Football (World Cup 26)

[Skip997]

5 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

Keir Starmer intervened in row over Mexico-England kick-off time - BBC News

What has it got to do with Starmer 

 

Re the Trump interference, surely this voids the whole competition 

[steviewevie]

Thing is its a shame because the world cup was actually going pretty well...there was some sh*tty stuff still, like how Iran was treated, but on the whole it was turning out to be a good world cup.

They could well have f**ked it now.

[steviewevie]

2 minutes ago, Skip997 said:

What has it got to do with Starmer 

 

Re the Trump interference, surely this voids the whole competition 

Ultimately...the world cup is very very political whether we like it or not.

[steviewevie]

anyway despite Ronaldo who is obviously EVIL...come on Portugal.

[Skip997]

15 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

anyway despite Ronaldo who is obviously EVIL...come on Portugal.

Nonsense 

Come on Spain. They’re needed just in case the tournament continues to go wrong 

[kaosmark2]

I am always cheering against rapists.

[steviewevie]

Nah, Portugal. Spain have had a bit too much of it. Portugal Allez

[charlierc]

3 hours ago, kaosmark2 said:

OK I hadn't realised it was that long ago but fair enough. 

 

I think growing football in India is going to be a very difficult task, in China multiple sports are taken seriously and they fund a lot of sports and try and drive for major success at the Olympics, so if they want to give it another go, it could get somewhere. But India is just cricket-mad, and I know that vaguely successful athletes in other sports are actively funnelled into cricket instead.

It's pretty clear India's failure to go to the 1950 tournament after they qualified pretty much hindered Indian football right out of the gate and the fact they've recently been banned from FIFA and threatened with another ban hints that the institutional malaise within it as an organisation is not exactly receding.

 

There's reportedly a lot of areas of India where football is a very popular sport, but a lot of Indians will say that the Indian FA is run by some spectacularly clueless berks.

[charlierc]

1 hour ago, steviewevie said:

Ultimately...the world cup is very very political whether we like it or not.

I'm perfectly aware of that, but I feel like its different between arguing over a kick-off time and interfering with FIFA's processes to get a team a sporting advantage. It's also a bit of an own goal imo - it just returns focus on how meddling they've been with a lot of the way this tournament has been run.

 

I'm not sure how much of an effect Starmer's intervention will have had tbf - the Mexican FA were pretty adamant the game had to stay at its time and it seems like the English FA made the same point about fans who were arriving in Mexico City that morning being severely disadvantaged.

 

Seems like UEFA noticed as well, both in terms of representing the interests of a member in Belgium but as much in the fact their leadership don't like Infantino much: Uefa accuses Fifa of ‘crossing a red line’ over lifting of Folarin Balogun’s red card ban | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian

[steviewevie]

26 minutes ago, charlierc said:

I'm perfectly aware of that, but I feel like its different between arguing over a kick-off time and interfering with FIFA's processes to get a team a sporting advantage. It's also a bit of an own goal imo - it just returns focus on how meddling they've been with a lot of the way this tournament has been run.

 

I'm not sure how much of an effect Starmer's intervention will have had tbf - the Mexican FA were pretty adamant the game had to stay at its time and it seems like the English FA made the same point about fans who were arriving in Mexico City that morning being severely disadvantaged.

 

Seems like UEFA noticed as well, both in terms of representing the interests of a member in Belgium but as much in the fact their leadership don't like Infantino much: Uefa accuses Fifa of ‘crossing a red line’ over lifting of Folarin Balogun’s red card ban | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian

It's still always very political, propaganda and geopolitics. Two world wars and one world cup and the Argies etc.

It's just that we're now living in Trump world, and something was always bound to happen in this world cup because he's an attention seeking twat and we all fall for it 

The Starmer thing is kind of irrelevant because he is kind of irrelevant, but it came up on BBC so I posted it because it is also not nothing.

[Skip997]

22 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

Two world wars and one world cup and the Argies etc.

That’s just fat white family (not the band) gammon, xenophobic, jingoistic, brainless idiots 

[steviewevie]

2 minutes ago, Skip997 said:

That’s just fat white family (not the band) gammon, xenophobic, jingoistic, brainless idiots 

It's geopolitics and history informing how people react to certain football matches and rivalries...like how some Irish people constantly wanting England to lose.

[Skip997]

2 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

...like how some Irish people constantly wanting England to lose.

Good point 

 

Guilty as charged, but I don’t sing about attacks on the English 

[steviewevie]

I don't care who wins this now I just want it to end

[philipsteak]

2 hours ago, charlierc said:

It's pretty clear India's failure to go to the 1950 tournament after they qualified pretty much hindered Indian football right out of the gate and the fact they've recently been banned from FIFA and threatened with another ban hints that the institutional malaise within it as an organisation is not exactly receding.

 

There's reportedly a lot of areas of India where football is a very popular sport, but a lot of Indians will say that the Indian FA is run by some spectacularly clueless berks.

 

They'd fit right in then

 

[steviewevie]

Come on USA...for the lols.

[charlierc]

1 hour ago, steviewevie said:

It's still always very political, propaganda and geopolitics. Two world wars and one world cup and the Argies etc.

It's just that we're now living in Trump world, and something was always bound to happen in this world cup because he's an attention seeking twat and we all fall for it 

The Starmer thing is kind of irrelevant because he is kind of irrelevant, but it came up on BBC so I posted it because it is also not nothing.

I was thinking less in reference to the antique chanting that was funny to people in the 1960s/70s and more Mussolini rigging the 1934 World Cup, or Argentina's military dictatorship doing similar in 1978, or to a degree the rigged voting process for pretty much every World Cup Sepp Blatter's FIFA awarded.

 

To a degree, every World Cup hosting is as much a country trying to showcase itself through positive propaganda as it is hosting the damn thing. Whether its an entirely successful exercise is another question, especially after FIFA tweaked the rules from 2010 onwards where they keep all the money and leave the hosts with the bill. See also the Olympics.

 

I don't think lobbying over kick-off times that disadvantage fans is in the same ballpark as actively lobbying FIFA to change the rules to get your players unbanned though. Even if, as I think I already said, I'm pretty sure the Mexican FA being unhappy at changing the time got there first. Though as it is, feels like if they'd tried to start at 12pm local, a storm was in the air and might've caused a delay anyway.

[charlierc]

15 minutes ago, philipsteak said:

 

They'd fit right in then

 

Probably easier to name a football association in the world that isn't tbf. Or indeed FIFA itself given how Infantino seems so set on trying to ruin it for everyone.

Edited July 6 by charlierc

[charlierc]

What price Ronaldo tries to keep on going and insist he can play for Portugal at their 2030 World Cup? I know he's said this will be his last tournament, but pretty sure he said that at the last one as well and he seems to have the clout for Portugal to keep playing him despite all logic suggesting he's gone full Lethal Weapon and is too old for this sh*t.

[Crazyfool01]

USA gone . Fantastic 😀

[steviewevie]

Sad exit for the US, but people will see it as justice. I wonder if all the FIFA/Trump nonsense affected the team? maybe, and they were always going to need something special to get anything against Belgium. Kind of a shame that all the host countries are out, but only one of them actually cares about football and those England bastards knocked them out.

[steviewevie]

Maybe FIFA could overturn the result.

[charlierc]

And to think at one point I thought Belgium would go out in the group stages. 

[steviewevie]

 

[Ben7amin_]

Checked in with my Portugal based colleagues this morning - they are heavy on the Ronaldo should retire side of things - He has been the king for the country but he certainly runs the risk of damaging his legacy if he tries to play on -  and perhaps his ego if he is simply not selected for the national squad.