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

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