7 ms·

Stuff like this makes me proud to be an American, where soccer is totally ignored; instead we thoroughly enjoy successful sports where virtually everyone cheats

Stuff like this makes me proud to be an American, where soccer is totally ignored; instead we thoroughly enjoy successful sports where virtually everyone cheats, like baseball

ChuckNorris89 5y ago
Isn't stadium building in the US wrapped in scandals since the taxpayers foot the bill for which private enterprises profit, while american football and basketball the source of several scandals where college athletes are basically unpaid slaves, exploited by advertising and entertainment corporations? I remember both John Oliver and South Park covered these topics. Not trying to switch topics or go whataboutism but I'm genuinely concerned about the massive corruption and exploitation around the modern sports industry that's somehow become acceptable nowadays, with FIFA being the richest and most corrupt non profit in the world. This current situation reminds me of the "bread and games" popularity near the fall of the Roman empire.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- thom 5y ago
  There's a great documentary on this subject by Michael Bertin: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/throwabillion https://vimeo.com/ondemand/throwabillion
- eru 5y ago
  Though at least in Rome the politicians paid for the games themselves. (Of course, where they got that wealth is another question.)
- jaywalk 5y ago
  I'm not sure "scandal" is the correct word for stadium funding. It's not like any of it is a secret, it's all done out in the open. People just don't pay attention. And the tide does appear to be turning on that, since the newest and by far most expensive NFL stadium (SoFi Stadium in LA) was privately funded.
- Bud 5y ago
  This has changed recently, of course...now college football and basketball players can have endorsement deals and such.
DaiPlusPlus 5y ago
As an on-the-spectrum brit who was forced to play "footie" at 9:15am in 5degC frosty september mornings by uncaring, unsympathetic, if not abusive, PE "teachers" at my comprehensive secondary from age 11 to age 16, and previously bullied in primary-school to the point where I tried to hang myself in the toilets with my school uniform tie at 8 because I didn't support any football team and didn't collect those stupid football stickers - stuff like this makes me just feel despondent at the utter lack of any redeeming values in association football. Burn it to the ground.
- m4tthumphrey 5y ago
  Unfortunately, as a life long fan of football in the UK, this rings true from the opposite side, and I'm sorry you had to go through that. However, the sport itself has nothing todo with the bigger picture here. It just so happens that it's the biggest sport in the world, hence worth so much money to $REGIME who will do anything they can to capitalise.
  - lnxg33k1 5y ago
    I also haven't fully understood the point he's making, like "A shitty person just made me suffer to play a sport, fuck the sport", like wtf
    - DaiPlusPlus 5y ago
      Association football, itself, in isolation, is a fine game. There's nothing inherently bad about it. If actual friends of mine want a kick-around then sure, I'm game. But it's the culture around the sport in the UK, and greater Europe, that's awful. Remember hooligan "firms" in the 1990s? Those things don't happen in a vacuum. Chiefly, the football culture in the UK is inextricably tied to the entrenched class system, in the worst ways, unfortunately - and I haven't seen the Premier League's televised pundits ever advise their fans to maybe, perhaps, actually be good ambassadors for the sport to the rest of us. (Okay, Michael Owen is an exception - my perception is the rest are like Eric Cantona: officially reprimanded, but we can tell people are lapping up his then abhorrent personal conduct. The same way people support Trump, I suppose). FIFA aren't running a tight-ship from the top. The tiers under them aren't coming close, and the conceptual levels below are only worse.
bmj 5y ago
Let's not forget about our Olympic sports. Perhaps the massive sex abuse scandal in gymnastics?
Someone 5y ago
Enjoy it while it lasts. It wouldn’t surprise me if the USA men’s team would become world champion within a few decades. The sport is growing rapidly in Spanish-speaking areas, Spanish-speakers are the fastest growing linguistic group in the United States, the country is sport-minded, and the USA men’s team already is ranked 11th in the world (https://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/men?dateId=id13505 https://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/men?dateId=id13505) (ahead of Germany!)
- gostsamo 5y ago
  Germany competes in Europe, while the US competes in the confederation of oceania or something like that. Even with some corrections for the strength of the opponents, such comparison has weaknesses.
  - Someone 5y ago
    As always, such rankings do not always reflect true rankings (if only because that isn’t a transitive relation), but FIFA uses an Elo-like system that tries to compensate for the strengths of opponents (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Rankings#2018_ranking_system_update https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Rankings#2018_ranki...) That’s reflected in the fact that, currently, 8 of the top 10 countries are from Europe (the other two are the usual suspects Brazil and Argentina) One difference is that, unlike in chess, there still are many uneven matches. If you’re Liechtenstein, Andorra, or Gibraltar, for example, you’ll play lots of qualifiers against Spain, France, Germany, and the like (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Nations_League https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Nations_League corrects that a bit, giving such teams much better chances to tie or even win games). You don’t see such things in chess.
- eru 5y ago
  You mean world champion as-in, they might win a World Cup? Or as in they will dominate utterly? The former seems reasonably plausible, if the trends you mention hold true.
  - Someone 5y ago
lpv 5y ago
"Soccer" is the fastest growing sport in the US and has overtaken hockey recently, and will likely overtake baseball and basketball in a few years.
- xeromal 5y ago
  Why is soccer in quotes? It's what we call it.

