The World Cup

[Ndiayewillalwaysloveyou]

This world cup has gone quick 6 weeks... 4 games a day through night aswell was great tbf!

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

No, as I recall, they were pretty brutal and un-self-aware that even then, booting people, roughing up players and fighting wasn't quite how the beautiful game was meant to be played. Sound familiar?

Their Captain Rattin was dismissed (for 'looking at the ref in a not nice way' apparently) and tensions were high. I can remember Sir Alf stopping our players swapping shirts with the 'animals' as he called them.

That day I was at Hillsborough , watching West Germany v Uruguay. It is very much the case that Northern Europe and South America had very different views on how football should be played. Uruguay were brutal, the West German team was much less so, but did some theatrical falls. Uruguay had 2 players sent off, and it could have been more. I have had a look at some highlights of England v Argentina, and it is clear Argentina did some bad fouls, but England had Stiles and Jack Charlton for 2 who were far from angels. England did concede almost twice as many fouls as Argentina. There was a big difference in the way the South Americans crowded round the referee, and Maradona for one later drew on the tradition of believing that deceiving the referee was clever, and part of the game. Several different dark arts have since been added, especially in the case of Argentina.
I have written recently about being privileged to spend 3 days with the River Plate team in Sheffield in 1978, and finding Rattin to be a charming and entertaining human-being. I didn’t pluck up the courage to ask him about the sending-off at Wembley, but you can see from the videos that he was claiming the right to speak to the referee as captain, and that the situation of neither Rattin nor the ref speaking the other’s language was a problem. It is perhaps a fitting tribute to the recently-deceased Rattin that yellow and red cards were introduced as a result of his dismissal.

 

[Bladedog]

Yeah, well, there's 'fouls' and there's 'legal and benign footballing challenges whereby the Argentinian player goes down like a sack of cack screaming and crying and the ref gives the free kick'

I'm not defending em..but that's somert you see in nearly every Premier league game..its fuckin embarrassing.

 

[Sean Thornton]

He got a blue badge when he did his ACL

And a PiP. Bloody forrins etc etc etc

 

[Sean Thornton]

FIFA World Cup 2026™ Champions Ring

The first Champions Ring in FIFA World Cup™ history. Official Licensed Product. 18k gold, diamonds and sapphires. Limited edition of 2,026.

championsring2026.com

Anyone got a spare £12,000 to spend on a tacky ring?

Poetry1867 suggests he’s got a few quid but is Zero Dark BeMyFriend that expensive?