There are few organisations as full of thieves from top to bottom as FIFA. I can really only think of the IOC, the Italian Mafia or the US government that are similarly structured.
It's certainly not impossible, few things are in a cup competition. Nonetheless they really need to get past several heavy hitters to get there. That is a very tall order.
The article was specifically about World Cup players. While Cruyff probably revolutionised football like few others before or after, his impact at the World Cup was limited. While the Netherlands probably should have won in 1974, they were just outsmarted by West Germany in the end, despite Cruyff and his brilliance.
As mentioned, he's not even greatest active player, let alone all time great. I honestly he'll have a hard time breaking into the top five or even ten once his career ends. My personal greatest players behind Pele (in no particular order) would likely be Maradona, Beckenbauer, Zidane, Messi, Matthäus, Ronaldo (the real one) and perhaps Cruyff, but that could be my Dutch bias.
Immer diese Ankündigungspolitik. Lasst es lieber bleiben. Meine Annahme bei öffentlichen Projekten der EU ist mittlerweile, dass die nie kommen aber dafür trotzdem massig Kohle rausgeworfen wurde. Wäre schön, wenn ich da mal falsch liege, aber ich bleibe erstmal skeptisch.
It's difficult to gauge whether Argentina is very strong or Algeria surprisingly weak. I'd honestly thought that this would be a closer affair. Argentina definitely look like they might be potential title defenders.
It really felt a bit wobbly for a while after the equaliser, but Germany eventually got back on track. In Germany the discussion about Leroy Sané is still ongoing. Somehow he managed not to score or assist while covering less distance than either Wirtz or Havertz. Meanwhile Deniz Undav, who is becoming something of a folk hero, scored and assisted twice after coming on.
Personally I feel like Kai Havertz is silently turning into that big game player teams really need. He isn't as prolific as other forwards, but he doesn't go invisible on the big stage.
Ik woon al vele jaren in Duitsland. Een van de grootste voordelen hier is het Deutschland Ticket. Mijn werkgever betaalt het grootste deel van mijn ticket. Ik kan het dan in heel Duitsland gebruiken. Het was echt een bevrijding toen ik onlangs tijdens mijn vakantie in Hamburg gewoon de metro kon nemen zonder daar extra voor te betalen.
It's crazy that even in this expanded format the two most populous countries can't even get close and have been eclipsed by the likes of Usbekistan, Jordan and Iraq. I realise that football isn't the main sport in either India or China, but then again several other nations have other priorities in sports as well.
You can use a small Nextcloud in combination with collabora. As far as I know there's still a free option for a small Nextcloud with up to 8 GB of cloud storage currently. To work on your various documents on the go I recommend collabora, which I use on my phone. On your desktop you can use any number of office applications that support the file standards you're working with. I haven't tried collabora on desktop, but it supposedly works there as well. I personally use Softmaker's Free Office Suite on desktop with cloud storage on the Nextcloud. So far I've managed to keep this entire setup free and (apart from Softmaker's Office) open source.
Once again, this is an opinion piece that (willfully?) misrepresents several arguments and mixes and matches them throughout. First of all, the problem of software you purchased being deactivated remotely didn't exist in the first place. The problem was introduced with the (sometimes forced) reliance on online infrastructure. Second of all, service agreements for software are fine and very common for different sectors. These usually contain specifics about how long support will continue and even often include exit options for when the time comes to migrate. Putting video games on the same footing as most business software is also fine.
I agree that more equal income distribution leads to a more interesting league that in turn could generate more income. However, there are more reasons for the Premier League's dominance. English is the world's de facto lingua franca and that makes it so much easier to market the league abroad. It also has a large amount of recognised teams with long histories. Finally it's very open to investors.
The top clubs in Spain, Germany and Italy are now in a catch-22. They can't afford to let any potential income slip in order to maintain some level of parity with the English clubs. Meanwhile their domestic leagues are withering away.
While I personally like the Bundesliga for its (mostly) firm stance on fan ownership, I understand that a one horse race for the title is boring.
I fear there is no real and realistic way to change the situation for the better any time soon...
I believe these are both significant issues. While income distribution is unsustainable in Spain, the Spanish league (and the German, Italian and French leagues as well) just generates so much less money overall than the English league. The Premier League has TV deals worth more than £ 10 bn per season. Meanwhile La Liga is somewhere around 3 bn € with the Bundesliga even lower. The Spanish superclubs can only sustain their level by sucking the rest of the league dry, which in turn makes the league less interesting overall. Even if revenue sharing exactly like in England were to be instituted, that would hardly improve the chances of the Spanish minnows in Europe in my opinion.
Maybe not a stonewall penalty, but I've seen them given before, even by VAR.
There are few organisations as full of thieves from top to bottom as FIFA. I can really only think of the IOC, the Italian Mafia or the US government that are similarly structured.
