FIFA World Cup

[gingerjon]

A thread for the upcoming tourney.

The songs are starting to come out...

Austria

 

[gingerjon]

Belle & Sebastian ... Scotland

 

[HawkMan]

REDACTED

 

Edited June 8 by HawkMan

[Maximus Decimus]

11 hours ago, gingerjon said:

A thread for the upcoming tourney.

The songs are starting to come out...

Austria

 

I've just come up with my idea that will finally make me a millionaire.

A Eurovision of World Cup songs!

[Maximus Decimus]

11 hours ago, gingerjon said:

Belle & Sebastian ... Scotland

 

I'm upset Nicola Sturgeon didn't get the band back for a reunion. 

[Futtocks]

Given the pre-tournament ghastlinesses already thanks to Infantino and Trump, I think there's only one England song that suits the occasion.

 

[JonM]

An economist whose blog I've followed for many years apparently has a reputation for correctly predicting the winner of the last 3 world cups. (Bear in mind that he made the forecast with the aim of showing that economic models can't really predict outcomes, and has then somehow got lucky 3 times in a row).  He has Japan beating Brazil and then losing to England in the quarter-finals.

https://panmureliberum.com/media/3179/strs_1031724.pdf

https://klementoninvesting.substack.com/p/fifa-world-cup-predictions-2026

[Maximus Decimus]

2 hours ago, JonM said:

An economist whose blog I've followed for many years apparently has a reputation for correctly predicting the winner of the last 3 world cups. (Bear in mind that he made the forecast with the aim of showing that economic models can't really predict outcomes, and has then somehow got lucky 3 times in a row).  He has Japan beating Brazil and then losing to England in the quarter-finals.

https://panmureliberum.com/media/3179/strs_1031724.pdf

https://klementoninvesting.substack.com/p/fifa-world-cup-predictions-2026

There are far too many variables for any predictions to be taken seriously.

I remember Derren Brown did one bit where he was sending people a letter saying which horse would win a race on a specific date. He then filmed the final race and the person who had been sent something like 5/6 winners in a row.

It ended up being a situation where he had just sent out so many so that one person out of however many thousand would have all the winners and then filmed them being amazed at his predictive powers.

Whenever somebody has 'picked the winners of every x' I always think of that. 

In my youth, I used to be a sucker for all this sort of stuff. I can remember one tournament (maybe 1998) where the order of the winners was in a pattern to suggest it was England's turn again. I genuinely saw it as an omen. 

Edited June 4 by Maximus Decimus

[JonM]

9 minutes ago, Maximus Decimus said:

There are far too many variables for any predictions to be taken seriously.

Which was the point he was setting out to make originally - except that he's now got the winner correct three times in a row...

Japan is an interesting team that he talks about. Beat Spain & Germany in the 2022 world cup, beat Brazil in October in the Confederation cup, beat Scotland and England in friendlies over here in March while missing several players, yet they probably won't get a mention as possible winners.

The prediction scam Derren Brown described was first suggested in the 1700s...

Edited June 4 by JonM

[Sidi Fidi Gold]

7 minutes ago, Maximus Decimus said:

There are far too many variables for any predictions to be taken seriously.

I remember Derren Brown did one bit where he was sending people a letter saying which horse would win a race on a specific date. He then filmed the final race and the person who had been sent something like 5/6 winners in a row.

It ended up being a situation where he had just sent out so many so that one person out of however many thousand would have all the winners and then filmed them being amazed at his predictive powers.

Whenever somebody has 'picked the winners of every x' I always think of that. 

In my youth, I used to be a sucker for all this sort of stuff. I can remember one tournament (maybe 1998) where the order of the winners was in a pattern to suggest it was England's turn again. I genuinely saw it as an omen. 

I remember that, it went

1966 - England

1970 - Brazil

1974 - Germany

1978 - Argentina

1982 - Italy

1986 - Argentina

1990- Germany

1994 - Brazil

So 1998 had to be England

[Maximus Decimus]

2 hours ago, JonM said:

Which was the point he was setting out to make originally - except that he's now got the winner correct three times in a row...

Japan is an interesting team that he talks about. Beat Spain & Germany in the 2022 world cup, beat Brazil in October in the Confederation cup, beat Scotland and England in friendlies over here in March while missing several players, yet they probably won't get a mention as possible winners.

The prediction scam Derren Brown described was first suggested in the 1700s...

Even worse is Croatia, runners-up in 2018 and semi-finalists in 2022 yet barely get a mention.

[Gerrumonside ref]

2 hours ago, JonM said:

Which was the point he was setting out to make originally - except that he's now got the winner correct three times in a row...

Japan is an interesting team that he talks about. Beat Spain & Germany in the 2022 world cup, beat Brazil in October in the Confederation cup, beat Scotland and England in friendlies over here in March while missing several players, yet they probably won't get a mention as possible winners.

The prediction scam Derren Brown described was first suggested in the 1700s...

You can get them about 50/1 with the bookies!

[Gerrumonside ref]

6 minutes ago, Maximus Decimus said:

Even worse is Croatia, runners-up in 2018 and semi-finalists in 2022 yet barely get a mention.

