[Football] Who’s not watching the World Cup?

[nicko31]

View attachment 153603

FIFA Fan parks might be £11 a can of Budweiser … but water is cheaper than the Amex. Barber out !

Just so pathetic, I’d rather drink my own piss

Or you could drink at qatars best sports bar and pay 80 quid for a beer

Find out how much a beer will cost at Qatar's best sports bar?

The Middle Eastern state is highly religious with a ‘sin tax’ applied to all alcohol sales during the 2022 Qatar FIFA World Cup.

khelnow.com

Qatar can boast 1 death for every 55 seconds of football in the tournament

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

So I have just had a look on the system for flight availability to flights to Qatar at the end of this week and start of next.

Flights are empty, certainly for a World Cup that's a 6 hour flight away, seems people just are not bothered about going.

 

[jackanada]

Generally I only really get into watching the world cup after England are knocked out. It's at that point watching in a pub becomes less odious, most of the jingoistic commentary dissipates and anyone you find yourself discussing events with may well actually know something about football.

The only good side I see to this WC is that the odd scheduling presents an excellent job league watching opportunity. Lewes's offer of a WC ticket covering their 5 league games (or 5 league and 2 cup) over the period is a tempter.

 

[Springal]

So I have just had a look on the system for flight availability to flights to Qatar at the end of this week and start of next.

Flights are empty, certainly for a World Cup that's a 6 hour flight away, seems people just are not bothered about going.

Who was that with out of interest ? BA tried to move me 3 weeks ago from a Qatar codeshare onto their own operated A380 they’ve put on

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Who was that with out of interest ? BA tried to move me 3 weeks ago from a Qatar codeshare onto their own operated A380 they’ve put on

BA/QR sounds like they tried to sweet talk you into moving to cancel a service?

 

[Springal]

BA/QR sounds like they tried to sweet talk you into moving to cancel a service?

No it was a Qatar operated flight, but then turned into a BA operated A380. It was the same time.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

No it was a Qatar operated flight, but then turned into a BA operated A380. It was the same time.

What date you heading out?

 

[Springal]

What date you heading out?

24th

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

24th

Seems to be less flights and again completely wide open, not that it matters.

Maybe check the cost of an upgrade at airport, if the numbers stay like they are they may do some on the day offers.

 

[OzMike]

Time differences and having to be awake at work will stop me watching most of it.

 

[Albion in the north]

I might watch games where our boys are involved but wont watch England no matter how far they get. A mix of apathy towards our team and unhappiness that it was awarded to that horrible regime.

 

[severnside gull]

I won’t be watching..
Tough call as a football fanatic but giving Qatar a free pass for human rights abuse is wrong at every level. FIFA should hang their heads in shame.

 

[Solid at the back]

Will watch the Albion players. Won't watch a single England game whilst Gareth "I pick players on form" Southgate is in charge.

Thought a certain post by Reece James was quite interesting this morning. Shows what the players really think.

 

[Springal]

Will watch the Albion players. Won't watch a single England game whilst Gareth "I pick players on form" Southgate is in charge.

Thought a certain post by Reece James was quite interesting this morning. Shows what the players really think.

To be fair - Walker is already going into a World Cup injured , James isn’t fit either (not even on the bench yesterday) - how many non fit players do we want to take ?

 

[Solid at the back]

To be fair - Walker is already going into a World Cup injured , James isn’t fit either (not even on the bench yesterday) - how many non fit players do we want to take ?

We shouldn't be taking any, we shouldn't be taking anyone who has barely kicked a ball all season either.

 

[Eeyore]

If the world feels a distaste over the Qatar regime, there is a pretty simple solution: stop buying their shit.

Until the 1950s, Qatar was a tribal country of 30-40k fishermen and illiterate sheepshaggers (well, camels perhaps) and you can dig like a moron to try find out if they had any laws or anyone carrying out punishments etc. When the petrol industry found good stuff in the desert, the UK moved some 50k people (English and Indian mostly) over there to work and the country slowly started to modernise - they no longer had to get shipments of water from Bahrain, electricity and air conditioning started to be a thing and so on.

Not that the emir gave much of a shit. He nodded to British proposals about building some schools and stuff and then went back into his palace to count the petrol money. The average Qatari national still seemed to be doing what they've always done - fishing, pearl hunting and playing with those nice camels.

The Brits left (at least their responsibilites; they did not mind keep cashing in), the Emir was thrown out by his son (or nephew or something) who thought he could make some more quid out of the whole oil thingie and invited the yanks and the saudis and whatnot to come to the party. The Qatari nationals going about their shit suited him well, more money for him if his people wasn't educated and demanding liberties and better living standards.

