Kaizero

It is actually the complete opposite, that decision being made was good officiating. That is of course if the metric used to "measure" good vs. bad officiating is how effectively and correctly a referee enforces the rules of the game. I think the level of competency in the English referee stock compared to other "big" footballing nations is absolutely laughable, don't get me wrong. But the insane amount of factually incorrect absolute idiotic whining about decisions referees have made so far this EC has leapfrogged all of my other pet hates in football, now reigning supreme at the top of my list without a snowball's chance in hell of another pet hate ever overtaking it again It's now reached a level where I couldn't contain myself from actually making a post in defense of Stuart fucking Atwell's refereeing skill - which never would even have been close to happening before all the fucking fucktard whiners started shouting in their echo chambers this EC... jesus fucking christ, the pundits are meant to be "experts" and all they do is say factually incorrect shit to rile up the public for engagement and ad money. I mean, if we imagine a world where money doesn't rule all and informing the general public about the actual fucking problem(s) with football instead of riling them up by spouting bullshit - there'd be a genuine chance that fans would make enough noise and get the actual problem fixed. Fixing the problem would give fans less to get riled up about and result in less viewers/online engagement though, so that will never happen. For clarity: The referees at the EC have, so far, delivered the best performance by referees at a major footballing tournament - at least in my lifetime - when judged on the criteria they're meant to be judged on; how correct they enforce and apply the rules of the game. Now, please re-read the five words in bold at the very end of the above paragraph again. Okay. Now, read it once more, for safety. The problem isn't the referees - the problem with what you're witnessing at the EC is the rules the referees have been ordered to follow and enforce. Pundits should enlighten the public about that fact, not blame referees who are actually, for once, doing their jobs well. Don't get me wrong, I hate the way the rules are at present and I am just as annoyed at the same incidents as everyone else. If we, the fans, want to see those annoyances go away and football be "repaired" - then we're doing ourselves no favours by allowing IFAB to use the referees as scapegoats they can hide behind as they continue on with their apparent crusade intended to fucking destroy the game of football that we know and love. IFAB needs to alter/rewrite the laws of the game. That way referees on the pitch (and VAR teams) won't continue to piss off everyone when they do a good job. (just fyi; @Pata , my rant isn't directed at you even though I quoted your post before going off you're one of the good guys )

Only realistic danger that isn't a part of the"fuckin' forrins" hyperbole is those owners taking their toys with them to fuck off to play in the a non-relegation "super league" with their other rich mates to protect the value of their investment portfolios. The way the world is trending at the moment, sure, there's a chance we'll end up seeing the Community Shield turn into even more of a glorified sideshow pre-season friendly than it already is by ending up being played at a venue outside the UK. Other than the actual, real, threat of a breakway "super league" - there just isn't a realistic cause for concern that foreign ownership will ruin football in England. In fact, if I was asked to choose one club in the PL at present whose owners would be most likely to push for scrapping tradition if it meant they could host a cup final or PL games in their "home country" - my answer would be Newcastle. The "threat" isn't American club owners - it's club owners to whom the only thing that matter is turning a profit. Our years under Mike Ashley, an English owner, is the perfect example of how the game could one day actually end up in ruins - 5-6 clubs at the top have rich enough owners to compete between themselves for the league title whilst the rest of the teams are there to make up the numbers and turn a profit for their owners by being "a part of the Premier League", with no ambition or intent to even try challenging for honors. Not woken up properly yet so my apologies if this post is just a complete mess of stray thoughts that doesn't make any sense Halfway through I had forgotten what my initial point was meant to be, as well as why I started typing a response to @toon25's post in the first place...

In the shops I've been in over here (Norway), we're front right and centre. In the years since we were last with Adidas, you'd struggle to find a single NUFC shirt for sale in any store selling kits. "Marketed worldwide" doesn't mean they waste product by trying to flog it in areas it won't sell it's why you don't see Flamengo shirts for sale all over the place even though that club have signed the same elite tier sponsorship agreement with Adidas as we have.

Swizerland 1-2 Italy Germany 2-0 Denmark England 1-1 Slovakia Spain 2-3 Georgia France 3-1 Belgium Portugal 2-1 Slovenia Romania 3-2 Netherlands Austria 2-2 Turkey

Just inferring that it couldn't have mattered that much, as he played in the matches before those two friendlies and has played in all the matches after. He'll not have learnt Spanish in under two months, and the guy is a Villareal player Was meant as a dig at what the Chile manager said, not at you for posting it.

That was said when he was left out of Chile's squad for two friendly matches - he's in their Copa America squad, and playing.

Using Norway as a comparison, we suffered from similar issues when Rosenborg won the league 13 seasons in a row. When you have one "good" team, that team essentially creates a monopoly when it comes to signing all the up and coming young players - meaning the nation as a whole end up losing out on tons of players that would've become at least half-decent footballers due to never making the grade and breaking through at the club with the monopoly. This is just an assumption as I am not too familiar with the Scottish league, but I can imagine something similar is going on in Scotland with Celtic and Rangers "hoovering" up all the talented young Scottish players, resulting in those not breaking through at those two clubs getting discarded without motivation left. After Rosenborg started falling apart, other clubs in Norway have become great at bringing through young players - which has led to us having more quality players than we've ever had. Just a shame we refuse to hire a manager that know how to utilize the fact we have a golden generation of offensive minded/technically gifted players, instead refusing to sack one of the most defensive minded/kick the ball at the big striker managers in Norwegian football history

Why would he want to spend his golden years torturing himself?

