That is it exactly - I watch football in Ireland, and shock horror they are biased towards the Irish - I wouldn't expect anything less.

But for some reason, everyone gets the goat over the English. Smaller Island mentality perhaps.

definately

Thankyou so much Israel!!

Thanks for giving England the chance to qualify, and thanks for shutting up that fat dutch fcuker Hiddink. [beep!]. Hearing some of the sh!t coming out of his mouth after the 2-1 win in Moscow over England nearly made me throw up. How he tactically outbattled McClaren and his plan worked to perfection. What happened last night, Guus? What happened to your brilliant tactical planning?

People were quick to shoot down McClaren after the Russia defeat, and he's deserved some of the criticism, but at the end of the day judgement should be reserved at the end of qualifying. Russia beating Israel in their own backyard was never going to be straightforward.

It just goes to show that football can be about the slightest of margins. If Sytchev's shot was 2 inches to the right then England are out. Having said that, if Gerrard took that golden chance in Russia then we wouldn''t even be discussing this match. Margins and moments.

About yesterdays' game, Russia didn't deserve to win. They were playing an inexperienced home side and should have come straight out of the blocks. Instead, the reverse was true. Israel scored and should have had another. The Ruskies did much better in the second half, but after getting the equaliser, they didn't trouble their keeper too much. A draw would have been fair...but

England surely won't lose at Wembley, but I won't count my chickens just yet. Anything could happen.

I lived in Scotland for 3 years and i don't really remember commentators there ever taking the position that Scottish football is the best in the world and that their national team are always unlucky not to do more in Euros/WCs.

And i know for a fact that Greek commentators were very respectful of other teams despite our success in 2004 and our excellent run in the 2008 qualifiers.

The fact you have great players in your league does not mean you have the best national side in the world or even Europe. The fact you have one of the best (if not the best) leagues in the world again does not mean you have the right to look down on foreign football.

Make up all the excuses you want, it's a fact that English commentators LOVE to put down teams from other countries, be it national sides or clubs.

dont talk rubbish marios , english commentators are as biased as any other commentators whether brazilian , spanish , german , scottish , irish or wherever . Did you hear the commentator when Scotland equalised against Italy ....an even better example was when Northern Ireland got the winner against Denmark ...the guy was screaming his head off ...

Its not a fact at all that English commentators love to put down teams from other countries ...its your opinion and i disagree with it . Where do you get the idea that we (english) think we have the best team in the world or that we look down on foreign football .

We are better than Scotland , Wales , Northern Ireland and Rep of Ireland ...our previous results in World Cups and European Championships show this . I dont recall any commentators saying anything derogatory about the other teams failing to qualify or make it through the group stages in these tournaments .

you know how to talk rubbish!!!!
jesus was killed by his own...the jews!!!! everyone know that , you only have to read the old testament so please don't make silly statements as there are many gulable people in the world that may read your crap!

now please...back to football.

1st Jesus isnt mentioned in the old testament, only in the new.
2nd are you one of those gulable people? Read a history book before you call my postings crap or rubbish!

Now, if you'd like to continue this debate please open a new thread at the general discussion part.

That is spot on.
If anything, there are more well-wishers on this side of the fence hoping your Scotland's, Wales's, and Ireland's DO qualify or do well. But not the other way round - instead its the old-fashioned chip on the shoulder as clearly demonstrated by Marios there.

usually you talk a great deal of sense and make some good posts but thats just complete b*llocks mate

not only that, to suggets its a fact is absolutely ridiculous

It's impossible to make you see it from another point of view, but ask non-Brits who have watched football games on English TV (where a non-British team was involved) if they felt the commentators did their team justice in the commentary; most of them will agree that it if often an infuriating experience.

Of course, you're right that since i don't really speak German, French or Spanish the same thing might have happened if i was to watch a similar game in those countries, but i guess i'll never know for sure.

It's my opinion that since English is such a widely spoken language and is so used on TV and the internet, English commentators should be more careful when they put down teams from other countries. In other words, there IS such a thing as diplomacy when it comes to international broadcasting.

You can disagree with that, but it doesn't make it a rubbish opinion.

Maybe i should have specified that i obviously didn't mean traditional football countries like Spain, Germany, Italy and France and teams that come from most of those countries. Those nations usually get their dues from English TV reporters.

I was talking about smaller countries and clubs from those countries. I remember, for example, being annoyed at the commentators when i was watching games like ManU - Panathinaikos and England - Greece. And i have talked about this on Greek forums and it is the experience of most Greeks who have lived/studied in the UK. So i'm definitely not alone in thinking this.

All countries have biased commentators, but i can only really account for Greek and British ones and it is my opinion that when it comes to England (or English teams) playing (teams from) smaller nations they are rarely respectful of the opponents.

You know i would love to tune into the channel that all the england fans watch. working in England for five years, i had the misfortune to stay there during a world cup and a euro campaign.

reading the english press, it came across that all England had to do was turn up for the game and they should automatically be awarded the three points for showing up. i even read in one column how the difference between Brazil and England was the fact that the brazilians weren't english and didn't understand about how to play football as a team.

Suddenly, as the competition got underway, every time England lost a game it was because there was a conspiracy theory, apparently the rest of the world didn't want England to win.

The sad truth of the matter is that England fan's suffer the same as the worlds major clubs, they have made it through to so many tournements that they believe that they have a god given right to make it through to the finals...look at Celtic when they lost the league to Rangers...every celtic supporter crawled out of the woodwork and started to accuse Dunfermline of cheating to help rangers.

No team has any right to win anything, England are now bracing themselves for a backlash if they don't qualify for euro 2008, Scotland hasn't qualified a major tournement in 10 years, even though they lost their last match in controversy, i don't think there is a scot that isn't proud of their teams achievements in the euro 2008 campaign.

Then we have some idiot like Richard Keys who forgets his mic is still on then hisses his anti scotland crap to millions of viewers, need we say more...

I will gladly support England during the euro 2008 campaign, but i would love to read the papers without having to buy into all the hype about how wonderful those eleven guys in white are....after all they are only over paid guys kicking a ball about for a living...

Or alternatively, ask me. I'm English, but i'm able to look at it from an unbiased point of view. And yes, English commentators often give the opposition little credit, and have their tongue up the English teams ass.

Although i recently watched the Bayern vs. Bolton game, and my goodness, i've never, ever heard commentators have their noise so far up anyone's ass. It was unreal. It was infuriating to hear them rant and rave about Ribery so much.

yes but its all relative. i see what you are saying and to a degree you are correct. but when england play greece, England are favourites to win. we should always be beating greece. same for Man United vs panathinaikos.

i get a similar problem when West Ham are on sky against 'the big four'. their is bias in commentary and punditry which is why it should always be taken with a pinch of salt. West Ham get disrespected when we play but its not personal. its simply because the pundits can not see past their own nose.

its more a case of them being inept rather than disrespectful

dont read the Daily Star then and you might get a more balanced view of things

Yes, i see what you mean and you do have a point here. I suppose it is similar.

And while i agree that on paper ManU should beat Panathinaikos, i think the Greek national team have proved twice in the last 4-5 years that we're a better team (a better collective, with inferior units) than England who have struggled in the same period. We've won the last Euro and now have the most points out of any team in the qualifying round (28 from 11 matches). So, no, you SHOULD NOT always be beating Greece. It doesn't work like that when it comes to national sides, but i do accept that it does work like that when it comes to clubs.