Be Excellent To Each Other

My fiver on Griezmann to get golden boot is looking good though!

(My tenner on Germany to win less so)

Where is your faith in Pinot?

I spent a fortune on Burgundy last month.

Snivelling Ronaldo being carried off there. Can't summon up much sympathy with some of his tantrums etc in this tournament.

But oh, those moths!

Kinda glad the tournament is over now. Some of those matches were pretty dire affairs. I can't help thinking that having two yellow cards equalling a one-match suspension does more harm than good, especially with how easy it can be to pick up a yellow sometimes. Perhaps change it to three yellows or wipe the slate a round earlier maybe? Certainly Wales were a lot more ordinary without Ramsey for instance.

It used to be three yellows to a red, IIRC, but it means every single counter chance is ruined by professional fouls.

But a professional foul is a straight red, so would make no difference.

No it isn't. You don't get a red for taking out a player initiating a rush towards the opponents' goal, for example.

I think it just needs more card types.

Taking your top off after a goal should not merit the same punishment as fouling someone or deliberate hand ball.

I'd like to see 3 or 4 levels of card, I'd also like to see rugby style sin bins for the 2nd harshest card, but then I'd like to see quite a lot of stuff from rugby come into football (stopped clocks, audible referee calls, greater respect of the referee - backed up by a card, video replays of important calls and manager challenges of referee decisions - maybe 1 per half)

Depends if they're the last defender or not, and if the referee sees it as deliberate (which it must be to be a professional foul).

Well, I have never seen a player get a red card for obviously taking out a player in a counter rush unless it was the last defender.

Professional or not, my actual point still stands, which is that counteroffensives would be ruined by allowing more yellows.

What? Taking your top off after a goal is punished?

There's no rule about the 'last man'.

The rule is anything that is preventing a clear goal scoring opportunity = red card.

Yup. Mandatory yellow card if you pull your shirt up over your head. 'Unsporting' apparently.

Professional sporting associations are all such unmitigated self-important wankers.

Now, I thought this had all come about after kit manufacturer's and advertider's conokdunts that by removing shirts during goal celebrations took away a lot of their already paid-for advertising potential, as goal celebration photographs are the most reproduced in newspapers and on the Internet?

That was certainly a part of it. As it banning non-official advertisements (see Nicklas Bendtner for details).

I'm not convinced that takes away from my earlier.

The yellow accumulation rule is fair enough. There should be a way to punish all those "professional" fouls as it was said earlier. What i also agree is that some yellows are beyond ridiculous, like the no-shirt thing and handballs in no-danger zones.

Basically i don't have anything to add to this topic except that i'm happy beyond measure. Sunday night was amazing, and so was yesterday.

The Moth should become the official mascot of the portuguese national team.

Shit final, and the wrong team won.

There was an interesting suggestion on the Beeb website... if someone gets two yellows in a tournament they can play in the next game, but have to start on the bench.

Or basketball style: three levels: Six Normal fouls (talking back to the ref, normal foul tackles, accidental handballs, minor unsportsmanlike conduct), two flagrant fouls (dangerous play, flagrant handballs, cynical fouls, diving) and ejection (assault, extremely dangerous play, racist or homophobic behaviour)

What's to stop you bringing that player on after 30 seconds?

Lose a sub then.

Oh no, what will they do without their 4th choice centre back?

But you can only make 2 changes, no?

Nonsense!

This topic shall never die

It's the advertiser's conokdunts that put me off watching football.

Quite

Humm....what?

I quite like the sound of that idea actually, it disadvantages the team as a whole but also might go some way to preventing the Big Final ^(tm) matches occurring without Star Players ^{(also tm)}, which does seem a bit of a shame when it happens, and also I'm sure the advertisers would like it and we all know how much football loves cash-money.

Portugal statistically the least impressive team to have ever won a major trophy

Wow, worse than Greece in 2004, that's impressively unimpressive.

I disagree. I was very impressed.

What a great night that was.

You can't disagree with statistics.

I disagree.