#fifa 2017

[holobethyname]

🎶 NCT Dream - Trigger the Fever Released: 08 May 2017

[mayasdeluca]

“I want people to remember that I was a good human being, a good player, somebody who cared a lot about the game and wanted to see it improve. I just want to leave the game better than where I found it. Ultimately, I just want to be known as a really good player who showed up and did her job and did it really well and competed until the very last moment.”

UEFA Champions League Winner (2008) Two-Time World Cup Champion (2015, 2019) NWSL Champion (2023)

Four-Time NWSL Best XI (2014, 2017, 2019, 2023) Fifa FifPro World XI (2016)

108 USWNT Appearances 199 NWSL Appearances

Washington Spirit Captain Orlando Pride Captain Gotham FC Captain

Congratulations Ali Krieger on an incredible career!

[sunsetkerr]

STAYING DOWN | s.kerr

summary: you and sam kerr are on-pitch rivals, but when you're teammate hurts sam during a game, you're the first one on the ground with her (or.. 4 times you watched sam hurt on the ground, +1 time you helped her up) [1.8k words]

pairing: on-pitch rival!reader x sam kerr

notes: I love this one a lot..

(1) 2015, FIFA Women’s World Cup - Group Stage

“did you like that one, l/n?” god, you thought. she’s insufferable. you watched as she celebrated with her team, green and gold flooded the box. it was no secret that you couldn’t stand sam kerr. the whole world knew practically, and watching her celebrate a goal whilst looking directly at you just made you hate her even more.

“piss off” you shook your head as she jogged pass you to reset play. 

“oooh” she chuckled at you, her smirk only growing, “feisty today, are we?”

commentator voiceover JP DELLACAMERA: ooh, we can see on-pitch rivals y/n l/n and sam kerr having a few words with each other after l/n just scored her goal

JACQUI OATLEY: i think they’re constantly having words if i’m honest

JP DELLACAMERA: it seems that way, doesn’t it? Kerr and l/n are one of the most interesting pairs to see on the pitch in my opinion

JACQUI OATLEY: no i completely agree, i love seeing how they egg each other on; very entertaining

JP DELLACAMERA: seeing them play each other at arsenal and chelsea, but then seeing them on a national level is just great football

JACQUI OATLEY: it’s funny to me, both great goal scorers, but they somehow always find a way to be next to each other on the pitch

JP DELLACAMERA: sweden taking a corner now… and rubensson sends it into the box and y/n l/n headers it into goal!

JACQUI OATLEY: phenomenal work from the young swede

you threw your hands in the air as sofia lifted you up. you turned around to see sam, on the ground, knocked down from the commotion in the box, with a frown etched on her face. you grinned down at her with a chuckle and shouted, “that was for you, kerr!”.

(2) 2016, WSL Season Chelsea vs Arsenal

commentator voiceover IZZY CHRISTIANSE: and sam kerr scores her third goal against arsenal! and it’s a hat-trick for sam kerr!

PIEN MEULENSTEEN: ooh! and she’s collided just outside the goals with arsenal player, y/n l/n IZZY CHRISTIANSE: looks like they hit each other pretty hard at the hips there.. kerr and l/n are both down

you groaned clutching at your hip bone. “will you watch where you’re going!” you looked over at who banged into you, of course it was her.

“you right?” she winced, holding onto her own hip.

“no thanks to you” you spat at her.

sam threw her head back in pain, “oh fuck” she hissed. you heard someone come up behind you/

“you okay, y/n?” they wrapped their arms underneath your armpits and pulled you up. it was caitlin. you were thankful to be back up on your feet, you muttered a quick thank you whilst you rubbed at your hip. “sam?” she asked her matildas teammate. caitlin always tried to be a neutral force when it came to you both, the two of you too strong willed not to butt-heads on the pitch.

“i’m good” she nodded, still groaning.

“i’ll get the trainers” catilin said before flagging over the chelsea trainers, who were already on their way out.

“come on,” caitlin patted you on the back before walking back to the centre with you. you rolled your eyes, hearing sam groan behind you. she crashed into you, and she’s complaining? figures.

(3) 2017, Algarve Cup Group Stage

you and sam were both gunning for the ball. she was behind you, trying to get the ball out from underneath you. you tried your best to hold it, but didn’t have to try for much longer as sam fell to the ground clutching her ankle. “fuck, fuck, fuck” she winced. 

you turned around, holding on the ball under your foot. you contemplated helping her up, making sure she was alright. 

“y/n!” but your teammate, lotta, was shouting at you as she had set up her position. “run down!” she shouted to you. you got the ball moving again, shaking off steph catley, ignoring sam’s cries in the background.

commentator voiceover JACQUI OATLEY: looks like y/n was a little concerned for sam kerr there

JP DELLACAMERA: that’s a surprise to me

JACQUI OATLEY: l/n crosses the ball in to schelin and it’s a goal!

JP DELLACAMERA: great assist from l/n there JACQUI OATLEY: and even better shooting from schelin

JP DELLACAMERA: a great duo those two

(4) 2022, Sweden vs Australia Women's Friendlies

“that’s two, y/n” caitlin grinned at you as she came off the high from her second goal of the game. 

you chuckled and shook your head, trying to suppress your grin. “shut up caitlin, you’re a show-off” you laughed. you weren’t too fired up this game. your team hadn’t managed to score yet, but the matildas were playing better than you- they deserved to win the friendly.

“and i love every second of it” she grinned.

“i’ve got next caitlin” her voice came out of nowhere, but once you saw her your mood was ruined. sam was jogging past you both with a big grin on her face.

“yeah, sure” you scoffed, heading back to your side of the pitch. it took sam only five minutes of play to score. 

“that was for you!” she sang to you, running straight past where you watched her score. you rolled your eyes, your friendly spirit that had been present in this game was officially ruined.

commentator voiceover JACQUI OATLEY: and kerr has scored on chelsea teammate zećira mušović, getting the matildas third goal for the game, with Sweden still sitting at zero. ooh, kerr has stopped celebrating. she looks to be a little bit of pain. 

JP DELLACAMERA: she’s had a few troubles with her calf, hopefully it’s nothing”

“you good?” you watched as sam limped back to her position as the game reset. 

“agh, shit” she hissed through her teeth, “my calf has been playing up” she admitted, giving it a quick rub.

“do you need a trainer?” you asked her. you stammered before adding, “y-you’re taking up my space on the pitch”.

“nah, no” sam sighed, shaking her hands as she stood up straight again, “just give me a second”.

“are you sure?” you asked

sam raised her eyebrows at you before taking a deep breath, “careful, l/n.. kinda sounds like you care”

“you’re on my half of the pitch” you almost erupted at her accusation, “get moving” you shooed her away.

(+1) 2023, FIFA Women’s World Cup Bronze Medal Match

it was the seventy-fifth minute when you watched her go down. magdelena’s tackle was brutal, you waited for the whistle to sound, but it never came. game resumed play and mags was off running with the ball as sam was on the ground clutching her calf in pain.

you jogged over to her, “are you okay?” you asked.

“fuck!” she cried, panting through the pain. 

“stop time!” you turned around and called down to the referee, but she just ignored you and continued watching play. “hey!” you called again.

“holy shit,” sam put her head on the ground, still holding her leg close.

you looked around for help, and saw the matilda’s physio running out onto the pitch to see sam. “the physio is coming” you told her, “hold on a second”.

“hey! call time!” you screamed down the pitch again, “fucking hell, she’s hurt!” 

“hey,” you watched as z held onto the ball in the box, stopping play herself. the referee finally officially stopped play and began to walk down towards yourself and sam. “she’s been down for at least a minute, you are supposed to stop play!” you shouted, “what kinda refereeing is that? bullshit”

you stayed close while the physios tried to get sam onto her feet. you knew she had just come back from injury, she was doing too much. sure, you didn’t like her. but you couldn’t help but feel inclined to make sure she was alright.

and for some obsurd reason, the feeling was still there even after the final whistle blew and you had won a bronze medal.

you found sam sitting on the pitch, her head in her hands. you hesitated before crouching down next to her, “i’m sorry about the loss” you said, holding your hand out for her.

sam looked defeated as she saw who it was, “you deserved to win” she sighed, shaking your hand.

“you did lots of great work for football sam” you admitted. you took a deep breath before continuing, “is your calf okay?”.

“it’ll be fine” she nodded. you noticed the tears in her eyes, “thanks” she whispered.

“good game” you said, before standing up and heading off.

sam sighed, “you too”.

alanna headed over to check on her captain, just having watched the exchange between you and sam. “what did she want?” your rivalry was no secret, everyone knew that you both weren’t opposed to having words after a tough game.

“to see if i was okay” sam’s tone whilst still defeated, had a hint of surprise buried beneath it.

“yeah alright” alanna scoffed, holding out her hand to help sam onto her feet, “comes over to you after we’ve lost, sounds about right”

the night had wound down for the matildas. sure, they had an afterparty to go to, but there were lots of tired girls walking the ground.

“i’m gonna sleep on the bus before we have to go out” sam chuckled, zipping up her puffer jacket. “i’m ready to party” macca chuckled, giving sam a little nudge.

