World Cup fun/games/intrigue thread

[ZoWie]

Sports tickets have finally lost all touch with reality.

FIFA held an online sale. It did not go well, and the prices looked like AI screwups but were real. Face price for the best seats was $10,990. I'm sure they'll be scalped to Middle Eastern oil sheiks for closer to a hundred grand. Who needs the stock market?

In addition, the sale was online, and the software didn't work. Among other problems, the people who waited the longest were jettisoned and sent to the back of the virtual line.

Full gory details at https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/arti ... 8lzj0rprpo

[ZoWie]

> I'm sure [World Cup tickets] will be scalped to Middle Eastern oil sheiks for closer to a hundred grand.

I was off by a magnitude. One just sold on the secondary market for two million.

Funny... sports are associated with entertainment for the masses, but the masses can't afford to see them any more.

[ZoWie]

NY and NJ are now both investigating hanky panky by FIFA regarding ticket prices, which continue to soar higher than Elon Musk's satellites. I think they also got New Jersey to cut the transit fares down from usurious to merely expensive.

Next up there will be a flap over LA Olympic prices. I haven't been following this, but they started selling tickets earlier this year, and even the face values were higher than the world record for the pole vault. It's going to be another playtime for the oligarchy, which it wasn't the last time.

[ap215]

It serves them right FIFA always does this not to mention other people from certain companies have jacked up the prices in different sporting events for years i went to a WWF House Show event in 1987 from the old Madison Square Garden the tickets we bought cost us between $200-$500 things have dramatically changed in this era.

[ZoWie]

The last LA Olympics were one huge party. It was a blast and a half.

The next ones seem to be shaping up as anything but. For a start, the ticket prices are off the planet, and headed for Jupiter or Saturn as the secondary market does what it does best and bids the resale prices up beyond all logic. Then, the good voters of the USA have decreed that we'll have to watch Donald Trump declare the Games open. Yeah, let's all pay fifty grand to see THAT.

Grump.

I hope that some day before I die there will be hope again.

[ZoWie]

More fun facts about the World Cup matches in LA:

1. They are at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, where the Rams play. It's a good place to watch a Rams game, but for the World Cup the nearest parking for ordinary people is one mile away. It also costs several hundred dollars per car. There is VIP parking closer, but unless you're accompanying a visiting head of state you can't get it, and even if you could it would run you several kilobucks.

2. All transit in LA for the period will cost more. It will also be heavily guarded and they'll card you at every step in the process.

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I don't even want to think about the Olympics. For a start, we have to watch Donald Trump lord over them, and then everything has 10x the rules and costs about 10x more than last time. Meanwhile, they are spending billions on infrastructure, which is good, but we know who pays for that. Also, I wonder what they intend to do with the hundred thousand or so homeless.

The last time around I had a blast. It was one of the high points in my life. This time, I'm considering watching from New York.

[ap215]

One thing i will say about FIFA that i do agree and appreciate is they're no fans of corporate arena names because of sponsorship they'll go back to them when the World Cup Tournament ends but for now i give them credit for that.

[ZoWie]

Dunno, everyone here is still calling it "SoFi Stadium." SoFi is some sort of banking type of concern. Maybe there's another name for it in the official program, but I'm not inclined to drop two grand and park a mile away in an iffy neighborhood to find out.

Besides, right now the big headlines are about the stadium workers, who are currently on strike. That's gonna get weird when they're ordered back to work by the Feds.

[ZoWie]

Many reports coming in about foreign nationals who are coming to the US for the World Cup being hassled or interrogated for long periods at the airport upon landing here.

This is a credible one from BBC concerning a Somali referee who got grilled and finally denied entry in Miami.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/arti ... d2y76pd57o

Somali referee Omar Artan says he was subjected to an 11-hour immigration interview before being denied entry to the United States for the World Cup despite holding the "right papers" and "right visa".

Artan, who was set to be the first Somali to referee at a World Cup finals, was dropped from the list of officials on Monday after he was barred from entering the country at Miami International Airport.

No reason for Artan's repatriation has been issued by US immigration authorities, but Somalia is one of several countries on a travel ban list introduced by President Donald Trump's administration.

[ZoWie]

Iran played its first game in LA last night. What they don't tell you on TV is that, at the time the plans for lodging and practice space were made, Iran's team was still technically potential enemy combatants. Therefore, the team's training camp is not in the USA. It's in Tijuana. That's a hell of a bus ride up to LA, but they did it, and tied some other country in their game last night.

[ZoWie]

Actually the story goes both ways, depending on who is telling it. The other story is that Iran knew they'd be hassled if they staged in the US, so they picked a site just across the border. That's still an awfully long long bus ride to and from the game in LA.

[ZoWie]

Here's the real skinny on why Iran is based in Tijuana:

https://www.reuters.com/sports/soccer/i ... 026-05-23/

May 23 (Reuters) - Iran will base their squad in the Mexican border city of Tijuana during this year's World Cup after soccer's world ​governing body FIFA approved a request to move the training ‌camp from Arizona, the head of Iran's football federation said on Saturday.

