Won’t be watching (and like many have watched every world cup from ’74 onwards) – because, can’t stand the awful Quatary civilization (if even Quatar can be called civilized), don’t want to watch them knee bending f’bllers, can’t bear to listen to Gary Neville.
But most of all, because, can’t stand that Gary Linekar.
I would say snap to your comments. The world cup was good to watch in the past but has now become too political. I cannot stand Neville causing the team to take the knee the purpose of which I thoroughly disagree with, but these sort of people like to force it on others. I have gone over to Rugby with the six nations and the World Cup coming. Far less political.
I’ll be watching, and, so will you. That’s because it is the beautiful game.
FIFA has always been exhibit one on what a large global government would look like. When you juxtapose that with team sport at the highest level you have the perfect reflection of what humans working together should look like and what governments working together always looks like.
Anyone who has watched a Gareth Southgate England Team would know that it takes more than a kick-off to produce a ‘beautiful game’. I will only watch when I need sleep and don’t want a sleeping pill.
Absolutely – and item one on the agenda for ‘global’ global sport will be to set up a cloning facility for Sepp Blatters. I don’t see why the Swiss should be the only ones to get one, the whole world deserves their own copy.
Qatar is genuinely the armpit of the world. Utterly vile nation.
But the main reason why many English would switch off, I suspect, is because our craven manager would simply refuse to use the fantastic attacking talent England have.
Watching a world cup in a horrible country that’s too warm for a summer world cup, tough.
Watching a team with Foden, Kane, Madison, Sterling, Grealish play like cowards, as they inevitably will, is purely unbearable.
With hundreds of slaves worked to death to build the Qatar stadium. Not much is said about that. Taking the knee to that would be an honorable gesture.
An interesting aspect is that not much is made of the nationality / race of those who died (mostly Indian / South Asian), which is a deep seared, paradoxical aspect of “anti racism / sexism” – it only cares about certain races and gender.
Remember, all the furore about “bigotry” in English football was about blacks in men’s football (even though vastly overrepresented in a sport where genuine racism is rare now) or women’s football, where the best teams struggle against under-15 boys.
But not a squeak about Indians / Lankans, twice as many as blacks, one tenth the crime rate, and hardly a single premiership footballer.
I am not saying they should be granted victim status too – thank God they are not – but rather a searing indictment of the hypocrisy and sliminess of the “rights” brigade.
Can someone please explain why England and Wales are separate teams and there is not just one team from the UK? Only the UK is recognised as a country in its own right, so why does the UK get 4 shots at getting to the World Cup whereas every other country only gets one? The only other thing to say is the teams could have boycotted the competition and stayed at home. Why didn’t they?
Richard Craven
1 year ago
Who gives a toss about the stupid “knee-taking” morons?
Quite a well-researched piece, with historical perpective and colourful detail of which i suspect many interested football fans would’ve been unaware. I wasn’t yet into my teens when England triumphed in 1966, and yet it seemed like the elevation of a national resurgence the author describes, with Her Majesty handing over the Jules Rimet trophy to the young, seemingly golden-haired Bobby Moore on a glorious sunny afternoon in late July. I watched on a tv with a 9-inch screen.
All of which leads to the trick the author missed. In referring to the Argentines being awarded the 1978 tournament in 1966, he omits to mention the way in which that country’s team had utterly disgraced itself in their quarter-final defeat to England at Wembley. They spent the game hacking at our players, trying to physically intimidate the referee and when their captain Rattin was finally sent off, he refused to leave the field for several minutes. So much for their sporting attitude gaining them the hosting rights. The author does make up for that omission though, with his piquant detail about the tortured dissidents celebrating their teams’ victory 12 years later.
Don’t forget that you only beat Portugal (a dictatorship at the time) because you cheated! The players were moved to another location without warning and couldn’t sleep because of all the noise. On the other hand, Portugal beat Brazil after one of our players took Pelé out of the game (at the time you couldn’t do substitutions). Fair play at its best.
Jorge, thanks for your honesty regarding Pele (I am Brazilian and remember the event very well). The 1966 World Cup was engraved on people’s mind as a horrendous show of “fairplay” by the supposedly fair English, with unbelievably partial referees and all stops removed in order to ensure the success of the “Home Team”. What makes it so embarrassing is that the English teams never again reached much beyond the groups phase (with the notable exception of 2018) and England is nowhere near deserving the respect awarded the other European football powerhouses like Germany, Italy (unexplainably out this time…) and more recently Spain and France. If one remembers the shameless home-cooking of 1966, it makes sense that it is so. Acknowledging what went on in 1966 would go a long way in fixing the “chronical loser” popular image of England in international football.
I went to see Argentina vs Scotland in 1978 in Glasgow.
The Argentine team was full value for winning it all in 1978. Even if individuals should have been red carded off.
Why wernt they? Because of narrative. FIFA is a big government and they love their narrative. Which is why I hate narrative. And everyone who believes in justice should hate narrative also.
I dont want to devolve into a, did the ref see the hand of god discussion.
What Im saying is that control structures see what they expect to see.
