There are three levels of the World Cup and of football in general:
- cause,
- sport and
- consequence.
First, there is the necessary architectural, structural, capitalist-expropriation, redistributive-conspiratorial aspect of the whole thing. No ‘multistakeholderism’, no World Cup. Football would, sans cash (or ‘kashlar’ as I have come to call it, ironically, using the Turkish plural ending), only be the pibe playing on the potretos – technical terms in Spanish: the urchin playing on shanty street – or the muddy Oxford blue disagreeing with the muddy Cambridge blue about whether to play by Isis or Cam rules. But instead we have FIFA, memories of Sepp Blatter, the great Mr Toad of the football world, and his successor, the oleaginous smiling frog Infantino. I have read stories about Infantino (in Simon Skinner’s review, see below) with Putin, in Qatar, with Trump, and marvel at the capacity of this foot-in-the-doorer and private-jetter to make the whole thing work. Aye, aye, get Cristiano Ronaldo and Mohamed bin Salman in the same room with Donald Trump and magic can happen. Millions, billions, and a 100% of fees taken payable to FIFA Inc.
Second, there is the pure sport. This is where we have Mbappe, Messi, Kane and Bellingham, Haaland, Vinicius Jr. kicking balls all over a grass field with painted lines on it. (Also the pibe on the potretos.) Here we have 4-4-2, 5-4-1 and occasionally, when there is a break on the counter, 1-1-1-2-
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Beckham has been referred to as being our first billionaire sportsman. I might have missed something but I believe he stopped playing a few years back and unless he has taken up another sport aside from never ending appearances in annoying TV adverts, I believe he is a former sportsman.
No one should envy a billionaire former sportsman with a permanently scowling “We Are Not Amused” spouse, because all his £millions cannot succeed in making her smile. One commenter said this photo showed her as “A Joyless Husk”:
Does this long-winded, peevish, carping article count as one of Professor Alexander’s “publications” for 2026, as required by his Turkish university?
A simpler view of the World Cup is that the matches are all fixed before the opening ceremony, and that’s why the athletes get such exorbitant salaries, for participating in match-fixing, and earning pots of money for FIFA and all the gambling syndicates.
—” E.H., we know you love Norway, but remember your contract is with your English club for the next decade, so you’re to hold back and not score any goals for Norway this time. Got that?”
—” H.K., your task is to hold back and let the Ethnic African get all the goals and glory, so we can rub England’s nose in diversity, and make them worship their Replacements. Got that?”
—” A.G., your task is to help the Ethnic African get as many goals as possible, and keep in the background, even though you deserve to be Man of the Match many times over. Got that?”
—” We’ve already arranged everything with the goalkeepers & refs for every match, so just leave that to us. Got that?”
—” Now go out there and earn all… Read more »
A work colleague often asks why 22 players are competing over a ball, surely there’s enough balls for them to have one each. For people who don’t like football he’s got a point.
The dumbest comment from non-football lovers is to refer to an inflated pig’s bladder. Imagine the uproar from animal rights nutters if that was still the case – but it isn’t and hasn’t been for more than a century which renders the commenter something of an idiot from the start.
Please have a look at this:
Strange, Isn’t it?
Yup you have to be really up your own backside not to realise that “diversity” is just anti-white racism. Sadly I know a lot of people who are right up themselves.
This piece was written before France got pulverized but it does raise issues which pop up time and again on the subject of ethnicity within national football teams, which could easily extend to other sports. But how many medals would team GB have if there were no non-white track athletes?
”Former Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has turned the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup semi-final between France and Spain into a sharp debate about racism and the evolving nature of football in Europe.
In a column published in the conservative Spanish newspaper El Debate, Rajoy praised the quality of France’s national team while adding a pointed qualification: the squad possesses players “of the highest level — however, without French players.”
The remark, coming just days before the highly charged semi-final in Dallas, immediately triggered accusations of racism and reignited long-standing debates about national identity, citizenship, and the composition of “Les Bleus.”
