Football / Soccer / Calcio / Futebol / Fußball

It is quite illegal, but I don’t think there’s any way to prove it for Newcastle so they’re not gonna face any consequences

To the people already crying about Bellinghams PR, just wait until he fires England to Euros glory next summer, he’ll be spoken about in the same way as most prophets

England and Real Madrid PR together if that happens, world isn't ready for this.

Both the Hull City boys on the scoresheet for England tonight 😎

England u21s playing some lovely football tonight.

Does sevilla have 3 big stadiums?

Estadio Benito Villamarín for betis

pizjuan for sevilla fc

and the one they play in today?

Is it just a coincidence that Paqueta played for Milan, or is he also part of the expose that's going on in Italy right now.

^(Pinging members of TRIVIA group...)

I stumbled on a newsletter from 2009 (I can’t find it anymore) where they rated the top 100 greatest goalkeepers of all time, and Buffon was ranked 2nd behind Yashin. He was only 31 years old at the time.

I found that very interesting, because from all the revisionism you read, you’d think he was a longevity merchant and his peak was nothing special.

2 teams at the same time can be one of the best of all time. It’s not a direct comparison but look at Barca and Madrid during the 2010’s for example. They were a very influential team in football history, just like Sacchi’s Milan.

Neither are worth close to the fee they went for

THE BIZARRE STORIES OF ARGENTINIAN FOOTBALL: DAY 7 RESULTS

The options from last time, the “teams indirectly affiliated (IA) to AFA” day:

A- Federal Amateur 2022 had 283 teams. Only 6 were promoted.

B- In 2022, AFA gave each Primera B team more than double the money from TV rights than they gave to each Federal A team, despite both divisions being the same tier, and Federal A teams travelling much more across a season.

C- Gimnasia de Jujuy got promoted to the 1st division in 2005. Their city, Jujuy, is located at the very north of the country. The city’s airport wasn’t working for most of that year; therefore, they were forced by AFA to play many home games in Tucumán (around 300 kms to the south), so away teams wouldn’t need to travel that distance by bus.

D- Argentinian football went professional in 1931, but teams indirectly affiliated to AFA were accepted in the main leagues system only since 1980.

(be aware, this will be a bit longer than usual)

A: it’s true and, as usual, it becomes worse. First of all, why so many teams, and why the weird number? Well, have in mind that Argentina is a huge country and this is the last division for IA teams, below this it’s regional leagues to gain a place to Federal Amateur.

Until 2019, there were 2 divisions, Federal B and C, but that year AFA (with Tapia as president) had the “fantastic” idea of merging both into one, also making the new division amateur instead of professional, hence the name. A lot of teams got fucked by that, and you can imagine that nowadays being relegated to Federal Amateur is like entering a black hole, as it’s really hard to get promoted in this mess.

Another thing: actually, in 2022 there were going to be only 4 promotions. What happened? After the 4 finals to determine the promotions were played, someone said “why not have 2 more?”, so the 4 losers played 2 more finals to determine the last 2 promotions. Well, “played” is generous in the case of San Martin de Mendoza: they were supposed to play one of the new finals, but instead got automatically promoted because their rivals, Independiente de San Cayetano, were disqualified due to incidents in a previous game. Odd.

B: Yes, you probably guessed it: it actually gets worse! I chose 2022 as it was the last year, but in some of the previous ones, the money distribution was even worse. In 2020, for example, teams from Primera B made almost 3 times more than Federal A ones, and even Primera C teams made more than those from Federal A. That’s right: teams from 4th division, who usually travel like 30 kms at most and have very small fanbases, made more money from AFA than 3rd division teams that usually travel A LOT more, and are watched by more fans (in case TV views could be an excuse).

And if you’re thinking that it looks like the distribution is slowly improving, I gotta say that I doubt it. If there’s something that Tapia is doing, is NOT giving fair chances to federal teams. I expect the difference to become bigger over time. Consejo Federal (the organization in charge of Federal A & Amateur), as well as many of the team’s presidents, are corrupt as fuck, so Tapia will continue to destroy federal teams as long as he has money to give to CF and its teams’ boards.

C: my story-telling must be improving, as none of you thought I could come up with this. I even made up the airport part haha. But hey, Gimnasia (J) did get promoted in 2005, that part was true.

D: football in England was invented in 1992, and for many teams in Argentina, it was in 1980. I had to specify in the “main leagues system” part, as many IA teams actually played in the first division previously, in the called “Torneos Nacionales”… but that’s a story for another moment.

A last thing: I decided to include a “bonus” in each quiz from now on. This time I will post it here as I forgot to do it in the previous trivia, but starting from the next one, it will be in the same post as the game. It will not be part of the trivia tho, as it will be always true; it’s simply another story, that may not fully deserve to be part as one of the headlines, was too complicated to write in a “trivia option” way, or that I couldn’t include as I have many more.

This time, of course, the bonus is about this trivia’s theme: in 2014, Federal A had 21 new teams compared to the previous season. One of them, Talleres, was relegated from the 2nd division. 3 of them were promoted from Federal B. And the other 17? They were teams from Federal B that were invited by the Consejo Federal to “restructure” the division. Here’s a list with the teams.