And: “The only true voyage of discovery, the only fountain of Eternal Youth, would be not to visit strange lands but to possess other eyes, to behold the universe through the eyes of another, of a hundred others, to behold the hundred universes that each of them behold”
So dont “go to Qatar”. Go see how Qataris see just a little bit. And expect that the beautiful game touches them also.
(I might be mixing up my world cups, but the idea still stands and Glasgow in 1978 I’m not mixing up)
Anyone who watched the Argentines play the Dutch in that final would have known it was a fix from quite early on.
Last edited 1 year ago by Bill Bailey
Nicky Samengo-Turner
1 year ago
The rank and cowardly hypocrisy of the sports media is breathtaking! Absolutely no mention anywhere of Quatari’s massive investment in racing, and any criticism thereof, as the meeja have their snouts in the trough of a variety of ” freemans”, and again in F1 where Arab investment in McLaren is conveniently ignored when the likes of Hamilton whine on about rights in Arab countries…..
In 1966, England and Germany made it to the final. The referee for the semi-final match West Germany won was English, and for the one England won was from West Germany. Brazil’s best player, Pelé, was kicked so much in the first game against Bulgaria that he could play no part in the second. The Italian newspaper Il Messaggero wrote an article headlined “Scandal in London – too much favouritism for the England team”.
It was a hard time for the British. In six years, the UK had lost most of its African colonies. UK relative labour productivity compared to France and West Germany was dwindling away. The sterling devalued 14% in 1967. So, the World Cup did little to boost the reputation or the economy of the UK.
Since the 1978 World Cup outrageously hosted and won by an authoritarian Argentina, the list of FIFA corruption allegations is long. In 2015, Seven FIFA officials are arrested in dawn raids at a hotel in Zurich. However, the raids did not change any decision. The following World Cups are hosted by two countries with remarkable political and human rights deficits: Russia and Qatar.
Considering how uncivilised football players usually are, I’d rather watch tennis.
Likewise but I didn’t know how to see the US Open on Virgin and was reluctant to pay more for it. I wasn’t worried about it as I disagreed with the vaccine rule which Jokavitch wisely declined.
The current energy crisis in Europe is not an issue that arose overnight due to Russia’s futile invasion of Ukraine, but it did accelerate the recognition of populist energy policy errors that were introduced years ago and have quietly accumulated. We all want cleaner energy, but the mad dash for ‘Net Zero’ is folly, whatever your view on the scope of anthropogenic climate change, and every energy system also needs to balance affordability and security with environmental considerations. Net Zero is entirely focused on clean … Russia’s invasion rapidly reminded Europeans citizens that their politicians had ignored energy affordability and security aspects in their blinkered desire to be popular.
Last edited 1 year ago by Neil Adshead
Bret Larson
1 year ago
Ah yes, a Guardian and sports illustrated writer, moaning about how governments work and taking their ball and going home.
Heres a news flash, all actions are political actions, to paraphrase somebody.
As far as Im concerned, at least they havent been caught taking videos of “stressed government services” while they ride the train(yet).
And yes, governments interaction is ugly. Especially when you compare it to teams of people working together to achieve a hard goal that is the game of soccer.
When I view such a thing, it just makes me think government should be smaller.
Rufus Firefly
1 year ago
I can only assume that ISIS is preparing to field a football team next season.
Well, Qatar funds Hamas, another delightful terror group. Not only dedicated to obliterating Israel but all Jews, everywhere. Hamas treats women there absolutely abominably, with mass weddings of 9 year old girls to their much older “soldiers”, has killed scores of people for playing music at weddings, cuts of the hands of 8 year old very poor children for stealing bread, summarily executes innocent people arbitrarily accused of spying, by dragging them in the streets at the back of trucks. For this they get 25 million dollars every month from Qatar to keep Hamas in power.Not only that, but reports from Qatar in the last few days has revealed how shockingly they’re behaving to the visitors there now. Boycott this event!!!
Last edited 1 year ago by Glenda Pogorelsky
Greg Morrison
1 year ago
It’s a silly game anyway. If nations or men want to prove their ‘manliness’ via sporting competition then they should play rugby or box: these are both also silly, but they involve physical contact and strength, and participants must learn and prove the lesson of courage.
Let the Fascists, Communists and Islamist beheaders of homosexuals play football. Those of us in the Home Nations who love rugby think it perfectly apt that these disparate but equally pathetic ideologies compete to play a game which requires no physical courage and not even the remotest hint of combat.
They might as well play netball.
Excellent comment, with one small exception, pitty to deride net ball, surly soft ball or hopscotch would be more apt games to compare to football. By the by, I understand that football is an excellent game when played by teams of females, again I believe that the England team even tend to win
I always find it so funny that ‘ comedians’ and leftie politicians make jokes about ‘posh’ Etonians, and how they wouldn’t know about soccer… Cameron was one target…. being to stupid to know that Eton was a soccer school, that only played rugby relatively recently!
Pretty sure that was Vichy France not the Nazis: Vichy were the collaborators, not the French Rugby Union; it was Petain’s decision. But at any rate I feel that the fact of the quasi-fascist collaborators intentionally closing down one of the rugby codes actually supports my point.
