Ongoing Football Thread For Domestic Football Concerns During the 2018 World Cup

rumours of JT replacing Henry

I’ve often said that what Belgium need is roughly 68% more twat.

oops I meant on Sky

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(Pcbe)

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Özil is releasing a three part statement on twitter about the summer and his scapegoating by various German people and institutions. He’s on part two atm, think part 3 will result in his resignation from the national team :fire::fire::fire::fire:

Tbh I strongly respect him for it all. I obviously don’t think he should’ve had his photo taken with Erdoğan but this whole thing is ridiculous - he’s a German footballer of Turkish heritage having a photo taken with a foreign, democratically elected head of state, the whole thing is obviously motivated by both racism and a rush to placate it by gullible liberals.

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I think they made a mistake, but we can all sit here and pretend we’d have sidestepped him, but in reality it would might have not been that easy and would have been a shitstorm either way.

I have less an issue with the players and more one with the people they have around them who are paid lots of money in part to make sure stuff like that doesn’t happen.

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Tbf Ozil is saying he’d do it again, so… Fair enough, I can respect that much more than i an insincere apology. Thing is, as bad as Erdoğan might seem to us, he is very popular in Turkey and was actually elected, someone of Turkish descent will get exposed to a very different discourse on him that you can’t just disregard.

Seems the reason people in Germany objected to it is far less about a moral sensibility and solidarity with the oppressed, and more about a patriotic solidarity with German geopolitical interests mixed with more mundane forms of racism.

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I have no idea about the Ozil thing - haven’t been paying attention to it.

But the idea that erdogan, regardless of his popularity in turkey, was democratically elected, is completely laughable.

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Meh, we say that Republicans in the US are democratically elected, which is also laughable. Not supposed to be an endorsement, obviously.

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Dunno man. Seems like a false equivalence to me. And people aren’t saying that trump was democratically elected either.

Again, I don’t know much about the ozil thing, but if an American player in the premiership went and posed for pictures with trump, I’d hope that they’d be criticised too.

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Sure, I think I criticised him at the time, but what’s been happening extends far beyond that. A bit of criticism could probably have opened up a dialogue, but what’s happened seems only to hade entrenched his opinion, based on the statement.

Also, what I was trying to say above is that it is different to an American posing with Trump. An American can’t fail to be aware of (some of) the bad things Trump does. It’s very possible that Özil, a German, with no interest in politics, has no idea what Erdoğan gets up to.

as bugduv says, it’s totally on his agent either way. Similar to the salah thing. But ignorance doesn’t preclude him from criticism, for me. that’s just my opinion man. There’s more to unpack here though, especially the racial aspect I guess.

Didn’t Löw say something about players with migrant backgrounds having “two hearts” that can’t “reconcile” with one another?

I think there is reasonable scope for criticising players for meeting someone like Erdogan, regardless of heritage, but the portrayal of Özil goes far beyond that.

So, so close to the scoreline everyone hopes for in this fixture (albeit on penalties)

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Worth reading the whole thing by Özil, but he really lays it down in part 3:

https://twitter.com/mesutozil1088/status/1021093637411700741?s=21

Particularly enjoyed it when he brought back Grindel’s political record on multiculturalism to throw further shade.

:fire: :fire: :fire:

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Has Gundogan got the same amount of stick for it do you know?

75 million for willian…

jesus, we could probably buy de bruyne back for that money. and have a bit of cash left over for Eden’s 500 grand a week wages.

Good Point. To my knowledge, not to the same extent…but he did get the same criticism at first and was booed nearer the time. However…he made some placatory statements before the WC (said he honoured German values 100%) which probably helped shift the focus onto Özil more (if I’m correct, there is more of a precedent for this with the latter).

You could argue that football itself may have been a factor, too (Özil a more visible scapegoat…but then again perhaps that’s deliberate) but Arsenal fans crying double standards in comparison to Gundogan ought to leave well alone.

Whilst I mention Özil and Arsenal though…

Even without considering that he’ll now be rested over international breaks…think he could be seriously strong this year. Angry and motivated with a new coach, and no apparent fitness issues. Could be Madrid level Özil coming…

the coke dealer’s gone to barbados for July has he?