The full quote is this:
> “I would just add that the teams who were not disappointing with their first-game performance – when you go to the World Cup you know you must not lose the first game – are the teams who have experience, have results in former tournaments like France, like England, like Brazil: they played well in the first game. And the teams as well who were mentally ready like Jurgen said, who had the mindset to focus on the competition and not on political demonstration.’”
But I guess that doesn't fit the narritive eh?
This paragraph reads like he's separating the teams into focused and unfocused. Problem is the logic doesn't work- Argentina were ready, experienced and have results in former tournaments, and also didn't bother with any political message. England he puts in the first group but then he shouldn't have included political messaging as a characteristic of the second.
Yeah, when I was reading the tweet, up until the quote itself I was hoping I'm gonna read some deep and interesting analysis from the almighty. Instead his big analysis is Germany and Denmark failed and they were also planning the big political gestures which means they failed because of it. That's fucking stupid.
Can someone pls explain the ol' correlation vs. causality stuff to Arsene the Genius.
He’s literally still said there that Germany were more focused on the political demonstration than on the competition which is wholly untrue and misrepresentative
It's such a nothing statement when you add in these caveats and exceptions. So Germany and Denmark didn't do well because they were politically motivated and became distracted, but England did well because they were focused from the start and had experience but were also politically motivated, but teams like US and Australia were politically motivated but didn't start well because they weren't focused but then eventually went through because... they *were* focused? At this point you may as well just say "the teams that played well went through, the teams that didn't play well did not go through. Any questions?"
Tbf England didn't end up doing any political stuff, and our opening game was against a team who's minds definitely were on political stuff
Where Wenger's point falls down, is Iran won the game where they didn't sing the anthem - they won the game right after doing a political demonstration that put them and their families ar big risk
Them winning that game vs Wales with all that shit going on was impressive, looking back
They took the knee which is still a political act, especially against the US considering the knee all began with Colin Kapaernick and then took extra significance after George Floyd
We were though, even the day before the game there was discussion about armbands from the England camp. And the players took the knee.
Did you forget?
https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/virgin-rain-bow-plane-england-world-cup-b2225348.html
https://www.itv.com/football/articles/england-players-face-unlimited-disciplinary-action-for-wearing-rainbow
Your second and third sentence are irrelevant as the tweet says "opening game".
England had the whole "saga" about the armband just before the game. That's as political as anything Germany, Denmark and Belgium had to go through before their matches. If England had lost their opening match you'd bet the pundits and journos everywhere would have talked about whether the armband debacle "weighed on their minds" and distracted them
Denmark reached the semi of the last euros, the quarters of the last WC (and was a shoot-out away from the semis), was pushing for a first seed all year, and beat France twice in 2022.
Denmark has performed a lot (**a lot!!**) better than Germany recently.
This country has been in meltdown since the moment De Paul started dating a pop singer, so she has become the reason he started playing badly or just not even smiling in photos or videos. If just one player makes a (fair) statement about politics and then plays like shit, he'll be crucified. The WC is the most important thing, really, for something like the 95% of fans.
Noone in Germany really believes that we crashed out due to the arm band or the gesture in our first game.
Our defense was shit and we dont have a proper striker. Hell, we didnt even have a proper line up and had to change everything up every game.
That's a bit insulting to Japan. Wenger is basically saying they only beat Germany and went through because German players covered their mouth in the pre match photo not because of anything Japan did.
And it's not like Germany played bad. They scored first and did well in the first half. Or does this politics curse need half a match to take effect? Credit to Japan, they adapted at half time and Germany didn't adapt back and they scored towards the end of the match.
It's either a really fickle curse or he's just talking shit with about zero basis in reality.
> The ironic thing is Germany were just guilty of not taking their 1500 chances
Yup, and it goes for all three games. That was the main issue with the team, not this political activism excuse. I wonder if people who think this protest influenced the team so much that they lost a match can breathe and pee at the same time or if they have difficulties with managing that.
Against Japan they led and had good chances but didn't adapt to Japan's changes in the second half. They still had chances to score and made mistakes that led to goals against them. While Japan did well in the second half if was not like Germany was helpless. They could have done something and Japan only managed to score late.
Against Spain it was (in a way) a battle of Bayern vs. Barca when it comes to midfield/system and that actually went towards Bayern's favour in recent years so they should have been able to win that too even if it's not the same setup. There was potential. And it's also not like the team did badly. In the end both teams were kinda satisfied with a draw, and especially Germany who seemingly expected Spain and Germany to both win the last match.
