Kitchandro

It’s FIFA, so yes you can assume dishonesty. In fact if someone has authority over something, it’s only sensible to assume they could be using their position to be corrupt. That’s why transparency needs to be demanded. If the sport is not transparent in its rulings then its participants have every right to question it. Any lack of transparency, any selective application (or camera angles) should be a red flag. There is every reason to assume football is as corrupt as anything else is at the top level because that’s an inevitability with all the money and political scoring points to be gained. I’m not sure whether that’s a penalty or not. But top level football is a fix, has always been a fix, and it’s easier to make it so when you have ‘technology’ that is not accessible to be held up to scrutiny by the public or the players. I should also say that putting a graphic on the screen over the top of a replay that looks like a heart monitor is not sufficiently transparent. If it’s ‘clear and obvious’, I want to be able to see conclusive proof.

That’s the problem, it’s not transparent so we can’t be sure they did. We can’t just assume they’re honest!

The thing I don’t understand is when the striker is obviously waiting for the keeper to go down (Mbappe last night) and the keeper goes down anyway.

Dodgy as owt. You can think it’s a penalty, but for the referee to only be shown one angle (the one where you can’t see the touch on the ball) is pure corruption. Meanwhile you’ve got Christina Unkel flip-flopping in the studio depending on what decision she thinks is going to be given. First the touch on the ball is crucial, then it’s irrelevant 😂 Complete farce.

Yeh. Every time I watch him he loves hanging on to the ball too long. No idea why Dixon is blaming Sorloth.

Ref’s had a mare, don’t get me wrong. As a neutral (well, a neutral that doesn’t like France) I don’t mind seeing the odd naughty tackle. It makes a nice change in the modern game which is, well, ya know… Bring back Claudio Gentile 😄

Not sure why you whingers have a problem with Paraguay. Their striker was a failed loanee at Portsmouth, what do you expect them to do, go toe to toe with France and just get hammered?! This is far more interesting. France have had plenty of tournaments playing anti-football, being physical, negative, they won the World Cup in 2018 doing that - and that’s been with by far the best squad.

Why are Canada not wearing red if their opponents have changed to white? (I know no one else cares)

Saudi, South Africa, Scotland, Jordan, Qatar, Iraq. Again, it’s not that some teams don’t deserve to be here because they are weaker. It’s that there are too many teams, too many games, too much dilution of quality and entertainment. Too much nonsense with 3rd place teams going through. If the argument is 48 teams is good because Cape Verde are good - why not 100 teams? We had good underdogs when the World Cup had 16 teams, it’s not a good argument.

And that’s still a valid criticism. For every Cape Verde there’s been 5 or 6 teams that have stunk the place out. It’s not that any single team doesn’t deserve to be here - but cumulatively there have been too many weak fixtures.

Bleddy hell. I’ve never seen a team so impervious to self-doubt.

As I said, it’s a genius move! 😄

Not really a fan of bringing the keeper on for penalties. I remember Van Gaal did it with the Dutch and he got idolised for it (despite the fact they couldn’t beat Costa Rica in 120 minutes) but then he didn’t do the same in the semi-final and his first choice keeper clearly wouldn’t have felt confident. Unless you do it in the final you’re making a rod for your own back. He looks a bit of a prat now.

For me it’s very hard to like adidas kits, because they all look like adidas kits. The shirts might have some nice design features on them, but when you look at it, all your eyes are drawn to is the three stripes down the sleeve - it’s the main trim of any adidas shirt and it makes it automatically dull because it’s essentially the same design every time.

They say they have, how can we trust it? How do we know the sensor has sensed a Croatian head and not the Portuguese head a split second later? How do we know it’s accurate? If there is absolute proof I want to see it. I’m not just going to assume FIFA and referees are honest.

Only if he heads it. Where’s the conclusive proof?

No proof he’s touched that. Not clear and obvious. Another case of VAR ruining the sport.

Both these teams highlighting why football is boring. There’s loads of space to break into, so they do that bit and then when they get near the box they decide to slow up and put their foot on the ball. No one is willing to take a risk and play a risky through pass or have a shot even when it’s on. They’re completely over-coached.

Women should manage women and men should manage men. They are two separate disciplines of football than need to stand on their own feet. Otherwise just make it a mixed gender sport. Which obviously wouldn’t work. On a similar note I also think if you’re gonna have international football, it defeats the object to allow foreign coaches.

This cements my severe dislike of Jonathan Pearce. How can you even defend that. It’s clearly a complete accident and a freak incident. Sending people off for that, ‘game’s gone’ etc.

Just watching the re-run of the 1994 final on ITV. It was known for being a terrible final back then and all three commentators are slaughtering it for being a dull game after half an hour. But the tempo is much faster than the average game now. Nobody’s putting their foot on it, they’re driving into space, there’s been a couple of chances. Just goes to show how the standards for entertainment have slipped where a famously all-time stinker (in which two star players were playing injured) is a better watch than most matches in 2026.

Why are they trying to make out that game was good.

Paraguay were a bit lucky today but those decisions usually go against the small teams so they can cry me a river. Can’t say I’ve been impressed by any of the 6 teams I’ve seen in the knockouts so my sympathy for anyone who gets knocked out is very limited. We have at least had some drama though.

Great result but I miss when shootouts were filmed on the traditional camera angle. The taker looks so much more isolated from the pitch side camera.

Nah