“it’s a constant emotion for her” alanna laughed.

“shut up, i-“ mackenzie was cut off, your voice peaking the trio’s interest. they saw you over by the sweden bus, particularly close to your teammate, a sour look on your face.

“what the hell what that about?” you asked. “what do you mean?” mags chuckled.

your eyes widened in shock, “i mean what you did to her was totally illegal”.

“it’s football, y/n” she said simply, trying to walk onto the bus.

“that is not football and you know it” you stopped her in her tracks, continuing your conversation. “we were already up, you didn’t have to do that” you said.

“sam is a tough girl, she’ll be fine” magda didn’t seem particularly remorseful, especially not after injuring her own teammate at chelsea. “you know she just came back from injury, going after her calf like that is just not alright” you shook your head at her

“i didn’t ‘go after’ her calf-“

you cut her off, “could’ve fooled me” you laughed.

“you know what, y/n-”

“girls that’s enough!” your coach cut you both off, “we just won a bronze medal, care to cool off a little bit” she raised her voice at you both.

“don’t play dirty,” you finished, pushing past her to get onto the bus.

“rich coming from you” she said, “last season you hated her, what’s changed?”.

you paused before answering, “nothing.. i just prefer to play by the rules” you lied.

“what the fuck?” alanna whispered, shocked by your change in demeanour.

“that was.. strangely nice of her?” macca looked to sam.

“i know” sam furrowed her brows, “what the hell”

“a change of heart maybe?” alanna chuckled jokingly.

“who knows” sam shrugged. maybe you two could get along after all.

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

A certain mega-narc was noticeably absent from Victoria’s big 50th birthday bash here in London. I wonder if this was a bruise to M’s ego… Any thoughts on this? She basically has paid PR friends who are d-list actresses like herself and its pretty pathetic. I bet Meghan envisioned her life being very different than the sad reality it actually is, as she’s still a massive fraud and a failure, but now on a global scale. I don’t think she will ever get to the crème de la crème of elites that she craves to be like and obsesses over. Even Misha Nonoo married better than poor old Meg. I think Harry is well and truly stuck with her because she will never find anyone as weak or as spineless or as stupid as him. He’s not wealthy enough for her lazy good for nothing ass, but beggars can’t be choosers - and she has been a desperate grifter and beggar all her life. I truly believe this toxic marriage is her ultimate karma and it couldn’t happen to a nicer person.

The Beckhams put a stop to Meghan's PR shenanigans with their family in 2021. The cracks have been there since 2018.

Sometime in late 2017/early 2018, Meghan accused Victoria of leaking about her to the tabloids. Harry called David to confront them about it and there was a row. Supposedly they patched things up and the Beckhams were invited to the wedding. (Revealed in 2022)

Harry asked David to be an ambassador for the Sydney Invictus Games and David agreed. But when the Games were actually taking place, Harry refused to meet, see, or speak to David. It pissed David off and he soured on Harry.

Meghan asked Victoria for free clothes. Victoria declined; she doesn't give freebies. (First revealed in 2019, resurfaced again in 2023.)

Fast forward to 2021 when the Beckhams' son has gotten engaged and they're planning the wedding. Meghan issued several PR stories and a blind item about how the Beckhams are scheduling their son's wedding around the Sussexes' availability.

The 2021 PR manifestation for invites to the Beckham wedding seems to have been the final straw that broke the Beckhams' back. It's pretty plausible, IMO; there haven't been any articles, stories, or blind items about the Sussexes and Beckhams hanging out. In fact, the Beckhams have been pretty solidly aligned with the Waleses since early 2022 and appear to have cut all ties with the Sussexes.

July 2022. David and William do a mental health thing together.

December 2022. David leaves the FIFA Qatar World Cup for a whirlwind trip to Boston to present at Earthshot 2022.

May 2023. David gives King Charles a jar of honey from his bees. (Becks got into beekeeping during the pandemic. It's covered in their documentary.)

July 2023. David and Victoria throw a huge party in Miami to celebrate Messi's first game with the team. All the celebs from LA attend. No Sussexes.

April 2024. Sussexes are in Miami for polo party. No Beckhams. Not even a hint or trace of PR - in the olden days, Meghan would've at least tried to manifest a lunch or cocktails.

And of course, we can't forget David queueing for 12+ hours to pay his respects to The Queen. If that's not a sign to the rest of us that he's exclusively TeamBRF, then I don't know what is.

[didalexiabreakupwitholgayet]

Bestie you've made me SO CURIOUS about what the hell happened with Lieke

I thought we liked her?? Didn't we win the 2021 semis because of her?? (Don't @ me, I'm terrible at dates, all I remember is that there was an important game and we win it because of her)

Literally biting my nails rn waiting for the gossip 👀🙏

(no rush!! Take your time!! Find your sources!! I appreciate all your work 🫶)

you all really enjoy angst, huh? 😂

okay, rule #1 of barça fandom: we love everyone until we don't 💅🏻 (unfortunately, we have earned a reputation as a fandom that is quick to turn on its players. to be fair, justly in some cases!)

and believe me, lieke was certainly beloved. looking back on her time at barça, she was definitely one of our best players, having played 5 seasons/158 matches and scoring 73 goals.

but what turned culers against lieke was her behaviour and the way she handled leaving the club. according to sport, lieke was allegedly offered a new contract early in the 2021-22 season, indicated she would accept, but never signed the renewal. then she kept putting things off for months, ignored calls of barça reps who say they never knew she wanted to leave on a free transfer. even cgh was asked about the rumours that lieke was leaving and said they were "fake news."

anyway, once the news was announced that lieke would be going to psg, the fandom basically felt like it was a betrayal. even prominent barça journalists called out the way lieke left as "not the right way for the club and her teammates" and that the way she left was a "disappointment."

some fans lamented that barça should place limits on how long players have to decide on a renovation (because lieke dragged it out!)

and other fans started calling lieke all types of names like "rat" "snake" and "traitor" when she first posted she was leaving. and then when lieke got injured during euro2022, the abuse continued with some fans even saying it was karma.

ultimately, there were rumours that the real reason that lieke left was because she wasn't getting the attention that players like alexia was getting from the club and fanbase. remember that lieke joined barça in 2017, which was the same year that she won uefa's player of the year and fifa's the best. was lieke jealous because her star had fallen and alexia's had risen? and because she wasn't spanish/catalan, it would remain that way. she even said as much in an interview with mundo deportivo.

(the tweet above ponders whether lieke has finally confirmed the rumours that had been around for months that she was jealous of alexia and felt overshadowed)

obviously, lieke has a different version of events and even said in her most recent interview that it was because she wanted to be closer to her fiancé and home. but i always thought the issue of not feeling like the "chosen one" or "star girl" lingered. like in the earlier mundo deportivo interview in 2022, she complained about not being thanked by the club:

so yeah, tl;dr, it is what it is. probably everyone involved would want to go back in time and do it differently, but here we are. the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

and fyi, even today, fans still hold a grudge against lieke.

("the thing about lieke martens… it's a shame… because at PSG she doesn't play at all… she only warms up the bench… here at FCB she would be winning titles and playing🤷🏽‍♀️ i guess bad decisions you make in life…")

[felassan]

I was sent a link to a ‘chat with Mark Darrah' interview video that I hadn’t seen before. [here is the source] link. the interview took place in 2022, so bear that in mind when listening, but it still has interesting insights and things in there.

the rest of this post is under a cut due to length.

this post is just some brief notes and a few transcribed quotes of interest from the video.

Mark ofc was in charge of DA:O, DAII, & DA:I, then, quote, “then a bunch of malarkey happened” and he ended up in charge of Anthem in 2017 in its final ~16 months

In AAA games narrative is a certain thing that was very much defined in a lot of ways by BioWare

There’s a BioWare story in Anthem (though certainly not its best), if you just ignore everything else

The average gamer puts way too much stock into what engine is used to make a game

Mark is pretty sure that the guts of Neverwinter Nights is underneath the Witcher engine

Moving DA from Aurora to Eclipse to Frostbite (engines) opened up more possibility spaces

Frostbite stagnated because it essentially was the engine everyone had to use at EA

Before DA:I, there was a game at BioWare internally codenamed “Blackfoot”. It was going to be a multiplayer DA game and was using Frostbite before DA:O, during the time of DAII’s late development but before DA:I started development. It never shipped as it got eaten by DA:I

For the MET, Casey was originally trying to make a Star Control-type game but cinematic. Echoes of this can be seen in ME1. But ME the IP itself wants to be a space opera. Ultimately the cinematic experience side of it won out

And some specific quotes:

“Something that I noticed is that, sometimes, if your studio is hiring only your biggest fans, which I saw at BioWare sometimes, those people are in some ways, they’re almost more, they have more zealotry towards the ‘old way’ of doing things than – that’s right, that [from a fandom point of view] is all they know. And they don’t necessarily know that this was awful or that ‘there could have been a better way, we just didn’t see it until later’. All they know is, ‘this is what you did, and you made this thing I love, so we have to do that too’, and, so that’s a danger that could happen is, you get the, you know the monkeys and the bananas, like, ‘I don’t even know why we’re doing this anymore, but I know we’ve always done it.’”