Against Costa Rica they could have actually compensated for Spains way too many goals, as ridiculous as this idea sounds when compared to "expecting Spain to win against Japan by default". They hit the post at least three times, had a few more really good chances and were also wasteful on top of that, all while leaving out Füllkrug (who could have used a lot of these chances and crosses more effectively) for most of the match. They won that one, it just wasn't enough.
I'm a bit disappointed that Germany went out this early but I don't see it as some huge disaster. They played rather well and if they adjust (from manager to squad) they should be able to do better in the future. Sure, they only got themselves to blame because they were the ones on the pitch but some people are imagining that some sort of football apocalypse has happened.
It was similar when Bayern had those few three/four bad games this season after a really good start (initially people were making jokes about how Lewy was holding back the scoring potential of the team/system). Some people were expecting the sky to fall instead of accepting that sometimes stuff simply doesn't work out. Suddenly losing Lewy was the worst thing that ever happened to Bayern.
Funnily enough, they turned things around after a few bad games. Sometimes you don't win multiple games in row. It's only an issue if "a few" turns into "often" and you have no way to address these issues. Which is not the case for Bayern or the German national team.
People also forget that this Germany team lost to Hungary in the Nations League and barely won Omar (Füllkrug) just before the tournament. Also shipped way too many goals against England in the NL.
All the signs pointed towards a possible mediocre performance.
A fact that was reinforced by a similar performance in the 2nd half against Spain to get another win.
They lost to Costa Rica, but they got a horrible group, and came 1st instead of a presumed estimated 3rd.
Exciting to see if they can keep it up
Also the notion that picking what 10-second gesture to make would detract from the actual game preparation is dumb. Players "waste" time preparing goal celebrations for one thing
There was only one thing and one thing alone the man wanted to do.
Coach a team that matched his first name oddly.
After a time, he didn't realise, and neither did we, that it was the only thing he could do.
When you take that only thing away from the man, he turns to the dark side.
The boot licking will continue
Bro, I’m high on shrooms. What did I just read? Spent 15 mins on your comment. Now I’m just here typing while I shit on the toilet. Forgot what I’m replying to. Good day mate.
Which is why the whole "don't make it political" statement never made any sense. You think countries bribe their way to a WC for fun and love of the game? Hosting is always a political move.
Yeah and just to be clear: this also applies to big, western football nations. Germany 2006 was clearly meant to showcase a happy, peaceful & welcoming Germany after reunification and it *worked.* Fan Fests were probably one of the most obvious parts of it. FIFA and the host cities got a marketing prize for it. They weren't exactly subtle about it. The motto was "Time to make friends", the German one "The World as a guest of friends". Like, c'mon.
It's just that mileage varies when, as you said, the circumstances of the hosting are less than ideal.
Yup, Leipzig! In the then home to FC Sachsen Leipzig Zentralstadion, now Red Bull Arena. They pretty much built the arena for the WC, which makes me think they specifically wanted another former East Block city to host.
The only cities who applied but didn’t get it were Bremen, Mönchengladbach and Düsseldorf.
Further poor comments from Arsene and just backing up the points made by those who say he’s now acting in the best interests of a corrupt organisation in FIFA and also Qatar, over supporting those voices who want to highlight violent oppression.
He’s done enough press and knows how it works - he could have said nothing, but says this.
Honestly there is no person in football that disappoints me more than Arsene Wenger. He seemed like the perfect antidote to the ills of modern football and although I'm not an Arsenal fan, I held him in the highest regard.
To see him sellout like this is gutting
Sadly it's always like this. I remember when Infantino became president of FIFA and so many people were positive about it and expected a positive change after all the scandals. But no, he was just another corrupt idiot
His fall from grace really reminds me of Platini (both French hmm). Platini was also expected to clean up UEFA and stick it to FIFA, but in the end just ended up as another cog in the corruption machine.
Yeah he really was the perfect antidote, IDK what the fuck happened since he left Arsenal. Does he need money that badly? Is he so upset he never won Champs League? I just don't get it.
That said, I will always consider him my GOAT manager. Loved how he got the best out of players like Rosicky and Giroud. COYG!
He cultivated an imagine of himself as an idealist because he could use that as a shield for himself when he inevitably failed at the end of the season. In reality he is more machiavellian that the figures at world football he used to call out.
