he's got a nice hat.

France actually got FIFA "threats" too because of interference (politicians asking for the French Federation's president to resign) ...

I predict Germany will beat Spain 3-1 today.

Where's this shit coming from the dam Lakers/Fakers were the ones that got away with murder. Every time they missed a shot in the fourth quarter there was the friendly whistle to bail them out. The foul by Ray on Kobe that netted him three foul shots was one of the worst calls I've seen in basketball in the 40 plus years I've been watching. Of course living LA you have to be a good actor right now I'd say Kobe is the leader for this year's oscar! Fuckin sour grapes you betcha!

spain spain pain pain.

i want spain to win, just let me be clear about that.

Insane, what a party... wish you'd all had been here to see it.

Once in a lifetime

as if Goodluck Jonathan had any such authority, he was selling as many wolf tickets as Sarkozy in this regard ;)




I agree with you completely, but my point is simple. FIFA puts pressure through threats, intimidation and black mail on african countries such as Ethiopia and Nigera and they in turn pay lip service to FIFA.. it is not fair. Why doesn't FIFA put this kind of pressure on other countries? They banned Ethiopia for two years over domestic political corruption (that wasn't even related to the Ethiopian national team in the slightest!) and they continue their FIFA style and put this same kind of pressure on Nigeria. Why did Nigeria cave so quickly? That is simply, Nigeria has seen the way in which FIFA opperates and enforces a double standard for African nations.

I'm not gonna try to sit here for hours and dig up old news articles documenting all the time FIFA has either threatened to ban or outright banned African national teams and African nations from either international play or hosting international qualifying/exhibition matches, but its a clear and obvious double-standard, one which has been pissing me off for years and years now.. It is no surprise to see it show its face again to Nigeria (and not necessarily France)

the bigger issue is not just FIFA targeting the mingling of politics and futbol, but actually trying to use its authority as a kind of bully pulpit, targeting African nations in regards to politics alone having nothing to do with futbol. The US is a corrupt, war hungry nation, is there team banned? No, but thats why Ethiopia was banned.

Nigeria, (or Brazil or North Korea or Honduras or USA or Mexico or Germany etc etc) is a nation with deeply entrenched political corruption, but only they were singled out and not the others?

it is exasperating!

as I understand it, Ethiopia was banned because of their inability to form an FA that could be recognised either by them or the Confederation of African Football, following it getting rid of its then current body. It seems like a fairly cut and dried case of political interventional of the kind FIFA can't accept.

details details.. if you ask the Ethiopian crowd, they will say it was because FIFA wanted to stick it to Meles (and honestly, who doesn't?!) but I think that using futbol as a bully pulpit is counter-productive to the kind of unity building which FIFA can and likes to do..

btw, honestly and sincerely thank you for having an intelligent conversation about this issue, so many of my threads have been destroyed lately I am reverting only to communicating in sound bytes

2-0 spain
or 4-1 germany

über alles, bitches

death to spain!

California isn't playing the world cup!

not anymore :(

that was a knee ramos shoved on ozil's leg & it was a penalty-- not very obvious unfortunately but it was

Please for the first time in a long time we have a game where the refs are letting them play. At least they're consistent. Ramos got tripped earlier by
Boeteng who also did a swell job pushing Villa off the ball. Ozeil got a minor shove from Ramos nothing to get excited about......:)

yes, ramos, sorry (fixed it). ok yes i didn't scream bloody murder, it was far & not very obvious. you got a point there.

oh, the fucking gachupines got what they wanted. they've been excellent on the attack and should have scored already. well deserved. they can suck it, but well deserved goal.

ole

feel so bad for fabregas. he would walk into and probably be the best player in any other team but can't get on for spain

 

Ironically spain has been the team I should be rooting for.. FIFA has declared them the best behaved team in the Cup, with the least fouls and cards pulled, South Korea is second, and Mexico is the worst with the most cards..

That was a brilliant game. Spain were amazing to watch, even if they struggled to score. After that I have to support them in the final. I've always treated Holland as my 'second' international side but I really don't like the way they're playing, while Spain are just playing beautifully. And Penelope Cruz is from there.