Southgate's England in a nutshell: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeggwk3T/

He's in the Chile squad for Copa America and played against Peru, so not that vital after all that he speak Spanish then

Looked that guy up on Wiki and this is an amazing anecdote: "After noticing he was half Chilean whilst playing Football Manager, a group of fans began a social media campaign to get Brereton Díaz picked for Chile."

This TikTok sums up England perfectly: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeggwk3T/ “Sideways. Now backwards. Sideways again. Ouuhh yeahhh! I particulary like it when a player that’s lit up the Premier League all season suddenly act like he’s never seen a football before.”

Switzerland 0-2 Germany Scotland 2-1 Hungary Albania 2-3 Spain Croatia 1-1 Italy Netherlands 2-0 Austria France 2-0 Poland England 1-1 Slovenia Denmark 2-2 Serbia Slovakia 1-3 Romania Ukraine 2-1 Belgium Czech Republic 2-2 Turkey Georgia 2-2 Portugal

He essentially ensures that the keeper cannot make an attempt at diving after the ball. He'd never have saved it but as the rule is structured, the defender, by taking away the keeper's opportunity to dive for the ball - is clearly "interfering in play". Do I think it should be that way when the keeper would have had no chance regardless? Absolutely not, but here we are I think the rules of the game need a massive overhaul and that them not having been properly updated plays a big part in making VAR not function as well as it should. Well, that and English refs being absolute shitstains, of course.

There is not, there are just teams in the "Elite" group that have better overall terms for their sponsorship deals with Adidas than we currently have. As said, the difference in "ranking" 99% applies to what marketing effort Adidas is expected to put in, as well as teams on "lower" rankings not getting certain perks given to the "Elite" group by Adidas. Everything else will have been negotiated on a team-by-team basis. Really confused by why there seems to be so much confusion about this on here, widely available online what the different Adidas sponsorship "levels" include for clubs 🤷🏼‍♂️ Adidas has an overall sponsorship deal with the MLS, which gives the MLS teams the same perks that all the "Elite" teams get, bar worldwide marketing.

Explains why that question hasn't popped up again then

Read the last paragraph one more time, Flamengo is the only non-European "Elite" team. It's not consistent and it's not meant to be consistent, perks given each team vary based on the individual sponsorship agreements. "Elite" status has more to do with separating the level of effort Adidas will put in when it comes to marketing than anything else.

Quick sidenote, "Filippo Inzaghi" is also the answer to one of my all time favourite pub quiz questions: Who's the only player having played in one of the "big" European leagues to have scored against all of the other teams in their league over the course of a single season? Not sure if that's still true though, been more than a few years since I've heard it asked

We are ranked as "Elite" by Adidas. You know by looking at the differences between their "Elite" package vs their "Premium" package, most notably that our kits get promoted globally by Adidas themselves and not just nationally (like they do for their "Premium" clubs). We'll also get a confirmation when we get the away shirt reveal, as "Elite" teams are meant to get a long-sleeve version of their away kit (not the home kit). However, Adidas also operate with a ranking system for the clubs within each of their sponsorship tiers and more perks are given the clubs at the top of those rankings than the ones below. As far as some light online takes me, it looks like Bayern Munchen, Man Utd, Arsenal and Real Madrid form some kind of Adidas "Big Four".

Italy: Filippo Inzaghi France: Zinedine Zidane Spain: Raul Holland: Edgar Davids Germany: Miroslav Klose Brazil: Ronaldinho Argentina: Hernan Crespo Portugal: Luis Figo Norway: Roar Strand

Croatia 2-1 Albania Germany 5-0 Hungary Scotland 0-2 Switzerland Slovenia 1-1 Serbia Denmark 0-1 England Spain 2-2 Italy Slovakia 1-0 Ukraine Poland 2-2 Austria Netherlands 2-4 France Georgia 2-1 Czechia Turkey 2-2 Portugal Belgium 0-2 Romania

Off-topic, but just realized you can literally see the rabbit hole deepen by looking at my list of "to-read" bookmarks that I'll never open again

Just for the record, I'm in no way saying I have an intimate knowledge of the relations between the countries in the region - my knowledge of that is based on having had a few deep trips down the rabbit hole that is ADHD-hyperfocus wiki-binges

Can't understand how most people are opposed to a 32 team tournament for the Euros or a 64 team tournament for the WC - even though that would give us more matches between nations most neutrals would never watch if they weren't happening during a tournament, especially as the ones complaining about the possibility of more nations at the EC/WC almost universally praise the matches between "lesser" sides and say they enjoy watching nations they'd never normally watch 🤷🏼‍♂️