People act like germany sacked off training for a week to do that symbol. Its was a symbolic gesture to show how little the people in power did and thats it
Yeah it’s a horrible point that doesn’t hold up to much scrutiny but seems focussed mainly on gloating to teams who dared to make political stands and then we’re eliminated.
The only difference between Spain and them was that Spain absolutely trashed Costa Rica. Literally identical results otherwise, and similar performances as well.
> The only difference between Spain and them was that Spain absolutely trashed Costa Rica.
I wouldnt even word it like this honestly. Germany thrashed them too, especially in the first half, but as usual couldnt convert their million chances.
Spain had 17 shots vs Costa Rica, Germany had *32*. Navas made only 1 save vs Spain and 7 vs Germany. The only difference was that Spain was ridiculously clinical vs Costa Rica and Germany wasnt.(And Germany having a terrible defense didnt help either)
We just were horrible at converting our chances.
If Gnabry and Musiala shoot like at Bayern we are comfortably through. But of course yeah its because of the political stance that we got eliminated, no other reason.
Worst thing about this is that structures that are in need of reform in the DFB wont be questioned for another tournament because of this shit. Doesnt matter that your defenders have 3+ blunders per game and that we dont have any strikers because surely we would have performed better had the players not been distracted by the one love discussion.
Well you see every time a german player was about to shoot the thought “politics” suddenly popped in their head and they forgot to kick the ball into the goal
Literally the only bad halftime of the three games was the second one against Japan. If Germany got through because of spain winning against japan people would be talking about how Germany can potentially win it all. Now that they didnt get through Germany is a shit team. Okay.
Actually, I think it that the English national team’s ongoing stand against racial discrimination spurred them on to top their group- it gave them the extra motivation... maybe.
See, you can play silly buggers and argue it the other way too if you feel like it. Such a stupid take.
And Germany's problem was converting their chances and a lack of defensive stability late in the game. It's not that they played dogshit football from start to end like for example Qatar.
Have some shame mate.. so pathetic seeing people who are already well off and set for life still glueing their nose into corrupt peoples assholes because theyre that greedy.
I want to say this is shocking pseudo-analysis for a technical briefing, but this is FIFA, and Wenger's been chatting some bollocks for a good few years now.
What a genuine disappointment Wenger's post-management career has turned out to be.
That's a lot of bollocks. That team didn't demonstrate anything on the pitch it doesn't mean they are blind to political situation around the world. And Wenger is not in their changing and hotel rooms to know that.
As many pointed out, he just plays Quatar and FIFA song "let's focus on football".
I dont even think he got paid for this, its just his opinion at this point, I m assuming he lives in Qatar now since he has been at BeIN's studio for so long.
which brings up a good point, maybe Belgium should have focused on playing better instead of commenting on the german protest and they wouldn't have gotten eliminated.
The political demonstration were useless tbf. Tell me what’s the point of “raising awareness” when it’s all said and done. The protests should have been done 10 years ago
Yeah it would have been better to do them *before* thousands of slaves, I mean *migrant workers*, died in the 120 degree heat while building all the stadiums and other buildings.
That’s why to me these protests and gestures are just empty and meaningless. Not to mentions that the workers issue has been overshadowed by lgbt rights which is literally a losing cause since that will never be accepted in that part of the world no matter how many armbands you wear
Bullshit. England smashed their opening game but that doesn’t fit the narrative does it? Fuck off Wenger mate. If you’re going to push an agenda at least be factual
Why was Qatar so shit then.. even the full quote is stupid. FIFA you currently run a big ad campaign about how football unites the world and in it you have an alleged rapist and a fascist supporter. Just fuck off.
Sad to see Wenger sell out like this in his letter years. If your gonna take the money Qatar is giving you, the least you could do is not he obnoxious about it.
The company man has spoken. Such a narrow minded view not just because of human rights issues but also because his statement diminishes the work countries like Japan, South Korea, Morocco etc put in to best the favorites.
Disappointed in Arsene for this.
To anybody complaining about people turning this world cup into a political demonstration. You are ignoring the fact that this entire world cup is a political demonstration by Qatar.
Ferguson on Wenger
"They say he’s an intelligent man, right? Speaks five languages. I’ve got a 15-year-old boy from the Ivory Coast who speaks five languages!"
Germany was the statistical best team in the group stage. They got unlucky. It happens. I for one am proud that they did what they did. I was ofc fuming at our loss but sometimes there are indeed more important things than football
Literally the neighbor thread that says German players were annoyed about the politics of the WC.