-

“The biggest reason to consolidate on an engine is for the ability to share more work within your studio. In theory.” “The problem that often happens is that you end up with not nearly as much sharing as you would imagine. FIFA doesn’t share anything with DA. And in BioWare’s case it’s even worse than that, there’s very little sharing between DA:I and ME:A, and between ME:A and Anthem. A lot of troubles ME:A and Anthem had is [because of] not building upon the foundations of DA:I.”

-

“My great frustration of BioWare from around 2013 to basically today [2022], there wasn’t a building upon the past.” “30% of DA:I’s tech budget was spent on tooling. On ME:A they didn’t build upon the tools that were laid by DA:I, partially because they started before DA:I shipped, but also for ‘Not Build Here’ reasons. They spent 10-15% approximately of their budget on tools. Anthem didn’t build on either of these foundations and they spent about less than 10% of their budget on tools. So it was like they were going backwards, respecting the engine less and less as they went forward, resulting in more and more struggles happening.” “I have the most sarcastic PowerPoint presentation ever which compares those two games, which are treated as if they’re widely different things. They’re pretty much exactly the same game, from the perspective of any external observer. ME is more like DA than it is like anything else. So it’s ridiculous. The answer is hubris, is the answer.”

-

On endings and the future:

“I think you have to do something [about the endings]. ME was always conceived as being a trilogy, but I think what you actually end up with with ME1-3, if you kind’ve just stick them together into one ridiculously big game, that’s why it, in some ways, the complaints about the original ME3 ending are so hilarious because in a way, the game ME3 is the ending for this entire huge game, which isn’t awesome, because you know, the last Hobbit movie is also stupid because it’s all ending. So, that’s not necessarily the best, but that’s essentially what you have. So because it was intended as a trilogy, it, to some kind of degree it kind of takes its ball and goes home at the end, where its like, ‘I’m gonna render the possibility of a direct sequel to this sooo nearly impossible that it’s ludicrous’. It could be that, so we know that the Mass Relays are down, that’s also true, but, like, we have potentially, everyone’s a cyborg, potentially there are no robots, potentially, potentially, potentially, it’s bananas. But interestingly, if you look at ME1, ME2 and ME3 as a single game, and then you look at DA:O, DA:O was always, was originally envisioned as a standalone game. There was never even a consideration for a sequel made for that. If you look at DA:O and then look at what it does at its ending, so the ending of the game itself is fairly tight, it’s like, well you definitely have to kill the Arch Demon, and you’ve ended the Blight, but then you go through the end credits stuff, the epilogue screens. And it’s like, maybe there’s a civil war happening in Orzammar, maybe there are werewolves spreading across this entire part of Ferelden, maybe there are no werewolves at all. Like it’s similar. Now what DA, the way that DA approached the solution to that was to canonize some of those choices, but for the most part just move away, far enough physically, so it’s like, okay, well maybe there are werewolves down south there, that’s not my problem, I got my own problems. Or it moves through time, which is one of the reasons why DA2 moves through so much time is, it gives distance from DA:O. One of the major reasons why ME:A is literally hundreds of years in the future and in another galaxy, it’s like, okay, well, something happened, [shrug], we can react if we want to but we don’t have to worry about the consequences. DA has had the same problem that ME had, just to a lesser degree. DA:O did such a great job of building up the Warden that people are really attached to that and they keep wanting to see the Warden come back. People are never gonna let go of Shepard. DA, new player characters every time because it allows things to be done, but there are costs to that, if you don’t have nearly the [same] attachment. I mean, there’s a reason why every single Zelda game starts with you as Link getting bonked on the head. They’ve essentially solved the problem, reset button, either you have amnesia or you’re like the great-great-great-great-grandson. So it’s like, maybe there’s a way that they can do something like that, but Zelda’s jumped through a lot of hoops that probably a modern game can’t be allowed to do. You’re “Link”, so maybe there’s a way that you can be Shepard but, but Shepard, you can be “Shepard”, maybe there’s a way you can do that, but yeah, it’ll be interesting, it’s definitely a problem that they have. Because certainly, Ryder from ME:A is not the same character, nor could any character from a single game compete with a character from three games. Maybe the approach is, you canonize the choices from MET and you say, ‘and the choice we’re making is, Shepard made it, and you’re Shepard. [shrug]”

-

“I think there is a lot of DNA of its older games still at BioWare, but you’re right. Every game needs to be a game in its moment. It needs to be appropriate to the time and space of what’s going on. So, I get it, you kind of just want to feel the thing you felt when you played ME2 or feel the thing you felt when you played DA:O.” “If suddenly you got an ME2 again magically appearing out of the ether, I don’t think it would be received the same way. The industry isn’t in the same place. BioWare needs to set a new bar.” “The sad truth is, the older you get, the less relevant a part of the buying demographic you are. So the reality is, I mean ME:A had a shaky launch unfortunately, but it’s a lot of peoples’ favorite ME. Mostof those people who it is their favorite ME are younger people because it targets, you know, it’s got a younger PC, it’s got a stronger, more. I mean, the MET is very much, Shepard is a hero from action movies from the 80s and 90s, for millennials. He’s stoic. Whereas Ryder is definitely, he’s much more a protagonist from a CW show. The reality is is that, sorry, but they’re not trying to make it for you anymore.”

[source and full watch link where you can check it out]

[kepeslajoska]

George Lazar (FB)

(This is a Hungarian language post. Warning: those of you who read my FB posts in English using automatic Google translation might get a „distorted” text... )

A 2023-as korrupciós nagydíjat itt az USA-ban a fotogén és mindig mosolygó György Lászlónak adom.

Ő az Orbán rezsim egyik legcinikusabb és korruptabb politikusa. Testvér��vel, Ádámmal évek óta egyfajta zenei bizniszt épít New York-ban és Magyarországon magyar adófizetői pénzen. Közben persze a rezsimet “fényezik”…

László államtitkár is volt, de lefokozták és 2022. december 1. napjától gazdaságstratégiai feladatokban való szakmai közreműködésért és a Tanítsunk Magyarországért program koordinációjának ellátásáért felelős kormánybiztossá nevezte ki.

Állandóan New Yorkban van ugyanis ott él szerény tehetségű zongorista testvére, Ádám aki mindenképpen hires zeneszerző és zongorista akar lenni…

2011-ben Vivien Schweitzer röviden írt a New York Times-ban koncertjéről…”But there was nothing memorable about Mr. Gyorgy’s brief “Improvisations,” which sounded like amiable lounge music.”

Azt gondolná az ember hogy ezek után új foglalkozást keres Ádám magának, de mivel testvére Századvéges volt a teljes magyar diplomácia haveri köre karriejének fényezésére állt rá.

2017 októberében György Ádám zongoraművészt választották Orbánék az Év Kulturális Nagykövetének. Miamiben, Clevelandben, Bostonban és a New York-i Carnegie Hallban is felléptették.

Adófizetői pénzből New York-ban Liszt Ferenc Nemzetközi Zongoraversenyt és Fesztivált szerveztek a Carnegie Hallban neki. Az eseményt két nagyszabású gálakoncert ékesítette, amelynek célja Liszt Ferenc örökségének megőrzése… természetesen a most már 41 éves Ádám maestróval.

Még azt is elintézték a törököknél vagy a FIFA-nál (?) hogy idén Ádám zongorajátékával nyitották meg a Bajnokok Ligáját az isztambuli Atatürk Stadionban, a történelemben első magyarként.

A baj csak az hogy Ádám képtelen valamiféle igazolható nemzetközi elismerést kapni független kritikusoktól... tud zongorázni, az még rendben is lenne, de az nem elég. Eredeti tehetséget is kellene már mutatnia.

Az Index szerint “Korunk egyik legismertebb zongoraművésze keresztül-kasul bejárta a világot, hogy megmutassa dallamaiba komponált magyarságát.” Meg hogy “valósággal berobbant a köztudatba” és persze “a magyarságáról mesél minden darabban..”

György Ádámot a zeneszerzőt és zongoristát gyakorlatilag sehol nem jegyzik, de százmilliókat költöttek eddig “fényezésére”… köszönheti ezt századvéges testvérének, akinek testvéri szeretetéért a magyar adófizetők keményen állják a cehhet.

A fotókon György László és “a zongorajátékával magyarságáról mesélő” György Ádám.

[cant-get-no-worse]

'Let's all take a moment to remember the somptuous ref manipulation/acting performance given by Luis Suarez on March 2017. This guy practically gave us the Remontada as much as Neymar 🙏'

Ciene you can't just drop this and not elaborate

Took me about a month but oh but anon, I will. A year ago, I watched a short documentary of a former French ref who analyzed the Remontada (heavily criticized for its refereeing decisions, dubious penalties given or not given, etc) and the external factors that made it happen. Absolutely fascinating stuff. I'll give you a bullet point resume of the doc here, since it's exclusively in French.

