Foreign Media's World Cup build-up

[Dan+]

Bit of a random one this, but it largely comes from the fact the English media when it comes to tournaments, by and large are complete wankstains. They usually are anyway, but they step it up a notch whenever a tournament arrives.

But one thing gets me a bit. I think for all it's a problem, so many people in this country seem to point to this as a big reason England never win anything. I think it's quite a cop-out and think while they obviously don't help, it's very simplistic to say it's down to that.

So what are the media like in other countries? How do the Spanish media act? The French? German? Argentine? Brazilian? Portuguese?

[Danny]

5 hours ago, Dan said:

Bit of a random one this, but it largely comes from the fact the English media when it comes to tournaments, by and large are complete wankstains. They usually are anyway, but they step it up a notch whenever a tournament arrives.

But one thing gets me a bit. I think for all it's a problem, so many people in this country seem to point to this as a big reason England never win anything. I think it's quite a cop-out and think while they obviously don't help, it's very simplistic to say it's down to that.

So what are the media like in other countries? How do the Spanish media act? The French? German? Argentine? Brazilian? Portuguese?

So basically @Batard @Tommy @Berserker @El Profesor @Machado

[Berserker]

It's also shit here, and i'm sure that's the case everywhere. They twist facts, fabricate scapegoats, try to insert players into the NT by force by overly exaggerating their performances, among many more things. This leads to the brainwashing of millions of simpletons who end up spouting shit on social media, the internet and RL alike. I despise them and the sooner they go extinct the better for everyone.

[Devil-Dick Willie]

5 minutes ago, Berserker said:

It's also shit here, and i'm sure that's the case everywhere. They twist facts, fabricate scapegoats, try to insert players into the NT by force by overly exaggerating their performances, among many more things. This leads to the brainwashing of millions of simpletons who end up spouting shit on social media, the internet and RL alike. I despise them and the sooner they go extinct the better for everyone.

 

Hit. Nail. Head. Australia are favorites to ome 2nd in the group in spite of having the worst squad in the group by a clear margin, Austrailas "world beating" performance against the czech republic was a result of superior tactics and skill, rather than a hungry 1st choice team with everything to play for playing against a b team with one foot on the holiday plane, and if we 'come out of the blocks strong' against France 'why can't this side cause an upset?'

 

Deluded.

[Machado]

Not so bad over here compared to what I'm reading. Just the wankfest around Ronaldo that gets annoying. I like the coverage in general and the shows dedicated to the World Cup are pretty good in some channels, way better than during the season.

As for expectations, those are usually realistic. Higher now that we're European Champions, but no one's really talking about winning the World Cup. It helps that we always had down to earth managers.

Have to say though that I'm not a fan of the general lack of honesty in punditry. Even when the call ups or team selection are gash there's rarely a word about it in the media.

[El Profesor]

In Brazil, the public opinion is formed by Globo. And generally Globo adopts an uncritical tone in the build up and during the World Cup. They show each night at Jornal Nacional a series about the personal lives of each one of the 23 players in our squad, Galvão Bueno is always optimistic and Tite is held as a football God. Business as usual. 

But... if Brazil doesn´t win the World Cup, everyone will suck, they will say players don´t care about Brazil because they live in Europe, that they had the best team but didn´t have the will to win nor good coaching. The press will hunt and scapegoat a player, David Luiz was the target in 2014, and the coach will be fired and harshly criticized. 

Brazilians press is the nicest if you win, but absolutely the meanest when you lose. Only a World Cup title and nothing less is accepted.

The Sterling episode would never happen in Brazil before the World Cup, only after if we lost.

[Spike]

2 hours ago, Devil-Dick Willie said:

 

Hit. Nail. Head. Australia are favorites to ome 2nd in the group in spite of having the worst squad in the group by a clear margin, Austrailas "world beating" performance against the czech republic was a result of superior tactics and skill, rather than a hungry 1st choice team with everything to play for playing against a b team with one foot on the holiday plane, and if we 'come out of the blocks strong' against France 'why can't this side cause an upset?'

 

Deluded.

It isn't delusion at all. It's a tertiary sport in the country and they try to drum up and spark interest by sensationalising the Socceroos. It's easy to sell with optimism than doom and gloom nonsense. 

[Berserker]

10 minutes ago, Spike said:

It isn't delusion at all. It's a tertiary sport in the country and they try to drum up and spark interest by sensationalising the Socceroos. It's easy to sell with optimism than doom and gloom nonsense. 

It's still delusional whatever the intentions may be.

[Devil-Dick Willie]

People buy it as well. It's crazy.

[Harry]

2 hours ago, Devil-Dick Willie said:

People buy it as well. It's crazy.

