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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Saturday Morning Open Thread: FIFA Fails Footy Fans, Again

Saturday Morning Open Thread: FIFA Fails Footy Fans, Again

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Usual disclaimer, I know nothing about soccer & have insufficient spare bandworth to learn, but this is theoretically a full-service blog. Are people not-watching the Qatar Cup to the extent that the occasional post about particularly egregious events will be sufficient? Or should I set up open threads about the various matches… and, if so, when would those posts best be scheduled?

Post your suggestions about timing below… and remember, open threads are open, but excessive abuse of other commentors’ choices is never a good look.

Back on the main topic: Qatar’s royal family has obviously decided that they don’t have to abide by their previous agreements, because eff you, infidels — and FIFA should’ve known what to expect when they hugged this particular scorpion to their grabby bosoms…

Per Reuters, “No alcohol sales permitted at Qatar’s World Cup stadium sites”:

DOHA Nov 18 (Reuters) – Alcoholic beer will not be sold at Qatar’s World Cup stadiums, world soccer governing body FIFA said on Friday, a last minute reversal which raised questions among some supporters about the host country’s ability to deliver on promises to fans.

The announcement comes two days before Sunday’s kickoff of the World Cup, the first to be held in a conservative Muslim country with strict controls on alcohol, the consumption of which is banned in public.

“Following discussions between host country authorities and FIFA, a decision has been made to focus the sale of alcoholic beverages on the FIFA Fan Festival, other fan destinations and licensed venues, removing sales points of beer from Qatar’s FIFA World Cup 2022 stadium perimeters,” a FIFA spokesperson said in a statement…

For years, Qatar’s tournament organisers have said that alcohol would be widely accessible to fans at the tournament.

“Some fans like a beer at the match, and some don’t, but the real issue is the last-minute U-turn which speaks to a wider problem — the total lack of communication and clarity from the organising committee towards supporters,” the association said in a statement on Twitter.

Qatar, the smallest country to host a World Cup, is bracing for the expected arrival of 1.2 million fans during the month long tournament, more than a third of the Gulf Arab state’s 3 million population.

Budweiser, a major World Cup sponsor, owned by beer maker AB InBev, was to exclusively sell alcoholic beer within the ticketed perimeter surrounding each of the eight stadiums three hours before and one hour after each game…

The stadium reversal comes after long-term negotiations between FIFA president Gianni Infantino, Budweiser, and executives from Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy (SC), which is organising the World Cup, a source with knowledge of the negotiations told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The SC did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment and FIFA did not confirm Infantino’s involvement.

“A larger number of fans are attending from across the Middle East and South Asia, where alcohol doesn’t play such a large role in the culture,” the source said.

“The thinking was that, for many fans, the presence of alcohol would not create an enjoyable experience.”

Alcohol will continue to flow freely inside stadium VIP suites, which FIFA’s website advertises as offering a selection of beers, Champagne, sommelier-selected wines, and premium spirits…

Budweiser AB is consoling itself by stating that the vast majority of their WC sales are to fans watching the event in venues all over the globe, but apparently they’re not really happy with their FIFA partners right at this very moment.

The clownification of the World Cup continues apace. Just a few days ago we saw Qatari security guards hassling visiting journalists, seemingly more out of occupational habit than with any discernible aim in mind. Today brings news that the Qatari government has reneged on its alcohol-permissive previous promises and now will forbid the sale of beer in and around the stadiums. The Qatari World Cup devolving into a sober shitshow before it even begins. Who on Earth could have foreseen this…

This is clearly a big bummer for fans who spent lots of money getting to Qatar with a certain set of expectations only to see at least one of those expectations radically upturned just two days before the event starts. It’s also hard not to wonder where capricious decisions like this might lead; for instance, if Qatar will say one thing but do another when it comes to alcohol, will the country uphold its already limited pre-tournament promise of safety for LGBTQ fans when the tournament officially kicks off?

And yet in spite of Qatar’s capricious decision-making, the oppressive autocracy that capriciousness represents, and the greater air of gross unfairness that permeates this ill-gotten, bloodily built World Cup, it’s worth pointing out that the real villain in this instance is FIFA itself. Banning alcohol from sporting events is itself no great travesty. Plenty of mostly non-repressive countries do it. One such country is Brazil, which has since 2003 banned the sale of alcohol at stadiums in an effort to curb violence at the events…

FIFA knew exactly what it was getting into when it sold the World Cup to Qatar—and if it didn’t know, it should’ve. (And the same goes for Budweiser.) A government willing to more or less enslave thousands of migrant workers to build the infrastructure necessary to host a World Cup is obviously a government capable of telling FIFA and Budweiser to fuck off with their beer. FIFA’s miscalculation was its own belief that avarice and public relations—the only two principles that hold sway for soccer’s governing body—would be sufficient to bend Qatar’s will, the way it did in Brazil.

But Qatar seems to take seriously the idea that it purchased the rights at this World Cup, and thus it is all theirs to do with as they see fit. This was an entirely predictable turn of events. After selling your soul to the devil, you can’t go around complaining about how mean the guy is.

Speaking of the World Cup, apparently there’s another potential global disaster awaiting there…

Reader Interactions

230Comments

  4. 4.

    p.a.

    Shocked!  Shocked I say.

    I would love it as this World Cup devolves if the Qataris discover that Anglo football fans become more violent without alcohol.🤭

  5. 5.

    Baud

    I’ll miss most of it since I’ll be traveling.  I’m not a huge soccer fan but I’ll root for the US team.

  6. 6.

    P Thomas

    Firm no on coverage.  Why give this clown show any air at all?  Plenty of pixels will be spilled across the web if you need it.

  8. 8.

    ColoradoGuy

    Never mind the shitty Budweiser beer, how many fans will be arrested for blaspheming the Prophet? These are soccer fans, after all, and they are not generally known for cultural sophistication. An adventurous tourist usually knows enough to stay away from discussing religion or the local monarchy if they don’t want to get arrested in foreign lands … but soccer rowdies looking for fun?

  13. 13.

    lowtechcyclist

    I’m not a soccer fan, barely even a sports fan at all anymore.

    First of all, fuck FIFA and fuck Qatar. With the rustiest, nastiest farm implements in the world.

    That said, I’ll second Shalimar: maybe one open thread per day primarily as a place for soccer fans to talk soccer.

    Given that Qatar is evil and FIFA is impressively corrupt, no further front-page coverage would be desirable, IMHO. But once again, I say this as someone who’s not a fan.

  16. 16.

    Amir Khalid

    As a sporting organisation, FIFA should be promoting a healthy lifestyle, and not have beer sponsorships in the first place. (The same goes for its long-term deal with Coca-Cola.) Anyone remember Cristiano Ronaldo putting away the sponsor’s beer bottle at a Euro ’21 media session?

    Plus, someone said in comments that the Budweiser would have cost fans US$80 a bottle. For that kind of money, even Czech Budweiser would surely be way overpriced.

  17. 17.

    Ken

    Gianni Infantino: “Today I feel Qatari. Today I feel Arab. Today I feel African. Today I feel gay. Today I feel disabled. Today I feel a migrant worker.”

