The Real Football Thread

[Rob5091]

Barcelona football club President attempt, Iniesta, NSN cycling, Rothchilds banking ....
https://cronicaglobal.elespanol.com...cia-barca-andres-iniesta/1003742717520_0.html

https://archive.is/20251220071520/h...cia-barca-andres-iniesta/1003742717520_0.html

In 2023, Sabater weaved a strange alliance that surprised in the city: Andrés Iniesta. The FC Barcelona star sold a share of the capital of his Never Say Never (NSN) brand to the Swiss fund.

Since then, their joint projects are multiple: they have bought the Helsingor, football team the second division of Denmark, the Israeli cycling team Premier Tech, and have developed an immersive exhibition in the old Imax cinema about the trajectory of the footballer of Fuentealbilla (Albacete).

Assault on Camp Nou​

All this was a preamble to the discreet end goal that no one counted: the assault on the presidency of Barça. ...Finally, he has arrested or postponed his ambitions, voices close to the businessman, who is very jealous of his private life and knows of the enormous media focus that he would have to endure in case of starting the presidential race. He also fears for the privacy of his wife and four children, whom he has never presented in public.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Arsenal vs Aston Villa right now.

 

[Rob5091]

Financial funny games going on at the Argentine Football Association -
https://www.reuters.com/sports/socc...up-over-mystery-villa-dirty-money-2026-01-01/

In March 2024, retired Argentine soccer star Carlos Tevez published a tweet, hinting at something suspicious going on in a Buenos Aires suburb. The treasurer of the Argentine Football Association, Tevez claimed, was making many trips to Pilar, where he implied the soccer official had buried bags of money and kept a collection of antique cars. In early December, police raided the AFA headquarters and more than a dozen soccer clubs as part of a money-laundering probe that looked at transfers of money tied to clubs and a financial services company. Three days later, authorities raided the Pilar villa, finding a heliport, stables and 54 vehicles, including luxury cars and collectible cars. In its criminal complaint, Coalicion Civica alleges the property is a front for a money-laundering scheme connected to Chiqui Tapia, the president of the AFA, and its treasurer, Pablo Toviggino.

 

[Rob5091]

Sir Jim starts the new year with a clear out - adios! Amorim gets the boot -
https://www.bbc.com/sport/live/cvgw1v1kve5t
and
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...by-manchester-united-transfers-power-struggle

 

[Rob5091]

Scathing article about Sir Jim and his time at Man Utd -
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cx2gnjkmppdo

Bllionaire Ratcliffe, like so many other hugely successful businessmen, has discovered operating a football club – especially one on the scale of Manchester United – is a different world to the one he had previously occupied.

United are no less dysfunctional now than they were on the day Ratcliffe walked in, then portrayed as the mega-rich saviour destined to clear the clouds of ill-feeling hanging over the club under the ownership of the Glazers.

The reality has proved different.

Put brutally, Ratcliffe and those working with him have got very little right, stumbling from one poor decision to another, leading to the dismissal of the 40-year-old Portuguese only 14 months after triggering a £9.25m release clause from his previous club Sporting of Lisbon.

When wil Sir Jim realize that he's no sporting genius and just stick to handing over the cheques? Ineos cycling and Man Utd are now both examples of that.

 

[Rob5091]

The peasants are revolting!
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...-seek-to-oust-incompetent-clown-jim-ratcliffe

Manchester United supporters group The 1958 has called for a vote of no confidence in the club’s ownership model, calling Sir Jim Ratcliffe “an incompetent clown”. The organisation will also hold a protest at the home match against Fulham on 1 February to make their voices heard at Old Trafford.

The group wants the removal of the Glazer family and Ratcliffe from the club. Concerns were also expressed in relation to the work of the chief executive, Omar Berrada, and the director of football, Jason Wilcox, in the aftermath of Ruben Amorim’s sacking, which will lead to an interim replacement.


“After lurching from one disaster to another, Ratcliffe comes across as an incompetent clown turning the club into a circus. Instead of best in class we’re a laughing stock,” the 1958 said.

