Soccer/Football Fans

I wouldn't worry Francois. These planes are safer than cots.

Ask them if they're "jack-eens". That'll win 'em over.

I see you want to keep me safe (not).

If you sit next to the referee, yes.
What a steal!

Sure, it was obviously not fair!

Of course it was fair. France in makes more Euros for EUFA and FIFA that Ireland would.

Reactions in some (print editions of) French and Irish papers ...

At the airport right now.

The Irish look tired and disappointed.

I really feel for them.

Funny things happen, though.

One of the "imbibed' Irish guys picked up th airport PA microphone and started singing Irish songs for the obvious contentment of the other passengers.

Nobody came to stop him, no police was alerted...

Unthinkable in th US...

Do you think the use of replay will ever be introduced to soccer?

Well, actually it was the 'replay'

No, it was a factual decision by the referee(s).

(Why has it just been published that the prosecutors and police in Bochum/Germany are investigating a new, huge betting scandal in football. Mainly first Turkish division it is said but ...)

I was once entertained by an elderly French lady at Bruxelles airport who - upon finding out my nationality - clasped my manly paw in hers and sang Galway Bay in a frail, accented voice into my ear.

Thanks to her, I can have no quarrel with the French.

Possibly for a few limited situations but there are problems with it. It's a flowing game.

Suppose, for example, Gallas had hit the post and the ball bounced to an Irish player who punted it up to the other end where an Irish player had stuck it into the back of the French net. 10 seconds from Henry's hand to the French net.

Here's a suggestion that the Europa League's new officiating system of the addition of two goal line referees would have caught the handball infraction:

http://goal.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/19/what-if-five-official-scheme-in-europa-league-looks-pretty-good/

Here's an article on the new system:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/sep/16/europa-league-goalline-assistant-referees

The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) have lodged a formal complaint with FIFA over the controversial World Cup play-off defeat to France and have urged world football's governing body to replay the match.

Won't work, though.

All of this could have been avoided if the Irish government had the foresight to defer the Lisbon Treaty Referendum until AFTER the play-offs.

Well, or if you had voted "yes" already the first time ...

Can someone with a good understanding of how the brackets will get seeded explain it to me?

T
K
O

The most probable seeding will be as follows:

Heads of group: Top rated teams (according to FIFA classification, plus the results of the last 3 World Cups) + the host:
RSA, ITA, BRA, SPA, GER, FRA, ENG, ARG

Second tier European teams:
HOL, POR, SVK, DEN, SLO, SWI, SER, GRE

Conmebol and African teams:
PAR, CHI, URU, CIV, NIG, ALG, GHA, CAM

Concacaf, Asian and Oceania teams:
MEX, USA, HON, AUS, JAP, KOR, PRK, NZL

The draw will be made so as there is no more than 2 European teams in a given group and there is no more than 1 African or Conmebol team per group. So the African teams will not fall in South Africa's group, and the South American teams will not fall in Argentina's or Brazil's.
Politicking is being made by Concacaf, to exchange post with second tier Conmebol teams (and thus facing Asians and NZL, instead of African teams).

This is an example of a fake draw, made by a Mexican radio station:
Group A:
South Africa
Denmark
Uruguay
Australia

Group B:
France
Portugal
Paraguay
New Zealand

Group C:
Italy
Switzerland
Nigeria
South Korea

Group D:
England
Slovenia
Algeria
Japan

Group E:
Argentina
Netherlands
Ivory Coast
United States

Group F:
Germany
Slovakia
Chile
Mexico

Group G:
Brazil
Greece
Ghana
North Korea

Group H:
Spain
Serbia
Cameroon
Honduras