After reading your comments from yesterday morning, current plan is to put up an Open Thread before every game.
(Also, possibly, posts about the Qatar situation apart from the individual games themselves, if / as necessary — kinda hoping not.)
All set 📸🤩#FIFAWorldCup #WorldCup2022 pic.twitter.com/BAoMGzQaft
— Sportskeeda Football (@skworldfootball) November 20, 2022
As ever: I am *not* knowledgeable about this stuff, so do let me know in the comments if any of these sources are sketchy… or if there are better places I should link.
Sportsmole:
The first match of the highly-controversial 2022 World Cup takes place at the Al Bayt Stadium on Sunday afternoon, as hosts Qatar lock horns with Ecuador in Group A.
Felix Sanchez Bas’s men are competing on the biggest international stage for the first time in their history, while the South American nation make their return to the World Cup finals after an eight-year absence…
Controversy has reared its ugly head ever since Qatar were awarded the hosting rights for the 2022 World Cup back in 2010, but on the field, Sanchez Bas and his crop of soon-to-be history-makers have simply tried to give themselves the best possible chance of making it out of Group A.
Facing Africa Cup of Nations champions Senegal and 2010 World Cup finalists Netherlands is truly a baptism of fire for the world’s 50th-ranked nation, but they have taken part in four warm-up friendlies since October and have won all four of them.
Guatemala, Honduras, Panama and most recently Albania have fallen to Qatar’s superiority in recent weeks, with star striker Almoez Ali netting the only goal against the latter, and the Maroon are now aiming to become the first World Cup debutants to win their opening match since Senegal beat then-defending champions France in 2002.
On the other hand, Sanchez Bas’s side are aiming to avoid being just the second World Cup hosts to fail to make it out of the group – such a fate befell South Africa in 2010 – but victory here would also see Qatar make history as the only AFC nation to win their first-ever World Cup showdown.
Qatar were not the only nation to become embroiled in controversy before the first ball has been kicked at the World Cup, as Ecuador were reportedly facing the threat of expulsion from the tournament after fielding an ineligible player in qualifying.
Nothing came of that, though, and the South American nation now prepare to make their return to the game’s showpiece event after missing out on a place at Russia 2018, but making waves at the World Cup has not been their forte so far.
Ecuador have already appeared at three editions of the competition in 2002, 2006 and 2014, but only once have they progressed beyond the group stages, being eliminated in the last 16 16 years ago, which also represents the sole time that they have won their first match of the tournament…
“I think this will be the World Cup that really underpins just how dirty the game is.”
Melissa Reddy picks apart Gianni Infantino’s ‘astounding’ and ‘disrespectful’ statement ?? pic.twitter.com/AFtVX83uBT
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) November 19, 2022
WaterGirl
I just kicked a little FYWP butt, so Anne Laurie’s World Cup thread is open for business!
Alison Rose
Made my bracket last night, so now I’m waiting on some of these teams to either screw up royally or astound the world and fuck me over.
Onkel Fritze
I usually follow the WC religously but Qatar is just a showcase for how incredibly corrupt FIFA really is. Less than enthusiastic about this one. Should have never happened in a country like this and Infantino is worse than Blatter.
frosty
Umm … isn’t Twitter a sketchy source?
NorthLeft
Yes Infantino is a real piece of work. A corrupt and odious man who is a fine representative of the FIFA hierarchy.
The culture of greed and corruption is so ingrained amongst the FIFA leadership that a partial culling will accomplish nothing IMO.
mrmoshpotato
🎶 Basketball jones, I got a basketball jones, ooo baby, ooo ooo ooo🎶
Alison Rose
Early goal in the first match is a nice way to kick things of
ETA – yikes, or not. Offside. Dang.
Leto
@Alison Rose: idk, three guys in front of the goal scorer. I guess they’re using some type of automated AI to help with offside calls. Seems Tesla engineers coded that system because that was a bad, bad call.
Alison Rose
@Leto: Because the keeper came off his line, it changes the guideline for offside calls…although to me that still looked fine.
Alison Rose
PK!
Nice one–the slow kick threw him off
Omnes Omnibus
We are all supporting Equador, no?
