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Non QPR football thread

Discussion in 'Queens Park Rangers' started by Sooperhoop, Feb 2, 2021.

  1. QPR Oslo

    QPR Oslo Well-Known Member

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    Well no. When fit he was full of atricks, when his back was playing up he was still Geriatric.
     
    #141
  2. kiwiqpr

    kiwiqpr Barnsie Mod

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  3. highglossranger

    highglossranger Active Member

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    Report on the radio, saying Mike Ashley wants to get straight back into football, and is making enquiries about Derby County, just when their fans thought it could get no worse.
     
    #143
  4. kiwiqpr

    kiwiqpr Barnsie Mod

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    Andrew Watson: The 'most influential' black footballer for decades lost to history
    By Andrew AloiaBBC Sport
    Last updated onLess than a minute agoLess than a minute ago.From the sectionFootball

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    Watson was a trailblazer who helped transform how football was played
    There are two murals of black footballers facing one another across an alleyway in Glasgow. One helped shape football as we know it, the other is Pele.

    Andrew Watson captained Scotland to a 6-1 win over England on his debut in 1881. He was a pioneer, the world's first black international, but for more than a century the significance of his achievements went unrecognised.


    Research conducted over the past three decades has left us with some biographical details: a man descended of slaves and of those who enslaved them, born in Guyana, raised to become an English gentleman and famed as one of Scottish football's first icons.

    And yet today, 100 years on from his death aged 64, Watson remains something of an enigma, the picture built around him a fractured one.

    His grainy, faded, sepia image evokes many different emotions: awe, pride, passion, and for one man in particular, discomfort.

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    When Watson moved to Glasgow in 1875, aged 18, he had hardly played football.

    It was a time before professionalism, when the sport was still evolving and a single set of rules was yet to be universally adopted.

    Within six years he'd established himself as one of the most talented and well-respected players, a trailblazer who helped popularise the Scottish 'passing and running' game - an early step in football's evolution towards what we recognise today.

    Watson twice played against England, and on each occasion Scotland were convincing winners. The second victory, 5-1 at the original Hampden Park, was a pivotal result that convinced the English Football Association its approach needed to change.

    They turned to Watson to show them the way as a new elite amateur team was formed; Corinthian FC would later be credited with popularising football around the world. Watson, a public school educated player who would have spoken with the upper class accent of his new team-mates, was among the first recruits.

    He assumed the role of 'Scotch Professor' and taught his English peers - both at Corinthian and numerous other clubs and representative sides - "the science" of a more dynamic passing style.

    He is seen as a conduit who helped modernise football during a period of great upheaval that signalled the "death" of the "individual, dribbling game" - characterised by a single player running with the ball at his feet surrounded by eight forwards - that had been favoured by the English.

    "Pele was a genius footballer, but there are thousands of genius footballers whose influence dies with them the second they retire," says Ged O'Brien, founder of the Scottish Football Museum.

    "You can look at any game of football being played anywhere in the world - by any person of any gender or ethnicity or culture - and the ghost of Andrew Watson will be looking down on you, because they are playing his game.

    "Watson is the most influential black footballer of all time. There is nobody that comes close."

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    Watson (fourth from right in back row), with the Scotland team that beat England 5-1 in 1882
    During his lifetime, Watson's influence was felt across the game. He was a captain, a national cup winner, an administrator, investor and match official, each achievement and contribution made as the first black man to do so.

    Historians, researchers and academics have worked hard to bring his legacy to light. But unravelling his personal story has presented a different challenge.

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    Watson was born in 1856, in Georgetown, Demerara, a colonial trading post established by the Dutch, captured by the French, then re-named by British rulers who imported slaves from Africa to work on its plantations. Now it's the capital of Guyana - which has been a republic since 1970, four years after it declared independence from Britain. It borders Suriname, Venezuela and Brazil.

    Watson moved to Britain aged around two. He was educated at some of the finest schools in England. His family boasted significant wealth and powerful family connections.

    Liverpudlian poet Mark Al Nasir spent years researching Watson's background. After first "seeing himself" in images of a 19th-century footballer broadcast on a BBC TV documentary in 2002, he traced his own ancestry back to Watson's in Guyana.