The reality is that the French national team, along with other European football teams, have been the focus of a debate about identity for years.
French commentator and YouTuber Thaïs d’Escufon stated that there is little reason for ethnic French people to root for a team that does not… Read more »
I’ve paid as little attention to the World Cup as possible. Thanks for informing me that France got pulverised ….. it’s rather cheered me up.
I like watching professional sport now and again but generally don’t “support” individuals or teams. There are people I like watching. I don’t much care who “represents” England at football, provided they got there on merit and/or I am not paying for it. International representative sport has become a bit of a farce in my book – so many players of all colours jumping from one country to another. I can’t take it seriously. I love England and want it to be great in many important ways, in case anyone thinks I am not patriotic.
Probably most of the time the players are very keen on winning and do feel some pride. It is an odd look for example for France to have so many black players, but that just reflects the reality of their demographic and black athletic ability. Happy for them to win provided I am then not told it’s a triumph for multiculturalism or that the managers should all be black too. This is separate from my view that we have far too many non white people in Europe already.
Please have a look at this 3-minute video by English Patriot Paul Joseph Watson about “diversity” on the World Cup teams. I think it’s a brilliant summary:
Strange, Isn’t it?
On the universal human need for acclaim. It is clearly why all these BTL comment forums have ‘mark up’ and ‘mark down’ boxes. Nobody would bother to post comments if they didn’t. So please, please, please, mark me up! Or down, that’ll do just as well.
On the contrary. I think there’d be more comments posted if people didn’t have the ability to just click a thumb from another post as a substitute for sharing their own views. Or perhaps I’m just an anomaly ( as per always ) in that if I have an opinion I’ll make the effort to express it as opposed to piggy-backing off of someone else’s words.
Our views and feelings about any given subject are personal, after all, and should be worded accordingly. I would never let somebody else do the talking for me about anything, nor do I require anybody’s approval for whatever I choose to say.
On BTL threads in general – I’m thinking specifically of what could be termed ‘political’ ones here – you can tell immediately by the number of ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes’ whether the comment is ‘right wing’ or ‘left wing’. For that reason the most popular tend to be the tritest while others – equally trite – have lots of downvotes. Commonly, neither is worth reading. But if you do not require anybody else’s approval, or disapproval come to that, why post anything at all? Do you believe that you’re making people stop and think, and thus influencing them in some way? I fear that I suffer from the same delusion but frequently wish that I could rid myself of it. Anyhow, I don’t believe you’re correct that there would more comments were there no scoring mechanism.
”But if you do not require anybody else’s approval, or disapproval come to that, why post anything at all? Do you believe that you’re making people stop and think, and thus influencing them in some way?”
It sounds like you’re advocating self-censorship here. As a genuine proponent of free speech and someone encouraging of viewpoint diversity and civilized debate, I would never place such constraints on myself or others. I think if you hesitate to post your thoughts on any particular subject just because you’re worried about how it will be received by the majority then you’re demonstrating the fact you’re a conformist, and I would argue you could hardly be said to be a legit supporter of freedom of speech.
Free speech and echo chambers cannot co-exist because the former would negate the latter. There is a world of difference between genuine free speech and permitted speech ( the latter usually dictated by group dynamics ).
I have zero interest in influencing others or changing their minds – I’m really not that arrogant – but I’ve no qualms about challenging somebody’s assertions or bringing a counter-argument to the table if I disagree with what they’re saying. Free speech is… Read more »
I don’t think I crave approval, but I hope people find some of my comments interesting and I suppose in the absence of replies an uptick is a sign of that. A reply is of a lot more use and interest, but sometimes there’s not much one can think of to say in reply, other than “great comment, I agree” which would get a bit tedious after a while, especially as I opt to get alerts for replies to my posts.
I don’t have strong feelings as to whether there is a voting system or not though – I don’t think it would make me post more, or less.