World cup

[ElieEstephane]

Football fans, who do you cheer for? I've been a Brazil supporter eversince i was old enough to kick a ball. I grew up on legends like roberto carlos, claudio taffarez, rondaldo, ronaldinho, cafu, kaka and all the bunch. Needless to say, Germany is our arch enemy

[DaveW]

It's pointless me cheering for England although I will watch them, since we have far too few talented native players in our league system and our press always over hypes them. We might stand a better chance if we put out a British team rather than ones for each of our component countries. Our Premier League is packed with foreign players since clubs find it easier to employ a successful overseas player "off the shelf" rather than bring along our own players. That is why we have not won a world cup since 1964.

A sensible Government when we leave the EU would treat football as any other industry and only grant a maximum of three one year work permits for foreign players per club, who would not be allowed to change clubs whilst still in the UK. That would force Britain's Premier League teams to bring on British players and we might then win something at last.

Also to me you should only be able to play for the country you were born in, or moved to when you were under 16. There is far too much qualification on what nationality your parents or grandparents were, or country you were "imported to" to play football as an adult that has made qualifying to play for a country a farce. The same applies to athletics, some Middle Eastern States are actually importing successful African athletes and giving them citizenship in order to run for them and obtain medals, which makes this idea of competing for your country a farce.

As you will gather from the above I don't mind watching football, or many other sports, but would not go to a game or athletics meeting when I can get a better view of the proceedings on TV and be in the warm, plus see more due to TV zoom lenses being able to get you up close to the action, unlike those stuck in the stands hundreds of yards away.

[ElieEstephane]

I really enjoy the premier league and i am a die hard fan of the gunners (Arsenal) but their performance is terrible the past few years. I think club owners,managers... prefer foreign players given how much publicity (and therefor money) they bring with them, specially with how much Emirates businessmen pump in the league. While we do have a blossoming lebanese football league, everyone still prefers to watch the premiere league or the spanish league because international players are far more interesting than local ones. Lebanese basketball remedied this problem by allowing a max of 2 foreign players (who are mostly ex NBA or similar) per team. However some teams managed to nationalize a few foreigners and at some point 3 out of 5 players of the team playing are not Lebanese. There is a high degree of government corruption here since while Lebanese nationality is worth nothing, it's almost impossible to get it unless unless you pay hefty sums to some high rank officials.
Anyway back tp the world cup, the Brazil team are putting on a terrible show - almost non existing defence and a degree of selfishness refusing to pass the ball and losing the offence. They are way too unorganized this year and i doub5 they'd make it to the semi final

[Aiko]

I used to like football up until ten years ago. But have not really watched a match in years but the Dutch national team. I do not like the Champions League matches as they are boring, have basically only predictable outcomes and only the same teams participate each and every year, and so many teams of the 'big' football countries. Why four teams of England, Italy, Spain and Germany, and barely one or none of Norway or Hungary? That is the name 'Champions League' unworthy. And adds much to the boredom of modern football.

Football is finishing itself off to my opinion. Any football news should be in the Financial Times, it is only about money and transfers and breaking contracts. And then there is the wining of football players on the match pretending to have almost died after a tiny bumb with another player.

I prefer to watch cycling, so looking forward to the Tour de France after enyoing the Giro de Italia thouroughly a few weeks back.

[ElieEstephane]

pretending to have almost died after a tiny bumb with another player.

I think proffessional football players learn to act to be in extreme pain way before they learn to play football

[DaveW]

Afraid football has become a business, as Aiko says and is no longer a sport. The player requirements for national teams and that needed for money making clubs are different objectives. However proper control by both the Football Authorities and Governments could solve it, as in the case of Elie's Lebanese Basketball authorities restricting teams to a maximum of two foreign players. However if the football authorities do not do it Governments could through only issuing 2 work permits for foreign players per team. The problem is our Football League is run by the top clubs themselves and not by an independent authority, so money will always transcend sport and the need to bring along the countries own players.

I remember watching a Premier League game on British TV a couple of years ago where even the commentator remarked one of Britain's top clubs had fielded a team with only one British player in it, meaning the remaining ten were all foreigners. Your hardly going to build up a squad of English players for your national team with clubs failing to bring on your own nationals and always favouring foreign players "off the shelf". That does not just apply to Britain of course, since many other countries leagues are packed with foreign players at the expense of bringing on their own countrymen.

An interesting article on allowing the entry of foreign players to British Clubs in the link below in 1978, and probably not coincidentally 1976 was the last time England won the World Cup. "International Teams" are probably killing the "National Game" in many countries now.

https://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/re ... d-wildfire

I often enjoy cup competitions far more where a lower or non league "giantkiller" team plays those from higher leagues and really get stuck in and worry the professional teams who are used to playing surfaces like bowling greens and other higher division teams being trained to just keep passing the ball around between themselves, or passing back to their goalkeeper for 80 minutes and only attempt to score the remaining ten minutes.

