Daily Discussion

I mean, outside of football, isn't it completely normal?

Eh, "presumably from" is doing a lot of heavy lifting the

Did remind me of a spectacular dumb post I saw in a different sub celebrating the Spanish WWC win over England because the (very American) poster didn't want to see a nation of colonisers win 😂🤷‍♂️

fucking hell just watched the Beckham documentary and the overaction to the red card was absolutely insane. what do you reckon happens if it was 2023?

Investigated for betting

I fully did not notice that Zaniolo was on loan at Villa. When did that happen? Why did Gala offload him?

I was thinking about it, and this is the first crisis Ajax is in since Cruijff passed away. It’s a sad thought that he isn’t there anymore to step in.

The success we had in recent years was for a decent part the result of the last time Cruijff stepped in and restructured the club.

Who do you fancy winning golden boy? Don't know half of the names there ffs, do João Neves or António Silva have a shot?

can’t be convinced Oihan Sancet is the name of someone not from the lord of the rings’ universe

Bielsa in the mud? You love to see it.

It is quite illegal, but I don’t think there’s any way to prove it for Newcastle so they’re not gonna face any consequences

Will Pep get a statue or stand named after him at the Etihad?

I kinda hope it’s a stand. The three players with statues already are symbolic of the turning point in their history, they earnt the right to be the ones future generations ask about when they first go to a game. I think it would dilute the memory of others were added.

Today, the debate everyone has will be over... Julián vs Bareiro, the decisive hour

Vinicius when are you going to show up when your NT needs you

“Brazil could win the World Cup with their B team” was a common take 12 months ago.

Gotta blast propaganda about him being good for five days before hating him again.

I agree but there's a weird sizeable minority who really have it out for him.

Sounds like you watched them when Boothroyd was manager

I just remembered about Patrick Schick’s existence, where has he been for the past year? Feel like I haven’t heard anything about him in forever

Don't disagree, just it's weird that it is often talked about as one of greatest teams in history, when they weren't even best of their era(Sacchi and Capello's Milan).

THE BIZARRE STORIES OF ARGENTINIAN FOOTBALL: DAY 7 RESULTS

The options from last time, the “teams indirectly affiliated (IA) to AFA” day:

A- Federal Amateur 2022 had 283 teams. Only 6 were promoted.

B- In 2022, AFA gave each Primera B team more than double the money from TV rights than they gave to each Federal A team, despite both divisions being the same tier, and Federal A teams travelling much more across a season.

C- Gimnasia de Jujuy got promoted to the 1st division in 2005. Their city, Jujuy, is located at the very north of the country. The city’s airport wasn’t working for most of that year; therefore, they were forced by AFA to play many home games in Tucumán (around 300 kms to the south), so away teams wouldn’t need to travel that distance by bus.

D- Argentinian football went professional in 1931, but teams indirectly affiliated to AFA were accepted in the main leagues system only since 1980.

(be aware, this will be a bit longer than usual)

A: it’s true and, as usual, it becomes worse. First of all, why so many teams, and why the weird number? Well, have in mind that Argentina is a huge country and this is the last division for IA teams, below this it’s regional leagues to gain a place to Federal Amateur.

Until 2019, there were 2 divisions, Federal B and C, but that year AFA (with Tapia as president) had the “fantastic” idea of merging both into one, also making the new division amateur instead of professional, hence the name. A lot of teams got fucked by that, and you can imagine that nowadays being relegated to Federal Amateur is like entering a black hole, as it’s really hard to get promoted in this mess.

Another thing: actually, in 2022 there were going to be only 4 promotions. What happened? After the 4 finals to determine the promotions were played, someone said “why not have 2 more?”, so the 4 losers played 2 more finals to determine the last 2 promotions. Well, “played” is generous in the case of San Martin de Mendoza: they were supposed to play one of the new finals, but instead got automatically promoted because their rivals, Independiente de San Cayetano, were disqualified due to incidents in a previous game. Odd.

B: Yes, you probably guessed it: it actually gets worse! I chose 2022 as it was the last year, but in some of the previous ones, the money distribution was even worse. In 2020, for example, teams from Primera B made almost 3 times more than Federal A ones, and even Primera C teams made more than those from Federal A. That’s right: teams from 4th division, who usually travel like 30 kms at most and have very small fanbases, made more money from AFA than 3rd division teams that usually travel A LOT more, and are watched by more fans (in case TV views could be an excuse).

And if you’re thinking that it looks like the distribution is slowly improving, I gotta say that I doubt it. If there’s something that Tapia is doing, is NOT giving fair chances to federal teams. I expect the difference to become bigger over time. Consejo Federal (the organization in charge of Federal A & Amateur), as well as many of the team’s presidents, are corrupt as fuck, so Tapia will continue to destroy federal teams as long as he has money to give to CF and its teams’ boards.

C: my story-telling must be improving, as none of you thought I could come up with this. I even made up the airport part haha. But hey, Gimnasia (J) did get promoted in 2005, that part was true.

D: football in England was invented in 1992, and for many teams in Argentina, it was in 1980. I had to specify in the “main leagues system” part, as many IA teams actually played in the first division previously, in the called “Torneos Nacionales”… but that’s a story for another moment.

A last thing: I decided to include a “bonus” in each quiz from now on. This time I will post it here as I forgot to do it in the previous trivia, but starting from the next one, it will be in the same post as the game. It will not be part of the trivia tho, as it will be always true; it’s simply another story, that may not fully deserve to be part as one of the headlines, was too complicated to write in a “trivia option” way, or that I couldn’t include as I have many more.