In the 1990s some of the Al Thani family thought "well its a little bit of a pity that our own people are stuck in the 1800's while the foreigners are building this country" so they threw out the Emir in 1995 or 1996 (or something like that, don't remember exactly). The new bloke was more development-oriented - they started to open up to the world. Both with some western ideas - somewhat 'free' press and some places where you could have a beer and stuff - and some ideas from neighbours who had successfully kept their power, such as the Saudis, meaning harsher penalties, tougher laws and actual execution of these laws.

This approach worked well for them. Population since 1995 is up from around 400k to 2.8m today, country is filled with skyskrapers and shit and not many are fishing in the ocean or shagging camels and the standards of living have skyrocketed.

That the new bloke taking over in the 90s liked to flog homosexuals and infidels and what not wasn't seen as a problem by anyone as long as Qatar was a quiet desert country where you could make oil/gas and money. Now when they want political influence that represents their economical importance, people think it is a problem. Our states & governments however clearly doesn't give a shit: as long as Qatar is providing them with stuff, they can flog gay people night and day.

If our governments and corporations didn't feel that way, and boycotted Qatari resources, Qatar would not have the competence or manpower to keep the country going - it would revert into a camelshagging fisherman country, and the locals would not have it (as they're accustomed to better life standards now) and would get rid of the Al Thani family for good.

The bloke taking over in 2013 (or something) also was a big fan of the whole gay-flogging stuff but less so with the free press stuff his predecessor thought would be nice... and no one except for liberal powerless westerners give a shit.

The problem is not the Qatari regime itself, but those who make it successful and want to retain the status quo because it is profitable.
This includes: the Qatari nationals (great improvement in standards and finances), the west (plenty of American and other western oil companies profiting), the Asians (Japan, China, Korea etc. are the main ones importing from Qatar), Russia (exporting stuff to Qatar), Turkey (exchanging military stuff and funding some terrorism together)... the only ones a bit grumpy are, occasionally, the neighbouring states.

Are we supposed to sit and mutter about the immoral Qataris in front of the televisions while our states and big business are doing the exact opposite thing?

I think if we want to change things in Qatar, we probably have to start questioning our own countries and businesses dealing with Qatar rather than to "show their regime" how unhappy we are about their lack of morals.

I might have put it differently, but the point is made.

When I watched HIGNFY they gave Gary Neville a hard time for going there as a commentator.

He's going because there is a need for commentators. Folk will be watching.

I'd ask those who gave him grief if they are asking at the petrol stations where their fill up is coming from. If they are not then they are part of the problem too.

Us English, among other nations, excel at hypocrisy. I should know, I''m English. I am a hypocrite.

 

[Kitcatt]

Strange one as my interest in England has never been lower. I really dislike Southgate and his tactics - pretty much to the point of not wanting us to win. I'm sure that will cause the GBeebies crew to send me on correctional courses or be burnt as a witch/traitor. But given the quality of football other teams will play, it would be a travesty for me if we ground our way to winning it via poor opponents and Kane rolling around a lot. Throw in the Qatar thing and my interest in a major international championship has never been this low either. We have a setup in the office so will have it on but it will be the equivalent of the women's rugby league or Solheim Cup - a passing interest should it be on in the background.

Contrast that to 1990 or 1996 when it was massive. I can't fully put my finger on what makes me so anti the team but I'm not faking enjoying it for the sake of it. I will be genuinely more interested in the Ecuador games to see our lads. Before the usual suspects start, it isn't some leftie/trendy hating of all things English - I was/am fully behind the ladies team, the cricket team, the current rugby teams and all other national teams. But the England football team leaves me so cold with apathy. Get me an exciting manager and likeable players and I will be back on the bandwagon.

I agree but it’s also the England players; the Harry Kane’s, the Jack Grealish’s, the Harry Maguire’s of this world, who come to the Amex with their club sides and dive around like they’ve been shot, try to get our guys sent off, generally cheat and behave like utter bellends. Would I cheer that lot on I the name of England? Absolutely not.

 

[nicko31]

So I have just had a look on the system for flight availability to flights to Qatar at the end of this week and start of next.

Flights are empty, certainly for a World Cup that's a 6 hour flight away, seems people just are not bothered about going.

Think you'd be right, out of curiousity there are rooms on AirBNB for circa £100 night. Flights via Turkey sub £500.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Seems you need a ticket to get in the country.

So they have built a load of fan zones, but no people to fill them

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

They should fill the empty seats with the 6,500 corpses of the dead migrant workers who built the stadia. Shame on anyone flying out for this.