Not worthy of a thread - 2018 FIFA World Cup edition

[Kimbo]

Interesting report from the Helsinki Commission.

 

The 2018 World Cup hosted by Russia has created an unprecedented opportunity for the country’s kleptocrats to enrich themselves. Just as he did with the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, President Vladimir Putin has hijacked a world sporting event in an attempt to burnish his own image and enrich the Kremlin elite, rather than to celebrate sport and sportsmanship in Russia.

 

However, unlike the 2014 Winter Olympics, the World Cup has required multiple infrastructure projects in not just one, but eleven, host cities. Oligarchs, as well as regional and national officials, have worked together to embezzle assets from the tournament stadium construction and refurbishment to side projects of accommodation and transport. 

 

Mistreated and forced laborers have completed this work. Contractors have used and manipulated Russian and migrant workers to erect the stadiums and other structures that are essential to hosting a World Cup. For example, Russia has continued its unscrupulous use of North Korean forced labor to build St. Petersburg Zenit Arena, opened by President Putin himself in March 2017. 

 

https://www.csce.gov/sites/helsinkicommission.house.gov/files/Russia%20World%20Cup%20Design%20FINAL.pdf

 

 

The money involved in Sochi was amazing, by far the most expensive Olympics ever and the place was still unfinished.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

Loving this Fedyan bloke

Aye, he's great

 

Aye loving his enthusiusim and insight.

 

Hope this thread doesnt descent into a bitch fest over his country, let’s keep this all about football eh?! I don’t think they should be hosting a WC personally as a state or whatever, but for the people of Russia why shouldn’t they get to witness such an event in their country? That’s the way I try and see it anyway.

[Fedyan]

Interesting report from the Helsinki Commission.

 

The 2018 World Cup hosted by Russia has created an unprecedented opportunity for the country’s kleptocrats to enrich themselves. Just as he did with the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, President Vladimir Putin has hijacked a world sporting event in an attempt to burnish his own image and enrich the Kremlin elite, rather than to celebrate sport and sportsmanship in Russia.

 

However, unlike the 2014 Winter Olympics, the World Cup has required multiple infrastructure projects in not just one, but eleven, host cities. Oligarchs, as well as regional and national officials, have worked together to embezzle assets from the tournament stadium construction and refurbishment to side projects of accommodation and transport. 

 

Mistreated and forced laborers have completed this work. Contractors have used and manipulated Russian and migrant workers to erect the stadiums and other structures that are essential to hosting a World Cup. For example, Russia has continued its unscrupulous use of North Korean forced labor to build St. Petersburg Zenit Arena, opened by President Putin himself in March 2017. 

 

https://www.csce.gov/sites/helsinkicommission.house.gov/files/Russia%20World%20Cup%20Design%20FINAL.pdf

 

Only happens in third world crapholes like Russia, China and Brazil, I agree No one of serious wealth and influence has ever gained anything from any event anywhere else. Not a single illegal worker ever participated in building of sporting infrastructure in, dare I say it, States or Canada, for example. Never happened. Funny how the (overwhelming) majority of such events are held outside of our corrupt, murderous and hideous country, yet the whole corruption and oligarchs (we're the only ones who have them, obviously ) thing is ever being brought up when serious economical and political interests collide, leading to a whole bunch of serious conflicts. Must be a coincidence. Simple solution. Everyone should boycott. That would obviously solve everything.

 

Billions at stake. Of course some people will get richer. What a shock.

 

Man, I thought I was being a dick but you just took the cake.  You can't compare your little third world craphole with modern nations.  Sure, there'll be a little graft and jobs for the boys but you lot just take the piss.  I seriously doubt you've actually read any of the links that have been posted in the last couple of pages.

 

Go back, read, if you still hold that view then fair enough.

 

I read The Guardian and watch BBC a few times a week, for a variety of reasons. Curiosity to know the other views among them. Also, I live here all my life and yet managed to travel to quite a few places as well and can easily provide any avid N-O user with plenty of even more fascinating links with all sorts of sad and shocking things from all over the world. Including the modern nations, as you put it. Some people expect a football festival, some people in "modern" nations opt against it, cos they are well shocked and gravely concerned. Fair enough. I still, for whatever reason, don't think that everyone in Newcastle is actually punching horses

 

And what's with "you lot", like? Looked a bit like "you people". Judging an incredibly diverse nation of over 140 million people based on something you read on the Internet. Yet, "we" take the piss. It's a football forum. The World Cup is almost here. Let's have a beer. Or, preferably, ten.

