WTF are the FA thinking?

[A-Ro]

18,000 tickets for the Poles? Are the FA deliberately trying to lose the game? Anyone would think that we don't want to go to Brazil.

[Snake]

Like giving 5,000 tickets to Orient fans to help Them shout Us into the Conference?

[A-Ro]

Bingo.

[Kernow Yellow]

18,000 sounds a lot, but it's only 20% of capacity. I'm sure England fans are regularly given that kind of percentage at away games aren't they? And that still leaves room for 72,000 England fans.

The FA claim it's police advice, so if that's the case they probably had little say in it. Though I can think of quit£ a f£w oth£r r£ason$ why they wanted to fill the stadium.

[SWA]

The atmosphere for England games at Wembley is shit. I have been to enough to know this...
Glad there will be a decent atmosphere I say. Any England fan that wanted a ticket had long enough to get one
Fair play..

[slappy]

Perhaps if they put the games on at sensible times people would buy tickets. Perhaps 1pm or 5:30pm Saturday. Not sure why they have Friday night matches, which makes it almost impossible to get home on the same day by public transport.

[theox]

I went to the game on Friday night and the atmosphere was woeful. More akin to a pre-season friendly at the KasStad than a crucial world cup qualifier for a nation supposedly desperate for success.

Also, I would wager that there were a lot less actually there than the 83,000 official attendance.

So, if 18,000 Polish fills the stadium and creates an atmosphere then I'm all for it. Not that I'm going.

[Kairdiff Exile]

I went to the game on Friday night and the atmosphere was woeful. More akin to a pre-season friendly at the KasStad than a crucial world cup qualifier for a nation supposedly desperate for success.

Quite. There were swathes of empty seats last Friday. If England can't sell their home allocation, why shouldn't the away fans get more?

And seriously, let the Leyton Orient thing drop. It was years ago. Move on. We had a shit team and would have lost anyway even if we'd had 12,500 Oxford fans there.

Also, I would wager that there were a lot less actually there than the 83,000 official attendance.

Fewer.

[Snake]

Sorry, I won't "let it drop" as you can't change history.

http://www.oxkits.co.uk/league_history.htm

But come on Engerland!

[Hog]

Yep, it was definitely those Orient fans that cost us our place in the league.

[recordmeister]

who do the Poles want to go to the world cup? england, or.....?

you do the maths. They'll let us through. If they don't i'll wear a shellsuit and drink strong larger on the tube for a week.

[Brahma Bull]

I'm with Snake on this one.

Whilst 5000 Orient fans didn't confine United to relegation it clearly didn't help on that eventful day. Hindsight is great but that decision, which actually prevented more Oxford fans from coming, remains laughable.

It's the first thing I thought of having heard the FA had decided to handover 18,000 tickets to the Polish. Furthermore, there will be signficantly more Poles at Wembley tonight as they have been calling up telling Talksport for example, how they have got tickets in the home areas too (I hope the stewards eject them to protect the safety of english and polish supporters - plenty of which will be children). I predict the polish will have between 20,000-24,000 fans inside the stadium this evening.

Of course, the decision make result in a wonderful atmosphere as the English supporters will rise to the oppo fans but then again it could come back to haunt us.

[Hog]

Yes, if we'd only had another 4,000 Oxford followers in the ground to cheer us on to a famous 6-0 victory things would have been so different. Oh ...

http://www.statto.com/football/stats/en ... /2005-2006

[Brahma Bull]

I'm well aware of the goal difference.

If I recall the decision to give 5000 away tickets was made some significant time before Monday 1 May 2006.

[Snake]

I wasn’t there, Jerome, but on the telly in the beginning it sounded like England were playing away. And I DGAF if some people think that fans backing doesn’t make a difference to the effort from a team on the park. Moving on, we got away with it after 88 minutes of tension tonight so Brazil here we come!

////

Is there a case for the FA to hire a decent manager on a short term contract next summer or do we all put our trust in Uncle Roy to get England beyond the quarter finals?