No Irish, No Yanks, No Clogs - FIFA World Cup 2018

So here we go, the floor is open to suggestions as to who may or may not be ready.

https://amp.businessinsider.com/images/5b17a7e21ae6621f008b4d31-750-549.jpg

he's ready

http://i.imgur.com/ZlvSdM9.jpg

HE'S READY!

http://i.imgur.com/CClTQ3l.jpg?1

HE'S READY!

https://spynews.ro/uploads/modules/news/0/2016/6/13/105118/falcao1.jpg

he's ready

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DfZFiFvXkAIbN1I.jpg

he's not quite ready yet but they're ready for him

https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/67/590x/Julen-Lopetegui-Real-Madrid-973239.jpg?r=1528824466629

he's oh hang on

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DfeVV7yW0AAqyxw.jpg

he's significantly more ready than he was expecting to be

http://news.images.itv.com/image/file/1501789/stream_img.jpg

he's ready?

http://www.england.football/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/973168.jpg

THEY'RE READY

https://images.performgroup.com/di/library/omnisport/d5/a1/romantorres-cropped_p9y25kmzxuo313f2f5dbb5fe0.jpg?t=167636439&quality=90&h=300

he's very, very ready

https://nbocdn.akamaized.net/Assets/Images_Upload/2018/06/07/e4dc492a-69d6-11e8-9047-bc06546c3c88_web_scale_0.1020111_0.1020111__.jpg?maxheight=460&maxwidth=638

he's not sure if he's ready or not

plenty of clogs in the system right?

don't deny the VAR noods

He's never ready...

https://chanceanalytics.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/img_4826.jpg

thats a pretty offensive title imho

lol take it up with the VAR panel

I'm offended they used Yanks instead of Jocks.

....

:-/

are the russian ultra hooligans ready or are they gonna be suppressed by the police

they are the police amirite?

https://90l.tribuna.com/images/74/4e/58/744e58f6b1c54423873c83606d243972.jpg

HE'S READY

https://images.beinsports.com/SmfaEHXGuVfjMAu-mBI1MDowOZQ=/full-fit-in/1000x0/lozano-cropped_1c5ro386t8e231xbrahqz0p1vs.jpg

Chucky's more than ready

https://s22.postimg.cc/p5juu0bq9/image.jpg

He's surprisingly ready under the circumstances.

https://www.kingfut.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Essam-El-Hadary.jpg

Essam El-Hadary is the oldest player at the WC at 45, but with some extra stretching there's no doubt he'll be ready

xp lol

4 the english m8s

https://media.giphy.com/media/QsFISNC1Zb9Di/giphy.gif

https://i1.wp.com/hotsportstv.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/iceland-fan.jpg?fit=600%2C400

Probably all too ready

been practising my viking chant all week

there's a viking clap too

http://f.radio-capital.io/2018/05/29/618117a47ac7b0-49a8-4737-a13f-a50d6210827ajpg.jpg

With Peru's first WC appearance in 36 (!) years I don't think this boy can even be ready but bless 'im all the same

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/DD55/production/_101116665_capture.jpg

These Iranian female football fans will be totally ready, since in Russia at least they don't have to dress up like a man to be able to attend a match

https://i.makeagif.com/media/11-14-2015/lLtN8M.gif

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/ApprehensiveUnluckyBoutu-max-1mb.gif

what in the fuck, spain?

lop off hierro come

https://i.makeagif.com/media/10-02-2015/Swde4g.gif

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/NegligibleThirstyGordonsetter-size_restricted.gif

https://s15.postimg.cc/xcte0w5zf/0885_AFA2-_FA4_A-4098-823_A-_DAE89_AB1_B9_D4.jpg

Mother confirms Sardar is ready.

aw

i was watching a special on messi the other day and they were saying how his nana was such an important figure in his life

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qlvz_9OabAA

what is it with nanas being so important in a man's life

got a little teary eyed

Wayne Rooney, for example.

as the reigning champion I feel it is incumbent on me to offer a WC fantasy football league for anyone who wishes to challenge for this most prestigious title

it's on the fifa/mcdonald's site - https://fantasy.fifa.com/en/home - and the code is: IZXFNJP6

is that eu only

lol! good work on the thread title, RS!