This time, of course, the bonus is about this trivia’s theme: in 2014, Federal A had 21 new teams compared to the previous season. One of them, Talleres, was relegated from the 2nd division. 3 of them were promoted from Federal B. And the other 17? They were teams from Federal B that were invited by the Consejo Federal to “restructure” the division. Here’s a list with the teams.

!PING TRIVIA

Pep wears Lee Carsley pyjamas

A bald manager I can get behind

Oof that's bad. Your whole midfield died, and only one fit attacker. In hindsight Fati should have been kept around because this would be his chance

Money is never enough. Messi can earn €1M weekly and still need a contract boost lest he leaves. Imagine people like Tonali.

I also imagine it isn't just about making money, they already have so much disposable income I think they probably are looking for a "fun" way to spend it.

The AFCON draw is going live, Akon is dancing coupe decalé. Good stuff

yeah it was like they're actively looking to eat him alive

There’s an official article where Messi admits that winning the ballon dor is of no more importance to him again so I don’t think fifa would consider him as a candidate this year…I guess It’s Haaland’s year 🎉

https://www.goal.com/en-gh/news/lionel-messi-ballon-d-or-no-longer-important-to-me/bltce0adbe04f831f71

Cruyff's Barcelona might be luckiest team in history, 3 of their 4 La Liga titles are due to massive bottlejobs of rivals on a final day, twice Madrid lost to Tenerife and once Deportivo missed late penalty which would've made them Spanish champions. I guess their luck finally run out when they got battered by Milan 4:0 in UCL final, after which "dream team" won nothing.

Lionel Messi is still the main man for Argentina

Marcelo Morelo Martins is still the main man for Bolivia

Alexis Sanchez and Arturo Vidal are still the main men for Chile

James Rodriguez is still the main man for Colombia

Enner Valencia is still the main man for Ecuador

Paolo Guerrero still a vital figure for Peru

Salomon Rondon still a vital figure for Venezuela

When will CONMEBOL finally move on man? It is the year of our lord 2023

The future generations are in trouble

IT WAS 50 YEARS AGO TODAY - October 13th

First Division

Leeds remain unbeaten after suffering a scare at Filbert Street. Leicester City went 2-0 up courtesy of Frank Worthington and a thunderbolt by Alan Birchenall, but Leeds fought to draw level: Mick Jones and a controversial free-kick parried into the net by Billy Bremner helped the Whites to continue his march on top of the table.

The gap between first and second is reduced to two points. Burnley beat QPR 2-1 thanks to the goals by Geoff Nulty and Ray Hankin, cancelling Dave Thomas effort. Coventry couldn't snatch a win at Norwich, ending all square at 0-0.

Liverpool's shaky start of the season continues, virtue of a 1-0 defeat at The Dell, with an effort by Mick Channon, settling the points for Southampton. A crowd of 25,111 at Stamford Bridge saw one of the most entertaining games of the day - Ipswich defeated Chelsea thanks to a brace by David Johnson and a Bryan Hamilton goal. 3-2 for the Anglia team. At White Hart Lane, a North London Derby with 2 teams in search of a victory which can give a bit of fresh aire was decided in favour of a Spurs side which really needed the points: a crowd of 41,000 saw Martin Chivers and Alan Gilzean score the goals.

​

CONTROVERSY AT OLD TRAFFORD. United's woes continue after another dire performance against now 3rd place Derby County: the biggets crowd of the day (43,000) saw Kevin Hector score the only goal of the match. But the real trouble started at the end of the match. Sam Longson, the Derby chairman, claimed that Brian Clough v-signed Sir Matt Busby, in attendance today. This really aggravates the atmosphere between the board and the manager. We shall see if the situation improves or not.

To finish with, it's good to see Birmingham City's first victory of the season: goals from Trevor Francis and Kenny Burns obliterated John Richards' effort for a Wolves side who lie only one point above the relegation zone. Said relegation zone is also shared by West Ham, who is rock bottom after Colin Harper's goal gave Everton the win at Goodison Park.

​

Second Division

Middlesbrough earn another valuable home win to keep themselves top of the table: 1-0 against Hull - Malcolm Smith the scorer. An overhaul of the promotion places has happened: both Fulham and Forest lost today - Don Masson scoring a brace to sink Fulham at Notts County and the Gordon Fairbrother-Ricky Heppolette duo partnering to beat Forest at the Orient - leaving Luton Town to pick the rewards. A penalty scored by John Aston and a goal by Peter Anderson gave the Hatters a 2-1 win against Swindon. Preston's purple patch continues, as they move to third - Neil Young with the penalty to beat Sunderland in front of 21,000. In all, up to 8 teams are in a 2-point gap.

At the bottom, Malcolm Allison's Palace are still winless, although they can boast their third draw of the season - 1-1 at Oxford, with the goal by Don Rogers to show. But they have 3 points from 11 matches. This draw helps Oxford to lift themselves from the danger zone - a place in which Swindon and Millwall enter.

