Back in his playing days he was considered a heart throb, but he’s definitely done the Clooney thing of getting more handsome with age
And he is a lot cheaper.
Fify
[Insert Mcnulty wobbling hand gif]
[Insert Omar Come at the King gif]
Its sad that all the conspiracy theories and theorists are undermining what is one of the all time classic WC games.
Those of us who follow African football are quite familiar with North Africans being especially bad losers. Particularly Egypt and Morocco.
An Egyptian team, Ismaily protested the Nigerian club Enyimba’s CL win for nearly 2yrs…
It was an all time classic…but VAR intervention shaped it. Without VAR Egypt might have ended up 3-0 up (but all ifs buts and maybes).
Egypt are massively over egging this, as others have said it’s a clear foul in the build up to that goal. And the ref didn’t make them concede three goals. Still FIFA deserve everything they get after the Balogun red card fiasco, they have shown they are open to corruption and bending the rules due to outside influence so all allegation now have grounds. Let them fly.
Re the refeering, the key point for me is, when does VAR intervene and when does it not. The ‘clear and obvious’ is not adhered to, it seems to be on a complete whim.
Its sad that a snarky individual decides to label people because he cannot contemplate an alternative viewpoint.
For context I pointed out what could be construed as a conspiracy earlier. The views proffered come from reasonable people, with an understanding of fairness. And most, I believe think Egypt have legitimate cause for complaint
“Those of us who follow African football” an elite group with a higher knowledge?
Or another feeble attempt at oneupmanship because you feel your argument is more valid?
And it is yet one more tally in the “argentina get reffed to a different standard than other teams” category that has grown throughout the tournament. Given the lengths FIFA have gone to include Messi in the Club World Cup, and get Ronaldo into the tournament by suspending his ban, it is pretty naive to think there is not pressure to keep Messi in the tournament
Probably wrong, but I thought the tag “Clear and Obvious Error” was invented by PGMOL. Other officiating bodies do not have such term.
Based on the rules and especially, the application of the rules, even in the PL, there is no legitimate grounds for the accusations of unfairness by FIFA.
There’s a lot to be upset with FIFA in the current WC, but not this…
It comes from IFAB in the original protocol, but it is completely misapplied by pundits and commentators despite a decade of clarification.
Whether something is clear and obvious cannot be evaluated without knowing what the ref thought of the incident and what the basis of the original decision was. It relates to the VAR seeing something int he replay that is clearly and obviously different than the ref described. It refers to there being an objective difference in the reality of the situation (did the contact the ref thought he saw actually occur?) not a difference of opinion about something they both agree happened but differ on its meaning and importance (we saw the contact the ref described but disagree that it was meaningful and impacted the attacker).
There is a protocol for VAR intervention and its not based on a whim…
First, the VAR intervention did not shape it. It was simply part of what was an engrossing contest.
The game was primarily shaped by the performance of the players on both sides.
Secondly, there is no way to know Egypt would’ve scored a 3rd if the VAR had not intervened. As you rightly noted, that is just speculative…
Dont agree that VAR was simply part of the process.
Football is a low scoring game. VAR made decisions that impacted at least two goals…both decisions subjective and marginal. It shaped the game massively.
If VAR had ruled two goals out for objective decisions (offsides say), then id agree with you.
You may disagree with it, but they were not subjective decisions. They are based on standards established for the competition and applied accordingly.
I think the massive failure of implementation of VAR in the EPL has colored our views on its use.
Of course its subjective. This is not a football disagree but one of the meaning of words
Its not subjective that a foul occurred in the build up phase.
We’ve seen this applied in multiple gmes, including the PL
Murat Yakin was a pretty hard central defender. The kind who submits opposing forwards into submission. The boss on the pitch, and the best-looking as well. ![]()
(He was actually a quite good footballer in his heydays.)