2014 FIFA World Cup

[eFestivals]

Paranoid much?!

nope, just not a knowall self-important arrogant c**t like you.

Funnily enough, the very reason I don't go to as many matches as i might otherwise. 80's hollies had more brain than you.

I didn't.

They don't carry the same weight as a competitive match

Friendlies still reflect a teams abilities? To a very small extent.

You did.

But being a know all self-important arrogant c**t you can't even bring yourself to agree with your own words if it means admitting you were wrong.

hohum.

[TheGayTent]

nope, just not a knowall self-important arrogant c**t like you.

Funnily enough, the very reason I don't go to as many matches as i might otherwise. 80's hollies had more brain than you.

You did.

But being a know all self-important arrogant c**t you can't even bring yourself to agree with your own words if it means admitting you were wrong.

hohum.

[eFestivals]

Cracking - really well done!

You say it, you deny it, you do it, I'll say it.

[eFestivals]

That is why when he was clearly disagreeing with you, you tried to present that as agreement when it clearly wasn't...

yes, cos he's disagreeing with me when he says that friendlies do show something of team's abilities.

Edited June 10, 2014 by eFestivals

[TheGayTent]

You say it, you deny it, you do it, I'll say it.

[eFestivals]

Taking a quote out of context and not including the rest of the sentence doesn't make me agree with you.

Me saying "friendlies show something of a team's abilities" and you saying "Friendlies still reflect a teams abilities? To a very small extent." is you agreeing with me.

Alternatively, you have shit for brains.

Throwing a c**t in here and there is a sure sign you know you've made yourself look stupid.

Again.

Says the man who has resorted to denying ghis own words to try and avoid himself looking silly.

But it didn't even need that fro you. As soon as you come out with "if you were a proper football fan like me" you know you've lost the argument and nothing more needs to be said.

[thetime]

Switzerland are 6th in the rankings, doesn't that tell you everything about rankings?

[eFestivals]

PS: I wonder what a rankings table of (just) friendlies would look like alongside a ranking table of (just) competitive matches. any guesses?

PPS: I guess all of FIFA and each footie association is mad for going along with FIFA and their meaningless system which somehow always roughly matches up with what happens on the field.

PPPS: you do know that FIFA doesn't even class competitive matches as all-equal, don't you?

[eFestivals]

Switzerland are 6th in the rankings, doesn't that tell you everything about rankings?

And Spain are first, doesn't that tell you everything about rankings?

[TheGayTent]

As soon as you come out with "if you were a proper football fan like me" you know you've lost the argument and nothing more needs to be said.

[eFestivals]

Nowhere have I said that FIFA have their rankings system as perfect.

But they'd be less perfect if they only selected the matches that someone thought was relevant as TGT and thick Barry are doing, rather than seeing the relevance in all matches.

[eFestivals]

I said nothing of the sort. I said nothing like what you're claiming.

I just took the bullshit out of your words.

It's not only me that's laughing at you each and every time you do the same c**tishly-pathetic arrogant know-all thing.

Edited June 10, 2014 by eFestivals

[TheGayTent]

I just took the bullshit out of your words. It's not only me that's laughing at you.

[eFestivals]

No you didn't.

You read something that wasn't there because you're paranoid or you're stupid.

How long have you been around here for now? 10+ years?

And at least 4 times a year you do the same thing (tho not always at me) - try and shut down all discussion by (essentially) saying "you're wrong because you're not a proper football fan like me".

It really doesn't get more pathetic, or more obvious that you know you've been talking out of your arse.

Get over it.

The FIFA rankings have always been bollocks.

and yet it's usual for the number one team to prove their ranking as 100% right or very very close in the only world competition that there is - when that ranking is as heavily influenced by friendlies as it ever gets too. Fancy that!

Meanwhile, I've not actually said anything about whether I think the FIFA rankings are bollocks or not, just that I think friendlies should be a part of the criteria because they have relevance to a team's strength.