​

Third and Fourth Division

Bristol Rovers' immaculate start of the season continues with a 1-1 draw against shaky Port Vale at Eastville with the biggest crowd of the day in the division - 8,882. The two promotion places remain unchanged - Oldham beat Rochdale in a regional derby 3-1, and Bournemouth could only muster a draw at Shrewsbury (1-1). Bolstered by BBC's Match of the Day cameras, Hereford's 8,552 crowd could only see their side draw 0-0 against Cambridge. At the bottom, Aldershot goes back to last position after a dissapointing day at Roots Hall, Southend. 2-1 for the Shrimps, who are now outside the relegation zone. Brighton (lost 1-0 at home to Halifax), Shrewsbury and Rochdale, follow the Shots at the bottom.

In the fourth division, Top 4 remains unchanged. Colchester 3-0 drubbing against Darlington on Friday helped them to keep the top of the table one week more. Meanwhile, Bury in second place suffered a 3-0 beating by Gillingham, with a brace of in-form Brian Yeo (9 goals so far). The top of the table is very crowded - 4 points separating the Top 10. The goal-fest of the day was at Millmoor, where Rotherham beat Exeter 4-0. And for the highest attendance today we go to London - Brentford's 6,100 crowd saw a gallant home side go down 1-0 against in-form Peterborough. Sadly, the lowest crowd could only muster a thousand crowd, who saw Workington beat Barnsley by 1-0, helping them to distance themselves from the re-election bunch.

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Outside of the League

Next Wednesday, England faces a daunting prospect in order to be in West Germany the next year - they need to beat Poland in order to qualify for the World Cup. There was great talk on newspapers to postpone this week's matches, but Alan Hardaker, Chairman of the Football League, was adamant on a radio interview:

It is a football match, not a war. Let us keep our sense of perspective, everybody is getting hysterical. If we do lose, the game is not going to die. It will be a terrible thing for six weeks and then everybody will forget about it.

Lest not forget that the sold-out match will be covered LIVE on ITV starting at 7.30. Highlights will be shown at Sportsnight at 10.30.

​

FOOTBALL ON TV TODAY.

BBC - Liverpool v Southampton and Hereford United v Cambridge United.

ITV - Tottenham Hotspur v Arsenal (London Weekend - Brian Moore), Leicester City v Leeds United (ATV - Hugh Johns), Norwich City v Hull City (Anglia TV), Sheffield Wednesday v Plymouth Argyle (Yorkshire TV) and Middlesbrough v Hull City (Tyne Tees TV).

​

Link with all results and scorers (1st and 2nd Division only)

The bizarre Stories of Argentinian Football: Day 8

A- Despite it not being allowed in Argentina, Red Bull acquired 80% of a Federal A (3rd division) team this year.

B- In 2016, Liniers (Primera D – 5th division) had to straighten their field, as the boundary lines didn’t form 90° angles; in other words, the field wasn’t a rectangle. The pitch stayed that way 30 years before this modification.

C- Gimnasia de Mendoza played in 9 different seasons in the 1st division, all of them between 1970 (first year) and 1984 (last). They have never been relegated from that division.

D- In 2021, Deportivo Español (Primera C – 4th tier) started to pay their players’ bonuses with cryptocurrency.

Bonus: Israel is being worldwide news, sadly. On a less serious note, Chiqui Tapia is currently part of the 2030 WC fiasco, as he's part of the Conmebol board that acepted the atrocious logistics it will have. Well, both Israel and Tapia can be combined into today's bonus. Previous to the 2018 WC, Argentina was going to play a friendly vs Israel in Jerusalen; however, it got cancelled. Tapia apologized later, and said that he cancelled it as a "contribution to World peace".

If you didn't read my last post - the bonus isn't part of the quiz, it's just another (true) story that I felt like adding. Every quiz from now on will have one.

!PING TRIVIA

People are really mad because goal was disallowed for wrong reason. Like it is a dumb mistake, but it doesn't really matter as it would be disallowed anyways. Better than letting goal stand.

Maybe allocate more minutes for teams in comps, or limited to just the league rather than cup comps too.

!PING TRIVIA

what was in that israel thread that every comment got deleted?

There is no benefit to having the betting industry

I'll play devil's advocate and say while gambling as a whole offers no tangible benefits to society, the benefit of having a betting industry is to keep the money out of organized crime.

People are going to be either way and it's safer for it to be regulated than unregulated. I'd rather someone bet through Bet365 than an underground bookie.

Anyone else having trouble seeing the comments on the Argentina vs Paraguay match thread or is it just me?

I hate 1230 kick offs and now they're moving another liverpool game to a 1230 kick off

Why can't other teams get them as regularly as we do, we have 13 more 1230 kick offs than the next two combined over the past season.

I can't wait to lose to a McTominay hat-trick on the national day 😍

England u21s playing some lovely football tonight.

Just had a random thought - who took Russia’s continental qualification spots?

Yeah, just caught it on the Liverpool sub - lovely finish.

Only Arsenal fans can spout such nonsense. It's better to lose a few than draw a lot. Nobody gives a shit about draws. That's the whole point of the 3 point system.

Even NFL doesn’t allow it lol

Tbh it seems like the game was the same for years but in the last 5 we’ve had more rule changes than in the 15 years before that.

Is it just a coincidence that Paqueta played for Milan, or is he also part of the expose that's going on in Italy right now.

that's insane. 3 beautiful huge stadiums

The benefit is it's fun. I agree football should separate from it and ban advertising etc but let's not act like it can't be fun to have a casual bet.

Hakimi and Mané are gonna participate in the AFCON draw. Has UEFA ever had active players do the draw? I feel like it's weird. Like a conflict of interest lol. Anyways, Akon is present as well. English link for those interested

What are some negatives about a cap on minutes per player even if it's just in domestic football?