    “Sure, those people have been outright murdered by the regime, but this was a marketing deal that would have netted me personally several hundred thousand euros in kickbacks.”

  19. 19.

    Cameron

    FIFA president Gianni Infantino: “Today I feel Qatari. Today I feel Arab. Today I feel African. Today I feel gay. Today I feel disabled. Today I feel a migrant worker.”

    Bro can’t keep his hands off anybody?  WTF – is he some kind of woke sexual predator?

  23. 23.

    RSA

    OT:

    Fistpump McRunpants has an opinion piece in the Post.

    The old Republican Party is dead. It has been wasting away for years now, and this month’s midterm results are the finishing blow. If Republicans learn nothing else from this election, they must learn that much.

    Good start!

    Many Republicans are primed to learn all the wrong lessons from this cycle. Over the past week, we’ve heard this election is about nothing more than “candidate quality” or turnout operations.

    Yes, yes…

    That means tariffs to foster American industry, local content requirements to reshore manufacturing and taking the shackles off U.S. energy producers. That means new antitrust laws for Big Tech that will bust up monopolies such as Google and restore competition to the marketplace. And while we’re at it, we should start relocating federal agencies such as the Departments of Energy, Interior and Agriculture to middle America. It’s long past time for cosseted policymakers to confront the real-world consequences of their decisions, economic or otherwise.

    We need explicit support in our tax code for marriage and family, such as a parent tax credit for working families. We should adopt new protections for parents to ensure they control their children’s education and medical care, such as a Parents’ Bill of Rights. And families can’t thrive unless they are safe. That’s why we need 100,000 new police officers on the streets, spread across every state in America.

    Sigh, and yawn.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/18/josh-hawley-oped-republican-party-working-people/

  28. 28.

    mrmoshpotato

    50,000 traveling English fans about to discover they find soccer kinda boring.

    World’s-first sober hooligan (smelt!) riot on deck!

  29. 29.

    mrmoshpotato

    but excessive abuse of other commentors’ choices is never a good look.

    Excessive abuse. 😁

    What about fish slapping – and dancing?

  30. 30.

    NorthLeft

    As a Canadian, my wife and I will only watch the games Canada plays in. Only the second time my country has been represented at the World Cup. In 1986 Canada lost all three games without scoring a goal, and really (I watched it on TV) never getting close to scoring a goal.

    I’m retired and would normally watch as many games as I could have.

    To the charges of racism to the boycotters and critics, there may be some truth to that. I believe that the World Cup should be shared with different parts of the world. South Africa did a fantastic job with their hosting of this showcase event, living up to all their commitments and treating the fans very well.
    However, FIFA (in their unrelenting greed) bears a great deal of the responsibility because they absolutely knew that all the commitments by the Qatar bidders were totally worthless. Now it is too late to do anything about it. But FIFA doesn’t really care because they got paid off (as usual) and that is all that matters to them. The fans and players can get stuffed for all they care.

  31. 31.

    LiminalOwl

    I am not a sports fan whatsoever. But I would read posts about FIFA in Qatar to look for coverage of these “other” issues: LGBTQ, migrant workers, etc. Because I expect mainstream media to largely ignore those, except perhaps where they can support anti-Muslim propaganda.

  33. 33.

    mrmoshpotato

    The Qatari World Cup devolving into a sober shitshow before it even begins.

    sober shitshow

    Hahaha!

  34. 34.

    artem1s

    real live american handball playoff season is coming up. throw a ball in a peach basket season is in full swing. why not a general sportsball post a couple of times a week?

  37. 37.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Ken:

    1.2 million fans in a country with a population of 3 million. Will we see the first government overthrown by a soccer riot? 

    LOL!  It could be possible.

  41. 41.

    cope

    @LiminalOwl: There is a four part documentary about FIFA on Netflix if you are interested and have access. I haven’t watched it yet just because as a fan of the game, I’ve long been aware of FIFA’s awfulness.  Maybe sometime, I’ll take a look.

  42. 42.

    kalakal

    Infantino then went on to establish his credentials as a sufferer of oppression

    “Of course I am not Qatari, I am not an Arab, I am not African, I am not gay, I am not disabled,” he added. “But I feel like it, because I know what it means to be discriminated [against], to be bullied, as a foreigner in a foreign country. As a child I was bullied – because I had red hair and freckles, plus I was Italian, so imagine.”

    Later it was pointed out that he had missed out half the world’s population. “I feel like a woman too!” he added.

    Last year the Guardian reported that at least 6,500 migrant workers have died in Qatar since preparations for the World Cup began.

     

    The whole thing is an excercise in whatab outery – western countries have been bad to immigrants ( true) so they can’t criticise the Qatar for being bad to immigrants. Also I know how awful it is because people didn’t like me at school. Therefore nobody should criticise anybody for being bad to immigrants as it upsets people and we want everybody to be happy ( except the immigrants, obvs ) and I not only get a huge stack of cash, I have shown how deeply humane & caring I am. Win!

    personally I don’t care about sport, except cricket a bit, but that’s one of BJ’s strengths, plenty of posts on varied topics, don’t read the ones you don’t care about

  45. 45.

    Gvg

    I don’t consider this a mere sports topic. It’s actually politics and human rights and international relations plus anti slavery. Qatar is a slave state in a semi hidden way that needs to be dealt with. There is a whole bunch of corruption. Hard to deal with because it’s international and only fandom so not all countries want to deal with it.

    The actual sport is almost incidental to me. I do think it is still actually nuts to try and play a game in such a hot place. Which everybody has already said.

  49. 49.

    LiminalOwl

    @cope: Thanks! I don’t think I’m that interested in FIFA, but I appreciate the recommendation.  And I can sort-of-recommend two books on coverups of outside-the-game violence in USA sports: PROS AND CONS and OUT OF BOUNDS (both by Jeff Benedict).

    I wish he wouldn’t conflate violentand nonviolent offenses when talking about the “criminals”—smoking, or even dealing, cannabis is to my mind wholly different from domestic violence and nondomestic assaults, hence the “sort of.”  But the books gave me info about sports culture that helped me better support DV survivors.

  52. 52.

    kalakal

    @Gvg: I lived in Qatar many years ago as a kid, the heats insane.

    I have a feeling this is going to be a disaster, football fans en masse are not known for their attitude of sweet reason, the sheer number of them could lead to some hideous, uncontrollable rioting

  54. 54.

    Cameron

    @kalakal: I lived in Saudi Arabia years ago, and, yes, the heat’s insane.  Late November shouldn’t be too bad, though.  As far as the fans, that does sound like a disaster waiting to happen.

  56. 56.

    Betsy

    Pro sports and collegiate corporate sports are gross.  The more that money and advertisers are involved, the worse it gets.

    I sort of have decided to limit my spectatorship / attendance to  watching  kids play or having a corn hole toss in the yard with friends or family.

    There’s also a local croquet group that gets together in nice weather.  “Here, hold my beer.”