    "I saw a black guy from Guyana who was the world's first black footballer, who looked like me and has our family name. I thought: 'We have to be related,'" says Al Nasir, who changed his name from Mark Watson when he converted to Islam.

    "I grew up to feel worthless, that I was nobody, that I was from nothing. There was nothing to give me pride or dignity in being black. So seeing someone like him, one of the very architects of the game, I needed to find out what our connection might be.

    "I was looking for a sense of black pride, something in my history to be proud of."

    What Al Nasir found were descendants who were both slaves and slave traders.

    "The blood of both courses through my veins and that is a dilemma that I have to reconcile within my own soul," he says.

    "And Andrew Watson's family consisted of both."

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    A drawing of Watson printed in Scottish Referee - a weekly sports newspaper - in June 1902
    Watson's mother, Anna Rose, was a black woman born into slavery and freed as a young girl, along with her mother Minkie.

    His father, Peter Miller Watson, was a white Scottish solicitor among the most influential figures in Demerara. He looked after the affairs of Sandbach, Tinne and Co - a firm that exported sugar, coffee and rum and had been involved in the slave trade.

    In a complex family tree is also John Gladstone, one of the largest slave owners in the West Indies and the father of William Gladstone, who served for 12 years as British Prime Minister over four terms between 1868 and 1894.

    Watson's family in the 19th Century were also expanding into banking and railway development - amassing huge wealth in the process.

    "Andrew Watson was born into one of the most powerful, dynastical slavery conglomerates in the history of the British slave trade," Al Nasir says.

    "This is a guy who lived the life of privilege. He had a Prime Minister for a cousin and his family owned a bank."

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    Watson is also depicted in a mural at the site of the original Hampden Park
    After moving to England with his elder sister Annetta, Watson attended Heath Grammar School in Halifax, North Yorkshire, and went on to study at King's College, London, as well as Glasgow University.

    Aged 21, he drew on an inheritance of £6,000, plus interest, left to him following his father's death. The sum would be worth around £700,000 today. He invested some of the money in his football club, Parkgrove, as well as in a wholesale warehouse business.

    After moving on to Queen's Park, where he won three Scottish Cups, The Scottish Athletic Journal profiled Watson in 1885 under the headline: 'Modern Athletic Celebrities'.

    Like many such articles about him, he is described as "first-class" and is said to "play a sterling honest game". But unlike other reports of the time, there is reference to abuse he had to contend with:

    "Although on more than one occasion subjected to vulgar insults by splenetic, ill-tempered players, he uniformly preserved that gentlemanly demeanour which has endeared him to opponents as well as his club companions."

    To those who have researched Watson, it gives a telling insight into what he had to deal with as a black player. No reports of the time explicitly mentioned racism.

    "Why has the writer written it?" asks Richard McBrearty, curator at the Scottish Football Museum.

    "I've read hundreds of these articles and they don't talk of 'splenetic, ill-tempered players' for the white footballers. It's the only reference I've ever seen and it happens to be a line mentioned in an article about a black player. That was part of what he faced.

    "It sets him out as a champion of football, not just for his playing prowess but as a black man playing what was basically a white game at that time. He was a pioneer."

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    Watson (front centre, with legs crossed) pictured with the Scotland team that beat England 6-1 in 1881
    Watson sits front and centre in one of the Scotland national team's most famous early photos, and his wider influence is now plain to see. So why was he forgotten?

    Shortly after arriving in London as a footballer in 1882, Watson's first wife Jessie Nimmo Armour died. Their two children would remain with their grandparents in Glasgow for the next 30 years. It heralded an unsettled period in Watson's life where he led an almost nomadic existence playing for numerous teams.

    By 1888 he was in the twilight of his career and playing for Bootle - Everton's main rival on Merseyside at the time. There, he set up a new home with his second wife Eliza Kate Tyler, with whom he had two more children, retired from football and trained as a maritime engineer.

    He went to sea, working for the West Indian and Pacific Steamship Company and rising to the rank of chief engineer. To football he was lost. A mention in the Glasgow Evening Post in 1889 referenced that he was "doing well as an engineer", but from public consciousness his presence faded.

    His death was announced in 1921 in The Richmond and Twickenham Times, which referenced him as being cousin to former Prime Minister Gladstone. There was no obituary, no football tributes.