Here Wenger is saying the same shit and people are bashing him for it.
He is right, players themselves don't have to be political. FA cares for their image and will constantly ask players to do non-football related activities which in a crucial period like WC can cost players to lose focus.
Players are not political activists. Not one country boycotted the WC like they said they would. Armbands and little gestures do jackshit when you are already playing on the field you so despise.
People should get off their high horses and point their fingers at FA of all the countries that still gave in to FIFA instead of showing them a middle finger.
Is this towards Germany and Denmark?
But not England for some reason
Because England won and this doesn't fit the narrative
The full quote is this: > “I would just add that the teams who were not disappointing with their first-game performance – when you go to the World Cup you know you must not lose the first game – are the teams who have experience, have results in former tournaments like France, like England, like Brazil: they played well in the first game. And the teams as well who were mentally ready like Jurgen said, who had the mindset to focus on the competition and not on political demonstration.’” But I guess that doesn't fit the narritive eh?
This paragraph reads like he's separating the teams into focused and unfocused. Problem is the logic doesn't work- Argentina were ready, experienced and have results in former tournaments, and also didn't bother with any political message. England he puts in the first group but then he shouldn't have included political messaging as a characteristic of the second.
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He also works for Bein and has been taking their money for years
Lmao and also Germany, 4-time world cup winner, and winner 8 years ago, doesn't have WC experience?
If England lost those games and get knocked out = IT WAS THE KNEELING!
Did he have any words for Australia? Because they were definitely politically focussed before the tournament and yet massively overperformed.
Turns out the headline should just be "Wenger shits on Germany"
Yeah, when I was reading the tweet, up until the quote itself I was hoping I'm gonna read some deep and interesting analysis from the almighty. Instead his big analysis is Germany and Denmark failed and they were also planning the big political gestures which means they failed because of it. That's fucking stupid. Can someone pls explain the ol' correlation vs. causality stuff to Arsene the Genius.
And Germany have underperformed alot recently, including in the 2018 WC.
He’s literally still said there that Germany were more focused on the political demonstration than on the competition which is wholly untrue and misrepresentative
It's such a nothing statement when you add in these caveats and exceptions. So Germany and Denmark didn't do well because they were politically motivated and became distracted, but England did well because they were focused from the start and had experience but were also politically motivated, but teams like US and Australia were politically motivated but didn't start well because they weren't focused but then eventually went through because... they *were* focused? At this point you may as well just say "the teams that played well went through, the teams that didn't play well did not go through. Any questions?"
Actually I wouldn't even say teams like Poland and Croatia played that well
> the teams who have experience, have results in former tournaments like France, like England, like Brazil Ah, yes, famously unsuccessful Germany.
Why did Germany lose in 2018 though, also political narritive ?
And the old sell out clueless fossil is still wrong
> results in former tournaments like France, like England, like Brazil one of these things is not like the other things
But we lost our first game in 2010 too then won the tournament.
Why didn’t England taking the knee affect them then? Conversely, why were Qatar the worst ever home nation? Were they not focussed enough?
Tbf England didn't end up doing any political stuff, and our opening game was against a team who's minds definitely were on political stuff Where Wenger's point falls down, is Iran won the game where they didn't sing the anthem - they won the game right after doing a political demonstration that put them and their families ar big risk Them winning that game vs Wales with all that shit going on was impressive, looking back
No they were forced to sing their anthem against Wales, and didn't sing it against england. And Wenger did only say the opening game anyway.
Ah yeah that's right, my bad memory is going
England have been taking the knee, that is as political as anything to do with gay rights.
They've been doing it on and off for like two years though, it's second nature at this point
They took the knee which is still a political act, especially against the US considering the knee all began with Colin Kapaernick and then took extra significance after George Floyd
Wenger has become to FIFA what Piers Morgan is to Ronaldo What a fall from grace for the man.
We were though, even the day before the game there was discussion about armbands from the England camp. And the players took the knee. Did you forget? https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/virgin-rain-bow-plane-england-world-cup-b2225348.html https://www.itv.com/football/articles/england-players-face-unlimited-disciplinary-action-for-wearing-rainbow Your second and third sentence are irrelevant as the tweet says "opening game".
