‘Fitba at its absolute best’ as Scotland triumph lauded even by the English | OneFootball

Scotland will be at the World Cup and it’s a triumph that is lauded by everybody. Why isn’t supporting England this much fun?

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Scotland the bloody brilliant

28 years. 28 f’ing years. That’s how long it’s been since we’ve been able to participate at a World Cup. We’ve had close calls, abysmal campaigns and plenty of heartache along the way. But this time, we did it.

What an absolutely mad game that was. Worth staying up to 2am for. As the minutes ticked by it felt like it was going to be another “so close” moment, another opportunity missed. And then two ridiculous goals sealed the deal.

I was 14 the last time we played in a World Cup. This time I’ll be able to show my 4 and 5 year old Scotland playing on the biggest stage of all. I can’t wait. Mike, LFC, Dubai

…Truly incredible overhead kick Penalty Red card 10 men getting an equaliser Left back at right back scoring a screamer Goal scored from own half Wild range of emotions with a truly significant prize for the victor

Has there ever been a more “game that had it all” than Scotland v Denmark?

Pure entertainment and fitba at its absolute best. James, Kent

…That was mental! Well done Scotland. Blok

…Honestly, I absolutely hate Scottish football. It’s largely boring and pointless. Furthermore, the utterly pathetic sectarian sh*te that surrounds every Celtic/Rangers game is, to me, inexplicable. Two grounds full of Scottish supporters. One side waving Union flags and the other, Tricolours. In 2025. Really?

But last night, Scotland were amazing. What a game. Superb result and fully deserved. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Regardless of what I’ve written above, I was both cheering and shouting as that last goal went in.

No World Cup competition is made the less by the presence of the Jocks.

Not one.

Can’t remember an England game as dramatic/enjoyable as that. Mark (Black Bear all day long) MCFC

Scotland to Ireland

“Anything you can do (I can do better)…”.

Awesome work lads. Aidan, Lfc (the quality of those goals was ludicrous)

Oh Robbo…

…There have been many comments disparaging the effect the loss of Diogo Jota may have/has had on Liverpool players, well to those people I say, go and watch Andy Robertson’s post match interview from tonight’s game. Howard Jones

…This Andy Robertson post match interview on BBC2 coverage though. Beautifully f**king illustrated. Is it dusty in here, or is it me? RHT/TS x

PS. …and now McGinniesta is trying to make me cry too 🙃

The idiocy of in-season friendlies

Gabriel is lost to the Arsenal for approximately two months due to an injury suffered during a November friendly against Senegal. One of the best central defenders in the world today (perhaps the best) is now lost to his team – and to the league – because of a meaningless commitment enforced by one of the most (perhaps the most) corrupt organizations in modern sports. If this doesn’t fully illuminate the idiocy of in-season international friendlies then I don’t know what does.

While Infantino is off fellating the moron drumpf at every opportunity, the professional athletes who actually represent the sport – with money-earning careers limited to a decade or so – are forced to take part in meaningless charade games at precisely the same time as their domestic seasons hit their competitive peaks. What an absolute joke.

Not that any of you should care in the slightest, but I won’t be watching a single minute of the upcoming maga World Cup – for the same reason I wouldn’t have watched the 1936 Olympics – even though my country is one of the co-hosts, and the football itself will likely be of the highest level.

In fact, I won’t be watching international football ever again. To do so would be to support fascists; to do so would be to support the 1%; to do so would be to support paedophiles and criminals who intend on making this a showcase for themselves despite their utter ignorance of the game and the glorious history of the game. The last I will ever witness of international football is the added time of Scotland’s brilliant victory over Denmark on Tuesday. It was heartwarming, it was stirring, it was brilliant…and it seems like the perfect place to stop.

With sadness George, Little-Edson-on-the-waters, Spruffleton

Hey Jude

I’m not too concerned about the Bellingham circus. It doesn’t really matter if he’s a prima donna or not. TT is handling the situation well, showing loyalty to the squad not pandering to an individual. Bellingham isn’t stupid and nor is his dad, between the 2 of them I’d expect Jude the Bellend to get his shit together before the WC. Cole Palmer outshone The Bellend in the Euro Semi and Final plus the CWC.

JB needs to be the standout player at a tournament himself before he starts acting like he’s Diego Maradona. If he thinks he’s Billy Big Bollox he needs to be consistently world class for the national team. He’s been a long way from that in his England career so far. Nowhere near a Xavi, Iniesta, Zidane, Modric, Hagi, Yamal, Platini, Matteus, Cruyff, Charlton, Makalele, Pirlo, Kroos etc.

In fact I’d argue that even Peter Crouch was way more impactful than Bellingham in roughly the same number of games for England. Crouch scored nearly 4 times as many goals for England in less games. Bel Boy’s 6 goals in 46 games is a pitiful return for the cocky Brummie and a far cry from Danny Welbeck’s 16 in 42. I don’t see that much difference between Bellingham’s impact for England and a player like Ashley Young (7 goals in 39 games).

He still has time to turn his international career around but so far he’s in the group of world class club players like Jamie Vardy, Robbie Fowler and Andy Cole who were unable to to bring their A game to the England set up. The little brat needs to get a grip and deliver some end product for the 3 lions. We don’t even need him when we’ve got Cole Palmer. Ben Teacher

…Bellingham is disruptive he’s no team player and Tuchel sussed him out. Gordie Bobs

Thomas Tuchel has done this…

Oh no, I’m agreeing with Martin Samuel in the Times. Tuchel is making Bellingham a scapegoat.

