Somewhere in this fetid swamp of corruption, you just know the trump crime syndicate has its greasy hands on the pie.
UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions
131–140 of 702 posts
Re: UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions
#132I find the UEFA standpoint a little disingenuous since commercial interests have been a top priority in football (soccer) for decades. Claiming that allowing investors to participate will hurt the sport are at the very least a misrepresentation of the current situation.
Although I disagree with his methods and goals I enjoy watching the way Infantino uses power play to stack the cards in his favor.
The only way for the UEFA to reclaim authority would be to demand two-thirds voting rights. The model of "one country, one vote" clearly works to UEFA's disadvantage even though its clubs contribute the majority of FIFA's income.
Re: UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions
#133It's only a matter of time before there are sponsors on the Yellow and Red cards...
“And that’s the second State Farm Yellow Card for Haaland!”
Re: UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions
#134Yes, but isn't football already overly commercialised? Why is advertising for sports betting or alcohol any better than the FIFA issue? UEFA should take a look at itself, too.
You can be against more than one thing.
Re: UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is nothing this family does not see as an opportunity for corruption. Comically evil.
as an opportunity for profit* I think it’s important to clarify the incentives at play, people are rarely evil for the sake of being evil
I think the evil part is the [at any cost] part, the incentives are irrelevant. An AI that only wants to make paperclips isn't evil because of the paperclips.
Re: UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions
#136FIFA is just upholding western values. Profit, exploitation and money over everything else. They with FIA and likes are just showing the world what truly matters for western world.
Put it this way - Europeans don't generally call themselves from "the West" in 2026 - it's an American geopolitical fantasy.
To be fair, China and Russia participate in the fantasy.
Re: UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions
#137I think the mandatory ad break introduced by FIFA at the World Cup was also too much for most football people, not just fans. Changed too much, broke the dynamics, basically the sport became a game of 4 quarters instead of 2 halves. These two things combined together are just over the top and unacceptable (UEFA already said they won't use these mandatory ad breaks anywhere) This is the closest where I can see a futur…
I agree completely with your assessment of the water breaks, but the games were extremely entertaining and I watched as much as I could.
Re: UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm most certainly not a football fan, but I definitely know that a match consists of two 45 minute (and then some) halves. It's pretty much equivalent to a non motor enthusiast knowing that there are usually four wheels on a car. I'd say this is very, very common knowledge in huge parts of the world. It's not something only enthusiasts and purists know.
Sure, but they aren't leaving the field. There are plenty of stoppages in game already which take as much time. In that sense it's nothing new. Do non-fans view it as changing to 4 "quarters"? I'm not sure most people would care. This is what I mean it's the kind of thing that football purists care about but it's a very small thing.
I don't know... I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that you're from a country where football isn't very popular. I don't think you realize just how many fans there are. How utterly ingrained it is in the culture of many countries. "non-fans" make up a minuscule minority of the population of at least Europe, and as far as I understand it South America and parts of Africa too. Not sure about Asia (varies wildly between countries, I suppose), but according to [0] it's estimated that about 3.5 billion people are considered football fans.
This is certainly something many people I know have cared a lot about - and again, I'm not a football enthusiast myself, but still the vast majority of the people I know are, because, not being one really is an outlier.
[0] https://www.topendsports.com/world/lists/popular-sport/fans....
> There are plenty of stoppages in game already which take as much time.
Well. Not really. And those "stoppages" are part of the game. Actually watching the players quarrel with the referee and whatnot is something football fans want to do. It's not comparable.
Re: UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
How was it a shit show? I’m genuinely curious. I attended 5 games (Atlanta, LA and Dallas) and was a fantastic experience minus the process to get tickets.
Sports people (I was listening to Bill Simmons) rated it pretty highly. There was nothing egregious and it was widely attended.
The World Cup final is supposed to be a war and the half time show turned it into a clown fest.
Re: UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
Changing the pauses of the game alters the momentum and, as consequence, the results. How is that “inconsequential”? There have been cases of corrupted referees before, but violating the Laws of the Game in plain sight is an unprecedented attack on the sport.
I think hydration breaks can be defensible as long as they are a) conditionally triggered by pre-existing criteria that is b) created by an honest assessment of player welfare independent of economic considerations. I can't say I think the halftime show is a big deal at all though.
They should also not be used an excuse for teams to be coached as a group.