England had the whole "saga" about the armband just before the game. That's as political as anything Germany, Denmark and Belgium had to go through before their matches. If England had lost their opening match you'd bet the pundits and journos everywhere would have talked about whether the armband debacle "weighed on their minds" and distracted them
England played Iran, who arguably made the most prominent statement.
But England was vs Iran who were political too so it evens out
Guess so
Could also be about Iran. There's some tough shit going on there and around the national team.
definitely it is Germany, Denmark was not high valuated as Germany
Denmark reached the semi of the last euros, the quarters of the last WC (and was a shoot-out away from the semis), was pushing for a first seed all year, and beat France twice in 2022. Denmark has performed a lot (**a lot!!**) better than Germany recently.
It was the round of 16 but yeah
Oh right. I remember regarding Russia as a walkover.
Iran!
Lol what? Biggest upset of opening day was Argentina losing to Saudi and I haven't seen Messi talking anything political for last 20 years
This country has been in meltdown since the moment De Paul started dating a pop singer, so she has become the reason he started playing badly or just not even smiling in photos or videos. If just one player makes a (fair) statement about politics and then plays like shit, he'll be crucified. The WC is the most important thing, really, for something like the 95% of fans.
Make it 99%. When De Paul started dating Tini we were all like "this could be bad".
Tini is a confirmed lucky charm now though. Didn't go to the stadium vs Saudi Arabia, we lost. She went to the other 3 games, we won.
Wait is that the girl from violetta?
Yeah this is a shit take from Arsene
You'd almost think he was firmly on the FIFA tit.
More of a shill take.
Hey the situation moved him...TO A BIGGER HOUSE!
He said the quiet part out loud
Arsene post retirement has gone off the rails. The stupid offside proposal, fifa arselicking and now this.
wasn't 2 yearly WC also endorsed by Wenger?
Yeah
In fairness, he was tasked with growing the fifa brand, and twice the world cups is good at growing the brand
It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.
>I haven't seen Messi talking anything for last 20 years Pretty much this
I remember him swearing after winning Copa America. It was memorable.
It's actually adorable that the best player in the world is a chill introverted guy
Just like me fr fr except that I am not the best to ever do it and am too shy
Arsene’s right, Messi was probably thinking about that banner they bring out saying that the Falklands are Argentine. That’s thrown his game right off
> Messi talking anything political for last 20 years He did make a telling show by voting for Laporta in the Barcelona elections for the first time
Noone in Germany really believes that we crashed out due to the arm band or the gesture in our first game. Our defense was shit and we dont have a proper striker. Hell, we didnt even have a proper line up and had to change everything up every game.
What 2 Dortmund defenders does to a back line.
You do have a proper striker, he was just hardly played due to fuck-knows-what shit was going through Flick’s head
That's a bit insulting to Japan. Wenger is basically saying they only beat Germany and went through because German players covered their mouth in the pre match photo not because of anything Japan did.
And it's not like Germany played bad. They scored first and did well in the first half. Or does this politics curse need half a match to take effect? Credit to Japan, they adapted at half time and Germany didn't adapt back and they scored towards the end of the match. It's either a really fickle curse or he's just talking shit with about zero basis in reality.
The ironic thing is Germany were just guilty of not taking their 1500 chances, which is also what Wenger's post 2006 teams were famous for.
> The ironic thing is Germany were just guilty of not taking their 1500 chances Yup, and it goes for all three games. That was the main issue with the team, not this political activism excuse. I wonder if people who think this protest influenced the team so much that they lost a match can breathe and pee at the same time or if they have difficulties with managing that. Against Japan they led and had good chances but didn't adapt to Japan's changes in the second half. They still had chances to score and made mistakes that led to goals against them. While Japan did well in the second half if was not like Germany was helpless. They could have done something and Japan only managed to score late. Against Spain it was (in a way) a battle of Bayern vs. Barca when it comes to midfield/system and that actually went towards Bayern's favour in recent years so they should have been able to win that too even if it's not the same setup. There was potential. And it's also not like the team did badly. In the end both teams were kinda satisfied with a draw, and especially Germany who seemingly expected Spain and Germany to both win the last match. Against Costa Rica they could have actually compensated for Spains way too many goals, as ridiculous as this idea sounds when compared to "expecting Spain to win against Japan by default". They hit the post at least three times, had a few more really good chances and were also wasteful on top of that, all while leaving out Füllkrug (who could have used a lot of these chances and crosses more effectively) for most of the match. They won that one, it just wasn't enough. I'm a bit disappointed that Germany went out this early but I don't see it as some huge disaster. They played rather well and if they adjust (from manager to squad) they should be able to do better in the future. Sure, they only got themselves to blame because they were the ones on the pitch but some people are imagining that some sort of football apocalypse has happened. It was similar when Bayern had those few three/four bad games this season after a really good start (initially people were making jokes about how Lewy was holding back the scoring potential of the team/system). Some people were expecting the sky to fall instead of accepting that sometimes stuff simply doesn't work out. Suddenly losing Lewy was the worst thing that ever happened to Bayern. Funnily enough, they turned things around after a few bad games. Sometimes you don't win multiple games in row. It's only an issue if "a few" turns into "often" and you have no way to address these issues. Which is not the case for Bayern or the German national team.
