If Croatia win it'd be a tragedy if Modric didn't get the Ballon D'Or imo

Douglas Costa for me. Or Pickford.

Its fucked presumably. Were getting a winter break next season, but I doubt it starts in November.

21st of May, first friendly was on 2nd of June, first group game was on the 18th of June.

Obviously that was because it was in the close season so the schedule can be tightened up, but still, you'll probably be looking at squads getting together in October.

Sonuva...

Apologies Monkey.

I knew it would be a cluster fuck, but it's starting to sink in a bit now. Still, before this one kicked off I was pretty certain that it was going to be a disaster but I'm delighted to be proven completely wrong on that one.

Christmas market fan parks will take some getting used to though.

No alternative really, Qatar in the summer is over 40°C in the shade. Scorchio!

But... That's in the middle of the fucking season

I mean, I get money and all that, but..

Fucking hell

Glad I've enjoyed the living fuck out of this World Cup, it might be the best one for years to come.

Theyre talking about bringing the expansion forwards, which would cement 2022 as the worst World Cup of all time.

Odds on Man U squeezing in a friendly in New York...?

Paul the sparky wrote:

I've also been reading up on the insanity of the 2026 World Cup, with forty-fucking-eight teams split into sixteen groups of three teams each, top two qualify. Surely the odds of two or even all three teams finishing on the same points will increase? So we might start getting into most corners won or something to split the teams.

The crazy, greedy bastards.

Wait what the fuck. I'm starting to think you're just fucking with me and I'll believe anything you post.

At least Scotland might get into it

Yup.  Blatter suggested all the stadium were going to be fully air conditioned as they were all super duper brand new.  Then it turned out that’s actually physically impossible at this moment in time to air condition a stadium.  Then they decided on winter instead and fuck all the leagues because we’re FIFA.  The general plan is that all the major leagues will have a six week break and the English FA are gonna condense some match weeks and begin the season 2 weeks early.

You should all go and read FIFA.The Fall of the House of Blatter by David Conn.  It’s an amazing insight into the pretty much criminal way the whole organisation has been run since the fella before Blatter took charge.  Adidas are also massively involved in the really fucking shady financial side of things too.  Platini is a fucking robbing twat too - blaming the French president (of the time - who incidentally supports PSG who are bank rolled by the same government that wanted the hosting duties) and Blatter and anyone else he can think of whilst he helps his son get along with a 2 million a year job as sports advisor to the government of the country he voted for the World Cup to go to.  The book asks you to go back and look at the video of the WC announcement for 2018 and 2022 and watch Blatters face as he reads out Qatar as he’s just has to announce Russia for the tournament before.  It’s at this point he knows the game’s up and he’s fucked.

FIFA are now on incredibly shaky financial ground btw.  They can no longer attract tentpole sponsors other than Addidas who will chuck all the money they wish at them and so, they have resorted to heading to Chinese and Indian companies to prop them up with sponsorship.  There’s now hefty noises that the fella in charge is now carrying on with blatters previous regime of bribing the smaller nations with football parks and funding and extra budgets to ensure he stays in charge.  It’s a fuck up.