FIFA 2026 WC - general

[melbcityguy]

English lass turned it off.

They just kept going and going at England to the point where it's passed being biassed. I dunno it just seems like you need to have a bit of a balance

 

[Football us life]

English lass turned it off.

They just kept going and going at England to the point where it's passed being biassed. I dunno it just seems like you need to have a bit of a balance

And a perfect example of how the line between light hearted "bantering humour" and something much more grating gets blurred. When comedy or commentary leans too heavily into one-note bashing, it stops being a clever observation and starts feeling like a personal grievance....

You'd likely hear similar sentiment from an English comedy come cricket podcast if the Australian cricket team were beaten in a Cricket World Cup.....

It’s classic "little guy" syndrome the desire to poke the bear precisely because you know the bear is massive, even if the bear doesn't really notice you're there.....

 

[LFC]

English lass turned it off.

They just kept going and going at England to the point where it's passed being biassed. I dunno it just seems like you need to have a bit of a balance

It shows the lack of talent and ability - we call it tryhards and that they are.
Waste of time cheap entertainment glad I stopped after first episode.

 

[Football us life]

I've been having a read of some of the French football boards and a lot of people are now "tripping out" over Didier Deschamps after their elimination....

Some have been quite aggressively critical while some just argue that France relied too heavily on individual brilliance rather than a cohesive tactical identity. Some just say his legacy as the most successful manager in modern French football history is secure, but that it is the right time for a change.

I'm gonna be doing an article on Dédé for my Le Foot blog. A retrospective of his career, particularly his 14 year legacy with Les Bleus.....

I'm putting a balanced, positive spin on his time at the helm of France's NT. He hasn't just been a manager, he has been the architect of the most stable and successful era in French football history....

But I think I'll be avoiding promoting it to the newly initiated Deschamps haters on Reddit who have suddenly found a bit of err "Reddit noise"!!!

 

[theFOOTBALLlover]

Lineker’s actual exit from the Beeb followed a controversy regarding a social media post he shared that criticised Zionism and included a rat emoji, which is historically associated with antisemitic tropes....

He quickly deleted the post and apologised, stating he did not realise the historical connotation of the image and that it was not his intent to cause any offence.

Which kinds of proves my point that he lacks the necessary depth and expertise to engage in such political discourse as a central theme in his public activism.

Don't think a mistake disqualifies someone from having an opinion. Do we have to be an expert on any topic to have an opinion? People are on this forum are here to discuss their opinions so does that mean if they aren't an expert, that they shouldn't be here to post?

Listen to the podcast, especially if this is the only issue you have with him. I think one of the points he made is he didn't see the whole post before reposting it.

 

[Football us life]

Don't think a mistake disqualifies someone from having an opinion. Do we have to be an expert on any topic to have an opinion? People are on this forum are here to discuss their opinions so does that mean if they aren't an expert, that they shouldn't be here to post?

Listen to the podcast, especially if this is the only issue you have with him. I think one of the points he made is he didn't see the whole post before reposting it.

I respect your point of view but Gary Lineker does have previous form....

He once talked about the UK government's "Stop the Boats" asylum policy as "immeasurably cruel" and compared the language used to promote it to that of 1930s Nazi's in Germany....

Britain has given political asylum to literally 100, 000's of asylum seekers during the last half a decade, many of which arrived on boats from France....

None of these asylum seekers have been sent to the same fait that happened to Jews in Nazi Germany, so a bit on the strong side there Gary!

He also linked former British Conservative PM Liz Truss to Russian donors something which was later proved to be absolute nonsense.

Some might view these incidents as evidence of a pattern a "radicalisation" if you like, or a chronic inability to separate his personal political views from his role as a prominent public broadcaster, whose wages at the BBC were paid by the public via the UK's TV licence fee.

But yeah, a mistake or even three mistakes shouldn't disqualify someone from having an opinion.....

 

[NicCarBel]

The original with Sam Pang used to be better.

Which makes sense because the one episode they got him as a guest (and essentially did the whole show as the original 3) was probably the best episode of this run

 

[erogenouszone]

Some have been quite aggressively critical while some just argue that France relied too heavily on individual brilliance rather than a cohesive tactical identity.

I can't agree with that. Using those front 5 the way they did seems to work quite well. Just that Spain's midfield was the better on the day posession and distribution wise.

Some might view these incidents as evidence of a pattern a "radicalisation" if you like, or a chronic inability to separate his personal political views from his role as a prominent public broadcaster, whose wages at the BBC were paid by the public via the UK's TV licence fee.

The man that pays the piper calls the tune.

 

[theFOOTBALLlover]

I respect your point of view but Gary Lineker does have previous form....

He once talked about the UK government's "Stop the Boats" asylum policy as "immeasurably cruel" and compared the language used to promote it to that of 1930s Nazi's in Germany....

Britain has given political asylum to literally 100, 000's of asylum seekers during the last half a decade, many of which arrived on boats from France....

None of these asylum seekers have been sent to the same fait that happened to Jews in Nazi Germany, so a bit on the strong side there Gary!

He also linked former British Conservative PM Liz Truss to Russian donors something which was later proved to be absolute nonsense.

Some might view these incidents as evidence of a pattern a "radicalisation" if you like, or a chronic inability to separate his personal political views from his role as a prominent public broadcaster, whose wages at the BBC were paid by the public via the UK's TV licence fee.

