Football

Maguire: surely he is the most mobile moai?

I thought this was an interestingly considered take on the state of the game / players.
https://twitter.com/Will___lloyd/status/1594633231344746496

It does seem like they are in a hurry to complete the "world cup shambles bingo" as quickly as possible.

To add on to the general awfulness of the host nation and FIFA's belief this was a good idea we've already had ticketing issues, overcrowding at the fan zones, VAR confusion and now concussion ignorance all within the first two games. Feels like football is broken.

Excellent!

Great piece, cheers.

Also think it’s the pinnacle of football and will watch it as such. I will still say every time how bad it is and not bend those values because I want to watch it.

“we stand for equality, unless it’s a tiny bit hard”

Listening on the wireless is surely OKish.

It's coming home.

Would like to claim credit, but I think it's a David Squires allusion.

Your deployment was nicely timed so definitely some reflected credit due

Listening on the wireless is surely OKish.

Each to their own, I'm not going to. I'll probably check the scores but that's about it.

Now that England are 3-0 up I will be boycotting the television. Thats quite enough of that THANK YOU.

It is interesting but does appear cynical and lacking in nuance.

It’s perfectly possible that Marcus Rashford was only interested in cash/profile when using his game to get the government to u-turn but isn’t it at least as possible that, given his upbringing, he did advocate for an issue with personal resonance and any resulting increase in profile was a byproduct rather than the driver?

Similarly with Tyrone Mings calling out Patel’s racism, good on him if he monetised that.

It's hardly the pinnacle when there are teams competing that could be turned over by top English Football League level 6/7 club sides.

But that's not an issue unique to this edition; that's an issue with how qualifying works.

the BBC coverage of this game is just so embarrassing. not that I would expect anything else

Ironic that it’s Alex Scott who has balls

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Agree it's not the whole picture.

It's interesting in the way it shows that when the situation is so clearly win - win - then why not. No one loses out. On balance, these players have been a force for good. It fair to point out though, that as soon as the equation is win-lose, these players are fine to lower their moral standards. Not a single player in world football has (as far as I'm aware) ruled themselves out of this tournament on ethical grounds.

At the same time - and what the article misses completely- is that they're just people who have worked their entire lives in the hope of playing at the pinnacle of the sport - so who could begrudge them that experience. Is it their role to sacrifice all that effort at the altar of a political statement? Shouldn't that job be done by those who claim to care for the sport as a whole? I think so.

The one guy who can certainly get in the bin is David Beckham. Joe Lycett's got that one bang on.

Maguire's just given himself concussion turning too quickly.

Absolutely.

And Beckham has come over as a really greedy, cheap cunt

Lol a journalist trying to discredit Marcus Rashford in the bastion of empathy that is The Times. vErY InTeReStInG!

There is an eery silence in my street in the west of Scotland as numerous boycotts begin.

We are highly principled.

25 minutes must be one of the longer periods of time added on in a match.

Oh - and VAR is shit.

and VAR is shit.

Everything changes but this.

25 minutes must be one of the longer periods of time added on in a match.

28 minutes in the Beverage Cup game between Burton and Bournemouth due to power outages.
19 minutes in the Premier League for that drone over the Brentford v Wolves game on 22nd January this year.

No idea what the most added on to a WC game is though.