Reasons why I think it would be a good idea:
-Player fitness

-Young players and squad players get more game time which is a positive for them (especially for a Bissouma/Conte situation)

-Big teams will rotate more often leading to more opportunities for smaller clubs to cause an upset

There's probably some downsides I can't think of ????

I loved watching Bellingham play in Dortmund, is very happy he's doing so great in Madrid already, but wtf is this crazy driding, how has he already got more hype than Vini got in that entire CL winning season? Even Haaland last season didn't get this much licking this early in season, and if he did that's because he scored another hattrick in consecutive game

And for god's sake what's these ex-player's obsession of comparing everyone with Messi and Ronaldo,

The PL banned leverage takeovers afterwards but have taken no action on them after the fact despite the absolute financial robbery they have been doing in plain sight. Man United's own huge revenues are keeping us afloat but this situation at another club would usually mean administration and then the EFL/PL stepping in. But no-one cares because we aren't bankrupt yet

I'm not bitter or anything but the way goalkeepers are protected is a joke. They get away with so much and get fouls called in their favour for absolutely everything.

Sheesh Armenia. Against 10 men that’s sad

^(Pinging members of TRIVIA group...)

It's ridiculous that all home nations games don't have to be shown on Freeview

Madrid's (crazy) '86 UEFA Cup run, their second UEFA Cup and their second in a row. In some ways it mirrors their CL win last year with close calls and comebacks.

In the 85-86 season, Madrid won La Liga and the UEFA Cup.

• In the first round, Madrid lost the first-leg to AEK Athens 1-0 but won the second leg 5-0.

• In the second round, they defeated FC Chornomorets Odesa 2-1 across both legs. At the time they were a Soviet Union club that ended up relegated that same season.

• Madrid suffered a 5-1 defeat in the third round (round of 16) at the Rheinstadion with Madrid's sole goal coming from Gordillo (to make it 4-1 at the time). Borrusia Monchengladbach had finished the 85-86 Bundesliga in fourth place with 42 points, seven points off of Bayern in first.

• In the second leg, Madrid bested them at the Bernabeu 4-0! Crucially, Santillana scored a brace including an 88" 'winner' which tied the game and meant Madrid went through due to away goals. You can see the second leg highlights here

• In the fourth round (quarters) they won 3-2 on aggregate to Neuchâtel Xamax FCS, a Swiss club, with Madrid scoring their three goals in the first leg, but conceding two in the second. Neuchâtel Xamax FCS were runners-up in that season's Swiss League.

• In the semi-finals, Madrid met Inter Milan. Yet another comeback was needed, this time from a 3-1 first-leg defeat at the San Siro with Valdano scoring the sole away goal. Madrid managed to overcome Inter 5-1 after extra time after they scored thrice in regular time, with Inter scoring once through Brady. With the score at 4-4, Madrid scored twice in extra time, both goals through Santillana. Inter finished sixth in that year's Serie A.

• Not even the final was that comfortable, despite Madrid winning the first leg a whopping 5-1. Köln, who finished 13th (!) in that season's Bundesliga reached the final defeating Sporting Gijon, Bohemians Praha, Hammarby, Sporting, and K.S.V Waregem.

Köln managed to win the second leg 2-0 but were defeated 5-3 on aggregate, thus making Madrid the winners.

The money Rangers have spent in recent years on players that are constantly injured is genuinely horrific.

Kemar Roofe has played the equivalent of 50 full games for us in 3.5 years. If he's on £25k a week & we paid £4.5m for him, by the time his contract runs out this summer we will have spent £9.7m on him. That works out to £194,000 a full game, without accounting for any agent fees.

Tom Lawrence has barely kicked a ball for us in 15 months at the club, Yilmaz has played like 13 full games in the same time....I don't even want to add it up.

Tbf I don't think anyone can know what Tonali did. Just unfortunate transfer if it's ended up being true

Yeah I can’t think of a situation where your shoulder being ahead of the defender gives you an advantage (if your feet are in line).

Maybe not but I’d be against boxers or MMA fighters betting on themselves as well. Betting on yourself is also different than betting on a match you’re not involved in, but I think it’s easier to just have a blanket ban on betting instead of all kinds of exceptions.

It’s also not like you’re depriving a player of something meaningful if you don’t allow them to bet. I don’t see the upside of allowing it, only downsides.

? I'm not saying that it's only Italian players who bet on football, I was just wondering if he was caught by being flagged by the regular system, or if the betting houses were tipped off by the same guy who's allegedly ratted out the other three.

Oh you misunderstand, he’ll be a god to me if he does it, I’m fully on board the Bellingham hype train

Colombia is a bigger underachiever than Mexico

Nah, City's 100 points is much more impressive

In arsenal's invincible season, they only got 90 points. They could afford to go easy in a few games and not risk counters but because points tallies needed are higher nowadays, City need to go for the win a lot more can't really have days off until they've won the league

Honestly the more points the more impressive you are

Because like most things everything apart from England and the English is an afterthought in the ‘United’ Kingdom

not that I have great insights, but georgia seems to have one of their best national teams ever currently. as a German I know about the many "vilis" conquering our league a while ago, but I don't think they were as good as current georgia.

Iashvili, Kobiashvili, Tskitishvili, Arveladze and probably more I don't remember.