    But even the minor-league baseball field near me was ruined when they decided to upgrade the corporate boxes (which blocked the breeeze in the plebe seats) and build extensive LED motion signs in the outfield — to provide more “in-game entertainment”. What!?? It’s already a game…

    Then they hiked ticket prices to pay for it all, and decided to ban the vendor in the stands  who used to holler “pea-NUTS!” in such a wacky, hoarse, unique way that all the little boys in the stands would try to imitate him as he got near their seats.

    When a whole Cub Scout troop would get going on this, it was absolutely hysterical.

  58. 58.

    Hoosier X

    @Ken: That comment from the Budweiser guy prompts me to fully support Qatar on the alcohol ban, just to fuel this asshole’s victimhood.

     

    I mean … really! Has Qatar promised LGBTQ people that they won’t be beaten to death in the VIP areas where liquor is allowed? I THINK NOT!

  59. 59.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    Hubby and I were talking about this yesterday and he thought the no alcohol rule was fine, until I told him it only applied to the regular fans, the rich folks who are paying £19,000.00 a pop in the corporate boxes can drink all the damn alcohol they want.  That is just downright unfair and totally wipes out the “well its their religion” argument.  Their religious beliefs only apply to those who cannot afford a £19,000 ticket? Really.  The thing is that football fans are all painted with the same hooligan brush.  The majority of them are normal blokes.  They are husbands and dads, they are plumbers, electricians, builders, bin men.  They have probably saved up for years for this trip, their families more than likely all chipped in to buy the tickets for christmas or birthdays.  They will have spent alot of time searching out the best deals on flights and accommodation.  This will more than likely be a once in a lifetime trip for them that they will never be able to afford again.

    So let us suggest this.  You save for years to go on your dream trip.  You plan it, you dream about it, you do without lots of things so you can afford to go.  You are giddy with excitement about it.  Then two days before the trip the company changes the rules and says that the hotel you had booked (a five star hotel including restaurant with gourmet meals) had now changed hands and the owner is strict vegan and you will be served only vegan meals, and no you can’t cancel, you can’t change hotels, you can’t get a refund.  I am sure all these people saying “so what” would be fine with that right?  No they wouldn’t.  These fans were sold a lie by FIFA and Qatar, they spent their life savings on it and now because they are considered “the rubes” by the rich and powerful they are being screwed over while the same rich and powerful quaff their cocktails in the corporate boxes.  It is absolutely disgraceful.

  61. 61.

    oldster

    I agree with those who say that coverage of the WC in Qatar is important because of the political issues.

    I also agree that there’s a very good chance of riots, with many deaths.

    I’m not a big fan of soccer or of alcohol, but a full-service political blog should cover autocracies getting their close-up on the world stage.

  63. 63.

    randy khan

    I have been wondering if the alcohol thing was a reaction to the ways that various national teams have been highlighting issues that the Qataris do not want highlighted.  (The U.S. team has been prominently displaying its Pride logo, for instance.)  So Qatar could be punishing FIFA for not being authoritarian enough.

  64. 64.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @RSA: Why is this asshole still in the Senate? Why weren’t he and Ted Veracruz, at the very least, sanctioned? All part of the really bad strategy of downplaying the insurrection. I still don’t understand why our betters chose to do that. But then, I don’t understand a lot.

  66. 66.

    Warblewarble

    No hypocrite like a religious hypocrite. We have you where we want you and now we can do as we please. We like to think that there are treaties ,laws, agreements to banish slavery forever. The slavers don’t go away, only bide their time. This being rewarded may well be a sign of things to come.

  68. 68.

    Kirk Spencer

    @Ken:

    Will we see the first government overthrown by a soccer riot?

    See the 1969 “Football war” as precedent.

  69. 69.

    zhena gogolia

    OT, but this NYT story seems important.

    As the Supreme Court investigates the extraordinary leak this spring of a draft opinion of the decision overturning Roe v. Wade, a former anti-abortion leader has come forward claiming that another breach occurred in a 2014 landmark case involving contraception and religious rights.
    …
    In early June 2014, an Ohio couple who were Mr. Schenck’s star donors shared a meal with Justice Alito and his wife, Martha-Ann. A day later, Gayle Wright, one of the pair, contacted Mr. Schenck, according to an email reviewed by The Times. “Rob, if you want some interesting news please call. No emails,” she wrote.

  70. 70.

    Josie

    @Litlebritdifrnt: ​
     This is a really interesting and accurate take on the whole thing. Reminds me of Carlin’s outlook on life and politics. “There’s a club and you ain’t in it.”

  71. 71.

    MomSense

    My kids used to play and they love the sport.  I’m not going to watch on my own, but if I’m with one or more of them and they want to watch the World Cup, then I’ll happily join in.

  79. 79.

    Suzanne

    I’m not going to watch.

    This was a terrible strategic move. No one’s going to want to hold a world event in a Muslim country after this.

  81. 81.

    MomSense

    @Cameron:

    Hawthorne was, according to his wife and her sisters, a model husband.  My favorite story about his wedding to Sophia Peabody was that their friend Emerson found and secured a house for them in Concord and Thoreau planted a garden there to welcome them.

    ETA Thoreau also filled all the rooms with flowers for their honeymoon.

  83. 83.

    MomSense

    Off to the farmers market.  I’m picking up my turkey and some veggies.  My mom is buying an alpaca bear for my great nephew.  She bought one for the baby and my niece said little J loves it and plays with it all the time so my mom is getting a really big one for him.  I

  84. 84.

    sdhays

    @Suzanne: This has nothing to do with it being a Muslim country and everything to do with it being a violent autocracy. Malaysia or Indonesia, for example, wouldn’t ignore their agreements at the last minute

    ETA: I’ve never been to Indonesia, but I have been to Malaysia, and there are lots of bars in Kuala Lumpur.

  86. 86.

    citizen dave

    Just thinking, wait a minute, isn’t this violent autocracy our friend?  As always…

    March 10, 2022
    MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE

    SUBJECT:       Designation of the State of Qatar as a
    Major Non-NATO Ally
    By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and by section 517 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended (22 U.S.C. 2321k) (the “Act”), I hereby designate the State of Qatar as a major Non-NATO Ally of the United States for the purposes of the Act and the Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2751 et seq.).

    You are authorized and directed to publish this determination in the Federal Register.
    JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.

  87. 87.

    raven

    @sdhays: Kuala Lumpur was one of the R&R destinations for US troops and there were huge warnings about getting busted for dope while there. I don’t think it extended to booze but still.

  88. 88.

    scav

    Qatar seem to be unilaterally changing things at the last minute everywhere.  Apparently there’s a program to fly in supporters in exchange for enthusiastic tweets, etc, and a per diem for food was cancelled on them at the last minute because the Qatari didn’t like the press it was getting.  “The Little People” are just not worthy of contracts and promises made — it’s like the Elon Amateur Hour of Administration is spreading. FIFA too is unusually rather front of stage cringy doormat stupid (they do start with a high bar, granted).

     

    ETA : and agreed, it’s the last minute unilateral changing of contracts plus the general working conditions that’s really problematic.  Alcohol, dealt with consistently over time and class, could have been minor.

  92. 92.

