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I'm so happy to see they care enough to take a stand. The last World Cup was a sh-t show. I expect the LA olympics to be no better.

• dmarcos 2mo ago
  How was it a shit show? I’m genuinely curious. I attended 5 games (Atlanta, LA and Dallas) and was a fantastic experience minus the process to get tickets.
  • orangedog 2mo ago
    Sports people (I was listening to Bill Simmons) rated it pretty highly. There was nothing egregious and it was widely attended.
    • t0mpr1c3 2mo ago
      The way that the Iran team was only allowed into the USA on match days was a disgrace. Refusing entry to a Somali referee on the spurious grounds of links to terrorism was a disgrace. The overturning of Falorin Balogun's ban was a disgrace. The ticket prices were a disgrace. The transport to the stadiums was a shambles. I could go on.
      • rsynnott 2mo ago
        > The transport to the stadiums was a shambles. This bit was kind of baffling to me. Like, the US has a bunch of large stadiums. Presumably they sometimes get used for stuff. How is it not a constant disaster? There’s a medium sized (50k capacity) stadium near me, and even _with_ a train station with a train each way every ten minutes right beside it, and within easy walking distance of about five high capacity bus routes, it’s always a bit of a shitshow when a big event finishes. I’ve no idea how it could work _at all_ if you’re just depending on buses and cars, which a bunch of the US stadiums seemed to be.
        • danielvf 2mo ago
          For local NFL games in a bigger stadium that, most people attending do drive, but do not park at the stadium, rather nearby, then walk the rest of the way. This spreads out the traffic over a much larger set of roads.
        • MandieD 2mo ago
          Acres upon acres of parking lots.
        • dan_sbl 2mo ago
          I believe a big issue was that significant amounts of parking were closed at each of the host stadiums for "security reasons", fan watch areas, etc. When they did some overhead shots of the stadiums, you could see tons of empty parking lot space.
      • chase_flick 2mo ago
        I attended games in Dallas and was shocked at how well the city / FIFA handled transportation. Especially for a city that usually has none.
        • dmarcos 2mo ago
          Yes. I was there at the france-spain match. Flew in in the morning was directed to the shuttles by super nice volunteers. Reasonable lines that were mostly in the shade and they were handling free water bottles.
      • ajmurmann 2mo ago
        Ticket prices cannot go down unless you just want more money for scalpers. It's a simple function of supply and demand
      • NetMageSCW 2mo ago
        Which of those were FIFA’s fault?
    • charlieyu1 2mo ago
      The World Cup final is supposed to be a war and the half time show turned it into a clown fest.
      • triceratops 2mo ago
        I can't agree with that. Host countries share their culture through the World Cup. South Africa had vuvuzelas, Qatar put a bisht on the winning captain's shoulders, and the USA had a half-time show. Now if only it had been a good half-time show...
        • yallpendantools 2mo ago
          I'm almost too afraid to ask but what the hell...what makes a good half-time show? I ask in earnest. I'm not American. I know there's a huuugggee buzz on who gets to do the Superbowl half-time show. But they all look the same to me: overly-polished extravagant pop performances. That can be an insult or a compliment depending on your mood but I say that as a fact. That description applies to the WC half-time show too so I don't see what makes it bad. Maybe you can accuse it of being even more over-the-top and garishly extravagant but does that make it bad? Bad Bunny's half-time show seems to be generally considered good. Well, he's a good performer definitely and performed his show well. But what makes that different from the universally-panned WC one? For the record, Bad Bunny isn't even in my daily playlist. I do have Coldplay but Chris Martin was so peripheral to the WC spectacle I didn't even notice him during the live broadcast. It feels to me there's something else merited here other than just the performance itself. Bad Bunny, given his background and off-stage activism, was largely seen as a political statement. The WC show just seems too foreign for the core non-Northern American market. I watched the WC final in a noisy bar. During the halftime the bar had its own entertainment while a muted Justin Bieber playing his guitar emoted on the big screen. I've since watched it in Youtube and I still don't get the universal disdain for it. Maybe they should've called in a bunch of Eurovision performers?
          • triceratops 2mo ago
            > The WC show just seems too foreign for the core non-Northern American market. Again, this is my point. WC hosts get to show something of themselves to the world. Half-time or pre-game shows are a part of American sports culture.
  • t0mpr1c3 2mo ago
    Maybe the way that Infantino nakedly advanced political favors for Trump (the f×××ing peace prize, Folarin f×××ing Balogun) and now wants a fat slice of payback?
  • antonyt 2mo ago
    Not OP, but I would guess: "hydration breaks" to inject commercials, half-time shows that felt alien to much of the core audience, and various rule-bending shenanigans (Ronaldo, Balogun).