 

[Tim Cahill]

Nottingham’s finest citizen journalist Jack Roworth had the opportunity to ask former premier league ref and convicted pedophile David Coote some pressing questions.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2009188435148394507

 

[Rob5091]

It seems the footie World Cup is going to be a complete farce -
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/17/state-department-secret-playbook-sports-trump-00735496

The United States’ role as a co-host for the world’s dominant sporting event is offering the [State} department a chance to prove it matters, according to interviews with department officials and documents obtained by POLITICO. The documents include a “Sports Diplomacy Playbook” laying out how the country should use mega-events like the World Cup and Olympics to advance a mix of soft-power and foreign-investment aims, along with some of Trump’s social-policy priorities.

“The people at the State Department are going to do their best to rise to the challenge, but they’ve got two audiences,” said Gerald Feierstein, a former senior U.S. diplomat whose positions included ambassador to Yemen. “They’ve got the foreign audience, where the desire is going to be to roll out the welcome mat. The other audience is this xenophobic administration that just looks around the world and sees lots of people that they don’t like and don’t want to see come here. That’s the tightrope the State Department is going to be walking.“

Trump has imposed executive orders blocking travel from nationals of more than three dozen countries, including four which have qualified for the World Cup, with different levels of restriction. Travelers from Iran and Haiti, for example, are subject to a June 2025 ban, which includes few exceptions. The other two, Senegal and Ivory Coast, are subject to a more recent, looser order that took effect this month. ... The administration has also imposed new fees on travelers, up to $15,000 visa bonds, from some countries, including World Cup competitors Algeria and Cape Verde. Consular vetters also may have novel grounds on which to deny applicants, including having posted social media comments deemed antisemitic, supportive of terrorism, or hostile to U.S. “citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles.”

 

[CXXC]

Only yesterday I was thinking 'what is the point of the group stage of the Champions League, roll on knock out football' .
Today seeing Citeh humbled by Bodo Glimt it all seemed worthwhile!

 

[Tim Cahill]

Only yesterday I was thinking 'what is the point of the group stage of the Champions League, roll on knock out football' .
Today seeing Citeh humbled by Bodo Glimt it all seemed worthwhile!

They've been rattling on about Rodri coming back like it was Jesus and Haaland like he's Fat Ronaldo himself, kept amusingly quiet by Big Game Harry Maguire at the weekend as well.

 

[Rob5091]

With the World Cup coming in June, the Germans are making a statement -
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/20/werder-bremen-cancel-minneapolis-trip-00790720

Werder Bremen, a top German soccer team, is canceling its planned trip to Minnesota this summer, after violence and political chaos engulfed Minneapolis amid the Trump administration’s major immigration enforcement push in January.

“Playing in a city where there’s unrest and people have been shot, that does not fit with our values here at Werder Bremen,” Christoph Pieper, the club’s head of communications, said in a statement. “Furthermore, it was unclear for us which players could be able to enter the United States due to the stricter entry requirements.”

 

[awavey]

Winning the Tour even once trumps Evenepoel's entire palmares. The Tour is cycling's holy grail.

That doesn't necessarily mean it's the best or most entertaining race. The final of the World Cup in football often isn't very entertaining either. But it's the one everybody wants to win.

Not convinced they do thesedays, for sure if you get to the final, but its more club than country now. and the fact you only get maybe 3 or 4 goes in your whole career if you are lucky, vs 10 at your peak for a TdF, 15 over a long career.

Champions league final is where its at for footballers

 

[Cycling111]

Not convinced they do thesedays, for sure if you get to the final, but its more club than country now. and the fact you only get maybe 3 or 4 goes in your whole career if you are lucky, vs 10 at your peak for a TdF, 15 over a long career.

Champions league final is where its at for footballers

No. WC is far superior to the Champions League. Every footballer who has won both say that.

 

[theyoungest]

Not convinced they do thesedays, for sure if you get to the final, but its more club than country now. and the fact you only get maybe 3 or 4 goes in your whole career if you are lucky, vs 10 at your peak for a TdF, 15 over a long career.