So here's why La Remontada isn't only the consequence 22 players' mentality and in-game performances for 90 minutes but rather a product of a boiling setting, wrong UEFA predictions, inexperienced referees, weak communication, experienced players' social manipulation on top of 22 minds in radical different headspaces.

Practical context.

February 14th, 2017. Paris Saint-Germain beats FC Barcelona 4-0 at the Parc des Princes in the first leg of the UCL's round of 16.

March 8th, 2017. FC Barcelona receives Paris Saint-Germain in the second leg of the UCL's round of 16.

2. Emotional context.

After the absolute "desastre" (Mundo Deportivo's front page) that was February, 14th, everyone, save a few Barça players and part of the culés, consider the second leg to be already done and over with. No team has ever broken a four goal difference in a UCL knockout stage and the sheer beating taken by Barça at the Parc stands fresh in everyone's minds as a chapter closed. PSG has secured its ticket into quarter-finals. Barça has fallen deeper and deeper since their 2015 treble.

March 6, 2017. Four PSG players do an at-the-time chill, but after the facts bit of a surreal interview where they talk about the up coming game and their feelings about it. One Marco Verratti notably jokingly asks the three others if, hypothetically speaking, they'd be happy if they lost the game 5 - 1 but still scrapped by to the Quarter Finals. 2 of them say they'd be fine with it. The 2 others, Verratti included, say they'd be disgusted having conceided that many goals; "You let 5 go in, people are gonna laugh at you."

3. UEFA's wrong predicitions and choices of referees.

Refereeing a knockout UCL game is the stuff of what the UEFA calls "elite" referees, the best of the best in Europe.

Following the 4 - 0 of the first leg, the UEFA, deeming like 80% of football world the encounter to be over, decides to appoint a up-and-coming referee in what is talked about as an "easy game" within the Federation. It's still a knockout round game, so there are still the bright stage lights, but the stakes are deemed to be nul because of the 4 - 0: the perfect stage to give a referee a safe space to grow experience and for the UEFA to test him in stress-free conditions.

4. The refereeing squad of March 8th, 2017.

Deniz Aytekin is the main referee of the game. He's got a solid reputation as the 2nd best German referee at the time and destined to replace the old first one.

This is his first ever UCL knockout round to referee.

The whole refereeing team consists of 5 guys. Four of them are FIFA referees, meaning they've already referee international games. One of them, which we'll call Double B., is however only a Bundesliga referee. He's never refereed a European game in his life, never been under such bright spotlights. He's there as an Additional assistant referee (AAR), meaning he's behind the goal line to observe if any incident occurs near the penalty area.

He's the weak link of this whole refereeing team.

5. A boiling setting.

Despite the heavy 4 - 0 slapping received by the home side in the first leg, the attendance on March 8th is 96,290. The stands are jam-packed, heated by Luis Enrique's words of the previous night in press conference:

But the audience must be a cauldron, before and during. There will be no need for a break. I don't ask them anything. But we will need a Camp Nou like a volcano.

The setting in which everything happens plays a key part in how the night's going to go. The chants, jeers, shouts, whistles and protests of almost a hundred thousand people are directed at the opposite players, but also and more importantly at this team of referees thrown onto the pitch. One of which has never refereed a European game, and another one who's experimenting his first UCL's knockout round.

This isn't me waxing some poetics by the way, but a factor to take into account when analyzing this match. New Zealand's famous haka, the ceremonial dance executed by the All Blacks at the beginning of each of their rugby match, has been critized for being a tool for the team to take psychological ascend over their opponents. This debate has taken place around a one minute ceremonial dance performed by fifteen players. Now picture ninety minutes of ceaseless jeering produced by a hundred thousand people all around you, constantly, added to the twenty-two players, their coaches, their staffs and substitutes on the pitch pressing you at every decision.

That's why UCL games require "elite referees", and that's why it was the mistake of UEFA to call up inadequately prepared referees to this game that changed everything.

6. First shake (3')

Luis Suarez (Barça, n°9) scores with his head. The 4 -0 is reduced to 3 - 0 (aggreg.) not even three minutes into the match. In the referee's head this match, which should've gone rather peacefully and without surprises, is already shaping up to be something else than a mere testing game.

More importantly, as players celebrate wildly, you can see Double B., the referee in charge of checking the ball has crossed the line and can indeed count as a goal, looking at an assistant referee rather than taking the decision himself. First tip of something wrong: you got a referee who's not assured enough in his own judgment to make a call.

At such a stage, a weakness in decision-making is unforgivable. It will prove true later.

7. Key fault (23')

That's Edinson Cavani (PSG, n°9) in white. That's Gerard Piqué, local angry catalan man (Barça, n°3) in blue.

Piqué just made an uncontrolled tackle from behind. Piqué, known for protesting at every corner, walks away without saying anything when Aytekin pulls a yellow card.

That's because he knows in any other circomstance and game, this action should've been a straight red.

This will prove key in the game's unfolding, acting as a pressure point on the referee's future decisions and players' behaviour.

8. Tense situations. Luis Suarez, local Karen. (23' - 45')

The next twenty minutes are a swarm of potential-penalties situations and complaints. Neymar falls in the penalty box but isn't given a penalty. Around the 30', Cavani takes a yellow for referee contesting: knowing Piqué's first tackle deserved a red, Cavani is outraged at the lack of yellow showed by Aytekin the second time Piqué fouls him, and reclaims one is showed. He's the one that takes the card instead, sending him furious.

Most notably, at around 35', Suarez almost goes to head-to-head challenge with Meunier over some action at a corner. He then proceeds to get up Aytekin's face, protesting over what seemingly is nothing.

It is nothing, but what Suarez is doing isn't innocent. Protesting and contesting every call the ref does is a behaviour he's known for, has got the referees wary of players like him, and not only because it's annoying: because over the length of 90 minutes and within such setting, a player constantly contesting and protesting calls can get in the head of lesser-accustomed referees.

The devil works hard, but Luis Suarez, appointed contester in chief, works harder. That too will prove true later, at the tipping point of the match.

9. Half time (45')

At half-time, the socre is 2 - 0, five yellow cards and four potential-penalty situations the ref has had to deal with. Players and referee squad go back to their locker rooms to a feverish stadium. At that point, a referee is redoing the first half of the game in his head: what Aytekin, and the players & staff, are seeing, are all the accumulation of non-given cards, given cards, tense non-penalty calls and contests. This piles up in everyone's mindset and creates a serie of pressure points in the unconscious - or conscious, in case of players like Luis Suarez, used to play on such chord - of everyone on that pitch.

This is very much not what the UEFA had planned for this team of referees.

9. Turning point. (50')

At the 50', Neymar (Barça, n°11) in blue is tripped by Meunier (PSG, n°12) in white inside the penalty area.

Aytekin doesn't give the penalty. Players protest. Aytekin consults the sidelines referee. A few seconds later, he gives the penalty for Barcelona.

This precise moment is where Aytekin loses the match and what explain the Remontada.

See, when this action happens, Aytekin is there (bottom, in yellow glow):

About 14m from the action: the most well-placed to judge what happened and make a call.

Up there (top of the screen, circled in red), you got Double B., the Bundesliga ref, who's the furthest from the action, the less experimented of the referee squad, who shouldn't referee at this level. As Aytekin says nothing, players start protesting, and start swarming up Double B. :

That's Luis Suarez at the left, by the way. I know, color me surprised. Local referee's-face-lurking man, just short of hand-written protest signs but not of hand movements to express his sheer outrage at the call, how could you not call this, there is foul, see, see, there's penalty, call it, how can you not see this.

So Suarez is once again complaining - with Rafinha (Barça, n°12) - but this time not to Aytekin: he's complaining to the very much non experienced Double B. And as Aytekin hasn't announced a penalty, what's Suarez doing? What he always does, what he's been doing since minute 0, probably been contesting nurses' opinion since he was out of his mother's womb. Provokes, simulates, criticizes, contests. There, he's pointing at the penalty area. Now what's Double B. doing? Not staying in his place, that's for sure: he walks on the pitch and towards Aytekin, forcing the latter to acknowledge the opinion of his AAR by going to him. Thing is, it's not like Double B.'s opinion was 100% his: he's inexperienced, far from the action, litteraly swarmed by Barça players telling him there's foul and penalty, and under the pressure of 90 thousand people currently yelling him the same thing.

So, instead of acting like as a proper AAR - an assistant referee - and letting the main ref make the right call from where Aytekin was the most well-placed to, or staying where he was and letting Ayteking know his opinion in the privacy of their headset, Double B. publicly backs Aytekin to a wall.

Seconds later, Aytekin points to the penalty spot and, amending his previous decision, gives the penalty. Messi (Barça, n°10) transforms it.

3 - 0.

Aytekin's just lost control of his referee team, and he's just lost control of the game.

10. Getting control back. (50' - 67')

So at that point, you have on your hands a match that has completely changed, a boiling situation escalated into prime Balkans 1912, a stadium on fire, players thinking they can do about anything, and a referee squad who starts taking decisions in your place.

