Not a footballer in sight

That only 36 Englishmen can be found playing in the Premiership most Saturdays?

We're shit and we know we are

I thought this was a thread about England's performance against Croatia.

That it's a team sport, and no individuals from any number of underachieving teams did anything exceptional this year.

Next!

So who so you think will be SPOZ then?

That between 1966 and 1990 only one footballer won the trophy because it's voted for by a middle class populace who vote for random members of the royal family?

I think it will be Lewis Hamilton. I think it should be Joe Calzaghe.

Calzaghe should win it - he won't. What is that lying cheat Christine Ohuruogu doing on it??!?!?

If Hatton beats Mayweather, he should win it

... he won't beat him tho

no cricket players either.

SHOCKER

I think it'll be Hamilton, and probably by a landslide. I think it ought to be Calzaghe or Hatton, or maybe the motorbike guy who is also actually a World Champion.

Ohurogua's inclusion is... interesting. Possibly a PR move by the BBC.

if either of them had qualified for euro 2008 i'd have given it to Healy or McFadden, if not Calz.

Also, what's with inclusion of Andy Murray rather than his brother who actually WON a Wimbledon title?

Hatton won't win because the voting will have been going on too long before his fight and not long enough after it to swing in his favour if he wins (which he might).

No snooker players ever win it any more. It used to be all about the snooker, didn't it?

The BBC is overrun by UK Athletics insiders - Brendan Fuckin' Foster and Steve Cram and the rest. That would explain the inclusion of a cheat. Somewhat of a conflict of interests going on methinks.

Steve Interesting Davis is the only snooker player to have won it. I thought Dennis Taylor won it.

x-post

"a cheat"? seriously still buying the Sun's "don't let this be the facce of the Olympics" line?

and lest we forget, she won a world championship gold medal. fucking right she should be on the list.

The shortlist isn't created by the Beeb themselves, each major British newspaper, plus Nuts and Zoo, put forward a list of ten candidates, the lists are then amalgamated and a top 10 is created thus.

Here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tv_and_radio/sports_personality_of_the_year/7096040.stm

"a cheat"? seriously still buying the Sun's "don't let this be the facce of the Olympics" line?

Yes.

3 Scottish winners, 2 Irish, 2 Welsh (last one in 1960!), 45 English

How many millions of Welsh, Irish and Scottish people are there in the UK? Is that a reasonably proportional breakdown?

No

England: 50,690,000
Scotland: 5,116,900
Wales: 2,980,700
Norn Iron: 1,700,000

Hmmm, yes, it's not bad I suppose

Tom, I don't by any means think you're an idiot, but your view of Christine Ohuruogu strikes me as a fairly idiotic position to take.

Not convicted of anything, served her suspension anyway, passed 14 drug tests etc etc. Why isn't she worthy of inclusion?

Totally agree with you about the lack of representation of the Scots the Irish and the Welsh btw.

Perfect statistical breakdown would be:

England 44
Scotland 4
Wales 3
Norn Iron 1

Not one gay winner ever either. Especially not in 1999.

So that's pretty fucking close.

Ohuruogu is a serious bone of contention whichever way you look at it; I'm entirely glad for her to go to the Olympics, and as a World Champ she ought to be included in the shortlist, BUT, as a controversial figure it smacks of the BBC pimping the awards a bit by picking her, because of the brigade who are likely to be up in arms about it, if nothing else.

Tom, I don't by any means think you're an idiot, but your view of Christine Ohuruogu strikes me as a fairly idiotic position to take.

Maybe it is idiotic, fair enough. Call it a hunch. Which I had LONG before she was actually banned.

Not one gay winner ever either. Especially not in 1999.

What, Virginia Wade didn't win it?

Interestingly the German Sports Personality Award seems to never go to a footballer.

John Curry! (xp)

x-post

so she should have been taken out of the running because she's been involved in some controversy? Is there actually any evidence that she's ever taken any performing enhancing substances?

The people who are up in arms about it can naff off, seriously. Gold Medal in World Championships (our only one) trumps all else.

I agree; all I'm saying is that include her, people whinge. Don't include her, people whinge.