I assumed Scotland games would be on TV like England's games are, I've never even heard of Viaplay before.

So even having all of the other services to watch football you would still need to pay Viaplay £15 to watch a Scotland game?

reading that post match thread for the spain scotland game is something alright...

Gabriel Jesus and Richarlison are not it.

Ancelotti/Diniz need to hope that Vitor Roque is ready by the summer for Copa America and for 2026. Endrick might be post 2026 tbf

my neim is, hames. updetofis

Article about Stourbridge FC on the Beeb today, hoping Jude Bellingham turns up at their match on Saturday. Probably not going to happen but would be mint if he does, particularly when he reports back to Real that they need to sign that Dinanga guy for £50mil

He didn’t win 1 La Liga title, he won 4 in a row and a Europa Cup 1.

No I mean AydeeLAHK.

Tweets exactly like Mike, just no HTH signatures

It means they were better, therefore more impressive.

Nice work!

Because if rules made sense and VAR worked greatly, football talk shows and pundits would lose 80% of their talking points.

SE CANCELA LA DEPRE. JUEGA LA SCALONETA

why are Scotland fans whinging about a goal that should’ve been disallowed being disallowed?

Serbia is not leaving the fourteenth district of our capital with points.

Ajvar is still better than erős pista though.

Georgia 8 - 0 Thailand. Embarrassing.

The result of corruption and political struggle in Thai FA. Now our "golden generation" got to be a punching bag in the international stage.

Our best players can't get called up because the big club owners don't want them to play in "friendly" games, and the FA obey them like a little dog. We started a U-23 attacker who hasn't had a lick of senior game in TWO YEARS.

Kudos to Georgia and *uck the Thai FA.

Pumped to get a 2-1 loss vs the Faroe Islands today.

My stream is showing the 'Fox Soccer plus' coverage of the Albania-Czechia game, and I've never heard more of a golf commentator ever. Commenting here because no match threaddo.

Do you think that the variety in the Morrocan diaspora is a reason for their success?

Other than Morroco itself, players come from Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Spain. Most other African countries don’t have as great of a reach.

I don't see the controversy Solskjaer does with Man United players turning down the captaincy.

They got to watch Maguire be put down for being the captain for 3 years they made the correct decision, especially if they were one of the younger players less able to deal with the abuse.

I'd love to see what he can do with the seniors. Some of the football played in the u21 Euros was special.

Which is a huge asset in international football

Proud of Scotland tonight. Few things go our way there and we get a better result. Played 6 games, won 5 and performed well in all 6. Mental stuff. Hopefully Haaland does us a favour on Sunday, secures a point for Norway and then we qualify on Sunday + have a chance to win the group. Mon eh fucking Scotland.

Our summer window was:

A £40m left winger who’s injured for four months

A £60m centre mid who’s addicted to fourteen leg accas

Two £40m and £30m fullbacks who never play

Dan Ashworth masterclass

How do I know for what team I am applying for tickets in the UEFA app? I chose E1 vs E2 but I’ve no clue what that means… any help would be appreciated.

Every single thing that references someone's half brother's dog walker's grandma who is half Israeli gets locked and all the comments get removed

I agree with you. It would be really surprising to me if we even draw with you.

I might just be bad at Googling but I’ve looked for like 10 minutes now and can’t find out wtf a Golden Boy wild card is. Can anyone enlighten me?

Encouraging performance, but fucks sake man that's a game we should be winning. Lorenzo set us up well but not great in game management. We needed to slow that down after people started gassing and we already had a lead

Never thought I'd say this, but even though I'm a neutral, I'm legit excited for the Spain-Scotland game. It has all the ingredients to be a banger. Scotland has been doing well this qualifiers already and has all the confidence, and McTominay just comes off scoring a brace at Manchester United. Plus, Norway is playing Cyprus at the same time, and Spain is six points behind Scotland, but only two points ahead of Norway. So if both Scotland and Norway win tonight, Spain will essentially be third in the group. Theoretically disqualified, and nine points behind Scotland.

My popcorn is ready.

Oh, I didn't see that update, thank you. Still, that makes it over double the price in one season.

Probably an unpopular opinion here, but I think that athletes should be able to bet on sports unless they are betting against their own team.

Bellingham and Colwill are still eligible also

Far better than any statement our government would come up with, which is depressing.

This Paraguay shirt goes so hard

Ter stegen and your defense right? Shocking how fast all of your starter fall one by one

They've formed some sort of psychic connection in that summer where they went to United and Chelsea, after each was supposed to go to the other club. Never cross streams.

Everyone's talking about the next Messi or Ronaldo, I want the next Neymar or Hazard. Extremely talented dribbler, fantastic pace, and an eye for end product. Think the only one that comes close to that is Vinicius. Where are all the exciting wingers? I miss you. Come back. And please, if possible, sign for Manchester United.

I think any team out of the group stage in cup competitions get 0 restrictions on minutes for that competition, and also it shouldn’t be a full season cap I would probably break it up into 2 halves or maybe even quarters like 900 minutes per 12 games for example

Rugby is mostly played by private school kids or in certain areas like the borders. It's not really a detriment to football. Football's problem is primarily a coaching issue which is something that Rugby also suffers from.

I didn’t say it wasn’t impressive nor did I say it was easy. But only, City have done more impressive and harder things.

