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HardcorePrawn

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Joined June 2012

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Brave of the Iranians to not sing the anthem, in solidarity with the protestors at home. I fear for the safety of them and their families now though.

I have never felt more conflicted about watching a World Cup

I don’t know of anyone going, to be honest.
Even past tournaments in far flung destinations like Brazil or South Korea & Japan I’d hear of friends of friends that had tickets. This time around though? No one.

I have never felt more conflicted about watching a World Cup

As someone who is actually from the north of England I’m not sure if I should be offended! 😂

I have never felt more conflicted about watching a World Cup

I’ve never felt less interested in a World Cup either, despite the presence of 3 teams that I have a connection to: England, where I’m from; Wales, where my mother lived; and Australia, where I now live.
Will I still watch, knowing what I know about the regime and how the workers who built the stadia suffered? Probably, but I suspect I’m going to find it difficult to get motivated to watch as many games as I did during previous World Cups.
The backflip over the service of alcohol at games does sound like a “first World problem”, but as you rightly say, if the Qatari authorities can change their minds at the last minute, then what else might they renege on? It’s already being reported that people were being paid a fee to “support” certain teams and attend matches (which in itself is a shocking state of affairs, whoever heard of a World Cup where people had to be paid to attend games?!), but that fee has been scrapped. Again, this was a last minute decision, taken after people had already travelled to Qatar on the proviso that their living expenses would be covered.
There’s a certain degree of hypocrisy about the alcohol ban too. While the fans in the stands can’t have a beer at the match, the VIPs, many of whom are Qataris, can. You can bet Infantino and his cronies will still be toasting themselves with an expensive Scotch after every game.
It should be noted too that FIFA have form when it comes to turning a blind eye to the brutal regimes of the nations they’ve chosen to host their tournament:
Italy in 1934, Argentina in 1978, and of course, Russia in 2018, awarded at the same time as Qatar.

I have never felt more conflicted about watching a World Cup

Sunderland supporter here. I wish my club had Arsenal’s problems.
I imagine fans of a host of other clubs probably feel the same way too, notably Wigan fans this week.

What's going wrong at Arsenal and how to fix it

To draw a comparison with Rugby: I attended the Melbourne Rebels match at Aami Park last Friday, where I witnessed a lad in his late teens using the back of the seat in front of him to lever off security tags from clothes he’d obviously shop-lifted earlier that day.
In doing this he was causing a fair bit of damage to the seat, and a number of people, myself included, reported it to security. Their response was to do nothing.
I couldn’t help but think of the response whenever damage is done to seats during a City or Victory match, and that such incidents have been reported by the national media.
Earlier in the same match a bloke ran onto the pitch to grab a selfie with some of the cheerleaders too. Again, no response from the security personnel who were a couple of metres away. Would an A-league supporter have got away with that? I doubt it.

When is the A-League going to admit it has a problem with policing?

How do you pronounce “Paris”?
The city is pronounced in the English language to rhyme with “Harris”, that’s a given.
However, if a sports commentator or journalist were to anglicise the name of that same city’s biggest football team to “Parris Saint German” he or she would be laughed off the screen.

Just say his name right, BT

This has to be one the best articles I’ve ever read on The Roar; actually, one of the best articles I’ve ever read anywhere.

Can rugby really embrace diversity?

City got 53,500 (or thereabouts) for the Cardiff game, which is only about 1,500 less than the Etihad’s capacity. I’d suggest those empty seats were most likely to be in the away end, as there wouldn’t be too many Cardiff fans willing to spend £30.00 on a ticket, and travel 4-5 hours in the car (or 3-4 hours by train), on a freezing cold Wednesday night, to watch their relegation-threatened team likely get thrashed by the current champions.

Do Man City have the most fickle fans in football?

Not logic, I’m just correcting your maths. You made the statement that “around 40% of the population voted against gay marriage in the referendum”, which is not true. The actual figure that did is nearer 20% of the population.

By sacking Israel Folau, Rugby Australia showed what true leadership looks like

Yeah, and Leviticus 19:28 also says,”You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks on you”.
Interesting that the heavily tattooed Folau seems quite happy to ignore that instruction, but picks & chooses other passages of the bible to pour scorn on others.

Rugby union would be a more inclusive, kinder place without Israel Folau and his backwards views

“around 40% of the population voted against gay marriage in the referendum”
Not 40% of the population, but around 40% of those that returned their votes, the total of which was roughly 50% of the population, just less than 80% of those eligible to vote. Those that did vote No were approximately 20% of the Australian population.

By sacking Israel Folau, Rugby Australia showed what true leadership looks like

People seem to be conflating freedom of speech (which, it’s worth bearing in mind, Australia doesn’t have) with the responsibilities of an employee.
Sure, Folau can say these kinds of things, just as anyone else can, should they so wish. But if any of us were to spout this kind of pious claptrap in our workplace, or anywhere that might embarrass our employers or cause them to lose business (as this will surely do – after warning RA before about his behaviour, can anyone imagine Qantas wanting to keep their affiliation with the Wallabies if Folau were to remain in the national team?), could anyone really, honestly say that there would not be repercussions?

