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

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