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    "If you remove Andrew Watson from the timeline of football - and not just wipe him from the history books as previously done - what would have happened to the game?" asks Llew Walker, author of Andrew Watson, A straggling Life.

    He adds: "There is a whitewashing of football history as an English game over the past 100 years, and when the Scottish influence is pushed out of the game you also push Andrew Watson's story out."

    There is a campaign for Watson to be honoured with a statue at Hampden Park. But Al Nasir is against such efforts - because of the footballer's family ties and the money he was bequeathed later in life.

    "If you are going to stand up and say 'remove William Gladstone's name from a building at Liverpool University because he received money from his father and his link to the slave trade', then what argument have you got for putting a statue of Watson up?" Al Nasir asks.

    "You can't apply a different standard to Watson."

    Historian Andy Mitchell believes Watson's story is "still to be concluded". Many biographical details remain shrouded in mystery, even if Mitchell himself helped with a recent major rediscovery.

    For decades, Watson's last resting place was unknown. It was thought possibly to be in Australia, possibly Mumbai. Mitchell was the man who found the actual grave, in Richmond Cemetery, in south-west London.

    "In some respects, Watson is finally being recognised as a hugely important figure," says Mitchell.

    "And yet there is still so many questions about his life and what he felt. He is an enigma - a very important enigma."
     
    #144
  5. YorkshireHoopster

    YorkshireHoopster Well-Known Member

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    A lot closer to the distribution warehouse
     
    #145
  6. sb_73

    sb_73 Well-Known Member

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    Pedri, a very fine young player, is about to sign a new contract with debt ridden and plummeting like a rock down a well Barcelona. The contract will keep him at the club until June 2026, when he will be 24 years old.

    The contract is rumoured to have a release clause of €1 billion.
     
    #146
  7. Sooperhoop

    Sooperhoop Well-Known Member

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    I'd imagine this lad would have £1billion release clause when Citeh snap him up in January...

     
    #147
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  8. kiwiqpr

    kiwiqpr Barnsie Mod

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    England given one-match stadium ban following unrest at Euro 2020 final
    Last updated on2 hours ago2 hours ago.From the sectionEngland

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    Police standing in front of England fans at Wembley during the Euro 2020 final
    England have been ordered to play one match behind closed doors as a punishment for the unrest at Wembley Stadium during the Euro 2020 final.

    Uefa also imposed a ban for a second game, which is suspended for two years.


    The Football Association was fined 100,000 euros (£84,560) for "the lack of order and discipline inside and around the stadium" for the game.

    "Although we are disappointed with the verdict, we acknowledge the outcome of this Uefa decision," said the FA.

    Fans fought with stewards and police as they attempted to break into Wembley for the match on 11 July, which England lost to Italy on penalties.

    Hundreds of fans got into Wembley for the showpiece without tickets after areas around the stadium became packed hours before the evening kick-off.

    Many sat in the area reserved for players' relatives, while England defender Harry Maguire later said that his father Alan suffered two suspected broken ribs before the game.

    Manchester United central defender Maguire said his father was caught up in the stampede and was "struggling to breathe" after being trampled on.

    The Metropolitan Police had said that 51 arrests were made connected to the final, with 26 of those made at Wembley.

    "We condemn the terrible behaviour of the individuals who caused the disgraceful scenes in and around Wembley Stadium at the Euro 2020 final, and we deeply regret that some of them were able to enter the stadium," added the FA.

    "We are determined that this can never be repeated, so we have commissioned an independent review, led by Baroness Casey, to report on the circumstances involved.

    "We continue to work with the relevant authorities in support of their efforts to take action against those responsible and hold them to account."

    The ban will be in place for England's next home game in a Uefa competition, which will be in the Nations League next June.

    Uefa said the fine related to "the lack of order and discipline inside and around the stadium, for the invasion of the field of play, for throwing of objects and for the disturbances during the national anthems" at the Euro 2020 final.

    England fans booed the Italian anthem before the match.

    Kevin Miles, the Football Supporters' Association's chief executive, told BBC Radio 5 Live he was "sickened" by what he saw at the final.

    "On arrival at the stadium a couple of hours before kick-off, it was already pretty chaotic outside," he said.

    "I think there was a failure from early in the day from the policing outside the ground right through to the security arrangements on the perimeter of the ground, and then inside.

