Everything World Cup
- Thread starter Belligerent Ghoul
- Start date
charlie tango
Banned
we're gonna win the world cup.
Theo
Active Member
The odds on the USA winning are 100/1. We don't care, but it would sure piss the world off! USA just beat Venezuela in some pre-whatever match right here in Cleveland!
I'll be rooting for Sweden to defeat England and USA to beat Italy in their respective groups. If it's not in the cards for USA or Sweden, I'll hope a South American team wins over Europeans. Soccer victories bring out fascist tendencies in Europeans.
I'll be rooting for Sweden to defeat England and USA to beat Italy in their respective groups. If it's not in the cards for USA or Sweden, I'll hope a South American team wins over Europeans. Soccer victories bring out fascist tendencies in Europeans.
Maradona
Senior Member
Yes, that's Paolo DiCanio. He received quite some trouble for this. The fans at Lazio, the team he played for in Rome, have a long history of racism and the such. He is, plainly, an idiot, who does indeed profess admiration for Mussolini and calls him a "misunderstood great Italian".
However, suggesting that "soccer" (we call it "football", actually, that's what it really is) victories bring out fascist tendencies in us as supporters also seems rather idiotic, if you don't mind my saying.
It is the universal sport. The World Cup is the greatest single sporting event on the planet. Peace, love and brotherhood - we can all join together in the hope England get beat; their commentators and pundits are unbearable, and if they win it again I'll have to hear about for another 40 years!!!
Having said that England have probably the best player in the world at the moment in Steven Gerrard. Yes, I do believe he's better than Ronaldinho or Riquelme, as a team player. He's unbelievable.
However, suggesting that "soccer" (we call it "football", actually, that's what it really is) victories bring out fascist tendencies in us as supporters also seems rather idiotic, if you don't mind my saying.
It is the universal sport. The World Cup is the greatest single sporting event on the planet. Peace, love and brotherhood - we can all join together in the hope England get beat; their commentators and pundits are unbearable, and if they win it again I'll have to hear about for another 40 years!!!
Having said that England have probably the best player in the world at the moment in Steven Gerrard. Yes, I do believe he's better than Ronaldinho or Riquelme, as a team player. He's unbelievable.
charlie tango
Banned
Maradona. Fighting against that deeply repressed desire to be English only results in resentment. All post offices have a "Please, I want to be English" application form available to remedy this state.
We're gonna win the world cup!
We're gonna win the world cup!
Sonar
That's what I'm not
As long as the Brasilians don't make it I'm fine. It's not that I don't like them but they're just so good it gets boring. I hope England wins the cup (as the fascist that I am [whoever said that shit: you just don't get it! You call it soccer, we call it football. You think we're fascist while we're just having a good time and support our teams. Usually there's nothing wrong with it] I just say that because Germany has no chance of doing so at the moment... for obvious reasons such as: bad team) and Trinidad and Tobago qualifies for at least one final (maybe even quarterfinal) but that's not going to happen, I know. And I hope everybody will be nice and friendly even if the German team gets kicked out very early on (supposedly that will be the case). I live in Berlin and I really don't want some frustrated drunk-heads to bother me for the rest of the cup. Anyways: Germany is going crazy at the moment. And still 12 days to go.
Maradona
Senior Member
charlie tango said:
LOL
I will be supporting you really, I like all the players, I just can't take Motson and, especially, Clive Tyldesley (is that how you spell his name?). That guy Tyldesley, the ITV commentator, is unbelievable! He has no brain, he's sooooo biased.
I think Paraguay and Sweden might really pose probs for England, though. Larsson and Ibrahimovich up front for Sweden could be lethal and Acuna for Paraguay is no slouch, either. But Gerrard is the man.
Theo
Active Member
Maradona said:
I don't know how far I wanna take this when I really just threw that "fascist tendencies" statement in there for the f*** of it, and since I don't really know much about soccer. However, it's curious to me how political soccer seems to be. You say DiCanio got in trouble, but was that trouble from the fans of his club? My understanding is that he plays for a team where most of the fans share his politics and bring signs saying so. I could be wrong, but if it's true then it's not something an American can relate to. Sure, fans of the American football team of my city, the Cleveland Browns, take some pride in being generally a "working class" team, but not much is made of it and it's really bullshit in any case, and there's certainly nothing like supporting a team because its suporters tend to be of a certain brand of extremist politics.
