S09.E30: The World Cup

[PrincessPurrsALot]

Main topic: The World Cup 

Also: Elon Musk takes over Twitter ("aspirationally not dumb"); people on TV have some thoughts about Thanksgiving foods; People on TV address the important question: do you say pecan (pee-can) or pecan (puh-cahn)?; season recap or weird moments; images of John on Midjourney; clowns on unicycles

Season finale

Original air date 2022.11.20

[Annber03]

Of course they would follow through on that whole thing with the clowns with unicycles :D. That person who wrote up that idea knows exactly how this show rolls, LOL.

"What if Willy Wonka benefitted from apartheid?" 

OMG...XD.

But seriously, though, Elon is like the poster child example for why it's a really bad idea to keep idolizing billionaires and operating under the incredibly mistaken assumption that they all must be super smart if they have that much money, He's a thin-skinned fragile man child who couldn't deal with some people poking fun at him online and now he's decided to throw everything into chaos because of it. But of course, the people who idolize him are the sort who would likely behave similarly, so of course they won't see his behavior as the massive red flag it so clearly is. 

On a related note, that's why I find it so hilarious that people are pushing to have Trump reinstated on there. Yes, let him come back right at the time when the company is falling apart. That seems very on brand, given Trump's history. 

But yes, as funny as it is to watch his takeover implode so spectacularly, it's also incredibly maddening that there are so many people out there who could use or deserve $44 billion, who could do so much good for themselves, their loved ones, and the world at large with that kind of money....but instead they're dirt poor and this yahoo has control of that kind of dough and blows it on stupid shit like this. If this isn't further proof of why we need to tax the hell out of these guys, I don't know what is. 

As for the main story, I don't follow sports, and more specifically, pretty much whatever I do know about the World Cup I've learned thanks to this show, so on a personal level, I don't have to deal with the internal conflict of supporting this game while knowing the shadowy history around it all. But on a general level, obviously, the fact that FIFA continues to overlook and ignore the human rights abuses and the corruption, while not at all surprising (again, knowing their history), is still no less abhorrent. Sports corporations in general seem to have a long history of these kinds of troubles, to varying degrees. I know there's got to be ways to try and hold FIFA and other international organizations/corporations like this accountable - what specifically that would be, I don't know, but I know there's got to be suggestions out there. But of course, I also know that enforcing that accountability would be a lot of work, unfortunately. Not to say people shouldn't try, of course, just that they'd definitely be fighting an uphill battle, for sure :/. 

"I make really good green bean casserole."

"Apparently not!"

Well, then...:p. Also, I pronounce "pecan" like "pe-cahn". But I also say, "pop" instead of "soda", so....:p. 

Until February, then! Here's to hoping there'll be at least some good news to share when John returns. 

[ahisma]

1 hour ago, Annber03 said:

Also, I pronounce "pecan" like "pe-cahn".

Same! I loved, “Well it’s not a urinary device.”

[swanpride]

I have never been less excited for a World Cup (and I am German). Like, I have negative excitement. 

What wasn't mentioned in the show was that in order to even participate in the Fifa Bid, Katar had to have a female team...which they founded directly before the bid and never turned up in any games after. As a German host pointed out, they have been unbeaten for years now (except at home). 

For this stunt alone they shouldn't have even been allowed to participate in the bid...which, btw, has been won through bribery for years now. Something everyone knows. 

[paigow]

6 hours ago, swanpride said:

For this stunt alone they shouldn't have even been allowed to participate in the bid...which, btw, has been won through bribery for years now. Something everyone knows. 

FIFA needs to be dissolved and replaced by an organization untainted by scandal... like LIV... huh?? Oh, sorry...

[xaxat]

That line about getting to the finish line is so true. In the last week, Qatar has 1)Banned the cooking of kosher food (thousands of Jews from Israel and the US are expected to attend.) 2)Banned the sale of beer at most venues despite Budweiser being a sponsor 3)Convinced FIFA to issue yellow cards (penalties) on players who planned to wear the One Love armbands he mentioned (The players conceded). I'm convinced this was always their plan, they just used the actual start of the Cup to give them cover.

