Off Topic International Break Thread

  • Please bear with us on the new site integration and fixing any known bugs over the coming days. If you can not log in please try resetting your password and check your spam box. If you have tried these steps and are still struggling email [email protected] with your username/registered email address
  • Log in now to remove adverts - no adverts at all to registered members!
KingHotspur said:
Thats because Putin rules with an iron fist and even the hardcore hooligans knew to be on best behaviour. As a country though, Russia and Qatar both are a lot worse for the important things (human rights, gay rights) than over here.
Click to expand...

This is very true, but unfortunately Sunday showed the world that we really haven't moved that far on from the drunk englishman abroad hooligan element that spoiled many summer tournament in 80s & 90s.

We have the best stadia in the world but some of the most moronic fans too.
 
  • Like
Reactions: remembercolinlee, maggie blanchflower, BobbyD and 4 others
The Changing Man said:
This is very true, but unfortunately Sunday showed the world that we really haven't moved that far on from the drunk englishman abroad hooligan element that spoiled many summer tournament in 80s & 90s.

We have the best stadia in the world but some of the most moronic fans too.
Click to expand...

I agree and it’s sad and disgusting to see. But if Russia and Qatar can host world cups then fifa obviously aren’t very picky so can’t tell England where to go
 
  • Like
Reactions: remembercolinlee, "Thanks for that Brian" and The Changing Man
KingHotspur said:
I agree and it’s sad and disgusting to see. But if Russia and Qatar can host world cups then fifa obviously aren’t very picky so can’t tell England where to go
Click to expand...
The point with Russia and Qatar is they're part of this "Expanding the FIFA family" bollocks that Joao Havelange and Sepp Blatter were fans of, which also explains the USA in 1994, Japan & South Korea in 2002 and FIFA outright stating the 2010 tournament would go to an African country which is why only South Africa and Morocco submitted bids

And ultimately that's where several bids were wasting their time when you look at the various bidders
Spain & Portugal - Spain hosted the 1982 tournament, while Portugal hosted Euro 2004 (and that led to a ****load of white elephants)
Holland & Belgium - co-hosted Euro 2000
England - hosted the 1996 tournament plus Euro '96
Russia - never hosted a tournament

Same can be said for the 2022 bids
USA - hosted in 1994
Japan - co-hosted in 2002
South Korea - co-hosted in 2002
Australia - never hosted a tournament
Qatar - never hosted a tournament

On the other hand, both Euro 2020 and the 2006 World Cup go for this idea of spreading out tournaments, which personally I think is bloody stupid when you have things like the Denmark/Wales game where one team got to Amsterdam from their camp in Copenhagen while the other from their camp in Baku, but that seems to be one of Platini's ideas, hence the 2026 World Cup is split between the US, Canada and Mexico where surely similar issues can happen given not just the size of the US (case in point, Seattle, Miami, Houston, Boston and San Francisco are all venues) but then factor in Toronto, Edmonton, Monterrey, Guadalajara and Mexico City also being venues and suddenly the commute from Baku might look a lot less of a pain
 
KingHotspur said:
Thats because Putin rules with an iron fist and even the hardcore hooligans knew to be on best behaviour. As a country though, Russia and Qatar both are a lot worse for the important things (human rights, gay rights) than over here.
Click to expand...

Russian hooliganism is also much more organised - think more along the lines of scheduled brawls between rival fans. Not saying the other stuff doesn’t happen there too but the culture is very different to what’s developed in England since the 80s, even if old-school English firms serve as the Russian inspiration.
 
The Huddlefro said:
Russian hooliganism is also much more organised - think more along the lines of scheduled brawls between rival fans. Not saying the other stuff doesn’t happen there too but the culture is very different to what’s developed in England since the 80s, even if old-school English firms serve as the Russian inspiration.
Click to expand...
Polish fans are the same, as they arrange their mass punchups for the outskirts of the town either earlier in the day or sometimes the day before - which made the last World Cup easier to police as the authorities knew what to look for, and they were monitoring the hell out of Polish fans for this reason (and hopefully only this reason...)

The fact so few people wanted to chance what would happen if they got bladdered and hurled furniture around probably helped a lot, too
 
  • Like
Reactions: The Huddlefro
KingHotspur said:
Thats because Putin rules with an iron fist and even the hardcore hooligans knew to be on best behaviour. As a country though, Russia and Qatar both are a lot worse for the important things (human rights, gay rights) than over here.
Click to expand...
And because Russia never got anywhere near that game, having been knocked out in the quarter-finals by Croatia.
That happened in the relatively small and isolated Sochi, too.
The rough UK equivalent would be Dundee or Canterbury and I can't see it kicking off in them, either.
 