Champions league final is where its at for footballers

I'm pretty sure, like Evenepoel and the Tour, that Virgil van Dijk would gladly trade his Champions League win with Liverpool for the World Cup with the Netherlands.

It's also simply a much bigger tournament. It's the biggest sports event in the world. Like the Tour is by far the most watched race in cycling.

 

[awavey]

No. WC is far superior to the Champions League. Every footballer who has won both say that.

name them then, name those that have said that and I dont mean in the post match glow of wow we won the world cup its so amazing, Im saying name a footballer who has ever said winning the WC would be superior to them winning the Champions league.

Ronaldo maybe that last one, because he's already won everything else anyway, but did George Best care that he didnt win the WC ? but won the European cup (aka champions league as was) instead for Man Utd, does anyone think George Best wasnt a good player because he didnt win the WC ??

maybe its just an England thing then, because I havent seen any footballer in England give a 4x about winning the world cup since about 1990.

they qualify, they turn up, they disappoint when they arent playing against some team from Azerbejdżan, they go home again.

nearly 500 players have played for England since 1966, probably a fraction of them feel not winning the world cup is missing on their palmares, the rest of the home nations its not even a question, the Scottish are so excited theyve even qualified for the tournament they gave themselves a bank holiday, none of them care about winning it.

the world cup is like the olympics, comes round every 4 years, and youre never quite sure the best end up the victors.

 

[Tim Cahill]

name them then, name those that have said that and I dont mean in the post match glow of wow we won the world cup its so amazing, Im saying name a footballer who has ever said winning the WC would be superior to them winning the Champions league.

Ronaldo maybe that last one, because he's already won everything else anyway, but did George Best care that he didnt win the WC ? but won the European cup (aka champions league as was) instead for Man Utd, does anyone think George Best wasnt a good player because he didnt win the WC ??

maybe its just an England thing then, because I havent seen any footballer in England give a 4x about winning the world cup since about 1990.

they qualify, they turn up, they disappoint when they arent playing against some team from Azerbejdżan, they go home again.

nearly 500 players have played for England since 1966, probably a fraction of them feel not winning the world cup is missing on their palmares, the rest of the home nations its not even a question, the Scottish are so excited theyve even qualified for the tournament they gave themselves a bank holiday, none of them care about winning it.

the world cup is like the olympics, comes round every 4 years, and youre never quite sure the best end up the victors.

You’re mistaking us not being as good as we think we are with not caring. Kane ran himself into the ground playing with a back injury in the last tournament, having injections at half time. I think the period after 96 until the 2010s before Southgate came in, and when we had our best teams (especially 2002-2006) was the worst, a unique set of talented primadonnas who hated each other, but before and after that there are guys like Pearce, Henderson and Harry Maguire who had their best days in an England kit, they just unfortunately weren’t good enough.

It’s the only thing left at the top level of football worth winning, though fifa and the Americans are trying to put a stop to that.

 

[Cycling111]

name them then, name those that have said that and I dont mean in the post match glow of wow we won the world cup its so amazing, Im saying name a footballer who has ever said winning the WC would be superior to them winning the Champions league.

Ronaldo maybe that last one, because he's already won everything else anyway, but did George Best care that he didnt win the WC ? but won the European cup (aka champions league as was) instead for Man Utd, does anyone think George Best wasnt a good player because he didnt win the WC ??

maybe its just an England thing then, because I havent seen any footballer in England give a 4x about winning the world cup since about 1990.

they qualify, they turn up, they disappoint when they arent playing against some team from Azerbejdżan, they go home again.

nearly 500 players have played for England since 1966, probably a fraction of them feel not winning the world cup is missing on their palmares, the rest of the home nations its not even a question, the Scottish are so excited theyve even qualified for the tournament they gave themselves a bank holiday, none of them care about winning it.

the world cup is like the olympics, comes round every 4 years, and youre never quite sure the best end up the victors.

That's not true. Name one footballer who's won both and said the Champions League was more important than winning the WC. None.

On the contrary, I can mention Messi, Casillas, Zidane, etc.

You should name those who have won both and they've said that Champions League. You started by saying this.