Aytekin isn't an idiot. He's a ref with experience, no matter how little in the UCL. He knows he has to take back the upper hand in this game, or it's going to be hell. When a ref has to tell others something, he does this through his headset: this is what Aytekin must have done after the 50' minute, following the previous incindent. He most certainly has send a message to his assistant refs and linesmen, reminding them of how it worked: they have authority in the designed zones they're astrained to, but he remains the main ref and the one to make a call elsewhere.

This reminder of hierarchy is not without incidence on the follow up.

In the following minutes, Aytekin refuses to give penalty to Neymar when he falls in the box.

At 62', Cavani scores, bringing hope to everyone on PSG's side, but also allowing the referees to breathe: this game might finally fall back on its feet. At 67', Aytekin immediately calls Suarez's bluff when he dives into the penalty box and gives him a yellow. You can visibly see Aytekin regaining confidence in his own judgments and taking back the prevalence in calls. Everything is finally resolving itself.

Is it, though?

Two issues.

we're at the 67' minute. This is the eight yellow card showed by Aytekin. Amongst referee, there's a sort of implicit accord that beyond five yellow cards, you should start putting reds, to take back control of the game. A red makes all your over-excited players stand still.

minutes pass, and soon enough we're entering the 80th. This match is a high-intensity one, both mentality as we've detailed extensively, but also physically. It's back and forth all the time for Aytekin, who's the only referee constantly running all around the pitch with the players.

Eventually, Aytekin pays this physical intensity, and this reestablishment of hierarchy within the referee squad.

11. Fucking up. (85')

Di Maria (PSG, n°11) goes back for a speedy counter-attack towards Barcelona's goals; he's fouled inside the penalty area by Mascherano (Barça, n°14).

Highlighted in yellow, the other assistant referee.

Highlighted absolutely nowhere to be seen, Aytekin.

Aytekin is too far away, he's been running around for almost ninety minutes, he's worn out. So for once, the most well-placed referee to make the call for this action is the Assistant Referee.

Slight issue there: this assistant referee is part of the squad that's been put back into place some twenty minutes ago by Aytekin over an almost point-by-point similar situation happening on the other side of the pitch. He's heard his colleagues and himself get told that in such cases, it's Aytekin who gets the final call. Problem is, it should indeed be Aytekin to make the final call, but only if Aytekin is in a position to call anything: this isn't the case here. The Assistant is utterly alone and the closest to the action. He's the one who has now a legitimate say to whether or not what he saw counts as a penalty.

He doesn't say anything. Aytekin doesn't call the action. No penalty given to PSG. This could've been the goal that would have turned the history of the match.

It doesn't. The score remains 3 - 1 on the pitch, 5 - 3 on aggreg.

12. Luis Suarez. Yes. (91')

After Neymar reduces the 5 - 3 to 5 - 4 at the 88' in a free kick that's enough to make a grown man tear up each time he recalls it, there comes this.

These images make me howl with laughter. I genuinely cannot help but laugh out loud each time I see the face of this man, giving Camp Nou an acting lesson worthy of being hidden behind a MasterClass paywall. Because spoiler alert: this bitch has not been tripped by Marquinhos (PSG, n°5).

There is a contact, but this isn't a penalty contact. There's an amplification on Suarez's behalf - no one who's been tripped falls with their hands in the hair, your first instinct dictates you to put them in front of you to soften the fall - and borderlining on simulation.

Aytekin gives a penalty and a yellow card to Marquinhos. At shis tage of the match, with these stakes, at the point where the action happened, if you're gonna call penalty and thus validate the fact that you think Marquinhos willingly fouled Suarez as he was going to the goal, this shouldn't have been yellow. This should've been straight red.

Giving a yellow highlight Aytekin's incoherence in his decision making. Confusion furthermore highlighted by what happens next.

Do you know what's the rule for penalty taking? As soon as 2 players, one of each team, have intruded the surface as the taker is taking it, the penalty has to be redone.

Do you know how many players are in the penalty area? Seven.

Aytekin doesn't make the call.

Barcelona gets its fifth goal at the 91' minute. 5 - 5 (aggreg.)

13. Match ended. (91' - 95')

Over the course of the next few minutes, Suarez manages to avoid a card once again, having trapped Aytekin in a mental game where Aytekin can't give him a yellow without giving him red, Verratti gets a yellow, the stadium cries at every opportunity. It's the tenth yellow card Aytekin has given in this match.

This is Argentina - Netherlands 2022. At this point, so many yellow cards don't mean a single thing other than the referee has well and truly lost control of the game.

At this point, Aytekin knows he's fucked up, massively so. His only redeeming grace would be for Barcelona not to pass to the Quarters. He'd go under the radar for a bit, until the UEFA use him again for another game, and his career would get out of this mess mostly fine.

Tough luck.

So the Remontada is the result of a crash fall from 4 - 0 heights, a profession of faith by a 25 old, unwavering hope of a thousands, failure of UEFA to consider UCL football as an ever-changing tide where the beaten team isn't condemned to defeat, failure of the winning team to conserve a cool head, inexperience of a referee, lack of proper communication, wrong calls, non calls, too much calls, peer pressure and one very, very decided Urugayan.

In short: I understand where the feeling is coming from (ie: obvious failures of refereeing) but I don't believe the Remontada to be rigged. I believe it is merely a splendid display of the impossible rendered possible by humans being humans, at their strength as in their complete failings, and a serie of unfortunat/fortunate events (depending on which side you're standing on) resulting from each action, decision and mindset of the involved actors. UEFA business men are humans. So are players. So are referees. It was unfair. If I was a PSG supporter, I believe I too would be calling it rigged for lack of better words. I just so happen to have been on the lucky side. It's the referee's fault, it's everyone's fault. It was avoidable. Or perhaps it wasn't. Beautiful football for some, nightmarish evening for other, at the end of the day, it just was, and that's about it.

[aus-wnt]

Caitlin Foord: ‘Men think women’s football is a ‘pussy’ sport’

Despite overtaking the Wallabies to become the third most popular national team in Australia, Matildas star Caitlin Foord says some Australians still see women’s football as a “weaker sport” - but she predicts that’s about to change.

Australians are on the cusp of witnessing one of the country’s most significant sporting tournaments when the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 kicks off this month here and in New Zealand. And the excitement is demonstrably palpable: with more than a million tickets already sold, the event (which takes place from July 20 till August 20) is on track to become the most attended standalone women’s sporting event in history.

For Matildas star forward Caitlin Foord, this World Cup will mark her fourth; in 2011, she became the youngest Australian ever to play in the tournament. ​​And to think her record-breaking career may never have happened. “Rugby league was what my family supported and I wanted to play rugby league when I was younger,” Foord tells Stellar. “But my nan told Mum that if she let me play then she would never speak to her again. So that went out the window. But if there were more girls playing at the time, and [if] it was more normal for girls to play, then I don’t even know if I would have gone into football.”

Like many children, Foord’s introduction to soccer began when she was a sporty nine-year-old playing with the boys during lunch at her school in the Illawarra region of NSW. “I was tearing the boys up a little bit, and they asked me to join the local team with one other girl,” Foord recalls. “Mum was hesitant because I was already doing a lot of other sports like Oztag [a non-tackling version of rugby league], and surf lifesaving. But then I got a little bit of help from my sister, who told Mum, ‘She’s really good, she beats all the boys at school.’”

In her first match, she scored six goals, and from there, she never stopped playing. “Before I started, the game wasn’t as professional as it is now, but I probably wasn’t thinking about that,” Foord admits, adding that since she wasn’t much of a student at school, she was all too happy to find herself playing for Sydney FC as a 16-year-old in 2010.

But as her abilities developed, so did the opportunities for women in the sport. Foord moved to the US to join New Jersey side Sky Blue FC in the inaugural National Women’s Soccer League season in 2013. She then signed with Vegalta Sendai in Japan in 2017. Now she calls London home, after renewing her contract with powerhouse Arsenal FC, where she’s played since 2020. “My transition in the game came at the same time that the game was growing,” she says. “It kind of just fell into place for me as I went up the ranks.”

Parallel to Foord’s personal career, the women’s game itself has made huge inroads. In 2019, Football Federation Australia signed a four-year-agreement with the player’s union, Professional Footballers Australia, that would see the men and women’s national teams receive equal shares of national team generated revenues. And, thanks to the likes of high-profile teammates such as Foord and captain Sam Kerr – arguably the greatest Australian football player – the Matildas have this year overtaken the Wallabies and are close to overtaking the Kangaroos to become the third most popular national team, according to independent market research firm Futures Sport & Entertainment.

Foord says the bond within the Matildas is a special one. “We’ve all grown up together,” she explains. “We’re a close-knit team. We’re not just teammates, we’re all friends, as well. We all thought that was the normal thing. But being overseas and playing with girls from different nationalities, I’ve heard people say they hate going into the national team. I find that so hard to believe because we love being around each other and I think that’s unique.”

Foord enters the World Cup with not just this camaraderie, but also a considerable home-field advantage and a golden opportunity to raise the profile of women’s soccer in the country. “Football is the world game, yet I’ve had a couple of conversations with people around home and they still don’t really see the women’s game,” Foord tells Stellar. “When we play overseas, it’s on at 3am.”