    Mousebumples

    Late to the thread, but just a reminder that we’ve got another #GOTV postcard party/music thread for Senator Warnock tonight! 8pm blog time (7pm central) – and WaterGirl might put the thread up a few minutes early…?

    I’ll have to persuade my husband to get me more postcards from the basement office – I’ve only got 11 left upstairs!

  93. 93.

    Betty Cracker

    @zhena gogolia: My husband grew up in Buffalo and fled as soon as he turned 18, but we visit family there occasionally (only in the summer), and I think it’s a beautiful city. The Great Lakes are astonishingly beautiful. I love all the slate! The surrounding countryside is gorgeous too, and the fresh vegetables you can get up there in the summer are uniquely delicious, IMO. It’s kind of a throwback foodie paradise!

  94. 94.

    cmorenc

    One of the very best things about high-level soccer at e.g. English Premier League or FIFA World Cup competition – is that unlike mis-named American “armball” aka NFL and NCAA football, each 45 minutes + stoppage time is broadcast uninterrupted by any commercials (except along the LED footboards surrounding the field).   And yet, top European / English professional soccer clubs e.g. Man United, Liverpool, Real Madrid etc. are right up there in the top 25 most valuable sports franchises in the world, proving that it is NOT necessary to interrupt the game flow every 3=5 minutes for beer commercials to make these soccer clubs financially successful.

    Also, as corrupt as FIFA is, that corruption does NOT extend to corrupting the integrity of actual games played on the field, despite the enormous discretionary power of referees to critically impact the game via whether to call the extremely consequential foul against a defender in the Penalty Area, or whether to give a player a card for a foul, and whether yellow v red, or how much stoppage time to add each half (if the game is stopped for 2-3 minutes for injury, the clock isn’t stopped, tv coverage doesn’t break for a commercial – the lost minutes are simply addeed to the length of the half.  Man Utd won their recent game vs Fulham with a goal in the final minute of added stoppage time, an example of how critical the ref’s decision on how much time to add is.  And yet, nary a peep out of anyone at Fulham that the ref’s decision about how much to extend time was possibly corrupt.

    Once you acclimate to understanding soccer and how fast, athletic, and skilled and relatively continuous the play actually is, the American “armball” version seems slow and plodding by comparison – a quick burst while a play is actually underway, followed by long interruptions.  Not that watching a great run or pass play in the latter isn’t enjoyably exciting while it’s ongoing, but alas will be followed by a long plodding interruption.  And…NO time-outs in soccer!  Although when played in conditions of excessive heat (e.g. Quatar) there can be a brief hydration time-out mid-half, but timed to the player’s needs, not those of commercial advertisers.

  95. 95.

    Betty Cracker

    @Mousebumples: I’m doing my Warnock postcards this morning — 15 down and another five to go before I’m off to dog obedience class! (Not for me. For a dog!)

  96. 96.

    Old Man Shadow

    Damn. If you can’t trust a group of fundamentalist, autocratic slavery who paid you in blood money, who can you trust?

  102. 102.

    Amir Khalid

    @raven:

    GIs wouldn’t have been warned off alcohol in KL: non-Muslims in Malaysia have always been as free to drink alcohol as they would be in the West.

  103. 103.

    kalakal

    @cmorenc: In the 80s in the UK the then shiny new TV station Channel 4 secured the rights to show American football on British TV. They got it cheap  and the show was once a week for about 45 minutes. It was really popular because it 45 minutes of the best bits, so non-stop action. Inspired by this they arranged an exhibition match in London ( can’t remember the teams), tickets sold out and… it bombed. Everyone was expecting football or rugby, non-stop 90 minutes, not 4 or 5 hours of 2 minute bursts. I believe it now has a following but back then people only knew it from TV and TV never showed the dull stuff.

    As Oscar Wilde said ” Wonderful moments but awful quarters of an hour”.

    ETA before I get slagged I’m not putting American football down, I’m describing how people in the UK first experienced it

  105. 105.

    Betty Cracker

    @zhena gogolia: Me neither. I am open to visiting in the winter, but hubby is not. He never wants to see snow again! I do want to see it, so maybe some day I’ll visit his relatives without him. :)

  107. 107.

    ian

    @Amir Khalid:

     Anyone remember Cristiano Ronaldo putting away the sponsor’s beer bottle at a Euro ’21 media session?

    I do.  I own a decent size (for a peon) chunk of Coca Cola Co stock.  Ronaldo did a number on my portfolio, it took a while for it to return to pre-Ronaldo value.

    I don’t think he is wrong from a health perspective.

  108. 108.

    mali muso

    Open thread? Took the widget with me to get our bivalent COVID boosters yesterday afternoon. She turns 6 next week! Was a total champ with the nurses and did not flinch with the jab. Today I’m feeling draggy and achy but she’s popping around with all the energy of youth. Hoping to do our part to protect my anti-vax mom (recovering from cancer, natch) over the holidays.

  110. 110.

    Mousebumples

    @Betty Cracker: good for you! I have my kiddos demanding time and attention during the day, so I don’t trust myself to stay on message or get much of anything accomplished. Hope the classes help both you and the doggies!

  111. 111.

    Amir Khalid

    @WaterGirl:

    I think it’s because the Biden administration is bound by international law. MBS has never been charged with anything in that murder, plus he had his dad appoint him prime minister which confers diplomatic immunity.

  115. 115.

    WaterGirl

    @mali muso: That’s great about the no drama shots.  Wasn’t it you who had the abysmal, maddening experience with being intimidated and abused when you guys went for an earlier shot for the little one?

  117. 117.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @OzarkHillbilly: Snow totals in Buffalo are at 6 feet in some places and I believe it is still snowing  two deaths so far. Both were people shoveling in the middle of the storm…

  118. 118.

    mali muso

    @WaterGirl: No, thank goodness that was not my experience. Maybe Suzanne? In any case, I was proud of kiddo. She was bragging about her bravery to her dad last night. Lol

  119. 119.

    Amir Khalid

    Anwar Ibrahim’s Pakatan Harapan appears to be pulling into the lead. With results in for 80 of 222 seats in Parliament, PH was won 18 while Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s Barisan has won 13. Muhyiddin Yasin’s Perikatan Nasional is well behind with just 11.

  120. 120.

    Betty Cracker

    @WaterGirl: Pete and I are in a basic six week obedience class. (Badger and I went when he was a pup.) It won’t fix the problems between the two of them, but our vet said training via positive methods can help on the margins. We’re also doing a ton of walking, separately if it’s just me or with both dogs but at a safe distance if hubby is here to help.

    Our vet also put me in touch with a board certified DVM who specializes in behavioral issues, and I’ll be driving the dogs together or separately to Tampa for in-person consultations and a treatment plan. It’s going to be horrendously expensive and require a lot of work, but I’ll do anything to fix this problem!

  121. 121.

    Amir Khalid

    Most of the results in the populous, industrial west coast states, where PH is strongest, have yet to come in.

  122. 122.

    Geoduck

    There was a video floating around a few days back of the horrible sleeping quarters that Qatar is supposedly going to stick some of the more plebeian visitors in, an unairconditioned tent with a couple of bunks.

