OT. The futures Bright, the Futures Brexit!!!

[ramAnag]

I know we disagree a lot, and this is off the subject, but are you serious? or do you just mean football when it has impacted England?

Actually we don’t. I’ve made a point over the last few weeks of avoiding you.

Am I serious? Absolutely. I can’t think of another example of blatant cheating that has been so glamorised by those who benefited from it.
‘The hand of God’? Bollux...the hand of a cheat who then completely wasted his undeniable talent and destroyed himself.

Not really to do with it being England...don’t like people profiting from cheating and dishonesty and, off the top of my head, I can’t think of another example of a sportsman/person who has profited more from one individual action.

Seriously off topic but maybe that would make a good thread...’Sporting cheats who have prospered’.

[Andy_Faber]

Actually we don’t. I’ve made a point over the last few weeks of avoiding you.

Am I serious? Absolutely. I can’t think of another example of blatant cheating that has been so glamorised by those who benefited from it.
‘The hand of God’? Bollux...the hand of a cheat who then completely wasted his undeniable talent and destroyed himself.

Not really to do with it being England...don’t like people profiting from cheating and dishonesty and, off the top of my head, I can’t think of another example of a sportsman/person who has profited more from one individual action.

Seriously off topic but maybe that would make a good thread...’Sporting cheats who have prospered’.

I really only have to offer two words, although if you want a very long discussion I'll happily enter into it

Lance Armstrong

[ramAnag]

I really only have to offer two words, although if you want a very long discussion I'll happily enter into it

Lance Armstrong

It seems, not for the first time, you have missed my point. Sport is littered with cheats and yes...Lance Armstrong is one of the more high profile ones. However my point was that ‘I can’t think of another example of blatant cheating that has been so glamorised by those who benefited from it’.

To the best of my knowledge Lance Armstrong was stripped of his titles once the truth about his wrongdoing emerged and he is no longer regarded as a hero.

Maradona’s cheating was on a different level. Not comparable in terms of premeditated wrongdoing but an action which could, and should, have resulted in, not just the goal being disallowed, but also probably a red card. Instead he has been hailed and lauded and allowed to describe his cheating as ‘the hand of God’.

Talent wise Maradona deserves to be up there with Pele and Banks, Eusebio and the other great European and South American World Cup stars but, for me, he will always be tainted, not just by his cheating but more especially by his reaction to it, and the same goes for many in his nation who have encouraged a proven cheat to achieve something approaching deification within Argentina.

[MadAmster]

CR7 comes close. 3-1 up against the team bottom of the League and Utd were top, 3rd minute of 4 injury time minutes at the end of the 2nd half, he dives, sticks out his left leg and makes contact with a defender. Penalty given. He took it and scored. WHY do it in the first place?

[Geoff Parkstone]

Hate to say it but I agree with rA. Maradonnas's genius has always been tainted by that moment - including his other sublime goal in the same game which he couldn't have scored from the dressing room. But it was 36 years ago and has now been blamed on God, not Maradonna. So I don't hold a grudge against Argentina and was happy to see them beat Les Grenouilles.

Germany failing to get out of group was the real high spot of the tournament, though ,😄

[MadAmster]

Lot of talk online about Messi now being the GOAT.

World Cup wins. Pele 3 Messi 1. I rest my case.

[SithHappens]

Lot of talk online about Messi now being the GOAT.

World Cup wins. Pele 3 Messi 1. I rest my case.

Pele is a better example too, as far as I know Pele has never been a convicted criminal.

[ramAnag]

CR7 comes close. 3-1 up against the team bottom of the League and Utd were top, 3rd minute of 4 injury time minutes at the end of the 2nd half, he dives, sticks out his left leg and makes contact with a defender. Penalty given. He took it and scored. WHY do it in the first place?

WHY? Because he’s another for whom possessing sublime football skills wasn’t enough, he had to repeatedly add cheating to his repertoire...hence the almost complete lack of sympathy when he disappeared in tears from the World Cup stage at the hands of Morocco.

GP...getting back on topic, I think perhaps your delight at the failures of France and Germany suggests your anti European ‘slip’ is showing.

[Geoff Parkstone]

Pele is a better example too, as far as I know Pele has never been a convicted criminal.

But Messi doesn't need Viagra, so he is also an upright citizen

[Geoff Parkstone]

WHY? Because he’s another for whom possessing sublime football skills wasn’t enough, he had to repeatedly add cheating to his repertoire...hence the almost complete lack of sympathy when he disappeared in tears from the World Cup stage at the hands of Morocco.

GP...getting back on topic, I think perhaps your delight at the failures of France and Germany suggests your anti European ‘slip’ is showing.

Well I was also happy to see Portugal out for the very reason you put forward. Ft Rance I wanted to lose as they had beaten England, otherwise admire the team. Germany - well one needs no excuse to delight in their failure.