It really looked like Beckham was seriously trying to convince himself that he was actually enjoying talking with people "in the middle of nowhere".

I don't follow Elon, but in the retweets I see, he is constantly shitposting. When does actually have time to run his companies?

Rachel Ray is right. No matter how you pronounce it, pecans are delicious.

16 hours ago, Annber03 said:

Of course they would follow through on that whole thing with the clowns with unicycles :D. That person who wrote up that idea knows exactly how this show rolls, LOL.

I love it when John does one of those slow buildups where you think "No, he couldn't possibly. . . Yes, he did! He did it!"

I also love the fact that John is still gleefully shitting on WB/Discovery.

ETA

Edited November 21, 2022 by xaxat

[Lugal]

13 hours ago, Annber03 said:

"What if Willy Wonka benefitted from apartheid?" 

OMG...XD.

But seriously, though, Elon is like the poster child example for why it's a really bad idea to keep idolizing billionaires and operating under the incredibly mistaken assumption that they all must be super smart if they have that much money, He's a thin-skinned fragile man child who couldn't deal with some people poking fun at him online and now he's decided to throw everything into chaos because of it. But of course, the people who idolize him are the sort who would likely behave similarly, so of course they won't see his behavior as the massive red flag it so clearly is.

One thing I learned over the years is that rich people are not smarter than the rest of us.  All they have is a psychopathic desire to make money and most of them are actually pretty stupid.  I think because their money insulates them from their stupidity.  Like if any of us made a $25,000 mistake it would be Game Over.  If a rich person makes a $25,000 (or a $44 Billion) mistake they can shake it off and move on, and not learn a damn thing from it.

And Elon talking about his "hard work" reminds me of the old saying: Whenever someone tells you that they got rich by hard work, the first question you ask them is "Whose?"

[ShadowKnight2]

19 hours ago, Annber03 said:

But seriously, though, Elon is like the poster child example for why it's a really bad idea to keep idolizing billionaires and operating under the incredibly mistaken assumption that they all must be super smart if they have that much money, He's a thin-skinned fragile man child who couldn't deal with some people poking fun at him online and now he's decided to throw everything into chaos because of it. But of course, the people who idolize him are the sort who would likely behave similarly, so of course they won't see his behavior as the massive red flag it so clearly is.

THIS!!! Two of the most popular comic book characters today are Batman and Iron Man. Two billionaires fighting crime and saving the world. But that's just wild wishful thinking on the part of the creators and their fans. A Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark doesn't exist out there, and never will. Because billionaires like that live in their own little worlds without any clue about reality and use people for their own selfish needs.

This is what Elon Musk is doing with Twitter, right now. He thinks he knows what he's doing because he thinks he's the smartest person around. Well, smart people don't operate Twitter by overpaying it, then callously firing the people he needs to make it operational, and then watch as all hell breaks loose with people deactivating their accounts, advertisers fleeing like rats on a ship, and racists and other ner' do wells doing whatever they want with no pushback. He's burning Twitter down in real time, and he's going down with it. And I'll have the popcorn ready for when he does go down!

As for the World Cup, yeah, I'll still be watching it. But the points John Oliver made about it - how Qatar "won" the bid, how they build their little soccer city, and how they're treating the players, media, and fans over their opposition to their brutal human rights conditions - are VERY important not to overlook. I've heard about the slave like conditions the migrant workers have to endure. But hearing how they're using toilet water to wash themselves is both shocking and sickening.

Qatar should have NEVER been given the right to host the 2022 World Cup. But when they were given the tournament on the same day they announced Russia would host the 2018 World Cup - another repressive country that shouldn't have been given the right to host the tournament - you knew there were palms greased and bribes handed under the table for that to happen. FIFA needs to be burned to the ground, with that POS Sepp Blatter tied to a stake in the middle of that!

Too bad it was the last show of the year. I would love to see how John Oliver reacts to the upcoming England-United States match. Maybe post a video of it and make fun of Jon Stewart, should England beat the USA!