  125. 125.

    citizen dave

    @Baud: Yes, I forgot this.  Line from Tom Waits “Road to Peace” (amazing song):

    Once Kissinger said “we have no friends, America only has interests”

  127. 127.

    James E Powell

    @MomSense:

    Republicans turned the Supreme Court into a farce.

    Yes, they did. And what infuriates me is that they did it slowly & steadily, in plain sight, over decades.

    Well & painfully I recall talking to normies & tote-baggers. Sure, you want to have a beer with Bush, but he’s going to appoint justices who want to repeal the 20th century. You believe that Al Gore is not the environmentalist that he claims to be, but Bush is going appoint justices who believe any environmental protections are unconstitutional. So, you don’t like the way she laughs, but Trump has promised to appoint justices who will overrule Roe v Wade.

    And on and on and on like that. I’m sure many people here – lawyers & non – have had similar experiences.

  130. 130.

    BC in Illinois

    @mali muso:  @sab:

    I have never heard of any complaints from the g’kids about covid shots or masks. When the 5 or 6 year old grandson got his first “stick the swab up your nose” test, he endured it well, then announced “Don’t ever do that again!”

  133. 133.

    Ken

    @sab: Oh, good. I was beginning to think that I must have been a real wuss when I was a kid and getting my vaccines.

    In fairness, that was back when they used 8-gauge needles, or just slashed a cut in your arm and rubbed in the cowpox scabs.

  134. 134.

    WaterGirl

    @Betty Cracker: What a nightmare this is for all of you.  I’m in tears just thinking about what you’re going through. The constant stress must be awful.

    I hope this board certified DVM can work miracles, even though it will take a lot of money, time, and effort.

  135. 135.

    Miss Bianca

    @Betty Cracker: Oh, Betty, I read about the Pete and Badger situation the other night, and I am so sorry to hear about it. Honestly, your experience has given me pause – I was considering a possible adoption of a male Malamute who apparently has some issues that I think would be otherwise cope-able for the Mountain Hacienda, but now I worry about Watson mixing it up with another male dog. (Watson can be a bit of a bully to younger dogs, males in particular. This guy is older and bigger than he is, so that might not not be as big an issue as I think it would be, but still…)

    Best of luck getting it all sorted out. You know we’re all rooting for you!

  137. 137.

    Elizabelle

    @Geoduck:

    horrible sleeping quarters that Qatar is supposedly going to stick some of the more plebeian visitors in, an unairconditioned tent with a couple of bunks.

    The FIFA Fyre festival.

  138. 138.

    CaseyL

    I don’t like futbol enough to watch it, but do like it enough to read about it. Also, while I try to never gawk at actual car wrecks on the road, I very happily read about the political ones. So I vote in favor of one post about the World Cup per day.

    Re Buffalo and snow: it has ever been thus. In the 1970s, there were news stories about so much snow falling in Buffalo that people had to leave their houses via the 2nd story windows.

  139. 139.

    Miss Bianca

    @Amir Khalid: Amir, I never did see if you expressed an opinion about it, but what do you think of the election results so far?

    (btw, thank you for the Karla Bonoff video. Makes me puddle-y again to think about it, but in a good way. In the way we like.)

  142. 142.

    Elizabelle

    @Betty Cracker:  Hoping that works.  Pete and Badger are both such appealing little guys.  I wish they would call a truce.

    Wonder how much is the two males dynamic.

  143. 143.

    trollhattan

    Sweet mother of god this guy really triples down.

    Infantino said: “We have been taught many lessons from Europeans and the Western world. I am European. For what we have been doing for 3,000 years around the world, we should be apologising for the next 3,000 years before giving moral lessons.

    That’s it, I’ll be back to opine in [careful calculation pause] 5022. Of course the planet will be a crisp.

  144. 144.

    James E Powell

    @wenchacha:

    You can’t expect the political press/media to bother with that when the much more urgent matter of Hunter Biden’s laptop is about to become the subject of several house committee investigations.

  146. 146.

    kalakal

    @Betty Cracker: That’s quite the drive down to Tampa and back, you’ve got my respect. Fingers, toes crossed for success. Got a similar, but far less serious problem with 2 of the cats and that’s bad enough. I can only imagine how stressful this is for you

  147. 147.

    trollhattan

    @James E Powell: Lord, I kanna wait. Wonder if Trey Gowdy’s hair is available to chair a few?

    A thing that I want but cannot have is for them to toil in obscurity with no network coverage. Put them on CSPAN-7.

  148. 148.

    Geminid

    @WaterGirl: Your new Congresswoman sure looks like a keeper!

    When 45 year old Nikki Budzinski won the Illinois 13th CD over Republican Regan Deering, 55.9% to 44.1%, it was Budzinski’s first run ever for elective office. She is by no means a political novice, though. Wikipedia tells me that while she attended the University of Illinois Ubanna-Champagne,

    [Budzinski] interned for Rep. Dick Gephardt, U.S. Senator Paul Simon and Planned Parenthood.

    After college, she worked for the United Food and Commercial Worker’s union as political director in Washington, DC.

    Later on, Budzinski worked for J.B. Pritzger’s 2018 campaign for Governor as a

        …Senior Advisor focusing on political strategy, messaging and outreach. After Pritzger won, she was named Transition Director.

    .    Before she left to run for Congress, Budzinki served in the Biden administration as chief of staff for the director of the Office of Management and Budget.

    The news site Illinoisnewsroom.org reported on Budzinski’s Election night remarks:

    (dateline) Springfield.

    “Thank you, and then let’s get to work,” Nikki Budzinski said on Election night to a cheering crowd at the Hoagland Center for the Arts.

    The reporter also talked to rally attendee Chris Frydenger, a Monticello utility worker (and member of United Steelworkers Local 7-838). He had been featured in the “comedic commercial ‘Buttinski,’ ” where he repeatedly botches the pronunciation of the candidate’s name.

    Among other things, Frydenger said that he had found Budzinski to be a good person to have a beer with.

  150. 150.

    PaulB

    @Betty Cracker: It’s going to be horrendously expensive….

    You didn’t ask, but I suspect that if you did, you’d find quite a few of us willing to help out with that.

  151. 151.

    JPL

    @zhena gogolia:  Why did the NYTimes sit on the story until after the election?   It might not have changed the election, but it surely would have given Congress time and reason to pass a code of conduct for the supremes.

  152. 152.

    Amir Khalid

    @Baud:

    How did American football on TV get so bogged down by ads? I’ve seen how it’s done over there, and I’m baffled that the surfeit of advertising hasn’t driven fans away.

  153. 153.

    cmorenc

    @Baud:

    Excessive ads suck, but sports chauvinism is kind of lame.  Let people enjoy what they enjoy.

    My main point was the extent to which the evolution of the game play / flow itself in American football has been altered to facilitate interruptions for commercials, compared to soccer.  Soccer and football evolved from the same ancestral game – the divergence emerged back in the 1860s-70s from a disagreement over the extent to which players should be allowed to use hands/arms to manipuate the ball, or just body, feet and legs.  The branch which disallowed such evolved into soccer, the branch which allowed it evolved into rugby, which nontheless otherwise retained many similaities, especially the relatively continuous flow of the game, one play flowing quickly into another.

