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Posted

I'll get to my thoughts on Costa Rica-New Zealand intercontinental match today tomorrow; I tried to post them here but something happened. As well as a little more on Australia-Peru. Not to mention my wish you were there World Cup list.

But the 32-nation field, the final one, for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar is now complete, people, after the Costa Rica-New Zealand game in Doha.

UEFA: France, Germany, The Netherlands, England, Belgium, Denmark, Wales, Serbia, Portugal, Switzerland, Spain, Croatia, Poland

CONCACAF: USA, Canada, Costa Rica, Mexico

CAF: Senegal, Ghana, Morocco, Cameroon, Tunisia

AFC: Australia, Japan, South Korea, Qatar, Iran, Saudi Arabia

CONMEBOL: Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador 

Posted

I think Belgium might win this year's FIFA World Cup for the first time in their history having been so close to reaching the final at the last edition in Russia.

Posted
18 hours ago, SportLightning said:

I think Belgium might win this year's FIFA World Cup for the first time in their history having been so close to reaching the final at the last edition in Russia.

Maybe, if the Red Devils can perhaps inject some dynamic young players to complement its stars, while still young but getting older, like Kevin De Bruyne, Eden Hazard, Thibualt Cortois, and Romelu Lukaku.

My picks to win it all in Qatar--and I MUST stress that things are still very early right now with all the 32 teams finalized--will be either England or France.  

Posted
On 6/15/2022 at 4:43 PM, Durban Sandshark said:

Maybe, if the Red Devils can perhaps inject some dynamic young players to complement its stars, while still young but getting older, like Kevin De Bruyne, Eden Hazard, Thibualt Cortois, and Romelu Lukaku.

My picks to win it all in Qatar--and I MUST stress that things are still very early right now with all the 32 teams finalized--will be either England or France.  

We'll see if Belgium can make much stronger performance than Russia 2018.

  • 3 weeks later...
Posted

It's official. No alcohol in the stadiums and it will only be available in fan zones following certain matches. FIFA is reportedly not happy with the decision but at this point Qatar calls the shots.

Posted
7 minutes ago, stryker said:

It's official. No alcohol in the stadiums and it will only be available in fan zones following certain matches. FIFA is reportedly not happy with the decision but at this point Qatar calls the shots.

Gee, who could have possibly guessed that holding the World Cup in Qatar would be a bad idea

Posted
1 hour ago, stryker said:

It's official. No alcohol in the stadiums and it will only be available in fan zones following certain matches. FIFA is reportedly not happy with the decision but at this point Qatar calls the shots.

Shocking. No one could've predicted this.

Posted
17 hours ago, stryker said:

It's official. No alcohol in the stadiums and it will only be available in fan zones following certain matches. FIFA is reportedly not happy with the decision but at this point Qatar calls the shots.

Shocked, I tell you! All those English fans will have to undergo a serious and mandated dry campaign awareness before heading off to Qatar during their stay. And what exactly are the certain matches at the fan zones when alcohol is allowed? The Final, I would imagine. Maybe the non-Qatar and Saudi Arabia matches?

Posted
On 6/15/2022 at 6:49 AM, SportLightning said:

I think Belgium might win this year's FIFA World Cup for the first time in their history having been so close to reaching the final at the last edition in Russia.

Don't know. They always seemed to fail in motivation to get through. And about that I think a team like England would rather make the difference.

 

 

Posted
1 hour ago, fusilli said:

Don't know. They always seemed to fail in motivation to get through. And about that I think a team like England would rather make the difference.

 

 

I don't know about that. I still think Belgium could replicate their success from the edition when they finished 3rd.

Posted
On 7/8/2022 at 11:22 AM, Durban Sandshark said:

Shocked, I tell you! All those English fans will have to undergo a serious and mandated dry campaign awareness before heading off to Qatar during their stay. And what exactly are the certain matches at the fan zones when alcohol is allowed? The Final, I would imagine. Maybe the non-Qatar and Saudi Arabia matches?

The two fan zones will be Al Bidda Park and the Doha Golf Club. A third fan zone has yet to be announced. No details on which matches will be included but the hours for the fan zones where alcohol can be purchased is only 10pm - 1am.

If the IOC is watching this play out, they have yet another reason (not that they need any more anyway) to discredit any future Doha Olympics aspirations.

Posted
14 hours ago, stryker said:

The two fan zones will be Al Bidda Park and the Doha Golf Club. A third fan zone has yet to be announced. No details on which matches will be included but the hours for the fan zones where alcohol can be purchased is only 10pm - 1am.

If the IOC is watching this play out, they have yet another reason (not that they need any more anyway) to discredit any future Doha Olympics aspirations.