Greg, I don’t think your comment could be more nonsensical… You are free not to like football, but need to wake up to the reality that it is the most popular and appreciated sport in the world that you live in. Along with North-Americans that refuse to call the game by its name (“soccer” exists only in their parlance, and refusing to call football by its name does nothing to make American football any more popular outside of North America anyways…), you could perhaps allow yourself to try your own “manhood” in a football field against some of the “fascists, communists, Islamist beheaders of homosexuals” or whatever else you want to portray as unworthy of your sportive respect. I guarantee you it is going to change your perception is a flash! And now if you excuse me, I have some football to watch…
Last edited 1 year ago by Andre Lower
Jim Cuthill
1 year ago
Yawn.
Soccer (football to the rest of the world), is something that North Americans just haven’t embraced the way the rest of the world has. We have a hard time understanding the fuss. The only story here is the FIFA corruption.
It’s Hockey season, nobody cares about soccer.
You yanks only enjoy sports the rest of the world doesn’t play so you can win in them, with baseballs (which is just big girls rounders) “World Series” being a prime example.
Yeah I know, my mates a septic and he told me that. Still sounds pretentious though
Bill Bailey
1 year ago
In the interests of accuracy. Russia didn’t start the war you mention. It started in 2014 when the US gave a green light to yet another colour revolution. It hasn’t stopped since, though as no one in the west cared about the secessionist areas we only heard about it when a Dutch airliner was shot down. Russia simply joined in earlier this year.
Andrea Rudenko
1 year ago
Actually, the World Cup was beautiful in 1990; in fact, it was a work of art. Never mind the football scores, the whole world was mesmerized watching bodies and footballs floating through the air in slow motion to the strains of Italian opera. Everywhere one went, whether the supermarket or the petrol station, the sounds of Pavarotti singing Nessun Dorma filled the air, and everyone sang along. People who never liked opera were singing opera, and people who never cared for football were glued to the tube. The grand finale of the 1990 World Cup was a magnificent concert by a trio of tenors who had been the opera world’s biggest rivals, and now they sang together. It was such a success that they continued to sing together for a number of years. Yes, I would say the 1990 World Cup was beautiful.
I do understand the unease about holding it in Qatar.
If we’re going full-on nostalgia, don’t forget Gazza’s tears, penalty shootouts, and Bobby Robson, arguably the best of the many England managers to never to win the World Cup.
Bob Smalser
1 year ago
Soccer. Faking injuries as a culture is dishonest, unmanly, and not behavior to be tolerated, let alone encouraged. Rub dirt on it and walk it off, kid.
Bob Smalser
1 year ago
Soccer. Faking injuries as a culture is dishonest, unmanly, and not behavior to be tolerated, let alone encouraged. Rub dirt on it and walk it off, kid.
Greg Moreison
1 year ago
* * apologies, deleted this comment, duplicate comment as comment above was delayed in appearing * *
Last edited 1 year ago by Greg Moreison
Adrian Doble
1 year ago
Oh dear. There’s pessimism and there’s depression. What about thise who don’t give a monkey’s about politics and just love football? Oh man.
“This is the first World Cup since 1934 to be hosted by a nation that has not previously played in it …” This sentence understates the polemic surrounding Qatar being host. In 1934 there had only been one previous World Cup. There were probably few countries interested in holding it. Unlike Qatar and 2022.
Football has on occasions been used by fascism. Another interesting question is why socialism produces so few great teams, when socialist propaganda suggests that socialism is the way for a collective, i.e. a team, to realise its greatest potential. Hungary in 1954, Poland in 1974 and Czechoslovakia in 1976 are the most notable exceptions. In all three cases, though, successful football teams were the forerunner of political rebellion against socialist tyranny.
Christopher Barclay
1 year ago
“This is the first World Cup since 1934 to be hosted by a nation that has not previously played in it …” This sentence understates the polemic surrounding Qatar being host. In 1934 there had only been one previous World Cup. There were probably few countries interested in holding it. Unlike Qatar and 2022.
Football has on occasions been used by fascism. Another interesting question is why socialism produces so few great teams, when socialist propaganda suggests that socialism is the way for a collective, i.e. a team, to realise its greatest potential. Hungary in 1954, Poland in 1974 and Czechoslovakia in 1976 are the most notable exceptions. In all three cases, though, successful football teams were the forerunner of political rebellion against socialist tyranny.
James Kirk
1 year ago
I’ve been to Doha many times. The Arabs contract out to sub continent gangmasters who exploit their own people. The Arabs are kind otherwise. As for LGB all sorts goes on in the ME, they’re just discreet about it. The shame will come with the western football louts who may discover what real policing is all about.. We’ll be the ones who look bad. A stupid decision in a foolish location. It’ll end in tears.
Last edited 1 year ago by James Kirk
James Kirk
1 year ago
I’ve been to Doha many times. The Arabs contract out to sub continent gangmasters who exploit their own people. The Arabs are kind otherwise. As for LGB all sorts goes on in the ME, they’re just discreet about it. The shame will come with the western football louts who may discover what real policing is all about.. We’ll be the ones who look bad. A stupid decision in a foolish location. It’ll end in tears.
