Football thread 2022/23

[glb]

What does everyone think the Premier League survival line will be?

 

17th-placed West Ham’s current PPG puts them on 35 for the season. With so many games between those in the bottom half though, could be a few points either side of that. Not sure anyone has a particular ‘easier’ run of games either.

[ryodi]

If I was Wolves I’d be mad that wasn’t a penalty.

[Baring]

Wolves have had nowt from the ref/var here. 
 

[Shimmyhill]

36 minutes ago, ryodi said:

If I was Wolves I’d be mad that wasn’t a penalty.

 

5 minutes ago, Baring said:

Wolves have had nowt from the ref/var here. 
 

 

Second huge VAR fuckup this weekend, fine with marginal decisions that they wont always be right or timely but that was a clear foul and penalty. How is VAR getting progressively worse these days, are the Tory party running it or something?!?

[Loik V credern]

Gavi is a fucking idiot. I always get the impression Xavi is too cowardly to tell him to stop doing something he's done lots of times this season

 

It was on the fucking half way line!

 

 

That was 20 minutes in at 0-0. This is at 50 minutes in the same match:

 

He's demented and aside from Suarez I'm not sure I've seen someone as possessed that it's thrilling to watch. But Suarez wasn't reckless like this. Gavi is still only 18, he's not going to last another 17 years doing suicidal stuff like this is he? 0-0 against Bilbao leading the table by 8 points. 

[redbloodcell]

8 hours ago, Loik V credern said:

Gavi is a fucking idiot. I always get the impression Xavi is too cowardly to tell him to stop doing something he's done lots of times this season

 

It was on the fucking half way line!

 

 

That was 20 minutes in at 0-0. This is at 50 minutes in the same match:

 

He's demented and aside from Suarez I'm not sure I've seen someone as possessed that it's thrilling to watch. But Suarez wasn't reckless like this. Gavi is still only 18, he's not going to last another 17 years doing suicidal stuff like this is he? 0-0 against Bilbao leading the table by 8 points. 

 

Yeah Xavi should really have a word, there's plenty of danger of a career-ending head injury just through normal play without sticking it in front of people's swinging feet! 

[Fry Crayola]

Frankly, it should count as dangerous play, for his own safety. I can't imagine any player who accidentally kicks an opponent's head when they're doing such a thing would be too happy either if it ends badly.

 

In fact - it already does. From the current Laws of the Game:

 

Quote

Playing in a dangerous manner
Playing in a dangerous manner is any action that, while trying to play the ball, threatens injury to someone (including the player themself) and includes preventing a nearby opponent from playing the ball for fear of injury

 

[Boothjan]

21 hours ago, ryodi said:

If I was Wolves I’d be mad that wasn’t a penalty.

 

21 hours ago, Baring said:

Wolves have had nowt from the ref/var here. 
 

 

I have no idea what we have done this season to be on the receiving end of some quite horrendous decisions.  Maybe PGMOL are still pissed off with Nuno for criticising John Moss?

 

Or maybe they're just absolutely fucking appalling at their jobs?

[JohnC]

Remember the World Cup expansion from 64 to 80 games in 2026? They changed their minds. It'll be 104 instead. And instead of 16 groups of 3, it'll be 12 groups of 4. Top 2 from each, plus 8 best third places go through.

[glb]

Groups of 4 is much better than groups of 3 for sure.

[Fry Crayola]

I'm sure the backlash from clubs has already begun.

 

A 32-team World Cup was not broken in any shape or form, except maybe the rampant commercialism, but the format was solid. If they wanted to include more teams from confederations like CAF, AFC and CONMEBOL, who are the main drivers of the expansion, then the better way would be a final phase of qualification that draws in nations from around the world. Fewer automatic places via the continental qualifiers, and potential routes there for sides who might miss out on one of the five spots afforded to the 50-odd in their confederation, but could still give a European also-ran a good run for their money.

 

104 matches is simply overkill. 

[JohnC]

Yeah but

 

Quote

Adding matches helps FIFA chase its target of more than £9bn in revenue

 

which is surely the most important metric for a successful World Cup.