It follows, of course, that Deadspin's feature on the England team today threw in Jordan Pickford in the star player section just so they could show off his butt.

https://deadspin.com/the-campaign-to-make-england-great-again-is-well-underw-1826673632

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKjKzXPj97M

is that eu only

it can't be, there's loads of americans on it

I’m at work and the site didn’t want to load

I did it on my phone tho

joined the league

Why do the england panini look like paintings

Scottish star Andy Mürray PLUMMETS to 999 in the rankings (soon to be rehabilitated to British when he's winning again).

Ozil is a public figure - his remarks and yes, who he does take a picture with should be given some scrutiny. So does "respect for the office" also mean respect for all the actions carried out by that office? I understand its overstated in terms of giving legitimacy to any regime but if you going to play that game.

it doesn't, or it doesn't necessarily

im willing to take his diasporic explanation at face value tbh. for me it has a ring of good faith argument that the criticism of the picture, his lack of teutonic affiliation, his scapegoating for the faults if his national side, all lack

you could circle all day around the rights and wrongs of what a footballer posing for a picture with a distasteful but (legitimate)(sub in better word here) head of state of his ancestral home means to the footballer as person, the footballer as targeted immigrant, the footballer as footballer, the footballer as marketing tool, the home country, the foster country, the press of the latter, the right of the latter, the message boards of ilx

its all imo bollocks tho. in context or not. the backlash held as proportionate to the sin or not.

the guy can be proud to have risen to the level he has to be asked to meet the president of his grandparents country without it being abringing endorsement of policies (people who look to footballers and others for ringing endorsements of policies are...cunts btw)

they're cunts and i hope they die

#startedreasonable

"acknowledged" for "legitimate"

or just no descriptor at all but yeah ykwis

If a US footballer, based in the UK, had had a PR cheesy photo taken with Trump during his visit that would really have gone down well.

thats not rly comparable tho

a US footballer in the UK aint diaspora if we're talking diaspora

it just seems odd to treat him in isolation. from the reaction it seems safe to assume he's not a secret die-hard AKP supporter who begged for this meeting, instead he's caught in this position of having to upset ppl and he's tried to play it diplomatically. if erdogan was a total pariah he'd deserve criticism but as it is we're all in democracies who have consistently backed turkey and it seems absurd to look to mesut ozil for moral clarity and leadership

True but there is a bit of context going on here, I mentioned Trump because he is especially disliked in the UK, much of it down to various stupid comments he's made about the UK. Meanwhile, for some time, Erdogan has been casually throwing the N word around, in connection with Germany and the German government, unlikely to endea him to many people in Germany.

oh the other n word

v confused for a sec

You can be proud of your heritage and show it in a lot of ways, one distasteful way to do it is to take a picture with a president who’s committed horrible acts against his people

Tom’s turkish friend sounds reasonable and probably people who are closer to that situation would feel the same

i do fifteen distasteful things before lunch and i aint under ozils pressures

Well, she is Kurdish so highly unlikely to be Erdogan's biggest fan.

Youre also a nobody tho

(not that I wouldn't welcome a principled stance from him but then charges of empty grandstanding would be hovering nearby. the expectations on footballers seem bizarre and often incoherent)

("democracies", obv)

if its only about posing with a leader who personally is responsible for despicable actions, look anyone can get the objection. theres just a limit in anyones right to apply that to someone in ozils position imo, you run foul of that limit pretty much immediately tbh

if he chose to piss off the entirety of german tabloid thought and institutional racism as opposed to family/community (we wont ever find out how much of this is convenient ofc) and wider international anti-erdogan political chatocracy is collateral damage....eh look a man has to put his foot somewhere evrn when the floor is messy yknow

just realised I have failed to acknowledge pasting ilx at fantasy football. crumbled in the QFs and tailed off dramatically in the following rounds and still had a 70 point lead at the end. for shame.

It's one thing for Kurds or fellow Turks to be disappointed of Özil's actions, how the head of the German Football Association come into play still boggles my mind.

cos hes a fuck

it just seems odd to treat him in isolation. from the reaction it seems safe to assume he's not a secret die-hard AKP supporter who begged for this meeting, instead he's caught in this position of having to upset ppl and he's tried to play it diplomatically. if erdogan was a total pariah he'd deserve criticism but as it is we're all in democracies who have consistently backed turkey and it seems absurd to look to mesut ozil for moral clarity and leadership

― ogmor, Tuesday, 24 July 2018 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

While that is true, and the way this picture was deployed to attack him is deplorable (not least because as you say the people of the countries attacking him deal with Turkey, make deals with that country and so on) its also the case that Ozil, as a citizen, is turning a blind eye to what is happening in the country of his family too. You just don't blindly have respect for the state when you don't actually what they are up to. He knows the ppl in the German FA and their actions and words, why doesn't he know more about Ergodan?

