You can always pop round to see den in Leyland. he's got a new telly...............

The only trouble reported in the UK media is of two England fans arrested by the German police. The offence by one was to paint the SS insignia on his back and the swastika on his chest, the other had the SS insignia on his back. The images were 8" high. As I understand it these two were released by the German police but not deported. They have since returned to the UK, one with both insignia on his body has been prosecuted and given a football banning order, the one with just the SS insignia on his back was not given a banning order. I understand this type of display of Nazi imagery is illegal in Germany. So they seem to have been dealt with leniently by the German authorities.

Our Tom who is having the time of his life and clearly feels all his Christmases have come at once. Wall to wall footie and no complaints from his parents about too much TV! Tom's supporting a variety of teams, in priority: England followed by, on the day, whoever is playing in Blue Red Yellow White Though yesterday, which should have been Japan, he spotted Neil and Emerton and swiftly changed allegiance to Australia!

Got a new telly den? I watched at a local club with two screens, one huge, the size of a cine projection screen, the other a large wall-mounted flat screen. The super big one was terrible, like watching Subuteo on TV. The other, a normal large TV, the players couldn't be seen when in the shadows and the white ball going in and out of the shadows was invisible 50% of the time. The pitch was covered in lots of shadows radiating out from a large central blob of shadow in the middle of the pitch. Totally crap stadium design for the TV viewer. The brief bit I saw of the Germany game seemed to suffer from the cameras being positioned too far from the pitch, as was the case today. Still the game didn't seem to be up to much, fell asleep at the end of the first, read the paper second half. Very unimpressed

Whoever designed that stadium wants shooting, 50% of the time you can't see tha ball on TV. Cameras located too far from the pitch for a decent view. Crap coverage.

It's an American board, is the only thing I can think of. The previous version used to do something similar, I forget what exactly. This one is strange; if you create a topic tiltle BBC v ITV, when the topic is first posted the title changes to Bbc V Itv. If one then edits the topic title it will accept BBC v ITV - which is what I've done with this topic. I'll have a play with the settings, which should f*** it up totally

That was my feeling from the start Anyway I've had a bit of a tidy up. I'll atempt to pin match previews 48 hours before KO. If you can put the date and time of your game in the topic description this would help.

30th July 1966 sat in our living room with Mum, Dad and little sister. None of whom had any real interest in footie. Mum in HER chair in the corner, Dad in HIS chair by the door, me and sister on the floor. Telly in the corner by the French window (whoooo!!), sunshine on the lawn outside, grey and white sceeen. The best ever World Cup moment, I had just turned 12, I can still see the room now. Grandad and Uncle may have been there, not sure if they had TV. Dad visiting the Esso garage at the top of our road every day to get those medals. He had a deal with the bloke who served you, Yes filled your tank up; anyone who didn't want their medal we got them!!!! It was good, better than 2006 I can tell you. It comes close to Shearer on VE Day, Anfield '95, Cardiff, Preston, FMC '87, close but not quite that close.

Yep I thought so too..............

We seem to be getting an awful lot of pinned previews in the WC forum. Perosnally I don't like it but I'll go with the flow. There are a number of choices. We'll make a decision in a couple of days..............

That's been happening for years. I know some Utd ST holders who are defying medical science!

I'm not dismissing Owen as a player, I don't think he's fit which is why I wonder if he will have an impact. Great player but is he fit for the tournament?

I went for second round exit, though I won't be at all surprised if England don't get out of the group. Sven has consistently failed to produce an exciting, competent team and if we are looking back to a 5-1 over Germany for inspiration? He doesn't know his team, his formation and last night was a very average performance. Some fine individual performances but that's all. As Jan says, God help us. I look at this as though I'm thinking about visitors to Ewood. What is there to worry about? Rooney is out, Owen is very unlikely to make any impact. Up front with Crouch and Walcott - any team coming to Ewood with those two upfront and I'd be thinking 3 points in the bag. England don't have any other forward to call up who is going to change that impression. Sure plenty of other great players in the team - some of them will score goals - but no strikers. If you don't score, you don't win. SGE has shafted England for five years and he's about to do it again with some of the finest talent this country has produced in years. Goodbye and good riddance. If I was SGE, I'd seriously consider ringing Alan Shearer and beg him to join the squad. If this were a PL game I'd be more concerned about facing Shearer than the combined talents of Crouch and Walcott. Prepare now for an outpouring of national hysteria when England come home early.