Alison Rose
@Omnes Omnibus: I sure am, and yes, in part for my bracket.
billcinsd
@Alison Rose: The only time the goal scorer was in offside position was when the first ball was played and he was not involved in the play. He was clearly onside when the overhead kick was made. Joe Machnik usually isn’t so bad. He often stans the refs, though
Leto
@Alison Rose: yeah, but even with the keep off his line… there were still three guys in front of him. Two minimum.
@Omnes Omnibus: when I was deployed to Qatar in late 2013, early 2014 I had the chance to watch one of their professional league games. They bused a bunch of us in, fed us, and what I watched, imo, was the equivalent of a community college game. What I’m seeing has done nothing to change that opinion. As always, ymmv.
Amir Khalid
@Leto:
I’m not following the game. But a goal can be ruled out fof offside, even if the scorer himself is onside, if a teammate involved in the buildup play was offside at some point.
Alison Rose
@Leto: See this tweet for the explanation.
Alison Rose
@billcinsd: See my comment above. It’s a teeny thing but it’s there, apparently.
Omnes Omnibus
Is that three yellows to Equador so far?
West of the Cascades
@Omnes Omnibus: I have nothing against the Qatari players, but I’m hoping they lose three matches by 4 or 5 goals, just to underscore one of the corrupt aspects of this WC.
And because it’s the WC and supposedly the best international soccer in the world (until next year’s Women’s World Cup), I will probably watch every minute while feeling conflicted.
West of the Cascades
@Alison Rose: Thanks for posting that! I was confused by where the offside was, too.
Alison Rose
Dang, that was pretty.
sab
@Onkel Fritze:” Infantino worse than Blatter” is in itself a huge accomplishment for those with seriously skewed values.
Alison Rose
@West of the Cascades: They’re being far more meticulous about it this time! Which I suppose is a good thing, although if it ends up working against the USMNT at any point, I’m gonna be pissed :P
Amir Khalid
I’m familiar with Melissa Reddy’s work in football journalism. I have much respect for her. And she’s absolutely right about Infantino.
Omnes Omnibus
@West of the Cascades: I think both feelings are nearly universal.
jonas
To be fair, FIFA has no control over where the WC is held. It’s like a lottery drawing or something.
Omnes Omnibus
@jonas: Isn’t it done by a Sorting Hat, or is that how FIFA does the grouping?
Onkel Fritze
@sab: LOL. Never assume it can’t get worse, even if it’s hard to imagine!
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
USA or bust.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: Um, they are not playing in this particular match.
Baud
Reading this thread, I see we’ve officially inaugurated the World Cup by engaging in the time honored tradition of discussing the offsides rule.
Kent
Speaking of sports journalism, the New York Times has a new investigative feature out today about how college athletic departments are now partnering with online sports betting companies and pushing out sports betting to underage college students. Fucking horrifying. Apparently LSU, MSU, and Colorado are among the worst. Almost as corrupt at FIFA
Despite the often horrible political reporting, it is this sort of stuff that keeps me reading the NYT from time to time. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/20/business/caesars-sports-betting-universities-colleges.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
You didn’t specify.
sab
@Kent: YIKES!!
Didn’t an Ohio State coach totally phuck up an extremely promising young athlete by addicting him to gambling? Husband napping now so I can’t get the name.
Alison Rose
@jonas: “Fair” and “FIFA” do not belong in the same sentence, especially in this case.
Alison Rose
@Baud: THE GREATEST SPORT ON EARTH.
Baud
@Kent:
While I try to stay away from predictions, it wouldn’t surprise me if there’s a backlash against gambling in the next two decades or so.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: ::side eye::
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
::offside eye::
sab
@Omnes Omnibus: I am finally reading Harry Potter series because it is in the popular culture and I am tired of being clueless.
I do not like those kids. Whiney. Argumentative. Liars..
I like Cormoran and Robin a lot.
ETA I do realize kids v adults. I never had kids and I only met my stepkids in their teens so I should but don’t allow for childishness.
Alison Rose
Dang, that would’ve been a sweet moment for Qatar.
Alison Rose
@Baud: LOLOLOL
Kent
@Baud: Didn’t both sports betting initiatives go down in flames in CA?
I drive back and forth between Vancouver (WA) and Seattle all the time. The number of giant Indian casinos on that route today is eye-opening. Just huge ones. I don’t begrudge the tribes from getting their piece of the white man. And it isn’t like the landscape along the freeway is anything scenic. Mostly endless warehouses, low density industrial, used car lots, etc. But the size of the new casinos is pretty overwhelming, especially in Tacoma.
