The Great Game.

Magnarc · Guru

The Great Game.

Peter_n_Margaret · Guru

You called it a "Game", but in fact it is not a 'game' at all.

This is the difference between amateur sport and professional businesses and seems to apply to all codes.

Cheers,
Peter

-- Edited by Peter_n_Margaret on Sunday 28th of June 2026 09:01:45 AM

Magnarc · Guru

Yes you are so right there. With the big money comes the big betting, and thats what it's all about these days.

dorian · Guru

Cheating is an accepted part of the game in South America. We only need to remember how Maradona was lauded by the Argentinian public despite his "hand of God" incident. If any Australian player had committed such a disgraceful act, he would have been ostracised back home. If you doubt that, just remember the personal fallout from the ball tampering affair.

Peter_n_Margaret · Guru

dorian wrote:
just remember the personal fallout from the ball tampering affair.

In my view, everyone involved in the ball tampering affair should have been banned from the game for life.

Cheers,

Peter

landy · Guru

Yes these days winning has become much more important than how your team plays the game.
Landy

rmoor · Guru

"I watched the Aussies play Paraguay on Friday morning.I saw Paraguayan players rolling around on the pitch clutching their leg, writhing in absolute agony, after they had tripped over their own feet in a tackle. Then came a crafty little look to see if the ref had seen it. If no free kick was given they were up and about, miraculously cured,a minute later.

Membership of Actors Equity union should be made compulsory for these guys. This sort of performance is a blight on what used to be, when I was a lad, a great game."

With you on that one.
Cannot watch the stupid game. Mainly because of the acting that mars the matches.
Watched a match for 3 or 4 minutes a few days ago and switched channels quickly.
All I saw was a fullback passing to the keeper who passed it to another fullback who passed it back to the keeper etc etc.

Thought, this $^#& is boring......click - over.
Have better things to do in my super busy retirement!!!!

Also agree with Peter n Margaret, the ball tamperers should have got life.
It was orchestrated and wrong, they knew what they were doing was wrong and cheating.
Don't know if the captain knew of the plan pre game day, but definitely the other two should have got life.
The younger "new boy" player should have stood up to the main perpetrator and said no.

We will probably never know if that team was rotten from the top down, or from the bottom up???

Wol · Member

dorian wrote:
Cheating is an accepted part of the game in South America. We only need to remember how Maradona was lauded by the Argentinian public despite his "hand of God" incident. If any Australian player had committed such a disgraceful act, he would have been ostracised back home. If you doubt that, just remember the personal fallout from the ball tampering affair.

Or bowled underarm

rmoor · Guru

Underarm bowling was legal at the time.
Wasn't cheating, but was possibly the worst act of sportsmanship ever by an Australian.

Rod Marsh intervened but was not listened to.
When a senior player on the team is ignored when he warns of the consequences, then there was an obvious problem at the top.
The other issue in that instance was, I think it was Chatfield, his chances of hitting the last ball for six were a million to one!!!!

I adhere strictly to the rules of golf each week, but I often wonder if I am playing on a level playing field and getting knocked off by those who may not be in the same paddock of morals?

dorian · Guru

Disgusting.

Mexican fans keep Ecuadors team awake before World Cup showdown:

https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2026/7/1/mexican-fans-keep-ecuadors-team-awake-before-world-cup-showdown

"Mexican fans gathered outside Ecuadors team hotel using loudspeakers, horns and motorcycles to disturb their rest, ahead of their round of 32 knockout match. The Ecuadorian soccer federation said it has filed a formal complaint with organizers."

rmoor · Guru

Saw that on TV today.

Looks like good sportsmanship is alive and well in some locations.......not!!!!
Why do some of these fools have to wreck some law abiding citizens cars when their team wins????

Magnarc · Guru

The Great Game has become the Great Shame!

Craig1 · Guru

Underarm, I was there that day, about 40 of on a bus trip from Albury. Lots of P...... stops on way home

dorian · Guru

First, FIFA awarded a peace prize to Agent Orange, now they bowed to his request to suspend a red card penalty against a US player. Predictably, the news is full of accusations of corruption. What a manifestly disgusting organisation they are.

Here is a Paraguayan caught scuffing the spot before France take their penalty kick:

https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/newspress-collage-k6zfzbc0v-1783205394413.jpg

Edit:

Let's see if the Poms will try to get their red card suspended.

-- Edited by dorian on Monday 6th of July 2026 12:28:34 PM

Ineedabiggerboat · Guru

I really enjoyed the England Mexico game, particularly the result given the Mexican fans unsportsmanlike behaviour. Normally I hate to see England win, especially rugby.