!PING TRIVIA

England U21s play some outstanding football. Give Lee Carsley the top job after the Euros.

Just learned there’s an Arsenal equivalent of MikeLUHG

!PING TRIVIA

Pep wishes he had a player as good as Philogene.

I loved watching Bellingham play in Dortmund, is very happy he's doing so great in Madrid already, but wtf is this crazy driding, how has he already got more hype than Vini got in that entire CL winning season? Even Haaland last season didn't get this much licking this early in season, and if he did that's because he scored another hattrick in consecutive game

And for god's sake what's these ex-player's obsession of comparing everyone with Messi and Ronaldo,

They were probably premium tickets. I know DC was around $6k for seats basically on the field with accommodations

I assumed Scotland games would be on TV like England's games are, I've never even heard of Viaplay before.

So even having all of the other services to watch football you would still need to pay Viaplay £15 to watch a Scotland game?

The hypocrisy in football and gambling is insane. Every club and sponsor pushes every gambling algorithm they can now to get people addicted and hooked onto spending there money and wonder when players do it. It’s a joke how much influence and how big sports betting has come at the cost of targeting young sports fans and getting them hooked. Gambling is dangerous and football makes it thrive. Not just football it’s all betting kinds now.

But what has milan to do here? He played in milan 3 years ago and he is invastigated for betting on west ham games?

? I'm not saying that it's only Italian players who bet on football, I was just wondering if he was caught by being flagged by the regular system, or if the betting houses were tipped off by the same guy who's allegedly ratted out the other three.

takes a revenge tackle and gets sent off, England loses 1-0 in extra time

Oh you misunderstand, he’ll be a god to me if he does it, I’m fully on board the Bellingham hype train

Hakimi and Mané are gonna participate in the AFCON draw. Has UEFA ever had active players do the draw? I feel like it's weird. Like a conflict of interest lol. Anyways, Akon is present as well. English link for those interested

The bizarre Stories of Argentinian Football: Day 8

A- Despite it not being allowed in Argentina, Red Bull acquired 80% of a Federal A (3rd division) team this year.

B- In 2016, Liniers (Primera D – 5th division) had to straighten their field, as the boundary lines didn’t form 90° angles; in other words, the field wasn’t a rectangle. The pitch stayed that way 30 years before this modification.

C- Gimnasia de Mendoza played in 9 different seasons in the 1st division, all of them between 1970 (first year) and 1984 (last). They have never been relegated from that division.

D- In 2021, Deportivo Español (Primera C – 4th tier) started to pay their players’ bonuses with cryptocurrency.

Bonus: Israel is being worldwide news, sadly. On a less serious note, Chiqui Tapia is currently part of the 2030 WC fiasco, as he's part of the Conmebol board that acepted the atrocious logistics it will have. Well, both Israel and Tapia can be combined into today's bonus. Previous to the 2018 WC, Argentina was going to play a friendly vs Israel in Jerusalen; however, it got cancelled. Tapia apologized later, and said that he cancelled it as a "contribution to World peace".

If you didn't read my last post - the bonus isn't part of the quiz, it's just another (true) story that I felt like adding. Every quiz from now on will have one.

!PING TRIVIA

The British government is trying to force the FA to light up Wembley blue and white. Don't they realise that Gaza is a legend of English football? Don't they remember Euro 96?

Just had a random thought - who took Russia’s continental qualification spots?

Take a guess

what was in that israel thread that every comment got deleted?

As in UEFA club tournaments? I believe Scotland was one of them, as Rangers' European run pushed them up to two CL spots which they'd never had before.

I don't see the controversy Solskjaer does with Man United players turning down the captaincy.

They got to watch Maguire be put down for being the captain for 3 years they made the correct decision, especially if they were one of the younger players less able to deal with the abuse.

There is no benefit to having the betting industry

I'll play devil's advocate and say while gambling as a whole offers no tangible benefits to society, the benefit of having a betting industry is to keep the money out of organized crime.

People are going to be either way and it's safer for it to be regulated than unregulated. I'd rather someone bet through Bet365 than an underground bookie.

Oh absolutely gambling is old style it’s been around for ever. What’s changed now is gambling companies are much smarter and know how to target individuals and how to do so. Betting companies actively seek out and target people they can exploit to get hooked so much more now and it’s hard to escape it.

5 cracking goals in England u21s vs Serbia u21s. Tune in on YouTube if you're not doing anything else.

Haaland can’t score 2 on Cyprus without man city lol

No I mean AydeeLAHK.

Tweets exactly like Mike, just no HTH signatures

The PL banned leverage takeovers afterwards but have taken no action on them after the fact despite the absolute financial robbery they have been doing in plain sight. Man United's own huge revenues are keeping us afloat but this situation at another club would usually mean administration and then the EFL/PL stepping in. But no-one cares because we aren't bankrupt yet

Bellingham and Colwill are still eligible also

With all the BS with the World Cup lately I honestly find myself more excited for the Euros

Sounds like you watched them when Boothroyd was manager