    As the Americanized version of rugby morphed into America football, plays became more discreet events with longer pauses between, but as the game became popular enough to commercialize (especially on TV),  the TV folks injecting money into the sport demanded the pauses become frequent and long enough to facilitate more commercial ad breaks.  Yet, somehow soccer avoided and resisted altering the flow and continuity of the game for commercial considerations, which is part of why the game’s fans like it so much, and yet top soccer clubs still are enormously valuable commercial enterprises.

    That’s not sports “chauvanism” to point out these differences in explaining why soccer fans find the game more enjoyable (in general) to watch than the American football version.  YMMV of course if you prefer televised American football with all its commercial pauses.

  154. 154.

    CaseyL

    @Amir Khalid: Money.  Money money money. The more ads, the more the NFL and the broadcasters make per game.  We’re talking about insane amounts of money.

    (College football, which is corrupt but not as corrupt, has far fewer ads, which is why it’s more fun to watch.)

  155. 155.

    Omnes Omnibus

    I think that the non-sports fans on this thread might be underestimating the amount of interest in the WC (even in these circumstances).

  157. 157.

    James E Powell

    @Geminid:

    Among other things, Frydenger said that he had found Budzinski to be a good person to have a beer with.

    That settles it. Put her on the list of presidential contenders. But more seriously, I watched a few youtube videos. I can’t say president necessarily, but she could be a national figure if she works at it.

  158. 158.

    Geminid

    @Amir Khalid: American football is well suited for ads. The individual plays are short in duration, unlike the continual play of soccer matches. Team timeouts, commercial time outs, and the “two-minute warnings” towards the end of each of the four quarters provide ample space for commercials. And the games typically have large TV audiences so advertising time is highly valued.

  159. 159.

    Cacti

    @CaseyL: (College football, which is corrupt but not as corrupt, has far fewer ads, which is why it’s more fun to watch.)

    College football is not as corrupt as what? The Gambino family?

    It’s a farm system for the professional league, where everybody but the players get a piece of the multibillion dollar pie.

  160. 160.

    cmorenc

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I think that the non-sports fans on this thread might be underestimating the amount of interest in the WC (even in these circumstances).

    Exactly. Disgust with the very real rot at FIFA and the corrupt decision to choose a poorly suited venue (on so many counts), or the huge fetish the public at large has with sports to the distraction of other critical matters – isn’t going to impact the popularity of the WC worldwide.  Fans are going to watch anyways in numbers the championship games of other sports can only dream of. 

  161. 161.

    Amir Khalid

    @cmorenc:

    In the 1994 World Cup, hosted by the US, American broadcasters wanted the matches played in quarters, so they could have three commercial breaks instead of just the one at halftime. FIFA held firm and refused.

  162. 162.

    Geminid

    @James E Powell: Budzinski certainly has the background to be a productive member of Congress. I was impressed. She may not make a very big national name unless and until she’s featured in some high profile hearing or other controversy. That’s how it is for most of our many capable and hardworking Representatives.

     

    I just included the part about her being “a good person to have a beer with” for the humor. It’s certainly not a bad quality for a politician to have, though.

  164. 164.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Geminid: ​
      It is a good quality for a politician to have. It just shouldn’t be someone’s primary reason for support someone. FWIW, I would rather have a notional beer with Al Gore or John Kerry than W.

  165. 165.

    Baud

    @cmorenc:

    I think calling a sport “slow and plodding” as a statement of fact is kind of chauvinistic.

    I don’t particularly enjoy the continuous play of soccer, but I appreciate that others find it exciting.

  166. 166.

    cmorenc

    One of the most astounding aspects of the corrupt FIFA decision to have WC played in Quater was the fact that this choice required WC to be played mid-winter when Quatar (right in the middle of the regular season most of the professional soccer clubs the players regularly play for) – because as unsuitably hot as Quatar is mid-winter, it’s too lethally hot there in mid-summer, when most pro leagues are on break between seasons.  How were the leagues / clubs / players not able to successfully resist such a corrupt, inappropriate imposition by FIFA?  This WC interruption forces leagues to compress their schedules, increasing risk of player injury via shorter time between regular-season matches / less recovery or training time available.  True as well for the national squads playing in WC on a compressed WC competition schedule in order to somewhat lessen the interruption to regular leagues.

  168. 168.

    Geminid

    @Omnes Omnibus: What you say is true. Mr. Frydengen’s other remarks to the reporter indicated that he found Budzinski’s sociablity to be a bonus on top of her suitability as a Representative.

  170. 170.

    Amir Khalid

    Pakatan Harapan has jumped into a quite a big lead, with 46 of 152 Parliamentary seats called. That suggests it’s on track for a plurality, which means Anwar Ibrahim might finally realise his lifelong ambition.

  171. 171.

    cmorenc

    @Baud:

    I think calling a sport “slow and plodding” as a statement of fact is kind of chauvinistic.

    It’s not the play itself, it’s the frequent and lengthy interruptions in pro / college football that are “slow and plodding”, particuarly those motivated by expanding the time and attention available for commercial TV ads.

  172. 172.

    James E Powell

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    If I’m having a beer with my choice of politicians, it’s got to be Barack Obama. I’d go for ice cream with Nancy Pelosi & Joe Biden

    The only concern I have with Nikki Budzinski is that she seems to know what she is talking about. There are a lot of voters who don’t like it when a woman knows what she is talking about. And no, I will never recover from 2016.

  173. 173.

    Geminid

    @James E Powell: Last I saw the California 41st CD race had not been called. If Mr. Rollins falls short of ousting veteran Republican Ken Calvert, do you think Rollins ought to take another shot in 2024? Rollins looked like a good candidate, at least from 2500 miles away.

  174. 174.

    Another Scott

    @citizen dave: That Kissinger line goes back to George Washington’s Farewell Address (31 page .PDF):

    Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence therefore it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities.

    Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a different course. If we remain one people under an efficient government, the period is not far off when we may defy material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon to be scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, shall counsel.

    Why forgo the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor, or caprice?

    It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world—so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it—for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements (I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy)—I repeat it therefore, let those engagements be observed in their genuine sense. But in my opinion it is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them.

    Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suitable
    establishments, on a respectably defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies.

    He was a wise dude and gave good advice for the times (this was just before the rise of Napoleon, etc.). Times change, of course.

    Moderation in all things – even moderation!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  175. 175.

    p.a.

    Youtube highlights  of NFL football games are usually between 12-16 minutes, and this includes replays.  A 4 hour broadcast can be condensed to a quarter-hour.  Yeech.  The pro skill level is outrageous, but college football is a much better live TV viewing experience (assuming competitive teams.  Lots of walkovers early season.)

    I’m not much overall for futbol, but I do enjoy WC; again, the skill level is so high.  Premiere league is  a good watch also.

    I remember long ago Boston PBS carried the top German league, and a classic call by the Brit announcer of a shot as “high, wide, and very very ugly…”

  176. 176.

