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.

This sucks, man, to borrow the parlance of the enemy team this evening.

>>9992
It's all a bit embarrassing. The USA are playing great.

We're just wearing them down with a rope-a-dope. We're going to spring into life and do something any minute now.

>>9994
If I was watching on iPlayer I'd still have faith in your claims.

We didn't win then.

>>9996
0-0

England were really pegged back in the first half, and whilst in the second they put a stop to that, they were still very lackluster going forward. GARETH OUT!

>>9997

Happen they couldn't be arsed, saving their energy. We've got a much more dangerous game in a couple of days right?

>>9998
I think the citizens of Wales would jump up and down so much the place would fall into the Irish Sea, if they won.

The Al Janoub stadium does look a bit like a big minge. Is this a bold new direction in stadium architecture?

>>10000
I noticed a stadium the other day had a carpet ceiling - bit mad.

I think it looks great - it's just a bit puzzling around what they will do with them afterwards.

>>10001
>it's just a bit puzzling around what they will do with them afterwards.

Most of them will have their capacity reduced by about half and be used by domestic clubs. One is going to be used as an athletics stadium. One will be used by the Qatari national team. One is made of scaffolding and shipping containers, which will be dismantled.

>>10002
>One is made of scaffolding and shipping containers

The minge one is great, but that looks the coolest - I like it very much.

I haven't watched a single game, and plan not to unless England turn out to be a veritable contender to win the tournament.

>>10004
I for one, do not own a television.

>>10002

Qatar has 20 professional football clubs, but about the same population as Birmingham. Their domestic clubs already play in stadiums that have a vast excess of capacity. It's all a bit surreal, like permanent lockdown football.

>>10000
This must be what a society of nothing but burqas and hijabs do to a motherfucker. Congratulations on the GET, by the way.

>>10007
>Congratulations on the GET, by the way.

>>10008
+1

>>10008
>>10009
-2 bazinga

>>10006
Given how most of those players don't look particularly native to Unpronounceabilia, I'm assuming this means they've bought themselves a self-assembly professional football league, rather than growing the game organically. Obviously, it's a desert petrostate so of course nothing grows organically there.

>>10011
If you can't pronounce Qatar you need to visit your GP immediately.

>>10011

Absolutely. They've been trying to develop some domestic talent, but their national squad still heavily relies on people born outside of Qatar. They've reached the point where some of their professional players are the sons of people who immigrated to Qatar to play football, which I suppose is one way of meeting FIFA's eligibility rules.

>>10011
>Given how most of those players don't look particularly native to Unpronounceabilia

Have a fucking word with yourself lad. CAT-AH - it's not hard - unless you're a Nigel, which to be quite honest..

>>10014

<ackkkkktually>

None of the consonants in "Qatar" have direct equivalents in standard English. The "cuh" is uvular, like "guh" right from the back of your throat. The "ta" is less dental, almost like "dar". The r is rolled.

Most non-Arabic speakers just take a random stab at the word, but none of their mispronunciations could be considered more right than any of the others.

</ackkkkktually>

I always say Catarrh, like all normal people, but the voices on TV seem really eager to force us all to say Catter. Oddly, only one person so far hasn't said Qatari and has instead said Cattery.

I think I'm in love with Laura Woods and her slightly raspy , slightly posh accent.

We live in a world where even footballs have a USB charger now.

I'm not sure this is progress.

How are we looking? Haven't had the inclination to tune in yet.

>>10019
With our eyes, Seagoon.

>>10019
Well, we're not losing by four, so we're all good for the next round, so far.

>>10018

I was slightly confused when the papers were talking about Chloe Kelly taking her shirt off, suggesting that showing a sports bra on a football pitch was somehow a groundbreaking moment. The men have been wearing sports bras for years - there's a pocket in the back for a GPS tracker.

Finally tuned in now. We're actually running forwards with the ball!

The equally promising Iran-vs-USA match is not as exciting, it seems to me.

Romelu Lukaku is shit. The commentators and pundits keep making excuses for him, but fucking hell.

>>10025
Missing those sitters couldn't have happened to a nicer bloke.