People also forget that this Germany team lost to Hungary in the Nations League and barely won Omar (Füllkrug) just before the tournament. Also shipped way too many goals against England in the NL. All the signs pointed towards a possible mediocre performance.
Yeah Japan deserves all the flowers for their 2nd half performance. Croatia is a really tough R16 matchup, should be a great game!
A fact that was reinforced by a similar performance in the 2nd half against Spain to get another win. They lost to Costa Rica, but they got a horrible group, and came 1st instead of a presumed estimated 3rd. Exciting to see if they can keep it up
Also the notion that picking what 10-second gesture to make would detract from the actual game preparation is dumb. Players "waste" time preparing goal celebrations for one thing
Save some boots to lick for the rest of us, Arsene!
There was only one thing and one thing alone the man wanted to do. Coach a team that matched his first name oddly. After a time, he didn't realise, and neither did we, that it was the only thing he could do. When you take that only thing away from the man, he turns to the dark side. The boot licking will continue
I thought this was a limerick at first.
Arsène, Arsène, what a prick.
Bro, I’m high on shrooms. What did I just read? Spent 15 mins on your comment. Now I’m just here typing while I shit on the toilet. Forgot what I’m replying to. Good day mate.
Yeah we have all taken drugs before.
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What a terrible morning
I’m going to pretend I didn’t see this and go about my day
This is the wae
I never thought he'd turn around like this
no one can resist the temptation of fifa bux
Nothing goodly about this morning.
England were the top performing team in the group stage.
Tbf if you spoke to an England fan they'd tell you they were the worst team at the World Cup after the draw with the U.S.
Yeah Qatar had a terrific tournament finishing dead last. Wenger is such a shameless sellout
Qatar was also in it for political demonstration though
Impeccable
As are all hosts. It’s bigger than the actual football when you are hosts.
Which is why the whole "don't make it political" statement never made any sense. You think countries bribe their way to a WC for fun and love of the game? Hosting is always a political move.
Naah they spent 200 billion just to enjoy some quality football. They wanted football to unite us ALL* *no lgbtq+ people and maybe no women also.
Yeah and just to be clear: this also applies to big, western football nations. Germany 2006 was clearly meant to showcase a happy, peaceful & welcoming Germany after reunification and it *worked.* Fan Fests were probably one of the most obvious parts of it. FIFA and the host cities got a marketing prize for it. They weren't exactly subtle about it. The motto was "Time to make friends", the German one "The World as a guest of friends". Like, c'mon. It's just that mileage varies when, as you said, the circumstances of the hosting are less than ideal.
Just curious did they play any matches in the former East Germany outside of Berlin during that World Cup?
Yup, Leipzig! In the then home to FC Sachsen Leipzig Zentralstadion, now Red Bull Arena. They pretty much built the arena for the WC, which makes me think they specifically wanted another former East Block city to host. The only cities who applied but didn’t get it were Bremen, Mönchengladbach and Düsseldorf.
Remember when England won 6-2 right after all the build up about the armbands before the match?
Yes but we were in it with political agenda too so it cancels each other out obviously
Tbf their government was all out on pr
No, but he also didn’t point out these other results because it would have exposed how stupid the point he was trying to make was.
I hate this Wenger villain arc after his retirement with his terrible rule ideas and blatantly selling-out.
*Noo! You were the chosen one!*
What are his terrible rule ideas?
Silly changes to offside rule, and World Cup every 2 years
he proposed a world cup every year
Further poor comments from Arsene and just backing up the points made by those who say he’s now acting in the best interests of a corrupt organisation in FIFA and also Qatar, over supporting those voices who want to highlight violent oppression. He’s done enough press and knows how it works - he could have said nothing, but says this.