[Fedyan]

Loving this Fedyan bloke

 

It's a quite wonderful display of Russian whataboutism in action.

 

Probably needs taking to the Russia thread in General chat though, not sure having all the world cup chat punctuated with massacres and international slavery is going to help keep the mood light

 

Couldn't agree more.

[henke]

Fedyan is mint.

 

I'm sure he'll disagree but I much preferred Russia during the cold war, soviet union days. When yous had CCCP on your shirts you guys could beat anyone, at anything. Cause in our heads we were playing against eleven Ivan Dragos. Sure things weren't perfect, and there was always the threat of world war three kicking off. I don't actually know where I'm going with this?

[Disco]

No comrade, whoops sorry, mate, nothing bad has happened in the fatherland, it's all unicorns and ponies.

 

Alreet Mao

[Nobody]

Fedyan is mint.

 

I'm sure he'll disagree but I much preferred Russia during the cold war, soviet union days. When yous had CCCP on your shirts you guys could beat anyone, at anything. Cause in our heads we were playing against eleven Ivan Dragos. Sure things weren't perfect, and there was always the threat of world war three kicking off. I don't actually know where I'm going with this?

[Fedyan]

Uruguay will be based in Nizhny Novgorod, and I sure as hell hope they will stay somewhere suburban. These forrins looked a bit tired when exiting the plane, for whatever reason. There is a lovely downtown riverside party area with quite a few bars, nightclubs and places where cultured gentlemen with spare cash go to drown their family life misery while drooling over naked girls doing the pole dance thing. I can not even remember the exact amount of times work and leisure took me there, and am counting down the days till Argentina Croatia, Messi in flesh. Hopefully, party animals like Martin Caceres and Jose Jimenez will be on full lockdown. Plenty to see and do after dark, like. Local hipsters, who own like every single of the gazillion craft beer joints in Russia these days by the looks of it, are baths!t mental at the prospective sales. If you or your friends go - don't leave without trying the many, many local flavored distillates (nastoika in Russian).

 

Morocco arrived in Voronezh, a proper passionate football city, whose political leaders opted against bidding to become a host city and concentrated on the extremely profitable building projects and nuclear energy development (there is a huge modern energy plant on the outskirts, a local friend of mine actually took me there two years ago, ferking immense that thing from afar). The local football side (relegated from second tier with an unbelievably crappy squad) is delightfully named Fakel - pronounced Fu-ckeel. You are welcome. I would assume that some of Moroccan players are feasting right now, but they call up so many dudes who were born in France, Belgium, Netherlands that I am sure the local nightclub owners would not be completely disappointed. I wanted to insert a joke about Saransk still being a host city here, but there are some many already, so I resist. I mean pleasing the cement industry overlords in Saransk over the city with some of the most beautiful women anywhere on this planet, the birthplace of the Russian Navy under Peter The Great, lovely climate and tons of theaters and museums. Rich people being bitches shocker, like. Oh well.

 

Portugal held their first training session at Kratovo sports complex, and Cristiano was greeted with an ovation from a few young fans and journalists in attendance. Was very moody at first, but went on to cheer himself up and perform some forrin magic. I am of the opinion that his Real Madrid go/stay saga will influence them immensely.

 

Egypt will stay in Grozny. The capital city in Chechnya. Cue some fantastic and absolutely hilarious jokes about two recent horrific civil wars from some of the more humorous types, no doubt. Yeah, I know that Ramzan Kadyrov is dodgy as hell and actually used to fight against our army in his youth, but I also believe that bad peace is better than a good war. The entire republic was rebuilt and Grozny, pretty much annihilated during the first war, was practically created from scratch in a very Middle East-ish manner. Their stadium is state of the art, I am doing Terek Grozny away next season, but the guys I know who went in recent seasons quite liked it. Although, it is a very distinct place obviously, predominantly avid Muslim. Salah was described as the best player in the world by the big shots who greeted the team. Very close relations between key military officials in Russia and Egypt proved decisive, but it was the worst kept-secret that one of the teams from a Muslim country will stay there during the tournament. Except for Iran, obviously.