Corndoggy · Senior Member

A red card was a send off and an automatic 1 match suspension. Now because of who the players are, who they are playing for, and with a whinge and a moan from those in power that card is worth nothing. Ohhhh they say , we can suspend the suspension. NO. STINKS OF CORRUPTION, FAVOURS AND MATCH FIXING. Why don't we skip the whole thing and just give the cup to America, no need to win it fairly. Again more CORRUPTION WITHIN FIFA, AND NOT THE FIRST TIME. Good luck getting your red card reversed anytime, anywhere, it just would not be done.

dorian · Guru

I haven't watched any games, only the highlights. But for me, the real highlight was when the Egyptian captain shook the hands of the Australian players while the rest of his team were celebrating their win. Only then did he join them.

-- Edited by dorian on Monday 6th of July 2026 02:28:43 PM

dorian · Guru

Maybe FIFA should be replaced by AI.

World's first AI minister will eliminate corruption, says Albania's PM:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2znzgwj3xo

For government officials, being called "heartless" is an occupational hazard. But Albania has chosen to turn that insult into a positive quality, by appointing an AI minister.

Not a minister for artificial intelligence. Rather, a cabinet member who is, literally, the work of AI.

The new addition is, like a pop star, known simply by the single name: Diella.

Diella, whose name means sun in Albanian, is unlikely to be the source of any unflattering leaks about the government. She will only be power-hungry in the sense of the electricity she consumes. And a damaging expenses scandal would appear to be out of the question.

In fact, corruption was uppermost in Rama's mind when he made Diella part of his team as minister for public procurement.

Her role will be to ensure that Albania will become "a country where public tenders are 100% free of corruption".

Ineedabiggerboat · Guru

If you google fifa corruption, you wont believe how bad those criminals really are. Amazing. https://www.espn.com.au/football/story/_/id/49283101/england-end-mexico-world-cup-best-win-foreign-soil-their-history

dorian · Guru

Scumbags.

Mexico fans try to disturb England's sleep:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/live/2026/jul/05/world-cup-2026-live-last-16-concludes-morocco-france-paraguay?page=with%3Ablock-6a4a6d7d8f08c781e4357d80#block-6a4a6d7d8f08c781e4357d80

Despite police blockades, dozens of Mexican fans gathered outside the England national teams hotel until the early hours of Sunday morning, hoping to disrupt players sleep ahead of their World Cup round-of-16 match against co-host Mexico.

Armed with loudspeakers, horns and fireworks, the crowd gathered outside the JW Marriott hotel in Santa Fe, in the western part of Mexico City and did its best to disturb the guests.

These late-night hotel serenades are an entrenched and polarizing tradition in Latin American football. While they began as a passionate display of support for the home team, they have increasingly evolved into a psychological weapon designed to deprive opponents of sleep.

rmoor · Guru

What about all the other guests in the hotel paid with their own funds for a good night's sleep.

I bet they were dirty.
Typical Mexicans, no wonder Donald built a wall to keep those clowns out.
The red card suspension suspension is poor form as well.

As I have said, I have no time for soccerhead fans, many of them are loonies.
Sure fans from some other sports can be a bit loopy too.
But they tend not to burn cars, destroy shop windows, let off fireworks outside motels etc.

I think all this started with the soccer hooligans in the U.K.
Maybe they get so bored and not expending any energy in a 90 minute boring 0 - 0 draw they have to expend some of that testosterone driven energy somehow?

As a footnote:
I scored ONE career goal in junior soccer.
Dribbled it past one of the latter major suspects in the Tyrell disappearance.
Was in under 12's and he fell over leaving an open goal ha ha.

dorian · Guru

https://www.betootaadvocate.com/donald-trump-demands-fifa-overturn-us-loss-against-belgium/

As the home of the brave and the land of the free come to terms to fact once again that they are only good at winning sports only they play - the President has spat the dummy.

US President and FIFA Peace President Donald Trump has cornered the President of FIFA Gianni Infantino and demanded that he overturn the country's result against Belgium.

https://theshovel.com.au/2026/07/07/usa-through-to-final-eight-after-fifa-agrees-to-overturn-loss-to-belgium/

The United States has been declared the winner of todays World Cup match following an intervention from Donald Trump, who argued that the match had been stolen by Belgium.

In a statement following the 4-1 result, FIFA said that Belgium had not in fact won. Upon further review, Belgiums four goals appear to have been scored in a match that was not this match, the statement read.

"Schadenfreude" is what I'm feeling now.

