Football

Is it offensive?

With respect, Provencal was not a dialect.

^This. Perhaps a history of the Cathars would help explain why the south of France, like Catalunya, are culturally, ethnically and linguistically different from the countries to which they are presently attached.

The former Chairman and now Life President of Brighton and Hove Albion was on the phone to another club.

"Hello" he said, as the call was answered, "it's Dick Knight in Brighton"

To which the person who had received the call responded "I thought every night was dick night in Brighton."

^This. Perhaps a history of the Cathars would help explain why the south of France, like Catalunya, are culturally, ethnically and linguistically different from the countries to which they are presently attached.

Oh wait. Football thread. Ask Liverpool. They were there, back in history. Ask them.

Is it offensive?

Probably

No arguments about that here, but the original statement was that other European countries aren't divided in the same way as Italy, where the history of Europe in the early 20th C is of culturally diverse regions being united by force into homogenous 'nations', with a recoil in the late 20th against the homogenisation.

Did I mention the cultural divide between 'mainland' Denmark & Copenhagen?

No, neither did you mention the difference between the Flemish and the Waloons, Frysians and the Hollanders...

Oh wait. Football thread. Ask Liverpool. They were there, back in history. Ask them.

Curiously, as my Napoli article points out, Liverpool was only founded as recently as 1207. Not really much history there.

The former Chairman and now Life President of Brighton and Hove Albion was on the phone to another club.

"Hello" he said, as the call was answered, "it's Dick Knight in Brighton"

To which the person who had received the call responded "I thought every night was dick night in Brighton."

Oh dear

No, neither did you mention the difference between the Flemish and the Waloons, Frysians and the Hollanders...

Not to forget the Lapps and the others in Sweden, Norway and Finland.

And of course the Swedish speaking Finns...

he usually comes here when arse are doing well........ oh

hahah ah ah

We'll still finish above [strike]Tott[/strike] Chelsea, though. We've worn a nice groove for fourth place, nobody's taking that from us.

Curiously, as my Napoli article points out, Liverpool was only founded as recently as 1207. Not really much history there.

FYI - I wouldn't expect at table at Santa Maria any time soon Clive.

FYI - I wouldn't expect at table at Santa Maria any time soon Clive.

Why ? Is Santa Maria a Scouse restaurant ?

If it is, I wouldn't want to go there.

The proprietor, Pasquale, is a Neapolitan...

With respect, Provencal was not a dialect.

That's true, yet there are plenty of regional languages in France (Bretagne), and don't they speak some kind of fucked up French/German hybrid language in Alsace? It's not indicative of a 'divide', especially when the number of speakers are so low. Economically, France doesn't really have a divide to speak of. England and Italy do.

Because they're always in first place*?

*(In Panini sticker albums)

Panini must be illiterate southern Italians then, as Arsenal should come before Aston Villa in any alphabetical classification.

On a more serious note, Simon Kuper is discussing the match fixing that went on at the1978 World Cup, FIFA are investigating so don't expect a lot of detail.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9697000/9697819.stm

When I used to travel to all the European away games, I would meet up with a group of Chelsea supporters for lunch in a decent restaurant in the city we were visiting on the day of the game. A lot of effort was put into finding one of the best restaurants serving local food. One of our number made it his practice (he was a city dealer) to buy the best bottle of local wine on their wine list.

When we went to Liverpool, he bought Thunderbird.

That's true, yet there are plenty of regional languages in France (Bretagne), and don't they speak some kind of fucked up French/German hybrid language in Alsace? It's not indicative of a 'divide', especially when the number of speakers are so low. Economically, France doesn't really have a divide to speak of. England and Italy do.

Well, there is a big divide between metropolitan France & rural France, but that's more of racial thing.

The economic divide between north & south France isn't as big as it was when I used to vist my grandparents village near Aix-en-Provence, that's for sure. The south was really quite backwards up until the 60s, mechanisation of agriculture didn't really happen until well into the late 60s, early 70s.

oops sorry, i was looking for the football thread

this week we are mostly solving regional disparities

Ok, so here's some football stuff:

Football’s most admired clubs – Barcelona, Manchester United and Arsenal – are particularly skeptical of transfers. Arsenal’s chief executive, Ivan Gazidis, says Arsenal doesn’t like buying players who will need to adjust, and who “might or might not be 5 or 10 per cent better than the players we have”. Arsenal had the lowest net transfer spend in the Premier League from 2006 through 2011. Manchester United’s net spend was lower than Stoke’s or Sunderland’s, according to data collated by transferleague.co.uk.

The economic divide between north & south France isn't as big as it was when I used to vist my grandparents village near Aix-en-Provence, that's for sure. The south was really quite backwards up until the 60s, mechanisation of agriculture didn't really happen until well into the late 60s, early 70s.

Lucky you, Aix-en-Provence is a really beautiful town. I don't have any family in the south, if I did I would go all the time. They are mostly in Burgundy.

Ok, so here's some football stuff

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