A Beautiful Thread for the Beautiful Game

BBC: Fifa report 'erroneous', says lawyer who investigated corruption claims

I smell a whitewash.

Typical FIFA. Nothing will change. Any player who goes to work for them automatically loses a ton of respect from me.

BBC Sport: Fifa corruption report: Judge 'surprised' at Garcia criticism

Big night for Scottish fitba!

Warrant for Craig Whyte's arrest issues!

Meanwhile, at Mar Hall hotel...

A game's afoot.

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We play Ireland at Celtic Park tonight. Hopeful for a win.

edited 14th Nov '14 10:45:31 AM by Achaemenid

Kerala Blasters 0-0 Mumbai City FC

I'm getting worried. The attack isn't working, it's taken a lot of work by the awesome, awesome Subrata Paul to keep clean sheets, and two 0-0s in a row could be a harbinger of a rather horrific future results. At the very least, we may not make it to the playoffs. Both are away, true, but it is rather troubling.

If there's one positive, it is that India has a goalkeeper who is capable of playing with the best of the best.

Hungary 1 - 0 Finland.

Fuck's sakes. It really does seem that over these past two season in most of the games I've watched the team that controls the ball more and has more successful passes in the attacking third and more goal-scoring opportunities is usually more likely to lose in the end.

Hungary got a lucky deflected header from a very good cross and won a game that Finland dominated for most of the time. The teams were very evenly matched in terms of skill but Finland was usually able to cut Hungary's possession quite quickly and maintain pressure either on the counter or, usually, from a slow build-up.

It seems very unlikely that Finland could somehow still mount a realistic qualification campaign. This is very disappointing as our national team has been improving over the past several years and we got a relatively easy group, with three slots to at least advance to play-offs. Finland lacks a good striker at the moment and that is costing us points almost every time we play but more often than not the other side's goal comes completely against the flow of the game, with a long spell of Finnish dominance intercepted either by a successful cross from distance or from a great set piece.

Another trend in football recently has been poor refereeing. I can't complain about that today, though. Sure, there was a clear penalty call for Finland that the referee missed but to be honest one lost penalty (or one penalty given for nothing) still constitutes a fantastic effort for a modern referee. I never took Hungary for a team that dives but today we saw a bit of that, as well as Hungarian players kicking Finns about 2 or 3 seconds after the Finn has already passed the ball. The referee did usually give at least a free kick for those, though, so I'm not complaining. Finland also made some cynical fouls to stop the game after losing the ball (usually in midfield) and we were punished for it every time, which is as it should be.

The game had a draw written over it for most of the 90 minutes, with Finland looking more likely to score but Hungary's defenders and 'keeper doing a fantastic job to keep the game level. Hungarian fans and players alike are probably thrilled and very surprised that they were able to get the three points despite everything today.

Denmark beat Serbia 3-1! What a coup for the Danes.

Shame about Finland.

Scotland also beat Ireland 1-0! Brilliant. We can get ourselves tickets to Europe if we try hard enough.

edited 14th Nov '14 1:58:45 PM by Achaemenid

Fortunately I'm not quite as upset as I was when the events portrayed in that comic took place. When Finland loses in football, even if they lose despite controlling the game, I can at least credit them for reaching the level you'd expect of a country where football still has a long way to go to becoming the most popular sport, and where we are still only developing players who get to play in the Champions League at a rate of maybe 2-5 players per decade.

That defeat against Denmark was much more shocking because in ice hockey we are actually one of the favourites to win the World Championship every year.

If we failed to get at least bronze we'd always consider it a miserable year. We've only won the gold twice ('95 and '11 - almost every Finn will have seen both games a number of times) but we've got the silver 7 times and the bronze 3 times, as well as the bronze from the last two Winter Olympics and silver from the ones before those.

Denmark are primarily a football country. They do play ice hockey but they're considered one of the teams that the big teams should always defeat, and if one of the top 7 national teams loses against Denmark it's always considered quite a surprise (even though obviously it does happen every now and then.)

Good show to Scotland, Ach.

Even if I was rooting for the other guys. >.>

I don't often say this, but we deserved that win.

Ireland played some truly shocking football tonight, to be honest. Lots of lazy long balls and chasing, combined with some pretty nasty physical play. They were lucky not to have a man sent off.

Keane is a bad influence on them. A good pundit, a good player, but he's become lost in his own legend. He was giving it the whole "look at me, I'm a hardman!" shtick with the ref today too. Silly old muppet.

Portugal 1-0 Armenia

Didn't watch the game, but it was apparently very poor. At home, we didn't created much chances and the goal was a basic "lots of legs in the area, blocked shots, lucky shot" (Ronaldo scored).

Still, 3 points, so it's ok. However, Fernando Santos will have to do a lot of work.

edited 14th Nov '14 2:45:07 PM by Quag15

Fucking look at this - like watching Barcelona:

That was very good - I love a team goal.

Germany warns Uefa may quit Fifa if World Cup report not published.

O.O

Well, good on them. Can't see it sticking though - the African and South American associations are corrupt as hell, and both are pretty much behind FIFA.

....Holy shit.

Oh. My. God.

Interesting times indeed. While obviously Europe is one continent, and the support may be there of the CAF and CONMEBOL, most of the best players play in Europe, and if UEFA decouples from FIFA, those players may have to make hard choices. FIF Pro may in fact side with Germany and UEFA in this case, rather than their parent organization, because it is their livelihood and their job to work in a place commiserate with their talent and abilities.