I'm looking forward to the Costa Rica v Germany game later. They've decided to have the first all-female officiating team in a match where the Costa Ricans are almost certainly going to spend the entire time shithousing.

>>10025
I think that's a bit harsh. 2020/21 he was phenomenal, but he does blow hot and cold for stretches of time that aren't really acceptable for a player of his ability.

>>10026
Looks right now like Germany are going home. Incredible.

>>10028

Second time in a row that that's happening to them.

How the mighty have fallen.

>>10016

It's like how you have to say Keev instead of Kyiv or Kiev, you always have to use the full title of The So Called Islamic State, and harassment must rhyme embarrassment.

I think the BBC actually just makes up pronunciations nobody in real life uses on purpose, that way it can't be seen as taking sides.

The rising sun cometh.

Brazil should top Group G and Portugal Group H, so I reckon the final will be the winner of Argentina vs. Brazil against the winner of France vs. Spain.

>>10032
But we're going to beat France.

>>10033
It depends whether Southgate keeps faith in the likes of Foden and Rashford or if he shits the bed. I can see Mbappe having a field day against our back line.

>>10032
Morocco vs Japan final.

Please, God.

>>10035
Against all the odds this is turning out to be a highly entertaining World Cup.

This is how close Japan's winner came to being ruled out.

>>10037
Isn't it weird how few VAR graphics there were to support the decision? This further supports my theory that VAR is sometimes used to rig matches. And you can trust me, because I predicted >>10036 years ago. Sporting events in shitty countries are always the best ones. The Beijing Olympics pissed all over Athens and Sydney.

>>10038
There is an overhead view we're missing.

This might be the worst tournament for South American teams that I can remember. I know that Brazil and Argentina will always be contenders, but they're the only CONMEBOL sides to make it to the knockout rounds. In Russia there were four and in Brazil all five made it through.

Africa is so weird. I just realised that eskimos and Christians inter-marry quite a bit. You end up with weird names like Vincent Aboubakar. A Christian first name and a eskimo family name. Very interesting.

>>10041

African Christian first names can be colourful, too. At my school, we had a girl from Nigeria whose name was Patience, and her sister was called Sunrise. Their brother was simply called David though.

>>10042

The last president of Nigeria was called Goodluck Jonathan, which I think is gloriously weird.

>>10042
They share stupid girl names with European Christians. Shout-out to my friend Joshua and his sisters: Love and Joy.

>>10043
That's nothing.

>>10045

There just might be sex whales in Tokyo.

>>10045
It's pronounced Sesh-wah-lay, though, I'm afraid. A crushing discovery on par with finding out Sheila Dikshit's name isn't pronounced that way either.

Canaan Banana was always Canaan Banana, so we'll always have him.

>>10048

>It's pronounced Sesh-wah-lay, though, I'm afraid.


Excuses, excuses.

The sport of baseball has given the world some extraordinarily weird names, which I have the great pleasure of sharing with you all.

>>10050

>>10055
Sounds like a character from Ideal.

Feel a bit weird watching this Argie keeper warm up.

I'm kind of surprised there aren't any black players for Australia.

I mean, I know they're an island in the middle of nowhere but if you look at other Western teams then England has the likes of Rashford, Sterling, Bellingham, Saka and Alexander-Arnold, France is France, Germany has Gnabry, Musiala and Sane, France is France and pretty much the only reason Canada qualified is because of the emergence of black players like Alphonso Davies.

>>10058

Australia barely has any black people. They're also really racist, in general. Like, the Yanks have a deep and ingrained cultural neurosis because of their history with slavery, but the Aussies have the kind of pure, casual, open dolphin rape that would make the likes of Bernard Manning wince.

>>10058
>I mean, I know they're an island in the middle of nowhere
So's New Zealand but their entire rugby team is black.

>>10060
Aren't they all indigenous? A lot of Pacific islanders are also good at rugby.

>>10059

dolphin rape in Australia has by necessity been more overt, because their entire white population is descended from fairly recent immigrants. Most non-white immigrants in Australia are from East Asia for obvious geographical reasons, but successive governments have enacted policies to deny entry for immigrants from those countries while also encouraging immigration from Europe.