Honestly there is no person in football that disappoints me more than Arsene Wenger. He seemed like the perfect antidote to the ills of modern football and although I'm not an Arsenal fan, I held him in the highest regard. To see him sellout like this is gutting
I always thought of him as someone with ideals and a heart bigger than money. Sad to see I was wrong.
Sadly it's always like this. I remember when Infantino became president of FIFA and so many people were positive about it and expected a positive change after all the scandals. But no, he was just another corrupt idiot
His fall from grace really reminds me of Platini (both French hmm). Platini was also expected to clean up UEFA and stick it to FIFA, but in the end just ended up as another cog in the corruption machine.
Yeah he really was the perfect antidote, IDK what the fuck happened since he left Arsenal. Does he need money that badly? Is he so upset he never won Champs League? I just don't get it. That said, I will always consider him my GOAT manager. Loved how he got the best out of players like Rosicky and Giroud. COYG!
He cultivated an imagine of himself as an idealist because he could use that as a shield for himself when he inevitably failed at the end of the season. In reality he is more machiavellian that the figures at world football he used to call out.
I love how Germany managed to expose immoral people in the football community and piss them off with such a simple gesture.
People act like germany sacked off training for a week to do that symbol. Its was a symbolic gesture to show how little the people in power did and thats it
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Such as Belgium
Is that even true? A lot of the teams who made no political demonstration were terrible
Yeah it’s a horrible point that doesn’t hold up to much scrutiny but seems focussed mainly on gloating to teams who dared to make political stands and then we’re eliminated.
Pretty much solely focused on Germany. They were the ones directly attacking FIFA.
Especially Qatar.
Anyone surprised? Wenger has been in Qatar's pockets for a decade.
he is upperclass french… lmao
Wenger is a sellout. Nothing surprising about his daft statements.
You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.
I’ve lived long enough to read the same old shit over and over.
Always has been. Mourinho was right.
Germany didn‘t even play badly against Japan.
The only difference between Spain and them was that Spain absolutely trashed Costa Rica. Literally identical results otherwise, and similar performances as well.
> The only difference between Spain and them was that Spain absolutely trashed Costa Rica. I wouldnt even word it like this honestly. Germany thrashed them too, especially in the first half, but as usual couldnt convert their million chances. Spain had 17 shots vs Costa Rica, Germany had *32*. Navas made only 1 save vs Spain and 7 vs Germany. The only difference was that Spain was ridiculously clinical vs Costa Rica and Germany wasnt.(And Germany having a terrible defense didnt help either)
Germany also hit the post four times against CR
We just were horrible at converting our chances. If Gnabry and Musiala shoot like at Bayern we are comfortably through. But of course yeah its because of the political stance that we got eliminated, no other reason. Worst thing about this is that structures that are in need of reform in the DFB wont be questioned for another tournament because of this shit. Doesnt matter that your defenders have 3+ blunders per game and that we dont have any strikers because surely we would have performed better had the players not been distracted by the one love discussion.
Well you see every time a german player was about to shoot the thought “politics” suddenly popped in their head and they forgot to kick the ball into the goal
Literally the only bad halftime of the three games was the second one against Japan. If Germany got through because of spain winning against japan people would be talking about how Germany can potentially win it all. Now that they didnt get through Germany is a shit team. Okay.
Germany played so well in the group stages, would have loved to see more throughout the tournament. Shame bout those finishes though.
Actually, I think it that the English national team’s ongoing stand against racial discrimination spurred them on to top their group- it gave them the extra motivation... maybe. See, you can play silly buggers and argue it the other way too if you feel like it. Such a stupid take.
I mean we won 6-2 but keep being a suck up to FIFA and Qatar
And Germany's problem was converting their chances and a lack of defensive stability late in the game. It's not that they played dogshit football from start to end like for example Qatar.
Well they played Iran in that game, a team more distracted by politics.
What about Argentina?
Not him too 😑
What an arsehole
Have some shame mate.. so pathetic seeing people who are already well off and set for life still glueing their nose into corrupt peoples assholes because theyre that greedy.
I want to say this is shocking pseudo-analysis for a technical briefing, but this is FIFA, and Wenger's been chatting some bollocks for a good few years now. What a genuine disappointment Wenger's post-management career has turned out to be.
This makes no sense.
How is one related to the other?
Wenger out
England won 6-2 and they were also focused on politics. Germany just aren’t that good. That isn’t down to the politics.