Rugby union would be a more inclusive, kinder place without Israel Folau and his backwards views

They did. They (& Asics) threatened to cancel their sponsorship deals last time.

Rugby union would be a more inclusive, kinder place without Israel Folau and his backwards views

There are many things one can accuse Man City of: being a PR exercise for a despotic regime; using their owner’s billions to accumulate some of the best players, coaches & manager in the world; out-spending pretty much all of their similarly cashed-up rivals on their way to becoming one of Europe’s top sides; bending FFP rules with some conveniently lucrative sponsorship deals that effectively launder money through the club; their owners’ takeover & rebranding of clubs in other countries…
But, one could never accuse City of having fickle fans; nor could anyone accuse them of being a “smaller club”.
The punchline about sticking with your club “through thin & thin” could’ve been written for City fans, and even while floundering around England’s third tier the club regularly pulled in some of the largest gates in Europe.
City fans have tolerated some of the bleakest times of any of England’s larger clubs (and I say that as a Sunderland fan!). They’ve had mediocre players, worse managers, appalling owners, and yet, still they go to matches in their droves; & for a long while having to watch as their near-neighbours United dominated European football & hoovered up trophies.
I’d imagine the real reasons for their less than stellar attendance would come down to the price of the tickets, the dwindling appeal of the FA Cup, and the fact that the club were playing four games in two weeks, three of which were in London.
Fickle? Pfft.

Do Man City have the most fickle fans in football?

Similarly, after every home game every social media account that the Rebels operate was filled with requests to drop the music, the cheerleaders, the fireworks, the stadium announcements during the game, the pre-match “entertainment”, etc. but all to no avail.
The Rebels did experiment with a DJ up in the stands at one point, but I think that was knocked on the head after only one game.

Is anyone else sick of music at the rugby?

One of the benefits of the Rebels not having a major sponsor this season & last was not hearing the announcer imploring the crowd to cheer for “your Rabodirect Rebels!!”

Is anyone else sick of music at the rugby?

The Newcastle-Tottenham match could be interesting, given that the Newcastle players are refusing to fulfil media obligations until their bonuses get sorted out.

Premier League start time: When does the 2018-19 EPL season start?

“There was also the alleged recruitment of journalists and bloggers to promote negative stories in the USA, Australia and international media.” There was also the alleged recruitment of journalists and bloggers to promote negative stories in the USA, Australia and international media”

I wouldn’t mind knowing a bit more about this, is there any concrete evidence of this?
If true it would certainly explain why some of the Melbourne media seem to highlight any incident at an A-league match, while ignoring similar (or sometimes worse) incidents at Australian Rules games.

The smear campaign allegations could end up being the smoking gun needed to strip Qatar of the World Cup

I see that Melbourne Rising have only three “home” games, and they’re in Adelaide, Geelong & Ballarat.
I can understand playing in Geelong & Ballarat, but Adelaide? And no game in Melbourne itself? I would’ve thought that Melbourne’s outer suburbs would be a better place to stage Rising’s games than going to another another state.
I can only guess that the ARU are perhaps looking at inviting an Adelaide team into the NRC at some point, and want to gauge the response.

2018 National Rugby Championship draw released

In looking ahead to the quarter-finals and the potential for an easier path to the final, both nations (or perhaps just their media, and Bobby Martinez) appear to be massively under-estimating their next round opponents, a mistake that England did in the 2016 Euros.
There’s no guarantee either team will get past Japan, Colombia or Senegal in the round of 16. All three look beatable, but on their day could provide a scare, and neither England or Belgium have been seriously tested yet at this tournament, and are now looking likely to not face a serious test in this final group match either.

The absurd England-Belgium situation

“Portugal on their way to Euro 2016 glory played one opponent out of six who had reached the previous World Cup”

Not only that, but Portugal managed only win in 90 minutes throughout the entire tournament, the 2-0 victory over Wales in the semi final.
They drew each of their group games, against opponents they should have, on paper, have beaten fairly easily (Hungary, Iceland & Austria), only getting through to the knock-out stages by dint of being one of the best third placed finishers. They needed extra time to get past Croatia, extra time & penalties to beat Poland, then came Wales, then the final against France went to extra time too.

The absurd England-Belgium situation

“The English national team is going through a 52-year world cup drought.”
Well, technically speaking it’s a 48-year drought. England were the holders going into the 1970 World Cup.

England, your time is now

Have they booked their place in the last 16 though?

It’s unlikely, but isn’t there still a slight chance that Russia might not qualify if Uruguay beat them in their final group match, and Saudi Arabia win both their remaining games? That would put three teams on 6 points, with goal difference deciding which team goes through.
As I say, it’s unlikely, especially given Russia’s 7 goal advantage in the GD column, and the hapless manner in which the Saudis played their opening match, but it could happen…

Russia book place in last 16 with win over Egypt

Interestingly, it appears that the Italians are looking to England for inspiration too, but for very different reasons, as they rebuild following their failure to qualify for the World Cup:
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/mar/26/leonardo-bonucci-italy-england

What Australia must learn from England

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