Roger Stanislaus never got nominated.

it's true, people whinge. ilx would be a very desolate place if they didn't.

Calzaghe for me. hopefully he'll come out before Sunday and make the Welsh gays happy.

I'm surprised by Steve Davis being the only snooker winner. I was sure Stephen Hendry had won it once too. They aren't very big on darts either, are they? Would've thought Phil Taylor must have been worth a shout at least once during his total domination of the game, if one-game-wonders like Flintoff, Owen, Wilkinson etc can win it.

3 Scottish winners, 2 Irish, 2 Welsh (last one in 1960!), 45 English

Wrong. It's 3 Scottish winners, 2 Irish, 2 Welsh (last one in 1960!), 44 English, 1 Canadian.

Nigel Mansell and Damon Hill have both won it twice!

OUR NIGE is immortal so that's alright. And let's not forget he used to live on the Isle of Man.

I dare someone at the BBC to put up the caption "jokes, bruv, jokes" if they show any footage of the England team.

Somewhat amazing that Tony Jacklin never won it. While Henry Cooper won it twice.

my ranking for this year:

1) hamilton (sure he stumbled at the last but he's the best debutant in F1 history)
2) calzaghe
3) higgins
4) hatton

hatton leaps 3 places if he wins

no cricketers/footballers is correct (ramprakash maybe?), but you can ignore me because i am snooker loopy :D

Hamilton shouldn't get it cos it's inevitable that he will when he actually wins the championship. Formula one drivers need to stop being rewarded for second place.

but he deserves it this year too, because no-one else really does. unless hatton wins.

a case can be made for calzaghe.

do they not still do a separate Young/Best Newcomer award? LH could have it. What about Team Of The Year? Croatia!

Scotland!

double-winners Sussex?

I make the case for Calzaghe. even though I am not that fussed about either boxing or Wales. i have been brow-beaten by the whingers though, and sorta think that winning 23 out of 23 world title bouts over his career is enough to warrant a stoopid silver camera.

Team of year is going to be England Rugby, innit, with a sympathy nod to plucky little Scotland.

It doesn't matter that Calzaghe is Welsh, does it?

"someone called graeme"

bazzump

gareth bale?

yeah let's give it to a domestic footballer whose country has done fuck-all ever and who has done moderately well on the left side of midfield for their club team, that'd be original and worthy

peterson?

/trolling to make up for rubbish tmi thread

lj ignoring actual competition for achievement throughout thread. women's cricket? gtf.

yeah it's mcdowell, tho i wasn't aware it was an international award tbph.

ah no i kid- he's 'one of them'

Paul Scholes innit.

fuck, just realised they're gonna give it to a commonwealth games no-mark

fuck you bbc

Thought McCoy was favourite at the bookies and think he'll notch a v. deserved win?

the bookies certainly love mccoy

oh wait

The entire audience doing a blue-tinted Poznan to celebrate Aguero's last-ditch title winner was truly the stuff of nightmares.

http://i.minus.com/ibrbOoRe6fTRMf.gif

It would have been amazing if they'd done a mass this instead

is that rafa incognito

They should have interviewed moustache man.

I wonder if he's the same moustache man (then wearing a rennie-style hat, iirc) that the camera panned to, sitting morosely in the stand behind the goal where Sheffield Wednesday scored a penalty at Old Trafford in April 93 (awarded almost immediately by the replacement ref, who had come on after a lengthy delay to the original ref getting injured, meaning there was a sizeable amount of injury time that day....)

Anyway - is Wiggins going to walk this or could the bookies be wrong? In any 'normal' year, Jessica Ennis, Andy Murray or Mobot Farah would be a shoo-in.

Surely somebody on here can confirm xp? Can't believe google's letting me down on this.

I like Jessica Ennis.

My memory let me down - he *does* have a moustache, but he's merely sitting behind someone with a hat. Circa 1.55 here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsmyTAs9C9k
I reckon it could be the same guy.

Here we go...

Murray robbed

gtf Wiggins you Oasis-looking cunt

He looks like he should be in Ocean Colour Scene and hang out with Chris Evans. Fuck that. Mo Farah wuz robbed.

i mean it's a v high standard this year but a) he's the Martin Freeman of sport and b) there's about 6 on that list i'd've voted above him

Ha, I just made the Martin Freeman comparison to my other half.