Ideally, if Qatar 2022 didn't happen, it'd be great, because slave labour? 40 degrees Celsius temperatures? 2022 is eight years from today; what if, in that time, a footballer who is gay qualifies for his national team? Will they execute him? The US might be a reasonable substitute, or get it back to Asia in a more reasonable country; Australia, perhaps, or while we're on countries who've never qualified for the Cup, mine own country.

If the Germans go, and it looks like they might, Spain, Greece, Ireland and France are going to follow them. For whole long lists of reasons. I don't think the Home Nations would be long following them out the door either.

And that may just be the start of the exodus.

The African, Asian and South American nations may stay, but how credible would a WORLD cup be without the nations who gave the game to the world? If any group has a say on how this plays out, its the folks in Asia who bet BILLIONS of dollars a year on the game, and more during major cup competitions. They may end up being the catalyst that boots Blatter out on his corrupt, venal, fat, arse.

Nottingham Forest is now 11th in the Championship.

So fucking much for my hopes for promotion.

Hearts 2 - 1 Falkirk.

Didn't manage to catch any of this game. I hope we've returned to form after a disappointing few games. Still, nice to see El Hass finally score, and doubly good to see Rangers and Hibs both drew. Still - it'll be squeaky bum time from now on with those two chasing us. Rangers at Tynecastle next week. A must-win.

It's kind of shocking that FIFA is so bad that even UEFA can legitimately take the moral high ground over them...

Always a Bigger Fish.

I think Blatter might give us a World Cup if that happens; but I doubt it will have much legitimacy even among Indian fans. Holy hell, UEFA out of FIFA? God, where'll all the top players play?

Asia might not unilaterally side with FIFA either; Japan's and Korea's best players, who play outside Japan, play almost exclusively in Germany (Okazaki, Hasebe, Kagawa) with one notable exception: Keisuke Honda in Milan. Africa - how corrupt is the CAF?

Also, could the CONCACAF have significant power in this? The US protesting against FIFA may provide rich meme fodder (You have no power here!).

But UEFA is a big, big superpower in world football, when it comes to the majority of football played (leagues in Europe, Champions League and Europa). A decoupling would be... unthinkable.

I think Blatter will do the same thing he always does when his corruption is called out: say Europe unfairly dominates the game and spout some nonsense about how he is bringing the game to Africa and Europe is just jealous. It'll work too.

Don't forget his accusations of racism if anyone reports on the corruption of some African national teams and institutions.

edited 16th Nov '14 6:38:50 AM by Quag15

But muh colonialism...feckin' whingers. It's almost like they don't appreciate the railways and those pretty straight borders!

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In more amusing news, the British polling service YouGov has released a profiler for British groups that includes the fans of Scottish football teams. Some good stuff - according to YG, Hearts fans:

• Are mainly concentrated in Central Scotland, are middle-aged, and work in transport, logistics, government, civil service, energy, and utilities. We are mainly working class, yet have a monthly disposable income of £500-999 (!) and our politics are left wing.
• We are sporty, our most likely pets are dogs, our favourite sports are golf and football, our general interests are politics, travel, and international news, whilst our number 1 niche interest is Edinburgh. Our top three favourite dishes are porridge, Arbroath smokies, and lentil soup.
• Our personalities: we are "relaxed, independent-minded, and challenging", but on occasion are "cantakerous, diffident, and grumpy". We exercise regularly, like choice, and are unafraid of change.
• Our most likely car is a Seat (fuck off...), we usually shop at Asda (again...), we bank at the Bank of Scotland, and our top clothing brands are Slazenger, Matalan, and George.
• Our favourite movies are Blazing Saddles, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Wild Wild West, War of the Worlds, and The Maltese Falcon. Our favourite TV shows are Saint & Greavsie, Criminal Minds, and Scrapheap Challenge.
• Our top facebook searches are "Lost Edinburgh", "Yes Scotland", and "Edinburgh Evening News". We follow, among others, Kevin Spacey, Charlie Brooker, and The Onion on Twitter.
• We watch the weather, the news, and Pointless.

There are some belters, though, from other teams:

Rangers:

• Strongly right wing, come from establishment occupations, favourite dishes are tattie scones, square sausage, and bridies, favourite celebrity is John Wayne, and readers of the Herald. Their personality quotes are a belter: "I rely on TV to keep me informed", and, my favourite:

Aye, so ye have. Pricks.

Celtic

• Poor. Main interests are religion and video games, though exactly the same love of high carb, high fat foods as fans of The Rangers. Favourite artist is Rod Stewart! On twitter they follow the Pope. They believe that "the world is controlled by a secretive elite", "the USA is the biggest threat to world peace", and "Marx was right". But the absolute best is their favourite movie:

...except by your sisters!

Hibernian

• Less disposable income than HMFC (aye, the broo doesn't stretch that far, does it ). Government is top occupation. Most likely pet is a fish. They're sporty and eat healthy though. They want to go to the pub for a drink, and like fresh food over frozen. Favourite film is Resident Evil: Apocalypse (dear lord...). They read The Scotsman. But the best is one of their top facebook searches:

Since 1902...

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What does YouGov say about your team?