It's certainly not impossible, few things are in a cup competition. Nonetheless they really need to get past several heavy hitters to get there. That is a very tall order.
That sounds like a great idea. Maybe Johnny can combine it with the 2027 Peace Prize for Bibi Netanyahu?
Oh No! Anyway...
The article was specifically about World Cup players. While Cruyff probably revolutionised football like few others before or after, his impact at the World Cup was limited. While the Netherlands probably should have won in 1974, they were just outsmarted by West Germany in the end, despite Cruyff and his brilliance.
As mentioned, he's not even greatest active player, let alone all time great. I honestly he'll have a hard time breaking into the top five or even ten once his career ends. My personal greatest players behind Pele (in no particular order) would likely be Maradona, Beckenbauer, Zidane, Messi, Matthäus, Ronaldo (the real one) and perhaps Cruyff, but that could be my Dutch bias.
Immer diese Ankündigungspolitik. Lasst es lieber bleiben. Meine Annahme bei öffentlichen Projekten der EU ist mittlerweile, dass die nie kommen aber dafür trotzdem massig Kohle rausgeworfen wurde. Wäre schön, wenn ich da mal falsch liege, aber ich bleibe erstmal skeptisch.
It's difficult to gauge whether Argentina is very strong or Algeria surprisingly weak. I'd honestly thought that this would be a closer affair. Argentina definitely look like they might be potential title defenders.
It really felt a bit wobbly for a while after the equaliser, but Germany eventually got back on track. In Germany the discussion about Leroy Sané is still ongoing. Somehow he managed not to score or assist while covering less distance than either Wirtz or Havertz. Meanwhile Deniz Undav, who is becoming something of a folk hero, scored and assisted twice after coming on.
Personally I feel like Kai Havertz is silently turning into that big game player teams really need. He isn't as prolific as other forwards, but he doesn't go invisible on the big stage.
Ik woon al vele jaren in Duitsland. Een van de grootste voordelen hier is het Deutschland Ticket. Mijn werkgever betaalt het grootste deel van mijn ticket. Ik kan het dan in heel Duitsland gebruiken. Het was echt een bevrijding toen ik onlangs tijdens mijn vakantie in Hamburg gewoon de metro kon nemen zonder daar extra voor te betalen.
Does anyone know how Brazil and Argentina stack up against the major European squads in terms of market value?
It's crazy that even in this expanded format the two most populous countries can't even get close and have been eclipsed by the likes of Usbekistan, Jordan and Iraq. I realise that football isn't the main sport in either India or China, but then again several other nations have other priorities in sports as well.
Misschien een beetje ouderwets, maar zeker effectief. Fijn dat dit blijft bestaan.
You can use a small Nextcloud in combination with collabora. As far as I know there's still a free option for a small Nextcloud with up to 8 GB of cloud storage currently. To work on your various documents on the go I recommend collabora, which I use on my phone. On your desktop you can use any number of office applications that support the file standards you're working with. I haven't tried collabora on desktop, but it supposedly works there as well. I personally use Softmaker's Free Office Suite on desktop with cloud storage on the Nextcloud. So far I've managed to keep this entire setup free and (apart from Softmaker's Office) open source.
Once again, this is an opinion piece that (willfully?) misrepresents several arguments and mixes and matches them throughout. First of all, the problem of software you purchased being deactivated remotely didn't exist in the first place. The problem was introduced with the (sometimes forced) reliance on online infrastructure. Second of all, service agreements for software are fine and very common for different sectors. These usually contain specifics about how long support will continue and even often include exit options for when the time comes to migrate. Putting video games on the same footing as most business software is also fine.
I agree that more equal income distribution leads to a more interesting league that in turn could generate more income. However, there are more reasons for the Premier League's dominance. English is the world's de facto lingua franca and that makes it so much easier to market the league abroad. It also has a large amount of recognised teams with long histories. Finally it's very open to investors.
The top clubs in Spain, Germany and Italy are now in a catch-22. They can't afford to let any potential income slip in order to maintain some level of parity with the English clubs. Meanwhile their domestic leagues are withering away.
While I personally like the Bundesliga for its (mostly) firm stance on fan ownership, I understand that a one horse race for the title is boring.
I fear there is no real and realistic way to change the situation for the better any time soon...
Why am I not surprised...
There must be something there that we're just unable to see. Otherwise Bayern and Barcelones would not both have considered signing him.
I believe these are both significant issues. While income distribution is unsustainable in Spain, the Spanish league (and the German, Italian and French leagues as well) just generates so much less money overall than the English league. The Premier League has TV deals worth more than £ 10 bn per season. Meanwhile La Liga is somewhere around 3 bn € with the Bundesliga even lower. The Spanish superclubs can only sustain their level by sucking the rest of the league dry, which in turn makes the league less interesting overall. Even if revenue sharing exactly like in England were to be instituted, that would hardly improve the chances of the Spanish minnows in Europe in my opinion.