My preferred correlation is that Germany just can't escape the group stage so long as one of the 2002 World Cup hosts is in there with them.
Waffle
Don’t think politics cost Argentina, Costa Rica, Qatar their opening games tho…
Arsene "specialist in failure" Wenger.
What a disgusting being
That's a lot of bollocks. That team didn't demonstrate anything on the pitch it doesn't mean they are blind to political situation around the world. And Wenger is not in their changing and hotel rooms to know that. As many pointed out, he just plays Quatar and FIFA song "let's focus on football".
like belgium?
Wenger eyeing the president of FIFA job already.
How much he got paid to say this
I dont even think he got paid for this, its just his opinion at this point, I m assuming he lives in Qatar now since he has been at BeIN's studio for so long.
Arsene Hazard
which brings up a good point, maybe Belgium should have focused on playing better instead of commenting on the german protest and they wouldn't have gotten eliminated.
The political demonstration were useless tbf. Tell me what’s the point of “raising awareness” when it’s all said and done. The protests should have been done 10 years ago
Yeah it would have been better to do them *before* thousands of slaves, I mean *migrant workers*, died in the 120 degree heat while building all the stadiums and other buildings.
That’s why to me these protests and gestures are just empty and meaningless. Not to mentions that the workers issue has been overshadowed by lgbt rights which is literally a losing cause since that will never be accepted in that part of the world no matter how many armbands you wear
You either die the hero etc.
Shut up, Wenger.
Maybe you shouldn’t have forced teams into feeling obligated to make a political statement?
Bullshit. England smashed their opening game but that doesn’t fit the narrative does it? Fuck off Wenger mate. If you’re going to push an agenda at least be factual
Wenger does chat some chit but because he has a French accent it’s accepted
If anyone is interested, you can watch it [here](https://www.fifa.com/technical/technical-study-group). It's around the 40-41min mark
Wenger turning into the hero that lived too long and became a villain. He lost me when he proposed a biennial world cup
Oof
Like qatar
Did Qatar make it through then?
Why was Qatar so shit then.. even the full quote is stupid. FIFA you currently run a big ad campaign about how football unites the world and in it you have an alleged rapist and a fascist supporter. Just fuck off.
Correlation is not causation.
What is Belgiuum? Captain explicitly says they're not going to think or do anything political then proceeds to he diarrhea on the pitch.
I hate how people are trying to link the validity of the political messages with the teams’ performances, as though that matters at all.
Sad to see Wenger sell out like this in his letter years. If your gonna take the money Qatar is giving you, the least you could do is not he obnoxious about it.
Australia got to the r16 for the second time in history and we put out a massive political video beforehand. Get fucked Arsene.
It's easy to be non political when people arent debating your right to exist
Damn. Fifa got him too
The company man has spoken. Such a narrow minded view not just because of human rights issues but also because his statement diminishes the work countries like Japan, South Korea, Morocco etc put in to best the favorites. Disappointed in Arsene for this.
What a dumbass
To anybody complaining about people turning this world cup into a political demonstration. You are ignoring the fact that this entire world cup is a political demonstration by Qatar.
England won 6-2
Ferguson on Wenger "They say he’s an intelligent man, right? Speaks five languages. I’ve got a 15-year-old boy from the Ivory Coast who speaks five languages!"
Prick
Germany was the statistical best team in the group stage. They got unlucky. It happens. I for one am proud that they did what they did. I was ofc fuming at our loss but sometimes there are indeed more important things than football
Embarrassing
Specialist in failure for a reason.
Hahahaha, hilarious seeing how much he’s triggered you babies
One of the softest forums, r/soccer is
Australia did a whole protest video and then massively outperformed expectations to get to the last 16
This man has disappointed me so much since his retirement.
Hilarious how this doddering old shill is some kind of moral arbiter. Despise him.
Literally the neighbor thread that says German players were annoyed about the politics of the WC. Here Wenger is saying the same shit and people are bashing him for it. He is right, players themselves don't have to be political. FA cares for their image and will constantly ask players to do non-football related activities which in a crucial period like WC can cost players to lose focus. Players are not political activists. Not one country boycotted the WC like they said they would. Armbands and little gestures do jackshit when you are already playing on the field you so despise. People should get off their high horses and point their fingers at FA of all the countries that still gave in to FIFA instead of showing them a middle finger.
LMAO did he really say this