[peeayebee]

1 hour ago, ShadowKnight2 said:

THIS!!! Two of the most popular comic book characters today are Batman and Iron Man. Two billionaires fighting crime and saving the world. But that's just wild wishful thinking on the part of the creators and their fans. A Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark doesn't exist out there, and never will. Because billionaires like that live in their own little worlds without any clue about reality and use people for their own selfish needs.

And Elon's Twitter avatar is Iron Man. :rollseyes:

He really doesn't know what he's doing. I do wonder if he really is deliberately tanking Twitter. I don't THINK so, but I suppose it's possible. There were problems with Twitter before, but it worked for me. (I use Tweetbot to view Twitter.)

I don't know what to say about Qatar and FIFA. It's simply disgusting and infuriating. I know John did a story on FIFA before, but I can't remember: Isn't there anything that can be done about the corruption? Is FIFA accountable to no one?

"I won't say that Qatar definitely got the World Cup thru bribery, but I won't say that they didn't, and I WILL say that they did."

Those clips of Beckham were (or should be) so embarrassing for him. And when he said he loved being in the middle of nowhere... Man, I cringed. I wonder if the guys sitting with him understood English. 

Pee-CAHNS.

[purist]

31 minutes ago, peeayebee said:

"I won't say that Qatar definitely got the World Cup thru bribery, but I won't say that they didn't, and I WILL say that they did."

John's timing and delivery of that line were PERFECT.

[angora]

4 hours ago, ShadowKnight2 said:

THIS!!! Two of the most popular comic book characters today are Batman and Iron Man. Two billionaires fighting crime and saving the world. But that's just wild wishful thinking on the part of the creators and their fans. A Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark doesn't exist out there, and never will. Because billionaires like that live in their own little worlds without any clue about reality and use people for their own selfish needs.

I once saw a tweet that said (paraphrased,) "When you're a kid, you think billionaires are like Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark. When you grow up, you realize they're like Lex Luthor."

[swanpride]

Above all I wonder how people ever got the idea that Elon Musk is smart....

Regarding the World Cup: The kind of good news is that so far, the number of the people watching in my country is much, much lower than last time. So far. It will be interesting to see if the trend holds when our team plays or even wins. Because let's not forget here: Most of the money is made over merch sales and viewers. If the viewers are lacking, at least the Fifa will take a hit. 

[Brandi Maxxxx]

On 11/21/2022 at 4:00 PM, Annber03 said:

"What if Willy Wonka benefitted from apartheid?" 

I wouldn't be surprised. Just look at how he enslaved those Oompa Loompas (who were Africans in the original novel BTW).

[SnideAsides]

5 hours ago, peeayebee said:

I don't know what to say about Qatar and FIFA. It's simply disgusting and infuriating. I know John did a story on FIFA before, but I can't remember: Isn't there anything that can be done about the corruption? Is FIFA accountable to no one?

Those clips of Beckham were (or should be) so embarrassing for him. And when he said he loved being in the middle of nowhere... Man, I cringed. I wonder if the guys sitting with him understood English. 

FIFA is accountable to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. But it's essentially run by the IOC, the only organisation so corrupt it makes FIFA look good (the court's current head is the Australian bureaucrat who used his role as IOC vice-president to rig the selection process for Brisbane, then immediately turned around and publicly ordered the woman Premier of the state it's in to go to Tokyo's opening ceremony), so pretty much no.

Qatar was a British protectorate for most of the 20th century (it only got independence in 1971), so yes, there's a high chance they spoke English, either through living there or because most of the countries Qatar gets its slaves from being part of the Commonwealth.

Given John brought up the Saudi bid for 2030 in the context of it being worse than Qatar (despite the fact that Qatar winning meaning the 2026 and 2030 World Cups can't be held in Asia under FIFA rules), it's probably worth noting that Qatar's problems are so vast and so numerous that even Saudi Arabia has cut off diplomatic relations with the country.

Also, John: give Tony's mum's scarf back. Don't make us rename a Hemsworth after you.