Stuff like this makes me proud to be an American, where soccer is totally ignored; instead we thoroughly enjoy successful sports where virtually everyone cheats, like baseball

ChuckNorris89 5y ago

Isn't stadium building in the US wrapped in scandals since the taxpayers foot the bill for which private enterprises profit, while american football and basketball the source of several scandals where college athletes are basically unpaid slaves, exploited by advertising and entertainment corporations? I remember both John Oliver and South Park covered these topics. Not trying to switch topics or go whataboutism but I'm genuinely concerned about the massive corruption and exploitation around the modern sports industry that's somehow become acceptable nowadays, with FIFA being the richest and most corrupt non profit in the world. This current situation reminds me of the "bread and games" popularity near the fall of the Roman empire.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
thom 5y ago
There's a great documentary on this subject by Michael Bertin: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/throwabillion https://vimeo.com/ondemand/throwabillion
eru 5y ago
Though at least in Rome the politicians paid for the games themselves. (Of course, where they got that wealth is another question.)
jaywalk 5y ago
I'm not sure "scandal" is the correct word for stadium funding. It's not like any of it is a secret, it's all done out in the open. People just don't pay attention. And the tide does appear to be turning on that, since the newest and by far most expensive NFL stadium (SoFi Stadium in LA) was privately funded.
Bud 5y ago
This has changed recently, of course...now college football and basketball players can have endorsement deals and such.

DaiPlusPlus 5y ago

As an on-the-spectrum brit who was forced to play "footie" at 9:15am in 5degC frosty september mornings by uncaring, unsympathetic, if not abusive, PE "teachers" at my comprehensive secondary from age 11 to age 16, and previously bullied in primary-school to the point where I tried to hang myself in the toilets with my school uniform tie at 8 because I didn't support any football team and didn't collect those stupid football stickers - stuff like this makes me just feel despondent at the utter lack of any redeeming values in association football. Burn it to the ground.

m4tthumphrey 5y ago
Unfortunately, as a life long fan of football in the UK, this rings true from the opposite side, and I'm sorry you had to go through that. However, the sport itself has nothing todo with the bigger picture here. It just so happens that it's the biggest sport in the world, hence worth so much money to $REGIME who will do anything they can to capitalise.
- lnxg33k1 5y ago
  I also haven't fully understood the point he's making, like "A shitty person just made me suffer to play a sport, fuck the sport", like wtf
  - DaiPlusPlus 5y ago
    Association football, itself, in isolation, is a fine game. There's nothing inherently bad about it. If actual friends of mine want a kick-around then sure, I'm game. But it's the culture around the sport in the UK, and greater Europe, that's awful. Remember hooligan "firms" in the 1990s? Those things don't happen in a vacuum. Chiefly, the football culture in the UK is inextricably tied to the entrenched class system, in the worst ways, unfortunately - and I haven't seen the Premier League's televised pundits ever advise their fans to maybe, perhaps, actually be good ambassadors for the sport to the rest of us. (Okay, Michael Owen is an exception - my perception is the rest are like Eric Cantona: officially reprimanded, but we can tell people are lapping up his then abhorrent personal conduct. The same way people support Trump, I suppose). FIFA aren't running a tight-ship from the top. The tiers under them aren't coming close, and the conceptual levels below are only worse.

bmj 5y ago

Let's not forget about our Olympic sports. Perhaps the massive sex abuse scandal in gymnastics?

Someone 5y ago

Enjoy it while it lasts. It wouldn’t surprise me if the USA men’s team would become world champion within a few decades. The sport is growing rapidly in Spanish-speaking areas, Spanish-speakers are the fastest growing linguistic group in the United States, the country is sport-minded, and the USA men’s team already is ranked 11th in the world (https://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/men?dateId=id13505 https://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/men?dateId=id13505) (ahead of Germany!)

gostsamo 5y ago
Germany competes in Europe, while the US competes in the confederation of oceania or something like that. Even with some corrections for the strength of the opponents, such comparison has weaknesses.
- Someone 5y ago
  As always, such rankings do not always reflect true rankings (if only because that isn’t a transitive relation), but FIFA uses an Elo-like system that tries to compensate for the strengths of opponents (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Rankings#2018_ranking_system_update https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Rankings#2018_ranki...) That’s reflected in the fact that, currently, 8 of the top 10 countries are from Europe (the other two are the usual suspects Brazil and Argentina) One difference is that, unlike in chess, there still are many uneven matches. If you’re Liechtenstein, Andorra, or Gibraltar, for example, you’ll play lots of qualifiers against Spain, France, Germany, and the like (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Nations_League https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Nations_League corrects that a bit, giving such teams much better chances to tie or even win games). You don’t see such things in chess.
eru 5y ago
You mean world champion as-in, they might win a World Cup? Or as in they will dominate utterly? The former seems reasonably plausible, if the trends you mention hold true.
- Someone 5y ago

lpv 5y ago

"Soccer" is the fastest growing sport in the US and has overtaken hockey recently, and will likely overtake baseball and basketball in a few years.

xeromal 5y ago
Why is soccer in quotes? It's what we call it.