Soccer, sports and politics (R)

So, just to be clear: when it comes to watching WCs, slavery, abuse, torture and repression are tolerable, but bad refereeing is just too much to take?

 

Mee too! Robot refs would be great. Most matches would be abandoned due to too few players left on the pitch. No one would watch including me.

 

Eye-ranian mouthpieces make it so hard to support that joint.

Today, in a press conference ahead of USMNT vs. Iran, an Iranian reporter questioned Tyler Adams' support of the Iranian people, and then asked the team's captain if he’s comfortable representing the U.S., given the way the country has treated Black people. 🗣️🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/xjr0fGTWCi

— Men in Blazers (@MenInBlazers) November 28, 2022

 

Well? Did Adams understand the point?

 

That the Iranian reporters were trying to score meaningless points because US Soccer decided to change Iran's flag? Pretty much. But his response was along the lines of "Racism is a universal constant across all countries".

 

Found an article that has part of his response:

https://swandive.substack.com/p/the-usa-iran-and-the-god-of-football?sd=pf

 

Today be clear of what you’re saying. If some of us want to watch the World Cup and that ref is part of the game. Then keep our social judgement to a separate thread made for that.
Then you’re going to throw abuse at any football fan that posts on here if they enjoy the game. Because!

Of course none of us like that there are several counties in the tourney with bad abuse records, you obviously don’t.
But what are you doing about it?

 

Or the opportunity to enrich them further? I mean, it *is* kinda either/or: giving this WC the attention given to others is exactly what those profiting off it want us all to do. It rewards Qatar, FIFA, and the sponsoring corporations in a variety of ways, including (but definitely not limited to) financially.

 

Help me out, because I might have missed this:

Are you upset that everyone else is not boycotting the world cup?

Also: Are you boycotting the world cup?


Asking, because I honestly don't know if you are, or if this is a bit.

 

Isn't that this very thread? Or is P&CE no longer the place for P&CE? I've avoided all the other WC threads for this very reason.

I think you have me confused with someone else.

For starters, the easiest things I possibly can: I haven't watched a single minute of this WC, even as highlights on ESPN or YT; and to the extent that I've been able to determine advertisers without watching, they're not getting a single penny of my money. And have told them so, and why. Not that I believe that my stance is going to have persuade FIFA or their sponsors to do anything differently; it's more to fight off self-loathing. I know I'd feel a lot worse about myself if I knew that I was rewarding them for what they've done. If I rewarded them for what they've done when it's *so incredibly easy* not to reward them, I'd find it hard to claim that I really do care. It'd feel like 'I care, but not enough to do the absolute least I could do.'

That's my starting point. What else it means for me, I'm still working out. I'm open to suggestions! What have you done/are you doing?

 

Then in that case you’d need to overhaul the entire game, from timekeeping to the number of referees to the way they spot free kicks and throw ins. This sport sacrifices the attempt at absolute precision of something like American football in favor of being a free flowing game without excessive stoppages, and human error is always going to be a part of that.

As it is we’ve just moved the realm of human error to the VAR room where they microanalyze footage to the point of absurdity. My personal opinion is that the original decision by the referee team should take precedence, and only a clear and obvious error should result in overturning a decision.

 

He went as far as he needed to in that situation, keeping it non-controversial and classy while also making the reporter who asked it look like a partisan hack by contrast.

 

Re: your first point, that's not necessarily true; and I have tried to minimize this by e.g. getting food from CSAs etc. rather than grocery stores as much as I can.

But yes, I do know that it's all-but-impossible to function in society and not reward someone bad for their actions. (I'd be stunned, for instance, if some of that money paid to CSAs didn't trickle down to Monsanto, and it's hard for me to think of anyone I find more evil than those guys.) Nevertheless, I do have the ability to assess how necessary an action is for me, and how much of a sacrifice would be required of me to avoid it. I do have to eat; I don't have to watch the WC. On the scale of sacrifices, my opting out is one of the least demanding sacrifices I've ever taken.

 

It depends on what you mean by upset. It really makes me sad that it's happening at all and that folks are watching. That's the main emotion, really -- being sad. Feeling like crying at times, to tell the truth. But I certainly had no expectations that everyone (or really, anyone) else would opt out.

Yes.

 

A blast from the past trying to kick our ass

The 69-year-old globetrotting polyglot who’ll try to topple the U.S. men's national team at the 2022 World Cup on Tuesday once spent an entire year trying to fix American soccer.

Carlos Queiroz has coached on five continents, at four World Cups and at some of the world’s biggest clubs. He’s now the mastermind behind an Iranian team hellbent on sending the Americans home from Qatar early.

But in 1998, he lived out of a second-floor Tampa condo that once caught fire. He spent the year traversing the United States on commercial flights, speaking with hundreds of coaches and players at all levels of the sport. He’d been hired by U.S. Soccer to diagnose its ills and explain how it could win the men’s World Cup by 2010. And that, in between “all-you-can-eat” meals, on endless summer days, is what he tried to do.

https://sports.yahoo.com/carlos-que...e-united-states-from-world-cup-134602810.html

 

OK, I understand you more.

At the same time, I've come to EXPECT that pretty much any large-scale sporting spectacle will include some bribery, corruption, and exploitation of the poor and/or those otherwise unable to fend for themselves.

I've certainly had it front of mind that this was definitely going to be the case in Qatar, as well as in Russia, and several other world cups. I pretty much assume ALL olympic games will come with bribery, corruption, and exploitation. I also assume that most big time college sports come with bribery, corruption, and exploitation.


I respect your view and your stand, and I also share [many of] your concerns. Pretty much every sporting event you enjoy will be like this [to some degree], pretty much for the rest of your life.

Do with that information what you will. I had to go back-and-forth in terms of choosing to watch the WC or not. I've definitely watched less of this WC than I have in the past, but then I also watch less of EVERY sport than I used to, as well.

 

I'd be OK with replacing the 4th official with an inanimate object, such as a post that could hold up the sign showing the minutes of injury time and/or substitutions. I'm pretty sure that some inventor can come up with an invention that can replace a real human doing the 4th official's job.

I would then move that human from doing a job that an inanimate object can do, give them a whistle, and have them share the pitch with the center ref.