Baud
@Kent:
Gambling was probably ok limited to casinos. It’s gone mainstream and is in people’s face all the time now.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: VAR confirmed.
Alison Rose
Deuce! Our boy.
Another Scott
In other big-deal international news, Phys.org – Agreement reached on climate fund at COP-27.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kent
@Baud: Gotta have some way to extract those social security dollars from the elderly. The local casino here in my neighborhood (Ilani) runs courtesy buses to all the local retirement home and nursing homes.
billcinsd
Well, it looks like Qatari emirates trying to bribe the Ecuadoran players seems to have gone about as well as the gamblers bribing Shoeless Joe Jackson. A good place to get good leftist videos about soccer is from Alfie Potts Harmer at HITC Sevens — his most recent is about how Qatar built there National Team
(35) How Qatar Built A World Cup Team From Nothing – YouTube
kindness
Someone should Photoshop a beer into the hand of all those players in the FIFA poster.
Steeplejack
Interminable article on how to pronounce “Qatar.” You’re welcome.
sab
@Baud: I am rabid in my opposition to gambling. My husband can persuade me on a lot of issues but not on that one. It isn’t just fun for those who get hooked. And it isn’t just chemical, so no way to help them. Just a vile addiction that destroys people and families
ETA And I remember when Evangelicals were also rabidly opposed to any gambling, even casual cards. They certainly sold their souls to Satan for electoral gain.
sab
@Steeplejack: Cutter?
Baud
@Kent:
My plan to save social security is a bunch of state run slot machines so the olds can pay back onto the system.
Baud
@sab:
Steeplejack
Can’t find the specific tweet, but someone had a great one about Qatar’s sudden beer ban: “British fans about to discover they find football boring.”
Steeplejack
@sab:
Ha! Amateur.
JML
Ecuador is just a superior team.
I love World Cup and international play, and I hate corrupt FIFA and the fact that this Cup is in Qatar. Maybe I’m lucky that I’ll be working and will miss matches because of the time difference?
Steeplejack
@sab:
I’m pissed because I did read the interminable article (thrown at me by Google) and therefore want everyone else to suffer too, but I will relent.
Geminid
The airline plans 12 flights, 6 each way, to carry ~1000 passengers to and from Qatar.
As many as 10,000 Israelis and Palestinians have World Cup tickets, and most will fly by way of Jordan, Turkey, Bahrain and the UAE. Those countries have diplomatic relations with Israel.
sab
This whole thing makes me very sad because bad as this World Cup prep has been, Qater also hosts Al Jazeera.
Alison Rose
@Steeplejack: I remember when the Cup was awarded and there was a sudden spate of “here’s how to actually pronounce it” pieces, but I think everyone has just decided fuck it, we’re gonna say it the way Western brains want to reflexively do.
Steeplejack
@Onkel Fritze:
This is pretty much how I feel. Can’t summon much enthusiasm to follow the matches, contrary to my usual practice. Heck, I’m a regular Premier League viewer every week.
sab
@Steeplejack: Me too. I love soccer. My local university had its only championship in soccer (YAY! Caleb Porter) in spite of donors giving massively towards football, which seriously injures kids.
West of the Cascades
@Baud: What’s confusing about Law 11?
1. Offside position
It is not an offence to be in an offside position.
A player is in an offside position if:
The hands and arms of all players, including the goalkeepers, are not considered. For the purposes of determining offside, the upper boundary of the arm is in line with the bottom of the armpit.
A player is not in an offside position if level with the:
2. Offside offence
A player in an offside position at the moment the ball is played or touched* by a team-mate is only penalised on becoming involved in active play by:
or
A player in an offside position receiving the ball from an opponent who deliberately plays the ball, including by deliberate handball, is not considered to have gained an advantage, unless it was a deliberate save by any opponent.
A ‘save’ is when a player stops, or attempts to stop, a ball which is going into or very close to the goal with any part of the body except the hands/arms (unless the goalkeeper within the penalty area).
In situations where:
*The first point of contact of the ‘play’ or ‘touch’ of the ball should be used
3. No offence
There is no offside offence if a player receives the ball directly from:
4. Offences and sanctions
If an offside offence occurs, the referee awards an indirect free kick where the offence occurred, including if it is in the player’s own half of the field of play.