    • dmarcos 2mo ago
      Hydration breaks a tad weird. Half time shows were pretty subtle, didn’t change the length of the break except for the final. There’s no soccer competition without someone complaining about refereeing. Def always things to improve but I had fun, all people around me seemed to have fun. I flew in an out and always was either public transportation or uefa provided shuttles… It was really well run. Not something you can call a “shit show”
      • Jtarii 2mo ago
        Balogun and Ronaldo red card overturns had nothing to do with "refereeing". It was clear corruption and favouritism. Also the treatment of the Iranian team was comically awful.
        • nkg 2mo ago
          Oh boy, how could I forget about the Iranian team, and the other players/referees/staff that were rejected or stuck at the airport for hours ? It was worse than a sh-t show actually.
          • decimalenough 2mo ago
            Blame the US for that one, not FIFA.
            • rimeice 2mo ago
              Blame FIFA for giving the contest to the US to host
              • 2mo ago
  • triceratops 2mo ago
    The ticket prices and scalping (sorry, authorized re-selling to find the market clearing price) were robbery.
  • ktallett 2mo ago
    The fact a ban was overturned as a political favour.
  • curun1r 2mo ago
    The Iranian team’s treatment is a prime example. The Somalian ref being denied entrance is another. And the Balogun red card is a double example (it shouldn’t have been a red card in the first place, but the precedent that the President of the host country can get a call overturned is even worse).
    • scrumper 2mo ago
      I am the last person to defend FIFA - I love the UEFA's stance here - but only Balogun's suspension can be pinned on FIFA. Those other things are down to USA politics. Bad, for sure, not really down to FIFA. Other than those awful hydration breaks, they didn't ruin it much. I didn't love the extended half time in the final, but I was only hate watching Argentina anyway so didn't care much. Better to have the standard interval but not egregious to extend in the final. Overall it was a good tournament, a proper "feast of football" as we used to say. Some fine-tuning to do with the VAR but even then there weren't as many egregiously unfair calls as in years past. (Croatia's disallowed goal being a memorable example because it was so rare.) Many, many good games and some memorable moments - Cape Verde!
      • xxs 2mo ago
        > proper "feast of football" as we used to say. besides a significantly more common 4-3-3, I can't think of anything I particularly found entertaining - the waterworks, the extra VARs, the super special offside line. That's no feast. (and I can continue)
        • tverbeure 2mo ago
          Despite all the bad things, I once again loved the whole tournament. Can’t wait for the next one.
          • Fnoord 2mo ago
            Did you enjoy the finals resembling rugby, with one team not playing football at all?
  • NoboruWataya 2mo ago
    The football itself wasn't bad, it was all the other stuff - prices, unfair treatment for Iran, hydration breaks, the whole Balogun thing, the pre-game and half-time shows at the final, Trump photo-bombing the Spanish celebration, etc. Every WC has its own problems and some of these things will be forgotten about soon, but it definitely seemed more ruthlessly commercialised than ever before.
  • nkg 2mo ago
    First, it was a new formula of the tournament with more teams which explains the headlines about a someone setting a new record every 2 days. Second, the hydration (ads!) breaks were clearly used to tweak some tactics, player positionning, etc, making it another half-time. It's a strategic opportunity. Why not introduce a 2 min drill, then ? - yuck- That's not football. Third, I won't talk about that specific red card or that penalty kick, but the fact that players and staff complained so much about the refereeing issues hurts the trust we can have into the game as a whole. And that 27 min half-time... Seriously ?!
    • dmarcos 2mo ago
      The 27 min half time was only in the final. Every world cup introduces changes that will stick or not (e.g golden goal rule). Hydration breaks probably won’t stay. I’ve followed the sport all my life and referee complains I would say less than usual. I like having more teams. Might even extend to 64 next time. These are difference of opinion. Nothing singles out this world cup as a “shit show” as the OP. It was a great experience to me and pretty much anyone I encountered in the stadiums.
      • xxs 2mo ago
        >Hydration breaks probably won’t stay. It was already introduced in the local women league...
      • riffraff 2mo ago
        Referee complaints are common, but I can't remember a case where a disqualified player was allowed to play in last world cups. Covert bullshit, like the Moreno care in South Korea, sure, but brazenly ignoring the rules like what happened with Balogun? I cannot remember it.
