jay is getting to live all our dreams. Thank you to everyone for making this possible – we are so grateful and proud.”

http://youtu.be/eFZphq4CC_Y

http://youtu.be/oCLneLXF8EM

[ame="http://youtu.be/oCLneLXF8EM"]Jay Beatty celebrates scoring penalty for Celtic at half time - YouTube[/ame]

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/feb/20/celtic-fan-jay-beatty-goal-of-month

[Roboklopp]

Just been on SSN. SAmaras even sent him a message from his new club- **** striker, but seems like a really sound bloke.

[Kenneth]

**** goalkeeping

[Roboklopp]

**** goalkeeping

[Shaggy]

**** off Mark Jacks

Surely a spambot. Ban the roboty cunt.