[lasu]

All those answers about how to say pecan and not one correct Southern answer. It's pee-can in all instances except the ice cream, which is butter pee-kahn. All other answers are incorrect! 😏

Edited November 22, 2022 by lasu

[nickp1991]

John Oliver did a really good segment on the FIFA World Cup

[peeayebee]

8 hours ago, swanpride said:

Regarding the World Cup: The kind of good news is that so far, the number of the people watching in my country is much, much lower than last time. So far. It will be interesting to see if the trend holds when our team plays or even wins. Because let's not forget here: Most of the money is made over merch sales and viewers. If the viewers are lacking, at least the Fifa will take a hit. 

What would you attribute fewer viewers to? A kind of protest against Qatar? If so, then I don't see that fewer viewers now would affect advertising in 4 years, and so this wouldn't affect how FIFA does business. 

[swanpride]

It's a mix of different aspects...part is protest (a lot of sport bars have decided to not show the tournament), part of it is the time (remember, in Germany Christmas starts pretty much now. The Christmas markets are open, soon there will be the first of Advent, people are meeting up there to drink their mullet wine, while the best WC is the one you can watch outside in a big group, but who in their right mind wants to stand in the cold for two hours, even if there were any of those events planned, which aren't), part of it is a measured expectation regarding the performance of the team. Plus, the First game was just...urgh?...I didn't watch it, but I was zapping through the channels and when I ended up on the game for a moment, the commentator was just saying that at least the referee was able to "set accents", which says ALL about the quality of what was shown. 

It's just a combination of protest and people not being in the mood. The mood might change if the team starts to win.

Regarding if it changes anything: Well, some sponsors are jumping the ship others are renegotiating now. 

[Lugal]

14 hours ago, peeayebee said:

And Elon's Twitter avatar is Iron Man. :rollseyes:

Just a further FYI on Musk, in the billionaire tradition of taking credit for making the things he bought, Elon Musk did not found Tesla.

[peeayebee]

From that article:

Quote

While Musk was relatively unknown a few years ago, he's since become just as popular as Tim Cook or Jeff Bezos.

That should be sarcasm. 

[DoctorAtomic]

Believe me, I'm laughing as much as anyone about Musk. I use twitter for work; I like it, and it works for me and my friends & colleagues. It doesn't have a huge factor in my life. However, they were saying in the middle of the segment; he didn't really want it in the end, and he has no outlook or plan. I don't see why not business as usual until you figure it out. 

I share the opinion on the World Cup. I'm excited for the games, but it's a dirty, corrupt business. You can't ignore that. The problem is; it's the World Cup. It's not like there's going to be a global boycott.

I've never had green bean casserole. I like Thanksgiving, but I don't know why it's a thing. 

Edited November 23, 2022 by DoctorAtomic

[swanpride]

Frankly, I don't get most Thanksgiving Food...turkey is a very dry meat, even if you cook it perfectly, I prefer duck or simple chicken over it any day. I can't stomach beans as it is, but if I could, I would never turn them into a casserole. I like pumpkin well enough, but really prefer the stuff in more hearty dishes, not in pies (but who knows, perhaps American pumpkin pies are some undiscovered wonder, I never tried the original). 

[Annber03]

Just now, swanpride said:

I like pumpkin well enough, but really prefer the stuff in more hearty dishes, not in pies (but who knows, perhaps American pumpkin pies are some undiscovered wonder, I never tried the original). 

Hell, I am American, and I've never had pumpkin-flavored anything, ever. How I've gone this long without that experience, I don't know, but... 

I share your thoughts on turkey and beans, too. I do like stuffing, though :). 

[SnideAsides]

10 hours ago, peeayebee said:

From that article:

That should be sarcasm. 

In fairness, it's hard to argue that Elon Musk isn't in fact exactly as popular as Jeff Bezos right now.

[peeayebee]

8 hours ago, Annber03 said:

I do like stuffing, though :). 

Stuffing with gravy is my favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner. I do like pumpkin pie as well. And turkey. The rest... meh.

[DoctorAtomic]

If you do the turkey right, it's not dry-dry. I like dark meat, and you just don't get that regularly. Also, leftover turkey sandwiches are practically better than the actual holiday. Stealth-tip - mac and cheese as a side; don't worry about all the casserole nonsense. You'll thank me later.