Which is why this upcoming World Cup is so pivotal. “Australians love sport, so I feel like they just need to see us and that’s enough,” she continues. “That’s all we need. That’s going to be the turning point, especially for the males who have spoken down on the sport before or think of women’s football as a weaker sport or a ‘pussy’ sport. But once they watch us and see how tough the game is and how we all get stuck, that’s all it needs.”

Following the team’s fourth-place finish at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the Matildas are expected to go deep in the Women’s World Cup. This year’s tournament offers the field a record $165 million in prize money, more than three times the amount from the 2019 Women’s World Cup (though far less, still, than the almost $700 million offered to the men at the 2022 World Cup).

Even so, if the Matildas take out the title, Foord says she will celebrate by purchasing some jewellery.

“As an athlete, I’m used to wearing tracksuits and comfy clothes and the odd dress for an awards night,” she says. “But the older I’ve got, the more I’m into fashion.

“I didn’t grow up with money or anything like that, so when I see something, I don’t buy it straight away. If I’m constantly thinking about it afterwards, then I know I really want it – and I’ve always wanted a Cartier ring. If we went on to win the tournament, I’d buy the one I absolutely love, which has diamonds in it.”

But no matter what happens, Foord plans to keep on kicking on. “All the benefits that come with the game now, me and the girls were part of [building] that,” she says. “We’re obviously grateful for what we have now, but we know it still deserves more – and we need to keep pushing.”

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazil court orders Robinho’s arrest to serve 9-year sentence for rape conviction in Italy

A Brazil court on Thursday ordered the arrest of soccer star “Robinho” so he can serve a nine-year prison sentence for a rape conviction in Italy. He turned himself to police early in the evening and was taken to a prison in the city of Santos, São Paulo.

Robinho, who played in two FIFA World Cups for Brazil’s national team as well as in Europe for clubs like Real Madrid and AC Milan, was convicted of rape in an Italian court in November 2017. On Wednesday, Brazil’s Superior Court of Justice ruled 9 to 2 that his prison sentence could be carried out in Brazil at the request of the Italian government. (Brazil’s Constitution does not allow for the extradition of its citizens). 

The case is extraordinary because it’s just the second time that the Superior Court has analyzed a case of a Brazilian citizen who was adjudicated in a foreign country, according to a statement from the court. The court was given the power to validate foreign convictions in 2017 under Brazil’s Migration Law. 

Superior Court Judge Francisco Falcão said, “Defending that the penalty imposed in a foreign case cannot be executed here [in Brazil] is the same as defending the impunity of the defendant, which cannot be admitted under penalty of violating the duties assumed by Brazil at the international level.”

Continue reading.

[darthmelyanna]

Fun fact for the day: with the exception of two interim presidencies, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) has been under the control of one family for its entire 41-year existence. And that family is the ruling family of Kuwait.

The first guy was president from 1982 to 1990, when he was killed on the first day of the Iraqi invasion. The second was his son, elected the following year after an interim president briefly served. In years to follow, he would also become president of the Asian Handball Federation (also succeeding his father), president of the Association of National Olympic Committees, a member of the FIFA Council, and a member of the IOC.

He was in office with the OCA until 2021, when he was convicted in a Swiss court on fraud charges which… are honestly baffling and involve Kuwaiti politics unrelated to his sports administration gigs. He had stepped down from the FIFA Council in 2017 after being implicated in the FIFA bribery scandal (the legal outcome of which is still pending for him) and then from the AHF and ANOC in 2018.

But back to the OCA. Who could possibly replace him as president? Well… his brother.

The IOC had suspended our guy (although he was not removed as a member) following all of the above. When the OCA election to replace him happened, the IOC explicitly told him not to go campaigning for his brother. He flagrantly disregarded this. When his brother was elected, the IOC refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of the election.

So if you ever wonder why international sport is such a mess…

[alexbkrieger13]

CGH got amazing stats this year but then I'm like p had 33 goals in that 2017-2018 season but ada won

then in 2018-2019 she had 31 goals but the overated rapinoe won (because she had 6 goals in the world cup)

and then 43 goals in that 2019-2020 but nooo stupid covid came

We were robbed 3 times!!!!

also she should've gotten the fifa best award

I'm pretty sure p got over it and I'm not. i need justice

oh that 2020 fifa best ill never get over

[vano6105]

I welcome all guests, subs and fans.

Thank you for appreciating my fan art, including my designs! 😉👍

But, you know, such interest to me could be caused by aesthetics, drawing (close on the level of Sonic universe) and my characters abroad of course, as in many countries are trying to survive as they can various crises and changes. Independent creative people are starting to flourish, presenting various original projects to all comers. - but NOT in MY HOMELAND [Russia]. When the collapsed country was unusually able to rebuild itself again, for me the effect of presence was only amplified outside of Russia.

You may have heard more than once that many countries wanted to completely isolate my country [Russia] repeatedly because of crises and war. However, these attempts failed miserably when Russia started to raise industry and take action on its own, while improving relations with some eastern countries like China, Vietnam, India, and others. So far things are going full steam ahead, but alas, against the backdrop of these situations, for some reason corrupt personalities and some dubious products so called "russian labels" have dramatically appeared. These people "deserve fame" on TV, in Russian platforms, which later will easily serve the population as the best examples. And the "labels" are like answers, killers of something/someone, which then fall apart in their hands when used.

Toxicity is REALLY off the charts!!! Although my homeland [Russia] tries to give the population opportunities to invent, create, establish something so that the population can have a good life - but I think it all feels superficial. In fact, indie projects, initiatives, developments, inventions MY COUNTRY, where I live, does NOT ALWAYS REALIZE them FULLY. "Russian labels" for many has long been an "easy" way to justify the realized projects. At worst, they turn out disgusting.

I'm really sorry if you have to hear this:

I'm a fixated Sonic fan, a SEGA fan since early childhood, really distant from the communities. I live alone, I have a completely different perspective on certain world events that happen. I may really love idols and cultures, but I don't often interact with communities AT ALL.

I'm a Russian fan artist, I've been drawing since 2017 (when FIFA 2018 championship was approaching). The real start was drawing a bunch of characters from different foreign cartoons and video games. There was a massive leap in 2020, and the drawings changed over time - got better, but in many fandoms was more like nobody, hostage and outcast, accumulated a lot of pain. Mostly did outsourcing (helping others), I have almost NOTHING of my own to show others. Local people, when they look at my creations, reject me and go to "selling" personalities (there are many of them in Russia, you understand, they want money). Because of toxicity and aggression, I get frustrated and feel bad when my fan creations are automatically thrown to the dump and forgotten for a long time. I might notice a similar thing after a while. Not much left from supporting former foreigns (until the 2020s) and after a good emotional experience (especially the trip to Moscow in 2023) . My universe (Sora the Hybrid Cat) has existed since the 2020s, old drawings are proof of that.

I'm sad whether the toxicity and aggression (Russia is no exception) will be cleaned up completely or not, anyway I'll be drawing fan art for novelties, indie projects - absolutely anything that can fall out. I'm really grateful to local fans and fan artists from different countries (many of them Japanese) for finding something atypical. I will make content at all costs to make it a new holiday for them. It's quality, not quantity, that's very important to me. In the future, I'm going to mine new technologies and I'm going to learn them, gaining experience. If possible, I will try to adapt to foreign completely, if there is someone willing to do it.

☺ Thank you all so much for your adoration and support of my activities! ☺

If you have something to say, if you are interested, please, you can in comments, you can in ask, you can in direct message (DM)! 🖍

Thank you! 🌸🌊

[g-xix]

Have you seen the new sidemen inside thing? Cause I forgot Joe Weller was a whole person and not just a superstition 😭

HAHAHAHAHAHHA A SUPERSTITION 😭😭😭😭

I can't lie i rly want to - my best mate is watching all of them n making me jealous bc i rly want to.... but i gotta lock in for bio tmrw, Chem n fm on Tues... Plan is that after GCSEs I binge watch all 16 or whatever hours of it in the comfort of my room

Joe Weller, i do know wym though, he does sorta feel like a YouTube myth or legend from the glory days of the 2017 Ksi v Joe Weller beef era... I was never a big fan or follower of Weller tho i gotta admit, like, I didn't watch his Fifa, haunted house vids, world cup stuff.... I've never rly followed him enough to know about him.

The most I've heard about him is all the current Inside stuff, where everyone's praising n calling him a legend for flipping off Manrika...

AND WHAT DO WE THINK AB MANRIKA, ANON????(not a rhetoric)

I don't rly have context ab what she's said ibfr, ive j seen the clip, but my ops are:

It's not rly that deep what she said. Like, it's disrespectful undoubtedly, but the reaction people online (the fans n stans) have had to it is MASSIVE, compared to what she said. Like, it's literally ChrisMD humour - if Chris was in the house n he had said that 2 Joe + Joe had that reaction... People would be calling Joe a wet-wipe for getting so triggered for Chris' "literally normal jokes". I mean, even on Locked In S2 Arthur said to Steph in a rap battle that her bf is probably "shagging your [steph's] neighbour".... The rap battle is a diff circumstance, I can get that, but all in all: The Audience reaction to Manrika's joke/'disrespect' has been crazy out of proportion.