Last edited 1 year ago by James Kirk
Kevin Furman
1 year ago
I will watch a few games in this upcoming World Cup. I have to watch Canada, because that is the country I live in. Only other time they qualified was waaaaaaay back in ’86 and I was just in grade school. I had no idea what a World Cup was. I have been a fan of my national team for about 25 years even if has caused a lot of disappointments.
I still feel an unease watching the games because I knew when FIFA announced back in 2010 when Qatar would host the World Cup, I knew it was a sham. Russia is vile enough for politics when they hosted in 2018. They did have a more established domestic league, most stadiums were in place or slight upgrades to be made, and they could organize the event more.
Only a week away this World Cup is a bigger fire dumpster than I anticipated. Qatar is not prepared for this World Cup. It should have been relocated once the reports back in 2011 of migrant workers in high numbers were dying due to the development of these stadiums. FIFA let it slide and I thought maybe they could relocate to a new location by 2016. There would be countries who could set up a World Cup in that time. FIFA probably had to source back the money to Qatari officials, which would nearly kill the Zurich based organization.
FIFA tries to do the honorable thing to say racism must end. Which is appreciative enough but fails to include those migrant workers. They may not look like me, but they were human beings. They had families, dreams, and were hoping to make a decent wage to support their life going forward. FIFA has no one to push blame aside but themselves. Blatter was corrupt and new president Infantino is maybe more crooked. Case in example about pushing a World Cup every second year. Don’t get me started on that rubbish.
Kevin, I also live in Canada and the Canuck squad naturally has my sympathy. Yet having to face Luca Modric’s Croatia and Lukaku’s Belgium right at the start is a ridiculously tall order for a team with lots of enthusiasm but not much international experience. I just hope they don’t get discouraged by whatever the net results in their Qatar campaign are, since Canadian kids are physically strong, play fair and have obvious technical skill showcased in other sports. With some perseverance, we should eventually start to see some good football coming out from North America.
Kevin, I also live in Canada and the Canuck squad naturally has my sympathy. Yet having to face Luca Modric’s Croatia and Lukaku’s Belgium right at the start is a ridiculously tall order for a team with lots of enthusiasm but not much international experience. I just hope they don’t get discouraged by whatever the net results in their Qatar campaign are, since Canadian kids are physically strong, play fair and have obvious technical skill showcased in other sports. With some perseverance, we should eventually start to see some good football coming out from North America.
Kevin Furman
1 year ago
I will watch a few games in this upcoming World Cup. I have to watch Canada, because that is the country I live in. Only other time they qualified was waaaaaaay back in ’86 and I was just in grade school. I had no idea what a World Cup was. I have been a fan of my national team for about 25 years even if has caused a lot of disappointments.
I still feel an unease watching the games because I knew when FIFA announced back in 2010 when Qatar would host the World Cup, I knew it was a sham. Russia is vile enough for politics when they hosted in 2018. They did have a more established domestic league, most stadiums were in place or slight upgrades to be made, and they could organize the event more.
Only a week away this World Cup is a bigger fire dumpster than I anticipated. Qatar is not prepared for this World Cup. It should have been relocated once the reports back in 2011 of migrant workers in high numbers were dying due to the development of these stadiums. FIFA let it slide and I thought maybe they could relocate to a new location by 2016. There would be countries who could set up a World Cup in that time. FIFA probably had to source back the money to Qatari officials, which would nearly kill the Zurich based organization.
FIFA tries to do the honorable thing to say racism must end. Which is appreciative enough but fails to include those migrant workers. They may not look like me, but they were human beings. They had families, dreams, and were hoping to make a decent wage to support their life going forward. FIFA has no one to push blame aside but themselves. Blatter was corrupt and new president Infantino is maybe more crooked. Case in example about pushing a World Cup every second year. Don’t get me started on that rubbish.
Perhaps the Qataris are not much worse than out own government. I do not think they would refuse to report foreign men who rape native Qataris. Alas, Rotherham. There is something to be said for being illiberal.
Adam McDermont
1 year ago
Perhaps the Qataris are not much worse than out own government. I do not think they would refuse to report foreign men who rape native Qataris. Alas, Rotherham. There is something to be said for being illiberal.
Won’t be watching (and like many have watched every world cup from ’74 onwards) – because, can’t stand the awful Quatary civilization (if even Quatar can be called civilized), don’t want to watch them knee bending f’bllers, can’t bear to listen to Gary Neville.
But most of all, because, can’t stand that Gary Linekar.
Russia. Qatar. I’m looking forward to the next in 2026 in North Korea.
Followed of course by Afghanistan in 2030.
I hope that is not true. If it is it is confirmation of my decision not to watch proffesional football after watching it all my life.
I don´t think North Korea can afford the bribes. It would bite into their rocket budget.
I would say snap to your comments. The world cup was good to watch in the past but has now become too political. I cannot stand Neville causing the team to take the knee the purpose of which I thoroughly disagree with, but these sort of people like to force it on others. I have gone over to Rugby with the six nations and the World Cup coming. Far less political.
