[Soccer] Lets talk soccer

Yeah, Belgian team Club Brugge is doing surprisingly well (tieing with PSG and now winning against Leipzig) and they're completely overshadowed by... Who? :p
 
No no no, get that right. It's like the Denebola Tigers beating the Alpha Centauri Aces 12-0 on a three-hitter.

(And that reference is so inside, I'm pretty much the only one who understands it.)
 
...That's the equivalent of the Jacksonville Jaguars beating Tampa Bay on MNF - by a last minute touchdown.
Wait, are you saying the Jacksonville Jaguars are actually real & not just something The Good Place made up? I don't know what's real, or how many Hemsworth brothers there are anymore! :aaah:
 
Before we get *too* impressed, compared to the rest of the Moldovan league, Tiraspol are the Yankees, Red Sox, and Dodgers rolled into one. There's no one to challenge them, and won't be for a long time.
 
I have 3 things to say. 2 reminders & a stolen catchphrase.

Firstly, (modern) football was invented in Scotland. Secondly, I'm a wildly overoptimistic idiot. Thirdly, IT'S COMING HOME!

It's not & we haven't even qualified yet, only making the playoffs.
 
Apparently Canada won a key world cup qualifier versus Mexico the other day. The Mexicans were stymied by our tough defence and that it was held outside, in Edmonton, in sub zero weather and 12 inches of snow.
 
That's the sport related issue with Qatar isn't it? Too hot to play in the desert.

Ignoring the humanitarian issues...
But the intention still is to aircondition the whole stadiums (yes, the open-to-the-air ones) and keep it to a nice 30° max inside. Of course it'll still be suffocatingly warm and dry ouytside and everyone and their dog will suffer, and there's the whole thing we're conveniently ignoring, but, yeah. Even sportswise, Qatar was a rubbish decision.
 
So... is anyone else following Romain Molina's revelations?

The following is a non-exhaustive list of some of the claims made by investigative journalist Romain Molina (published in The Guardian, New York Times) in his most recent Twitter Space. It is important to note that while Molina's word is not to be taken lightly, as his work has influenced multiple FAs and officials in the past, this is not an official release on his part.
  • Elye Wahi (Montpellier striker) wasn't fired from SM Caen's youth setup for physically assaulting a supervisor at the academy. Instead, after physical threats, he brought over some secondary school friends in the washrooms to undress and masturbate in front of him.
  • 400+ players currently playing in the Premier League, Championship, Ligue 1, and Ligue 2 have been raped multiple times in their youth. Some of them have contracted anal injuries and/or diseases, and have gone to specialized clinics as a result. This is a two-decade-old issue, the first story will come out in December.
  • Megan Rapinoe wasn't bothered by Haitian girls getting raped. She prefers 'earning money' over 'defending these young girls'.
  • A Ligue 1 team covered up a pedophilia scandal in their youth academy by brainwashing the player by the time law enforcement was involved. Then, they sent the young player in question back to his country (he was a foreigner).
  • One of the largest academies in DR Congo is currently managed by a pedophilia ring.
  • An international coach was 'caught red-handed' after raping two 13 year-old girls in the middle of a tournament. His employer, a large media, fired him under other pre-tenses in 2017. This issue is especially concerning for 'us, as French people'. A famous, very well-liked personality participated in covering up this story as well.
  • Ferland Mendy hit a woman, knocked her to the ground, kicked her in the head, before showing her his genitals. She was taken to the emergency room after suffering head trauma. He also assaulted another woman. The player's club covered up the story in order to sell him the following year.
  • Some international games in Asia are fixed. Many players have stopped joining their national teams because of this.
  • Paris Saint-Germain has been conceding burn-out after burn-out. Over 100 employees have left the club in the last year alone. Leonardo is hated because of his behaviour/attitude.
  • The 'boss of Colombia's refereeing' is a pedophile. Molina has a complaint from a 12 year-old, which he can barely read in its entirety because it's 'gut-wrenching'.
  • Alexandre Benalla (French 'personality') has been trying to get involved in PSG for years. He fought with some of Nasser's entourage.
  • A consultant from L'Équipe has been involved in 'some shady stuff' in the transfer market.
  • Some very important people bend over backwards to get in touch with people close to Nasser Al Khelaïfi.
  • Most African FA presidents get paid prostitutes, or have their daughters' studies covered in other countries.
  • At Arsenal, all the players inhale nitrous oxide. A player came back to celebrate his birthday in Paris under the theme "nitrous oxide balloons".
  • A French international organized parties where he would defecate in women's mouths and film himself while doing it. He forced a girl, who later on sought to issue a formal complaint, to participate. Someone offered Molina a video, which he declined to see.
  • A Saudi consortium was never involved in the takeover of Olympique de Marseille.
  • The French FA pushes some of its people to coach national teams in Africa. They already did it with Didier Six, for example, and Guinea (note: he also coached Togo and Mauritius in the past).
  • Leonardo is hated in PSG. His signing of Icardi was not well-received by the coach at the time.
  • The massive media outrage surrounding the Qatar World Cup is political and financed by people/organizations who wish harm upon the country.
  • The son of Congo-Brazzaville's president is involved in the national team. In the Central African Republic, Kondogbia is friends with the president.
  • 80% of players smoke shisha. At one point in time, PSG players used to bring their shisha/hookah with them on away games. Blaise Matuidi regularly smoked shisha, but things still worked out for him.
  • The leagues in most Southeast Asian, Eastern European, and Latin American countries are fixed. Ireland, Malta, and Gibraltar also have 'lots' of matchfixing.
  • A former French international was involved in a 'go-fast' (smuggling drugs and/or other products in another country). His club's president 'saved his ass'.
  • FIFA claims to push for women's football, but does very little to protect the girls/women from abuse. It's rampant everywhere, on a global scale.
  • Morocco can 'shit on the ground' if they want, they have a large influence at CAF. They can 'do whatever they want'.
  • In the long-term, Tony Parker should take over the OL Group.
  • Kenya's FA has 16 bank accounts, including some 'hidden' accounts, when most FAs have one or two.
  • Amiens (Ligue 2) is [a circus]. On the way back from their away game at Ajaccio, everybody smelled like alcohol. The players love booze, shisha, drunken nights.
  • After Senegal complained against an overaged player in a U17 African team they faced, the national team declared the player as 'deceased'. He is currently continuing his career in the U21 national team of the same country.
  • A minor was raped and forced into an abortion at an "international center of FIFA".
  • East Timor eliminated Mongolia by paying Brazilian players to play for its national team.
  • Friends of the former Algerian FA president are waging war against the current leadership.
  • The Sierra Leone FA faked COVID tests throughout the entirety of the pandemic, most notably in its qualifier against Benin. Other nations and/or clubs are suspected to have forged documents as well, but this is not confirmed.
  • Mario Lemina received a handsome sum of money for representing Gabon. Other African players are also in similar positions.
  • EDIT: A player from Spezia has disappeared. The affair is linked with human trafficking issues and an academy founded in Nigeria by the club's president. Molina didn't have much time to expand on this one.
  • EDIT: Sexual abuse is rampant in the Mongolian FA, including players from the U15 girls' team. A coach even asked to sleep with a player's grandmother in exchange for a starting spot for the player.
Sources used for collecting the claims above: Twitter Space, transcripts from Instant Foot, Actu Foot, Footballogue.
 
