ITS COMING HOME

This time lads. This time.

>>9846
First knockout round will be against a team from Group A, but it's likely we'd face either Argentina or France in the quarters. I hope it's the Argies.

I ran a search for "Qatar" and this came up, which is interesting because the first sentence only appears at the end of the second paragraph on the page.

Scotland are going to have a weird time of it. Everyone on the planet will support Ukraine against them, but if they then win, everyone will support Scotland against England. Wales, meanwhile, have a similarly entertaining opportunity against England, and they're better than Scotland too, and absolutely nobody cares about them. But I guess the Welsh are used to this by now.

That video of the news going "Now remember, it's Qatar, NOT guitar" from years back has been scrubbed from net.

We're going to need to come up with some new football songs for England vs Iran. What rhymes with "Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe"?

>>9849
>and they're better than Scotland
Their form is great right now. I know the score said 1-1, but Scotland beat Poland soundly the other week, but Poland dived for a penalty and conned the referee so bad they were getting thoroughly mocked for it on social media. They're better than the team that drew against England in the Euros.

Should be an entertaining group.

Times don't seem bad for the matches.

>>9853
By Allah, I knew this would happen. The bloody torturers and slave-owners are going to give us the best World Cup ever. Bastards.

>>9854
The one thing going against it is how odd it will be watching the World Cup in November. A big part of it is the summer atmosphere, morale is too high for any work to get done and it's perfect weather for a few pints at the pub garden or to sit in with a pizza and wings but neither of those really work at that time of year (you might spill stew everywhere).

Wales and Poland both qualified today. That leaves the winner of Costa Rica vs. New Zealand and Peru vs. the winner of Australia and the UAE for the last two places.

Wales are gonna do us in the group stage, I can feel it.

IR Iran? As in Islamic Republic of? Why?

>>9869

Britain and Russia spent most of the 19th century trying to gain control of Iran. We largely won that struggle, gradually gaining control of the Iranian oil industry and installing the pro-British Reza Shah as head of state. In 1951, the Iranians voted in a nationalist government led by Mohammad Mosaddegh with a manifesto to nationalise Iranian oil and kick out the British oil companies.

We weren't best pleased with this, so we did a deal with the CIA to overthrow the democratically elected government, reinstate Reza Shah as a British-backed absolute monarch and give a load of contracts to American oil companies. That coup came together in 1953 and worked, but maintaining that state of affairs involved brutal suppression of political opposition in Iran.

Both Mosaddegh and the British-backed Shah were secular reformers who sought to reduce the influence of religious leaders. This inadvertently made clerics the most popular and powerful opposition group. For fairly obvious reasons, the Iranians started to perceive western influences as a kind of pervasive poison.

Economic conditions for most Iranians worsened severely during the 1960s and 1970s, eventually leading to the full package of civil unrest - mass protests, general strikes, rioting, rioters being shot at, martial law, mutinies, the works.

In late 1978, President Jimmy Carter saw that the regime was falling apart and entered into talks with Ruhollah Khomeini, the charismatic leader of Iran's religious opposition who had been living in exile since the early 1960s. It's still not entirely clear what the two discussed, but the Shah fled the country in January of 1979 and Khomeini returned from exile the following month.

The fall of the Shah left a massive power vacuum, which was initially fought over by a variety of groups from liberal democrats to communists. Ultimately, Khomeini was the only leader with sufficient influence to take meaningful control. By the end of March, Khomeini called for a referendum on replacing the monarchy with an Islamic Republic, which was passed with a huge majority.

As the most prominent Islamic cleric, Khomeini became leader of the Islamic Republic practically by default. More secular-minded Iranians, initially relieved simply to be rid of the Shah, gradually came to realise the full implications of Khomeini's leadership over the following years. By that point, it was far too late for them to do anything - Khomeini made the suppression of political opposition a priority and used many of the same tactics that had kept the Shah in power for decades. He had the key advantage of being able to cast any opposition to his rule as western subversion, which was of course entirely plausible. Anything western was un-Islamic, anything un-Islamic was subversive, anything subversive was a western plot. That intertwining of nationalism, politics and religion was ingeniously effective at keeping the CIA at bay, at enormous human cost to the people of Iran.

