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

also what the fuck would the Mail know about football or culture also loving your club more than England is a long honourable football tradition, would still swap a 10-0 annihilation of England on Saturday for a good season for Wolves in the Prem

I remember the good old days when you'd get beaten to death if you wore face paint or a jester hat!

I always imagine if I was an ISIS hostage kept in a cage for months, I'd be dying to know how Town are doing in the league. International football.. meh whatever!

Patriotism is love of country. The success or failure of a small group of rich men in a covertly violent game full of cheating, ham acting and sneaky assaults has no bearing at all on the standing, liberty, wealth or security of the country those men claim to 'represent' . https://t.co/PvjTXKRD8r

— Peter Hitchens (@ClarkeMicah) July 5, 2018

Patriotism is love of country. The success or failure of a small group of rich men in a covertly violent game full of cheating, ham acting and sneaky assaults has no bearing at all on the standing, liberty, wealth or security of the country those men claim to 'represent'.

hang on is he talking about football or foreign policy?

the Catholic Church in England and Wales iirc

That is possibly the worst World Cup take of all of them on multiple levels.

Real patriotism is about bombs iirc.

those men claim to 'represent'.

WOOF

a small group of rich men in a covertly violent game full of cheating, ham acting and sneaky assaults

this is the Cabinet ffs

how dare u a few of them are women

I'd argue that football has a pretty huge impact on the standing of the UK (or England at least). The Premiership is one of the few things that people round the world actually like about this country.

the car is on fire and there's no driver at the wheel, clive

and the huge prem wage bills must be tipping up a fortune into HMRC, even with all the tax evasion schemes.

lol Nick

A+

I'd argue that football has a pretty huge impact on the standing of the UK (or England at least). The Premiership is one of the few things that people round the world actually like about this country.

― Matt DC, Thursday, July 5, 2018 11:57 AM (eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Most def. Success or otherwise of England team has little to do with that though?

hoo is clive and wat is nick b's reference pls

oh wait, clive tyldesley? doh

nick's reference is a david squire cartoon

*squires

Images from England v Norway set to the lyrics of 'The Dead Flag Blues' by Godspeed You! Black Emperor: pic.twitter.com/8rcbkP1lia

— David Squires (@squires_david) September 6, 2014

haha, I hadn’t actually seen that before

ilx has mocked squires for stuff like that iirc but some of his stuff is p good and ilx-y. narcissism of not having a guardian deal

phitch is right: patriotism is clearly unnecessary to get behind the team

squires did a lovely shawshank wenger one

now quite interested to remember which dweebs hated on him

I didn't know that cartoon (just knew the GY!BE lyric) but that's ace

TWP panel is amazing

now quite interested to remember which dweebs hated on him

― imago, Thursday, July 5, 2018 11:27 AM (eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

turns out it was nakhers and myself

-_-

I'm going to go out on a limb and say his output might be varied enough to merit a few different reactions

So we had a sweepstakes in the work, £5 a pop, 32 teams picked, sealed in envelopes till the quarter finals. The envelopes have just been opened... guess who I got? Here's a clue, they're still in it.

sealed in envelopes i can understand, but until the quarter finals?

(here everybody was saying which team they had before all the tickets had been picked, which just seems wrong)

Good idea waiting till the QFs I think. Everyone is excitedly going round, asking who got Brazil, who got France, who got er ... England.

would be great if tom now had to support england tbh

Wouldn't it just...

Tom's attempts to jinx already have him sounding like a belligerently overconfident hackett shirt inglan guy tbh

lol tom. my advice - try and sell your team for a tenner, if only to keep your dignity intact

lol i actually kind of agree with phitch?

viz
1: supporting ENG is in no way an index of patriotism (as an internationalist i naturally think patriotism is bad not good,but that doesn't invalidate his argument)
2: the nation's "standing, liberty, wealth and security" are p much unrelated (the premiership is much more important to standing and wealth, the latter being the only really daft bit of his claim re the WC -- and even then it's surely largely an indirect effect)
3: "covertly violent game full of cheating, ham acting and sneaky assaults" how is this inaccurate? it just made me think THIS IS WHY I WATCH IT, I LOVE THAT STUFF

obviously he's a hateful weirdo who shd go away, but it's not as if he has a high opinion of the politicians who currently "represent" the country either, he utterly despises them and hates the direction everything is headed

There's been no violence at this World Cup - either off the pitch (thankfully) or on the pitch (sadly).

Imago if you could get Nilmar back for the QFs it would be appreciated, I'd be interested in his take on this England generation.

(On that note I looked up the 2012 squad yesterday and dear oh dear)

The papers always babble about an economic boost as a result of England doing well in a tournament. Last ten years, do that math.

There's been no violence at this World Cup

the tournament is ruined

Also I'd guess that England are reasonably well-supported and followed in quite a few countries that never get near the World Cup? I'd guess that eg Brazil are way in front (and god knows why you'd choose England in that scenario) but the Premiership factor must come into it.

The England team in general and England fans in particular are almost certainly detrimental to the standing of the UK.

Not convinced that Tuesday's result did much for productivity yesterday.

English football teams and footballers were popular abroad, long before the EPL, of course.

the difference between this england side and all predecessors is that kieran trippier vaped before the penalty shootout pic.twitter.com/EPKrg2pJsb

— hua hsu (@huahsu) July 5, 2018

(^^^hua hsu the only person as far as i know who's written for the wire AND the new yorker)

that's our boy