Modern "keep the ball" football is mind numbing to me since as soon as they get near the oppositions goal they seldom shoot but pass it back down the field again, even to their own goalkeeper since nobody will take the responsibility of shooting. Gone are the days of Stanley Mathews who could dribble a ball right through the opposition and shoot, but of course there were no professional fouls in those days where if the player got past, you grabbed his shirt or arm or tripped them up from behind. All professional fouls to me should be an automatic red card offence to stamp them out, but having half their present squad banned would be financial disaster for clubs, so don't expect the FA to really clamp down on unsporting play.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elu-5pVa364

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOGNXuie5IQ

Note in those days there were no moronic or childish goal celebrations, weird haircuts or copycat tattoos all over their arms and beards simply because others in the team have them. Nowadays it is certainly true footballers brains are in their feet since most have not really grown up yet. A professional footballer is paid to score goals, so why celebrate just doing the job you are paid for?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=577dd4UFPks

[DodoBrooke]

Alright, now Croatia was lucky enough to jump in among 8 best teams so be free to comment on it

Also what are your predictions? Who do you like best so far. Lot of things are different on this world cup, I have a feeling that just like everything else around us there is a kind of drama that follows most of the games. Results are concluded in the last seconds etc.
Weird.
My points go to Uruguay, they seem to play well. Sorry for Japan yesterday, they surprised me big time. Quite surprised with brutality of the Argentinian game though

[Aiko]

There hasn't been a team that has really shown it can win. Although France showed they had the potential if they just want to work for it, as they showed in the match against Argentina for just a few brief moments. They certainly didn't played well, but shifting up for just a few minutes was enough to secure a win. I think they can do much better. But I hope not... For now I hope it will be Belgium or Colombia to win. Maybe Uruquay or Croatia. I don't mind England, Switserland, Sweden to win, but if that miracle happens the lack of quality of these teams will still be a terrible mismatch on a list compared to all previous winners. Same for Russia really, with the difference I don't want a country with their kind of politics to win anything.

pretending to have almost died after a tiny bumb with another player.

I think proffessional football players learn to act to be in extreme pain way before they learn to play football

And this is the reason why I sincerely hope Brazil will not win. That Neymar guy is just plain awful. I can't imagine a more annoying player than him. That guy really is a disgrace for Brazil. They are much better off without this [...].

[ElieEstephane]

Yes you are right. No team has yet played well enough so that'd you'd jump from the couch while cheering although croatia are putting on a really good game. I really hope they win. Mexico had crazy stromg offense and defence but i don't know where they went wrong.
Neymar would probably be better in a Shakespear play! What i loved about brazil ever since 1998 was that they were a REAL team with everyone working together. Now it's just everyone backing up neymar and passing the ball for him hoping he'd score. That's not real football tbh. The second goal in the last match was actually meant to be shot by neymar when firminio got to it and i'm glad he did.

[DodoBrooke]

I agree about Neymar, there’s so many funny memes about him on social these days. The guy just exaggerates in everything.
Also true about France- they really had few brilliant moments but the whole picture is not so impressive.
I am enjoying Uruguay because of the Suarez-Cavanni duo. They do magic together.
Just watching England and...don’t know what to say

[ElieEstephane]

That was a tense set of penalties but england won. Congrats to all the brits

[7george]

That was a tense set of penalties but england won. Congrats to all the brits

True. But I liked the goal in 93rd minute Colombians scored. Real joy.

[DaveW]

Yes the English (not the Brits, Scotland and Wales etc got knocked out early on) just scraped through. Far more sensible if we did field a British team as we would have more players to pick from. It's just probably historical in having the UK home nations all compete individually. The English team needs to play far better if they are going to progress much further, the British press always over hypes them before a match, forgetting we have not come near to winning a World Cup since 1966.

Main trouble, as said before, was after we joined the EU due to their regulations we were forced to allow too many foreign players into our leagues, which meant that clubs then could pick from "ready made" players from around the world rather than have to bring along British players the National teams could use, as was the situation in the 1960's when we last won the cup. Let's hope after we leave the EU the Government will once again restrict the number of work permits for foreign players per team to the old pre EU levels..

It's now obvious far too many professional fouls these days are tolerated by referees and the authorities. I think any player closing their hand (grabbing) on another players arms or clothing should be a red rather than a yellow card offence and they be immediately sent off. Also deliberately tripping up another player who has got past them, the so called "taking one for the team" where they simply get a yellow card at present. Football will never be cleaned up until all professional fouls mean your team is now one man down against the opposition.

A couple of occasions in the England/Columbia match where the video referee was not properly used, or not consulted. The Rugby referees seem to use it more frequently and much better than football referees have so far.

I have always thought goals (as the Columbians scored) in open play were more difficult than penalties and ought to count double. Two points for a goal scored in open play with only one for a penalty. That only applies to the match itself of course, not penalty shoot outs when a match is drawn.

[ElieEstephane]

It's now obvious far too many professional fouls these days are tolerated by referees and the authorities. I think any player closing their hand (grabbing) on another players arms or clothing should be a red rather than a yellow card offence and they be immediately sent off. Also deliberately tripping up another player who has got past them, the so called "taking one for the team" where they simply get a yellow card at present. Football will never be cleaned up until all professional fouls mean your team is now one man down against the opposition.

Not sure if you watched croatia vs denmark, one hell of a match! This video shows your point exactly (watch at 1:05)
https://youtu.be/5_iIW2DZ8nc
This should have been a red card. It was a sure thing and this is just nasty play. Thankfully they won by penalties.

[DodoBrooke]

Football will never be cleaned up until all professional fouls mean your team is now one man down against the opposition.

Yeap that would be it. Right now too much calculations are made on how to prevent opponent's chance and it includes risking to hurt someone seriously.
Anyway, it had become really ugly. Check this move during ARG/CRO match
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFquLzkvRt8

Elie, thanks for standing up for this case. I almost had a heart attack watching this moment at home I was mad at Rebic not taking a shot earlier but those were seconds where he just wanted to shoot and he was pushed down.
The truth is that this game was one of the ugliest I have watched...We played so-so, even bad but Danes were just glued to us, we could not move freely not even for a meter. They are so good at defense. We were pure lucky that time.

Congrats to England for having their nerves collected until the very end. It was a good match.