The World Cup

[I should coco]

That's right, to Canada only. Another part of the nonsense of this World Cup, with people allowed in to play some matches and not others, staff being turned away, referees banned from the country...

No it's perfecrly fine.

President Infantino says 'Chill, relax'. If he's not bothered about some teams not having half their backroom staff, so being unable to compete effectively, then why should we? After all, it generates billions, so the little countries (with a vote each), get a few bob, so the job's a good un.

 

[baulko]

Watching in Oz atm.
Scotland win but very unimpressive.
Australia defending like hell right now but currently 2-0 up. Soutts having a great game.

 

[Gabsblade]

Just a mountain at the back, gerrim signed!

 

[Nick Jansky]

We know 2 families who are mates with my kids at school, both are British passport holders but originally from Iran. Both families went home at Christmas for a visa renewal and both were denied and then never allowed back.

They have good jobs in Oil & Gas and were paying taxes, one of the families owns property here and his wife owns a small consulting business. Kids were all in the British School and loving life.

They’ve not been allowed back to sell the house or to complete their work assignments. Luckily both families have been offered relocation packages to the UAE. They’re having to sell their house remotely, this has other implications as they’re no longer residents here.

Trump is a proper tit.

I’m glad there was a happy ending for them and they got to leave the USA. I certainly wouldn’t want to be bringing my kids up there, it’s done them a favour.

 

[John Street West Terrace]

I’ve spoken to several uncles who’s opinions I trust and they all say.

Agree the 82 World Cup was one of the best….and agree that Brazil 82 side were one of the best teams ever.

However every single one of them say the Mexico 70 World Cup was better and that Brazil 70 side with Pele was the greatest side they’ve ever seen.
England won the World Cup in 66 but many experts says the England 70 side was better than the England 66 side.

Regards the WC I’m looking forward to it…..I always start watching every single match then after watching about 20 games in the first week I’m close to burn out.
So then I become selective and just watch odd games saving my enthusiasm for the knockouts.

Might sound daft but I like to see how these crappy little nations like Haiti, Curacao, Iraq perform.
Also every World Cup there are always big surprise….where a star is born or a crappy little nation performs really well.

Note: Also rate the Mexico 86 World Cup with the great Diego Maradona.
That World Cup is probably the most I’ve ever seen a single player stand out as being so much better than anyone else.
Unlike Messi, Maradona was almost a 1 man team and even the greatest defenders in the world seemed scared of him.

I my time & at his peak he still the best player I have seen , he’ll always be remembered for the handball but the other goal against England & the one against Belgium in the semis in 86 he took half the team on before putting the ball into the net .

 

[Chazzer]

Harry Souttar would be a brilliant signing. I'm so glad he has got back to full fitness.

 

[Dkc]

We operate habeas corpus here, despite our media wanting to try people on the strength of allegations. He may, or may not be guilty, but until tried he's innocent.

It's 'cancel culture' absolutely out of control.

If we'd taken the same stance that people are applying to Partey, we'd have sacked and ostracized Ched as soon as the accusations were made public.

Seems like the principle of "innocent until proven guilty" doesn't carry much weight today. It is gradually being replaced with "guilty as soon as you are accused".

 

[Sheffsteel]

Harry Souttar would be a brilliant signing. I'm so glad he has got back to full fitness.

Thinks he’s on about £50K a week until 2028 at Leicester.

We’re no longer a parachute team.
Our payment from Sky was £35 million last season.
For the upcoming season it reduced to £7 million.

So not sure how we could afford Souttar…and doubt he’s going to volunteer to take a massive pay cut.

Also you can just picture it….we sign Souttar and spend a big portion of our player budget on him.
Then if he was very average, there would be so many fans complaining why would we spend so much on a player who has suffered such a bad injury.

Most of our fans would be saying “it’s so obvious after a bad injury a player is never the same again….Bettis out”

 

[I should coco]

If we'd taken the same stance that people are applying to Partey, we'd have sacked and ostracized Ched as soon as the accusations were made public.

Seems like the principle of "innocent until proven guilty" doesn't carry much weight today. It is gradually being replaced with "guilty as soon as you are accused".

Particularly for certain offences like sexual assault, or any racism.

I'm sure armed robbers and fraudsters, will still get the benefit of the doubt though.

 

[MoscowBlade]

My cousin has been in Club England for years and gets all the England tickets.

He often says when expectations are low and there’s doom and gloom surrounding a tournament they often turn out the best.
He says regards the Russia World Cup there were all the rumours of Russian hooligans deliberately targeting English fans and how Russia is unfriendly.

But he says all the Russians he met were fantastic people, incredibly friendly and surprisingly really knowledgable about English football.

Just shows you can never judge stereotypes and need to get out there and experience things yourself.

I totally agree with your cousin. I was living in Moscow at the time and I can honestly say there was never any real chance of fan violence due to the police presence. The fan zones were great fun and I never saw any trouble.

 

[Houston_Blade]

I’m glad there was a happy ending for them and they got to leave the USA. I certainly wouldn’t want to be bringing my kids up there, it’s done them a favour.

Everywhere has its good and bad. We have another week here now and there are lots of aspects of life I won’t miss, very few that I’ll miss.

My kids live in a bit of an ex-pat bubble, as do most of their friends. A lot have a great life here and have no idea what’s going on in wider society. You tend to not worry about political issues and immigration policies when all you do is go to school, then go home and play in your pool with your mates.

The kids in questions will now be doing the same in Dubai. Much safer for them, given their heritage.