[Welshman in Ca]

On 11/21/2022 at 9:49 PM, swanpride said:

Regarding the World Cup: The kind of good news is that so far, the number of the people watching in my country is much, much lower than last time. So far. It will be interesting to see if the trend holds when our team plays or even wins. Because let's not forget here: Most of the money is made over merch sales and viewers. If the viewers are lacking, at least the Fifa will take a hit. 

Virtually no money is made by FIFA by merch sales & viewing figures for this world cup as the rights to both were sold years ago, the only loss of income will be for the people who paid FIFA in advance and then had the carpet ripped out from under them. Budweiser being a prime example having made so much beer to sell at the games and having the Qataris change their mind about sales in the grounds at the last minute they now have millions of gallons of the stuff that they are going to send for free to the winning country. This has cost Bud twice as they paid for the rights & then made the damn stuff. Even Sep was surprised when Qatar was awarded the 2022 world cup as he had wanted it to go to the USA but he was already under investigation anyway.

There is a great documentary about the FIFA corruption on Netflix called FIFA Uncovered if you haven't seen it yet I would 100% recommend it.

[Lugal]

10 hours ago, swanpride said:

Frankly, I don't get most Thanksgiving Food...turkey is a very dry meat, even if you cook it perfectly

It's a vehicle for gravy!  Although I haven't had turkey on Thanksgiving for years because my family decided we didn't want to do all the work of Thanksgiving dinner, so each year we experiment with one chicken dish or another.

10 hours ago, swanpride said:

I like pumpkin well enough, but really prefer the stuff in more hearty dishes, not in pies (but who knows, perhaps American pumpkin pies are some undiscovered wonder, I never tried the original). 

Pumpkin pie is really good, but it's not this dessert pinnacle it's made out to be.  Personally, I prefer shoofly, lemon meringue or pecan pie.

And on the pecan issue, according to wiktionary 32% of Americans pronounce it pee-CAHN /piːˈkɑːn/ while only 14% of Americans pronounce it PEE-can /ˈpiːkæn/ mostly in New York, New England and the coastal Southeast.

[peeayebee]

15 minutes ago, Lugal said:

And on the pecan issue, according to wiktionary 32% of Americans pronounce it pee-CAHN /piːˈkɑːn/ while only 14% of Americans pronounce it PEE-can /ˈpiːkæn/ mostly in New York, New England and the coastal Southeast.

How do the other 54% say it? Nuts? Walnuts?

[SoMuchTV]

15 minutes ago, peeayebee said:

How do the other 54% say it? Nuts? Walnuts?

In our house, we pronounce it “pelican”, after my son took it on himself to “correct” my recipe many years ago. 
 

[Lugal]

4 hours ago, peeayebee said:

How do the other 54% say it? Nuts? Walnuts?

To answer your question in a single word: Wrongly.

According to the entry, some stress it weird like pee-CAN or PEE-cahn.  And some just really say it weird like puh-CON or pi-CAHN.  Wow, I have spent a lot of time researching this.

[iMonrey]

I could not possibly care less about the World Cup, but for those who are interested, Tommy Vietor did a whole series about FIFA and Qatar on his Pod Save the World channel. 

[Lantern7]

One bright spot about the World Cup is that the 2026 edition will be spread out over three countries: Canada, Mexico and the United States. All the stadiums have already been erected. No freshly-erected arenas that look like works of art, but were built on the pain and suffering of workers. The worst part is that the IOC will step up their game in sketchiness, and no one that isn't worth billions will benefit.

That last AI generated image of John . . . .it's like he was forcibly possessed by the spirit of Mitch McConnell. Haunting. By comparison, clowns gallivanting on unicycles isn't THAT weird.

I'm allergic to nuts, so I don't care how "pecan" is pronounced.

Edited November 27, 2022 by Lantern7

[andromeda331]

I feel the same way about the IOC as John feels about FIFA. I'll still watch the games. I love the Olympic Games but hate, hate, hate the IOC.

