How do we wipe the ‘maniacal, condescending smug smile’ off Infantino’s face?

The decision to award the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia has prompted widespread condemnation. Is this a crime?

Send your views on the World Cup or Arsenal, Man City etc to theeditor@football365.com

Saudi anger
With the FIFA Man awarding the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia, and therefore being complicit in the tens of thousands of deaths of migrant workers already and to come, is there some way to get the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for crimes against humanity on Infantino?

We need to wipe that maniacal, condescending smug smile of this face.

Given that none of the FAs other than Norway seem to have the cojones to oppose Infantino, perhaps the world’s football fans can lobby the ICC?
Paul McDevitt

…A while back in a radio discussion on 5live, Colin Murrey suggested that, for a nation to be considered as a World Cup host for the men’s tournament, it would have to also agree to host the women’s WC, the LGBT+ WC, and the homeless WC as well. If it didn’t agree it would get nothing. A brilliant solution.

How far away from that is today’s decision? Saudi Arabia, a country that still has the death penalty, where women’s rights are severely limited, where same sex relationships are illegal, and a country that has a history of violent suppression of journalistic dissent, and a dubious record on corruption, has just been awarded the WC.

It’s done.. FIFA aren’t even trying to pretend this time. They don’t have to deny the oceans of illegal cash that has flowed into the pockets of corrupt national representatives, because nobody is even asking the questions anymore. Saudi have made vague promises about worker exploitation but workers are already exploited to death (look it up ). And FIFA won’t make them pay compensation anyway.

Don’t wait for the FA to act .. we’ve been waiting since Abramovich for them to do just something…anything.. FFS..and pretty soon we will see the likes of Beckham and Owen advertising the delights of visiting a country that is proud of letting women drive a couple of years ago.. for a bit !! And let’s go to the beheadings for a laugh!!

I didn’t like the European Super League one bit .. but I would be so up for a break away international tournament.. to make the WC a joy again. provided it meets the Colin criteria.
Mat W

…So the inevitable happens and Saudi Arabia get the WC. I have no issue with any country getting the WC. We’ve had Russia, Qatar and now Saudi Arabia awarded the WC, countries with, will we say, questionable human rights attitudes, and where political opponents disappear USA have also been awarded a WC and again there are questions about their foreign policies.

The reason all of theses countries have won the WC is money. Blatter was greedy, Infantino is on another level. FIFA, UEFA and the big clubs don’t give a damn about fans. The top players won’t rock the boat as they are part of the gravy train. They all only care about money.

The only people who can stop this are the fans. They can start by boycotting the ridiculous club WC next summer and then boycotting all WC qualifiers. Something has to be done, this would be a start.
Ken, Cork, Ireland

…The English FA backed Saudi Arabia’s bid to host the 2034 World Cup! Remember that the next time they get pompous and sanctimonious about their precious rainbow laces and rainbow armbands.
Matthew

Arsenal are boring because competence is boring
The “Arsenal are boring” conversation is an interesting one, partly because of the subtle irony that in itself, it is quite a boring conversation, but also because… well… successful teams are boring, are they not?

Now, I know, Arsenal have won nought but an FA Cup which many say was “built on Wenger”, however under Arteta it’s impossible to deny they are suddenly competent again after 10/15 years of true silliness but as a neutral, tell me Arsenal 2020 tripping over their shoelaces or of the early 2010’s gifting soon-to-be-relegated Birmingham the League Cup in the last minute, weren’t more “entertaining” than the Arsenal of 2024 who came within a point of winning the title, winning 16 games from 18 and scoring something like 435 goals in 6 away games in January and February or even more purely entertaining than peak-Wenger? Competence is boring. Excellence is boring.

Arsenal, of course, are not “successful” in the sense of trophies but even in the greats of the game – watching United walk a title or two was never exciting, but watching them get tested, was, watching City turn it on when they have to to win 6 titles from 7, often after a slow start is impressive but, not exciting.

Thankfully the international game has never experienced a true dominance of an era in the modern game so remains largely unaffected by the phenomena but Bayern’s dominance of the Bundesliga remains it’s biggest negative, the Juve/AC/Inter eras in Serie A (admittedly, a connoisseurs league anyway) pale in comparison to it’s recent 10 years of winners, and obviously Spain… well… it all

It doesn’t even matter the sport – Schumacher was a fantastic driver, the best (maybe), it was still dull to see him coast to title after title with the best car, The Aussie dominance of 90s and 2000’s cricket, man, they’d often even deliberately leave the house unlocked in the first innings so a team could steal a tele and a microwave, only to chase them down the road and bell two shades of naughty out on them in the 2nd innings and even then, it was quite dull because the outcome was fairly expected even when giving the other team a headstart.