-- Edited by dorian on Tuesday 7th of July 2026 12:54:14 PM

Are We Lost · Guru

I asked AI what circumstances call for a red card, and where lesser penalties would be appropriate:

Careless foul no card, just a free kick. A mistimed or slightly clumsy challenge with no real danger.

Reckless foul (yellow card) the player showed a disregard for danger to an opponent, but there's no excessive force. This is the standard for most hard tackles, including ones that connect studs-up or catch an ankle, if the player was genuinely playing the ball and the contact wasn't disproportionate.

Excessive force / serious foul play (red card) the player used force clearly beyond what's needed to win the ball, endangering the opponent's safety. This is the category that typically requires things like: studs up into the shin/ankle with real force, a lunging or out-of-control tackle, or contact that occurs well after or without any genuine attempt to play the ball.

On that basis, and after watching in slow motion, I fail to see any justification for Excessive force. No way. It was a bad decision. While the play itself is not part of the decision process, the ball had already been kicked before contact was made, so no impact to the game.

The referee has been in the news a few times with (unproven) claims of match fixing and corruption. So that casts another doubt on why the call was made.

If this had been a school match you can be pretty sure parents would have been having words to get this reversed. At international level, who would have enough clout to get a serious review of an unfair call. On the basis that it was a bad call and he could have intervened but did nothing, then would that be better? I see it as a president going beyond the normal to show support for the American team.

Corndoggy · Senior Member

Great news. America is OUT of the cup. Wait for it. Will Trump make a phone call.

landy · Guru

Its been a great couple of days, England beats Mexico and the karma bus runs down the USA.

dorian · Guru

https://babylonbee.com/news/us-back-in-world-cup-after-trump-deports-belgian-team/

U.S. The United States Men's National Team was officially placed back in the World Cup after President Donald Trump ordered the deportation of the entire Belgian team.

Just minutes after Belgium had apparently eliminated the U.S. from the tournament, ICE agents acting on Trump's orders arrived on the pitch and began detaining the Belgian players.

Magnarc · Guru

Are We Lost wrote:
I asked AI what circumstances call for a red card, and where lesser penalties would be appropriate:

Careless foul no card, just a free kick. A mistimed or slightly clumsy challenge with no real danger.

Reckless foul (yellow card) the player showed a disregard for danger to an opponent, but there's no excessive force. This is the standard for most hard tackles, including ones that connect studs-up or catch an ankle, if the player was genuinely playing the ball and the contact wasn't disproportionate.

Excessive force / serious foul play (red card) the player used force clearly beyond what's needed to win the ball, endangering the opponent's safety. This is the category that typically requires things like: studs up into the shin/ankle with real force, a lunging or out-of-control tackle, or contact that occurs well after or without any genuine attempt to play the ball.
On that basis, and after watching in slow motion, I fail to see any justification for Excessive force. No way. It was a bad decision. While the play itself is not part of the decision process, the ball had already been kicked before contact was made, so no impact to the game.
The referee has been in the news a few times with (unproven) claims of match fixing and corruption. So that casts another doubt on why the call was made.
If this had been a school match you can be pretty sure parents would have been having words to get this reversed. At international level, who would have enough clout to get a serious review of an unfair call. On the basis that it was a bad call and he could have intervened but did nothing, then would that be better? I see it as a president going beyond the normal to show support for the American team.

Judging by your opinions elsewhere, this post comes as no surprise. Bad call or not he had no right to interfere, and the bloke that he called should have refused his request. If what you say about the referee is true, the decision to appoint him to such an important tournament was a bad decision made by an outfit that has a history of questionable behaviour.

This is bully boy tactics of the worst kind. Referees in every sport don't always get it right but, their decisions have to be upheld. After all his efforts the team failed to deliver the result that he wanted, A sad, sorry state of affairs for all Americans and the rest of the world, and a blight on what was once a great game.

-- Edited by Magnarc on Wednesday 8th of July 2026 09:57:07 AM

dogbox · Guru

dorian wrote:

First, FIFA awarded a peace prize to Agent Orange, now they bowed to his request to suspend a red card penalty against a US player. Predictably, the news is full of accusations of corruption. What a manifestly disgusting organisation they are.
Here is a Paraguayan caught scuffing the spot before France take their penalty kick:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/newspress-collage-k6zfzbc0v-1783205394413.jpg
Edit:
Let's see if the Poms will try to get their red card suspended.

-- Edited by dorian on Monday 6th of July 2026 12:28:34 PM

remember the americas cup if the yanks fall short they change the rules to suit

rgren2 · Guru

dorian · Guru