      • cataphract 2mo ago
        So it's OK if FIFA breaks the rules of the game "only in the final"? (yes, I know FIFA says they didn't but their reading of Law 7.2 is not plausible)
  • PaulRobinson 2mo ago
    - The number of teams expanding weakened the group stage to a point of being ignorable - The extraordinary pricing of the tickets - "Hydration breaks" to cater for TV advertising - The US red card being rescinded after a phone call from an interested party - Argentina's free pass throughout FIFA has been corrupt since the days of João Havelange, although his stance was broadly to bring football to more countries and just needed a way to finance that (enter stage left, Coca-Cola, and stage right, Adidas and ISL), but it started getting really wild after him. It's gone unchecked. There was talk of the English FA pulling out of UEFA and FIFA some years ago, as there was a perception the soul of the game had been tarnished by both orgs. This is a good first step, and I hope FIFA gets itself sorted. I hope UEFA also gets its house in order.
    • ajmurmann 2mo ago
      Ticket prices for all events anywhere will not come back down unless we make international travel harder. There were Taylor Swift fans who flew to every concert of one of her tours. When I attended the Hungaroring Grand Prix every single person seemed to be visiting from outside Hungary. Hosting in the wealthiest country of size of course made this worse but I predict ticket prices for popular events will only keep going up and up.
    • opinologo 2mo ago
      Argentina received more yellow cards on its last three games. How is that a "free pass"? Cucurella should have been sent off, same as the Paraguay player for covering his mouth. Fernandez did get a yellow card for a very light challenge that he tried to avoid.. All the Argentina haters need to look at the facts. I expected more from HN.
      • Fnoord 2mo ago
        Messi should've gotten red in the Algeria match (same ref who didn't have the balls to give star player a card, was doing the finals). Against England, Argentina were playing rugby again, and the ref just let it pass. Against Egypt, Egypt got a goal disqualified which.. was a goal. Against Switzerland, a rule of identity mismatch was used wrongly (it can only be applied on same team). Argentina was lucky to end the final with 10 players and only 1 goal against. It should've been 9 players, with a 3-0 score, but the corrupt FIFA couldn't match-fix that part. It'd have been too obvious.
  • dudul 2mo ago
    I'm sorry, but this is an incredibly silly comment. The "shit show" was systemic at the strategic level. Of course, people who went to see a game had a good time, the "shit show" is at the competition level. - 48 teams is too much. 32 is a great sweet spot. 48 is ridiculous, it genuinely felt like too many games. - The completely inconsistent application of VAR was scandalous. I've always been a huge opponent of VAR in soccer, and I really feel vindicated. It felt like it was only used for very pointed decisions. Either you use VAR to make no mistakes at all, or you don't use it. - The "h2o breaks" were stupid as f. They were clearly only implemented to fit in more commercial breaks. - as usual, getting the tickets is always a nightmare, but it's been like that for 20+ years There was some good football, I'm not even bothered by the pre/mid-game shows. There were a lot of good things, but honestly it did feel like it was in spite of everything that was done to make it unbearable.
    • dmarcos 2mo ago
      How and when VAR should be applied is an ongoing contentious discussion not exclusive to the World Cup. I actually loved the 48 teams. It will probably expand to 64 next cup. More people tune in, nice surprises, upsets, cinderella stories. Access and price of tickets has been a problem for a long time and getting worse for every live event. Not exclusive to the World Cup. There are obviously things to improve but the game and experience for people watching and attending was pretty amazing. Leaving in the US I ve had fantastic interactions with strangers everywhere for weeks. If that’s what a “shit show” is I’m looking forward to more ha ha
      • yallpendantools 2mo ago
        I say let the coaches have the right to initiate a VAR review. They inform an official they want a certain moment/decision/action reviewed. As long as the review gets resolved in their favor, they can keep invoking VAR. This would disincentivize review spamming, disrupting play. If there are too many VAR calls in a game, you can squarely blame the ref. Coaches get in the face of the officials already anyway. This just gives the action a chance at being productive rather than an opportunity to get a red card. Yes, this is based on the derided review system of Olympic Taekwondo. It's horrible in a fight sport but football is a ball game; somebody tell Paredes and Paraguay please.
  • croes 2mo ago
    Because it became literally a show. Hydration breaks in air-conditioned stadiums? A half-time show? Football is more than just the world cup or the Championship league. It’s also about the local leagues or village clubs. They all play the dame game and Fantino in his greed is ruining it. Which fan could afford to watch all the games of his team?
  • eigart 2mo ago
    The racism participants were subjected to was the worst part for me (though I understand teams were treated very well by the local population). Hydration breaks. Incessant celebrity spotting. So many small details reminding you that US capitalism might already have succeeded in ruining the game you love. Or that they see the success of the tournament as a signal to ramp up the attacks on European club football (pushing for a franchise model). I feel like how I imagine golfers felt once LIV golf was announced.
  • toolslive 2mo ago
    I was wondering what exactly what to think about the Tom Cruise speech before the final.