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

>>10059

I recently learned the Aussie government once unanimously passed a eugenics bill that
>aimed to institutionalise and potentially sterilise a significant proportion of the population - those seen as inefficient. Included in the group were slum dwellers, homosexuals, prostitutes, alcoholics, as well as those with small heads and with low IQs. The Aboriginal population was also seen to fall within this group.
They never got around to actually enacting it because right after that passed they got involved in some sort of war on the other side of the planet that kept them busy. Some little tiff, I'm not sure what. Then afterwards they decided it might not be a good look any more. Mostly, anyway - the Eugenics society carried on until the sixties.

They also have an entire continent that's completely empty and they don't want to live in it, but when refugees from other countries show up asking to live in a tiny corner of Australia's endless desert, Australians won't even let them land. I remember I saw a question online once, asking how South Africa was perceived by other countries, and I was quite proud when I said it was seen as like a more racist Australia. But it really isn't that much more racist. I certainly shan't be listening to anyone who ever tells me it's offensive to wear a hat with corks on it for fancy dress.

>>10063

>aimed to institutionalise and potentially sterilise a significant proportion of the population - those seen as inefficient.

Bit harsh. But such was the social climate at the turn of the century before the Germans took that idea and absolutely ran with it. Eugenics and euthanasia were considered quite reasonable concepts by a certain subset of thinkers in the realm of sociology. And with a quite absurd sense of idealism, as they believed that weeding out inferior elements of society would actually improve the living conditions of humanity as a whole.

Coming home, innit.

>>10066
It's nice to have all of next week to build ourselves up into actually believing that before we get blacked dot com by France. England were shit against Senegal for a good half an hour. If we go a goal down early against France, and I suspect we might, we'll be chasing the game and the players will start to panic and it'll be an utter obliteration, like 4-0. It'll be like when we played Germany in 2010, but without the excuses.

>>10067

France are a tough match up, but it's far from impossible. According to the stats we've beaten them nearly twice as often as we've lost to them.

But yes, let's not get our hopes too high.

Spain really can't finish for shit.

No disrespect to Morocco (well, some), but I'd be more excited by a Portugal v Spain match at the WC.

>>10070
That's a good point. I will remember that next time I see speculation that the outcomes are scripted.

>>10070
Apart from the game against Costa Rica they have been really boring to watch. All that passing and no real goal threat.

It's coming home.

I expect Croatia to get battered, but the other quarter finals could go either way.

>>10073
I disagree. It's a Brazil-France final. Quite who Brazil and France will beat in their respective semi-finals, I don't know, but we're hurtling towards a replay of the 1998 final and I don't think anyone can stop that now. Maybe England, but no, not England.

Just so I've got this down in writing somewhere, I'm confident Croatia will get pulled apart like wet tissue paper by this Brazil team.

I'm still holding out hope for the South Atlantic derby.

>>10075
In 2018 all of their knockout games apart from the final went to extra time. They needed extra time to beat Japan and it feels like if they play like that against the Brazilians they'll get hammered, but they can be very difficult to play against and Gvardiol is a beast of a defender.

>>10077
>Gvardiol
I still can't accept this is a real footballer. His name sounds too much like some kind of alt-right DEUS VULT version of Pep Guardiola.

>>10078
Makes me think of the Red Army because "Gvardiya" is "Guards" in Latinified Russian.

Well, so much for my "wet tissue" prediction. These dancing dandies have made me look like a top arsehole in front of my imaginary computer friends.

>>10080
Told ya. Croatia specialise in taking it to extra time.

Specialists.

I feel like it's always worth betting on the underdog in a world cup. Unless they're England, obviously.

This has been one of the most exciting world cups in ages actually.

Is there somewhere I can stream the game tonight without signing up for ITV? I'll be at work but I want to put it on one of the computers in the background.