    "We don't have a bad track record of behaviour at Wembley and in that sense it was a bit of a one-off, but it's a glaring one. It's not acceptable."

    In July, the FA was fined more than £25,000 for crowd problems before and during the semi-final victory over Denmark, which included Kasper Schmeichel having a laser shone in his eyes as he prepared to face a penalty from Harry Kane.

    Following Euro 2020, Hungary were ordered to play their next three home games - with the third game of the ban suspended - behind closed doors after Uefa found their supporters guilty of discriminatory behaviour during the tournament.

    Hungary were also fined 100,000 euros but their supporters were allowed in for a World Cup qualifier against England on 2 September in Budapest as it fell under Fifa jurisdiction.

    Following that game, football's world governing body told Hungary's FA to play two matches behind closed doors - one suspended for two years - and fined them £158,400 for the racism experienced by England players.

    Disorganised, shameful shambles - Analysis
    Phil McNulty, BBC Sport chief football writer

    The FA was never going to escape punishment for the disorganised, shameful shambles that was the Euro 2020 final at Wembley between England and Italy.

    From hours before kick-off, Wembley was thronged by thousands of fans. As kick-off drew nearer, it became clear that the situation was out of hand outside the stadium and would also become chaotic inside.

    One personal recollection is being offered a large sum of money for my media accreditation literally a few yards from the official entrance when, at any major tournament worthy of the name, it would be impossible to get anywhere near this close without a ticket inspection and security.

    This was the most minor of inconveniences compared to what thousands of others suffered but it was an indicator that something had gone very badly wrong.

    Supporters fuelled by alcohol stormed barriers and it was clear control had broken down inside the stadium with stewards being abused and ticketless fans even invading the disabled sections to take up seats. There was an atmosphere of threat and chaos.

    On what was meant to be a memorable day as England played their first major men's final for 55 years, any sense of celebration disappeared hours before kick-off and the experience was wrecked for thousands of well-behaved fans who bought their tickets in good faith.

    It was a dreadful experience and it was inevitable that the FA would pay a price. This will effectively amount to one game played behind closed doors and a 100,000 euro fine. The shame will be reflected by the sight of the giant stadium deserted for that one game.

    The FA has declared itself disappointed with the outcome but, while announcing its insistence that everything will be done to ensure there is no repeat, many who endured that shocking Wembley day will feel the punishment could easily have been heavier.

    'One of the most serious failures I can remember'
    Football policing expert Owen West, a former chief superintendent at West Yorkshire Police, told BBC Sport that the events of that day were "hugely embarrassing".

    "This was one of the most serious failures that I can remember," he said.

    "Things like a systematic breach of turnstiles, things like people tailgating, and two or more people being able to get through a space that was designed for one.

    "What we saw [among fans trying to get inside Wembley] was the sharing of real-time intelligence, pointing out on social media where there were vulnerabilities, where there was a lack of police officers, where there was weak and inexperienced stewarding, where gates weren't particularly well protected.

    "And the problem for Wembley authorities and the Met Police was that that level of sophistication and organisation was not matched by those that were there to prevent it happening in the first place."
     
    #148
  9. daverangers

    daverangers Well-Known Member

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    Steve Bruce has left Newcastle.
     
    #149
  10. Rangers Til I Die

    Rangers Til I Die Well-Known Member

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    With £8m! Poor chap. Well out of it Steve.
     
    #150

  11. Rangers Til I Die

    Rangers Til I Die Well-Known Member

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    I've wondered the same about their future. What happens if a tape emerges of bin Salman ordering the hit on Khashoggi?!

    The fit and proper person test may prove rather inadequate. Time will tell.
     
    #151
  12. Steelmonkey

    Steelmonkey Well-Known Member

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  13. qprbeth

    qprbeth Wicked Witch of West12
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    Wayne Rooney in the betting to take over. ( No really?!!!)

    Gerrard ...a possibility I suppose..
     
    #153
  14. kiwiqpr

    kiwiqpr Barnsie Mod

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    Karim Benzema: French sex tape blackmail case trial starts
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    IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS
    Image caption,On the pitch Karim Benzema, 33, has scored for Real Madrid and France in the past 10 days
    Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema has gone on trial in France accused of complicity in an attempt to blackmail fellow footballer Mathieu Valbuena over a sex tape found on his phone.