There's something unsettling about England's group. Wales, USA and Iran, they're all just about not-shit but still-quite-shit enough to beat us. They also all hate us, which adds to the trepidation on my part. It's one thing to lose to Ghana or Croation, but the Yanks? We mustn't allow this to happen.

>>9870
Very amusing, but could someone provide a real answer now?

>>9871
USA will probably beat England 1-1 again.

>>9872
They're at the World Cup because they topped their group. They finished two points ahead of South Korea and in the other group Saudi Arabia finished one point above Japan.

Considering the tournament is in Qatar don't be surprised if one of the Middle Eastern teams end up being dark horses.

>>9873
Yeah, and Wales and Iran too, we go home with three points.

>>9874
I think he's just confused by the name, for whatever reason. They probably just replied "Islamic Republic of Iran" when the FIFA bods asked for an official name.

>>9871
Welsh football fans don't hate England. A lot of us have spent our whole lives supporting England in international tournaments, because what else are we going to do?

>>9876

>what else are we going to do?

Do what the Scottish do and cheer for anyone but England?

>>9877
A lot of us are fans of premier league clubs, it would be a bit hypocritical to support them and cheer ABE. Don't get me wrong, there are definitely a good number of Welsh people who will do exactly that (and I would bet near 100% of people do that in Rugby terms), but for football its different somehow.

Football's coming home.

World Cup: Qataris want complete stadium beer ban

Only three days before kick-off, the Qatari hosts were last night putting pressure on Fifa to perform a U-turn on the beer policy at the World Cup and stop selling Budweiser at the eight stadiums hosting matches.

An announcement is expected today but it is understood that 48 hours before Qatar face Ecuador in the tournament opener on Sunday, it is likely that fans will be told they cannot buy beer at any games. If Budweiser, one of Fifa’s main sponsors, is not allowed either to sell its product or have any visibility at the matches, then football’s world governing body will be in breach of a multimillion-dollar contract.

As it stands, the only place it is certain that beer will be available to all football fans is at the Doha fan parks.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/06a0e482-669c-11ed-9c3b-2d9184d0076f

Nobody could have foreseen this happening.

>>9915
Why did they want the football there in the first place if they don't want any of the things that come with it?

>>9915
That is quite hilarious. And as you say, easily foreseen.

>>9916
Sportswashing.

>>9918
I'm sure there are ways to do that which don't involve inviting swathes of the decadent West over then getting upset when they behave decadently. Or when they just film in areas they have a permit to film in.

>>9919
People will forget all that when the footie starts.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/2022-world-cup-qatar-ban-beer-alcohol-sales-budweiser-fifa/

>Qatar World Cup organizers will reportedly ban all alcoholic beer sales at venues

Not saying fans will be missing out by not being able to drink the watered down American horse piss that is Budweiser beer, but Qatar is really starting to push it.

>>9921
Great day to be part of Buweiser's legal department.

Bud Zero will still be available for purchase in the stadiums! Hurray! I had never even heard of Bud Zero prior to this.

And alcoholic beer will still be available to people with corporate hospitality packages. They're not savages over there; they know that some people are just naturally better than the rest of us.

>>9923

That's good to hear.

But you still can't do each other in the bum. They're not going to waver from that.

Bud Zero is shit. Of the 10 or so zero alcohol beers I've tried in the last couple of years, it is probably 3rd worst.

>>9925

Zero alcohol beer goes against everything I believe in, so I've never tried it.

>>9926
I've had it once. Smelled like soiled nappies and didn't taste much better.

Apparently the original Czech Budvar stuff Budweiser is a bastardisation of is very nice. Not had it myself mind.

>>9928
It is excellent - completely different beer.

>>9928

Budvar is a very good beer. IMO it's one of the best continental European pale lagers, and far superior to things like Stella.

Budweiser, on the other hand, is actually one of the worst beers I've had. Especially the kind that's actually brewed in the U.S. and not in Europe by licence. Even most Americans agree that it's shite.

>Infantino began his speech by saying: “Today I feel Qatari. Today I feel Arabic. Today I feel African. Today I feel gay. Today I feel disabled. Today I feel [like] a migrant worker.
The only possible silver lining is Qatar going out in the group stages with nil points.