Many doubts surround the England side, the manager's possible indecision as to the best formation or side to play. Rooney is probably out for the tournament, Owen could become a big doubt, Walcott is untried, there are many unanswered questions. Has Sven stuck two fingers up to the nation? So will SGE lead the side to glory or will a squad containing arguably some of our best players for decades fall at the first hurdle? What's your call?

It's tricky to compare, partly because Rovers still have a complicated pricing structure dependent on where you sit: Adult: Rovers range from £270 (Riverside outer) to £595 (JW upper central) Wigan have just two prices £340 and £410 On all concessionary prices Rovers are significantly cheaper, especially on children. If a family want to watch PL football Ewood is a far better choice financially. Wigan don't appear to have a Young Adult ticket. Dave Whelan is quoted as saying " Wigan will remain as the most reasonably priced Premiership club in 2006/07 for it's most loyal supporters........." Under the early purchase scheme prices will start at £327 in the South Stand and the East Stand wings, equivalent to just £17.21 per PL game. Whoops Dave got that one wrong as a seat in the CIS wings will average just £14.21 per game - that's £3 cheaper at the Rovers Must be using the same calculator as the one which worked out how many pies to buy in at New Year's

I can honestly say I've never had a single issue with the TO. Yes there are a few occassions, always for big games, when less experienced staff are drafted into help with sales, and these staff do struggle a little. Usually instead of asking for customer numbers they ask for block, row and seat and this gets confusing. Other than that my experience is the TO staff will do whatever is necessary to help any individual fan. The April early bird scheme, coupled with online renewal is nothing short of fantastic. It took me less than a minute to renew 4 STs, at last season's prices instead of all the tedious form filling, trips to the ground etc. 11/10 for that one Rovers. There are always people who don't follow the procedure, can't be bothered to renew on time etc. and then use it as yet another reason to stop going. Idiots. Just three examples of the TO helpfulness: When the new BBE opened I needed an aisle seat for my son. The wonderful Diane, who left years ago arranged to take me into the stand, view and chose my seats. At the time the letters page of the LET was full of whinging fans so I wrote in to put my view. Got headlines for that one and a written thank you from the club. Queuing for Cardiff I needed five seats but only had four STs. Again I needed special arrangements for my son. I stopped Tom Finn, who I now know but didn't then, and explained the problem. I was just a fan in the queue. He asked me to write to him personally when I knew my seat numbers, a few days later an extra ticket arrived in the row directly in front of our booked seats. So they checked through 30,000 tickets to sort that one out. Celtic away, Jordan couldn't get a ticket. Lo and behold a few quiet phone calls and it was sorted - not by me I hasten to add. Approached in a proper manner, with a reasonable explaination the TO and Blackburn Rovers will do whatever is necessary to accommodate fans. However if fans don't follow the guidelines for some reason what is the club to do? No point in making offers if everybody knows you don't have to meet the deadline. Still no point in missing an opportunity to kick the finest club in the PL.

What goes around, comes around. Jens Lehmann is a cheat, always has been, always will be. He spends his time feigning injury, complaining, ranting and raving etc. I haven't seen the incident but when I heard he'd been sent off my first reaction was it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. If you behave in a certain way, eventually it comes back to haunt you. As for the game? Well I only saw 15-20 minutes as I was working but those minutes looked pretty good to me, so I'm not sure the red card ruined the game. There seem to be two views, a goal should have been allowed plus a red or yellow or a red and a free-kick. Most of the commentators, especially the ITV dream team, were so biased they found it impossible to accept the referee's decision,whichever it might have been. Hopefully this isn't a sign of things to come in June, perhaps it will be simpler to turn the sound off.