That's exactly the mindset supporters and the players themselves should have. Caution but a belief they can compete with the better teams in the comp on our day. 

[Devil-Dick Willie]

No caution. Just, "we'll beat france."

[Harry]

Not sure i make the same read of your initial comments that if we come out of the blocks strong there's no reason we can't cause an upset. 

That's a pundit giving a fan a reason to watch the game and not undermining the similar level of optimism that would exist in the dressing room...

Surely better than the UK tabloids version of "tune in to see England inevitably spectacularly implode. You'll never guess against who."

[Devil-Dick Willie]

At least the UK one is true. In France they're probably saying "If oui come out of the blocks hard, there's no reason we can't win by 5 or more"

[Spike]

5 minutes ago, Devil-Dick Willie said:

At least the UK one is true. In France they're probably saying "If oui come out of the blocks hard, there's no reason we can't win by 5 or more"

I'd put a larger bet on the French thinking 'what stupid controversy will fuck up our chances this time?'

I hadnever seen a more overrated team than Spain 2010, till I saw France 2018.

[Guest]

In our first world cup in 30 years, its been absolutely unbearable here.

The FPF media team has done an excellent job in building up the hype for the tournament, but the tabloids have been nothing short of annoying. Spreading fake news regarding the whole Paolo Guerrero issue, finding new ways to blame Claudio Pizarro, as well as making fake graphics saying that he was called up. Its all calmed down now, but some pages like El Desmarque and Exitosa are just desperate for new ways to get new listeners/followers. 

One example was that they said there would be a press conference in Swizterland on a specific day that would clear Paolo Guerrero to play. That day came and no press conference. I feel bad for the best journalists in the country who are given a bad reputation by all the shite around them.

[Machado]

Good watch.

 

 

[Dan+]

Interesting reading. As suspected, it's largely an excuse trotted out by people over here.

[Devil-Dick Willie]

On 10/06/2018 at 14:13, Machado said:

Good watch.

 

 

 

A few valid points. But some of it is justified. 'We played shit against Iceland because we were scared of being judged' doesn't fucking fly.

[Spike]

1 hour ago, Devil-Dick Willie said:

 

A few valid points. But some of it is justified. 'We played shit against Iceland because we were scared of being judged' doesn't fucking fly.

It's England, they always look for an excuse for their sports teams. Unlike us (who can accept that we are usually unequivocally rubbish to okay at all sports bar rugby league and cricket) they have to have a reason why they didn't win. Boo hoo, it was Beckham's fault, boo hoo Sven Goran Erikson, boo hoo no goal line technology for Lampard's goal. 

[SirBalon]

In England it's always been radical in the sense of when I was younger the press would always sell that England was the best and only winning would do (obviously then it wouldn't happen) and these days it's swung all the way to the other extreme with utter depression and negativity in general.  No middle ground!

In Spain it all depends what press you read, where that individual journal has its base geographically, political persuasion (ideology) and probably 101 other factors that can go into producing how a sentiment is printed.

In general they know Spain has the potential to win, in other words Spain has the quality available.  But obviously that's not the expectation.  Expectation is doing very well and going far, not the fiasco of 2014. 

Being a Latin country culturally...  Well the reactions are like the English weather...  You can feel a bit of everything to the extreme in a very short space of time.  And because of the Latin culture, you'll get overreaction on any outcome.

[Marc]

The German's were booing Ozil and Gundogan the other day for meeting with the Turkish president, I assume there's been a fuss in the German press over that too

[Stan]

Quote

 

"It's unique to this country to attempt to destroy our players' morale before a major tournament. It's weird, unpatriotic and sad."

Gary Lineker made this claim in response to the media circus that surrounded Raheem Sterling last month.

Sterling was criticised by sections of the English media for having a tattoo of a gun on his leg, which he said was a tribute to his late father.

It led to an outpouring of support for the England winger on social media, with some suggesting that England "must be the only country whose players get treated like this by the media" before a World Cup.

Is there any truth to this claim?

To find out, the BBC has spent a week monitoring the news media of five countries competing in Russia 2018 that have won the tournament in the past.

This includes England (1966), the two most recent World Cup winners - Germany (2014) and Spain (2010) - the most successful country in World Cup history, Brazil (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002) and England's classic international rival Argentina (1978 and 1986).

Two media sources were chosen for each country, with journalists noting which articles were positive and which were negative about players selected to play at this year's finals.

For every country, between 80% and 85% of articles published were neither positive nor negative - covering transfer news, fitness levels and reports about players' personal lives that were not intrusive.

So, is the English media more critical towards national team players than other countries in the run-up to the World Cup?

