Off Topic Thread to yell BOO HISS at the blood cup organisers and hosts.

Why Qatar should make people queasy:

1. 6500 workers dead building since this cup was bought corruptly to build up this desert facilities
https://www.theguardian.com/global-...rking-conditions-world-cup-guardian-reporting

2. fans in danger: zero reporting of actual issues or pubic safety. fans in real danger of crushing or being assaulted by police
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/world-cup-riot-neville-fifa-28542518

3. LGBT rights or lack thereof
Officially its a mental illness according to their world cup ambassador
https://news.sky.com/story/being-gay-is-damage-in-the-mind-qatar-world-cup-ambassador-says-12741596

however https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Qatar. the punishment for "being ill" is 3 years in jail, fines or even death should they choose.

4. Corruption: Never cross the yanks.

2022 was promised to america to bid and once they warded to qatar the yanks went mad and the whole house of cards started to topple.

https://www.vox.com/world/23450515/world-cup-fifa-qatar-2022-controversy-scandals-explained

several books written on this but https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/plot-to-buy-the-world-cup-lvxdg2v7l7w shows how much money changed hands to get this.

5. sports washing denial and whataboutery.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63687412 summed up by the current fifa president making an astoundingly crass speech

Armbands being rebranded to force teams not to wear rainbows

Denmark FA threatened over plan with shirts.

Journalists being bribed and then threatened

 

Boo. Hiss.

 

It all goes to show, FIFA is still as corrupt as it always was. They just follow the money.

Sepp Bladder is gone, but it still all smells of piss. FIFA needs tearing down and rebuilding, or a rival oversight body creating

 

They're as corrupt, greedy and incompetent as they've ever been.
FIFA, UEFA and the FA all seem to compete to see who can get the most things wrong.

 

Yet everyone was moaning when someone dared try and take on uefa and make some competition… and instead backed uefa and let them push through another awful CL format.

 

I think it was the nature of the breakaway rather the existence of a breakaway.

 

The breakaway idea is looking better by the day. If clubs could come together and design alternative leagues/associations that include all clubs, not just the elites, it could have a chance of working. No doubt it would be a very difficult task but as with the current state of affairs with the government, people are seriously fed up with the status quo.

 

That wasn't support for UEFA though (at least it wasn't in my case), it was just that the alternative proposals were horrible.
I agree that the new CL format is a mess.

 

I'm gong to translate for people lest they misunderstood big virgil https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/63713257

"I don't care enough about LGBTQ++ community or issues enough to get a yellow card"

lets be clear here, all the captains are pussies. big virgil has to take that on the chin here cos he has wimped out. theres iranians who are going to be arrested and have their feet beaten for a week once they go home for not singing their anthem but these captains wouldn't risk a little yellow card just to show it does matter.

Wear it game 1, win the game
weat it game 2, win the game
have a rest in game 3.

****ing simple.


as for the argument about "rules" about politics. Well england made an empty gesture of taking the knee? They were meant to anyway.... so its fine to do but not to wear?

In sort we find that one form if discrimination is ok it seems. despite the armband saying otherwise. nice.

 

Wearing an armband isn’t going to change the Qatar gov.

it was a pointless gesture which wasn’t going to make any impact on anything anyway.

 

no it wont change them BUT it might make a dutch kid feel someone actually cares and is that no impact?

At what point does a small gesture become pointless when it just might give a kid or two a sense that someone gives a ****

Cos right now big virg just said a yellow means more than that kid.

 

I think everyone who has gone and partaken in this World Cup is as bad as the person or situation they are aggrieved about

i am not giving my opinion on whether its wrong or right but if you don't agree with something and wish to take a stand then don't go or watch. Seems easy enough to me

if all the nations who seem to have an issue with this cup had refused to go there is no cup.

If everyone who feels strongly about an issue regarding this cup feels strongly then don't watch

If you watch it you are condoning it imho, for my own reasons - I wont watch one minute of this World Cup, its easy to do

if everyone doesn’t watch it then the sponsors get itchy arses, but i know it wont work as there aren't enough people THAT bothered about the issues they bring up

Sky news have filmed a gentleman’s opinion of one of the issues, he is saying how he feels let down in the FA and he is in the pub watching the match, just like the reporter, reporting from Qatar lols and having beef.

beggars belief for me

the country has its rules whether we agree with them or not, seems almost hypocritical to go in and say that our way of life is the correct one. We know what goes on, so make your choice go or don't go, watch or don’t watch. I fine with either, not that its up to me, just an opinion.

 

Big Virg shouldn’t have gone
Messi shouldn’t have gone
Hendo shouldn’t have gone
IF they felt that strongly about it
Clearly they don’t, imagine the signal sent out if they all refuse to play and get fined or even axed from the game
They don’t have to do it but if they felt THAT strongly they would, its all soundbites

i am not (ftr) mad or disappointed in them for going its their choice, just don't come back spouting off and telling us how to get on with our **** because they all had a chance to make a stand and refused it, they will have their reasons and thats fine

 

nail, on head, hit the.

 

which is why when it was time (and someone mentioned it in thread) i split the one thread into 2 and left it away to be somewhere people can talk the football in peace.

I have also chosen not to watch. no big deal and am not going to force anyone not to

 

Individually, an armband isn't much, you're right... But one falling rock can eventually trigger a massive landslide. It just needs to land in the right spot and the earth to be ready to move.

 

I won't be watching any of the games. My choice, I'm not shouting from the rooftops in rage just quietly avoiding it. I've found it hard not to see results and latest news because of the coverage on online sports pages and videos keep popping up when I go to YouTube - don't intend watching any of those either.

As others have said, it's a personal choice. I would have liked the FA to have boycotted it but that was never going to happen. I would have liked players to take things into their own hands and refuse to go. I don't know if I've lost respect for them or not. They are bearing the brunt of a decision not made in the previous 12 years that could have avoided them being put in this position. Some people have said they could still take action and refuse to go even though the initial decision wasn't theirs. Others have said that it's their profession and the absolute pinnacle of why they entered that profession. The boyhood dream of representing their countries. Should that be taken away? We will never know what that feels like or how much it means. Should the players feel the weight of a gay individual's hopes and place them above their own? I don't know.

As fans we are maybe guilty of hypocrisy as well? We've had 12 years to write to the FA, our own clubs and fan organisations to make our feelings known. Have any of us done that? Or have we too waited until it's about to kick off to kick off ourselves? It's why I'm not sure about calling out the players when I've sat back and done absolutely nothing as a fan.

We keep getting rainbows this and that thrust into everything as if there is only one small group of people who need mentioning. I would like to have seen a black armband or a minutes silence or an orchestrated look and pointing skywards for all the poor souls who lost their lives on the very ground the players are standing on. That would have meant something; honour and respect. You won't change anything by taking the knee, is that even appropriate here? But you can definitely show that as a human being you care about a group of other human beings who gave their lives for this shambles of a competition to go ahead. Nobody has made a flag yet to commemorate them.

 

I'm not watching, although that's because I don't have TV other than over internet TV. I have no way of watching. (Legally)

 

We already know that when it's over, they'll claim this WC was the most attended, highest viewed ever.