links for 2009-11-09 - football and remembrance

"Over the next few weeks, Guardian Sport is looking to build a community of fans for each of the 32 countries that qualify for the 2010 World Cup. Starting with the World Cup draw next month, and continuing through to the tournament itself, we're hoping your knowledge will enrich our content both online and in print."

"The England football team, despite not playing on Remembrance Sunday weekend, will show up the Premier League’s poppygate refuseniks by recognising Armistice Day next Wednesday before they fly to Qatar for the friendly against Brazil". I'm eternally grateful that my grandfathers fought in the Second World War for the right for newspapers to publicly bully people into wearing poppies. "Poppygate refusenik" indeed...

From the comments: "If I had some newspaper trying to take unwarranted credit for getting a Poppy sewn on to my strip, I'd also be reluctant to sign up. Remembrance Day isn't about you (Daily Mail), so stop trying to blow your own trumpet over a matter that is far bigger than you'll ever be. I support neither Manchester United or Liverpool. I am a Tottenham fan; yet I feel you are making these teams to be some kind of national disgrace. As they have both said; they both support the appeal in their own way. Who the hell are you trying to kid, with your pathetic attempts to belittle them? These clubs do a tremendous amount of good for the armed forces, poppy selling being just the tip of the iceberg so give them the credit that they deserve - not these childish insults that you seem hellbent on inflicting upon us. Stop embarrassing yourself Daily Mail. Readership figures are not the issue on such a weekend and the public can see you for what you really are - hypocrites."

"This Sunday I will be at the Cenotaph to remember the sacrifice Leyton Orient players made in World War One. I think it's the first time a football club has ever been invited to take part in this famous ceremony. Orient was the first league club to sign up in 1914, into the 17th Middlesex. Their example was followed by all the other clubs in the country. Three Orient players died at the Battle of the Somme in 1916". There's a real reason for footballers, football clubs and football fans to wear poppies, not some trumped up 'outrage'.

"HUNDREDS of people paid tribute to a Walthamstow-born soldier killed in Afghanistan this week at a Remembrance Sunday service today. None of his family, who are thought to live in the midlands, were at the service, but a wreath in his memory was laid by council officer Lynn Rackley, whose son Paul is currently serving in the same battalion as Mr Chant."