One way of measuring negativity is to investigate the opposite - the absence of positivity.

Our research showed that 14% of articles published in the Spanish media were positive about players in the national team, compared to 9% of articles in the English media.

You might say that Spain had more reason than other nations to be negative about their national team, after a 1-1 draw with Switzerland at the start of June was followed by an uninspiring 1-0 win over Tunisia on Saturday.

Yet much of the Spanish media seemed to focus on the role Iago Aspas played in the victory, with Spanish daily sport newspapers AS and Marca backing the striker to start in Russia (link in Spanish).

This sort of reaction to an unconvincing victory might explain why more positive articles were published in Spain than anywhere else - but only just.

Spain was closely followed on our list by Brazil, where hardly any negative articles were published at all.

The source of the positivity in the Brazilian media generally stemmed from articles profiling their players' strengths, with UOL Sport calling Brazil right-back Fagner (link in Portuguese) "an example of discipline" and Globo praising Willian for his relationship with coach Tite (link in Portuguese).

This comes against a backdrop of great expectation, with Globo summarising that (link in Portuguese) "the Brazilian team is responsible not only for the achievements on the field, but also for the country's success as a nation".

Despite this extraordinary weight of expectation, the Brazilian media remained positive that their players would achieve their goals.

Another way of measuring the claim that the English media is more critical than elsewhere is to look for similarities across the media of other countries.

So the question becomes whether any other country would criticise a player for an innocent social media post - just as the English media focused on Raheem Sterling's Instagram post showing his tattoo.

There was one notable example of this found in the non-English media, as despite being otherwise positive about their chances in Russia, the Argentine press was briefly focused on an Instagram post of full-back Cristian Ansaldi relaxing in a hot tub.

The footballer was forced to publicly apologise (link in Spanish) for the photograph, which was heavily criticised in the media (link in Spanish) for causing fans to "foam at the mouth" with anger at him posting the photo.

The English media was found to be the most negative of the sample of worldwide sources that we looked at, with 9% of the articles deemed critical of particular players, or England's chances at the World Cup.

But perhaps surprisingly, England were closely followed by Germany, with 8% of the articles in German media seen as being negative.

The German media coverage seemed to focus on anger (link in German) at Ilkay Gundogan and Mesut Ozil appearing with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with Die Welt labelling Özil (link in German) "a serious problem".

Raheem Sterling continued to dominate headlines in the English media, with one Daily Mail journalist urging him to "stop diving", while The Sun called Sterling a "standout performer" - in an article with the headline "when did Raheem Sterling's dad die?".

Perhaps the most surprising outcome of this investigation was that the German and English media were very similar in the amount of coverage that was positive or critical of players.

But the negative coverage in Germany seemed to focus on political issues surrounding two players, whereas the criticism in the English media coverage was more personal. In this way, the English media drew similarities with the Argentine media's criticism of Cristian Ansaldi.

If only looking at the charts, it can be said that Germany seem to be just as critical of their players as England, so it will be interesting to see whether this impacts how the sides perform in Russia.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-44438608

[Devil-Dick Willie]

"WHY THE SOCCEROOS WILL WIN

Even a draw will go down as a win but sheer belief and a bit of luck may carry the Socceroos over the line.

France also have a history of slow starts, and with the added pressure on them to perform, they could crumble."

 

Fox sports AU everybody

[DeadLinesman]

I’d prefer that to the British media to be honest. At least they’re trying to look at the positive than undermine your whole squad at every single opportunity.

[Devil-Dick Willie]

Quote

 

"Australia’s first dance in the 2018 FIFA World Cup has seen us controversially go down to a country that probably has equivalent to our entire populations as registered soccer players.

The Socceroos had an almighty crack against the renowned soccer nation France last night, but ultimately fell short at the death in a 2-1 defeat at hands, and boots, of one of the tournaments favourites.

France’s opening goal in the second half has since generated enormous controversy among Australian viewers, with Josh Risdon sliding in on Antoine Griezmann to dispossess the star forward in the box.

However, diving and filthy European sportsmanship aside, the score at the end of the day indicated that a country of 68 million is now better than Australia’s 24 million, at our fourth or fifth most popular sport.

Even with the loss, the Socceroos have won the hearts and minds of Australia, who have essentially forgotten what it feels like to dominate on an international stage at any sport, except cricket, when we aren’t cheating.

While the A-league limps on in the peripheral of most Australians, only making headlines when someone does something wild like lighting a flare and throwing it at a bunch of cops, the highest level of soccer in Australia is growing a fanbase each match, and so is Caltex – it seems the Socceroos may be the premier non-domestic sporting team to take Australia into the future."