 

The forrin forrins from Germany picked Sochi. The cocky, posh mugs. They loved their stay there during the Confederations Cup and Low insisted on returning this year. They actually sent a lovely message to the resort staff and volunteers who made their stay rather enjoyable last year, classy that. I would hate it if they win the whole thing, they have way too many good players. Unfair, like.

 

The French were greeted at their base in Istra (a riverside resort area in the Moscow region) with a pleasant welcoming gift. Each and every door was transformed into a painting, featuring the player staying in that room. Looked pretty cool on Insta. I don't want them to win because of Pogba. He became quite unbearable with his football. Although, I must admit, I base this entirely on his form the CL. Also, Giroud. That haircut. No way anyone having that on his head deserves to lift the World Cup. And on a more personal note, my beloved pet tortoise ran away from me during a family picnic there when I was 7. The scar still remains. So no win for France from me for picking that site, like.

 

Some Spanish blokes from a non-sporting paper shot a video inside FC Krasnodar stadium, wondering why the hell that venue and that city are not part of the fun. Well, they're not the only ones. The friendly with Tunisia was a sellout, most people rooting for the forrins from Spain. Some local graffiti guys did a heck of a decorating job with some huge Yashin, Ramos, etc drawings on city walls. Those southerners, always having fun.

 

The Saudis will be based in Rostov-on-Don. Excellent, proper canny choice for a summer stay if you are a member of a large male group from a very religious country. Kind of like sending a bunch of nuns to South Beach. Or holding a conference on celibate in San Fernando Valley. But for now, they are in St Petersburg and their training session somehow managed to attract 3000 locals. I almost completed their squad in my Panini album. Still can't remember any of their names. Just checked - those 12 players that were sent to a few Primera and Segunda clubs in Spain to gain experience played a total of 13 minutes between them. Then again, we lost to freaking Qatar two years ago, so go figure.

 

Fantastically named Macbeth Sibaya, a former South Africa international who won two league titles with Rubin Kazan back in the day, remembered how some people there asked him if his Drenthe haircut was real or just a fancy reggae wig. Remember being jealous as hell that they had a battler like him in their engine room at the time. But his hairdo did look like a wig, to be fair.

 

Bobby Carlos, no doubt still awash with cash from Souleyman Kerimov's Anzhi adventure, talked about the many things he saw and experienced here, including those morons in St Petersburg and Samara who threw bananas at him. Somehow, did not come to the conclusion that we live in a racist, xenophobic hellhole. Then again, people who will watch the European Supercup this August probably don't associate the vast majority of the respective clubs' fans with those charming far-right idiots among Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid active support. But those nutters live among modern, civilized people, so Bobby is obviously brainwashed in saying something daft like that about us. And in no way do I imply that we don't have our own share of knuckle dragging scum by writing any of the above, just in case.

 

My club, Dynamo Moscow, have cancelled their partnership with one of our biggest football sites after a rather rude, historically incorrect and simply put moronic article about Lev Yashin. Basically, the young vaping fan who wrote it suggested that it is pretty stupid to suggest that the goalkeeper named as the best in 20th century by FIFA is a great of the game because his error against Colombia in 1962 led to our elimination. Using the type of mem-filled teen language that would make some spotty Facebook users arguing over the greatness of Bieber proud. The editor asked the author to change the idiotic article name, and then even removed the thing and apologized for very offensive language used in it. And for the first time in like 20 years, my club's brass actually acted as if there are some things that can not and must not be tolerated with regards to our past. Imagine if Mike Ashley would tell some young, self-righteous media type writing mean crap about Sir Bobby or Keegan to go stuff his poophole with rusty nails. After years of being Mike Ashley. Pretty much how I feel right now, bizarrely approving of an otherwise corrupt, lying and severely unprofessional board. Several days before the World Cup at home and some deluded w@nker feels the urge to write crap about our arguably greatest ever player, and above all - a fantastic person who isn't even among us anymore. Unbelievable. Those kids and their "so what" views.

[triggs]

HTT has some competition on his hands

[Infinitely Content]

...And on a more personal note, my beloved pet tortoise ran away from me during a family picnic there when I was 7. The scar still remains. So no win for France from me for picking that site, like.

 

:lol:

[Super Duper Branko Strupar]

When did Dostoevsky join the forum?