>>9931
You missed out the part about him knowing how they feel because he was picked on at school for being ginger.

>>9932

Is being bullied for a superficial trait of your appearance/personality really any different just because it's not one of the sacred cows?

Bullying is still bullying lad, I agree with your sentiment but I don't like that sort of reverse bigotry that implies some people's suffering is fine just because they're part of some other arbitrary group that isn't recognised as official discrimination victims.

I saw a couple of lads at school get mercilessly ripped for being ginners, and you can't hide being a ginger to fit in and avoid it. You can't just pretend you're not a ginger then come out of the closet in uni. I'm fairly certain that will have left its mark on their life.

>>9933
Alright, calm down ginger pubes.

>>9933
No, being made fun of in school is not the same as having to risk life and limb as a migrant worker in country with practically no labour laws, or being jailed because you're a homosexual. No one objects to the Qataris hosting a World Cup because they're mean, it's because they're a nation state with a lamentably poor human rights record, that they show little to no signs of rectifying, and that by FIFA's own statutes should have been deemed unfit to host a tournament, see the attached image. And it's not like you can make the same argument about the UK or another western nation, because whilst discrimination certainly occurs in nations like ours, it's not codified into law and defended by the authorities as "part of our culture", not until Suella Braverman becomes Lord Inspector General Commanding of the Anglo-Reich anyway. But that's months away so it's no really relevent.

>>9935

So what you're saying is, you can't possibly know what it's like to be victimised unless you are literally put in prison or killed?

Sound argument, fair enough. Empathy is dead. Twitter won.

>>9936
It's fairly obvious that's what they're saying, if you take the minor step of removing all the words they typed and substituting the ones you typed in their place.

>>9936
No, I very specifically said that being made fun of in school isn't the same as being an exploited migrant worker, or gay in a country that considers your existence a crime. Especially when, in the years since school, you've become the most powerful man in world football with a personal fortune in the millions and an "expenses" budget that is practically unlimited in size and scope.

You're welcome to think Gianni Infantino was genuinely trying to express "empathy", but it's very clear that what he was actually doing was pulling a "poor old me" routine when the reality is he hasn't given a second thought to the abuses and inhumanity that have been both encouraged and overlooked by FIFA's Qatar World Cup. People suffered and died to build the stadiums and accomodation for this event, the promised "progress" that it would bring to Qatar has not materialised, nor does it appear it ever will, and the dirty deals that have been going on in the background to make a great many people a great deal of money are countless. I'm sorry if this is what they're also saying Twitter, but it seems like whoever's covering the World Cup over there really have their heads screwed on straight. I hope the Qatari state are paying you do be this ignorant and you aren't just like this normally.

Getting picked on for being a ginger is probably pretty similar to getting picked on for being a darkie or a bumder. I can accept that. But getting enslaved and killed for being an immigrant really is not that similar to not being enslaved and killed, and being the president of FIFA.

>>9939

How do you get to be the president of FIFA after being killed? Asking for an infidel.

>>9938

I actually don't give a fuck about any of this, I just think it's a cheap shot and looks somewhat hypocritical to trivialise his heritage as a Person Of Ginger in the same breath as criticising his statements. It's not the oppression olympics, you know. (It's the FIFA world cup)

>>9941
Ah, the corruption Paralympics.

>>9941
Kill yourself.

>>9943

That's not funny, my best friend died that way.

Maths wonks say that Brazil is statistically the most likely winner.

>>9945

I CANNOT WAIT TO SEE BRAZIL REAMED BY GERMANY AGAIN.

Lmao, perfectly fine goal for Ecuador against Qatar ruled out by VAR for offside despite nobody being anywhere near offside.

>>9947
Doesn't look like it's helped much. Come on Ecuador!

>>9947
You wouldn't just go online and spout a load of shit because the commentators failed in their jobs, would you?

>>9949
From the replays at the time that wasn't obvious to anyone.

He was offside because his shin stuck out further than the goalkeeper's arse when he flapped at a cross. They've been atrocious.

It sounds like half the fans are singing God Save the Queen and the other half are singing God Save the King.

>>9951
Did something happen to the Queen?