    He has ridiculed the charge against him as a "masquerade" and did not appear at the court in Versailles.

    The case dates back to June 2015, when the two footballers were at a France training camp.

    The saga rocked French football and both players lost their team places.

    Karim Benzema, 33, has since returned to the France team and scored in Real Madrid's victory in Kyiv on Tuesday in the Uefa Champions League. His lawyer put his absence down to "professional" reasons.

    He is on trial with four other men accused of trying to blackmail Mr Valbuena, who told the court on Wednesday that football was his life.


    "I knew if that video got out it would make things difficult with the French team," he said.

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    Reuters
    I see everyone is here - almost. Karim isn't, which is a shame. But we'll go all the way: this has gone on for six years and we're here for as long as it takes to put it behind me
    Mathieu Valbuena
    French footballer
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    The sex tape case began in 2015 when Mr Valbuena, now 37, asked a man in Marseille, Axel Angot, to upload the contents of his mobile phone to a new device.

    Mr Angot found sexually explicit material on the phone, and he and another defendant in the trial, Mustapha Zouaoui, are then accused of trying to blackmail Mr Valbuena by threatening to make the tape public.

    Mr Zouaoui told reporters he had shared the tape, but there had never been an attempt to extort money.

    Mathieu Valbuena described being approached by another defendant, Younes Houass, who then told the court the player was acting as if nothing was wrong and he had warned him of the seriousness of the issue, without asking for money.

    When the footballer went to the police, they set up a sting operation with an undercover agent named Luka, who was given the task of acting as his intermediary.


    Another defendant was allegedly brought into the scam - Karim Zenati, who is a childhood friend of Mr Benzema. He is then accused of getting the footballer involved, to act as a "middleman" with Mr Valbuena.

    In October 2015 Mr Benzema approached his fellow France player in his room at the national team's training camp.

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    IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
    Image caption,Mathieu Valbuena and Karim Benzema (right) were both playing for France until the case emerged
    Mr Benzema said he had merely tried to help his team-mate get rid of the compromising video, warning him: "Be careful, Math, they're big, big thugs."

    He then offered to put him touch with someone he could trust - his childhood friend, Karim Zenati.

    Police were by now tapping their phone calls and recorded Mr Benzema telling his friend: "He's not taking us seriously."

    Mr Zenati is said to have replied: "We're here to sort it out; if he doesn't want that he'll have to deal with the piranhas."


    Meanwhile, Mr Valbuena is said to have already told his family about the footage on his phone.

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    IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS
    Image caption,Among the four defendants accused of attempted blackmail is Mustapha Zouaoui
    Giving evidence at the start of the trial, Mathieu Valbuena said he had never considered handing over money to stop the video getting out.

    The defence lawyers have already argued that police were wrong to use an undercover agent and that the agent pushed the defendants to demand money. But French courts threw out the lawyers' objections to police methods in 2018.

    The trial will continue until the end of the week, with four defendants facing charges of attempted blackmail and Karim Benzema accused of complicity.

    The maximum sentence for complicity in attempted blackmail is five years in jail and a €75,000 (£63,000) fine.

    Unlike his former team-mate, Mathieu Valbuena has never played for France since the sex-tape affair emerged. He now plays for Olympiacos in Greece.
     
    #154
  15. Goldhawk-Road

    Goldhawk-Road Well-Known Member

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    The CIA's report concluded bin Salman ordered the killing. And, of course, the US is an ally of Saudi Arabia. That's why people have been getting exercised over Shearer's triumphalism at the take over. It stinks really.
     
    #155
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  16. Rangers Til I Die

    Rangers Til I Die Well-Known Member

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    Shows the power of £250 million.
     
    #156
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  17. Goldhawk-Road

    Goldhawk-Road Well-Known Member

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    That'd be billion. Makes the eyes water.
     
    #157
  18. Rangers Til I Die

    Rangers Til I Die Well-Known Member

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    So sorry. Of course! Inconceivable for most of us.
     
    #158
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  19. Trammers

    Trammers Well-Known Member

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    Am I the only one that thinks that the Staverly lass has slightly over done the botox?
     
    #159
  20. sb_73

    sb_73 Well-Known Member

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    I reckon the Saudis thought they were buying Juve, but used Wish.com, the home of knock off tat.
     
    #160
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