>>10084
ITV is the only place broadcasting it in this country. If you have a VPN you could pretend to be Australian as all matches are being shown free there.

https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/sports-program/morocco-v-portugal-quarter-finals-live-stream-fifa/2071941699812

Croatia v. Morocco nil - nil final confirmed.

It's on then lads.

Predictions?

>>10087
It feels like it could go either way, but France have a more lethal midfield and attack. I'm expecting neither side to keep a clean sheet.

Shitting hell.

Dirty fucking French frog bastards.

One thing I've not liked about this WC, aside from the human and labour rights abuses, is the pointless stats that pop up from time to time.

This ref been bribed or what? Fucking hell.

>>10091
Why wouldn't you want to know total receptions?

Gonna have to change things up in the second half. It's understandable they're showing restraint because they're worried about the French counter, but they're taking too many passes around the box rather than going for a shot and there's little point trying to cross it when nobody will join Kane in the box.

Is ITV1 HD on a delay? I could hear my neighbour celebrating the goal before I'd even seen Kane kick the penalty.

This ref's... iffy.

>>10095
I've been watching on ITVX, people in my Discord were reacting to stuff a minute before it happened on my screen so I assume ITV is delayed.

Fine margins, but that went about as expected. I'd say France are the team that closest resemble England at this world cup, particularly in terms of line-up and how they play, but they're simply better and this is them without the likes of Benzema and Kante.

I think it's time for Southgate to go and to bring someone fresh in. He got it right to nullify Mbappe but he's still a bit naive and if he'd been a bit bolder by making substitutions earlier then it could easily have been a different result. Saka was starting to tire but replacing him with Sterling was baffling, especially after the robbery.

Messi's quite some player.

Whelp.

Legend.

>>10101
He's exactly the kind of shithouse you want on your side in a penalty shootout.

I'm kind of glad we lost to France because I think losing in a final to Argentina would be so much worse. Keeping Southgate in charge for Euro 2024 is a big mistake though.

I remember seeing on the news somewhere, presumably Qatari news channel al-Jazeera, that the World Cup final would take place at 7pm. I travelled across the country today to visit my family for the Christmas period, and planned it carefully to arrive a bit before 7pm so I could still watch the match. As the rest of you fucks know, but did not fucking tell me, that was 7pm Qatar time and it was at three o'clock. I missed it. I tried following online on the train, but it just wasn't the same.

My personal favourite part of how pissed off I am is every news report that claims it was the greatest World Cup final, and possibly greatest final in any tournament, of all time. Never mind 1950, or 1954, or 1966, or 2006; they all pale in comparison to Argentina vs France 2022, which I missed because I was on a train, which I only got because the trains were on strike yesterday. Dick, piss, balls, fuck, shit, fanny, bollocks, cock. Damn it.

Also, I really wanted France to win.

The chap doing the BBC News just pronounced it "Muh-bepp-ay".

>>10104

Is that not how you say it? I thought I was being a bit racist pretending you say it like "Mmmmm-bup".

>>10105
Mmm. Bappay.

The same way I always pronounced Mkhitaryan, but nobody else did, seemingly thinking he was a Scottish footballer called McItaryan. I think it's just a natural downside of an entire industry being dominated by illiterate ex-footballers, that nobody can pronounce any foreign names at all. Don't even get me started on Dirk Kuyt allegedly being Dirk Kowt even though the "uy" is pronounced the same as Johan Cruyff which everyone pronounces correctly.

>>10105


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHozn0YXAeE

>>10106

Well he wasn't that far off then was he. Closer than he deserved to be for a language as offensive as Fr*nch.

Is the Kenyan president being racialist here?

>>10109
A lot of French players will have African parents, but at this World Cup there's probably more players born in Europe representing an African team than the other way round.

For example, Tariq Lamptey was born in London but his parents are Ghanaian so he represents Ghana because he wouldn't get called up for England; Ghana definitely tried luring other English players eligible for them like Callum Hudson-Odoi with the opportunity to play at a World Cup. Hakim Ziyech and Achraf Hakimi both had a great tournament for Morocco but they're from the Netherlands and Spain respectively.

137 players represented nations they weren't born in.

>>10109
Yeah.