But yeah, a mistake or even three mistakes shouldn't disqualify someone from having an opinion.....

You really like Lineker. Seem to know his whole history.

 

[YdF]

Interesting take.

Met a mate haven't seen for about 6 months. Started talking about NRL and his beloved Dragons and the shit they have become. Anyway the topic gets on to Australia's WC2026 tournament.

Long story short, his reaction is that FIFA didn't like the way Poppa successfully played the game against Turkey and didn't want any more of that shite against the home team and any other future opponent. Hence the board was contacted by FIFA heavies and lo and behold Australia go back to shitball. Maybe they withhold the prize money. Amazing what being 17 odd million in debt can make you do.

As a non-football man he reckons he saw and understood the difference between game 1 and the shit served up the rest of the tournament.

Now, if any one else had said that to me I would consider the possibilty, chuckle and go on my merry way. Yet from this bloke, I would seriously consider the possibility and walk away wondering how far down the rabbit hole I would like to go.

 

[Football us life]

You really like Lineker. Seem to know his whole history.

As.a high level football presenter, commentator or podcaster he's great! As a poltical advocate he's lacking a bit of expertise and he's definitely not media trained in that respect....

No biggie!

 

[theFOOTBALLlover]

As.a high level football presenter, commentator or podcaster he's great! As a poltical advocate he's lacking a bit of expertise and he's definitely not media trained in that respect....

No biggie!

As I said, you don’t have to listen.

 

[Football us life]

The man that pays the piper calls the tune.

To be honest if I was the big boss at the BBC I would probably asked him to tone down the political rhetoric stuff because he was a very good football presenter who had as a football player been there and done it....

 

[Football us life]

As I said, you don’t have to listen.

No you're 100% right, I don't and to be honest I don't listen that much. I prefer the Athletic stable of football podcasts to be honest, also The Game from the Times and the Jonathon Wilson one "Libero" which is by far the best English language football podcast Ive listened too.

 

[NicCarBel]

Interesting take.

Met a mate haven't seen for about 6 months. Started talking about NRL and his beloved Dragons and the shit they have become. Anyway the topic gets on to Australia's WC2026 tournament.

Long story short, his reaction is that FIFA didn't like the way Poppa successfully played the game against Turkey and didn't want any more of that shite against the home team and any other future opponent. Hence the board was contacted by FIFA heavies and lo and behold Australia go back to shitball. Maybe they withhold the prize money. Amazing what being 17 odd million in debt can make you do.

As a non-football man he reckons he saw and understood the difference between game 1 and the shit served up the rest of the tournament.

Now, if any one else had said that to me I would consider the possibilty, chuckle and go on my merry way. Yet from this bloke, I would seriously consider the possibility and walk away wondering how far down the rabbit hole I would like to go.

Well.. that's most certainly a take haha

 

[YdF]

Well.. that's most certainly a take haha

Sad part of it is that after seeing what FIFA and infangulo have done over the last 12 months and in particular the last 6 weeks it wouldn't surprise me. Unlikely yes yet giving the freedom medal to the orange "four time bankrupt" dildo would not have been on anybody's cards 12 months ago either.

 

[Monoethnic Social Club]

Sad part of it is that after seeing what FIFA and infangulo have done over the last 12 months and in particular the last 6 weeks it wouldn't surprise me. Unlikely yes yet giving the freedom medal to the orange "four time bankrupt" dildo would not have been on anybody's cards 12 months ago either.

What are you talking about? Is there a more Peacefulness* president in the history of the world? He has singlehandedly ended the Iran war 16 times in the past month alone. More times than any other human being in the history of the galaxy... He deserves ALL the medals, not just the very exclusive FIFA one ...

*Peacefulness is a copyrighted term, any and all unauthorised use by Communists will be subject to preosecution.

 

[Decentric]

I've been having a read of some of the French football boards and a lot of people are now "tripping out" over Didier Deschamps after their elimination....

Some have been quite aggressively critical while some just argue that France relied too heavily on individual brilliance rather than a cohesive tactical identity. Some just say his legacy as the most successful manager in modern French football history is secure, but that it is the right time for a change.

I'm gonna be doing an article on Dédé for my Le Foot blog. A retrospective of his career, particularly his 14 year legacy with Les Bleus.....

I'm putting a balanced, positive spin on his time at the helm of France's NT. He hasn't just been a manager, he has been the architect of the most stable and successful era in French football history....

But I think I'll be avoiding promoting it to the newly initiated Deschamps haters on Reddit who have suddenly found a bit of err "Reddit noise"!!!

I was very impressed with France - along with Spain and Portugal - as the three top technical teams.

I’m elucidating details in the Socceroo stats/analysis thread - and how facets of these teams’ play compares to the Socceroos.

France gained the ascendancy too late in the game against Spain.

 

[theFOOTBALLlover]

I was very impressed with France - along with Spain and Portugal - as the three top technical teams.

I’m elucidating details in the Socceroo stats/analysis thread - and how facets of these teams’ play compares to the Socceroos.

France gained the ascendancy too late in the game against Spain.

Technical is all we were. We had nothing else. Too passive with the ball for most of the tournament.

 

[NicCarBel]

Sad part of it is that after seeing what FIFA and infangulo have done over the last 12 months and in particular the last 6 weeks it wouldn't surprise me. Unlikely yes yet giving the freedom medal to the orange "four time bankrupt" dildo would not have been on anybody's cards 12 months ago either.

it's catching on - I like it