Association Football (aka 'Soccer' / "The Beautiful Game")

[DomsBeard]

You've bought a PSVR?

I have had it a year, not really touched it since my second son was born in November. Got to be aware for the night feeds

[Alex79]

I'm not really a football fan. I used to enjoy it when I was younger, but just stopped following years ago. But I love the World Cup. Yes, I'm one of them. Last night I was literally sat on the edge of my seat with my hands together just willing England to get another goal. I jumped up and shouted YEEEEAH when Kane scored the winner. There's just something special about the world cup, when even a non-football fan gets sucked in and as excited as the next man who goes down to watch his team week in week out. Its so exciting!

[Suits]

Yeah, the World Cup is great for getting everyone together like that.

[Stanshall]

I'm like that with the Olympics, couldn't care less about any athletics all year round but every four years, I'll be there crying my eyes out at some dude from Burkina Faso getting a PB and Bronze medal in the steeplechase, beating my chest and roaring with joy for him. There's something so universal about athletics, something primal that we can all understand. Almost everyone knows what it is to run as fast as we can or jump as high or throw as far, and these people are doing it beyond anything we can imagine and beyond anything our ancestors have ever achieved. There's such a wonderful life-affirming cleansing purity to it, aside from all the doping and that.

[Alex79]

Right. That's it. I am NOT putting any more bloody accumulators on during this world cup. Every fucking one I've lost! Mexico beating Germany, Brazil not winning, Columbia losing to Japan, Argentina drawing with Iceland! This world cup is all upside down! I genuinely think England are in with a chance, its been mighty teams falling every day so far!

[Stanshall]

Plus no Italy or Netherlands (both of which still blow my mind) and the genuine competitors are a little tricky to identify at this stage. I think England are in the top four performers so far, based on the first half last night. Second half was poor, Tunisia are weak, but we dug out the win and that's not been a very England trait for the last twenty years.

[Flabyo]

Spain and Portugal seem to be the only teams that are playing at their full potential so far, and that’s probably because they had to play each other first so had no option. Everyone else seems to have decided to ease themselves in slowly.

It wouldn’t surprise me at all if those two were contesting the final.

[DomsBeard]

My bet on Salah getting the Golden boot is looking a bit stupid now!

I do have Harry Kane and England to win the World Cup though

[countstex]

Gutted.

I thought Tunisia were going to hold out last night.

On another note, I hope this VAR doesn't make it into the English league. We'll have penalties at every corner otherwise.

Or you know, the players could stop cheating and not hold on to each other.

[ratsoalbion]

That's the thing, if they started actually consistently punishing these chronic infractions then they could soon eradicate them.

[Suits]

I don’t know.

That’s over 100 years of football culture to ease out of the sport.

Holding, pinching, toe standing, name calling and pushing at corners, or all over the pitch, has been a part of football for as long as football has been.

Simply saying stop doing it - seems impossible.

[Alex79]

It's the diving and overacting I can't stand. The French were appalling for this last match. Every little knock and they're there rolling around on the floor holding themselves when the replay clearly shows no contact.

[Suits]

That France Australia game was particularly awful for it .

[countstex]

If they don't want to break up the game I'd be perfectly happy for them to review things after games and award yellow cards for foul play and play acting that add in to the same counts (Thinking more in the league here) even if it didn't save that game, knoing they are being monitored might go some way to alleviate the problem. Wages earnt the week they miss a match given away to charity.

[Suits]

If they don't want to break up the game I'd be perfectly happy for them to review things after games and award yellow cards for foul play and play acting that add in to the same counts (Thinking more in the league here) even if it didn't save that game, knoing they are being monitored might go some way to alleviate the problem. Wages earnt the week they miss a match given away to charity.

Good idea, however this is already in place in most leagues, certainly the EPL.

Certain serious events, are often reviewed after the game and suspensions/fines are given. The nagging issue with this for me, is that they can only review things that have not been reported in the officials post match notes. Leading to the fact that if it's noted in the report, the nominated official for that match (the ref) deems the matter dealt with. Unless further evidence come to light.

Money collect by the FA from fines, are often given to the PFA who help ex-footballers in trouble with gambling, alcoholism or careers that have been ended early due to injury.

It's perhaps also worth noting that a lot of large clubs run internal penalty systems for things like yellows, reds, suspensions, late for training etc... that are often run by the club Captains. These are then collated and donated to the clubs charity for that month, or as they often do - nominate an annual charity.

There's a lot of good work that clubs do, that doesn't get enough exposure in my opinion.

[Alex79]

There seems very little point imposing a monetary fine on players who earn multimillions a year. It's trivial and no deterrent at all, I'd imagine. Match bans seem like a better idea. However, I am almost certainly one of the least qualified people on this forum to comment on such things, so I'll zip it now!

[ratsoalbion]

The vast majority of professional footballers around the world don’t earn truly crazy money, it’s only the elite in the richest leagues.

There will be people on this board who earn more than some young English League Two pros or French second tier players and whatever do.

In fact there are professionals at this world cup who have (or had) other careers alongside football, including the Iceland manager who makes more money from his dentistry practice than he does for football.

People only tend to think about the richest and most famous players when these conversations arise.

[Suits]

However, I am almost certainly one of the least qualified people on this forum to comment on such things, so I'll zip it now!

I don't think you're offending anyone dude and you certainly don't need to be qualified to have a conversation.

There seems very little point imposing a monetary fine on players who earn multimillions a year. It's trivial and no deterrent at all, I'd imagine. Match bans seem like a better idea.

Very good point, a decade ago the FA fine issued to a Premier League player, for a yellow card, was £24.

When I played it was £10, plus any internal club fines imposed on top of that.

The idea being that because the sport is governed by the same body (FA) the fines should be the same across the board. Thus, a Dr Martins League player can't be expected to pay a £300 fine for a yellow card, so it's based from the bottom up if you like.

It could be a lot better, I totally agree.

About match suspensions, yes, that would potentially be a lot more discouraging perhaps, although I give you the Winston Bogarde situation for players that DGAF about that either.

Generally, what stings players most, is money.

[KSubzero1000]

I know next to nothing about football nowadays, but couldn't the monetary penalties for in-game infractions be based on a set percentage of the player's income, with the club being made to pay the same amount out of their own pocket on top of it?

It would hurt the rich and poor alike, and it would incentivize the clubs / teams to develop an internal "foul-adverse" culture of their own. Is there a potential downside I'm missing here?

PS: Furthermore, it would mean that the money-making stars, who happen to have the most influence on the rest of the sport (incl. audiences), would be held under the highest internal scrutiny.

[ratsoalbion]

Something like that could potentially work, but the fairness of it could be contested.

If you say that the best players are being rewarded for their importance to the club with their wages, then is it fair that, in absolute terms, they are then punished *more* than their colleagues for the exact same infraction?

Difficult!