Rennes against Boys: the UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 2020/2021 thread

Great stuff by Başakşehir and PSG.

Ever get the feeling you're being trolled?

Hmmmm.

I hate that I was made to care about that

So fucking thrilled to see that after Sunday's parliamentary elections, where a previously unknown, batshit far-right party made up of Iron Guard worshipping, ethnonationalist, christopath covidiots whose leader is a literal ultra somehow managed to garner 9% of the popular vote – in no small part thanks to expat voters, a quarter of which apparently want nothing more than to trade Ludovic Orban for Viktor Orbán – some racist shit-for-brains referee puts Romania back in the spotlight.

You know it’s bad news when pom shows up in a footy thread #sadlol

Disgraceful.

it was willi orbáns night

Tbf he reportedly said 'negrul', which means 'the black guy'. While referring to black players by the colour of their skin is, uh, insensitive, to say least, it's also important to note that 'negru' in Romanian is not a racial slur in and of itself – it just means black (masculine).

As has been repeatedly pointed out though, why would he be referring to him like that at all, rather than as 'the assistant coach, him' *gestures*

That's the crux of it, yes. No one in Romania thinks that's racist because, well, Romania is a racist af country like all of its Eastern European neighbours, so the aforementioned far-right anti-Western party (AUR) will score some extra points in the collective unconscious tonight.

Anyway, I just wanted to point out that he didn't use the n-word per se, since that's how it was seemingly reported at first.

LJ otm, referring to a person by calling out his colour is nagl. He'd not have said 'hey whitey' if the assistant had been white, surely, to call on him. It annoys me immensely yet it's completely unsurprising to read a lot of footy fans going 'but negru isn't racist! it's pc gone mad!'. Finally a team had the balls to just say 'enough of this shit', to walk the walk after every match starts with 'no to racism', with the opposite side showing solidarity no less. That's class imo.

For sure, but it's also worth noting that the majority of Romanians have never seen a black person in real life, have little to no knowledge of Western colonialism's history, and are thus simply too ignorant to approach such matters with the required sensitivity. To my mind, there is a difference between a Western European saying this is an instance of PC culture gone mad and an Eastern European arguing the same thing, doubly so if they're not expats, because my anecdotal sense is that 95%+ of Romanians just don't get it at all, including the least overtly fash ones.

Beyond that, however, and to the extent that we are collectively incapable of acknowledging the murderous racism that we've inflicted upon the Roma and Jewish communities within our own country over the centuries, it seems clear to me that these 'attenuating circumstances' conceal a stubborn unwillingness to engage with issues of race in general, greatly decreasing whatever leftover sympathy I might have as a Westernized expat. Not to mention – and this, too, is key – that Colțescu himself should have known better insofar as he belongs to that minority of Romanians who have indeed interacted with black folks before, and because an international match calls for international mores, including in one's own mother tongue. The fact that he, unlike most of his compatriots, was directly privy to the aforementioned context yet drew no lessons from it is damning, and he fully deserves the flak, even though he will no doubt continue to paint himself as a hapless victim now that he has the entire nation's backing.

i mean in short part of that is the old "honest mistakes are fine, but if you don't listen when you're corrected then you're a dick" thing, which is hardly unique to eastern europe but is super poisonous as a political tool

Of course this is being used as an opportunity to argue that WE'RE the real victims of racism here, so there's definitely a pattern, yeah. *sigh*

Well, Romanians are not the real victims of racism but there's a scale, an on one end there is a referee who may or may not intended something despicable and on the other there's Erdogan, the Qatari owners, the French political class, all with well worked racistographies that are crying foul. When they are painting the Romanian as some backwards non-cosmopolitan redneck who can't possibly save himself from being decent, it rings as hollow and it rings as racism. I support the players decisions to walk off the pitch, but anything above that is hypocrisy, and I'm sad the players won't protest that.

Erdogan in particular can go get stuffed, but our community dgaf about racism unless it targets us specifically, so while I have no doubt that some Westerners are using this as an excuse to continue dumping on Romanians in general, there is also no question to my mind that the majority of Romanians are utterly unable and/or unwilling to question their own prejudices. France, for all its flaws, is still a less racist nation than Romania in 2020.

yeah well the most racist comments I've heard in Montreal have all come from Romanians.

Colour me surprised… Navigating this shit among other Romanians (and Eastern Europeans in general tbh) is a fucking nightmare at the best of times. It makes me empathize with Americans whose relatives have succumbed to the Great Trumpist Plague of 2016 and for which no surefire vaccine has been found so far. It's also an involuntary masterclass in rhetorical persuasion for me to the extent that simply going 'you're racist!' makes them even more entrenched in their position, whereas a modicum of dialogue and proper contextualization does go a long way with some people, which is about as much as we can ask for, I'm afraid.

The 'funny' thing, too, is that on the scale of Romanian racism, Colțescu's actions rank quite low. He even self-policed his tone by saying 'ăla negru' (the one who is black) instead of the sadly more common 'negru ăla' (that black one, which sounds more contemptuous in Romanian without quite entering n-word territory tbf) so unconsciously he must have known that language matters.

The plot thickens. Romanian media is reporting that one of the Turkish officials (presumably) yelled something to the effect of 'in my country, Romanians are gypsies. I can't say "gypsies"'. Yet you just fucking did?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAqIEVX8G9Y

Anyway, fuck everything about this incident.

Poch effect in full swing.

Mbappe hattrick, 1-4 PSG.

probs not the best idea rushing pique back

Sevilla hadn’t conceded in seven games prior to tonight and are 3-1 down at home to Dortmund in the first half. Terrible defending and Haaland is lethal.

the thought of haaland at man city is terrifying, the thought of him at man utd agonising. he looks too big and too awkward and almost lumbering and then he suddenly darts off behind the last defender like you've x6'd the DVR and KABOOM!!!

Moves like special effects, its crazy

Porto bossing their match against Juve.

Thanks var

Absolute corker from Giroud

Wowwwww

Ten man for an hour porto are putting juve out

Oh no they aren't

Unbelievable

Goal 113'

Goal 115'

Wait juve need another cos away goal

Bullshit obv as it penalises second leg home team

Surely a pen

119' to juve VAR

Prob not

Three mins added time in extra time, all juve

Always a happy day when Juve lose.

Anthony Taylor ruining a potentially interesting match in Paris.

Anthony Taylor ineptitude is now making it more interesting.

Ref and var uninterested in Chelsea fouls here

(However light the contact, two fouls, one def in box one close)

How on earth is that a red

Ref is a joke tbh

PSG look like they can score at will vs Bayern.

Bayern playing incredibly well now, still losing

well, me posting did the trick

cannot like psg somehow

Fucking Chelsea though, ugh.

if the first-leg winners all prevail we are faced with a situation where man city might be the least evil club left in it

and that is worrying

best half of football I've seen this season. terrific stuff.