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Football: When God shuts a window, he opens a new one in January.


A Horse Named Stranger

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The Welsh and English football supporters associations have returned from a fact finding trip to Qatar and are reporting their findings back to the media.

The chap from the English FSA spoke at length on Football Weekly (he starts about 31 minutes in). Nothing he had to say was particularly positive.

There is virtually nothing to do in Doha. It sounds like it is going to be a grim, wallet-shredding experience for fans. And due to the enormous fees venues have to pay in order to show the games on TV, it also sounds like it is going to be almost impossible to watch matches unless you are actually in a stadium.

Or a 5* hotel. But seeing as FIFA have hoovered up 80% of the hotel capacity for themselves, with the remaining 20% going to their advertising partners, fans can forget that. Instead, it's tents in the desert, or eye-wateringly expensive apartment rentals where you will not even be able to watch games.

On top of all this, for the first time ever, the fans of every nation competing in the competition are going to be crammed into a city the size of Sheffield. I'm sure that will pose no particular problems.

At the end of his briefing, the response from one of the panel members was, 'It's just shit, isn't it.'

Fuck FIFA.

 

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32 minutes ago, Spockydog said:

At the end of his briefing, the response from one of the panel members was, 'It's just shit, isn't it.'

Fuck FIFA.

I heard about a report, but couldn't find it on the interwebs, that there was also next to no parking or infrastructure to accommodate the number of expected tourists and that the stadiums are woefully inadequate when it comes to concession stands and bathrooms.

 

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11 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

I heard about a report, but couldn't find it on the interwebs, that there was also next to no parking or infrastructure to accommodate the number of expected tourists and that the stadiums are woefully inadequate when it comes to concession stands and bathrooms.

 

The FSA chap spoke of having to travel to one stadium via a train, then a bus, followed by a mile walk in 35 degree heat with zero places to rest.

He also said that they raised a whole bunch of organizational issues, but 'The Supreme Committee' does not appear interested in receiving feedback. On any matter whatsoever. 

For instance, any fans removing their shirts are to be immediately ejected from stadia. The FSA tried to explain that this will likely cause problems, because in England and elsewhere, it is perfectly normal for male football supporters to remove their shirts. Especially when it's hot.

But according to the Supreme Committee, there will be no attempt to ask any offenders to put their shirts back on. Instead, they will be summarily ejected, probably dragged from their seats by goons with batons. People seeing this will be confused. And angry. And this might cause an escalation.

But, the Supreme Committee do not appear to care about any of this.

Once again, fuck FIFA.

 

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I hadn't even considered something as simple as fans removing their shits being an issue. I was more worried about what will happen to fans who want to drink and party.

And if it's going to be that hard to get in and out of the stadium, and you can't bring in food and water, and they're expected to run out rather quickly, this could be a medical disaster... 

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23 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

I hadn't even considered something as simple as fans removing their shits being an issue. I was more worried about what will happen to fans who want to drink and party.

 

£15 a pint. And that's if you can get inside in the first place. 

Doha isn't London or Paris. There aren't thousands of pubs, bars and restaurants where you can just rock up to and get pissed. 

If you want to drink, it will have to be in a hotel. And most of these places will not be welcoming your average football fan with open arms. 

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2 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

This story has a lot of layers to it, but how common is it for a team to dismiss the majority of the players instead of firing the coach when the former clearly hate the latter?:

https://www.espn.com/soccer/spain-espw/story/4752428/spain-womens-team-to-replace-15-players-threatening-to-quit-over-head-coach-stay

Well, it's a national team, and they quit, not have been fired. But yeah, unheard of so many players walking out publicly. And considering how's a woman's team, apparently the FA president is a buddy of the coach, it's not hard to have suspicions...

 

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39 minutes ago, Spockydog said:

£15 a pint. And that's if you can get inside in the first place. 

Doha isn't London or Paris. There aren't thousands of pubs, bars and restaurants where you can just rock up to and get pissed. 

If you want to drink, it will have to be in a hotel. And most of these places will not be welcoming your average football fan with open arms. 

Do we have much sympathy for people who are going there though? They should have known what they were signing up for and everyone collectively said 'no thanks, fuck you fifa'. 

If enough ingerland fans get arrested and detained for a long time it might make England matches more pleasant in future. 

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3 hours ago, Spockydog said:

The Welsh and English football supporters associations have returned from a fact finding trip to Qatar and are reporting their findings back to the media...At the end of his briefing, the response from one of the panel members was, 'It's just shit, isn't it.'

Fuck FIFA.

On the one hand, I specifically don't have much empathy for a lot of the fans who follow England, as they often demonstrate the sort of bad behaviors I associate with football fans of the past.  And in general, internationals usually generate lower-quality matches than league games, and fan behaviors of other national teams (Mexico and their piss-bags, Hungary and their ultras, etc.) are similarly unappetizing.

On the other hand, absolutely no one should be surprised that this whole moveable feast is a $hitshow, since a.) assigning the competition to Qatar and b.) moving it to winter is stupid as hell and motivated purely as a cash grab for FIFA.  Qatar hosting the World Cup is 1:1 with Donald Trump as US President; inappropriate, ineffective, and potentially dangerous.

If I was a player in one of the sides playing in the WC, I would not bring my family to Qatar.  It may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to represent your country at the WC, but Qatar is going to be a rough ride for everyone involved.  Players are putting their health at risk playing in the heat and humidity.  Fans are being put at risk by the lack of proper infrastructure.  It won't be good.

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I really don't care for the lumping of all football fans together in some homogeneous, loutish mass. Nor the notion that they are deserving of being treated badly. 

It's a tired old trope that really needs to get in the fucking bin. 

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20 minutes ago, Wilbur said:

If I was a player in one of the sides playing in the WC, I would not bring my family to Qatar.  It may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to represent your country at the WC, but Qatar is going to be a rough ride for everyone involved.  Players are putting their health at risk playing in the heat and humidity.  Fans are being put at risk by the lack of proper infrastructure.  It won't be good.

Nah, families of players are safe. This is a sport washing event, the last thing you want is bad press over abducting, pardon, arresting a player's family.

As for the heat and humidity. You haven't been paying attention have you. At this greenest World Cup in the history of World Cup, they will use massive AC to cool down the stadiums. That will of course cost a fuckton (or rather a few) of energy and cause another fucktong in emissions. But hey football. I am curious what on earth that fabled fact finding mission of the English and Welsh fans was for? It's a horrible idea to have a world cup there, it should never ever have been considered. Human rights violations are well documented. In short it's ethically and enviromentally a disaster. 

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10 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

 I am curious what on earth that fabled fact finding mission of the English and Welsh fans was for? 

To determine what conditions would be like for fans, I expect.

His advice to any LGBTQ folks thinking of attending.... Don't. 

 

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17 hours ago, Spockydog said:

I really don't care for the lumping of all football fans together in some homogeneous, loutish mass. Nor the notion that they are deserving of being treated badly. 

It's a tired old trope that really needs to get in the fucking bin. 

I agree with you but the behavior outside Wembley during the Euro 2021 final didn't do them any favours.

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26 minutes ago, Darryk said:

I agree with you but the behavior outside Wembley during the Euro 2021 final didn't do them any favours.

None of those idiots had tickets. That was a policing failure, not a stick to beat genuine fans with.

Ditto Champions League final in Paris.

 

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