June 10Jun 10 9 minutes ago, Steve201 said:No surprise given it’s in a country that doesn’t like football in the whole!They do like football, but the problem is the ticket prices are so expensive. Nobodies paying $200 to watch Auckland City vs Benfica. The whole thing only works with more European clubs and superstar players. I don't actually mind the concept, but there's little interest domestically and there is also way too much football. It's just a cash grab by FIFA and it's quite frankly hilarious that tickets were cheaper on Viagogo than FIFA - they literally expected sell outs from most grounds!
June 11Jun 11 Chelsea's Club World Cup squad in fullGoalkeepers: Robert Sanchez, Filip Jorgensen, Mike Penders, Gabriel SloninaDefenders: Marc Cucurella, Tosin Adarabioyo, Benoit Badiashile, Levi Colwill, Mamadou Sarr, Trevoh Chalobah, Reece James, Malo Gusto, Aaron Anselmino, Josh AcheampongMidfielders: Enzo Fernandez, Dario Essugo, Andrey Santos, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Moises Caicedo, Romeo LaviaForwards: Pedro Neto, Liam Delap, Cole Palmer, Noni Madueke, Nicolas Jackson, Christopher Nkunku, Tyrique George, Marc Guiu
June 12Jun 12 Club World Cup officials will use an accelerated semi-automated offside technology that will tell them to stop the game immediately if a player who is more than 10cm offside touches the ball.It is one of the most significant initiatives being introduced for the 32-team tournament in the US and is aimed at reducing needless delays.Assistant referees will receive the notification instantly rather than having to wait for the technology to check positions and distances - as is the case with semi-automated offside (SAO) systems used in most major leagues.SAO was introduced into the Premier League on 12 April, before which the video assistant referee (VAR) made all offside rulings.The introduction of the enhanced SAO comes a month after Nottingham Forest striker Taiwo Awoniyi suffered a serious abdominal injury after crashing into a post during their Premier League draw against Leicester.He had been chasing the ball despite a clear offside that had not been given.Among the other developments in use at the tournament, which starts on Sunday, are:Referees wearing body cams that allow live pictures to be shown immediately before the game and on delay during it.An eight-second countdown for goalkeepers to release the ball.VAR pictures shown to fans in real time inside the ground.
June 12Jun 12 20 hours ago, Steve201 said:Is there anyone big missing from that squad?Interesting to see Delap start!There's no Sterling, Chilwell, Axel Diasi, Joao Felix.
June 14Jun 14 Author That’s a lovely stadium they are live from tonight - now they’ve got David Beckham on!
June 15Jun 15 Bayern Munich v Auckland is proving to be the joke that most people will have expected. Less than 30 minutes into the "match", Bayern are 4-0 up and Auckland haven't had a shot.
June 15Jun 15 To be fair, the semi-pointless affair that existed before this as a way for Arabian emirs to feel important with just one club from each federation still had Auckland City/an OFC rep, just they got knocked out in the seeded first round before facing top clubs. Stupid that this is the first game I'm hearing about from this though, makes it all seem like a joke.What is this offering that the Champions League does not, aside from a way to pointlessly fill up players' schedules in a break year?
June 15Jun 15 The aim is to make it a club version of the World Cup and you get these kind of results in the World Cup. I don’t see an issue
June 15Jun 15 Author That game today was pointless indeed, I knew there would be a match like that but Auckland will look towards the other fixtures to be more competitive. As soon as I seen the score after 30 mins I turned over to the euro U-21s.The game lastnyt I watched was a much better representation of what it could be like with the stars in the Miami side showing they are all individuals compared to the decent Egyptian side who were a team. Deserved to win 2/3-0!
June 15Jun 15 1 hour ago, Iz 🌟 said:To be fair, the semi-pointless affair that existed before this as a way for Arabian emirs to feel important with just one club from each federation still had Auckland City/an OFC rep, just they got knocked out in the seeded first round before facing top clubs. Stupid that this is the first game I'm hearing about from this though, makes it all seem like a joke.What is this offering that the Champions League does not, aside from a way to pointlessly fill up players' schedules in a break year?FIFA want a slice of the pie and to expand the competition to big areas, I imagine eventually they will want it to be in the Middle East and will end up having to be mid-season, which of course then becomes a huge massive problem. To be fair, the South American clubs are usually quite competitive. I think the concept is actually really good, but there's not a place for it in the calendar currently. Ultimately what I think probably happens in the Premier League is the domestic league becomes 18 teams or clubs participating in the League Cup probably end up forefitting.There's a bigger problem here with the wider domestic game, that the clubs in these smaller leagued end up getting huge windfalls allowing them to outspend their competitors.1 hour ago, Houdini said:I somehow get the feeling that this will be a short lived competition....It won't be. There's talk to expanding it to 48 teams. Think I read the likes of Barcelona, Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs and few others were complaining that there's huge sums of money involved and it means Chelsea/City have a competitive advantage. I actually think there is a place for it, but you need the best teams in the world to be taking part (which really means Europe needs an extra 6-8 slots) and a space for it in the calendar.
June 16Jun 16 11 hours ago, Liam Sota said:The aim is to make it a club version of the World Cup and you get these kind of results in the World Cup. I don’t see an issueTrue but there's literally never been a 10 goal margin of victory in the entire history of the world cup and we get one here in the very first match 🤣 what I would say though is in spite of the joke of a result, it's a day of a lifetime for players and fans of teams like Auckland to play a legit competitive match against an elite team.11 hours ago, Rooney said:It won't be. There's talk to expanding it to 48 teams. Think I read the likes of Barcelona, Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs and few others were complaining that there's huge sums of money involved and it means Chelsea/City have a competitive advantage. I actually think there is a place for it, but you need the best teams in the world to be taking part (which really means Europe needs an extra 6-8 slots) and a space for it in the calendar.Why the hell are Chelsea even in it? They haven't won anything for over 4 years!
June 16Jun 16 So that's how they managed to stretch it to 32 teams then, invite all the winners from the whole decade lol
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