Manrika's apology was shit though. I'm not a Manrika supporter nor defender. Whilst that prev point seems like it defends Manrika... This one doesn't really. Manrika deffo couldn't predict that what she said would be taken that seriously, which is fine - like - that's excusable. But when Joe then went up to her n said that's not cool w him, she should've j apologised. Her response was going ultra-defensive and avoiding actually apologising... Yeah ibfr that was a shit move from her. When you've done smth wrong/made someone unhappy, chances are you'll be more respected if you just apologise and be the bigger person. By not apologising, Manrika j looks like a prick now, no sugar-coating. Kinda sad that she couldn't redeem herself imo.

If there's one thing I hate ab Sidemen stans, it's attacking someone for something irrelevant to the "bad" thing they've done. Manrika deffo isn't ugly - I'd say she's acc rly pretty.

Like, this is litr such a leng woman. Obvi that's not what she looks like on the show bc she's not gna be posing 24/7, but still, like, seeing ppl j call her ugly n physically insult her for saying smth nasty j feels like such a low and unnecessary blow. I will admit that this opinion is deffo biased given I'm also a brown girlie n i have a little bit of conflict w men who call brown girls ugly/mid, given the general subconscious sorta opinion that men all seem to have of them being "the worst race" n j associating brown girls w allsorts of damaging things.

Also i was j researching Manrika n found some article ab her going on some gameshow a while ago + facing backlash even then??? Thing is, there she said it took a bit toll on mental health, she never wanted to go on reality TV or anything again, and had to get a psychiatrist.... But then why the heck is she on Inside???? It's a bit strange that bit, but she also mentions smth crucial which is her Dad telling her that her circumstances are different as a woman of colour which kinda hits deep imo bc that's such a prevalent thing w/in society, like, litr my Dad tells that to me sm too. Kinda sad how POCs are sm more aware and have to be more aware of that fact bc it's always smth that they'll face - but alternately white n caucasian ppl probs don't even realise that's a thing until they read up on it or get told about it - and even if they've heard about it, they probs won't ever fully understand it bc that's j not a problem that they have to face w/in society. And that isn't me saying that white people are ignorant - that's j me pointing out a cultural different n sympathising w subconscious stereotyping and how POCs are taught how that's smth we must be wary of.

That's one whole big rant icl.

Anyways, end point:

What does everyone else (who's actually been watching Inside lol) think about Manrika n Joe Weller??

[shirkers2018dirsanditan]

When the Australia players chose to release a video on Monday — three days before the start of the Women’s World Cup — criticising the gender disparity in prize money at the tournament, it was just the latest example of a team spending valuable time addressing off-field issues rather than focusing on performance on it.

In a message released via Professional Footballers Australia, they called out FIFA for failing to offer equal prize money and demanded those who run the game do more to provide opportunities for women and girls.

Players speaking out, either publicly or via other means, has been a consistent theme in the months leading up to the Women’s World Cup.

At one point this year, players from France, Spain and Canada (the fifth, sixth and seventh-best teams in the world according to FIFA rankings) were all involved in some form of dispute with their federation. More recently, players from Jamaica added their names to that list, swiftly followed by Nigeria. England, too, have had their own issues, as have South Africa.

pic.twitter.com/xjc6eaklI2 — Rebecca Spencer (@beckyspencer2) June 15, 2023

In many cases, it cast huge doubt over their participation at the biggest tournament in women’s football. For some players, it cost them the chance to compete at all.

Australia’s players do not have to worry about such consequences on this occasion — they are speaking out against FIFA rather than their federation. But it is yet another instance of off-field issues dominating the agenda.

This is nothing new for the women’s game. In recent years we’ve seen the USWNT fight a long battle with the United States Soccer Federation (US Soccer) over equal pay and working conditions, ultimately filing a gender discrimination lawsuit against the federation in 2019 (a landmark $24million/£18.8m settlement was reached in 2022, with the federation promising equal pay between the men’s and women’s national senior teams for friendlies, tournaments and World Cup matches).

We’ve also seen individual players take a stand. Chief among them: the Norway striker and global star Ada Hegerberg. The first recipient of the women’s Ballon d’Or (in 2018) and winner of six Champions League titles, Hegerberg first represented her country at the age of 15. But in the summer of 2017, she made the decision to stop playing for Norway, having become exasperated at the approach taken to women’s football and the development pathway for young girls by the Norwegian federation.

“When I took the decision, it was like a weight off my shoulders,” she said in an interview with CNN in 2019. “I’ve done what I can do to make an impact and do the best to make things better. When that doesn’t work, you have to take a choice. Life is full of difficult choices to make.”

There was immense pressure on her to return for the 2019 World Cup but Hegerberg did not waver. As her former team-mates went on to reach the quarter-finals (where they were beaten 3-0 by England), she watched from the sidelines.

Hegerberg returned to the national team in March 2022, meaning her absence lasted almost five years.

From the outside, it can be difficult to understand the effects these types of actions have on players. They’re elite athletes, used to competing hard, used to fighting for places, used to putting themselves out there to be shot at by anyone watching from near or far.

But these situations are different to the on-pitch battles players are used to. They can be divisive. Political. Nasty. They can lead players to doubt themselves, to question whether they are doing the “right” thing and just who, or what, they are doing it for.

“At a personal level, it was one of the most difficult and challenging periods of my life,” says the former 100-cap New Zealand international Sarah Gregorius, who is now director of Global Policy & Strategic Relations in Women’s Football at FIFPRO. “I wouldn’t wish that on anyone — any player or any person because it’s unbelievably difficult to have to go through something like that.”

In 2018, Gregorius was part of a New Zealand squad that felt there was a “fundamental incompatibility” between a large group of players and the head coach of the team.

Thirteen players signed a letter declaring they would not play under Austrian coach Andreas Heraf, who they accused of bullying and creating a culture of fear.

Their actions led to an investigation, not only into Heraf’s conduct but into the wider structures around the team. Heraf (who was also the technical director at New Zealand Football) resigned, as did chief executive Andy Martin, who was heavily criticised for his appointment of Heraf and subsequent defence of the then-50-year-old.

“It ended up snowballing a little bit,” says Gregorius, who explains that alongside the investigation validating the players’ allegations, finding “various levels of unprofessional and non-elite behaviour taking place”, it uncovered a culture within the New Zealand Federation that “also wasn’t fit for purpose”.

“It ended with the resignation of a few other people that were certainly not on the radar of the players,” adds Gregorius. “But I think it shows that, oftentimes, a member of technical staff, a person, is just the product of a system that has neglected players, not listened to players and certainly not taken their views into consideration adequately enough.”

Asked to explain why this was such a difficult period in her life, Gregorius says it’s relatively simple: “I really loved playing football. And I really loved playing football for my national team. And all of a sudden, that was in jeopardy. It was the case for me, it was also the case for a lot of my team-mates, and that is so unbelievably difficult for a player.

“You have to understand that it’s only under the worst of circumstances that players would opt out of that opportunity. Because it’s everything that players say that it is: it’s a huge honour, a huge privilege. A lot of the time, it’s everything that you’ve dreamed of for as long as you can remember.

“That part, at a very human level, at a player level, is so challenging. To have to go through that and to put the thing that you love the most in the world, and that has been such a core part of your identity for so long, on the line, because you’re in a situation where you’re not being respected, your rights aren’t being upheld. It’s absolutely devastating.

“For me, that was the big challenge and then seeing the mental impact that it was having on some of my team-mates as well. The ones who triggered the action and participated in it, but it also created a huge amount of uncertainty for all players.

“Being an international football player is not a part-time job. Maybe you only play in certain windows but you think about it constantly — always training for it, always preparing for it. If you’re having to do that without actually knowing if you’ll ever step foot on that field… it’s mentally very, very difficult for elite athletes to have to do that.”

Spain’s two-time Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas said in March this year it is “exhausting to have to be constantly demanding improvements in order to perform better. We want the players to be able to focus 100 per cent on performing. The leaders should improve our conditions without having to ask for it all the time.”

And, speaking to The Athletic, Canada’s Julia Grosso described it as “stressful” to be preparing for a World Cup amid an ongoing dispute between the players and Canada Soccer.

“It’s definitely unfortunate that we have to go through that,” she says. “We’ve been disappointed and want more. We’re going to fight for that until we get what we deserve. It’s definitely been hard on our team. I know that my team is just a bunch of fighters. We always pull through together and, no matter what the circumstance, we’re always by each other’s sides. That’s all that matters. It’s unfortunate, we deserve a lot better — but hopefully we’ll get that.”

All of this makes it so much more impressive to recall that, in 2019, the USWNT won their fourth World Cup, three months after 28 players on the roster filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against the US Soccer. In their statement the players described “institutionalised gender discrimination” that they said had existed for years, not only affecting how much they earned but also where they played and how often, how they trained, the medical treatment and coaching they received, and how they travelled to matches.

Jeffrey Kessler, the co-chair of Winston & Strawn’s sports law practice group, was the lead attorney representing the USWNT players in 2019 and tells The Athletic the players they did an “extraordinary” job at the World Cup that year.