"We will be based in the Tijuana camp, which is near the Pacific Ocean ​and on the border between Mexico and the United States," ​Iran's soccer federation President Mehdi Taj said in a ⁠video posted on its Telegram social media account.

Taj added that the ​move would help avoid visa-related complications and that the squad would ​be able to travel directly to Mexico aboard Iran Air flights. FIFA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In other words, both visa issues and simple logistics.

[ZoWie]

Once again, the predicted traffic catastrophe has not happened in LA. Unless you're near the Inglewood site on a game day, it seems about the same. It remains refreshing for the stadium to be called something without a corporation name in it.

The city really tried to scare everyone into staying home for two months. They had the huge electric signs on the freeways telling everyone not to drive on game days. Note that I don't mean not to drive near the venue, I mean that they didn't want anyone to even think of getting in the car anywhere in LA County (which is the size of a small US state) if there was a game scheduled. This being Los Angeles, I don't need to tell you how well that was followed. Right. No difference.

Some people who bought tickets must have made out on resales to hard core football fans. The stands tend to be completely full of natives or recent descendants backing their countries' teams. They lead cheers in various foreign languages. The Norwegians do this group thing where they all grunt and row an imaginary Viking ship in unison, by the thousands. The Scots marched in the streets in kilts, with bagpipes playing Scotland the Brave. Fun, but they got eliminated recently.

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In related news, Trump's head of US Homeland Security claims to have "Danced a happy dance" when Iran was eliminated. He noted what a hassle it was making sure they were back in Tijuana as soon as they were done with their games. Boo hoo hoo, asshole. War is hell.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/arti ... r8x5qkly1o

[ZoWie]

Did Trump's meddling in the red card affair contribute to US loss? Does everything Trump touches die?

Seems like it's possible. BBC:

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/arti ... gyj50450go

'Overturn this' - Belgium taunt US and say Trump move fired them up

On Monday US President Donald Trump said he asked Fifa to review Balogun's ban, which he said would have left a "big stain" on the tournament.

But, despite the American star striker being cleared to play and starting the match, Belgium convincingly beat the tournament co-hosts 4-1.

"A lot has happened off the pitch over the last two days,"said Belgium and Rangers midfielder Raskin. "There was a sense of injustice within the squad, and we were determined to respond on the field."

[ZoWie]

And this. BBC:

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/arti ... ly51j7grxo

La Liga chief critical of 'complicit silence' surrounding Fifa

La Liga president Javier Tebas has criticised the "complicit silence" which surrounds Fifa after United States striker Folarin Balogun was controversially spared from suspension at the 2026 World Cup.

Balogun was able to play in the 4-1 defeat to Belgium in the last 16 after Fifa's disciplinary committee opted to suspend his one-game ban for 12 months.

Uefa, which has been at loggerheads with Fifa over a number of issues, strongly criticised the decision on Monday, calling it "unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable".

[Number6]

Had the US won there would have to be an asterisk in the record books showing political interference in the World Cup by the Orange Turd. That would be known as the Asterisk of Shame that haunting the US for eternity.

[ZoWie]

The shit hit the fan yesterday when Argentina was lucky.... or was it more than luck? There's a whole string of highly controversial decisions by the referees in question here. Other games too... the semifinals have several countries going "We wuz robbed."

Were they? I don't know. Soccer/football has only one referee and the continuous flow of the game precludes the replays from all angles that we have time for in American football. Recently they have instituted a video replay system, but it doesn't have the coverage to make it really decisive.

The brown stuff always starts flying in the semis and the finals. The teams are evenly matched, everybody's good, and the losers always say (usually with some credibility) that they were screwed over by the referee. Were they? Depends on who's talking and what footage they've come up with.

The rules are supposed to preclude violence, but the players at that level know every sneaky trick in the book. They have at each other as if it were the NFL, but they are excellent at hiding it. Then the losers invariably accuse the winners of having the officials in the tank.

Maybe it's just part of the game... dunno.

[ap215]

Spain Wins The 2026 World Cup 1-0, Punishing Argentina With 20 Shots On Goal

Some experts predicted the 2026 World Cup Final could be a game for the ages, but it didn’t quite match Argentina-England in 1986. In fact, if there was a “Hand of God” in this one, it belonged to Argentina’s keeper, Emiliano “Dibu” Martínez, who was playing with a broken finger on his right hand.

But even divine intervention wasn’t enough to push the defending champions past Spain, which won its first World Cup Final since 2010.

https://deadline.com/2026/07/spain-wins ... 236998074/

[ZoWie]

How many shots on goal did Argentina end up making? I can remember one, but it might have been more like three. Their strategy seemed to be running out the clock and winning on penalty kicks. They weren't in Spain's league.