In fact on the inverse of that, it’s one of the reasons why I truly believe Federer to be the greatest sportsman of his generation because he not only locked down his sport but he did it at a time when there were 2 (arguably 3) similarly gifted champions to rival him – which not only kept him true, but also kept the sport itself interesting.

In summary – success isn’t all that exciting whether that team is playing amazing expansive football, or holding the ball and narrowly taking Serie A by only scoring 36 goals in 34 games. – best to get your kicks from elsewhere, I say.
Harold Edmonton Hooler
P.S: “Success isn’t all that exciting” – Said the National League supporter, unsurprisingly

READ: Jakub Kiwior makes ‘no sense’ but Gabriel Jesus does as Arsenal v Monaco flags need for £62m upgrade

Highlights are called highlights for a reason
Arsenal fan watches a highlights package of all their goals and says Arsenal are not boring. Gotta love the idiocy there. Even a Man Utd highlights package would make them look good.

Nice one mate!
Jon, Cape Town (I do however agree that scoring off corners is not some sort of cheat code and what I have watched of Arsenal recently, they can actually play some pretty good football – enjoy the criticism, it means you’re doing something good)

Fanmail for Dave Tickner
Jesus Christ Dave, give it a rest man. Do you know what’s exhausting? Having our very own version of Stewie Griffin on the staff of these hallowed pages carping on constantly about how ridiculous a club we support at any given opportunity.

You are on the wrong side of history on this one, until you are not (a literal inevitability I’m sure you will crow about when it finally happens).

A popular Spurs podcast released a poll this week the result of which was 87% Ange in.

Incidentally the same pod had a result come in at the same time that was 89% Levy out. I’m not on their side on that one but I do think the man needs to stick his hand in his pocket and the current squad building issues lie squarely at his feet.

Stop hiding behind ‘We’ as a writing crutch, you do not speak for us as a fanbase and you do not speak for F365 as a community or editorial staff (although ‘Sackee of the Month’ does seem to be a new piece of guideline which is most unbecoming).

‘I think Ange is a clown and I think Spurs should sack him at the soonest possible eventuality because I think they should embark on yet another mid-season manager search which goes nowhere and ends in Ryan-F*cking-Mason till the end of the season’ is a take. It’s a phenomenally crap one that until this season I would have assumed would be beneath you and your Barclays-baiting laddy mate writing style.

The Football Ramble have a saying that goes ‘What’s good for the Ramble is not necessarily good for your Club’. It seems Dave is solidly in this camp when it comes to Spurs. He doesn’t care about continuity or club building or context, what Dave craves is Content, reality be damned. We are 18 months into a rebuild and Dave has had enough. Hasn’t got the stomach for it. He’s lived through Conte and Mourinho and he needs Thomas Frank in his life Right Now. So he can bang on about how disastrous a decision he made moving to Clown Car Spurs My Team ™️ and start the cycle again in 6 months.

As Dan said this morning, we’re not getting relegated, were still in the cups. Honestly at this point, who gives a shit about the difference between 11th and 6th? We’ve run the gamut over the last 25 years and it’s made not one iota of difference as to our silverware chances. At least sometimes it is a fun performance and there is a remote possibility it will come good at some point (with the caveat of significant investment).

As has been pointed out by many in the comments below the line Dave seems to have a deep seated need to prove just how neutral he is by being batshit mental negative about Spurs whenever he can to really stick the boot in. Prove hes as unbiased as is humanly possible by being as biased as is humanly possible.

I’m not surprised YOU are exhausted, I would be if I was you.
TGWolf (have a kit-kat Dave) THFC

…Why is Mr Tickner so upset about Ange and Tottenham Hotspur? They aren’t league leaders, they aren’t in the relegation zone. They weren’t expected to win the the League were they?

So much hand-wringing and angst over an injury ridden club performing slightly below the level they were expected to. It’s weird.

Also their next game is against Rangers, not Southampton. That’s a more important game in a competition they should have actual designs on winning Dave.
Neil, Dublin

Sensible on Spurs
Good to read a sensible Hotspur oriented mail from Jim THFC. His clear, overall views from a point not too close to confuse the reality, made a lot of sense.

I’d like to add that the Amanda Stavely fronted group clearly see the general THFC set up as something stimulating for the mid term future.

Each season Spurs pipped another club to a Champions League spot it was Tottenham who were the financial underdogs.

I think keeping Angey whilst trying to fish McKenna would be an interesting choice, along with Marco Silva, but again at season’s end.

Sacking Postecoglou mid season does not appear at all intelligent, at least to me. More of a media made furore. I’m sure there are half a dozen other good candidates too – Simeone for example.
Peter, Andalucia

Too Spursy for me; I’m out
I’m not sure if you’ve got the energy for another bit of writing on Spurs but here goes.

The letter about not sacking Ange and Dave’s article on the exhaustipating nature of being a Spurs supporter were bang on.

