FIFA World Cup 2026

[decafjava]

Well to edn this on a positive note I will say that, as I have noted with our students who are mostly American study abroad in their 20s, football is becoming more popular in the US and Canada as well. The crowds of tourists and the already significant immigrant communities particularly have shown the potential for football. Good thing after all. Last of all, I found a funny clip from before the start of the WC with a fellow who claimed to find the formula to predict the winner and predicted Spain for this time as well. Maybe I should post my predection for the next winter Olympics ...

 

[Scepticalscribe]

What he is saying is that America, big money and a certain influential person who shall remain nameless have corrupted the high ideals of the FIFA leadership, who of course were as stainlessly pure as it’s possible to be…

Obviously, FIFA are not "as stainlessly pure as it is possible to be". I would never attempt to advance such an argument, not least because it is neither credible nor true.

However, the ideals, such as they are, were corrupted; it should hardly need to be pointed out that the action of "a certain influential person who shall remain nameless" in phoning FIFA to insist that a (deserved) red card be overturned was a clear example of corruption, and his subsequent attention-grabbing antics after the final, simply served to confirm the sheer gracelessness, and lack of decency, dignity and decorum of the individual in question.

Moreover, what an American audience deems appropriate entertainment during a match does not translate (culturally) to the wider world of international football (soccer); it is too culturally specific, and, candidly, to European (and other) eyes, it is simply cringe-worthy.

 

[Lioness~]

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