The Swamp

Baloney wrote: ↑Fri Nov 13, 2020 8:24 am

Baloney wrote: ↑Tue Dec 24, 2019 2:02 pm Pardew's back - in Holland

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/5090 ... 5qGiT2tsio

govmentchedda wrote: ↑Wed Nov 25, 2020 11:26 pm Superclasico on NBCSN RN, from la tierra de Brian.

brian wrote: ↑Fri Nov 27, 2020 12:49 am Another nice thing about watching Liga MX is I never have to worry about spoilers here like I do with Euro leagues.

Baloney wrote: ↑Mon Dec 07, 2020 10:46 am The draw for World Cup Qualifying Groups in Europe is today.

Games that can't happen, Armenia and Azerbaijan can't be drawn together because of their ongoing conflict. Nor can Gibraltar and Spain or Russia and Ukraine. Also, Kosovo cannot be paired with Bosnia, Serbia or Russia.

brian wrote: ↑Mon Dec 07, 2020 1:07 pm Always love a Slovenia/Slovakia matchup. Iceland has a good chance to qualify again through the second-place spot. Germany has an insanely easy path, not that they'd likely need it. Group D is no joke. The Bosnians and Finns can play spoiler in that group.

HaulCitgo wrote: ↑Mon Dec 07, 2020 1:14 pm Half the groups have 5 and half 6? Strange. Lots of minnows too. Never even heard of several countries.

Rex wrote: ↑Mon Dec 07, 2020 1:05 pm How MAGA is Group H?

HaulCitgo wrote: ↑Mon Dec 07, 2020 1:14 pmNever even heard of several countries.

brian wrote: ↑Mon Dec 07, 2020 3:40 pm The sad thirstiness of Kazakhstan insisting on being a part of European qualifying in these international tournaments never fails to make me laugh. I totally understand why Israel asked to be put in UEFA. The Kazakhs and to a lesser extent the Azerbajanis and Georgians wanting to get their asses kicked by the European powers so they can occasionally get a shot at the Russians strikes me as exceptionally sad.

(I get there are cultural reasons why they associate more closely with Europe and I'll entertain that to a degree for Georgia and Azerbajian, but not so much Kazakhstan.

brian wrote: ↑Mon Dec 07, 2020 3:40 pm The sad thirstiness of Kazakhstan insisting on being a part of European qualifying in these international tournaments never fails to make me laugh. I totally understand why Israel asked to be put in UEFA. The Kazakhs and to a lesser extent the Azerbajanis and Georgians wanting to get their asses kicked by the European powers so they can occasionally get a shot at the Russians strikes me as exceptionally sad.

(I get there are cultural reasons why they associate more closely with Europe and I'll entertain that to a degree for Georgia and Azerbajian, but not so much Kazakhstan.

Pruitt wrote: ↑Mon Dec 07, 2020 6:08 pm

brian wrote: ↑Mon Dec 07, 2020 3:40 pm The sad thirstiness of Kazakhstan insisting on being a part of European qualifying in these international tournaments never fails to make me laugh. I totally understand why Israel asked to be put in UEFA. The Kazakhs and to a lesser extent the Azerbajanis and Georgians wanting to get their asses kicked by the European powers so they can occasionally get a shot at the Russians strikes me as exceptionally sad.

(I get there are cultural reasons why they associate more closely with Europe and I'll entertain that to a degree for Georgia and Azerbajian, but not so much Kazakhstan.

Did Israel ask to be in UEFA?

Always thought they were put in UEFA because half the Asian countries wouldn;t play them.

HaulCitgo wrote: ↑Mon Dec 07, 2020 9:36 pm Isn't the olympic ideal that sport overcomes politics. Maybe if they played more they wouldn't fight as much.

Nonlinear FC wrote: ↑Tue Dec 08, 2020 9:55 am It also wasn't realistic from pretty much the beginning of the existence of Israel. They'd been at actual war with most of their neighbors, either directly or as proxies, from the late 40s until present day.

many Muslim States flat out refused to play against Israel. This often led to farcical situations.

Take for example the 1958 AFC World Cup Qualification process when Israel qualified for the Tournament without having played a single game. How could a team qualify without playing a single match? Simple. No one in the qualifying group would play against The Blues and Whites. On this occasion FIFA stepped in and scheduled a World Cup play off between Israel and Wales to avoid a team qualifying for the World Cup without playing a match.

Incidentally Wales won the the tie 4-0 on aggregate to progress to the World Cup.

Isolated from international football, Australia repeatedly applied to join the Asian Football Confederation in 1960,[7] and in 1974[8] but were denied in all requests. Australia with New Zealand eventually formed the Oceania Football Federation (now Oceania Football Confederation) in 1966.[9] Australia resigned as an OFC member in 1972 to pursue membership with the AFC, but they rejoined in 1978.[10][11]

On 1 January 2006, Football Federation Australia moved from the OFC to the AFC.[4] The move was unanimously endorsed by the AFC Executive Committee on 23 March 2005, and assented by the OFC on 17 April. The FIFA Executive Committee approved the move on 29 June, noting that "as all of the parties involved ... had agreed to the move, the case did not need to be discussed by the FIFA Congress", and was unanimously ratified by the AFC on 10 September.[14][15][16] FFA hoped that the move would give Australia a fairer chance of qualifying for the FIFA World Cup and allow A-League clubs to compete in the AFC Champions League, thereby improving the standard of Australian football at both international and club levels with improved competition in the region.[17]