Football (Soccer) Thread

[Admiral Yi]

Gotcha.  I thought it had something to do with women being pushed out of the work force.

What's cottaging? 

[Sheilbh]

Gotcha.  I thought it had something to do with women being pushed out of the work force.

More total war breaks barriers and social norms - women in the workforce, children out of wedlock, gays shagging everywhere, class barriers in the forces. Then in the aftermath there's a reactionary re-imposition of those barriers/attempt to return to the status quo before the war (I imagine in the US there's also a big element of racial barriers in this).

What's cottaging?

Public toilets (cottages).

[celedhring]

In further "everything goes wrong for Barça" news, our new youth football director (hired this summer) is now facing allegations of child abuse when he was a physical ed. teacher 30-40 years ago.

Some media are reporting that the club was aware on some level that there were suspicions about him, which would be quite troubling. The club has denied this.

[Sheilbh]

There's been similar scandals here - I think Chelsea and Southampton among others - and it always seems like something where the clubs might not have known but should have known. Either there were lots of rumours, or strange behaviour lilke having some boys stay overnight with the coach/scout.

It's incredibly grim. Especially when you have stories of these men using the dreams of young boys to coerce them. It's that standard thing of lots of people who care more about the institution they want to protect/believe in than the victims

[celedhring]

Yeah the way it's being reported is that he used his ascendancy as a Barça coach in the 1980s-1990s to molest children at the school he also worked in, the thing is pretty damn grim (apparently there are a shitload of accounts). The same newspaper that exposed him admits that so far they have been unable to confirm any case of molesting inside the Barça academy, though. He is apparently a super-charismatic dude, children idolized him. Xavi - who was a pupil of his - said that they loved him very much.

The guy then left the club 20 years ago (apparently unrelated, he was offered a shitload of cash to coach in Qatar), and was rehired this summer.

[The Larch]

Shambles in the CL draw! They're going to repeat it this afternoon after messing up the pots this morning. 

[Sheilbh]

It sounds like they forgot United we're still there, but then who hasn't

[Duque de Bragança]

Shambles in the CL draw! They're going to repeat it this afternoon after messing up the pots this morning. 

Poor Real Madrid. 
PSG instead of Benfica. 

[Duque de Bragança]

Sporting got Man City instead of Juve, not exactly blessed as well.

Still more than doable for Ajax since they got Benfica.

RB Salzburgo -  Bayern Munique
Sporting CP -  Manchester City
SL Benfica -  Ajax Amsterdão
Chelsea -  Lille OSC
Atlético -  Manchester United
Vilharreal -  Juventus
Inter Milan -  Liverpool
Paris SG -  Real Madrid

[Duque de Bragança]

Previous draw for the lulz:

SL Benfica - Real Madrid
Vilharreal - Manchester City
Atlético de Madrid - Bayern Munique
RB Salzburgo - Liverpool
Inter Milão - Ajax 
Sporting CP - Juventus
Chelsea - Lille OSC
Paris SG - Manchester United

[Grey Fox]

What was the issue of the 1st draw?

[The Larch]

What was the issue of the 1st draw?

Clubs that could not meet in the knockout stage were drawn together or allowed to be potentially drawn together.

[Josquius]

Who? I'm not seeing any Manchester derbies or the like.

[The Larch]

Who? I'm not seeing any Manchester derbies or the like.

In the voided draw Man United and Villarreal (who were on the same group and thus couldn't meet in the 1st knockout stage) were drawn together.

[FunkMonk]

Curse of the Captain's armband strikes again at Arsenal. Aubameyang has been stripped of the captaincy.

Hard to see how Auba comes back into the squad from this. Lacazette is already going to be off after his contract fizzles out so Arsenal are supposedly poking around for a striker this winter window. With Auba out too there will be space for a new top-quality goal scorer in a team that is already short on goals.