[JustHereForFood]

I don't watch sport, so I couldn't care less about the World cup anyway, but I think that even if I did, I would probably not be able to watch it now, with all the stuff that has been talked about for the last few weeks. Even not caring about the tournament, one would have to live under a rock to not hear about these horrible circumstances. I was happy to see many people in comments on a news site that I visit saying that they are boycotting it and some of them are not the kind of people to boycott a lot of stuff.

I can't believe this was ever allowed to happen. The idea that so many people died while building something as stupid as football stadium makes my head spin. And that people can then happily play in said stadiums and other people cheer them on sounds unbelievable. Also, while I'm already sadly used to the fact that people can overlook the treatment of women and LGBT+ people by some of these countries, I would expect that the ban on alcohol would be a deal breaker for a lot of fans, but apparently no. It's crazy how money still rules the world, even as we pretend that we have evolved and that we care about human rights, moral values and so on.

I'm also not surprised to hear that the majority of people working on these constructions in horrible conditions were from Inda, Sri Lanka, Nepal and the like. I really don't know much about dynamics on this continent, but I watched Hasan Minhaj's special on Netflix recently and he mentioned something that I now remembered about these Arabic countries often treating said nationalities like someone beneath them. Let's not forget that racism, colorism, elitism, etc. is not limited to white people only and that other cultures have their own made up hierarchies.

Regarding Twitter - it's now like watching some huge disaster. You know it's going to be bad and ugly, but you just can't turn away and have to see how it ends.

[Hanahope]

one can hope that those poor workers are able to get the word out to prevent people in the future from being conned into providing free labor in deplorable conditions.

[paigow]

6 hours ago, Hanahope said:

one can hope that those poor workers are able to get the word out to prevent people in the future from being conned into providing free labor in deplorable conditions.

For context, the entire Liverpool 2022 payroll is 156.34 Million Pounds for 28 players.

10,000 workers could be paid 15 Thousand Pounds each from that amount.... 

[Hanahope]

unfortunately, i think the only way to really solve the problem of corruption in sports is for the fans to stop paying to watch.  and that's likely never going to happen because the world needs their bread and circus.

[Welshman in Ca]

12 hours ago, paigow said:

For context, the entire Liverpool 2022 payroll is 156.34 Million Pounds for 28 players.

10,000 workers could be paid 15 Thousand Pounds each from that amount.... 

And ?

Are you suggesting that Liverpool, a club team based in England, pay the people who work in Qatar building the stadiums and other things for the Qatari government to hold the FIFA world cup, an international body?

If that is the case how about we get every team in any sport in the USA to use the obscene amounts they pay their players to pay to feed the homeless in their own country and not even a foreign country thousands of miles away?

[andromeda331]

3 hours ago, Welshman in Ca said:

And ?

Are you suggesting that Liverpool, a club team based in England, pay the people who work in Qatar building the stadiums and other things for the Qatari government to hold the FIFA world cup, an international body?

If that is the case how about we get every team in any sport in the USA to use the obscene amounts they pay their players to pay to feed the homeless in their own country and not even a foreign country thousands of miles away?

My dad is a huge NFL fan and talks all the time about how ridiculous that sports players are getting paid millions. You combine how much  all the players get paid and we'd probably be able to house and feed the homeless for decades. Along with decent health care for everyone. The Broncos quarterback is being paid 249 million dollars for five years. No one is worth that and he's just one player. 

[Welshman in Ca]

2 minutes ago, andromeda331 said:

My dad is a huge NFL fan and talks all the time about how ridiculous that sports players are getting paid millions. You combine how much  all the players get paid and we'd probably be able to house and feed the homeless for decades. Along with decent health care for everyone. The Broncos quarterback is being paid 249 million dollars for five years. No one is worth that and he's just one player. 

You won't get an argument from many about that and I did use the words obscene amounts, but that wasn't the point.

[Lantern7]

In case you didn't hear, John's prediction was mostly correct. England did lose in the quarterfinals, but they didn't get to penalty kicks. I posted a few pics from the LWT Facebook on John's thread. He didn't take the loss well.

[andromeda331]

14 minutes ago, Welshman in Ca said:

You won't get an argument from many about that and I did use the words obscene amounts, but that wasn't the point.

I know. I get your point but at the same time the players are paid ridiculous amount of money.