[Chewylegs]

Quote

Adding matches helps FIFA chase its target of more than £9bn in revenue

Cunts.

[Ork1927]

1 hour ago, JohnC said:

Remember the World Cup expansion from 64 to 80 games in 2026? They changed their minds. It'll be 104 instead. And instead of 16 groups of 3, it'll be 12 groups of 4. Top 2 from each, plus 8 best third places go through.

 

That is pretty much the end of a one country world cup as well isn't it?  How many stadiums is that going to take?  And I assume they can't increase the window (weeks) that it takes place by too much so just a ridiculous amount of games every day with the added timezone issues.

 

Also pretty much removes all jeopardy for the 'big teams' going out in the groups as the increase in teams means there will likely be more 'cannon fodder' and 1 decent win will almost guarantee you to qualify.

[ryodi]

I’ve read it’ll be a 40 day tournament and the new format makes the group stage meaningless for the big teams due to the eight best third placed sides going through. 

[Ork1927]

Everyone will zone out of the group stages and then be expected to jump back in for a monster first knock out round which will also likely consist of mainly mis-matches and deliver little in the way of shocks given the bigger teams will have probably have gotten to rotate and rest players in the groups and shaken off any sort of rust that may previously made them vulnerable to going out in the group stage where there were stronger groups.

 

 

[Mike1812]

Fantastic, that 9 billion is sure to get pumped back into the game to make it even better! 

[Gabe]

It was always going to be a mess however they carved it up so the only hope is that it's a commercial disaster and is never attempted again (ha, as if!)

 

Obviously the expansion decision was made years ago so that in itself can't be impacted or influenced by what happened in Qatar, but if it had then somebody smart* would've realised that a) the actual standard of football was pretty poor for much of the tournament, so a thinning of that general quality is not going to help in that regard and that b) sure, there was lots of drama in pretty much every last group game purely because big teams were in danger of going out as only 2 qualifying spots were on offer.

 

That's ignoring that 104 games in ~40 days is insane for all involved - broadcasters, players, spectators and viewers. It's just far, far too much. I mean a lot of people moaned about the drop in quality due to increasing the Euros to 24 teams (and the lack of danger due to the 3rd place qualifiers there), so this is going to be a bigger mess. x2, in fact.

 

Clowns.

 

*I realise there aren't many smart people within FIFA, of course.

[Azrael]

Misread it as it was expanding to 104 teams 

 

 

 

Probably won't be long until it is mind.

 

We (Scotland) would still manage to not qualify. 

[glb]

The Panini album is going to cost more than Chelsea’s squad to complete.

[Fry Crayola]

Another change is that instead of separate international windows in September and October, there'll be a single 16-day window featuring four games in late September.

 

That's really going to upset some club fans.

[bradigor]

Where in the actual fuck was the handball?

[Chindie]

 

As ever, good stuff.

[SeanR]

Shit ref is shit

[SeanR]

A perfect dive 6.0 from grealish

 

and standing on someone’s foot wins you a foul now?

[Ork1927]

1 hour ago, Fry Crayola said:

Another change is that instead of separate international windows in September and October, there'll be a single 16-day window featuring four games in late September.

 

That's really going to upset some club fans.

All club fans I’d imagine - so in a tournament year, 2 months after the World Cup/Euros have finished and just a few weeks after the season has started there are two weeks of what will be increasingly meaningless international games that will play some part in qualifying for the next tournament.

[Fry Crayola]

Some minor part, given it'll always be the Nations League.

[Timmo]

Haaland activated rubber banding tonight. 
 

Subbing him off on 5 goals is as annoying as Pep hinting he’ll try Ederson in midfield and never doing it. 

[Azrael]

Had half an hour left to go for the double hattrick, fucksake Pep, what a wanker. 

[CGB]

3 minutes ago, Timmo said:

Haaland activated rubber banding tonight. 
 

Subbing him off on 5 goals is as annoying as Pep hinting he’ll try Ederson in midfield and never doing it. 

Genuinely so annoying! We were literally witnessing history and now the game is pretty much dead.