Just finishing a little procrastination, catching up with "Colney Carpool" and here's one that give us a glimpse into the man that is Matt Turner. Seems a very likable dude, if a little bit of a nervous, reluctant passenger w/ Frimmy!
Costa Rica was to play a friendly in Iraq today but the fixture was cancelled. Apparently they had a verbal agreement not to have their passports stamped upon entry into Iraq, but the agreement was not honored at the border as expected. The rationale provided was that the Costa Rican delegation wanted to avoid any future travel complications due to the Iraqi stamp. Anyone have an experience with this sort of thing being the case, or know anyone this has created real problems for? I can imagine all kinds of stuff, but it all seems based on fear and/or discriminatory practices. Do governments base policy on something as simple as a stamp? People visit nations for all kinds of charitable and faith based reasons that would have nothing to do with being a person of interest.
I don't remember which thread we talked about Jesus' underperforming xG but here it is All numbers are not the same. Abraham's under performance is miles worse than Jesus if you take the time to watch and see the overall effects on the team. Jesus is MAKING shots for his team, even if he doesn't score, while Abraham needs chances made for him and he still misses. The only positive to Abraham right now is his work rate and ability to run and stretch the field, but his xG still annoys me. I am not annoyed with Jesus at all. Completely different scenarios.
Normally I don't know my xG from my elbow, but that was some solid (READ: Simple) analysis @Shen-O !! I'm convinced the reason I suck at golf is because when I listen to swing analysis talking heads on TV my brain turns into oatmeal. Honestly, it has nothing to do with the fact that I don't practice at all.
Met an American in my travels in Berlin who went to Checkpoint Charlie, and they do "passport stamps". Our tour guide said they aren't official stamps and they invalidate passports. Our new American found this out the hard way. Said he got the stamp then was refused entry into England when they checked his passport and had to get an emergency passport to travel back to the US. There are tons of countries where a passport stamp prevents entry to other countries. Israel isn't recognised by like 30 odd countries, it got to the point where last I heard Israel don't stamp passports anymore you get a slip of paper they stamp on entry and exit that is separate to your passport. That might have changed as I haven't worked in travel in a while. If you want to enter the US you use a visa program and it asks you what countries you have previously been to, and you get denied if Iran, Iraq, parts of Africa and North Korea are on there. This is for civilians, not sure what the case is for people who served there. Do Costa Rica play many friendlies/internationals against the USA? Do they have players in the MLS? Because that Iraq stamp would make that very difficult.
Thats absolutely why they avoided that stamp then. I was warned when I was traveling around Europe that if I wanted to go to Serbia that I couldn't get a stamp in Kosovo or they wouldn't let me in.
Fun fact I just learned… When South Korea lineup next week, their entire defense (goalie + back 4) good I’ll be named “Kim“. Not sure if that will make it exceptionally easy or hard for the PBP commentator!
Alcohol sales are now banned inside the stadium for all WC matches. The only option available for purchase will be Bud Zero, if that even counts as beer. I’m wondering what else will be walked back before the WC starts and until the final whistle.
Bud Zero. I had to look it up. 50 calorie, non-alcoholic beer. I need that, said no human being on Earth ever. Sounds like a product designed specifically for a World Cup in Qatar!! I'm guessing bottled water will retail for $10 a liter at one of these stadiums, could you imagine anyone seeing Bud Zero on the board for $25 and making that choice instead?
No vomiting? At least in public places No PDA? At least by queer folks Who knows?! Seriously, I won't be a bit surprised if there's push-back or demonstrations by fans which leads to tense moments at least, or violence, suppression and death, at most.
I haven't really given much thought to which fan bases will be well represented at this World Cup or how many people overall will actually flock to Qatar to be a part of it. Aside from how the stadiums we're built and the deaths of so many to do so, I really don't know all that much about the country. It seems that many European nations along with the United States aren't terribly excited about Qatar being the host nation because of this, along with the corruption throughout FIFA that ultimately led to their winning the host bid. For me, that isn't necessarily an indicator of how many fans will show up regardless. And as far as the rest of the world goes, I really have no idea what their feelings are about traveling to Qatar.
I have a Lebanese friend who says he has a number of friends that work in Qatar and he's planning on laying over a few days on his next trip back to Lebanon (flys Qatar Airlines so easy to do) and his friends say it won't be any trouble getting tickets. I wonder how many tickets will be given away to make sure the stadiums are full for TV?
I'm reasonably confident Budweiser/InBev weren't banking on massive sales for this WC, and they will still get all their marketing that they are actually paying for, but you have to wonder that this decision coming 2 days before matches start is stupid as they've likely had to ship beer to the WC, and are now being told they can't sell it. This is something that could/should have been addressed months, but realistically years before now. My guess is that the black market for beer and other banned items is off-the-charts there.
Well I think you can still get alcohol in the hotel bars and restaurants. The difference will be people probably got their drink on and then went to their room but now you'll have a huge number of inebriated fans wandering to stadiums in public. Plus the ones that will try to sneak in alcohol to matches.
If the beer is already in the country, then Budweiser already sold it. It's whoever is running the stadiums (likely the government) that's out the money for the beer. Of course they'll more than make up for their loss just by the presence of thousands of additional fans that wouldn't have otherwise come to a dry World Cup. Nothing last minute about this decision. Planned all along.
One (hopefully) last note on beer sales. It sounds like corporate event passes are excempt from the beer ban in the stadiums. Corporate passes start at 19,000GBP
My thought exactly. I wonder if FIFA was also "aware" of this "secret plan." And I wonder if either entity will be experiencing a rude comeuppance by the fans next week or beyond? Or Qatar also has a brutal plan in their back pocket for that eventuality?
Public intoxication: against the law. Homosexuality: against the law. Not that any of this is new information, but cultures are about to collide in a place that has rarely been in the spotlight. On a global stage, no less. I'm gonna go grab some sunglasses. And some popcorn....
Exco didn't work. 1 vote per country doesn't work. Time for a change. Nobody cares but I'm boycotting. At least they won't make $20 off my ad views. Modern day slavery.
Tifo Football have done an amazing Youtube series with brief bits about Qatar, leading into them getting the rights for the WC, Platter getting the boot, Infant taking over, other Gulf states wanting to "share" the WC because it brings "peace and stability" to the region (spoiler they wanted to punish Qatar).
I'm not sure North America hosting the 2026 world cup is any less shady than Qatar hosting this one, if I'm being honest. I mean, they drained the FIFA swamp years ago, but these decisions were made decades ago.