:(

So Martin Keone, who can have some good opinions but sadly works for BT Sport who never have any good opinions (any of them) said "When he’s forced to play, he comes up with the goods. , talking about Sanchez.

..."Forced to play."

It's his job, Martin. He's paid by a company to do a job and he's doing it. I work for a company too, being paid to do it. If I was forced to do it, I'd bloody well tell them where they can shove it and leave. If he wants out, if he really wants out, he can easily just buy himself out of his contract and be a free agent. There is nothing stopping him. Also nothing stopping him from not playing at all and his employer fining him his wages every week. He's rich enough to not do anything for a year.

Football is weird sometimes, it's like it so removed from the rest of how the world works it's strange.

Host cities for Germany's Euro 2024 bid:

• Berlin (Olympiastadion)
• München (Allianz Arena)
• Düsseldorf (ESPRIT arena)
• Stuttgart (Mercedes-Benz Arena)
• Köln (RheinEnergieSTADION)
• Hamburg (Volksparkstadion)
• Leipzig (Red Bull Arena)
• Dortmund (Signal Iduna Park)
• Gelsenkirchen (VELTINS-Arena)
• Frankfurt (Commerzbank-Arena)

They'll probably get it considering Turkey is the only other country bidding.

All existing stadiums? When we tried to bid for 2018, they planned to build some new ones, ignoring the fact we have some of the worlds best stadiums already. Basically Forest and Bristol City would have got new stadiums.

Yeah, no new stadiums.

For the World Cup draw FIFA will no longer use geographical Pots, instead all 32 countries will simply be seeded based on the FIFA World Ranking with the host also being in Pot 1. There will however still be a limit on multiple countries from the same confederation being in 1 group: no teams from the same confederation can be in one group (i.e. if Brazil is in Group B, no other South-American team can also be in Group B) except UEFA countries, which are limited to a maximum of 2 per group.
http://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/news/y=2017/m=9/news=oc-for-fifa-competitions-approves-procedures-for-the-final-draw-of-the-2907924.html

That's good. I thought it was stupid that there was no chance of a CONCACAF and Asian team facing each other in the group stage in previous World Cups. I'm so excited for the World Cup Draw, last time I could barely sleep. It's even bigger than E3 for me.

Like the above poster said, it means that from now on countries from certain confederations can face each other in the Group stages. At the 2014 World Cup for example countries from Asia and North America couldn't face each other in the Group Stages because all 8 of them were in the same pot for the draw. 

However, I think with this now being a thing it's time to change how the FIFA rankings are calculated. Poland is 6th, Switzerland is 7th, Peru is 12th, Wales is 13th, Northern Ireland is 20th... Like, how the fuck did those countries end up there?

I hope this will make the groups more even. I thought it was pretty harsh that in 2006 Cote d'Ivoire, who were probably the best African team at the time, had a much tougher draw than the crap Togolese team.

In 2014 the draw seemed very uneven, with 3 very tough groups: Group B (Netherlands, Chile, Spain, Australia), D (Costa Rica, Uruguay, Italy, England) and G (Germany, United States, Portugal, Ghana).

And 3 noticeably weaker ones: C (Colombia, Greece, Cote d'Ivoire, Japan), E (France, Switzerland, Ecuador, Honduras) and H (Belgium, Algeria, Russia, Korea).

ELO rankings would be great, but FIFA seem so stubborn in keeping the current system, it always seems closer to the actual quality.

Looks like it's going to be one of those seasons for Palace.