A defending player who leaves the field of play without the referee’s permission shall be considered to be on the goal line or touchline for the purposes of offside until the next stoppage in play or until the defending team has played the ball towards the halfway line and it is outside its penalty area. If the player left the field of play deliberately, the player must be cautioned when the ball is next out of play.
An attacking player may step or stay off the field of play not to be involved in active play. If the player re-enters from the goal line and becomes involved in play before the next stoppage in play, or the defending team has played the ball towards the halfway line and it is outside its penalty area, the player shall be considered to be positioned on the goal line for the purposes of offside. A player who deliberately leaves the field of play and re-enters without the referee’s permission and is not penalised for offside and gains an advantage, must be cautioned.
If an attacking player remains stationary between the goalposts and inside the goal as the ball enters the goal, a goal must be awarded unless the player commits an offside offence or Law 12 offence in which case play is restarted with an indirect or direct free kick.
Steeplejack
@Kent:
It’s not necessarily awful. Before COVID my elderly mother used to go to her local casino (in Henderson, suburb of Las Vegas) every week or so to play the penny or nickel slots, chat with the waitresses, people-watch and maybe hit the buffet. It was a nice outing.
sab
@Steeplejack: She could have played Bingo elsewhere
ETA I absolutely hate gambling. I HATE it. I know bingo is gambling, but it is mild..
Onkel Fritze
@Steeplejack: Yup. More than anything, I’m annoyed that my Bundesliga is off for such a long time.
Geminid
@sab: I like Al Jazeera as a news source, but I keep in mind the media site’s ties to the Qatari government. Al Jazeera will not wander far from the Qatari government line.
They do aggressive reporting on other Gulf Arab states, though, and reining in Al Jazeera was one of the demands made on Qatar by the Arab Gulf states that blockaded the country in 2017. They thought they bring Qatar to its knees but Qatar hardly broke stride. When they couldn’t get local dairy products the Qataris flew in cows and hay and set up their own dairy operations. After 3 years of the Qataris thumbing their noses at them the other Gulf States threw in the towel.
hilts
As Andrés Cantor so eloquently put it
Goooooooooooooooooooooal
Good Luck to all the nations competing and God Bless Andrés Cantor.
Steeplejack
@sab:
LOL. I remember as a kid learning to play Rook at my grandparents’ farm, because somehow it wasn’t one of those sinful card games, even though it’s basically identical to spades. My grandparents weren’t particularly religious, at least when I knew them in old age, but that part of rural Tennessee was pretty conservative, and apparently Rook was the common game. Granny was a sharpie at the card table.
sab
@Geminid: Nobody else is doing better in that part of the world. I very much miss their American coverage.
Steeplejack
@Alison Rose:
Plus they’re such shitbirds that there’s no incentive to accommodate their delicate feelings.
sab
@Steeplejack: My first husband was a very competent card shark who moved us to Las Vegas. I didn’t know about the card shark when I married him. He had some women’s clothing boutiques. He ruined my career and a number of his friends lives with his card shark schtick.
I hate Las Vegas. Horrible hot dry climate, plus gambling.. Only good thing is the Mormons, which says a lot if I think they are good.
Sure Lurkalot
@sab: My mother got addicted to small stakes gambling like bingo with occasional trips to Nevada after my father died. Already had an appetite having gone on “junkets” to LV in the 70’s with him. My father left his entire estate to her and it was pretty much gone in 12 years. She was nowhere near incompetent so there was next to nothing we kids could do. It still saddens me that we could never convince her to be prudent with her inheritance which would have provided a lovely life for the 25 years she had left to go. The sisters supported her after she ran out, libertarian RWNJ brother was “bootstraps”.
Steeplejack
@sab:
When I started watching the Premier League I gravitated to Newcastle United, I think because I liked their striker Alan Shearer, but also because one of my favorite British Invasion groups, the Animals, was from there. It has a gritty, “struggling from under” vibe that I like, which is shared by the football club. I’m a big fan of underdogs. Of course I’m delighted that this season they’re currently #3 in the table!
sab
@Steeplejack: I loved my horrible racist maternal grandmother. Worst thing I remember about her is she wanted us to play Yahtzee. I hated that game..
Steeplejack
@West of the Cascades:
I’m suddenly feeling much better about my pedantic comment this morning.