But here’s the thing. And it makes me really sad to say this….it’s only exhausting if you watch. For many of us who’ve been accused, probably rightly, of being fickle, this goes deeper than that. This has been going on since the late 80s. Clive Allen scored 49 goals in a season and we didn’t win anything. The 87 cup final was my first taste of that particular Spursy ending. The 90 / 91 season gave me false hope. And since then…two league cups. Wow.

I’ve unplugged. I watch them rarely these days. Selling my seat 80 – 90% of the time. If I do watch I turn off at HT even if we’re two up because I’m fairly sure I know what’ll happen. Contrast that with 4.5 years ago, when I flew 12 hours to go to the Champions League final.

I can’t think of anyone I’d rather be less than Ange on Thursday. Sandwiched between the latest capitulation at Chelsea’s favourite venue and a trip to the scene of Conte’s why? Whhhhhhhhyy? monologue is a visit to possibly the ground he’d least like to visit.

So I have empathy for Ange’s plight. Especially today. But he does need to bear in mind that in trying to stick to his principles, and entertain and all that, he’s actually close to putting the final nail in my Spurs coffin. And has produced a team that I can’t actually bear to watch anymore. How’s that for entertainment.
Andrew

Better the devil…
I see Ratcliffe is coming in for some stick.

Could have been worse – you could have got Tom Henderson.
Graham Simons, Gooner, Norf London

Ratcliffe not stupid but arrogant
Interesting to see the mails coming in from people saying CEO’s etc aren’t ‘smart’ and stuff like that.

I totally disagree. They are clearly smart because they have got to the top. Whether they are smart and effective as CEO’s is another thing, but they are definitely smart because they have convinced people to give them the job – and it’s very likely they have done something good work wise to get there. Admittedly some of them get up by being mainly good at politics and schmoozing, but most have a very good brain – for something.

Where they fail is not due to lack of brains, but arrogance and lack of understanding of what it takes to run a successful football club.

Running a successful chemicals business isn’t the same as running a football club. I actually think Ratcliffe knows this hence trying to recruit the best (or at least regarded as the best!) in the business. But running a club goes beyond this.

Some of the decisions taken there smack of lack of understanding about what a club like Utd should mean – particularly to the local community. City’s owners understood this day 1 and had clearly tried to imbue this into the club. Ratcliffe seems to be doing the opposite.

He is doing what has worked for him in the past maybe, but it doesn’t look like it’s translating (yet). The question is if he can be a fast learner and learn from his mistakes fast enough for Utd to come back and recover. Then we will see if his ‘smarts’ overcame his arrogance.

Fixing a club like Utd won’t happen overnight, but the early signs aren’t great.
Nishul Saperia (Let’s see in 2-3 years but the way he has treated the staff and fans so far looks very bad)

Why *should* Man Utd be challenging for top four?
When people/fans say that their club should be challenging for top 4 or top 6 or whatever, I’ve often wondered how they came to that conclusion. Is it that they feel they deserve to be there because they were there a few seasons ago, with many different first-team players? Or is it just a cliche?

In my humble opinion, if a club should be challenging for say top 4, then surely some (half?) of the players should easily replace a player in a similar position who plays for a club currently in the top 4.

For example; Should Newcastle be challenging for top 4? Maybe, because I feel Isak, Bruno Guimarães, Livernmento, Tonali and Hall could probably replace players who play in the same position in some of the clubs that are actually in the top 4. I have similar thoughts about the Spurs squad, some top players in Son, Kulu, VdV, Porro. I don’t think the same could be said about Manchester United at this moment. (Sorry bro!)

I feel they are close in the table to where they should be according to squad talent. Who from Man United would walk into Spurs or Newcastle or Aston Villa? Maybe Diallo or Mainoo could replace someone, but hardly ‘walk in’ and take their place.

So my question is, what makes a fan say that Man United, or anyone for that matter, should be challenging for top 4/6? What is the criteria?
Dave, Chile (Honest question, probably answered by wages and transfer fees)

…Badwolf slates Rami for his “wild hot take” and then immediately fires this lovely one of his own:

“Also, fairly critically, only 8 points back from 4th. Can we overcome that? Maybe, although I wouldn’t bank on it considering the teams in the top 4. But 6 from European places? Yes, that’s achievable. All the teams there have a good wobble in them.”

United has show nothing to this point of the season that they can maintain their lofty position of 13th much less run down the clubs in front of them, potential wobbles or not. I personally think they’d be lucky to finish 9th or 10th based on the evidence but hey, that’s just me.

That’s what we’d call the football business, a “wild hot take.”
TX Bill (the gauntlet begins for Everton) EFC

A bad take
I thought United well overpaid for Michael Carrick.

Dreadfully wrong doesn’t even begin to describe that take.
TX Bill, EFC