Good comment, but would you mind quarantining “take the knee” inside quote marks, where this ridiculous phrase belongs.
You should try darts
I’ll be watching, and, so will you. That’s because it is the beautiful game.
FIFA has always been exhibit one on what a large global government would look like. When you juxtapose that with team sport at the highest level you have the perfect reflection of what humans working together should look like and what governments working together always looks like.
Anyone who has watched a Gareth Southgate England Team would know that it takes more than a kick-off to produce a ‘beautiful game’. I will only watch when I need sleep and don’t want a sleeping pill.
And yet, England looked the best they ever have.
Absolutely – and item one on the agenda for ‘global’ global sport will be to set up a cloning facility for Sepp Blatters. I don’t see why the Swiss should be the only ones to get one, the whole world deserves their own copy.
The beautiful slogan.
Prashant won’t be watching, and neither will I.
Qatar is genuinely the armpit of the world. Utterly vile nation.
But the main reason why many English would switch off, I suspect, is because our craven manager would simply refuse to use the fantastic attacking talent England have.
Watching a world cup in a horrible country that’s too warm for a summer world cup, tough.
Watching a team with Foden, Kane, Madison, Sterling, Grealish play like cowards, as they inevitably will, is purely unbearable.
Could not agree more truly shameful
“Bought and sold for Arab gold, such a parcel of rogues in a nation.”
(Apologies to RB.)
With hundreds of slaves worked to death to build the Qatar stadium. Not much is said about that. Taking the knee to that would be an honorable gesture.
An interesting aspect is that not much is made of the nationality / race of those who died (mostly Indian / South Asian), which is a deep seared, paradoxical aspect of “anti racism / sexism” – it only cares about certain races and gender.
Remember, all the furore about “bigotry” in English football was about blacks in men’s football (even though vastly overrepresented in a sport where genuine racism is rare now) or women’s football, where the best teams struggle against under-15 boys.
But not a squeak about Indians / Lankans, twice as many as blacks, one tenth the crime rate, and hardly a single premiership footballer.
I am not saying they should be granted victim status too – thank God they are not – but rather a searing indictment of the hypocrisy and sliminess of the “rights” brigade.
Can someone please explain why England and Wales are separate teams and there is not just one team from the UK? Only the UK is recognised as a country in its own right, so why does the UK get 4 shots at getting to the World Cup whereas every other country only gets one? The only other thing to say is the teams could have boycotted the competition and stayed at home. Why didn’t they?
Who gives a toss about the stupid “knee-taking” morons?
Where in the article does it mention that?
Quite a well-researched piece, with historical perpective and colourful detail of which i suspect many interested football fans would’ve been unaware. I wasn’t yet into my teens when England triumphed in 1966, and yet it seemed like the elevation of a national resurgence the author describes, with Her Majesty handing over the Jules Rimet trophy to the young, seemingly golden-haired Bobby Moore on a glorious sunny afternoon in late July. I watched on a tv with a 9-inch screen.
All of which leads to the trick the author missed. In referring to the Argentines being awarded the 1978 tournament in 1966, he omits to mention the way in which that country’s team had utterly disgraced itself in their quarter-final defeat to England at Wembley. They spent the game hacking at our players, trying to physically intimidate the referee and when their captain Rattin was finally sent off, he refused to leave the field for several minutes. So much for their sporting attitude gaining them the hosting rights. The author does make up for that omission though, with his piquant detail about the tortured dissidents celebrating their teams’ victory 12 years later.
We had our revenge for that Argentinian insolence in 1982.
True, but Maradona wrested it their way again four years later, and again with the help of the referee. On that occasion our subs didn’t help…
Don’t forget that you only beat Portugal (a dictatorship at the time) because you cheated! The players were moved to another location without warning and couldn’t sleep because of all the noise. On the other hand, Portugal beat Brazil after one of our players took Pelé out of the game (at the time you couldn’t do substitutions). Fair play at its best.
Ah, I thought it was Hungary, but now I remember it was a brilliant volley that was from the Hungary game. Not Pele being hacked
Jorge, thanks for your honesty regarding Pele (I am Brazilian and remember the event very well). The 1966 World Cup was engraved on people’s mind as a horrendous show of “fairplay” by the supposedly fair English, with unbelievably partial referees and all stops removed in order to ensure the success of the “Home Team”. What makes it so embarrassing is that the English teams never again reached much beyond the groups phase (with the notable exception of 2018) and England is nowhere near deserving the respect awarded the other European football powerhouses like Germany, Italy (unexplainably out this time…) and more recently Spain and France. If one remembers the shameless home-cooking of 1966, it makes sense that it is so. Acknowledging what went on in 1966 would go a long way in fixing the “chronical loser” popular image of England in international football.
I went to see Argentina vs Scotland in 1978 in Glasgow.
The Argentine team was full value for winning it all in 1978. Even if individuals should have been red carded off.