[Deuce]

...And on a more personal note, my beloved pet tortoise ran away from me during a family picnic there when I was 7. The scar still remains. So no win for France from me for picking that site, like.

 

:lol:

 

[mosstef]

When did Dostoevsky join the forum?

 

Don't know but I love it.

 

Keep the posts coming Fedyan!

[samptime29]

Enjoying Fedyan's posts.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

HTT has some competition on his hands

 

My Russian brother 

 

[Guest Howaythetoon]

I’d love to go to Russia like one day and I do hope there is no trouble as they get a lot of bad press and I feel it’s unfair on a lot of their people. The ones I’ve met here in the UK (we have a small community of them in Newcastle) have been spot on, but fucking crazy

[AyeDubbleYoo]

I met some Russians in India and they were terrifying. That said, they didn't want to kill us so much when they found out we weren't American. They were a bit drunk mind.

[1964]

Bet you never see HTT and Fedyan in the same room together

[Fedyan]

Weinstein fan of the day - Jorge Sampaoli. A huge scandal is brewing in Argentina as the iconic gaffer is being accused of sexually harassing the lady who is the chef cook for the national team. Some even suggest that the head of their Federation tried to bribe the woman so that the story would be swept under the carpet. Supposedly, they will sack him after the World Cup irrespective of the outcome. Oh, the drama. Now, I don't want to generalize, but there is indeed something sinister in some of the lads with those sleeve long tatts. Especially, if they're bald and are over the age of 40.

 

Iceland had a road cone accidentally included in their team photo when they arrived at Euro16, so they now take it everywhere and put it in front of them as a good luck charm. Oh those mental herring eaters

 

More and more forrins coming over, walking our streets, drinking our booze and all. Those forrin forrins. Got texts from friends in St Petersburg and Nizhni Novgorod about large groups of Colombians and Italians walking around, shopping, taking pictures and acting all touristy. Forrins. 

 

Robbie Williams and the original (and best) Ronaldo will be a part of the pre-game show on opening day. Don't really mind Robbie, but I would opt for a Peace Sells performance from Megadeth and perhaps a bit of of good old 50 Cent with something like Candy Shop to get the crowd going.

 

Jose Mourinho, Stan Collymore and Peter Schmeichel will be covering the tournament for RT, prompting all sorts of magnificent accusations and word "allegedly" being bandied around. Personally, I am not familiar with their sporting shows, but might tune in and watch to see if there is anything fun and informative there. Probably boring and cliche-infested match roundup and a few chats with fans before and after the games. I mean, Peter Schmeichel with all the charisma of Peter Schmeichel. Jose being Jose. And Collymore potentially telling stories about his fun in the parking lots. I would ask Cantona, Gazza and Ronaldinho do the shows. Now that would be epic. With star appearances from Edmundo, Maradona and Effenberg. Imagine the insanity of it all

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest Howaythetoon]

Edmundo man, what a player he was, wasn’t he called the animal or something?

 

Is your country starting to really get hyped for the WC Fedyan and do you think there will be any problems of a hooliganism nature? I hope not.

 

Hopefully it will be an exhibition of football where the top players shine, new prospects emerge and there will be goals and incidents aplenty.

[1964]

I would be amazed if there are any major kick offs in Russia, the authorities will take a pretty dim view I imagine. Given the strong links between the authorities and the hooligan gangs, their human rights record and desire to look diverse and inclusive to the watching world I suspect they have been told to stay indoors

[UncleBingo]

I would be amazed if there are any major kick offs in Russia, the authorities will take a pretty dim view I imagine. Given the strong links between the authorities and the hooligan gangs, their human rights record and desire to look diverse and inclusive to the watching world I suspect they have been told to stay indoors

 

I've been to a fair few games in Russia (including a couple of Zenit games with igorstp who used to post on here) and the OMOH who police all the games are simply not to be fucked with. I once spent 20 minutes in the back of one of their big six wheeler trucks, and it was easily one of the most terrifying experiences if my life.

I suspect there'll be little or no bother.

[GeordieDazzler]

On that Frankie Boyle in Russia thing they tried to interview some hools but they'd all been warned off from the FSB.

[Dave]

Robbie Williams to open the ceremony which I'm sure will go down well on here.

[Guest neesy111]