They’re an ageing team though now.

[Sidi Fidi Gold]

The Official Colourbox World Cup Theme from 1986, rumour has it that Colourbox took a copy of the single to ITV to use as their World Cup theme, ITV turned down the offer because the single had a picture of BBC pundit Jimmy Hill on the cover, they then took it to the BBC who turned it down because they offered it to ITV first.

[Gerrumonside ref]

I’m quietly looking forward to the tournament, less so the propaganda value it can lend certain people.

From a pure sporting perspective, I think Spain, France and England are favourites this time and then there’s a number of usual suspects like Portugal, Argentina, Brazil, Germany and the Netherlands.

But there’s also a group of interesting outsiders like Japan, Morocco and Colombia.  Any other country coming from the rest of the pack to win it would be a major shock to me.

Personally one of the best parts of a World Cup for me is watching the less heralded, but talented teams, challenge the hierarchy of the traditional powers and make progress even if they don’t go on to lift the trophy.

I believe the elongated format will favour squad strength even more now, but sometimes team chemistry can overcome and go a long way like Belgium in 1986, Cameroon in 1990 and Croatia in 2018.

 

 

[gingerjon]

7 hours ago, Maximus Decimus said:

I've just come up with my idea that will finally make me a millionaire.

A Eurovision of World Cup songs!

I am about to read this ... https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/jun/04/the-20-best-songs-about-football-ranked

[The Hallucinating Goose]

So, bottles of water are going to be banned from being taken into stadiums with the reason being given so less items can be thrown onto the pitch. However, they have assured fans that bottles of water will be available for purchase in the stadiums.

[Futtocks]

59 minutes ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

So, bottles of water are going to be banned from being taken into stadiums with the reason being given so less items can be thrown onto the pitch. However, they have assured fans that bottles of water will be available for purchase in the stadiums.

Ker-ching! 

[N2022]

3 hours ago, Gerrumonside ref said:

I’m quietly looking forward to the tournament, less so the propaganda value it can lend certain people.

From a pure sporting perspective, I think Spain, France and England are favourites this time and then there’s a number of usual suspects like Portugal, Argentina, Brazil, Germany and the Netherlands.

But there’s also a group of interesting outsiders like Japan, Morocco and Colombia.  Any other country coming from the rest of the pack to win it would be a major shock to me.

Personally one of the best parts of a World Cup for me is watching the less heralded, but talented teams, challenge the hierarchy of the traditional powers and make progress even if they don’t go on to lift the trophy.

I believe the elongated format will favour squad strength even more now, but sometimes team chemistry can overcome and go a long way like Belgium in 1986, Cameroon in 1990 and Croatia in 2018.

 

 

I agree on squad depth. Equally, though, the format with some third place teams going through and how they are allocated to opponents could make for some seemingly uneven routes through the draw. There should be a lot of cautious play and if a top seed can't score enough against a weak side, you could suddenly end up with various contenders facing each other by R of 16, leaving an easy path elsewhere in the draw.

[N2022]

1 minute ago, Futtocks said:

Ker-ching! 

Yes, I hate the dishonesty about the reason. It's like they think people are stupid. 

[Futtocks]

5 minutes ago, N2022 said:

Yes, I hate the dishonesty about the reason. It's like they think people are stupid. 

But Trump Water™ is biglier than water from other brands, so everyone should be buying it anyway.

Edited June 4 by Futtocks

[Maximus Decimus]

1 hour ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

So, bottles of water are going to be banned from being taken into stadiums with the reason being given so less items can be thrown onto the pitch. However, they have assured fans that bottles of water will be available for purchase in the stadiums.

Gone are the days of people trying to sneak booze into the game, now it'll be sneaking water!

[The Hallucinating Goose]

What got me with the water reasoning was that you can't take bottles in so you can't chuck them at players but they are gonna sell bottles inside for you to chuck at players! Unless they are glued to your hand when purchased!

But yes, its obviously just another exercise in money-grabbing. £10 a bottle in a heatwave. Let's have water breaks for players because its gonna be boiling (even though that's all about making the game into quarters so American tv can have more adverts) but force fans to go into debt in order not to die of dehydration!

[The Hallucinating Goose]

Let's get some ultras smuggling flares and smoke bombs in there, then America will see what proper fans chuck about. Of course the fires caused wouldn't be able to be put out due to the lack of water. 

Let's chuck a few pitch invasions and riots in as well! 

[gingerjon]

9 hours ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

What got me with the water reasoning was that you can't take bottles in so you can't chuck them at players but they are gonna sell bottles inside for you to chuck at players! Unless they are glued to your hand when purchased!

But yes, its obviously just another exercise in money-grabbing. £10 a bottle in a heatwave. Let's have water breaks for players because its gonna be boiling (even though that's all about making the game into quarters so American tv can have more adverts) but force fans to go into debt in order not to die of dehydration!

The rest of it makes sense but we have water breaks in football already and they are absolutely necessary in this World Cup.

The only way to change it is to move to a stop/start clock and most people are against that as well.