    Another Scott

    @James E Powell:

    Apropos of nothing in particular, and not picking on you, but …

    Sure, you want to have a beer with Bush, …

    Few things can set my BP up 20 points quicker than off-hand remarks like this.

    Bush stopped drinking. He didn’t drink. People who created and spread this meme knew this. They spread it, contrary to the known facts, because it was part of their techniques to “create their own reality”. It’s toxic and corrosive (“eh, both sides, alternative facts, my gut tells me it’s true, who knows what the truth is, facts don’t matter as much as feelings, I just go with what my tribal leaders say, …”).

    [ deep breaths ]

    [ /soapbox]

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  178. 178.

    James E Powell

    @Geminid:

    The AP called that race for Calvert on Monday. Yes, I think Rollins could/should make another run at it. CA-41 is a newly drawn & slightly more competitive district. Since our voters come out more for presidential elections than non-competitive governor’s elections, we might have a chance.

    The key to all these things is building a local organization. Nobody seems to do that anymore, at least not in California. I would like to talk with Mr Rollins about that because if things go the way I plan, I’m going to have a lot of free time in the next couple years.

  179. 179.

    Carlo Graziani

    50,000 traveling English fans about to discover they find soccer kinda boring.

    What did the Grateful Dead fan say when he ran out of weed?

    “This music sucks!”

  182. 182.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    “We have no friends, America only has interests.”  Other devotees of realpolitik will also say that nations have no friends, only interests. For that matter, didn’t TFG once say that he doesn’t really have friends?  That’s it!  He thinks he is a nation.

  183. 183.

    Another Scott

    @cmorenc: Baseball’s the same way, or worse.  I think it’s funny how the team announcers occasionally talk about the rule changes and a pitch clock to try to speed up the pace of the game, but conveniently don’t mention the 3-5 minutes of commercials on side-changes.

    Gee, games take 4 hours now when they took 2 when I was a kid.  It must be the pitchers taking too much time!

    It’s extremely obvious if one actually goes to a stadium now.  Out 3!  Players change sides.  And they spend 3-5 minutes tossing balls around on the field…  :-/

    The baseball season continues to get longer, the games continue to get longer, it’s no wonder that the team at the end of the season usually looks nothing like the team that started the season – half the original guys might be out injured.

    It doesn’t seem sustainable to me.

    And pro tennis is worse.  Hitting the ball as hard as you can for 2+ hours a match, multiple matches a week, multiple tournaments all over the world a month, for months on end.  People are destroying their bodies.

    Bring on pro shuffleboard!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  185. 185.

    trollhattan

    @cmorenc: The pacing of an NFL game in the stadium versus, say, a D2 college game is vastly different. Practically a different sport.

    If you find yourself at an NFL game and want to know who’s really controlling the action, find this guy and watch him during breaks.

  186. 186.

    Geminid

    @James E Powell: One interesting fact about the 41st that I learned from you is that the district has a fair amount of retired military.

    That reminded me of Elaine Luria’s 2nd Virginia Congressional District. Coastal Virginia is chock full of military retirees, as well as active duty service members. State and local Republican muckety-mucks backed Luria’s opponent, State Senator Jen Kiggans, in the Republican primary because of this. Kiggans and Luria are both retired Navy officers.

    I expect Luria is looking at a rematch in 2024. She lost by 4 percentage points, but a presidential year electorate could be more favorable. Also, I expect Kiggans’s Republican House Caucus will prove to be dysfunctional and toxic, and this will to some extent rub off on purple district Republicans like her.

  187. 187.

    surfk9

    @James E Powell: ​
     As the President elect of the Lodi Democratic Club and a member of the San Joaquin County Democratic Central committee I would like to object to your characterization. There are lots of local Democratic clubs in the Central Valley.

  188. 188.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @Another Scott:

    Alfred: There is a lot of bad ‘isms’ floating around this world and one of the worst is commercialism. Make a buck, make a buck. Even in Brooklyn it’s the same.

  191. 191.

    Captain C

    It will never happen, but imagine if on the heels of this announcement, FIFA announced that due to breach of contract, the World Cup was being removed from Qatar, and postponed until they could get moved to a more congenial location (say, England or Benelux) and that furthermore, in response to all their nonsense, Qatar was banned from all international competitions for several decades. Also, FIFA declares, Qatar now owes every soccer league in the world for further screwing up their schedules. I’d be good with this.

  194. 194.

    Geminid

    @surfk9: President elect of the Lodi Democratic Club! That sounds like a very powerful position. I trust you won’t forget the little people, though. Like those of us on Balloon Juice.

    More seriously, good luck!

  197. 197.

    Geminid

    @trollhattan: California lost a congressional seat in the latest round of reapportionment, and consequently some CD numbers got switched around. Results for Ken Calvert’s last race are probably the best comparison. Much of his old district is in the new one, but under a new CD number.

  198. 198.

    Obvious Russian Troll

    @Cacti:

    As Raven said above, because of NIL that isn’t true any more. And Texas A&M is just one example.

    You can certainly argue about the merits of NIL and how it’s implemented, but get with the times, dude.

  200. 200.

    surfk9

    @Geminid: ​
     It’s not powerful in the least. But we are a mid-size club in an increasingly purple area. We try to get our message out to the public. We also try to support local organizations who do good works in the city as well as local Democratic candidates. We now have two Democrats on the City Council. As far as I know that has never happened before.

  201. 201.

    ian

    @raven:

    Q: How many Grateful Dead fans does it take to change a lightbulb?

    A: No one knows, the light has been out for twenty years and they haven’t noticed.

  203. 203.

    Carlo Graziani

    @cmorenc: I grew up in Italy, actually playing the game, so I understand your perspective on its virtues. To a large degree, I share them.

    But the idea that sports are somehow more corrupted by money in the US than is the case for FIFA and the various national football leagues strikes me as coming from the same universal fan blind spot that allows those leagues to thrive in their corrupt ways despite decades of constant scandals.

    Money corrupts everything. There’s just no getting around it. The choices that you have are whether you like your corrupton out in the open, where it can be seen in its full, rotten, capitalistic glory, or whether you prefer to pretend to believe in the illusion of a pristine “beautiful game” untainted by crass commercialism. Which only drives the crass commercialism behind locked doors and beyond public and regulatory scrutiny, where it prefers to live anyway. This is how international football fans prefer their corruption served up. Frank acknowledgment that it’s really all about cash, when it really is all about cash, would destroy something precious about the game. The FIFA vultures prey on this fan weakness, in my opinion.

    Say what you will about US pro sports leagues, but you have to give them this: in terms of financial transparency, they look saintly compared to FIFA.

  204. 204.

    Geminid

    @brantl: Malaysia, Mr. Khalid’s home. They are holding elections for the next Malaysian Parliament.

    Actually, they’ve held them. Malaysia is something like 14 time zones a head of us. Vote counting should resume in 4 hours or so.

  208. 208.

    Geminid

    @surfk9: I think that an important story from the last few decades is the political shifting in California’s interior. My understanding is that this area  was very Republican for much of the latter 20th century.