Sorry, I was pissing, what's happened to Iran's keeper?

Never mind, just some minor brain trauma.

Will we see a shot on target this half? We're doing a grand job of passing the ball between the defenders and offering nothing going forward.

>>9953
He ran out and smashed his head off a teammate. Nobody seems to care how the teammate is doing.

It's coming home, lads.

I think that's the longest game of football I've seen.

>>9958
A grand total of 24 minutes of injury time must be some sort of record.

How's about that then? I didn't expect that.

>>9960
I always knew this tournament would turn out to be fantastic. Sporting events in atrocious hellholes always are. I wouldn't usually want Saudi Arabia to do well at anything, but seeing Argentina, and Messi in particular, lose to such a hopeless team is thoroughly outstanding.

>>9960
Well the only way this could be improved is if England beat USA 42-nil.

I don't really follow the footy, so why is it a big deal that the Saudis beat the Argies?

I think our lads are going to do well anyway, cause they don't want to be shown up by the women's team, innit. They'd never live it down otherwise would they.

They had some lionesses footballers on the BBC Radio 4 FUCKING Woman's Hour and they were trying to torture hot takes about the LGBT thing out of the poor lasses, and they weren't getting anywhere. It was very frustrating to listen to for my daily the BBC Radio 4 FUCKING Woman's Hour angry wank. Just because they're lezzers doesn't mean they're middle class tossers with their head up a Guardian reader's arse.

>>9963
Argentina are traditionally one of the best teams in the world. They're one of the favourites to win this World Cup. Lionel Messi plays for them, and many people say he's the greatest player of all time and one of the main arguments against that is that he's never won the World Cup. This is his last chance; he'll be too old to play at the next one. So he's going to go all out to win the World Cup for Argentina. In short, Argentina are a force to be reckoned with.

Saudi Arabia are shit. They rarely even qualify for World Cups, but when they do, they tend to get battered 8-0 by everyone else.

I don't know if you watch any other sports, but it's like Tyson Fury getting beaten up by Joe Biden, or like the All Blacks losing at rugby to Turkmenistan or somewhere. Sometimes these results happen, but it's never not hilarious when they do.

>>9963
>It was very frustrating to listen to for my daily the BBC Radio 4 FUCKING Woman's Hour angry wank

The more I read this line, the more I'm convinced it's entirely a wordfilter.

>https://news.sky.com/story/qatar-world-cup-belgium-away-kit-rejected-by-fifa-because-love-is-written-inside-collar-12752921

>Belgium's World Cup squad have had their away kit rejected by FIFA due to the word 'love' appearing inside the collar, a team spokesman has said.

>The white shirt features a rainbow-coloured trim and has 'love' written inside where the label would usually appear.


Just when did FIFA decide to crawl that far up Qatar's arse. It's becoming ridiculous.

>>9966
They have been generally against political displays. They haven't changed much, it is cultural changes in the west where everything is political and identity politics that has changed. It is the same for the Olympics (IOC), Formula 1 (FIA), and other institutions. This boycott/cancelling shite is new-ish and will slowly make its way everywhere anyway.

This reminds me of the Beijing Olympics in 2008. They had massive political issues, and migrant workers being treated as badly as they have been in Qatar. The British Olympic Association forced the British participants to sign an agreement before leaving for China not to say anything political. Basically censorship. These things are nothing new - I am just confused why everyone has such a short-term memory.

Sometimes all the outrage comes off as fake the shipping forecast. Cricket competitions have been held in Barbados (West Indies), where being gay is illegal, but you never hear anything about it. Formula 1 is held all over countries with despotic regimes with horrific human rights issues. For God's sake, Saudi Arabia and UAE own teams in the Premier League. Qatar owns the Shard. Wearing a shirt that says One Love or rainbows won't change anything. It is just to pat each others' backs.

>>9967
>It is the same for the Olympics (IOC), Formula 1 (FIA), and other institutions.

I could have sworn Hamilton won the Qatar GP last year whilst wearing a pride helmet. This is on FIFA.

