DoBelieveTheHype

I'd normally stay up to watch election night but the choice is appalling this year. BBC have got Kuensburg so that's a no, ITV have Tom Bradbury so that's a no and Channel 4 have Nadine Dories of all people, so that's a no. Think it'll be an early night. Will probably watch the exit poll on the BBC for old times sake as that's what I did with Dimbleby and Edwards and then follow a newspapers online text coverage. Hopefully they have Clive Myrie announcing the exit poll and results with Kuensburg in a more background role. BBC Radio 4s team actually seems to be best with Nick Robinson and Rachel Burden - so might flick that on.

It's semi-automated precisely to try and take that element of luck out of it. It's a far superior method than rely on refs drawing lines. Denmark had decent spells but Germany were definitely superior.

As I said before, the rules are the same for both teams - it's more ridiculous in old system where it was up to a ref's eyesight/gut feeling and plenty of illegal goals were counting or VAR drawing lines. Having the technology makes the game fairer for everyone and I'm glad to know it'll be coming to the premier league soon. We must have been watching different matches - Germany were by far the better team both in and out of position and deserved the win.

I know he's not going to come out and outright say 'yeah we're gonna lose and we're going to lose big' but there's something utterly hilarious about Sunak saying that he still believes he'll win the general election.

This was completely appropriate use of VAR - the line has to be drawn somewhere and it's far better for it to be drawn by technology than any feelings of supposed fairness by referees that think one team was hard done by. The rules are the same for both teams.

Spain are gonna walk this, could be a cricket score.

And Germany take it 2-0 - they'll play either Spain or Georgia. Shame that'll be Clive Tyldesley's last ITV game

Who's this ref reviewer? How have they decided someone boring you about technicalities is in anyway useful.

Denmark score, goal disallowed.

As said above some great bands - The Specials, Levellers and KISS stand out for me personally. Expected KISS to be higher.

What happened?. Was it finished? Or replayed another day.

The weather's been worse than this for other games in the tournament. I guess it's the lightening they're worried about.

Hopefully this is a bit less one-sided than the Swiss match. Don't enjoy watching one team dominate to that extend, prefer good counter-attacks. Think Germany will win it but Denmark should run them close.

They definitely look more likely to do so than England.

I'd love to know what's going on behind the scenes at Italy. How can a team that played so well 4 years ago be this atrocious now? You'd think there'd be a will to defend the title among the players but they're playing like they don't even want to be on the pitch.

Wasn't it the Euros they beat France at? Got hammered by Portugal at the World Cup!! This isn't the most exciting game there's ever been so far. Needs a goal to liven things up.

No competition here; Kooks all day long.

The difference between 2019 and this election is that YouGov have changed their polling methods midway through this campaign because they didn't believe what it was saying - this now means they have the Labour Party a in the mid-to-high 30s whereas every other pollster has them in the high-30s to low-40s. I think a lot of this polling is failing to account for boundary changes and failing to account for the unpopularity of this government. The only poll that will count is the exit poll and shortly after the results.

Less than two years to go until the tournament itself here's the state of qualifying by country. Qualifying is already underway in the AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL. A total of 30 countries have been eliminated (28 AFC and 2 CONCACAF) It will get underway in September 2024 for the OFC. It will get underway in March 2025 for UEFA. Countries that have already secured the World Cup slots (so far just the hosts) are in Green. Countries that can still qualify are in Blue Countries that are already eliminated are in Red. AFC (8 direct slots, 1 intercontinental play-off slot) Afghanistan, Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Chinese Taipei, Guam, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Korea DPR, Korea Republic, Kuwait, Kyrgz Republic, Laos, Lebanon, Macau, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen CAF (9 direct slots, 1 intercontinental play off slot) Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Congo DR, Côte D’Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea*, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritiana, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Niger, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe *Withdrew from competition CONCACAF (3 hosts, 3 qualifiers, 2 intercontinental play-off slots) Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Cuba, Curacao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Montserrat, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, United States, US Virgin Islands CONMEBOL (6 direct slots, 1 intercontinental play-off slot) Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela OFC (1 direct slot, 1 intercontinental play-off slot) American Samoa, Cook Islands, Fiji, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tahiti, Tonga, Vanuatu UEFA (16 direct slots, 0 intercontinental play-off slots) Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, England, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Russia*, San Marino, Scotland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, Wales * Suspended by FIFA Intercontinental Play-Off (2 slots) 6 teams - TBC The intention is update this post as countries drop out from their respective confederations qualifying competitions.

Farage now boycotting the BBC because they dared to include people who don't agree with him in a Question Time audience. Unsurprisingly he follows that up by calling for the abolition of the licence fee (which he misspells) - more populist nonsense. Slippery slope to British Trumpism further slid down. @1807024727283675211

Looks more than likely I'll be knocked out of this this afternoon. Hope to be proved wrong though.

@1806592157727269369 Might be an outlier though - polls are all over the shop these past few days.

I find it bizarre that the US has a minimum age for a president of 35 but has now maximum age. Surely 70 would be a fair cut off? I'd actually suggest lowering the minimum age to 21 as well - the US needs younger politicians with more competence.

Groups for the 3rd round: Group A Iran Qatar Uzbekistan United Arab Emirates Kyrgyzstan North Korea Group B South Korea Iraq Jordan Oman Palestine Kuwait Group C Japan Australia Saudi Arabia Bahrain China Indonesia Remember - the top two teams will advance to the World Cup. The 3rd and 4th placed teams will go the fourth round. First matches will played on 5 September 2024

Great to see System of a Down make an appearance and get some appreciation.