3 ms·

- The number of teams expanding weakened the group stage to a point of being ignorable - The extraordinary pricing of the tickets - "Hydration breaks" to cate

- 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- The extraordinary pricing of the tickets - "Hydration breaks" to cater for TV advertising - The US red card being rescinded after a phone call from an interested party - Argentina's free pass throughout FIFA has been corrupt since the days of João Havelange, although his stance was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 3mo 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 3mo 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 3mo 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.
  - opinologo 2mo ago
    [flagged]
    - dpark 2mo ago
      Dude, this is gross. Stop calling people racist for disagreeing with you about Argentina. It’s not racism to call out concerns about Argentina’s play or reffing bias. You should be embarrassed to repeatedly resort to ad hominem attacks like this.
    - PaulRobinson 2mo ago
      I guess you also think the "Hand of God" goal, was also a legitimate and fair goal because something something Maradonna something something Malvinas something something god? Look, it's football. We're all entitled to have opinions, state them with vigour and passion, but... Step back. Is it fair to drop the "racist" slur on somebody for having a different perspective? Referees do their best, and often get it wrong, but it seems to most people - including many neutrals - that refs got it wrong more times than not when Argentina was playing, and in Argentina's favour. Is that a conspiracy? Well, Infantino definitely wanted Argentina in the final, so did he try and create that somehow? He seems pretty shady, it's hard for people to trust that he _didn't_. But I'm prepared to accept it was just variance. The problem is, that variance undermined the competition for many people, in the same way hydration breaks did. It made it a worse World Cup for many fans. I get that for an Argentinian, that seems unfair, but if this had happened to England's benefit, do you honestly think you'd be making the same accusations and would accept it if any criticism that came in their direction was met with slurs? Peace. Chill. We're good. We're brothers in football. Let's hope we get another World Cup in our lifetimes, and that we get to enjoy it - and that means something different to what we just saw, for everyone's sake.
      - dpark 2mo ago
        > But I'm prepared to accept it was just variance. The problem is, that variance undermined the competition for many people Honestly I found it really frustrating that Balogun got that red card (and gross when political meddling suspended it) while Messi got nothing for a similar infraction. But variance is part of the game. I don’t actually think most of it is in any way malicious and I am not sure refs can do much more. So much is subjective. I’ve watched games where they hand out yellows for every minor infraction and it’s a shitty experience for everyone (fans, players, and coaches). I do think Messi gets favoritism. He gets awarded free kicks right outside the box for softball fouls that no one else gets. But they are trying to protect their star. They don’t want the WNBA thing where every other game Clark gets egregiously fouled. > in the same way hydration breaks did. It made it a worse World Cup for many fans. I don’t really understand the hate for the hydration breaks. Giving athletes some water seems reasonable even if the underlying reason is ads. I think they should be 1-2 minute breaks, though. The halftime show in the final was more egregious than the hydration.
- arbitrary_name 2mo ago
  I expected more from Argentina, yet here we are.

ajmurmann 3mo 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 3mo 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 3mo 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.
- opinologo 2mo ago
  [flagged]
  - dpark 2mo ago
    Dude, this is gross. Stop calling people racist for disagreeing with you about Argentina. It’s not racism to call out concerns about Argentina’s play or reffing bias. You should be embarrassed to repeatedly resort to ad hominem attacks like this.
  - PaulRobinson 2mo ago
    I guess you also think the "Hand of God" goal, was also a legitimate and fair goal because something something Maradonna something something Malvinas something something god? Look, it's football. We're all entitled to have opinions, state them with vigour and passion, but... Step back. Is it fair to drop the "racist" slur on somebody for having a different perspective? Referees do their best, and often get it wrong, but it seems to most people - including many neutrals - that refs got it wrong more times than not when Argentina was playing, and in Argentina's favour. Is that a conspiracy? Well, Infantino definitely wanted Argentina in the final, so did he try and create that somehow? He seems pretty shady, it's hard for people to trust that he _didn't_. But I'm prepared to accept it was just variance. The problem is, that variance undermined the competition for many people, in the same way hydration breaks did. It made it a worse World Cup for many fans. I get that for an Argentinian, that seems unfair, but if this had happened to England's benefit, do you honestly think you'd be making the same accusations and would accept it if any criticism that came in their direction was met with slurs? Peace. Chill. We're good. We're brothers in football. Let's hope we get another World Cup in our lifetimes, and that we get to enjoy it - and that means something different to what we just saw, for everyone's sake.
    - dpark 2mo ago
      > But I'm prepared to accept it was just variance. The problem is, that variance undermined the competition for many people Honestly I found it really frustrating that Balogun got that red card (and gross when political meddling suspended it) while Messi got nothing for a similar infraction. But variance is part of the game. I don’t actually think most of it is in any way malicious and I am not sure refs can do much more. So much is subjective. I’ve watched games where they hand out yellows for every minor infraction and it’s a shitty experience for everyone (fans, players, and coaches). I do think Messi gets favoritism. He gets awarded free kicks right outside the box for softball fouls that no one else gets. But they are trying to protect their star. They don’t want the WNBA thing where every other game Clark gets egregiously fouled. > in the same way hydration breaks did. It made it a worse World Cup for many fans. I don’t really understand the hate for the hydration breaks. Giving athletes some water seems reasonable even if the underlying reason is ads. I think they should be 1-2 minute breaks, though. The halftime show in the final was more egregious than the hydration.
arbitrary_name 2mo ago
I expected more from Argentina, yet here we are.