Baud
@sab:
I’ve enjoyed the wilderness areas around LV. The Strip does nothing for me.
J R in WV
@West of the Cascades:
Edited to be less offensive
Offsides is unintelligible to me, I give up!
sab
@Steeplejack: I love Newcastle mostly because I root north. Farther north you are better i like you. And also I did my junior year in Durham, hence my preference for teams north.
If Newcastle isn’t in the running I like Liverpool.
Alison Rose
That was a nice strike, 9 times out of 10 that one goes in.
sab
@Baud: Mountains around Mt Charleston are lovely.
Alison Rose
@Steeplejack: TOON ARMY!!!
Baud
@West of the Cascades:
Now I’m curious about Law 12.
Omnes Omnibus
@J R in WV: No one is forcing you to watch it, let alone like it.
Steeplejack
@sab:
Didn’t you live in Las Vegas for a while? Your local casino is practically like your local pub in an older city back east. I don’t gamble at all, and I like going to the casino near my RWNJ brother’s place in Henderson for the restaurants and the movies.
Mark Regan
@WaterGirl:
Casting Morgan Freeman as a unifying figure didn’t work that well in Bonfire of the Vanities, either.
sab
@Steeplejack: How could you feel bad about your comment? It needed to be said.
Miss Bianca
@sab: I was a huge fan of The Sting when it came out (I was all of ten, I believe.) So much so that I actually bought the novelization with my allowance when it appeared on the bookshelves at my local K-Mart. (Just as the soundtrack album was the first record I ever bought.)
In the book, Johnny Hooker’s conman mentor, Luther Cole, likens gambling to “flushing your money down a toilet and hoping some of it floats back up.” Let’s just say that way of looking at it made a big impression on me.
(Ironically, it’s Hooker’s gambling and losing the big paywad they lifted off a mob runner that gets Luther killed.)
Alison Rose
@J R in WV: Every single sport has complicated rules that say “X except if Y and then Z except if X + A and then Y – B but also Z x C” and so on. The basic offside rule is that the attacking player cannot be ahead of the last defender, but of course there are going to be a few qualifications on that.
J R in WV
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yeah, I deleted most of the comment. Sorry to be a downer. Not so much into sports anymore. No offense intended!
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: You’d like it. It is called Fouls and Misconduct.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
Sounds like a good name for one of Mnemosyne’s trashy sex novels.
sab
@Steeplejack: Four years in Vegas, and my boss, whom I adored, developed the auditing program to audit casinos. The big shots in the major accounting firms didn’t think it could be done, but he said it was just like a bar, but with poker chips instead of cash. Brilliant lovely man.
Steeplejack
@Baud:
I have said here before—ad neaseam, probably—that I like Las Vegas a lot. It’s a great eating town, the infrastructure is good, and there are a lot of different outdoorsy micro climates in close proximity. And the weather is great for eight months of the year. Just avoid the hellish heat from May to September.
Alison Rose
One match down and my bracket is looking good! :P
HinTN
@Steeplejack: I dated a gal here in my 30s and Rook was what was played in a not-so-conservative home. I do prefer bridge, though.
Miss Bianca
@Baud:
Man, I hope she doesn’t come back here and see that! Harumph!
“(Spicy) Romance novels”, if you please.//
Baud
@Miss Bianca:
Truth be told, I was hoping to summon her.
Steeplejack
@sab:
For me Liverpool is a little too much like the Yankees—feels like rooting for gravity. Although I’ll take Liverpool any day over Man City or (formerly) Chelski.
sab
@sab: His daughters were as lovely as he was. His son taught me everything I know about narcissits. My first exposure to such creatures.
sab
@Steeplejack: But Amir roots for them!
ETA Also too Tony Jay!
Steeplejack
@Alison Rose:
✊
trollhattan
@NorthLeft: When you make us pine for the days of Sepp Blatter, you’ve really accomplished something.
Steeplejack
@sab:
The anti-pedant crowd here is vicious.
trollhattan
@sab: But really, what did you think of Vegas? ;-)
Kid has been twice, for sporty things, and is really, really unimpressed. Her highlights were the “Pawn Stars'” pawnshop and seeing the Stephen Paddock murder hotel.
trollhattan
@Steeplejack: Don’t you mean contra-pedant?
