The Road to World Cup 2026 and UEFA Nations League

[jd1981]

Like I have already said, I can simultaneously think that the way football is set up, how little money "trickles down" is absolutely wrong, but also still enjoy the sport as a spectacle, can I not? Or are you telling me I can't?

There are thousands/millions of people who share that view, loads of them on here.

Do you think it's absolutely fine how money is distributed given you've called it a greed league, it seems you shoulsnt support Wolves either by your own standards??

Likewise how do you have a view on games?

I called it the “greed league” because you were the one disgusted with its over inflated wealth.
You’re the one that’s compared football to politics and overall society. You now want separate it so you can just enjoy it for what it is.
If the PL is so morally bankrupt and flies in the face of your values then you should stick to your principles which you’re either all in or all out. You don’t get to pick the best bits you want then preach morals to everyone.
If you like it just as a sport why not support a local non league club that need your support as you say.
I don’t compare football to society I watch it to escape real life, I have a Sky subscription and go to games where I can I enjoy my club being in the top flight because it’s the level of quality nothing more.
Not that it’s your business I voted labour in the last GE.
This was actually a healthy objective debate before you threw a snidy stereotyping “Tory” hand grenade into the debate. It had one intention.
To add lower league clubs getting into financial strife isn’t the fault of the premier league it’s down to poor club management, again blaming everyone else for your financial hardship isn’t healthy either as personal responsibility has to come into as well.

 

[Tony Towner]

I called it the “greed league” because you were the one disgusted with its over inflated wealth.
You’re the one that’s compared football to politics and overall society. You now want separate it so you can just enjoy it for what it is.
If the PL is so morally bankrupt and flies in the face of your values then you should stick to your principles which you’re either all in or all out. You don’t get to pick the best bits you want then preach morals to everyone.
If you like it just as a sport why not support a local non league club that need your support as you say.
I don’t compare football to society I watch it to escape real life, I have a Sky subscription and go to games where I can I enjoy my club being in the top flight because it’s the level of quality nothing more.
Not that it’s your business I voted labour in the last GE.
This was actually a healthy objective debate before you threw a snidy stereotyping “Tory” hand grenade into the debate. It had one intention.

YoU vOteD lAbOuR?

 

[jd1981]

YoU vOteD lAbOuR?

Yep but it’s pretty much a dead vote in my constituency

 

[Mel Evo]

It'd be loads and loads of football, I'm all for it!

If you don't want to watch it, don't?

We support England. So it's more likely we'll have fans who moan about it.

Leaving other parts of this argument aside, and trying just to focus on the actual product, I’m struggling to believe you really would want such a bloated tournament. I’m basing that on you saying you wouldn’t have to watch it (and why would you want to, the standard would be terrible), you just sort of want to know it exists.

Seems like a poor tournament to create to me. The big teams get an even easier ride through to knockout stages than they do now, and the group element loses any form of jeopardy (I know I’m repeating myself…). For me, sport without jeopardy is just pointless. When the FA cup delivers it’s precisely because a big team is at risk of going out, right then and there. Knowing it’s meaningless as they’re going through anyway makes it, what, I don’t even know?

I like knowing the County Championship is going on, even though I don’t realistically watch much of it. I’m OK with that, but it’s because it’s not a festival of sport compressed into a short space of time like a World Cup should be.. I’d also like it compressed into one territory so I can see the festival taking a place over - you just can’t do that when the scale gets out of hand. They become a bunch of drop in and disappear games like we’re going to see in North America, or spectacles that only psycho regimes like Saudi can stage. Garbage for the fans, not building any mixing between different visiting nations either. Hardly democratising the game is it?

 

[leedswolf]

Fuck me, this is tedious...

 

[YoungWolf]

Why are you all still biting

 

[jd1981]

I’ll leave it now

 

[Mel Evo]

Why are you all still biting

Because there’s no football on…

Hmm. Maybe I am craving Guam vs Marshall Islands after all.

 

[Lupo]

Because there’s no football on…

Hmm. Maybe I am craving Guam vs Marshall Islands after all.

You mean Marshmallow?

Oh fuck...

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

So, in conclusion. I'm not allowed to think football is disgustingly morally bankrupt and doesn't "trickle down" it's fortunes to the lower clubs enough.

But also enjoy it for what it is.

I reckon I'm about 90% of football fans there by the way.

But yeah, OK

Also if clubs go under, it's their own fault.

Presumably if poor people fall on rough times it's their own fault too?

 

[Alan]

Because there’s no football on…

Hmm. Maybe I am craving Guam vs Marshall Islands after all.

Guam is dope and I will hear no slander of the Chamorro peoples on this forum I tells ya!

Hafa adai motherfucker

 

[Stan Hullis]

No you are not allowed, bad man.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Fuck me what a load of bollocks

EP you dropped the Tory bomb to look all Rik radical and now it has made you look a complete idiot

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

Fuck me what a load of bollocks

EP you dropped the Tory bomb to look all Rik radical and now it has made you look a complete idiot

Oh here he is.

What do you disagree with Paddy?

That football is morally bankrupt?

Or that I can't watch it because I believe it to be morally bankrupt?

 

[leedswolf]

So, in conclusion. I'm not allowed to think football is disgustingly morally bankrupt and doesn't "trickle down" it's fortunes to the lower clubs enough.

But also enjoy it for what it is.

I reckon I'm about 90% of football fans there by the way.

But yeah, OK

Also if clubs go under, it's their own fault.

Presumably if poor people fall on rough times it's their own fault too?

You're allowed to think what the hell you like.

 

[jlo]

Get rid of World Cup qualifying, they all go. Easy.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Oh here he is.

What do you disagree with Paddy?

That football is morally bankrupt?

Or that I can't watch it because I believe it to be morally bankrupt?

I think your use of the word Tory about people wanting the best tournament viewing is morally bankrupt and a cheap point scoring attempt

 

[Tyrannosaurus Dan]

Bloody hell. Some posters really do know how to drag an argument out for about 4 or 5 pages. It gets very tedious.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

Bloody hell. Some posters really do know how to drag an argument out for about 4 or 5 pages. It gets very tedious.

Filibustering is a bit Tory, no?

 

[basher]

For the World Cup I do believe that 32 teams is the ideal amount, I've little interest in the expansion to 48 and 64 being proposed for 2030.

For me the World Cup starts with qualification and there was a time when there was real jeopardy in the qualification phase. Now though, with the expansion of tournaments, this has been removed and I've no interest at all now in watching England games in the qualifying phase. There is no jeopardy, it's all but disappeared, so what are you left with?