International football - RIP

Honest question - is anyone still interested ?

Talking to the manager of my local bookie at the weekend - he says that his football bets are down by over 50% on international weekends

Going back to the 70s - used to love the Home Nations games, big occasions televised live on TV.

30 years later - who gives a flying f*ck everytime we beat another team ending in “via” ?

 

I'd be quite interested if Scotland would stop getting beaten by teams ending in "via". or "kia". or "nia".

 

Or any team for that matter.

 

Between tournaments, not interested.

It's being killed off by the Champions League.

Meaningless fixtures don't help, both friendlies and qualifiers.

When the World Cup gets to 128 teams Internationals will be killed off completely.

 

It shows you how interested I am, the last England international game I forgot that they were playing.

 

I don’t care too much more for international football. If you thought our owners were bad (and I’m no way endorsing here) but the FA and FIFA are far worse. If owners and corporations were people:
- Roland = Charles of Spain (read up on him)
- FA = Kim Jong-Un
- FIFA = Hitler & Stalin has a baby with Satan

They’re all corrupt and don’t care about football at all. They’re only interested in money and their sponsors. When it comes to England, they pick the team because it helps their shirt sales and managers are blamed for their series of ballsups and journalistic pressures.

FIFA do it on a global scale, building unnecessary stadiums in countries that have no population, or trying to quash our traditions such as The Poppy band. I’m taking one example here, as I’ve been writing about it attentively, the Qatar World Cup:

1. Most of the high ranking FIFA officials took bribes, was not an even competition (and it gets worse)

2. Seb actually said “gays should try and avoid to be homos during Qatar 2022”

3. They sanctioned the use of North Korean workers, who they pay $5,000 a year, direct to the North Korean government. In turn, they pay these workers $1.25 per month out of that sum. The rest of the money they’re not putting into social well-being of their country, going directly to their nuclear programme- DPRK make around $2.2billion exporting their citizens to work in some of the most dangerous jobs.

4. Workers are treated poorly and are getting worked tirelessly in the blazing heat. So many are dying on a daily basis. They have their passports surrendered upon entering, many are unable to leave. They live in squalid conditions. Disease is rife and the death toll is astonishing, in this day and age. People die on building sites, but take London 2012, there was one casualty on a site, and that was a cardiac arrest, not an accident. Fundamentally there is something wrong with the working conditions out there and FIFA turn a blind eye.

5. They rarely pay tax. They have so many tax exemptions. They boast a $3.5billion “rainy day” fund in the bank.

Even after the FBI arrested tonnes of their top officials, nothing’s changed. It’s becomming more about the spectacle rather than the game.

 

I think there is a lot of truth in the theory that the Champions League has effectively killed international football.

How is Jordan Henderson an England captain ?

 

Barcelona joining the Premiership may make that competition more interesting.

 

So might Celtic joining League 1

@ForestHillBilly

 

There is potential here for the Premier League to become the Premier World League.
Barcelona, Real Madrid, PSG, Bayern Munich and half a dozen others could join (even a couple from South America). All the little teams like Stoke, Watford & Bournemouth could be kicked out, and the Premier League could completely detach itself from the rest of English Football.

The Championship then becomes the top English league, and the winners are recognised as Champions of England.
Disillusioned supporters of the 'big 6' English prem teams who are still in the Premeir World League could form AFC versions of their teams and within 10-15 years they could be competing again at Championship level.

The EFL will then have rid itself of the corrupting influence of the Premier League altogether. Fans of real football can enjoy competing in the Championship and remaining leagues, and the Premier World League can play all its games in Qatar or China or wherever it wants, nobody will care.

 

I think the current position with Barca is slightly different from the others you mention.... they may well get kicked out of the Spanish league through no fault of their own.

 

Charlie Adam made a similar point last night on the radio- the Premier League is in reality 6 super teams now - 5 and a half if you consider Arsenal.

 

All other teams have a shelf life. Aston Villa have proved that. And if a team like Leicester gets above their station they quickly get put in their place.

 

No fault of their own? They and their fans have actively pushed a Catalan identity, and the idea of Independence. If they don't want Independence they've kept damned quiet about it. If they do, they should be happy to play against other Catalan teams like Girona, Espanyol and Sabadell. The idea that they will dump all their neighbouring teams in a pointless regional league if they gain Independence, while they swan off in search of money and glory in another European league is a sickening example of their solidarity with the other teams around them.

 

Not a word of protest from the vile EU over the Spanish police’s behaviour towards the Catalonians at the weekend.

At least one British MEP challenged Juncker about his craven silence in the EU Parliament today.

Thank f*ck for Nigel Farage !

 

In what way is it any of Druncker's business?

 

A number of EU panjandrums & Spanish politicians described the Catalonia referendum as an assault on the EU & it’s ideals. Plenty of examples of this on Twitter, including from a couple of unelected and highly paid EU Commisioners.

Another nail in the coffin of this stinking cesspit of corruption.

 

No whiff of democracy can be allowed to impede the gravy train of these garlic eating smellies, with their failed war records & thirst for Drambuie for breakfast & UK taxpayers money.

 

Are you referring to the EU or the Spanish?
Garlic is wonderful stuff btw. I've just planted loads in the allotment, expecting a bumper crop next year.

 

The EU is fundamentally undemocratic, and anti-democratic.
When we finally leave it will be satisfying to watch it disintegrate.

All that federalist crap can be swept away and replaced by a trading block run by (and for the benefit of) the UK and Germany. NATO can take care of European defence against Putin.