Soccer does seem deeply political. For example, aren't the Glasgow Rangers considered a "right wing" team and right wing groups recruit from their fans? Aren't soccer hooligans in general easy recruits for extremist groups? And hasn't there been a long history of various totalitarian regimes using soccer for politics? Mussolini, Franco, Tito, Hitler...regimes in Argentina and Brazil...Uday Hussein in Iraq. If it's so idiotic, why did the BBC do a Football & Fascism documentary (which I haven't seen so I don't know what they say)?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/fascism-and-football.shtml
Maradona
Senior Member
Theo said:
It's a tiny minority that screw it up for everyone else, I am under the impression that football hooliganism is on the decline, but I could be wrong. For every violent idiot with a chip on his shoulder there are another 100,000 who just LOVE this game. Every time a World Cup rolls round we look at potential flashpoints - I think Germany are playing Poland this time round and the cops will be out in force. Some "fans" do go to games intent on stirring up trouble, but we can't, and won't, let them win.
I do live in a city that is divided by football, but it's a religious divide, not a politicial one. The inbred of Glasgow like to knock lumps out of one another on matchdays, depending on whether they wear the green of Celtic or the blue of Rangers. It's all pretty sad.
Theo
Active Member
hool' said:
This is a forum with international reach (and, btw, based in the USA). You're just gonna have to accept that people in other parts of the world say things differently than smelly old England. You seem nearly FASCIST in your intolerance for the words other countries use.
Frankly, the more I look into all the ugly politics involved with soccer (I just saw on one web site that a a brief WAR in Central America broke out between two countries over a soccer match), the more I'm happy America decided to have its own sports to go along with breaking away from the Old World.
Belligerent Ghoul
Hall of Famer
Hope: England will win.
Predict: Portugal will win.
Predict: Portugal will win.
Cowshed
Underclass
Well, every huge sporting event has a danger of being used for political gains, especially those of extremists. The only international event that can rival the World Cup is the Olympics, and do I need to remind you of Munich?!
Football in Europe does have a political background, mainly being the sport itself has been played during times of great political changes, and fans and politicians have reacted accordingly.
For example, one way the Communist Party in Russia maintained their hold over their people was to own the top football clubs, as the people thought the only place they could act themselves was inside the football stadia.
The rise of hooliganism in the UK came about at a time when Thatcher had disenfranchised the working classes, and football is the game of the working classes in Britain. This also occurred at a time of many inner-city riots (for example Bristol and Brixton), and violence at football games was a result of the combination of the two.
The example of Italian football being fascist is very naive - many people throughout Italy, and especially in many deprived areas of Rome believe in the fascist ideology. It just so happens that Lazio fans use their game as a way to congregate together and display their fascist beliefs.
Therefore, football itself in Europe is not particularly political, but the continent of Europe is still quite politically unstable, bearing in mind we had have both communism and fascism within the last 60 years, and the history of football shows really a snapshot of society as a whole during a period of fundamental change. Without trying to have a dig at the US too much, this is where Europe and USA differ, Europe has a long and bloody history of war and oppression, and in comparison, the US has very little history.
Football in Europe does have a political background, mainly being the sport itself has been played during times of great political changes, and fans and politicians have reacted accordingly.
For example, one way the Communist Party in Russia maintained their hold over their people was to own the top football clubs, as the people thought the only place they could act themselves was inside the football stadia.
The rise of hooliganism in the UK came about at a time when Thatcher had disenfranchised the working classes, and football is the game of the working classes in Britain. This also occurred at a time of many inner-city riots (for example Bristol and Brixton), and violence at football games was a result of the combination of the two.
The example of Italian football being fascist is very naive - many people throughout Italy, and especially in many deprived areas of Rome believe in the fascist ideology. It just so happens that Lazio fans use their game as a way to congregate together and display their fascist beliefs.
Therefore, football itself in Europe is not particularly political, but the continent of Europe is still quite politically unstable, bearing in mind we had have both communism and fascism within the last 60 years, and the history of football shows really a snapshot of society as a whole during a period of fundamental change. Without trying to have a dig at the US too much, this is where Europe and USA differ, Europe has a long and bloody history of war and oppression, and in comparison, the US has very little history.
