Tichy_Blacks_Back

Sorted you are absolutely right - this is just an extract from Arthur Macdonald's article in the Gulf Daily News earlier this week where he gives Scotland a mention: What surprises me even more is that Qatar wanted to hold the finals in the first place. Given their recent performance in the Asian Cup their participation in the 2022 event is unlikely to last very long unless they grant citizenship to a lot of Brazilians. Furthermore their short spell in the competition is likely to be somewhat of a sporting embarrassment as the best results most teams from the region have achieved in the World Cup tend to be managing to draw with Scotland. Given there is little sign that Scotland will be capable of qualifying for any international competition any time in the foreseeable future, even that small consolation will be denied Qatar. One positive thing about having Qatar as the venue is that its central position means that it is in a time zone accessible to about 80 per cent of the world. Presumably FIFA decided that this would allow it to maximise the amount of cash it hauls in from television rights. FIFA, like most of the business of football these days, seems to have more to do with television advertising than thinking of the poor fans who take the trouble to turn up and pay at the turnstiles.

I suppose YB would offer the potential of Champions League football next season versus the potential of the 1st division with Hibs

Yeh but not career threatening - I think someone will look to tie him up as he is available to sign outside of the window as he is now unattached. Potentially a good position for a decent footballer.

Would be interesting if Calderwood goes - Hibs are a club in turmoil who I suspect may be losing a few more players before the end of the transfer window

With Michael Stewart back in Scotland after terminating his contract in Turkey where next after Hearts and Hibs? Aberdeen or Motherwell?

Off to Turkey it seems - hope he has spoken to Stewart :-)

New manager at Stirling Albion. With the 25 pt deduction for Dundee they will now be bottom four points adrift of Albion so could be interesting.

Not SPL but is a player I thought might have turned up at TCS - Liam Buchanan. Partick have offloaded him for what appears to be a minimal fee to Dunfermline (subject to a medical) as he was out of contract at the end of the season and they are struggling financially. Also seem to be implying that the wage bill will have to be cut further. Wonder what SPL proposals would mean to a team like Partick? Irrispective it is a good acquisition by Dunfermline.

Motherwell sign: Grella (Leeds United) Striker - loan Jones (Walsall) Striker - loan

In my opinion the stadiums will be engineered and will include state of the art cooling systems (al saad stadium already has a system installed and a proto type of the new design was show cased as part of the bid package when FIFA delegation visited town). A number of new light rail transport systems will be built and will all be air conditioned (the first air conditioned bus stops were installed across the city last year). The biggest issue I see is the players training facilities but I am sure they will sort that out also. It will not be like the US where there was none of those technologies in use to protect players or fans from the heat. At the end of the day they put a strong bid together and it was accepted so it is up to Qatar if they want to offer to move the tournament forward a month but it will not be a winter world cup.

At the start of this month in Doha we had the men's tennis - next month it is the athletics, women's tennis and the golf and by the end of April most outdoor sports cease as the temperatures start to rise above 30. Last summer we had 50+ and it does get unbearable if you are out in the sun for more than 10 or 15 mins running about. The following are the avg monthly min and max temps: Jan min 12 max 22 Feb min 14 max 23 Mar min 17 max 27 Apr min 20 max 32 May min 25 max 38 Jun min 28 max 41 Jul min 29 max 42

If he doesn't like what Hibs have to offer you can see the Sun headline now: Rooney prefers what Young Boys have to offer

A goal last night and may yet still get a chance to play at TCS this season in a competitive match

See they were looking at Giggs (37) also

After tonight's matches the Quarter Final line up is: Japan v Qatar Uzbekistan v Jordan Australia v Iraq Iran v South Korea

I have been to quite a few games so far and I have to say the organization of the tournament has been pretty good after previous debacles over the last few domestic seasons with events such as the Emir's Cup Final where having a ticket didn't even ensure you entry to the ground. I think they have learnt from the security, access, crowd control etc from the recent high profile England v Brazil and Argentina v Brazil friendlies and one thing they are good at here is learning quickly how to manage these type of events. Yes - they have the major tennis and golf tournaments established here now but the crowds are not of the same magnitude and not multi-location as with a football event such as a major finals (and yes I know the Asian Cup Finals are not of the same magnitude as a world cup but it gives you an indication of how things will go in 11 years time :biggrin: ). Now these are also the old stadiums which will be basically getting pulled down and rebuilt for the 2022 event so the new stadiums will have even better access and associated facilities (rail transport network to the grounds etc) but the tournament has been good so far and the stadiums (and city wide stadium signage etc) have had the look of what you get at any other major tournament (Euros/World etc). Many of the current stadiums though are pretty modern and would be appreciated by many a SPL club. When it comes to the World Cup there will be issues with having so many fans in the country at the same time etc but from a basic match organization stance they are on the right track. And on the subject of the weather it has been freezing in the evening at some of the matches (and by Qatar standards that means fleece and scarf weather) and for the last two days we have had torrential rain so there is a lot of flooding around the country - I guess it is just something else that Herr Beckenbaur et al didn't think about when they said that you can just switch the tournament to winter (i.e. January). The opening events of the Asian Games in 2006 were a bit of a wash out due to the bad weather so yes it can reach 50 deg C here in the summer but there also problems with playing a tournament in January. Anyway onto the football - after an opening game defeat to Uzbekistan Qatar have beaten China 2-0 and Kuwait 3-0 to progress to a QF game against Japan. Last night both Australia and South Korea progressed to the QFs also and the weekends games at Al Gharafa between the two teams was a 1-1 draw and not a bad match with the South Koreans looking like a fairly decent team. Latest Tables are located here: Asian Cup (AFC) Website

Perfect summation about SPL shake up (oh and match) - mirrors what many many people feel and said with such heart felt knowledge and in such a coherent manner - total respect....

I see a mr Steven has scored for airdrie

Bern - a great move - great country - great city - ok the football is not so great but I for one would be off like a shot if the T&Cs were any good.

Killie sign Berntsson (Defender) free agent

Looks like O'Neill is not too pleased that it has been revealed that he was in talks with West Ham and is now having a re think about the whole thing - the Hammers are truly in a mess....

Is that not the same lad that was singing the praises of Kerry last week (and sporting his new top) - you could at least have given him a similar ICT/County slogan for his sign this time around

More sources than Pataks with this one - you get the feeling this one has leaked before all O'Neill's conditions have been agreed to - still seems like an odd fit to me

3 points at Ibrox on Tuesday night to get the momentum going again?

0-0 - a point not bad away to Motherwell and another point further away from Hamilton