TIL Houssem Aouar is balling for the Algerian NT now

Oh absolutely gambling is old style it’s been around for ever. What’s changed now is gambling companies are much smarter and know how to target individuals and how to do so. Betting companies actively seek out and target people they can exploit to get hooked so much more now and it’s hard to escape it.

I stumbled on a newsletter from 2009 (I can’t find it anymore) where they rated the top 100 greatest goalkeepers of all time, and Buffon was ranked 2nd behind Yashin. He was only 31 years old at the time.

I found that very interesting, because from all the revisionism you read, you’d think he was a longevity merchant and his peak was nothing special.

The British government is trying to force the FA to light up Wembley blue and white. Don't they realise that Gaza is a legend of English football? Don't they remember Euro 96?

CMV: players like Lukaku and Morata are only successful because we've had an absolute dearth of strikers for their generation.

If they were playing in the 2000s-2010s, there's zero chance they'd have clubs fighting over them.

Please a match thread we've already scored.

To the people already crying about Bellinghams PR, just wait until he fires England to Euros glory next summer, he’ll be spoken about in the same way as most prophets

Haaland can’t score 2 on Cyprus without man city lol

Yeah there is a chance that would be the case.

I think it would prevent big 250k contracts and a more level wage structure which isn't a massive issue imo, but could mean big teams abroad could offer contracts if it's only a rule in England

Spot on. You’re not reading too much into it at all, it’s just something that a lot of people don’t have the language for. Especially the part about his masculinity. The pearl clutching about the sarong in particular was pathetic. As for the supposed “distraction” of it all it seemed more like people tried their hardest to let themselves be distracted into caring about anything but his quality as a player. And you’re so spot on, I think most people wouldn’t admit it but the fact that he engaged with traditionally “feminine” interests with the modeling and fashion in not just society at that time but football in particular caused most people the most grief. And they’re pathetic for it. It’s also something I really respect Beckham for, just like how I respect Dennis Rodman for it (engaging with “femininity” and expression through fashion, makeup, hair etc). I’m truly upset thinking about how all these backwards people banded together to project their own insecurities and misery onto these men who went against stupid gendered conventions

The same goes for most points which actually matters much more.

Why does it matter more when both teams won the league

They were probably premium tickets. I know DC was around $6k for seats basically on the field with accommodations

Scotland have a good all round time right now don’t get me wrong but since the turn of the 21st century the quality of Scottish player has definitely dropped somewhat.

Still cannot believe the Glazer’s leveraged buyout was ever allowed.

Is this text you wrote yourself or from a newspaper? I dig it tbh

any thread about bellingham is so fucking embarrassing. imagine having a problem with people raving about a young midfielder scoring a shit ton of goals in a foreign league and a new team

people just love to hate on any reason, especially english players

2 teams at the same time can be one of the best of all time. It’s not a direct comparison but look at Barca and Madrid during the 2010’s for example. They were a very influential team in football history, just like Sacchi’s Milan.

True but you’d imagine ward prowse comes in then.

Henderson in RCM

James Rodriguez with a 2014-2015 throwback performance.

Tears in my eyes!

James Rodriguez had so much talent to be the clear greatest Colombian footballer of all time, yet his lazy ass makes it so people put Radamel Falcao over him when it shouldn't be like that.

What a waste of talent.

Rodri, Gavi, and Merino are about to be shown levels by Meatball and McSauce. A midfield battle for the ages.

Pep wishes he had a player as good as Philogene.

The entirety of European football is engaged in a conspiracy to keep Scott McTominay from being the best midfielder in the history of football. And /r/soccer is on it. We still haven't got a replay of his disallowed goal in /new.

Does sevilla have 3 big stadiums?

Estadio Benito Villamarín for betis

pizjuan for sevilla fc

and the one they play in today?

5 cracking goals in England u21s vs Serbia u21s. Tune in on YouTube if you're not doing anything else.

I personally think the statement from the Premier League is very solid. It acknowledges the sacrifices suffered by Palestinians and Israelis throughout this tragic Shitshow.

Well he’s not a straight swap for any of them, but imo Henderson shouldn’t be making the squad

England are 6-1 up and Elliott's goal was the best of the lot

How does Brozovic look so finished already

All the handwringing in Germany over them playing in the US this international break is good fuel for my propaganda that European teams would explode if they had to compete in Concacaf.

Armando Broja here we come!

You know the easiest way to stop players from betting and fixing? Ban betting. Gambling fucking ruins lives.

For those who think Bellingham is overrated, what exactly are his weaknesses? The only glaring one that I can think of is he's not really a controller like a Kroos or Xavi, but that's probably due to the position that Ancelotti is playing him this season. If Madrid sign a world-class striker next season, and Bellingham goes back to his usual midfield position, we'll probably see him focus more on controlling the game. Maybe you can argue his technique/eye test is overrated, but technique doesn't really matter if you're producing results on the pitch

Both the Hull City boys on the scoresheet for England tonight 😎

So Balde injured and Gavi playing 90 with discomfort, fucking hell we’ll have like 4 starters left

Guess who is the new Morocco women's team manager...

Before the attack, any thread involving those country is bad enough, imagine how worse it is now that all the attention is back to it. I stayed out of couple other subs that didn't restrict the topic for couple of days just because how insane it has been

It’s an addiction mate

Zaniolo upfront somewhere

How have Gabriel Pirani and Calegari been doing at the MLS?

Wake up to the beautiful sunlight. Today's the national day of my country.

Enjoy a delicious meal with my family.

Have great time with friends.