I don't know about discredit, but the fan zone would be fine just not in stadiums.

Posted

The Stadium Business article on the Qatar World Cup stadiums beer-serving ban. Does say that visiting fans could be permitted to have their own alcohol upon arrival to and leaving the stadiums, just not serving beer during gametime or at the stadium bowl. Locations of the designated areas obviously are designed to segregate from the game action, likely from the conservative Qataris' eyes in stopping the alcohol spread to potentially their own citizens:

https://www.thestadiumbusiness.com/2022/07/08/qatar-2022-stadiums-to-be-alcohol-free-report/

Posted
On 7/12/2022 at 2:12 AM, Durban Sandshark said:

The Stadium Business article on the Qatar World Cup stadiums beer-serving ban. Does say that visiting fans could be permitted to have their own alcohol upon arrival to and leaving the stadiums, just not serving beer during gametime or at the stadium bowl. Locations of the designated areas obviously are designed to segregate from the game action, likely from the conservative Qataris' eyes in stopping the alcohol spread to potentially their own citizens:

https://www.thestadiumbusiness.com/2022/07/08/qatar-2022-stadiums-to-be-alcohol-free-report/

Not sure how this would work given that drinking alcohol in public is a crime in Qatar. A couple of Indian news outlets have reported that FIFA and Budweiser are still hopeful that alcohol could at least be sold on the concourses and non-alcoholic drinks could be taken to seats. I highly doubt that happens. I'm sure though Budweiser is absolutely furious and is actively trying to get FIFA to lobby for a change. Frankly, FIFA should've seen this coming. Expecting a conservative Muslim country to suddenly relax their laws on alcohol just for the WC was foolhardy to begin with. FIFA is fortunate the Qataris didn't issue a blanket ban on alcohol for the whole tournament. If the y did I'm sure FIFA would be very critical on the Qataris going back on their word (they have anyway) but realistically there's no play here for either FIFA or Budweiser. The Qataris hold all the cards on this issue. It's not like FIFA could relocate the tournament at this point.

Posted (edited)

I wouldn't describe it as full crisis yet, but we're having 40 degrees here for a couple of days - no big deal for some parts of the world but pretty unimaginable by British standards until today. And it really isn't nice - it's not making me want to visit Doha anytime soon :lol:

In all seriousness, I do think we're coming towards time for a really big debate around the global sporting calendar, maybe another Olympic Congress. Climate change is real, the world's not gonna be getting any cooler, and with the heat in Europe now, and the conditions for the Olympics in Tokyo among others...is it time for the big international events to move to the autumn/spring months - the ones that aren't usually extreme?

Edited by yoshi
Posted
On 7/18/2022 at 12:21 PM, yoshi said:

I wouldn't describe it as full crisis yet, but we're having 40 degrees here for a couple of days - no big deal for some parts of the world but pretty unimaginable by British standards until today. And it really isn't nice - it's not making me want to visit Doha anytime soon :lol:

In all seriousness, I do think we're coming towards time for a really big debate around the global sporting calendar, maybe another Olympic Congress. Climate change is real, the world's not gonna be getting any cooler, and with the heat in Europe now, and the conditions for the Olympics in Tokyo among others...is it time for the big international events to move to the autumn/spring months - the ones that aren't usually extreme?

I don't think we're headed that way.  Why are big events generally held in the summer?  So they're out of the way of most regular competitions (i.e. every country's national football season).  Yes, climate change is a much more serious thing than many want to admit.  But let's not have a knee-jerk reaction to what's happening in the UK.  As we learned during the pandemic, TV money is more important than anything.  That's going to dictate the schedule of these events moreso than mother nature

Posted
9 hours ago, Quaker2001 said:

I don't think we're headed that way.  Why are big events generally held in the summer?  So they're out of the way of most regular competitions (i.e. every country's national football season).  Yes, climate change is a much more serious thing than many want to admit.  But let's not have a knee-jerk reaction to what's happening in the UK.  As we learned during the pandemic, TV money is more important than anything.  That's going to dictate the schedule of these events moreso than mother nature

Also it'd be quite expected from an event called SUMMER olympics not autumn olympics, nor spring olympics

Posted
1 hour ago, Chris_Mex said:

Also it'd be quite expected from an event called SUMMER olympics not autumn olympics, nor spring olympics

The official title of the Paris Olympics is "Games of the XXXIII Olympiad."  The word Summer doesn't really appear prominently there, so that's not necessarily a major consideration.  Where on the calendar the Olympics fall is dictated by television and other logistical factors.  Having them during what is officially the summer is not a primary concern

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