numpty

If they were required to police them every time they opened for business like they are football stadia, they probably would.

Presumably because those don't legally have to be policed.

Seems a bit unlikely. Wouldn't they have wondered why we weren't sending any referees over in exchange...?

They've already done that, surely?

Not that it applies to everyone on your list, but "furthering your career" doesn't necessarily mean "going to a bigger club" or "earning more money". Moving to a smaller/lesser club at which you'll be one of the most experienced and/or senior players could also be a good career move if you've got your heart set on being a club captain, or moving into coaching, for example.

Nope. Just think how bad some of the refereeing decisions were in the World Cup, and they were supposedly the world's best.

Only the individuals involved can decide that. Just like the rest of us in 'ordinary' jobs, for some the most important thing is just finding the most enjoyable environment for doing whatever it is they do, for some it's all about the money, and for others it's about trying to make a name for themselves and rising to the top of their chosen profession.

Worth a try perhaps, but I'd have thought infrastructure was the main issue. With eBay all the bid management and payment collection is done for you (albeit at some cost). If MFC were doing it on the fishel website, you'd have to pay somebody to add some extra functionality. If they were doing it here, you probably wouldn't be paying much short of a tenner's worth of somebody's time to administer the threads, figure out who'd won what, chase up payments etc. anyway. And a lot of people who might otherwise see it probably never would.

Have posted links in the forum over there.

To be fair, you were unlucky with the choice of game for the match sponsorship -- I don't expect anybody would want to bid on a match that might well not be happening on the specified date. For things like the shirts that aren't particularly time-sensitive, you might want to consider more than a 10-day auction to give more people a chance to find them (but obviously that does cost you more). As another way of getting word out, I presume you still have an email database from the weekly newsletters that stopped being sent out ages ago -- perhaps you could/should publicise the items that way, too? (With appropriate ways to opt-out, of course.)

Personally I'd be making the extra effort to go along (if I could) for the novelty value! Couldn't really give a monkeys about their strike, as long as the games are still on and being refereed by somebody to an adequate standard.

I don't believe for a second that we'd sell both of them to a club in the same league at the same time, unless the fees involved were too stupidly inflated to turn down.

To be fair, I don't think you can't realistically compare the refereeing of such different sports. For one thing, the laws of American football are lot more tightly defined, with each player only allowed to do certain things, tackle in specific ways etc., so in theory at least there's less left down to the referee's discretion. And in the NFL there are six officials on the pitch each doing a specific job and watching for specific infringements, not just one guy in the middle and a couple of guys running up and down the side. Even the NHL has four officials on the ice, and that's a much smaller playing area than a football pitch (yes it's a faster game, but the officials have ice skates on as well so they can move quicker too!)

While I agree the stick they've been on the end of is well out of order, today's story in the Mail certainly doesn't help their case much, if true... http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/2010/11/21/sh...86908-22729244/

If the BBC line-ups earlier are to be believed, he's not on the bench. EDIT: Ignore that, eyesight's obviously dodgy today.

On the plus side, Scotland are beating South Africa at the rugby...

Half time. Much sorting out to do.

Reynolds booked for a foul just outside the box.

1-0 Saints, Wardlaw.

"Looks like a Well fan had been ejected from the ground for... standing! Both sets of fans are upset with that. Saints fans even protesting and ridiculing the stewards."

Couple of chances for us with free-kicks there... one tipped over the bar, one deflected off the post.

Link's now working, and as a bonus, it's not UK-only, for a change.

BBC link up now: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/s...rem/6359489.stm

Working here, last update 14:44.

Hmm, not showing up here either. Sometimes the links show up a bit late when they're covering an earlier game, hope that's all it is.