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Do you actually bother to check the facts before posting? Bannan only played two games in the qualifiers. 58 minutes in Dortmund and 16 minutes at home to Gibraltar. Clearly he's such an influential player that he impacts games he isn't even playing in.

From what I remember there was a fan park there in 1998 although I never went near it myself.

Had a great night in Marseilles on the way to the friendly in St. Etienne in 1997. This was after the qualifiers but before the draw. Went to the OM supporters bar and was talking to the owner about organising something if we were going to be playing there. Great people. England fans showing a complete lack of self awareness and common sense as per usual.

I'm a Rangers supporter - admittedly very much an armchair one these days - and am old enough to remember both incidents well, so maybe you can park your inbuilt paranoia.

I don't believe for a minute that either tackle was deliberately intended to injure. Dangerous and reckless certainly.

It's completely different. Rangers didn't "look after" Durrant. He was out for what 2 years there or thereabouts, played another 150-200 games for the club, then went to Kilmarnock where he played another 100 games. They renewed his contract on more than occasion because they felt he was an asset to the club and they then gave him a job as a coach - five years after he left - because they thought he could do a job. Ive no idea about the ins and outs of John Kennedy at Celtic but I guess after his injury they made him an offer, they would pay up his contract either and he could either walk away or they would give him a chance to start his coaching career. I imagine that at any point since if he didn't look like he was an asset to the coaching set up they would have binned him.

John Kennedy never played again. That's a big difference.

Bit of a major difference between him and Kennedy. The major one being that the tackle didn't end his career. Durrant didn't leave Rangers until 10 years later then had a very productive four year spell at Kilmarnock. 16 of his 20 caps were after the injury.

Fux sake, we've got Colombo on here.

i didn't say you were, the reason I quoted your post was that it pointed out that Cummings might be in on it. Plenty of others are jumping to conclusions.

Loads of people jumping to all sorts of conclusions based on that inconclusive video clip though.

Is there any evidence either way?

That's an interesting point especially given the success that Lagerback's subsequently had with Iceland. However, your argument falls down when you consider that Burley's replacement was Levein who was pretty vocal when he was appointed about being involved in all aspects of the national team, particularly in restructuring youth development - how successful he was in that is another question but he made it clear he wouldn't have taken the job otherwise. Also given that he'd previously taken the SFA to court over a fine, I don't think you can describe him as an SFA Yes man.

If Craig Brown's outdated views and influence were still being listened to maybe I wouldn't have been in France last week but would be looking forward to going this week for the championships instead.

It is a very dubious process but it appears its not Sports Direct themselves behind this but one of the agencies that supply the temporary staff.

I should have remembered, you're right and everyone else is wrong.

A good explanation here of how the EU impacts workers rights. Its from the TUC so I'm sure Scunnered will be in agreement. https://www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/UK%20employment%20rights%20and%20the%20EU.pdf

How many layers?

Might get the truth in about 30 years time then.

I've no idea if she's guilty or innocent and I'll reserve judgement until this is resolved either way. All that's come out so far is a load of mud being flung about and some innuendo and very little in the way of facts. From what I recall, the 30k figure you're quoting has been discredited My point is that I'd have expected after six months for the police to have had enough evidence to charge someone assuming that any crime has been committed, I dont think we're talking some major offshore fraud here. From the limited coverage that I've seen of the latest allegations, once you go past the headlines there doesn't actually seem to be anything to indicate that she is the focus of the investigation, just that they are investigating the branch and she used to be the convenor. That would suggest she should be *part* of the investigation but whether it's all about her is a different matter entirely. i can completely understand why the WFI finances were completely haphazard but I'd have expected there to be a greater level of governance and control around a political branch and so I'd be surprised if it was only the convenor that had control of the finances The thing that concerns me most - with this and Michelle Thomson - is the amount of time that these investigations are taking, especially when with Michelle Thomson it's nine months on and she hasn't been contacted so far. There's something about this that is essentially anti-democratic as while this is going on they really are not able to play a full role as an MP

http://stv.tv/sport/football/1356054-berra-bannan-withdraw-from-scotland-squad/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Bannan and Berra out of the squad apparently Berra is going to his mates wedding. Poor show if true.

The workers rights that the EU guarantees are a minimum set of rights. A member country can supplement those rights if it so wishes. The workers rights in many EU countries are far in excess of those minimums and in the case of France they are trying to remove some of the additional rights. Rossy's point is valid. Given the chance the Tories would remove a raft of workers rights. When they talk about getting rid of "Brussels red tape", that's code for removing rights to paid leave, for agency workers being treated the same as permanent employees, employment protection and the like.

It's that fishy that six months later there's still been no charges. Like Michelle Thomson I wouldn't be surprised if Police Scotland haven't spoken to her yet.

I don't read those comments that way. To me he's saying that Sweden and Wales as groups of players are no better than us but that they each have one world class player that makes the difference. I think that's fair comment.