    But in the last decade, Democrats like Pete Aguilar, Mayor of Redlands and Lou Correa, from closer to LA, started flipping red districts that had become purple. I’m guessing this was due to demographic shifts. The radicalization of the Republican party could have been another factor.

    It sounds like some of that political shifting may be going on where you live.

  209. 209.

    Amir Khalid

    @Miss Bianca:

    I’ve said that Pakatan Harapan seemed the least bad of the three biggest coalitions. Now that enough results have come in, it looks like Barisan Nasional lost big, which makes me happy. And Pakatan looks like it will be leading the next Parliamentary majority. I prefer that to either of Perikatan Nasional or Barisan, both coalitions led by Malay-supremacist parties. So I’m fairly happy with what I’e seen so far.

  211. 211.

    Amir Khalid

    @Geminid:

    Ahem. Please, if you must call me mister, and I prefer that people don’t, it’s Mr Amir Khalid. That’s my full given name. Otherwise, Amir will suffice. I don’t use my patronymic, Hussain, here.

  212. 212.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @citizen dave: Once Kissinger said “we have no friends, America only has interests”

    Which was a blatant (and clumsy) plagiarism of Lord Palmerston speaking in the House of Commons on 1 March 1848:

    [The United Kingdom has] no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow.

    (You could look it up.) Kissinger IMO gets waaaay too much credit for things he simply steals from people with more intelligence.

  213. 213.

    Amir Khalid

    I inadvertently deleted part of my name. Can someone please liberate my comment from moderation?

  215. 215.

    Carlo Graziani

    @cmorenc: There’s one thing about international play that drives me mad, and apparently cannot be fixed because of the obdurate conservatism of the sport: the penalty shoot-out.

    It’s an abomination. Penalty kicks aren’t even a major skill in football, so deciding a match this way is analogous to settling the outcome of one sport by using a different sport, like deciding a tied basketball game by a game of pool. It also corrupts the main play, since weaker teams in knock-out rounds can opt to fort up on defence to play for a draw, especially late in a game. It’s sickening to me how many knockout rounds and finals are settled by shootouts.

    And fans who go on and on about the beauty of the game seem OK, or at least resigned, to these bathetic, anticlimactic denials of the whole purpose of the game. It’s another mystery…

    The justification that is always given for the PK shootout is that sudden-death overtime is impossible, because players would become too tired and risk injury. When one innocently inquires whether it might not be possible to relieve this difficulty by getting rid of the ancient, hallowed, venerated, untouchable player substitution rules, so that players might be rotated on and off during a game, to better protect their health — suddenly the temperature drops by 30C, and one is informed that this is Football, not some American game with all those ridiculous substitutions, and anyway, it would take far too long if substitutions were to occur every few minutes, but must everything be explained, oh, look at the time…

    The “player substitutions take too long” argument is particularly infuriating. They are certainly time-consuming according to international rules, where they are conducted according to a ceremony that burns up more time than is required to crown a British monarch. But many other sports have figured out how to rotate players on and off the field quickly — basketball has no difficulty, and it is a fast-paced game.

    The problem here is just the sheer conservatism of the sport. Whiich would not be a terrible thing in principle, except that the assumed virtues of limiting substitutions constitute this unexamined assumption that result in this unintended consequence: knockout rounds and finals of football tournaments are commonly decided by PK shootout instead of by sudden-death overtime. Which makes them practically coin tosses, dressed up as football. Ugh.

  216. 216.

    Soprano2

    @Betsy: We lost the vendors in the stands at our local AA baseball park, but I think it is because of Covid and that they can’t find enough people to fill the jobs. Now you can use your phone to order and they’ll bring it to your seat. It’s not the same, I miss the vendors.

  222. 222.

    MomSense

    @raven:
    Did you see the movie The Music Never Stopped?  It’s a tearjerker and totally with it.  The dad, played by JK Simmons, learns to love The Dead and the concert scene is so heartwarming.

  223. 223.

    J R in WV

    @CaseyL:

    so much snow falling in Buffalo that people had to leave their houses via the 2nd story windows.

    So, many years ago a rock-hounding buddy and I spent two weeks in Colorado and Wyoming (and a tiny trip across NE Utah to get to WY).

    We visited a gold mining camp in WY, where some of the original buildings were still intact, and they were quite tall, and had front doors on the 2nd story, the 3rd story, and the 4th floor also too. No stairs, just the doors. Because at that elevation, in winter, they accumulated 20 or 30 feet of snow! Was amazing.

    Later on, back down in the flat lands, I asked a store keeper lady if they got much snow, she said, “Kinda, we see it blow by on it’s way east, but it doesn’t stack up here, too much wind…”

  226. 226.

    OldVet

    @Litlebritdifrnt: You save for years…  Disregarding the travel costs, the most expensive ticket available for the USA v Wales match on Monday is slightly more than half the cost of the cheapest ticket available for any venue on the Taylor Swift tour next year.

  227. 227.

    cmorenc

    @Carlo Graziani:

    The “player substitutions take too long” argument is particularly infuriating. They are certainly time-consuming according to international rules, where they are conducted according to a ceremony that burns up more time than is required to crown a British monarch.

    That’s because of the FIFA-rules soccer principle that a departing player being substituted for is still a “player” until they have actually left the pitch over the touchline, coupled with the possibility the departing player commits misconduct on their way to the bench while still technically a “player” and get red-carded.  Or that the waiting sub will commit cardable  misconduct (e.g. telling the 4th official what fucking jackass idiots the ref crew are = red card).  The official advice on the rules warns that failing to follow the proper procedures can lead to some awkwardly ill-defined (under the rules) situations.

    The NF high school soccer rules are generally a kludgey mess created by involvement of non-soccer considerations and non-soccer people on the rules committee, but one of the handful of better rule variations is that the sub becomes an official “player” the moment the ref beckons them onto the field.

    Soccer referee myself for 25 years at competitive levels, albeit far lower than FIFA international competition.  (e.g youth competitive).

  228. 228.

    Captain C

    @Carlo Graziani: I think the best solution would be to use the old NASL-style shootouts—one player vs the goalie, player starts with the ball 35 yards out and has 5 seconds (or until the goalie touches the ball) to take his shot; if the ball goes in after without touching the shooter it counts. Each team gets five tries and then it goes sudden death, like the current setup.  This way, some actual skills are needed.

    If this is too radical, then at least make it shots from the arc rather than shots from the spot.  This way seems less arbitrary.

  229. 229.

    WaterGirl

    @Geminid: Oh, good!

    That awful ad that she made me watch over and over and over every single time I clicked on a YouTube link made her look like an out-of-touch ditz who thinks our biggest issue is being able to buy ice cream for our kids.

    Glad to know she’s got some substance!

  230. 230.

    Geminid

    @WaterGirl: The Budzinski campaign should have worked the “Buttinski” ad in with the inflation one. No point in running one ad over and over. I think the Illinoisnewsroom.org article links to the “Buttinski” ad.

    The Wikipedia article on Nikki Budzinski is interesting. It also has a good picture of her.

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