They've been criticised in the past (and changed because of that criticism), and they're still criticised. One of the reasons of that criticism is the points on offer to teams playing virtually meaningless friendlies. They aren't weighted as heavily as competitive matches but they're still weighted more than they should be.

You're allowed to think that.

I may or may not disagree, but you'll never know* unless you invent my opinion yourself.

(* cos, I've not said anything around any of that, and I won't bother to for an arse like you).

Edited June 10, 2014 by eFestivals

[TheGayTent]

How long have you been around here for now? 10+ years?

And at least 4 times a year you do the same thing - try and shut down all discussion by (essentially) saying "you're wrong because you're not a proper football fan like me".

It really doesn't get more pathetic, or more obvious that you know you've been talking out of your arse.

Get over it.

[eFestivals]

My going to a lot of matches, whilst a fact, has no relationship to the level of knowledge you demonstrate.

None at all.

ditto for you too. So why say it?

Pathetic.

But anyway, back to the point. You agree that friendlies do reflect a team's abilities to some extent.

And because no one game (competitive or not) reflects any team's full abilities, another method is used, to aggregate many performances into a table of team strengths.

If that includes things that are relevant towards it, then it's likely to be more accurate than something which excludes things it knows are relevant towards it.

Edited June 10, 2014 by eFestivals

[TheGayTent]

ditto for you too. So why say it?

[thetime]

Well there is only one way to solve this discussion, mrefest quoting TGT saying the said scandalous comment.

[TheGayTent]

I think you should actually go and watch some live football once in a while. You might learn something...

Friendlies still reflect a teams abilities? To a very small extent. Very little can be read in to them to the extent that they become almost meaningless due to the experiential nature of them, the number of substitutions, etc etc.

Why bother having a World Cup? The rankings are such an accurate reflection of the teams ability we may as well just give the World Cup to the No.1 ranked team...?

[eFestivals]

And the first line means what exactly?

It means "TGT watches lots of football and you don't, and therefore he knows more than you".

There's more than one way for TGT to get this "I'm a real fan" dig in, but boy does he get it in. Not only with me.

Meanwhile....

It's a shame for TGT that the football world is on my side in the disagreement over whether friendlies mean anything, and not his.

Oh dear.

Edited June 10, 2014 by eFestivals

[TheGayTent]

And the first line means what exactly?

[TheGayTent]

Still no answer to the question...

[eFestivals]

It means exactly what it says. No more and no less.

Yep, that's what they say down the Fox & Werrity.

But back to the point, that you're desperate to avoid by claiming superior knowledge......

I said that friendlies are relevant towards a team's true place.

You said i'm wrong but also say they're relevant and claim that's not agreeing with me.

FIFA agree with me, the rest of the football world goes along with it.

Good job I go to less games than you, I reckon.

[eFestivals]

Why bother having a World Cup? The rankings are such an accurate reflection of the teams ability we may as well just give the World Cup to the No.1 ranked team...?

Care to point out where I've said I think the rankings are faultless?

And why bother having a Premier League if the FA Cup showed who was best?

No one result proves everything about any team; to get a truer picture you have to aggregate many games into account.

But that truer picture - even at its hypothetical perfect best - will never define all future results. If it did we wouldn't be watching the game in the first place.

And as far as the practicalities of it goes, a friendly-free rankings table would be 9 months old now, and so would surely be more-meaningless than a more up-to-date rankings table that included friendlies (with appropriate weighting, whatever that 'appropriate' might be).

But yes, the rankings as FIFA has actually done them is pathetically stupid - because it works on the idea that teams will try harder in WC finals matches than they might other competitive matches. Which is just plain silly, but perfectly self-serving in the usual FIFA way.

[TheGayTent]

Yep, that's what they say down the Fox & Werrity.

But back to the point, that you're desperate to avoid by claiming superior knowledge......

I said that friendlies are relevant towards a team's true place.

You said i'm wrong but also say they're relevant and claim that's not agreeing with me.

FIFA agree with me, the rest of the football world goes along with it.

Good job I go to less games than you, I reckon.