Onkel Fritze
Huh. Went to Vegas once, spent about 5 dollars total in the slot machines, iirc 3 of those while we were already checked out of the hotel and I was waiting for my wife to come from the bathroom. That was a supremely weird place. They don’t produce anything of value and they don’t have anything of lasting historical or cultural value either; instead, they tear everything down every few decades and built new stuff. My wife loved the place though.
sab
@Steeplejack: Phuck them.
( h/t to rikyray).
Steeplejack
@HinTN:
My mom’s family was from up outside Clarksville, toward Southside and Cumberland Furnace.
sab
@Steeplejack: Phuck them.
( h/t to rikyray).
Steeplejack
@sab:
I know, I know.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I don’t wish them ill; they just don’t fit my underdog profile.
Ella in New Mexico
After watching all those MALE ONLY Qatar fans cheering in the stands and knowing how brutally they treat LBGTQ humans and migrant workers, and reading about what a chuckle-headed $7+million dollar match fixing attempt they desperately tried to pull to win this one:
Bien hecho, Ecuador!!! Toma tu dinero y metetelo por el culo, Qatar!!
Steeplejack
@trollhattan:
This is exactly what I’m talking about!
sab
@Onkel Fritze: But a lot of them are Mormon survivors. Toughest people on the planet with a kind veneer. And that veneer is who they want to be in a kinder world.
I hate the climate in Nevada but I do love Mormons in spite of all their intolerance. Good people led astray.
sab
@Steeplejack: How do you get that sideways smile on that shrug guy?
Another Scott
@Steeplejack: My first time to Vegas was in the late 1980s at a conference at Ceasar’s. We had a rental car. I got shocked – painfully so – every time I got near it. The air’s too dry!!
Left a painful impression.
A colleague won something like $550 at a solitary nickel slot machine that he found buried in a corner somewhere (the rest were something like 50 cents and up).
There are indeed some nice natural areas outside the city, and the Hoover Dam needs to be seen at least once.
Cheers,
Scott.
billcinsd
@Alison Rose: Toon Army is now the Bone Saw Army
Onkel Fritze
@sab:
What do you men by ‘mormon survivors’? People who left the mormon church?
Steeplejack
@sab:
It’s a single Japanese character—ツ—that someone used to construct the original emoji. I have a copy of the shrug emoji saved in my Word scrap file, but you can go to “Copy the Shrug Emoji” for a one-click hit at any time.
Another Scott
@sab: It’s one of those weird Unicode characters. Just cut-and-paste from somewhere.
https://unicode-table.com/en/1F937/
HTH!
Cheers,
Scott.
sab
@Onkel Fritze: Mormons who are still alive, Their ancestors had a hell of a time getting there.
ETA I am Christian from the left side of the Episcopal ( Anglican) Church in America, and I can still recognize fellow travellers.
sab
@Another Scott: @Steeplejack:
My Nook knows its luddite market. Can’t do that from here. Glad to know I wasn’t just inept.
Steeplejack
@sab:
Well, you can copy the whole shrug emoji as text from this thread.
And Another Scott is referring to something completely different—a non-text shrug emoji.
sab
@sab: I recognize Mormons as fellow travellers. I cannot recognize most Evangelicals as anything I would recognize as Christians much less fellow travellers. And I do recognize most Jews and most Muslims as fellow travellers after the same God.
Another Scott
@Steeplejack: At the end of the page I pointed to, it lists the Unicode characters for the “text” version. ;-)
( ͝° ͜ʖ͡°)ᕤ
Cheers,
Scott.
raven
fukin commies
Steeplejack
@Another Scott:
Again, completely different from what sab and I were talking about, but thanks for sawing some sawdust.
frosty
@trollhattan: Nicely played!
JCJ
@sab: if not already answered there was a quarterback from The Ohio State University named Art Schlichter who got into deep doodoo for gambling
sab
@JCJ: Led there by his coach.
raven
@sab: Won’t you get banned for talking about football here?
Geminid
@sab: Al Moniter may be a good site for Middle East news. I haven’t read it that much though. National Security reporter Laura Rozen writes for them occasionally. Rozen’s good; I ran into her on Cheryl Rofer’s Twitter feed.
Martin
Nope. Ignoring the World Cup this year. I don’t know if 6500 people died building the venues, but even if that number is off by three orders of magnitude, it’s still a no. Sport isn’t worth people dying for.