Watch as the National Team wins by two goals thanks to the two best strikers on the planet.

Enjoy as the Scottish choke on their own bile (despite being fundamental in the creation of the sport, they don't fully understand the offside rule yet).

What a fabulous day.

There was loads of support for them as well though. With Beckham the Tabloids smelt blood and it was all very one sided.

Didn’t expect Uruguay to field with so many Liga MX and MLS players.

Our summer window was:

A £40m left winger who’s injured for four months

A £60m centre mid who’s addicted to fourteen leg accas

Two £40m and £30m fullbacks who never play

Dan Ashworth masterclass

How hard is it to just not bet as an athlete. You already have money

Toney at CF, Tonali and Paqueta at CM, Gambling FC is starting to look really good.

Stonks

Didn't the stock go up, too? But then fell again

Toffolo at LB, Sturridge uptop with Toney

Lee Carsley winning the 2028 home Euros with a front line of Madueke-Delap-Philogene.

The stick was confined to social media and barely lasted a week, they had more support than negativity. Not comparable to what Beckham had

Morata now has 33 goals in 66 games for Spain, that’s honestly a much better ratio than I expected.

The hypocrisy in football and gambling is insane. Every club and sponsor pushes every gambling algorithm they can now to get people addicted and hooked onto spending there money and wonder when players do it. It’s a joke how much influence and how big sports betting has come at the cost of targeting young sports fans and getting them hooked. Gambling is dangerous and football makes it thrive. Not just football it’s all betting kinds now.

With all the BS with the World Cup lately I honestly find myself more excited for the Euros

Dear mods,

I give you a lot of shit but I am greatful that you have decided to ban commenting on any Israel/Palestine post. Thank you 😊

We do not need that political shit leaking into our subreddit. I salute you for maintaining peace!

I thought Messi didn't play forMiami because he was injured?

Rico Lewis deserves a senior call-up

My main takeaway too. Incredible really.

I wonder if argentines will go though the same stuff we're going through with cristiano, but with messi, getting pissed at being subbed off, still getting called up while shit, permanent spot in the starting eleven etc.

It always devolves into the same kind of discussion and arguments (not related to football). I'm happy the mods are doing it, if people want to discuss these things there are plenty of other places to do so.

Colombia play like shit

Spain play like shit

No puedo con esto tio, no es justo Josep.... Estados Unidos tampoco juega a nada, y bueno.....

Every int’l break I am reminded how much I hate the Euros Qualifying logo.

Pumped to get another 2-1 win vs the Faroe Islands today.

Sure Cyprus were never world beaters but I've never seen them so bad. They were one of those teams who could shithouse their way to some goal or points, ruin betting handicaps, showing their teeth even when losing... Now they are consistently conceding a ton.

The Italy NT after all the good vibes and winning the Euros has just 📉📉📉📉

Why does Ederson start for Brazil now? Don't get me wrong, he's probably been as good as he's ever been for City for a year and a half now but Allison is arguably still playing at a higher level for Liverpool. Did Allison have some bad performances for Brazil?

Leicester catching strays from Trent 😪

An Inter Miami fan who purchased season tickets for $6802 this season was quoted $30,600 for the same tickets next season. I fully understand the economics of why the price increased like it did; it's probably one of the most in demand tickets in the world right now because of Messi.

That said, it's everything wrong with modern football that fans who were there when the team was absolute garbage and supported from the beginning are immediately priced out in the pursuit of more money as soon as the team gets good. It's shit like this that ruins the atmosphere and culture in stadiums.

Neither are worth close to the fee they went for

Banning all ads makes more sense imo

Get Gallagher out as well and we can have both 😎

None of the 4 Nations League Finalists of 2023 are top of their EURO Qualifying groups

I'm so gutted I can't celebrate us qualifying first.

I understand the concern, but (unless I'm mistaken) boxers are allowed to bet on themselves and MMA fighters were until 2022 and I don't think either have have a greater uptick in match fixing than football.

Reckon this is the best performance I've ever seen any England side put in.

International break, and clubs I dislike doing well, has forced me to lurk in the /r/cricket SA vs Aus post-match thread for my schadenfreuden. Really scraping the barrel now

That's just match fixing though. Doesn't matter if it's Toney calling up Pickford or some crime syndicate.

The Israel/Palestine topic being banned is great. Those threads are pointless and impossible to moderate

In 6 minutes Wilmar Barrios is going to show Ugarte levels, and Uribe is gonna match Valverde. Please tune in

I wonder if argentines will go though the same stuff we're going through with cristiano, but with messi, getting pissed at being subbed off, still getting called up while shit, permanent spot in the starting eleven etc.

Attackers blocking the gk at set pieces have cost so many goals lately with fouls and offsides. Wonder if teams will stop using this strategy. You can’t mark the gk like he’s an outfield player. These refs are looking for the tiniest foul or impediment on the gk.

This is a beautiful day for my anti-Zaniolo agenda. Following his ídolo Pogba right out of football

Scotland not having quality players like Croatia and Uruguay will always remain a mystery to me.

Pedraza is better then Grimaldo even the Spanish coach agrees

Absolute bruh moment for Newcastle

Aye I reckon they’ll both turn out to be great players for us tbf

Don't get me wrong Cruyff did brilliant things for Barcelona, even if he only won 1 La Liga title, but it rubs me the wrong way when people say it is one of greatest teams of all time, when it wasn't even best during its era - Milan under Sacchi and Capello was.

