Elric Antona >> ponedjeljak juli 30 - 14:45

@Namejs "it is clear logical error to claim that something You don't know anything about is good or bad." But I do know something about it, and Davo nailed it : "It could have been the most glorious spectacle of football ever, but I hated every minute of it - so it's not always about the football."

I hope you understand my way of seing things too.
And yes, vuvuzelas were really awful ;)

@Andrei Playing soccer with our pals on Sunday morning is sport. National teams made of more or less doped skyhighly paid professionals duking it out in front of a couple of billions spectators from all corners of our planet is more than just sport.

And better not leave politics in the garbage can: it might be picked up and used against us by somebody with bad intentions.

Namejs >> ponedjeljak juli 30 - 15:33

Elric You choose not to watch it, You can't claim it to be good or bad from sporting view. Don't get me wrong, I didn't like political and even some supporters actions (Russia, Russia in al games was as awful as vuvuzelas) but from sporting poin of view it was quite good tournament. You can't valuate sporting side of this tournament, and as far as critics goes: You can't critise something You don't know a thing about. And here we discuss sporting side of WC.

Romey >> utorak juli 31 - 10:40, Promjenjeno utorak juli 31 - 10:40

European Championships is garbage. At least the world cup will never be that bad...

holt >> utorak juli 31 - 11:11

You mean 2022?

Elric Antona >> utorak juli 31 - 11:52

To come back to the more sportive side of the WC, nobody likes seeing cheaters fake-dive in the penalty area or watching a game destroyed by a referee's bad decisions (like the Finale it seems). This is already discussed at length in this forum. But what about cheating through doping ?

This is amazing :

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-cup/2018/06/21/fifa-refuse-reveal-russia-drug-test-numbers-following-hostss/

There has been suspicions of doping before in other WC of course. And there is doping in most professional sports and athletes from all manner of countries have been caught. But what's remarkable here is the scale of it. Authoritarian regimes can easily maintain full scale state sponsored doping programs during long periods - and get away with it with some palm-greasing it seems. 

That is worrying because FIFA just close their eyes and take the money. What will happen next ? The Qatar in semi-finals thanks to genetically modified imported slaves ?

But who cares ? It seems FIFA knows that everybody is ready to swallow anything, as long as their favorite stars are on the pitch.

Or what do you think ?

spectra >> utorak juli 31 - 12:46, Promjenjeno utorak juli 31 - 12:50

I can see your point, Elric, and I agree. Corruption, doping, cheaters... that seems to be the price to pay. You can find that (or have suspicions about that) in any major sports event. I would say in any major human event!

But, on the other hand, to have children admiring a sport (I mean, a friendly physical acyivity), that they are likely to practice, to have people from almost all over the world sharing a hobby before the screen, to have nations competing friendly in a football ground, that looks great to me. You are right, it´s not only about sport... it´s also about uniting people. The place it´s played in is not the most important thing, to me.

My question is, do you know any other pacific human activity capable of attracting that many people, and making them enjoy, as World Championships/Olympic games?

Namejs >> utorak juli 31 - 13:42

Favorite stars cheat and get benfits from that. Like Maradonas "Gods hand". Or couple seasons ago in EPL was goal of the month contender where Aguiero received ball in offside position, controlled it with hand and scored. Yes that goal was beautiful but in several repeats You can clearly see he broke the rules to score so at least don't offer such goal as something amazing if it has allowed as referees mistake.

IMO each such episode should be punished even if retrospectivly. I watched a video about NBA the other day: for dives (pretending to get hit by another player or overacting contact) player receive penalties that are not even 10% of their salaries. Of course they'll take that risk.

Doping also gives huge benefits. First to come in mind is Lance Armstrong. He was king of cycling before got caught and yet again raised debate about cycling beeing dirtiest of the sports as far as doping goes.

Eric_Cantonais >> utorak juli 31 - 14:43

You know nothing, JonSnows.

holt >> utorak juli 31 - 15:10

What?

@Spectra But the problem is that players(and people in general) think that philanthrophy ends with money,but that is not the case.

Lead by example.Mbappe recceived so much of praise ,for donating 3 weeks of his salary.THREE weeks! He spends more money on flipping chicks I'm sure.He donated his money,and went back to acting like a sissy on the pitch.Is that his message to others?

You need honest players like Klose ,Ebusio,Kuyt and Kaka.Players who others look upto with awe.As to your question,Maybe a obstacle course football match.

Elric Antona >> utorak juli 31 - 15:47

@spectra We need a WC and I like what you describe but it was not what the last WC was about, alas. Playing with doped players is definitely not competing friendly, and the fact that FIFA did not sanction this because of some powerplay behind the scene destroys the credibility of the event (not to speak about the surreal sanction taken against a Croatian player the day after the elimination of Russia).

Everybody seems to be hypnotized by the hype of this competition and is ready to let FIFA do whatever they want, to choose the shadiest countries to organize the competition and to let the cheaters have their way if they pay high enough.

This does not have to be this way. If people stopped watching, maybe FIFA would take more care of the fair play element ?

N10 >> utorak juli 31 - 22:50

"Everybody seems to be hypnotized by the hype of this competition and is ready to let FIFA do whatever they want, to choose the shadiest countries to organize the competition..."

Elric, If you talk about shady countries so that hiding their methods, no country that has organized the World Cup in history would be saved, we could review each edition and we could get good and bad things out of each one. It is a respectable opinion but you cannot have a moralistic and conscientious objector's opinion, it is a hypocritical one.