What if the ITV FA Cup blunder was deliberate?

ITV’s decision to show us 117 minutes of unwatchable tripe and then cut away from the only interesting moment has been met with fierce criticism by all the daily newspapers (The Sun provides furious fan quotes; the consistently outraged Daily Mail told us it’s the immigrants’ fault and everything would be better if Princess Diana was still here).

One thing all the reports of the blunder had in common, however, is that they specifically mentioned the three companies whose products were shilled while Dan Gosling was scoring the winner - Tic Tacs, Action for Children and Volkswagen. They all received a massive amount of free publicity from the debacle - is it at all possible that Tic Tacs and co struck a deal with the ITV devil to work their way into the national consciousness?

[Our theory is flawed by the fact that they couldn’t have planned for extra time or for a last minute goal, but everyone loves a good conspiracy, right? If you need us, we’ll be on the roof of Spoiler towers with our shotguns and tin foil hats.]

Raymond Domenech subscribes to chickendinner’s theory

France boss Raymond Domenech has started to crack under the pressure of being pretty rubbish, and has admitted he fears Holland will conspire to cost Italy and France a place in the next round.

Holland have been cleared to play a weakened team against Romania and if they lose, Romania progressahead of Italy and France as runners-up, with the Dutch still topping the group, which could prove convenient for Marco Van Basten’s side when the semi-finals arrive.

Domenech, rambling like a madman consumed by paranoia, said:

“Our game against Italy will not be decisive. It’s the other match that matters. My opinion is Holland will make wholesale changes for the game on Tuesday night and it is already written that Romania will qualify with them from the group.”

Of course what he neglects to mention is the only reason Romania control their fate is that France were awful against them and had they actually beaten Romania, then their destiny would be in their own hands…

Fancy a punt on tonigh’s Euro action? Head over to chickendinner for the best stats and betting information first

chickendinner make an excellent call on Holland’s run so far

Apart from that whole thing about Paul McCartney dying in the sixties and being replaced by a doppelganger, The Spoiler isn’t one to believe conspiracy theories. However, we couldn’t help but take notice of the chickendinner bet blog, which correctly called the second Group C games, last Thursday night:

Picture this perfectly plausible scenario for a second. Tomorrow, buoyed by victory over Italy in the opening game, Holland defeat a France side struggling to find their feet.

In the other Group C game, Italy are low on confidence after their shock loss and Romania are able to take a point by “playing to their strengths” as they did against France.

That would create a situation where Holland would have the group sewn up with six points, Romania would be second with two points and Italy and France would be struggling with one point.

At first glance, it’s hard to imagine Romania beating Holland, which would mean a straight shootout for the final place between Italy and France, with the winner qualifying.

But what if Holland, already having the group won, gave Romania

Football fan exposes C-Ron conspiracy, his own social ineptness

No one doubts that Cristiano Ronaldo is the best player of the season, but that hasn’t stopped a certain YouTuber from trying to discredit him. User ‘Unknowngenius3′ has analysed a recent Sky Sports trailer and discovered that the over-hyped commentary was actually taken from games that C-Ron wasn’t involved in. Unknowngenius3 also discovered that he has way too much spare time and has never had a girlfriend.

[101 Great Goals]