Don't know how many people here also watch women's soccer, but yesterday the Belgian Red Flames had a qualifier match against Armenia.
It was a slightly lopsided match, and became the biggest victory in any qualifying match ever in women's football, with a final score of 19-0. And another goal was (incorrectly) counted as off side, it should've been 20-0.
 

...financial inequality among teams also went up over time. He compares it to gentrification — but in sports.
Better teams win more games and rake in more riches.
Then, they buy even better players and win more games.
Footie Capitalism?

--Patrick
 
Meikayla Moore scored a perfect hat trick (goals with the left foot, right foot & a header) for the US in their match with New Zealand at the weekend. Just 1 problem - she's a New Zealander & they were all own goals. :rofl:
Give her honorary US citizenship.
 
Poland were due to play Russia next month with the winners playing the winners of Sweden v Czech Republic for a place in Qatar 2022. Poland have said they WILL NOT play against Russia. I'd imagine the Swedes & Czechs will follow suit.

FIFA needs to kick Russia out of World Cup qualifying now before they essentially receive a bye through both play off rounds into the World Cup.
 
FIFA needs to kick Russia out of World Cup qualifying now before they essentially receive a bye through both play off rounds into the World Cup.
Throughout the past few I've been annoyed at media just saying "Russia" instead of the ROC. And honestly, if we are in ANY way serious about measures, we need to go hoop much further.
The EBU has given the example - Russia cannot take part in eurovision.
Exclude them from everything. Music, sports, culture, I don't care. Russia is not welcome. Russia has nothing to offer. We don't care about Russia. Russia is't part of our world.

As long as it amount to "gosh, be nice" it doesn't matter.

Obviously taking part in some sports doesn't actually matter. But for Russia, it does. Putin wants international power and standing. Deny it. Always,every here.
 
“Unavailable in your country.”

—Patrick
Footage of Christian Eriksen coming on as a sub for Brentford to play his first competitive football since collapsing with a heart attack for Denmark at Euro 2020. And the player he replaced - Mathias Jensen - is the same player who replaced him when that match resumed.
 
A: Qatar, Ecuador, Senegal, Netherlands
B: England, Iran, USA, Ukraine/Scotland/Wales
C: Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Poland
D: France, Peru/Australia/Ukraine, Denmark, Tunisia
E: Spain, New Zealand/Costa Rica, Germany, Japan
F: Belgium, Canada, Morocco, Croatia
G: Brazil, Serbia, Switzerland, Cameroon
H: Portugal, Ghana, Uruguay, Korea
 
I have to say that for the first round, the only interesting matchups seem to be Germany vs Spain and Belgium vs Croatia.
 
Northern Ireland's womens team lost 5-0 against England last night. NI's manager Kenny Shiels explained this heavy loss as "Girls and women are more emotional than men. So they take a goal going in not very well."

Fair to say (male) ex-player Ian Wright rather strongly disagrees.

 
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