Will Freeman

If there was ever a visual metaphor for club rugby in England ... carried by its stars, failed by its organisation

The McGrath quote here is the most sensible thing said about all of this

Fair play to FIFA, making up a rule to ensure Cristiano Ronaldo plays in their World Cup after making up a rule to ensure Lionel Messi played in their Club World Cup. Instead of bickering over which was the biggest sham, why can't we just enjoy both shams.

Rugby is a game for all shapes and sizes. Depower the scrum anymore and you may as well watch a rugby league match. It will destroy the community game if there is no place for your good old fashioned type of prop. Keep meddling with the game and you will destroy it.

Oli Dugmore, "Is Nigel Farage a fascist?" "Trying to define fascism is like trying to nail jelly to a wall" "But I would certainly say that if you are advancing a policy program that involves the militarised mass expulsion of an ethnic minority background. That is a component part of fascism" Victoria Derbyshire, "Militarised?" Oli Dugmore, "How else are you going to fly 100,000 people a year? How will you round them up? Will the police do that? I don't think they can" "Are you going to put them on charter flights? Airlines won't take them, so you'll probably use the RAF" "Where are you going to hold them?" "Look at what ICE is doing in America as the sort blueprint for this mechanism. They hide their faces, armed to their teeth" "They look like a militia to me"

Let's make hope normal again.

We host Jersey in our next league fixture on 4 October. It is also almost 50 years to the day (5 October) that Farnham played its inaugural game in 1975. Please come along and support this great Club. If you would like lunch please follow the link below tickettailor.com/events/farnham…

Honestly I’d go one further. Expand it to all 211 teams. You could do the group stages locally/regionally for logistical reasons. Best 32 teams from the group stage make it through to the ‘finals’. Then hold that in one country with a group stage/knockouts. Everybody wins 🙃

When league games move abroad - which will happen, because money dictates everything in football - it will be a death knell. A disaster for the integrity of the competition, the home/away balance, the fabric of the sport, and the pretence of clubs as community institutions.

A shift in monetary policy by the BoE as a response to adverse fiscal headwinds should not be framed as successful management of the budget by the government You would hope someone in the Labour comms team might understand this and realise the public knows this too

"We all had a jolly good chuckle about it at the Spectator summer party" is a pretty neat summary of why this is happening

There exists the possibility that Olivia Rodrigo and Roy Hodgson have had a conversation.

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🦁 This is what the Lions means.

Don't post the picture, don't post the picture... 😏

"That's BEAUTIFUL!" Sam Smith, wow 👏

It’s Happy Transfer Window opening day for 91 out of 92 clubs today. Reading owner Dai Yongge continues to hold Company Law, the EFL and Reading fans in contempt by refusing to publish the 2022/23 accounts so the club is unable to buy anyone as a result of his actions

Call me old-fashioned, but I really do not understand how it helps good journalism & the perception of impartiality to appoint a heavily partisan failed parliamentary candidate from four months ago as your leader writer. Revolving doors between journalism & politics aren't good.

You can say what you like about him, but Gareth Southgate repeatedly gave us moments like this. Every single tournament his team did something you'd given up the hope of ever seeing an England team do.