  • Like
Reactions: KingHotspur
humanbeingincroydon said:
The point with Russia and Qatar is they're part of this "Expanding the FIFA family" bollocks that Joao Havelange and Sepp Blatter were fans of, which also explains the USA in 1994, Japan & South Korea in 2002 and FIFA outright stating the 2010 tournament would go to an African country which is why only South Africa and Morocco submitted bids

And ultimately that's where several bids were wasting their time when you look at the various bidders
Spain & Portugal - Spain hosted the 1982 tournament, while Portugal hosted Euro 2004 (and that led to a ****load of white elephants)
Holland & Belgium - co-hosted Euro 2000
England - hosted the 1996 tournament plus Euro '96
Russia - never hosted a tournament

Same can be said for the 2022 bids
USA - hosted in 1994
Japan - co-hosted in 2002
South Korea - co-hosted in 2002
Australia - never hosted a tournament
Qatar - never hosted a tournament

On the other hand, both Euro 2020 and the 2006 World Cup go for this idea of spreading out tournaments, which personally I think is bloody stupid when you have things like the Denmark/Wales game where one team got to Amsterdam from their camp in Copenhagen while the other from their camp in Baku, but that seems to be one of Platini's ideas, hence the 2026 World Cup is split between the US, Canada and Mexico where surely similar issues can happen given not just the size of the US (case in point, Seattle, Miami, Houston, Boston and San Francisco are all venues) but then factor in Toronto, Edmonton, Monterrey, Guadalajara and Mexico City also being venues and suddenly the commute from Baku might look a lot less of a pain
Click to expand...
I'm just going to digress and say that's not the biggest issue with the 2026 tournament; 16 groups of 3 with the top 2 going through is open to all manner of skull-duggery. Why didn't they go with 8 groups of 6? Surely we'd all prefer to see our team play a minimum of 5 games
 
yossarian said:
I'm just going to digress and say that's not the biggest issue with the 2026 tournament; 16 groups of 3 with the top 2 going through is open to all manner of skull-duggery. Why didn't they go with 8 groups of 6? Surely we'd all prefer to see our team play a minimum of 5 games
Click to expand...
That sounds tailor-made for some suspiciously easy draws to be made, especially when you see how they've weighted the number of teams per confederation
Europe 16
Africa 9
Asia 8
South America 6
North & Central America 6
Oceania 1
Playoffs 2

In other words, they've already drawn Brazil against Canada and New Zealand, so we just have to wait for those teams to go through the formality of qualifying
 
PleaseNotPoll said:
And because Russia never got anywhere near that game, having been knocked out in the quarter-finals by Croatia.
That happened in the relatively small and isolated Sochi, too.
The rough UK equivalent would be Dundee or Canterbury and I can't see it kicking off in them, either.
Click to expand...
Sochi is more like Blackpool or Brighton. Seaside resort.
 
PowerSpurs said:
Sochi is more like Blackpool or Brighton. Seaside resort.
Click to expand...
I thought that Blackpool was insulting and Brighton was a little too large, in terms of UK to Russian scale.
Sochi's growth and use doesn't really have a modern equivalent over here, unfortunately. Yarmouth? <laugh>
 
littleDinosaurLuke said:
Loads of hippies in VW Transporters with surf boards?
Click to expand...
Well I'll start with his the waves are impossible to surf on as calling them ankle slappers is paying them a compliment, and then bring up how this also means you can see every single turd bobbing along in the surface, and finish up with mentioning how my hotel thought that Fawlty Towers was a documentary
 
  • Like
Reactions: remembercolinlee, redwhiteandermblue, The Changing Man and 1 other person
Germany's U23 Olympic team has walked off with 5 minutes of their friendly against Honduras.
Hertha Berlin's Jordan Torunarigha was racially abused and his teammates left the field in response.
Their coach, Stefan Kuntz, said afterwards: "When one of our players is racially abused, playing on is not an option."

Honduras have claimed via Twitter that the issue was a misunderstanding:
You must log in or register to see media
 
PleaseNotPoll said:
Germany's U23 Olympic team has walked off with 5 minutes of their friendly against Honduras.
Hertha Berlin's Jordan Torunarigha was racially abused and his teammates left the field in response.
Their coach, Stefan Kuntz, said afterwards: "When one of our players is racially abused, playing on is not an option."

Honduras have claimed via Twitter that the issue was a misunderstanding:
You must log in or register to see media
Click to expand...
Please tell me they're not using the Suarez defence of "No, this racial slur means something different in Honduran Spanish!"
 
The Changing Man said:
This is very true, but unfortunately Sunday showed the world that we really haven't moved that far on from the drunk englishman abroad hooligan element that spoiled many summer tournament in 80s & 90s.

We have the best stadia in the world but some of the most moronic fans too.
Click to expand...
Brexit and the Tories haven’t helped.
That undercurrent of nasty nationalism that spills over into racism, xenophobia, drunkenness and violence has always been there among a sizeable minority, but recent events have given them licence to come to the fore and beat their chest. Their behaviour is tolerated. We saw little police presence at the Euros, but if there’s a protest against some aspect of the establishment, the police are out in vast numbers. Even the Utd fans’ protest against the Glazers saw huge numbers of GMP on the street, yet pro-England hooliganism gets little or no response.
 
  • Like
Reactions: yossarian, PleaseNotPoll and humanbeingincroydon
Anyone wishing to have an early look at Brian Hill might want to check out the Olympics tomorrow.
Spain play Egypt at 8.30am and I think it's on Eurosport.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back