Just learned there’s an Arsenal equivalent of MikeLUHG

As in UEFA club tournaments? I believe Scotland was one of them, as Rangers' European run pushed them up to two CL spots which they'd never had before.

Sacchi's yea, Capello's less so, even through Capello never needed massive bottlejob to win the title in a better league at the time like Cruyff needed thrice.

I do love the history lessons that come out in a vibrant match thread.

Why are all comments removed in threads like the one about the Premier Leagues statement on Gaza and Israel? All the comments had high upvotes I’m assuming they weren’t hateful

Phillips needs more game time. We aren’t blessed with loads of defensive midfielders which is why he’s there

Going invincible is no more impressive than the teams that have scored the most goals in a season or conceded the least in a season. They’re all just trivial achievements. Man City getting 100 points is so much more impressive than just not losing.

Nope, 30 degrees on October is unbearable.

Take a guess

I dont expect messi to have any respect for a team that didn't exist 3-ish years ago; but where did his career-ending injury go?

They weren't jeered around the country though?

Tonali and Zaniolo

I mean how was he meant to know that Barnes would be injured and Tonali might be betting?

England U21s are now 9-1 up against Serbia, shame there isn't a match thread for the game, they've been insane this game.

Can't do anything but laugh about the Tonali news. If it ends up being true, what a heist honestly!

Furlani masterclass amirite?

Get your popcorn out for the Spain - Scotland post match thread

Copa del Rey (Preliminary Round).

Turégano, Boiro, Atlético Lugones, Tardienta, Rubí, Chiclana, Deportivo Murcia, Bunyol, Hernán Cortés and Quintanar de la Órden are through to the first round, where they will host a La Liga side - minus the one in the Supercup because... Rubiales things.

England U21s play some outstanding football. Give Lee Carsley the top job after the Euros.

Have Match Threadder’s thread been wonky lately for anyone else

McTominay with Scotland reminds me of Edu Vargas, maybe he is not playeing at his best level with the club, but have him on the NT and the guy is bossing.

Sancet could half pass as a proper name in Basque or some other regional dialect of Spain, but Oihan?? That’s a high elf carpenter or something

so apparently Brentford - Arsenal on the 26th November (Saturday) can't be played at 12:30 pm so they'll move Man City - Liverpool to the early kick off

This would mean Liverpool would have the early game away on TNT/BT in all 3 of this season's early kick offs after the intl break

I'm not sure what even would be the conspiracy here, but what exactly is this record?

I swear people focus way too much on wingers and their decline. Maybe it's selection bias but I'm starting to notice when midfielders decline, THEY FALL OFF CLIFF WITHIN MONTHS. Like I've seen it Matic, Fabinho, Brozovic, and Casemiro. One more they're good and 3 games later they're shit and never recover.

Luis Diaz is a cold chested and useless player, Liverpool can keep him if they want, they don't do us any harm, take him and never give him back, thank you.

I think I will die if Boca signs Messi even for a short loan. Probably bs but I don't think my mind would comprehend it and I would just get a stroke.

We're still swimming in that Tonali money. Gonna sign 10 more players in January just to make sure we spent all of it.

England and Real Madrid PR together if that happens, world isn't ready for this.

Your team is in the Champions League final. What goal would you rather score to win the match in the 90th minute

A) a 50 pass team goal where every player has a touch, slotted home via a 5 yard tap in from a cross

B) a 35 yard volley after their goalkeeper punched the ball out from a corner

C) I don't care as long as we win (if you pick this option your team gets found to have been involved in a cheating scandal and the win gets given to the other team)

It was multiple seats, and they're in a nice spot, but either way sports are extremely expensive in the US.

For the love of fucking god just let have open discussions on this sub

But what has milan to do here? He played in milan 3 years ago and he is invastigated for betting on west ham games?

Would you consider football in general as a weak or a strong link sport?

How about you send us another €70m and we'll send over Origi next season? Seems fair to me.

takes a revenge tackle and gets sent off, England loses 1-0 in extra time

Damn this Spain vs Scotland snoozefest. Gonna take a nap and wake up for some Scaloni sexball champagne.

The "lol fuck around and find out" comments that permeate every thread about the Gaza bombings are so incredibly callous. It's a tragedy when innocent Israelis are killed and it's a tragedy when innocent Palestinians are killed.

None of this should be cheered for and yet there's a vocal contingent of reddit who are treating this tragedy like a sporting event.

I dont expect messi to have any respect for a team that didn't exist 3-ish years ago; but where did his career-ending injury go?

For those who think Bellingham is overrated, what exactly are his weaknesses? The only glaring one that I can think of is he's not really a controller like a Kroos or Xavi, but that's probably due to the position that Ancelotti is playing him this season. If Madrid sign a world-class striker next season, and Bellingham goes back to his usual midfield position, we'll probably see him focus more on controlling the game. Maybe you can argue his technique/eye test is overrated, but technique doesn't really matter if you're producing results on the pitch

I’ve just clocked the big problem with this youth venture Chelsea have embarked on is everyone needs minutes, lots of them.

Madueke is just rotting away on the bench when he should be developing his final third play with consistent minutes, his dribbling ability is already elite & he tracks back too. Not kick & run dribbling either like Traore he will take his man on both inside/outside with ease

Quality finish today

Thanks. It’s a bit odd how the golden boy awards themselves don’t have a (clear) place where they explain it