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

Thompson has huge legacy / mainstream status in Croatia. The lead singer is basically a fascist and one of their biggest songs is the one Lovren was singing about killing Serbs during the war but they wouldn’t automatically code as right-wing (vs ‘patriotic’) to a domestic audience necessarily.

The fact that fascists code as mainstream instead of right-wing in Croatia is a pretty good reason not to support them, tbf

If a Fascist polls in low single figures in the next French presidential election, as they did in the last Croatian one, I’m sure we will all be surprised and delighted.

You don't need a fascist party when fascism is mainstream.

This is the kind of not-particularly-useful reductionism people (correctly) push back on when Ukraine and the Baltic states get called fascist. The history of how the war, the founding myths of the nation, music and football combine is a hugely interesting subject - the academic Catherine Baker covers it brilliantly.

False equivalence. Latvians didn't commit genocide in the 90's.

Also I don't have a problem if ppl say that fascism is worryingly mainstream in Ukraine and the baltics

Politically, I h8 what the Croatia team all too often seems to stand for. Football-wise, I really like them as a team. So I just end up with a kind of neutral shrug lol

x-post: Neither has ShariVari ever had? This is such a weird conversation.

Thought he was calling such talk not-particularly-useful reductionism?

In conclusion, Croatia is a land of contrasts

Yeah, but I've definitely seen him write about all the fascists in Ukraine several times.

lol xp

“Fascism is mainstream” and “there are fascists in X” are different.

One of the elements that Croatia, Ukraine and the Baltic states share is the gradual rehabilitation of historical fascist-aligned organisations and their incorporation into nation-building mythology (Forest Brothers, Banderites, Ustaše, etc) but this is more complicated than straightforward co-option of Fascism as a political ideology or the mainstreaming of fascist ideas.

so did anyone else follow the rolling les bleus dance party on instagram stories throughout the tournament??? it made me so happy. spotify playlist 'Enceinte bluetooth de Kimpembe' has pretty much all the songs

Oh yes I loved it ! The Naza tracks make my summer,

The past couple of weeks have given me time to reflect, and time to think over the events of the last few months. Consequently, I want to share my thoughts and feelings about what has happened. pic.twitter.com/WpWrlHxx74

— Mesut Özil (@MesutOzil1088) July 22, 2018

stealing a forgiving

Wanna see this pos live in turkey and not be able to get out

It can be hard to tell when sports figures make a PR gaffe because they are genuinely naïve and when they pretend to be naïve to improve their public relations after a PR gaffe.

do we really think ozil is a secret erdogan fan

I once read an extended portrait on Ozil, when he was up and coming star and already called a role model for immigrants blah blah, and he was described as 'not very bright'.

One thing that would have solved everything, was the same photo, with Erdogan, holding a German mannschaft shirt.

oh well.

are we srsly having a go about this

srsly guys

the other two parts of that latter are more interesting

Oh yes I loved it ! The Naza tracks make my summer,

I had never heard of him before but those are catchy as hell - i was like, the whole refrain to this song is "putain de merde"? looool

#WorldCup winners having fun. #Pogba #Griezmann #Mendy #Dembele. You have to love them. 🤣 pic.twitter.com/QvKR5HyRdU

— Bolarinwa Olajide (@iambolar) July 19, 2018

😂😂🔥👑 pic.twitter.com/ASgnaewGMA

— Aya Nakamura (@AyaNakamuraa) July 18, 2018

finally watching les bleus documentary on youtube - now i know where this clip is from! i LOVE this song

I don't generally like anything an Arsenal player does, but I think Ozil's statement is quite good.

I am impressed at how he can write in a long series of proper sentences.

“For me Mesut Özil has been a poor excuse of a footballer for years...”

“...Should ask himself when was the last time he won a tackle.”

“...His 35 million follower boys that don’t really exist in the real world”

Bayern President Uli Hoeneß’s response to Mesut Özil’s statement.

— Archie Rhind-Tutt (@archiert1) July 23, 2018

“He has played shit for years.”

“Every time we played against Arsenal we’d always go through him because we knew he is a weak point.” [BILD]

“Last time he won a tackle was before the 2014 World Cup.”

Bayern President Uli Hoeness with more on Mesut Özil and his statement.

— Archie Rhind-Tutt (@archiert1) July 23, 2018

rating one of the worlds top creeative talents by his defensive abilities is a sign of PFM absolute moronic 100% mental deficiency

imo

He has played shit for years though, fam.

uli h otm

I know but he keeps creating as many chances as most of the top players fam

its a headscratcher almost as if he does his job and others dont

wonder why hed be singled out for criticism

Tell you what I'll go outside and asking a random Arsenal fan.

Mesut Sterling lol

|||||||| it's a monday morning in 2018 and you've just otm'd uli "I was never a fan of the World Cup being held in South Africa, or anywhere on the African continent, as long as safety aspects are not clarified 100 per cent" hoeness attacking a player he clearly doesn't like on ethnic grounds

honigstein's summary: http://www.espn.co.uk/football/team/germany/481/blog/post/3571821/the-story-and-reasons-behind-mesut-ozils-decision-to-quit-the-german-national-team?src=com

I find it very, very strange that senior figures in German football are publicly attacking Ozil (which seems to be the case from what I see here).

Sure, English football is full of abuse and knocking copy. But you would never get, say, Greg Clarke, Martin Glenn, or indeed Prince William, or David Dein or David Gill, coming out and attacking Sterling -- even if he actually resigned from playing England. They would express regret, thank him for his services, say 'we all have to learn a lot of lessons ... Raheem's made his decision and we respect that, but we have to move on to the qualifiers'.

The German behaviour seems bizarre.

That's spot on. xp

I find it bizarre you find this bizarre, Pinefox. Everyone's uncle will have an opinion about it, mostly for worse but still. When asked by the press no doubt they'll answer. It's the land of Uli and Franz B. who hover above the national football still. I doubt this will be different anywhere else. And I *especially* doubt your reading of Englands vips of yore giving Sterling a pass.

I think one would have to draw a significant distinction between people running the national FA, and grandees generally and at clubs.

The latter, I can imagine expressing opinions - as I see Hoeness has done. In England Alan Shearer could be such a figure.

The former, in England, are very PR-conscious, business types and media frontpeople to some extent; they are the ones I was mainly referring to.

I don't think Uli Hoeness is in any equivalent to Prince William tbf. Prince Philip maybe.

sullivan/gold/sugar

There's a lot of Africans where I work and didn't notice any great enthusiasm for France, on the contrary I was told by about three different people they wouldn't support France. These are all Africans from Anglophone countries, one of my closest colleagues almost said anyone but France, but she's from the English speaking part io Cameroon, which I think is significant!

So if Özil has been playing like shit for years now then blame Low for selecting him, I don't understand that.

Plenty of people blamed Wenger for picking him.

I'm glad he pointed out that no one made a fuss about Matthäus meeting with Putin.

glorious

Mesut Ozil's agent, Erkot Sogut, tears into Bayern Munich's Uli Hoeness 🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪 pic.twitter.com/je1MxLNnmr

— 101 Great Goals (@101greatgoals) July 24, 2018

im fully teamozil here

second captains had a bit of a go at him thought that was bollocks

im fully in favor of that teardown of uli.

still ozil completely daft to treat fucking erdogan to a t-shirt and a photo

Germans in "stabbed in the back" narrative shockah