as bad as the US is, pretty sure Qatar is worse and nobody gave a shit then. Sports fans don’t have morals.
Yeah the whole meme of “sportsball is for dummies” kinda bugs me as I have a few ridiculously intelligent friends who are huge sports fans, but there’s no denying that the average smartness of sports fans does indeed seem lower. It’s not because of something wrong with sports, it’s just that they’re intrinsically pretty easy to understand. The barrier to entry, intellectually, is lower. In a way, that’s great, because it’s something anyone can enjoy. But it doesn’t bode well for the general fan base’s ability to do things like critical thinking.
I was at the final game of Club World Cup last year when that moron was there. People were cheering him. Don’t get me wrong, a significant number were booing him and giving him the finger, even on the big LED wall. But I feel like a large number just weren’t politically-minded enough to feel anything other than “ermagerd! Its da Pressident!!!1” and cheer for him.
Please attend the Canadian and Mexican host cities 2026 FIFA games. 100% attendance at those cities and lower attendance in the US cities will send a better message for moving future events out of the US.
Did you see attendance for the recent world juniors? It was pretty bad. Only USA games were anywhere near “full”. America is a bad sporting nation, they only support themselves.
Sadly, people value soccer more than the lives of other humans.
See: People going to Qatar.
Also FIFA prioritises money over ethics.
Oh, I do think they value their own lives more than soccer, which might have some impact in the number of visitors to the US purelly because of the constant news about how even Europeans are getting treated there.
Mind you, you are absolutelly right that most won’t put the lives of others (or, more broadly, any kind of ethics, moral or principles) above soccer.
Or their own, even.
I don’t want to see you guys getting shot on the news. Don’t come. We’re really occupied right now. I mean… unless you want to be like that white guy in Nepal who got lost during the revolutionary riots while he was trying to take a picture of his food.
I was never much of a sports fan, but there is no fucking way I am going to the US right now.
Wise. If American citizens aren’t safe in America, how would travelers be?
Fifa suck ass. After their “Please accept our totally bullshit peace price” fiasco. Screw them. Do not do business with those who do business like that with Trump
In my experience living in a Football crazy country, Football fans’ almost invariably secondarize moral or principles (in they have any) to their love of the game or whatever team they’re fans of.
I really don’t expect anybody but a handful of people to boycott the World cup as a question of principle, though given the stories coming from there it’s possible that a sense of self-preservation will see many people refrain from going to watch games in the US, but that will be purelly driven by selfish reasons rather than “taking a stand for what is right”.
Football is one of the greatest sources of tribalist identity around and for most people tribalism sits above any and all moral, ethics or principles (as is obvious for example in how MAGA types are defending those Pedophiles who are “chiefs” of their tribe, or how many people take their moral stand on the Gaza Genocide from whatever their favority party leaders say, rather than it being purelly based on the inherent morality of the actions commited there).
Case in point: sports-based riots.
This year’s World Cu in the USA is very similar to the 1936 Olympics. The only big difference, the US public transportation network to stadiums sucks shit.
There is no reason to come here. This will be the lamest, boring soccer fan experience that anyone ever had.
Being drunk is public is a crime and the US ICE will detain any foreigner guilty of a crime.
This will be a fully in-control and respectful viewing event with little drinking and no mischief.
The teams will stay in their hotels until it’s time to fly home.
That or a whole crowd of folks is going to get gunned down.
Being drunk is public is a crime and the US ICE will detain any foreigner
guilty of a crime.ICE is populated with the sort of people who think soccer is un-American and for girls. Most will consider the idea of fucking about with visitors of an international soccer tournament to be entirely consistent with the “Don’t Come Here” message they want to send.
I agree this should happen.
But why stop there? The rogue state that is the US was made possible and brought to you by regulatory and legal capture by the largest US corporations, who continue to support the current regime. If you continue contributing money to the largest US corporations, they will continue their tyranny.
If you’re still buying from and supporting the largest US corporations, you’re contributing to the fascist machine that is currently trying to consume and control the entire world’s political systems.
Unless your very survival depends on it, if you care about democracy, you need to start thinking about how to live without depending on these corporations and institutions. Otherwise, we’re only paying for the privilege of our oppression.
Lmao. Wishful thinking the average fans care. Lots of people went to Qatar, lots of people will go to the US.
Don’t watch it either. Fuck their ad revenue
Football fans are fucking nationalist idiots and simps for online betting, they will watch it.
Stadions will be filled to the brim. For every person who takes a stand there will be millions who would love to go.
The stadions will be packed even if the US becomes an authoritarian monarchy under Trump and there is a pre-game public execution to entertain the crowds.
Filled to the brim with rich people maybe… the average person is going to either get into it with a random authority figure or end up dealing with packed crowds trying to figure out where they’re supposed to go… best case scenario, even if no riots or police shootings, is someone throwing a punch because sports are dumb and make people agressive. So: loud, noisy, crowded, bad smells, no usable bathrooms, expensive, and possibility of getting into a fight or potentially even a shooting with either a random aggrivated stranger or a cop/fed/ice gestapo. Just skip it, unless you have a private plane that can land nearby and a driver to escort you to and from.
I mean, boycott fifa all the time, they are awful.
I dunno, seems like FIFA and Trump are two peas in a pod.
Oh yeah. Corporate and international sports? Of course they are.
Boycott all professional sports.
Way ahead of you.
If FIFA weren’t so incredibly corrupt, by now they’d at least be talking about moving some of the US matches to Mexico and Canada. They have to know that there’s a good chance some of the athletes or coaches will be denied entry, or allowed in then thrown in a concentration camp.
This just happened with Ethiopian Runners, who were denied entry. Only 4 of the 18 were allowed in. Meanwhile Eritrea can’t send anybody because Trump put a travel ban on their country.
There are plenty of other suitable stadia in Canada and especially Mexico that could accommodate the games, and those countries aren’t going to be denying entry to any athletes or coaches.
See, this would be my issue as a football fan. How do we know the games won’t simply be rigged by “whoops we denied the visas to everyone we think we can’t beat”.
I mean, it’s the USA, the list of teams that qualified for the world cup that they can definitely beat might be shorter.
If FIFA weren’t so incredibly corrupt…
But as we both know, they are. Probably the most corrupt sporting organization on the planet.
There are probably boxing or MMA organizations that are more corrupt. But FIFA easily beats them in scale and the amount of money sloshing around.
Incidentally, for all the shitty things that the US has done, and all the contempt Americans tend to show towards football / soccer, the one thing you have to admire is that they were the ones to try to actually take on FIFA corruption a while back. They didn’t have much long-term impact, but no other country has done anything, so it was still impressive.
It’ll be packed with relatively cheap seats for rich Saudis.
if anyone is corrupt it would be the fifa president, and the IOA too.