Southgate looked at the England set up and set about to fix the old problems for the benefit of his country. Tuchel has read the England set up very well and is weaponising glorious failure to set himself him for his next job. Which will not be Real Madrid! Probably Chelsea again.

Setting Bellingham up as the villain this early is a win win for him. The papers will fall for it. The only thing worse than a German is a flashy, stroppy black footballer. He’ll drop him for the group stages, maybe the first knock out game. Maybe he’ll start him against the First Decent Team, maybe he’ll bring him on to save us, maybe out of position. If Bellingham doesn’t save us, its all his fault, if he does, its genius management by Tuchel. Alex, South London

The ego has landed in your soup

There really does seem to be an embittered cabal of Proper Football Men who take great issue when a young player has any sense of self belief or confidence. I’m speaking in the context of Jude Bellingham here, but it could equally apply to players like Cole Palmer or Myles Lewis Skelly. They are young, incredibly talented, and believe in themselves. To rise to the top you need some arrogance and self belief. And faux humility is often worse than arrogance.

I’ve often wondered where it came from. Initially I thought it was because these older ex players missed the full payday of the Premier League. They didn’t get the monster contracts that 16 year old’s get now, and that annoys them. If you make it to the top now, you’re basically set for life.

There is another thing that probably annoys them, and that is these young men, many of whom are still early in their careers, have done better than any of the teams that came before them (barring 1966 obvs). They have outperformed the Golden Generation, objectively speaking. I imagine that boils their p*ss.

And thirdly, they need drama and content, the social media maw demands to be fed, and so they have to grasp something. As other mailboxers have pointed out, this might be one of the smoothest qualification rounds I can remember in my entire life. There is no peril of will we qualify, and so they need something to shift their news rags. I watched with joy as Parrott scored the winner against Hungary, I saw their fans jubilation and wondered why our joy, of our incredibly talented team, is curtailed, degraded, and belittled.

I think this is an incredibly likeable team, and I am excited for the World Cup because I think with our best team available, very few international teams can stop us. The only likely obstacle will be ourselves, and our press. John Matrix AFC

The Enshittification of football

I just finished reading a book entitled Enshittification, which essentially explains how big tech starts by sucking in users, to then suck in businesses so that they can eventually hose all of them.

Take Facebook. It starts with promises to users that are never really kept, but once on board, the effort to leave is considerable. Businesses found a way to access potential customers, cheaply, for free even. Facebook then restricted organic reach (meaning you can’t access people already connected to you). Feeds are filled with crap that Facebook thinks is viral, meaning Facebook can maximize advertising revenues. Businesses have to pay to ‘boost’ posts, so that people already connected to them can (possibly) see their posts. After putting all their eggs into the Facebook basket, they are now locked in.

Facebook gamble that the cost to start again somewhere else is prohibitive enough to keep them spending on their platform. Users don’t see all the posts from their connections; feeds are filled with garbage they don’t want to see. Businesses can’t reach their audience without being ripped off. Meta makes a bundle. As an aside, Procter & Gamble stopped $200M in Ad spend and found no difference in sales. Who can tell who is seeing the Ads or not? In fact, you have to take Facebook’s word that they are even being sent to the target audience in the first place.

What’s all this got to do with Football?

Football is going down a similar path of enshittification. The only difference is that we currently have about four competing ‘platforms’. Just as with Big Tech, these gradually get whittled down to one major platform that rules the roost. We have FIFA, UEFA, Leagues like the EPL and then the top X European sides. All are fighting for supremacy. All are fighting to hoover up all the Sponsorship and Broadcast revenues. FIFA infringing on the club side with its expanded World Club tournament. UEFA expanding their competitions to maximize broadcast revenues, using votes from smaller nations or nations with smaller leagues. Big leagues, especially the EPL, ‘nuff said. And, of course, the clubs themselves, thinking they can extract more for themselves if they can break away and form their own competition. They are all wrong, of course.

The fans suffer from higher ticket prices, higher merchandise costs, and the cost to watching on TV. You can’t watch the EPL, International matches and, say, the Champions League, without subscribing to two or more platforms. The price for one alone is more than subscribing to, say, Netflix, Prime, Apple, or Disney together.

While no one ‘platform’ is in the ascendancy right now, they are all trying to squeeze both the business (broadcaster/sponsor) and user (fan) side. There is a risk that at some point, the broadcasters, in particular, will reduce their bids. They can only spread so far and will eventually make a call on only one or two platforms. At that point, the platform may become unsustainable. If EPL revenues dropped 20% from broadcasters, how would that impact the clubs? Many of whom are stretched beyond belief. Or the pyramid, as no doubt less money is funnelled down.

What is worse is that the quality of the product being delivered gets worse as they chase the pot of gold. The broadcast quality is laggy or we have to listen to yet more insufferable ex-pros waffle on, of we are (ultimately) paying for games between teams who have no purpose being in the competition (World Club, CL), or a competition we don’t care about as part of the package.

I am not one for ‘everything was better when…’ as Johnny Nic is. I remember teams playing on mud, lumping balls upfield wasn’t just bad technique, just pragmatic given the state of most pitches. Players taking lumps out of one another, especially the skilled players we wanted to watch. I could go on. But something stinks with the current state of football.