Nice quote Chris, I like that one

That's a very good post bluebruce except I'd disagree the players attract money into the game. The major changes in our game resulted from the Taylor report and Sky deals, especially the first TV deal. Suddenly the PL found it could compete in the international transfer market and attract foreign stars to our game. Once the process had been kick-started by Sky money it became self-perpetuating, the players arrived, Sky paid more, so more players came etc. This was rounded off by the EU demanding TV rights be sold more equitably, resulting in Sky and Setanta paying even more! I don't feel the players have brought money to the game, quite the opposite in fact. Around 70-80% of PL clubs turnover goes in wages, allowing one to presume 70-80% of the Sky/sponsorship money is taken out of the game by players. I thought the PL had reached a peak in the obscene amounts paid to players. However it seems Chelsea have managed to drag the game into an even more sordid, festering pit of greed and self-indulgence by offering Ballack £30m, reportedly after tax, over 4 years. As for Italian football? Don't be surprised if the fall out from this scandal is relatively minor. By this I mean, one club, Juve, being hit with a very big stick and the rest getting away with a minor beating. The justification being other clubs were pressurised into following Juve's lead. The other choice, massive punishments for all concerned would destroy Italian football, that isn't going to happen. If all guilty clubs are relegated it's likely the TV and sponsorship money will dry up over night. Players would have to be sold, crowds would drop, income reduced (don't forget Juve, despite their success have been giving away and/or selling tens of thousands of cheap tickets this season even though they are the most widely supported club in Italy). Add all this up and the result would destroy the game in Italy, meaning years of very difficult rebuilding. I for one will not be at all surprised if Juve are relegated and the rest simply rapped on the knuckles.

BSkyB and Setanta have signed a deal whereby all matches in the Setanta package will be available to pubs, clubs and sports clubs (gyms etc.) who also subscribe or have a licence to show Sky matches. Private Sky subscribers, home users, will have to take out a seperate subscrition with Setanta to view their matches. Well knock me down with a feather, never saw that one coming. I'm tempted to rest my case.

This working party has existed for around two years, Rovers are involved. One particular piece of genius the working party has/is considering is to reduce the ticket price for away support. Personally I find this mind boggling. In terms of the overall cost of travel to a game the impact is minimal. Would £5 or £10 off ticket prices make a real difference to visiting Stamford Bridge from Blackburn? Such initiatives will do nothing other than irritate an already declining live fan base.

I have to disagree with you there. While it is true there are no additional games in the actual packages I think it is very probable both parties will ensure (by fair means or foul) their product is much more widely exposed to the UK than ever before. This will happen in many ways not least through the, apparently legitimate, beaming of satellite broadcast from just about anywhere in the world back into the pubs and clubs of the UK. Setanta and Sky have paid £1.3 billion, yes billion, for these rights and the total package is said to be worth £2.5 billion to the PL after adding in all sorts of spin offs. After shelling out £1.3 billion neither Sky nor Setanta will give two hoots about the live support and will do everything possible to maximise their exposure. Our live support is going down the toilet, this will make it worse.

This is very interesting and I look forward to seeing how the PL handle their second tranche of new found wealth. We should fervently pray the PL chairman don't screw things up as badly as they did last time. The simple fact is something in the region of 75% of TV money goes out of the game, so this deal brings absoultely no benefit to the average supporter. Where does it go and where will this huge increase go? Simple to the players and agents unless the PL chairman find the courage to introduce salary capping. This new deal is going to screw the fan in every direction, it's just a question of which one(s). It is terrible news for the live game and aside from the cash, most of which will never benefit the clubs or the live support, is another nail in the coffin for the live supporter. What's going to happen? I don't know as there are several possible results. Sky's market penetration is someway below the 75% needed for advertising to have a meaningful effect on revenue. Setanta are looking for customers. Will Sky subscribers be prepared to pay more for less? Will Setanta take a very aggressive marketing view and sell access cheaply? Will this force Sky to reduce cost to subscribers? Who are Setanta? I have no idea, they have 14 months to raise awareness of their brand, so that won't cost much. Setanta currently only broadcast at weekends and will have to become a 7 day, 24 hour operation, no extra costs there then. There is only one certainty, this has to be paid for and it is already clear who will pay - the fan, one way or another. This deal will lead to more football on TV as Sky and Setanta achieve methods, legitimate or less so, for earning the required revenue. The end result will be fewer people at Ewood Park. Plain simple fact, the true support has been p!ssed on again. I wouldn't celebrate any extra cash arriving at Ewood in 2007, we've been shafted once more.

brfcs.com have four tickets to give away for Sunday's final home game against Manchester City. The tickets will go to the lucky winner of our very simple competition "Why I should take myself and three friends to Rovers this weekend" Answers by e-mail only to admin@brfcs.com. Please include a contact telephone number on which we can call the lucky winner who will receive four free tickets for the Jack Walker stand. Competition closes 8.00pm Saturday 6th May. brfcs.com would like to thank bet24.com for offering these tickets to the website.

Had a couple of requests to re-open this thread. We'll just wait to see what happens but it might get closed again.