Dr. Gonzo

I think in all likelihood this is going to be bad for gamers who want to play football games. I can see EA and 2K fighting it out for exclusive rights to certain clubs (similar to how EA would fuck over PES with club rights) - so then you'll end up with some clubs or leagues having those shit half-arsed counterfeit teams in each respective game. Taking the immersion out of the game - which I think is already a big problem for EA with EAFC because they don't really do much to improve the actual game and instead just keep churning out the same game year after year which has people jaded.

Arms manufacturers shouldn't be allowed to generally advertise outside of things like weapon trade shows... but I certainly don't think they should have their logo plastered on kits of a football club which is primarily meant to represent a community. Shame on Borussia Dortmund for this, honestly. Has done a lot to tarnish their image with a lot of neutral fans, from what I can tell... and understandably so.

The two biggest extremists in Israel's government say they'll have their party (parties?) leave their coalition with Netanyahu if he accepts the ceasefire agreement with Hamas. Seems win-win to me.

I wish Nigel Farage would just fuck off for eternity. But I guess he's decided he's not done trying to make things worse and is now going to stand in the election.

Saying Islamicism isn’t a bigoted term - it’s a political belief guided by Islamic fundamentalism. It’s not even the same kind of religious bullshit as Zionism. Criticism of political Islam isn’t the same as criticism of the whole religion ffs.

Can stuff from state courts go to federal courts? It seems like it was expected because the evidence against him was overwhelming, rather than the venue. Yeah, democrats for the most part are basically tories. Republicans on the other hand are just insane & their extremist fringe is now the party base.

Trump guilty on all counts in his hush money for fucking a pornstar trial!

Remember when some in Labour claimed Corbyn would push for purges due to ideological purity tests? Seems like more a confession than an accusation at this point.

I think Starmer wants to be PM at all costs and in the UK, Labour's only going to get a PM if they're like Tony Blair - i.e., only way Labour get a PM is if they're not really very Labour at all. The electorate generally likes Tories, even if they're clueless scum. Right now confidence in Tories is at an all time low because the country's gone to absolute shit. I blame the electorate for the state of UK politics. And the media... but mostly the electorate. I'd have been able to forgive them if they could see through the right-wing media after just a few years of shambolic governance... but they stuck by some absolute rotten politicians even when shown the bullshit criticisms of certain labour politicians were simply bullshit. Our democracy has a lot that makes me think "well... that's not very democratic" - but it's still a democracy so ultimately the voters shoulder a lot of blame for the policies and general woefulness of their governments.

This is why history classes are important. The university students in the US currently protesting have much more in common with the Iranians who were members of National Front & Tudeh during the Iranian revolution. They were against the Shah, but did not want the kind of life for Iranians that Khomeini, and the shitbag Khamenei who would follow him, would draw up for them. If you value things like human rights and are against oppression and you ally with Islamicists like Khamenei, Sinwar, Haniyeh, Nasrallah, or Al-Houthi... you are hurting your cause and working against your values. And at the end of the day if you help them succeed, you're probably going to bring about a whole new form of oppression you'd never really have imagined in the first place.

Think you still have to be in Israel to vote for Israeli elections

Calling the Pahlavis an Iranian dynasty is a bit funny. There were 2 of them. One put in power by the UK until he started acting like not a puppet. Then he was replaced by a democracy. Then that democracy started acting in its national interests. Then the US and UK got scared of what that might do to oil prices so they put in the first Shah’s son. And he was a corrupt autocrat who was also a terrible statesman, only fostering ties with one American political party despite being a US puppet. Western media also played a role in Khomeini’s rise from obscurity in exile in Iraq to becoming an internationally recognizable face of revolution and anti-western imperialism. That was probably done because of the Cold War - the US feared communism and preferred the idea of dealing with religious extremists & Europeans and the West generally has seemingly long had the idea that brown people in the Middle East need authoritarian rule rather than democracy.

Why are they even doing this? It's not like big clubs don't regularly make the final for this cup (or any domestic cup final).

No matter how this appointment goes, this is what I assume is the actual truth behind Bayern appointing him.

It looks nice

Does Mars have any football teams? Better send him up there so he can check.

He's a violent rapist, no club should want anything to do with him.

Bit young to be fucking off to a retirement league as a keeper tbh. If it's something like £200m + then sure, we should think about it because that's some squad building money. But otherwise, probably better to sell off Kelleher and keep one of the best keepers in Europe while he's still got plenty of time left at the top cos he's a keeper.

It’s easy money, if he does well or doesn’t do well.

I’ve never met a City fan in England and the only City fan I’ve met in the US used to be a United fan and ditched them when they became shit lol. I roasted that yank cunt like it was my job. Guitars & metal > football

Seems worse than what Tonalli did, tbh. I think ultimately with his betting, he wasn't betting on Newcastle - plus he was already suspended so he's not playing in these matches he was betting on. With Paqueta he's alleged to have not only bet on West Ham matches, but bet that he would receive a yellow card in matches he received yellow cards. That's not the most mindblowingly corrupt version of match fixing - in fact, it might be the least egregious match fixing possible. But it's still match fixing and if the FA has any sense (which, tbh, the jury is still out on that) they will want to crack down hard on any evidence of match fixing taking place to do all they can to remove any appearance of being okay with any form of corruption in English football. Having said that, counting on these bodies of authority to understand that the appearance of corruption opens up more allegations of corruption an possibly be a lost cause. We've already seem PMGOL see no issue with allowing referees to work side gigs working for the owners of Man City and Newcastle - which presents a pretty obvious appearance of a conflict of interest that invites allegations of corruption to our top flight referees. So hopefully the FA take this seriously, because a player betting on outcomes they can control in matches they play in should never be allowed. And cracking down on it now with something seeming relatively mild makes it clear to any players who might want to fix matches more seriously that they'll face a harsh punishment if/when they are caught. I honestly wouldn't mind if they make an example of him and ban him from playing in England. Players betting on things they do in a match should simply never be tolerated and making a harsh example out of him serves as a big big warning to the rest of the players. This is probably too harsh of a punishment for West Ham though as his market value will plummet.

I think Poch is a better manager than Ten Hairs, but I also don't think he's the right guy to take a club finally turn the corner and demonstrate he can have a club be consistently competitive.

Think there should be a pretty harsh ban if they can prove he'd placed bets on getting a yellow in these matches and then actually did get a yellow.

Did Pep speak German when he joined them? Honestly if their thinking is Kompany’s willing to take the job and speaks German, they should probably reevaluate their criteria. Get the best manager for the job, they’re Bayern Munich… they can pay for private language teachers, Rosetta Stone, & translators to make it work.

They’re honestly better off if they go for Mourinho