I'd go Farah, Murray, Ennis, Weir at least above him.

HE WON THE TOUR DE FRANCE!

You guys are nuts.

And what's wrong with Martin Freeman?

You folks must have been done over by a mod sometime in the past. His winning the TDF alone guarantees my vote, Olympics gold just cemented it.

xxxxp

yep, plus maybe Rory, Chris Hoy, Nicola Adams

XXp he's a hobbit

He's a twat.

friend's Facebook status update:

If only Team Sky had chosen Nikki Adams to win Le Tour.

kinda sums it up for me

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-563570/Martin-Freeman-life-shouldnt-just-day-office.html

we've got at least one thread for me to get as close to libelling Freeman in as possible

mind you, never forget

Politely, I comment on his lovely house and the tranquillity that surrounds it.

"When I moved up here this woman I know said, 'Ooh! There are a lot of whiteys up there', and I said, 'I love white people; I've no problem with them at all."

The idea was that I was going to complain because there weren't enough blues dances out here; not enough ragga around. But I'm not bothered by it.

"Multiculturalism hasn't and doesn't help, because rightly or wrongly it polarises people so much," he continues.

"Racism is one thing ? and I don't agree with that in any form ? but noticing that there are differences is normal and fine and to be encouraged.

"We've reached a state now where it's, 'You shouldn't notice. Why are you noticing he's got a bomb and has a beard and is Muslim and wants to kill your family?"

"There is no country in the world like this. If all of a sudden all the traffic wardens in Ghana were Welsh, they'd really notice and might not love it? We give ourselves a hard time in this country in a sort of mea culpa way. But if we were that racist, people wouldn't come. Very simple."

indie guilt in full effect itt

yeah, was it Murray robbed that gave it away?

winning the Tour is a great achievement, but it's a team effort in a sport where most of the last 20 years' worth of winners have been doping, and relies essentially on strength and endurance rather than the finesse and moments of creative inspiration that you need to be a top flight tennis player, boxer, golfer etc etc

fair dos apparently there are more cycling enthusiasts in the country than fans of those other sports but whatever, Wiggins achievement to me doesn't feel as special and the aspects of his personality that seem to endear him to some people grate right down my spine

and if that's indie guilt because OF COURSE SECRETLY WE'RE ALL INDIES then you can shove it up his well-tailored arsehole.

hope this clarifies the situation, thx.

Pretty sure you need skill and finesse to ride a bike at 60 mph down a mountain etc

yeah well, give me a degree of poetic licence. still stand by the gist of it. yeah the Tour = big achieve, i just don't think it was the defining victory of the year, i'm obviously not the only one who feels like that.

there are definitely more tennis fans than cycling fans in this country - murray will win spoty soon i'm sure. obviously this year there was an unusually high number of deserving winners.

if this were actual meritocracy rather than a parlour game for petit bourgeois nudniks to affirm majoritarian identity via minoritarian sports then it would go to a football player pretty much every time except for this year cuz of murray and whichever year lennox lewis unified belts

so wayne rooney every year from 04 to 10 and gareth bale 11 and probably 13 onwards

yeah i forgot this shit has been won by at least 2 royals and a Nigel Mansell

don't think finesse and creative inspiration are necessarily more laudable qualities in sportspeople than strength and endurance - if anything the fact that the latter qualities can come only from years of self-denial and discipline (the former perhaps representing something more innate or ineffable) links them more strongly in my mind to what it is that sets great athletes apart.

that doesn't mean it isn't often more enjoyable as a spectator to watch people who excel in finesse etc, of course. i mean my favourite footballer is matt le tiss. but i still think wiggins was a worthy winner of this ridiculous gong.

yeah but i mean finesse athletes have the latter too, not like the twinkletoed wayne rooney couldnt have been a champion brick thrower in another life

thats before we even think of what rooney could have brought to the world of dressage

was mcilroy in for this or what

sure, it's not really either/or is it...i mean endurance cyclists are more than the sum of their muscular parts too