>>9968

The definition of a "political display" is highly subjective and ultimately a matter of discretion for the event organisers. I have very little sympathy for FIFA, but ultimately I think that arguments about slogans on bits of kit are a useful distraction; for all of the noise being made, nobody is actually boycotting the World Cup. The Qataris might prefer to avoid this sort of fuss, but ultimately it just demonstrates their power. People might make token gestures, but nobody is going to overtly snub Qatar because we all desperately need their gas.

>>9969
What the hell do gestures in favour of equality have to do with Qatar's gas exports? You're conflating completely unrelated issues, unless Kane was made secretary of state for business and energy without me realising?

>>9970

>What the hell do gestures in favour of equality have to do with Qatar's gas exports?

To repeat, "nobody is going to overtly snub Qatar because we all desperately need their gas". If the Qataris tell us to jump, we'll ask how high. I have no doubt that all of the players and staff have been extensively briefed on the importance of respecting the host nation and I have no doubt that if someone were to unilaterally make a point, they would make a prompt and fulsome apology whether they wanted to or not.

The Qatar World Cup is a collision of identity politics and realpolitik; the latter will always come out on top.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Hook_LNG_terminal

>South Hook LNG terminal is an LNG regasification terminal near Milford Haven and is the largest LNG terminal in Europe. The terminal is owned and operated by the South Hook LNG Terminal Company Ltd, a joint venture between Qatar Petroleum LNG Services (QG II) Ltd. (67.5%), ExxonMobil Qatargas (II) Terminal Company Ltd. (24.15%) and ELF Petroleum UK Limited (8.35%).

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/uk-seeks-long-term-gas-deal-with-qatar-asks-become-supplier-last-resort-ft-2021-11-05/

https://dohanews.co/qatar-to-expand-welsh-gas-terminals-amid-uk-scramble-for-lng/

Krauts must be sick of the sight of Orientals by now.

>>9972

Never had the Japanese down as a threat to Jogi Low's men.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_at_the_FIFA_World_Cup

Honestly, credit to Costa Rica for still being on the pitch. This looks about as much fun as stubbing your toe.

This stadium looks about half full as well.

>>9971
National football teams don't decide energy policy, you absolute plonker. Shove your Reuters links up your arse, you're clueless.

>>9974

Not him, but I don't know what's so hard for you lot to understand that big international events like these do have a role in international politics. There was nothing political about the 1936 summer olympics either I bet.

I love how everyone keeps going on about how participants need to respect the laws of Qatar while completely ignoring the laws of Switzerland, France, Thailand, Trinidad and the US. You know, the countries where the Qatari bid team engaged in bribery that put some of their recipients behind bars.

>>9974
The Germans must be bricking it now. They face Spain on Sunday evening after Japan have played Costa Rica, most likely knowing that if they don't win they're out.

>>9976
>laws of Switzerland, France, Thailand, Trinidad and the US
Take them to court.

Iran are all over Wales. We're going to absolutely walk this group.

>>9979
Wales just aren't that good. In fairness few teams would be if all their top players were perma-crocked.

>>9980
If Iran shot more instead of looking for an extra pass then Wales would be absolutely fucked.

>>9981

That's the thing about Iran, they're always trying to walk it in.

>>9982
What was Queiroz thinking, bringing Ansarifardat on so early?

Subs ended up costing Wales the game. Joe Allen had only been on the pitch about 20 minutes when he gave the ball away for the Iranians to score a thunderbastard; he was playing like he was already gassed.

If we lose against the Septics today, I don't think we should let any of them back in the country.

>>9984
We're going to win 2 - 0 today, making Iran vs. the Seppos into the ultimate deathmatch.

>>9985
I think it's gonna be 3-1 and I wouldn't rule out them scoring first.

Do I even have to watch this match? I feel somewhat overconfident we'll win. Just let me know if anything interesting happens lads.

>>9987
It's on ITV and given the parlous state of their ITVhub app I'm not even going to attempt it.

>>9988
I've never had any trouble with it, but I've heard it just doesn't work for some people. Weird stuff. I think I prefer it to iPlayer for football because it looks at least halfway HD and it doesn't lag five minutes behind the TV broadcast.

>>9989
On AppleTV ITV hub is almost 80 seconds behind the game right now. It's a joke.

>>9988
ITVhub is so bad that I prefer to try the illegal streaming sites.