Why wernt they? Because of narrative. FIFA is a big government and they love their narrative. Which is why I hate narrative. And everyone who believes in justice should hate narrative also.
I dont want to devolve into a, did the ref see the hand of god discussion.
What Im saying is that control structures see what they expect to see.
And:
“The only true voyage of discovery, the only fountain of Eternal Youth, would be not to visit strange lands but to possess other eyes, to behold the universe through the eyes of another, of a hundred others, to behold the hundred universes that each of them behold”
So dont “go to Qatar”. Go see how Qataris see just a little bit. And expect that the beautiful game touches them also.
(I might be mixing up my world cups, but the idea still stands and Glasgow in 1978 I’m not mixing up)
What???
I share your perplexity. No idea what he’s on about.
Anyone who watched the Argentines play the Dutch in that final would have known it was a fix from quite early on.
The rank and cowardly hypocrisy of the sports media is breathtaking! Absolutely no mention anywhere of Quatari’s massive investment in racing, and any criticism thereof, as the meeja have their snouts in the trough of a variety of ” freemans”, and again in F1 where Arab investment in McLaren is conveniently ignored when the likes of Hamilton whine on about rights in Arab countries…..
The author mentions it in the article.
In 1966, England and Germany made it to the final. The referee for the semi-final match West Germany won was English, and for the one England won was from West Germany. Brazil’s best player, Pelé, was kicked so much in the first game against Bulgaria that he could play no part in the second. The Italian newspaper Il Messaggero wrote an article headlined “Scandal in London – too much favouritism for the England team”.
It was a hard time for the British. In six years, the UK had lost most of its African colonies. UK relative labour productivity compared to France and West Germany was dwindling away. The sterling devalued 14% in 1967. So, the World Cup did little to boost the reputation or the economy of the UK.
Since the 1978 World Cup outrageously hosted and won by an authoritarian Argentina, the list of FIFA corruption allegations is long. In 2015, Seven FIFA officials are arrested in dawn raids at a hotel in Zurich. However, the raids did not change any decision. The following World Cups are hosted by two countries with remarkable political and human rights deficits: Russia and Qatar.
Considering how uncivilised football players usually are, I’d rather watch tennis.
Likewise but I didn’t know how to see the US Open on Virgin and was reluctant to pay more for it. I wasn’t worried about it as I disagreed with the vaccine rule which Jokavitch wisely declined.
It was us. Not the Hungarians. Nice hit job.
https://veja.abril.com.br/videos/arquivo/copa-de-66-pele-e-cacado-por-portugueses/
The link is a prestigious Brazilian Magazine (VEJA).
The current energy crisis in Europe is not an issue that arose overnight due to Russia’s futile invasion of Ukraine, but it did accelerate the recognition of populist energy policy errors that were introduced years ago and have quietly accumulated. We all want cleaner energy, but the mad dash for ‘Net Zero’ is folly, whatever your view on the scope of anthropogenic climate change, and every energy system also needs to balance affordability and security with environmental considerations. Net Zero is entirely focused on clean … Russia’s invasion rapidly reminded Europeans citizens that their politicians had ignored energy affordability and security aspects in their blinkered desire to be popular.
Ah yes, a Guardian and sports illustrated writer, moaning about how governments work and taking their ball and going home.
Heres a news flash, all actions are political actions, to paraphrase somebody.
As far as Im concerned, at least they havent been caught taking videos of “stressed government services” while they ride the train(yet).
And yes, governments interaction is ugly. Especially when you compare it to teams of people working together to achieve a hard goal that is the game of soccer.
When I view such a thing, it just makes me think government should be smaller.
I can only assume that ISIS is preparing to field a football team next season.
Well, Qatar funds Hamas, another delightful terror group. Not only dedicated to obliterating Israel but all Jews, everywhere. Hamas treats women there absolutely abominably, with mass weddings of 9 year old girls to their much older “soldiers”, has killed scores of people for playing music at weddings, cuts of the hands of 8 year old very poor children for stealing bread, summarily executes innocent people arbitrarily accused of spying, by dragging them in the streets at the back of trucks. For this they get 25 million dollars every month from Qatar to keep Hamas in power.Not only that, but reports from Qatar in the last few days has revealed how shockingly they’re behaving to the visitors there now. Boycott this event!!!
It’s a silly game anyway. If nations or men want to prove their ‘manliness’ via sporting competition then they should play rugby or box: these are both also silly, but they involve physical contact and strength, and participants must learn and prove the lesson of courage.
Let the Fascists, Communists and Islamist beheaders of homosexuals play football. Those of us in the Home Nations who love rugby think it perfectly apt that these disparate but equally pathetic ideologies compete to play a game which requires no physical courage and not even the remotest hint of combat.
They might as well play netball.
Excellent comment, with one small exception, pitty to deride net ball, surly soft ball or hopscotch would be more apt games to compare to football. By the by, I understand that football is an excellent game when played by teams of females, again I believe that the England team even tend to win
Wow, let us all gaze in wonder at the sheer manliness of these comments.
It used to said, as you may recall, that Football was Gentlemen’s game played by Yobs, whilst Rugby was a Yob’s game played by Gentlemen.
