Football (Soccer) Thread

[garbon]

8km or roughly 5 miles seems like stretching the idea of "near".

[Duque de Bragança]

8km or roughly 5 miles seems like stretching the idea of "near".

For the Yanks or the Godons? 

[Josquius]

A nice restaurant 5 miles away isn't near.
A mass shooting even 100 miles away is right next door.

[crazy canuck]

A shooting in America is noteworthy?

One takeaway is the person who decided this should be the team's base was Ill informed

Fowler told the newspaper that it's not uncommon to hear gunshots in the neighborhood at least once a week.

[Duque de Bragança]

Plus, the best African referee, a Somali, being denied entry, after national team staff members from Iran (not that surprising) and Iraq (bit more).
Havn't heard from Gianni about those cases.

[Valmy]

I just do not understand why that is happening. Is our government just that incompetent? FIFA just that inept? Are we doing this to send a message that we are assholes, just for symbolic reasons?

Fucking with the World Cup for no reason at all seems like a diplomatic own goal so to speak.

Granted we specialize doing that shit these days.

[Sheilbh]

Plus, the best African referee, a Somali, being denied entry, after national team staff members from Iran (not that surprising) and Iraq (bit more).
Havn't heard from Gianni about those cases.

At least Qatar and Russia wanted the world to like them more.

I think FIFA have commented that, as with all World Cups, they don't control individual visa decisions by hosts.

[Grey Fox]

I just do not understand why that is happening. Is our government just that incompetent? FIFA just that inept? Are we doing this to send a message that we are assholes, just for symbolic reasons?

Fucking with the World Cup for no reason at all seems like a diplomatic own goal so to speak.

Granted we specialize doing that shit these days.

Remember DOGE? Everyone competent got canned.

[HVC]

I just do not understand why that is happening. Is our government just that incompetent? FIFA just that inept? Are we doing this to send a message that we are assholes, just for symbolic reasons?

Fucking with the World Cup for no reason at all seems like a diplomatic own goal so to speak.

Granted we specialize doing that shit these days.

Besides being incompetent, not enough Americans care about the World Cup for the administration to be bothered.if they cared what the outside world thought they wouldn't do a lot of what they do

[Sheilbh]

Not sure this is incompetence it feels 100% in line with the US border guards behaviour.

[HVC]

Incompetent if you want to sportswash. If you're playing to your audience in fucking with foreign and brown people in general then it's not incompetence.

[Syt]

There was also a story on BBC a few days ago about Scottish fans who wanted to go, had everything planned and booked, but then their ESTA flipped from approved to not approved for no apparent reason.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy2yleex87o

[Valmy]

Incompetent if you want to sportswash. If you're playing to your audience in fucking with foreign and brown people in general then it's not incompetence.

Well it is incompetence if your goal is to host the World Cup. Not sure how harrasing people who will only be staying a few months at most and will likely spend lots of money, even foreign brown ones, is something even our administration would want.

[HVC]

Because the MAGA crowd will laugh and vote GOP. They lose nothing and hype up there crowd. They don't care about economic consequences, the donors won't lose a dollar.

[Josquius]

The US obstructs and blocks players, staff and officials from Muslim countries - nothing to see here.

2023. Indonesia blocks the Israeli team from entering for the under 20s World Cup - no World Cup for you Jakarta.