[paigow]

I was not demanding that teams pay for WC stadiums. The consortium / Qatari Royal Family could have easily added more cash to pay decent wages.

[Welshman in Ca]

7 minutes ago, paigow said:

I was not demanding that teams pay for WC stadiums. The consortium / Qatari Royal Family could have easily added more cash to pay decent wages.

I asked were you suggesting (a question) not that you were demanding (a statement) and didn't understand the comparison with Liverpool & how much they paid in wages per season, or why that was mentioned at all & still don't. We all know that the Qatari royal family has a load of money and could pay better wages as well as improve living conditions for the workers, but they won't and nothing will change after the world cup.

I still have no idea what this has to do with Liverpool.

[paigow]

16 minutes ago, Welshman in Ca said:

I asked were you suggesting (a question) not that you were demanding (a statement) and didn't understand the comparison with Liverpool & how much they paid in wages per season, or why that was mentioned at all & still don't. We all know that the Qatari royal family has a load of money and could pay better wages as well as improve living conditions for the workers, but they won't and nothing will change after the world cup.

I still have no idea what this has to do with Liverpool.

Nothing to do with Liverpool. Saying 100 Million pounds is abstract. Linking it to something factual / concrete provides context. I do not care about Premier League or any other League and their player salaries.

[PrincessPurrsALot]

As always, watch your tone and be civil. This is a conversation on the internet; it does not need to be confrontational. No posts were removed since we seem to be back on track.  Let's stay there. 

[marina to]

On 12/15/2022 at 2:40 PM, andromeda331 said:

I know. I get your point but at the same time the players are paid ridiculous amount of money.

Here's the counterpoint. How much are those teams making? A hell of a lot when you look at tv revenue, merchandise, betting, concessions and parking (I'm assuming the stadiums charge for parking). Shouldn't the athletes, who are the reason for all of this, get a large cut of this? Look back at the 70s and how little professional athletes were being paid in relation to the teams' revenue. This is just rebalancing. The average career of an NFL athlete is only a few years, after training for it for a decade. (It's a little longer for other sports but not by much.) Why shouldn't they maximize their revenue in that time?

Edited December 25, 2022 by marina to

[Ailianna]

6 hours ago, marina to said:

Why shouldn't they maximize their revenue in that time?

Because no human being needs $245 million dollars. No matter what they do. And as for righting past salary wrongs, I don't see that money going to the players of years past who were the actual people with those unfair contracts that left players with little agency.

Or how about current issues? The people who work concessions, clean facilities, and otherwise make the games possible. How about they all get living wages? On the merchandise issue, how about some of that obscene money is used to make those products here and pay THOSE people a living wage? Or, if the stuff must be made overseas, the people there could be paid decently. I know that would reduce the profits of the millionaire and billionaire class, but it would also make an enormous impact for good. 

Instead, we complain that people playing a game are only paid in the millions, and poor things, have to supplement those poverty wages.

At the end of the day, the wealthy are riding the backs of the poor, in the US or Qatar.

(If you can't tell, I'm not a big fan of the sports economy.)

[ShadowKnight2]

1 hour ago, Ailianna said:

Because no human being needs $245 million dollars. No matter what they do. And as for righting past salary wrongs, I don't see that money going to the players of years past who were the actual people with those unfair contracts that left players with little agency.

Or how about current issues? The people who work concessions, clean facilities, and otherwise make the games possible. How about they all get living wages? On the merchandise issue, how about some of that obscene money is used to make those products here and pay THOSE people a living wage? Or, if the stuff must be made overseas, the people there could be paid decently. I know that would reduce the profits of the millionaire and billionaire class, but it would also make an enormous impact for good. 

Instead, we complain that people playing a game are only paid in the millions, and poor things, have to supplement those poverty wages.

At the end of the day, the wealthy are riding the backs of the poor, in the US or Qatar.

(If you can't tell, I'm not a big fan of the sports economy.)

It is what it is. You can accept it for that, or not care, much less watch it.

Just remember, the players ARE the product, and because of that they should be allowed what the market bears. They either get the money, or the owners pocket that, and that's not something anyone in their right mind would want!