Etonians would disagree!!
I always find it so funny that ‘ comedians’ and leftie politicians make jokes about ‘posh’ Etonians, and how they wouldn’t know about soccer… Cameron was one target…. being to stupid to know that Eton was a soccer school, that only played rugby relatively recently!
Charterhouse as well!
They won the FA cup,TWICE, in 1879 & 1882.
‘Floreat Etona!
American football…. Rugby / Chess.
French Rugy Union’s collaboration with the Nazis to outlaw and close down French Rugby League notwithstanding
Pretty sure that was Vichy France not the Nazis: Vichy were the collaborators, not the French Rugby Union; it was Petain’s decision. But at any rate I feel that the fact of the quasi-fascist collaborators intentionally closing down one of the rugby codes actually supports my point.
Not sure how it supports your point, and whichever fascists closed down Rugby League, they felt Rugby Union was alright and left it alone.
Lots of posh kids touching each other up in the scrum, poking thumbs up bums and the like? No thanks
Greg, I don’t think your comment could be more nonsensical… You are free not to like football, but need to wake up to the reality that it is the most popular and appreciated sport in the world that you live in. Along with North-Americans that refuse to call the game by its name (“soccer” exists only in their parlance, and refusing to call football by its name does nothing to make American football any more popular outside of North America anyways…), you could perhaps allow yourself to try your own “manhood” in a football field against some of the “fascists, communists, Islamist beheaders of homosexuals” or whatever else you want to portray as unworthy of your sportive respect. I guarantee you it is going to change your perception is a flash! And now if you excuse me, I have some football to watch…
Yawn.
Soccer (football to the rest of the world), is something that North Americans just haven’t embraced the way the rest of the world has. We have a hard time understanding the fuss. The only story here is the FIFA corruption.
It’s Hockey season, nobody cares about soccer.
Au contraire Jim, nobody cares about hockey
You yanks only enjoy sports the rest of the world doesn’t play so you can win in them, with baseballs (which is just big girls rounders) “World Series” being a prime example.
Named after the newspaper the “New York World” that sponsored the first competition.
Yeah I know, my mates a septic and he told me that. Still sounds pretentious though
In the interests of accuracy. Russia didn’t start the war you mention. It started in 2014 when the US gave a green light to yet another colour revolution. It hasn’t stopped since, though as no one in the west cared about the secessionist areas we only heard about it when a Dutch airliner was shot down. Russia simply joined in earlier this year.
Actually, the World Cup was beautiful in 1990; in fact, it was a work of art. Never mind the football scores, the whole world was mesmerized watching bodies and footballs floating through the air in slow motion to the strains of Italian opera. Everywhere one went, whether the supermarket or the petrol station, the sounds of Pavarotti singing Nessun Dorma filled the air, and everyone sang along. People who never liked opera were singing opera, and people who never cared for football were glued to the tube. The grand finale of the 1990 World Cup was a magnificent concert by a trio of tenors who had been the opera world’s biggest rivals, and now they sang together. It was such a success that they continued to sing together for a number of years. Yes, I would say the 1990 World Cup was beautiful.
I do understand the unease about holding it in Qatar.
If we’re going full-on nostalgia, don’t forget Gazza’s tears, penalty shootouts, and Bobby Robson, arguably the best of the many England managers to never to win the World Cup.
Soccer. Faking injuries as a culture is dishonest, unmanly, and not behavior to be tolerated, let alone encouraged. Rub dirt on it and walk it off, kid.
Soccer. Faking injuries as a culture is dishonest, unmanly, and not behavior to be tolerated, let alone encouraged. Rub dirt on it and walk it off, kid.
* * apologies, deleted this comment, duplicate comment as comment above was delayed in appearing * *
Oh dear. There’s pessimism and there’s depression. What about thise who don’t give a monkey’s about politics and just love football? Oh man.
My feelings exactly!
“This is the first World Cup since 1934 to be hosted by a nation that has not previously played in it …” This sentence understates the polemic surrounding Qatar being host. In 1934 there had only been one previous World Cup. There were probably few countries interested in holding it. Unlike Qatar and 2022.
Football has on occasions been used by fascism. Another interesting question is why socialism produces so few great teams, when socialist propaganda suggests that socialism is the way for a collective, i.e. a team, to realise its greatest potential. Hungary in 1954, Poland in 1974 and Czechoslovakia in 1976 are the most notable exceptions. In all three cases, though, successful football teams were the forerunner of political rebellion against socialist tyranny.
“This is the first World Cup since 1934 to be hosted by a nation that has not previously played in it …” This sentence understates the polemic surrounding Qatar being host. In 1934 there had only been one previous World Cup. There were probably few countries interested in holding it. Unlike Qatar and 2022.
Football has on occasions been used by fascism. Another interesting question is why socialism produces so few great teams, when socialist propaganda suggests that socialism is the way for a collective, i.e. a team, to realise its greatest potential. Hungary in 1954, Poland in 1974 and Czechoslovakia in 1976 are the most notable exceptions. In all three cases, though, successful football teams were the forerunner of political rebellion against socialist tyranny.
