Burning Gold

I think the argument is that it's not about Mendy taking offence, it's about Bernardo Silva promoting harmful stereotypes. The FA should be doing more to publicise that reasoning, because right now it looks a bit silly and fuels the "It's PC gone mad! Can't say nothing anymore" stuff It's a shame Bernardo Silva doesn't share a dressing room with someone strongly opposed to racism. I'm sure if he did, that person would've had a word about why posts like that are bad, and certainly wouldn't have publicly defended it

Yeah, I do mean them. I think they've been pretty desperate to back him at every opportunity to come out on the right side of the Sterling vs Daily Mail thing. He deserves praise, of course he does, but it's also led to some quite silly takes. Also because the Manchester and London-based media hate Liverpool "Now Sterling is forced to defend himself from keyboard warriors" for acting like a child and doing something clearly unacceptable. Poor old Raheem I don't think Southgate dictated that it be leaked to the media, to be fair.

There's a scuffle on the pitch when you've just been cleaned out, and there's physically and verbally assaulting someone, unprovoked, in the canteen because you're still salty about a loss. No man behaves like that Bit weird how all the coverage of this has been "poor old Raheem". Wonder why that could be

I actually think Labour have played it about right on Brexit for this election. They're the only realistic option for Remain, but they're also still an option for the famous working class Leave voters in Labour heartlands we hear so much about. You could argue the balance of the Brexit debate might be different if they'd been stronger on Remain in the last 3 and a bit years, but we are where we are and they have to shoot down the middle. Don't forget Leave won the referendum in part by refusing to be drawn into detail on what Brexit would look like, thereby maintaining broad appeal. The champagne socialist types in London and Brighton might split the vote by opting for Green or Lib Dem, but they're always liable to do that.

Shocking that there's not a plan in place for this already. How have they been completely blindsided by us winning two League Cup ties?

It's already clear. A goal can be disallowed for any contact with the hand or arm; for anything else, the other criteria apply. You might not like it, but it's quite clear

Proper Brexit stuff, this. We're talking about a trained referee with the benefit of replays, slow-motion, alternative angles, tech to allow him to measure offsides, and several assistants. But it's just "some other fella's opinion"

I'm with you on this. If anyone watched the Man United game on the weekend, they would've seen the explanation of how VAR works at the moment with contact fouls. Basically, the on-field referee tells the video assistant referee what he thinks has happened, and the VAR will only overturn the decision if the pictures don't match the referee's account. But I guarantee the description is getting lost in translation every time. Even if a referee is mistaken on what's happened, there's no way to describe an incident with enough precision to allow the VAR to definitively decide he's got it wrong as opposed to just having a different interpretation of the incredibly vague rules. Only the on-field referee genuinely knows what he thinks has happened, so only he can say whether he's got that wrong (we'll save the chat about what the rules are and whether they're being correctly applied for another day). Let the referees review their own decisions live and I guarantee we'll see a lot more overturned. Obviously keep having their performances independently assessed afterwards

Anderson's ruled out for the rest of the Ashes, and a few seem to be suggesting that might be it for his England career. It's a massive blow to lose him for the series, but I'm going to be devastated if this is it and we never see him and Archer bowl together. It's Suarez and Torres all over again

Italy's not particularly diverse, is it? To be fair, I think those countries are better, just not good enough

I'm something of an outsider, so correct me if I'm wrong, but American sports don't seem to inspire the kind of visceral hatred football does. As @Dan's said, people will do anything for attention or a reaction, and in the heat of the moment they go to the worst thing they can think of. The one that'll hurt. I have no doubt there are genuine racists among them, but I also believe a lot of what you see is idiots digging into the depths of depravity because they fucking loathe the opposition. Something of a hangover from the hooliganism of the 70s and 80s perhaps. Also, it seems to me that overt racism in America is a lot more heavily condemned (because of the history of the country), so people are far less likely to 'just go there'.

I can't remember it being used in the league games, to be honest. In the Super Cup it was broadly fine apart from that aberration of a penalty Chelsea got. It was a contact foul again, which is where the rules are probably the most vague, so no real surprise it's getting them wrong.

Pretty sure you're wumming with the bold bit, but this "the attacker was only slightly offside so it should've stood" stuff is the stupidest criticism of VAR I've ever heard. Saw it a lot in the Women's World Cup and seen a bit more of it now the new season's started, and I'm constantly stunned that people are able to put it forward with a straight face. The handball thing is the rule being applied correctly. It's not handball by either player because it's not deliberate, unnatural position, etc., but it becomes handball by the City player as soon as Jesus scores. Again, stupid rule, but VAR's not the enemy on this one. The penalty... yeah, it looked a pen to me. I don't think I've seen a non-award of a penalty for a foul (not handball) being overturned by VAR, so I'm curious to see what it would take. How bad would it have to be?

Not sure how it's possible to become CEO of two of the biggest brands in the world (in their respective fields) without the basic intelligence to figure out how to post a Twitter thread, but apparently it is. Anyway, Peter Moore's been tweeting about the copyright controversy

It is a dick move, but I think this is all being overplayed a bit. Firstly, teams like FCUM and AFC Liverpool are as plastic as it gets and absolutely don't need defending. City of Liverpool are a slightly different beast in that they're not a direct spin-off of a bigger club, but I remain skeptical. Secondly, unless I've missed something, I really don't see this affecting those local businesses all that much given that barely any (if any at all) of their merchandise says Liverpool on it anyway.

It's not as simple as letting him go, you'd have to find someone to buy him and no one's going to match the wages he's on at Liverpool I disagree with the part in bold on two counts. First, I always thought he was at his best (by quite a distance) when he came back into the team after being dropped, which is almost the exact opposite of a confidence player. And secondly, the way we get the best out of him is by keeping him as far away from the pitch as possible

Barcelona have started their usual shit then. This will be the big saga next summer, but I can't see Salah wanting to make the step down for a few years yet.

How are you affected now that Google are no longer supporting Huawei?

That is a phenomenal innings from Carlos Brathwaite. Glad he got his 100 at least, but I had a funny feeling he wasn't going to get them over the line for the win when he pumped his fist and kissed his bat to celebrate.

San Francisco is the place I've felt the most unsafe in the world. The touristy/cultural areas are great, and there are some incredible places nearby, but there are parts of the city itself I'd avoid like the plague

I honestly think India should be disappointed with this total. With the start they had, and only being 2 down after 43 overs, they should be well into the 300s, looking at something like 370. Still think they'll win, mind, but they should be out of sight.

The fear wasn't that he's injury prone, it's that when that knee does go, it'll be the end of his career. I'm not a medical professional, so I don't know whether that's a legitimate fear, but what needs to be put to bed is this "he hasn't been injured yet" stuff. I'm a little hesitant beccause of the league he plays in as well as the injury, but it's got to the stage that anyone Klopp and Edwards like is more than good enough for me. All for it if we can get him for a small fee on a short deal

I'm curious as to who's using this argument because it's patently false. Close games are relatively rare in one day cricket, whereas you often see T20 games come down to the last over or two. The advantage 50 over cricket has is that there's far more of the nuance and subtlety that makes cricket cricket while keeping the games to a digestible length.

I know you're not, but plenty of others are offering it as one. You just happened to be the one who posted it on here. Sean Cox is alive, by the way. Suffered some serious damage, but he's alive