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I stopped watching it after the penalty. This is not football, it's geopolitics.
by Darmody 4y ago
I stopped watching it after the penalty.
This is not football, it's geopolitics.
- subpixel 4y agoI felt the penalty was a gift from the sponsors but kept watching. France almost overcame that thumb on the scales, and I’m glad I didn’t tune out. Still, it’s an egregious shame and it tarnishes the win.
- subpixel 4y agoOkay, I re-watched. Everything about that foul was stupid - including, I think, the decision to call it - but it was a foul.
- peregren 4y agoCan you explain the relationship between the penalty and geopolitics?
- tootie 4y agoThis is just an unhappy sports fan howling at the moon. The ref is a fallible human being who makes mistakes, but the consensus was that the match was called impeccably well. The penalties awarded were correct. Ref also carded France for diving that was really hard to see in real-time but he was definitely correct.
- whoevercares 4y agoGeopolitics that is in favor of Argentina?? That does not make any sense. I would buy that story if it were for China - look at all the ads and they even built the stadium. Too fantasy though since China men’s soccer team is a total joke
- Darmody 4y agoMore in favour of Qatar. They spend 10 times more than the other countries to host the world cup. They want it to be a big hit. That's why FIFA has been saying that this is the best wold cup ever and bla bla bla.
- whoevercares 4y agoOk that looks like game gambling and manipulation much more than geopolitics. Not surprised if Qatar has a fair share there
- Darmody 4y agoIt's Qatar playing geopolitics. They didn't spend $200+ billion because they love football. They want something big to show the world. What better than having one of the best players ever win a world cup before retiring? That's how I see it.
- phlakaton 4y agoOne of the best players in the game was going to win no matter which side won. This looked like a pretty fairly-called contest to me. But hey, even a 7–1 beatdown of the favorites can make for a memorable and entertaining World Cup.
- NhanH 4y agoIn 2018 there was 29 penalties in total. This year there is 17 penalties during the matches (including the final so far), with Argentina getting 5 out of 17. It is unusual enough to let people wonder.
- kaesar14 4y agoDoesn’t seem unusual that a top team would get more penalties
- balaji1 4y agoTrue. And reckless challenges seem to be going up in general. Did someone count the number of cards and penalties against Arsenal last season?
- koolba 4y agoThat’s meaningless without a denominator. All other things being equal, the team with more time spent in the opponents box would be expected to have more penalty kicks. EDIT: And just as I write this France draws a penalty!
- whoevercares 4y agoWhat the hell!!!! It’s a draw now
- NhanH 4y agoI have no horse in this fight, just wanted to point out a curious fact. That said, the denominator/ top team argument only holds if Argentina was the most dominant team in the cup by a landslide (considering the ratio of the total penalties). They weren’t, they performed mostly in the same pack of France/England/ Portugal. Brazil would be the only team that was blatantly more dominant. Another denominator could potentially be number of foul against, and I would be surprised if it is that lopsided.
- boomboomsubban 4y agoFIFA very possibly wants Argentina to win, not for geopolitical reasons but to sell the Messi legend more.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- balaji1 4y agoYes. Maybe there is greater commercial value of a Messi + Argentina win. But then now (at 81'), it seems they haven't made up their mind. 2-2.
- cryptonector 4y agoThe longer people watch the game, the better, no?
- galgot 4y agoIt's not about France or Argentina. It's about the PSG, a club owned by Qatar (buye... ahem... host of the world cup), where both Messi and Mbappé plays.
- cbrozefsky 4y agoDembele is one of my favorites, but when you get beat like he did and then tangle legs from behind, that is going to get called every time.
- Darmody 4y agoYou can watch the replay as many times as you want and you won't see Dembele touching Di Maria until he's already on the floor.
- kaesar14 4y agoAnd yet France just got away with a blatant handball. Geopolitics indeed.
- larksimian 4y agoHe touches his back foot while Di Maria is still running. BBC commentators all also agreed it was a clear pen(and I'm romanian just to dispel political bias hopefully). Di Maria just destroyed that flank this game.
- pelasaco 4y ago
- xenospn 4y agoDid geopolitics make France not kick a single ball at the goal for 70 minutes?
- Darmody 4y agoNo, it's because they play like crap. I'm not defending France or anything. I dislike both teams, my team got eliminated a while ago. But take a look at Argentina - Croatia. Argentina was way superior after the first 20 min or so, but Croatia was still holding. After the penalty Croatia was no longer playing football. When Argentina scored the second goal the defense was scared of even approaching the ball. A penalty in a tournament like this can kill the morale easily.
- barrenko 4y agoThis happened all the time with Barcelona and Messi in the "golden" years. He's still a great player, but... ither should be allowed to play against fairly.
- cryptonector 4y agoThere needs to be a better way to deal with fouls "in the area".
- phlakaton 4y agoI think you are mistaking hard physical play with geopolitics. An understandable mistake! They look so similar. ;-)
- pelasaco 4y agoI'm not sure if you are french or german, but both teams, together with netherlands, were those that profit at most from geopolitics in football.
- Darmody 4y agoI'm neither of those. Also I'm talking about Qatar here, not Argentina or France.
- balaji1 4y ago@Darmody, if only you had used a word like "commerce" or "business" instead of "geopolitics". This match and WC seems like good business. Also I'm not entertained but that was their intention I guess.
- Darmody 4y agoIt's business for FIFA, geopolitics for Qatar. This is the money spent on the last world cups. QAT (2022) US$229 billion[1] RUS (2018) US$16 billion[2] BRA (2014) US$19.7 billion[3] RSA (2010) US$7.2 billion[4] GER (2006) US$4.9(€3.7) billion[5] KOR/ JPN (2002) US$7 billion[6] FRA (1998) US$2.33 billion[7] USA (1994) US$500.00 million[8] ITA (1990) US$4 billion[9] Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics_of_the_FIFA_World_Cup https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics_of_the_FIFA_World_Cu...
- chrisweekly 4y agoWOW!! That is extraordinary. I had no idea. Curious what 2026 will look like.
- mattm 4y ago2026 uses existing stadiums so it will be much, much less
- joe463369 4y agoI'd suggest listening to this More or Less podcast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0dh54qb https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0dh54qb
- sanman811 4y agoMight want to start rewatching. Geopolitics be darned
- pelasaco 4y agonow better stop to watch it again.. Argentinian geopolitics at full power here :)
- mrtksn 4y agoThe Argentina penalty or the France penalty?
- amelius 4y ago> This is not football, it's geopolitics. I often compare it to medicine, where a football match is a drug that is tested with a randomized controlled trial with N=1. If football matches had a p-value for "the best team won", it would be abominable.
- arrrg 4y agoFIFA has a product that is a glittering diamond for ascending or old (authoritarian) regimes irrespective of whether FIFA exerts any influence on the content itself (the games). That just doesn’t matter and also isn’t necessary so why should they even try to touch that? Makes no rational sense. FIFA’s job is to get the teams that make the glittering diamond to play in the WC without too much fuss and without making any problems. In that context doing shady shit on the playfield would even be counterproductive. If all (important) national teams feel like the games themselves are fair and that they are heard when there are problems on the playfield then at least that‘s not an additional area of conflict. For that reason I think it‘s extremely unlikely for corruption to actually extend to the playfield. It‘s just no needed and even counterproductive. I think that might actually be the thing that actually breaks FIFA‘s power, so I would think that they don’t touch it.