Its overstated that he is giving legitimacy to a regime lol, but the criticism of that picture shouldn't be dismissed altogether. It was really naive at the least.

Also he should surely know how unpopular Erdogan is in Germany in particular, but he's a footballer I suppose. I do think the I Am Honouring The Current Leader Of My Forefathers thing is a bit of baloney dreamed up by his PR people after the fact, though.

I'm glad that we've covered the fact that Erdogan is an asshole and that Özil is an idiot to potentially not think like us on the subject.

xxp yeah well this is the nature of diplomacy. sometimes isolating and refusing to play nice is effective, in this instance I'm not sure what it would achieve. for all I know he may be v well informed about turkish politics but feel the same way.

lots of ppl do of course have more or less blind respect for institutions/the ppl they represent which is sub-ideal but another thing I don't feel ozil can be fairly singled out for

I'm sorry that I have to post this extremely distressing picture, but I really do have to.

https://i.imgur.com/KYMuPqh.jpg

Kenny Sansom's leer always cracks me up there.

Xp

Never liked those dudes

The nonsense being hurled at Özil is disgusting and nakedly fuelled by racism and impotent rage at Germany’s decline (both indisputably on the pitch and through a right-wing lens in society), though obviously not at all surprising.

At the same time I disagree with the policies and behaviour of Erdogan and so am happy to conclude that Özil is either a bad cunt or a stupid prick.

He is a pretty decent and effective footballer imo.

fair take too

un-woke Kev has always been a complete twat, I even despised him when I was too innocent to know what hatred really was! But so are most footballers tbh, and arguably being a Tory voting multi-millionaire makes you an even bigger cunt than having photo taken with a dictator. Hasn't Ozil still got family in Turkey? If you were in his position you might not be brave enough to tell Erdogan to get fucked or make a public show of snubbing him.

Ya both are bad

2 wrongs dont make a right right?

Can Guevara xp

2 wrongs dont make a right doesnt address a dilemma

No need to make a show of it simply don't meet the guy.

What's Gundogan been saying about all this?

TBH I try and avoid finding out about the politics of footballers I like and I certainly wouldn't go to them for nuanced political commentary. This is genuinely the first time in my life I've ever so much thought about the political affiliations of Mezut Ozil and I'd have preferred not to do so. Most footballers have the good sense to keep quiet about it.

The Mo Salah/Kadyrov stuff seems relevant enough to mention in this discussion, although the situations aren't perfectly analagous- questions of how much say he had, and what the Egyptian FA were fucking thinking basing the team in Chechnya in the first place, being to the fore there.

Mesut had at least one sympathetic phone call on Monday over his plight, always nice to have someone in your corner...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44943282

lol this fuckin guy

Got to admit every time I see that photo I feel a twinge of sympathy for Ozil, he looks like such a hapless dork.

He's a nerd who got confused into supporting a dictator, how could germans not relate

there must have have been some element of "hmm, this might not go down too well" in that noggin of his at that moment, if the rumours of some footballers possessing sentience are actually true!

hes made his argument on that

probably engineered after the fact, but nonetheless

what the Egyptian FA were fucking thinking basing the team in Chechnya in the first place

My immediate assumption is that the Egyptian FA is skint and Chechnya was the cheapest place they could find. What was in it for Kadyrov is pretty obvious.

He knows the ppl in the German FA and their actions and words, why doesn't he know more about Ergodan?

uh like what the actual name of dude is? probably does

I don't know how I can clarify the above?

Anyway here is Muller on the controversy and its...not good:

Like Neuer wasn't enough, now Thomas #Müller talks about Mesut #Özil's Germany exit, saying "no one" can say there's racism in sports (!), and that the poor DFB just wanted to restore calmness.

Bayern Munich, officially the white men of German football in more ways than one. pic.twitter.com/XGpLX52kGI

— Felix Tamsut (@ftamsut) August 3, 2018