I’ve been to Doha many times. The Arabs contract out to sub continent gangmasters who exploit their own people. The Arabs are kind otherwise. As for LGB all sorts goes on in the ME, they’re just discreet about it. The shame will come with the western football louts who may discover what real policing is all about.. We’ll be the ones who look bad. A stupid decision in a foolish location. It’ll end in tears.
I’ve been to Doha many times. The Arabs contract out to sub continent gangmasters who exploit their own people. The Arabs are kind otherwise. As for LGB all sorts goes on in the ME, they’re just discreet about it. The shame will come with the western football louts who may discover what real policing is all about.. We’ll be the ones who look bad. A stupid decision in a foolish location. It’ll end in tears.
I will watch a few games in this upcoming World Cup. I have to watch Canada, because that is the country I live in. Only other time they qualified was waaaaaaay back in ’86 and I was just in grade school. I had no idea what a World Cup was. I have been a fan of my national team for about 25 years even if has caused a lot of disappointments.
I still feel an unease watching the games because I knew when FIFA announced back in 2010 when Qatar would host the World Cup, I knew it was a sham. Russia is vile enough for politics when they hosted in 2018. They did have a more established domestic league, most stadiums were in place or slight upgrades to be made, and they could organize the event more.
Only a week away this World Cup is a bigger fire dumpster than I anticipated. Qatar is not prepared for this World Cup. It should have been relocated once the reports back in 2011 of migrant workers in high numbers were dying due to the development of these stadiums. FIFA let it slide and I thought maybe they could relocate to a new location by 2016. There would be countries who could set up a World Cup in that time. FIFA probably had to source back the money to Qatari officials, which would nearly kill the Zurich based organization.
FIFA tries to do the honorable thing to say racism must end. Which is appreciative enough but fails to include those migrant workers. They may not look like me, but they were human beings. They had families, dreams, and were hoping to make a decent wage to support their life going forward. FIFA has no one to push blame aside but themselves. Blatter was corrupt and new president Infantino is maybe more crooked. Case in example about pushing a World Cup every second year. Don’t get me started on that rubbish.
Kevin, I also live in Canada and the Canuck squad naturally has my sympathy. Yet having to face Luca Modric’s Croatia and Lukaku’s Belgium right at the start is a ridiculously tall order for a team with lots of enthusiasm but not much international experience. I just hope they don’t get discouraged by whatever the net results in their Qatar campaign are, since Canadian kids are physically strong, play fair and have obvious technical skill showcased in other sports. With some perseverance, we should eventually start to see some good football coming out from North America.
Kevin, I also live in Canada and the Canuck squad naturally has my sympathy. Yet having to face Luca Modric’s Croatia and Lukaku’s Belgium right at the start is a ridiculously tall order for a team with lots of enthusiasm but not much international experience. I just hope they don’t get discouraged by whatever the net results in their Qatar campaign are, since Canadian kids are physically strong, play fair and have obvious technical skill showcased in other sports. With some perseverance, we should eventually start to see some good football coming out from North America.
I will watch a few games in this upcoming World Cup. I have to watch Canada, because that is the country I live in. Only other time they qualified was waaaaaaay back in ’86 and I was just in grade school. I had no idea what a World Cup was. I have been a fan of my national team for about 25 years even if has caused a lot of disappointments.
I still feel an unease watching the games because I knew when FIFA announced back in 2010 when Qatar would host the World Cup, I knew it was a sham. Russia is vile enough for politics when they hosted in 2018. They did have a more established domestic league, most stadiums were in place or slight upgrades to be made, and they could organize the event more.
Only a week away this World Cup is a bigger fire dumpster than I anticipated. Qatar is not prepared for this World Cup. It should have been relocated once the reports back in 2011 of migrant workers in high numbers were dying due to the development of these stadiums. FIFA let it slide and I thought maybe they could relocate to a new location by 2016. There would be countries who could set up a World Cup in that time. FIFA probably had to source back the money to Qatari officials, which would nearly kill the Zurich based organization.
FIFA tries to do the honorable thing to say racism must end. Which is appreciative enough but fails to include those migrant workers. They may not look like me, but they were human beings. They had families, dreams, and were hoping to make a decent wage to support their life going forward. FIFA has no one to push blame aside but themselves. Blatter was corrupt and new president Infantino is maybe more crooked. Case in example about pushing a World Cup every second year. Don’t get me started on that rubbish.
Humiliating England’s finest with these virtue signalling political gestures is wokeism gone mad: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/jun/11/nazi-germany-played-england-tottenham-white-hart-lane
Humiliating England’s finest with these virtue signalling political gestures is wokeism gone mad: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/jun/11/nazi-germany-played-england-tottenham-white-hart-lane
Perhaps the Qataris are not much worse than out own government. I do not think they would refuse to report foreign men who rape native Qataris. Alas, Rotherham. There is something to be said for being illiberal.
Perhaps the Qataris are not much worse than out own government. I do not think they would refuse to report foreign men who rape native Qataris. Alas, Rotherham. There is something to be said for being illiberal.