“What you have to remember is that the main focus of world-class athletes when they go to an event like the World Cup is doing their best to prepare for and win the games,” he said. “This focus is difficult to maintain when you are also engaging in high-visibility protest activities.

“The women on the national team in the United States really did both in Paris. They were able to bear the public pressure of fighting for equal pay in the most visible way. And they also won the World Cup.

“No one should underestimate how difficult or distracting doing both of those things at the same time could be.”

Kessler says that alongside the team’s “incredible dedication, preparation, skill, and internal fortitude”, there were two reasons in particular why the USWNT were able to do that so successfully.

Firstly, he says the players were able to use their fight for equality to further their competitive intensity and desire to win “because they wanted to show that they deserve equal pay with the men — and winning the World Cup obviously underscored that”.

Secondly, Kessler says the USWNT had great leaders, such as Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan (among others), who not only were able to turn the legal battle into something that unified the team but who were also willing to absorb more of the public heat, leaving their team-mates free to focus on the game.

“In any type of political protest, there are some players who are more willing to take the pressure and articulately express the point of view while still focusing on their game and preparation. That is a great help to the rest of the team-mates who might find it more difficult to do both at once.”

The ways in which players are impacted by the challenge of carrying a protest into a World Cup are very individual. Sports psychologist Sarah Murray has worked with elite female athletes and professional footballers and says it comes down to each player’s ability to “understand their ‘why’: to understand why they’re wanting to represent their country, what football means to them, and actually remaining focused on that. If that is at odds with what’s happening with protests, for example, then some players will have a difficult time psychologically to be able to switch between the competing demands”.

There are some players, says Murray, who are able to step into a “protective bubble of ‘me: the performer. Me: the player,’ and when I’m playing it doesn’t matter the badge or the context. I’m playing and that’s what I do, and I prepare in the same way.

“Players being able to manage themselves psychologically, to step into that performance bubble despite the context or the noise, is something that the very best, most skilled athletes will have the ability to do. But there will be those who may find it incredibly distracting, and it might start to impact their why or it might be linked to their why. In which case, maybe we see behavioural changes or we see their relationship with the game impacted by it.”

Could it also affect players physically? “Certainly we know that ‘the body keeps the score’,” says Murray, quoting the title of a book by Bessel van der Kolk, which explores how psychological loading or trauma plays out through the body.

“There are physiological impacts of any psychological load. Depending on how mentally heavy our mind is — how many tabs in the mental inbox we’ve got open — these things can play out in the body in terms of feeling drained or having less energy. I’m doing a lot of work around the psychophysiological responses to threat, pressure and stress because we can’t untangle the two.”

There has been a lot of talk around ‘loading’ in the women’s game ahead of this World Cup, specifically in relation to the amount of injuries we have seen to so many key players. But it’s not just physical loading that coaches should be mindful of, says Murray.

“We’ve got loading on the mind and loading on the body. Heavy on body; heavy on mind. And we have to think about what’s going on in both instances, because some things might be heavy on body but light on mind. But when something is heavy on mind, it’ll often play out as heavy on body as well.”

That’s part of the reason why Gregorius believes (and advises others, as part of her role at FIFPRO) that it is far better for players to work collectively in these instances, as opposed to individually, like Hegerberg.

“I’m not surprised that someone like Ada feels such a strong sense of conviction that she does take ownership of situations and is not afraid to step in or step out or engage in a discussion or a confrontation when things aren’t good enough,” Gregorius tells The Athletic. “But then, at the same time, we’re talking about a Ballon d’Or winner. 

“An unbelievable athlete and an unbelievable person. You don’t see players of a similar profile in men’s football having to do that; she shouldn’t have to. It’s great that we have these amazing characters like her, like the Megan Rapinoes, Alex Morgans, Pernille Harders, Magdalena Erikssons of the world who do so much with their voice and their platform. But at the same time, imagine if they could just worry about football.”

Gregorius points to the work done by FIFPRO in uniting over 150 players from 25 national teams to push FIFA for improved conditions and prize money at the World Cup. The largest piece of collective action ever undertaken by women’s footballers resulted in world football’s governing body FIFA announcing a significant increase in the prize money on offer at this summer’s tournament (from $30million in 2019 to $110m).

“That’s what we’re encouraging — this long-term strategic planning that utilises the voice of the collective rather than the voice of the individual,” says Gregorius. “I always say to players: ‘Can we find a way to do this that protects you, instead of putting you at risk?”

She believes that once players take to the field in Australia and New Zealand, they will be able to follow the example of the USWNT and place their off-field battles to one side.

“I already see the tremendous amount of strength that it takes to do what these players are doing. And I think that same strength, that same resilience, and that same determination will be channelled into some unbelievable on-field performances as well. I just really hope they get the opportunity to put those performances in on the field, right?

“For me, once you get back into that mode of doing what you do best and doing what you love, I think you can really mask the impact and actually sometimes use it as fuel to make sure you give everything you have on the field — because you’ve risked so much off it.”

Kessler agrees that one strategy for players in that position is to “try to link their battles with their desire to compete”. By extension, it’s easy to surmise that the better a team does on such a big stage, the more pressure it applies to those federations accused of falling short in their provisions for female players.

“Absolutely,” says Gregorius. “But that in itself is so problematic. We’ve seen recently players in their most successful moments also have this tremendous awareness of the broader impact they can make.”

She points to the actions of the European Championship-winning Lionesses who, in the afterglow of their historic victory over Germany at Wembley last summer, wrote an open letter to the incoming UK prime minister Rishi Sunak asking them to ensure that all girls have access to football at school. It was signed by all 23 members of Sarina Wiegman’s squad.

“I am a little bit blown away that players use these huge moments of success to create long-term legacy and change,” adds Gregorius. “But it shouldn’t be that way. You shouldn’t have to win a World Cup in order for your federation to recognise gender equality.”

The battles can be exhausting and frustrating.

“Sometimes, the most difficult thing to change is certain people’s minds,” Spain defender Mapi Leon, who withdrew from selection as part of a player protest, told FIFPRO. “We’re changing, we’re doing events with the people who are joining in, the people who are committed, who want to be involved and believe in it. But it’s difficult to change the minds of people who don’t believe so much.

“Changing that is harder, and it’s going to be our biggest challenge.”

[ballsbalb]

"it’s not often you see a referee single-handedly change a game." maradona during argentina/england 1986 : quarter-final match of the 1986 of the fifa wc maradona scored a goal with his hand that the referee failed to detect. the refs not penalizing diego for handball drastically altered the outcome of the game, and argentina won the wc.

luis garcía liverpool/chelsea 2005 : semi final of the ucl, garcia scored a goal for liverpool, that was allowed by the referee despite claims that the ball didn't fully cross the goal line. this shocking decision by the referee significantly impacted the match as Liverpool advanced to the final and eventually won the ucl that season.

thierry henry france/ireland 2010 : thierry handled the ball in the buildup to the decisive goal, which led to france qualifying for the 2010 World Cup. it was obviously so clear that he had touched it with his hand but the referee and assistant referees did nothing about it.

inzaghi ac milan/bayern 2007 : semi final of the ucl, inzaghi scored an offside goal. this goal put which put milan ahead on aggregate btw, was decisive in their access to the final and their victory in the tournament. frank lampard england/germany 2010 :

rof 16 during wc lampard's shot CLEARLY (and there is so many clips ab this) crossed the goal line after hitting the underside of the crossbar, but the referee didn't give out the goal. this decision enden up crashing england out of the tournament. roy carroll manutd/totthenham 2005 :

prem game this time, mendes attempted a wide shot that clearly crossed the goal line before manutd goalkeeper carroll saved it out. the goal wasn't given out and the game ended up with a score of 0-0. sergio ramos real/bayern munich 2017 : second leg of ucl quarter final, sergio scored a goal in extra time that put rma ahead on aggregate. replays showed that ramos was offsidewhen the ball was played to him. that goal ultimately helped Real Madrid progress to the semi-finals.

i could name a hundred more situations like this, so no. it is often that you see referees single handedly change games like this. that ref was doing it's job, that's all.

yeah, i can google ‘bad referee mistakes football,’ too. and yeah, i have basic knowledge of well-known mistakes in the sport, too.

indeed, refereeing mistakes have happened before, and this is not at all a new occurrence. but, unfortunately, there are tens of thousands of games played a season, so, yes, my original statement stands- being able to name a few or even a few hundred times that a referee made a bad decision does not in any way disprove the fact that refereeing disasterclasses such as the one we saw today are not, in fact, common, as a 100/1,000,00 ratio is still uncommon.

bad decision happen all the times- no shit. referees are humans. but when these decisions happen dozens of times in one match, and almost universally favor one team over the other, that is a different situation that one simple mistake.

a referee should not ever be the comprehensive decider of a game. they should not be the reason one team wins over the other.

acting like it’s okay just because it’s happened before is classic whataboutism and really doesn’t help your point in the way you think. all of those mistakes were disgraceful, too. that doesn’t excuse what we saw today.