Footsy World Championships 2018

[Charger]

Okay so England just annihilated Panama in just the first 45 minutes!! This is insane!

[Jack the Stripper]

Yeah would've been good to be drawn in Group H. England and Belgium have virtually been given a passage through to the round of 16.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

I missed the first half... AAAARRRGGGHHH!!!!!

[Charger]

I missed the first half... AAAARRRGGGHHH!!!!!

You missed quite the goal extravaganza! England and Harry Kane were on fire...granted Panama was really really weak and the two penalties were very stupid faults...

[Charger]

The final rounds of the Group stage start today which means 4 matches and 2 played at the same time....which sucks as you can't watch them all then...but it is understandable why it is done this way too obviously.

Anyways..

Uruguay vs Russia: Meaningless game for both as they've already advanced. Might be a tie...

KSA vs Egypt: Meaningless as well since both are out...but Mo Salah would want to make a goal so I'm thinking Egypt will win.

Spain vs Marocco: Marocco is already out to they might be fast and loose which should benefit Spain...this might be a goal extravaganza again.

Iran vs Portugal: Portugal is gonna be in trouble against the insane bus defence of Iran, but one corner or one free kick will give Ronaldo the chance to sink one in.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

^^^ I can't argue with that, Spain vs Morocco could be another 6-1.

I sorta hope Portugal get knocked out, I know Ronaldo is a great player and all that, but I just want to punch him everytime I see his smug face... and I'm normally mild mannered!

[Tyr66]

I want to shout here to the scandal concerning the rights of diffusion of this World Cup. I've been following football World Cups since Argentina '78. So far I've always had access to all matches in a totally free way.
This year, Bein Sport bought all the rights in France, minus France  which are free broadcasted  on TF1, a private channel.
From the start of the round of 16, except France, all matches are on Bein. The quarter-finals too.
Scandalous !!!!!!!
Bein can put their 8 € subscription as deep as possible in their asses.

[Charger]

I want to shout here to the scandal concerning the rights of diffusion of this World Cup. I've been following football World Cups since Argentina '78. So far I've always had access to all matches in a totally free way.
This year, Bein Sport bought all the rights in France, minus France  which are free broadcasted  on TF1, a private channel.
From the start of the round of 16, except France, all matches are on Bein. The quarter-finals too.
Scandalous !!!!!!!
Bein can put their 8 € subscription as deep as possible in their asses.

Wow...that sucks major ass!

Luckily we still get all matches for free...but if one's into Hockey or F1 you gotta pay big bucks to see all of those....I don't really care for either so not a big deal.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

In the UK all major sporting events legally have to be broadcast on "free to air" channels, FIFA World Cup, Olympics, Wimbledon etc. The BBC and ITV are sharing the broadcast again this year as they always do. I think there would be blood on the streets if it went to a subscription channel.

[Jack the Stripper]

I want to shout here to the scandal concerning the rights of diffusion of this World Cup. I've been following football World Cups since Argentina '78. So far I've always had access to all matches in a totally free way.
This year, Bein Sport bought all the rights in France, minus France  which are free broadcasted  on TF1, a private channel.
From the start of the round of 16, except France, all matches are on Bein. The quarter-finals too.
Scandalous !!!!!!!
Bein can put their 8 € subscription as deep as possible in their asses.

We had a very similar issue here too. The World Cup has always been shown on free to air here on SBS which is a multilingual multicultural government funded tv station.
The government cut funding to the station last year so the executives in charge of running the station in their wisdom decided to sell off most of the rights besides one game each night to one of the major telco companies here to cover the shortfall in government funding.

The Telco company is Optus and offers a sport station as a streaming subscription service. It cost $15 a month if you're not an Optus customer. Problem is, Australia has not got the infrastructure and is not equiped to deal with such an in demand streaming event.
Our internet is shotty and a long way behind the rest of the world and subsequently subscribers have had all sorts of issues trying to stream it, drop outs, buffering and lagging etc.

The whole nation was outraged that not only did we have to pay to watch something which has always been on free to air TV but also Optus has not been able to deliver the product. At one stage the government even stepped in and warned them to get their act together.

In the end Optus couldn't guarantee that it's service would work smoothly to all subscribers so have been forced to let SBS show all the matches until at least the rd of 16 in which it'll be reevaluated again. Optus has also had to offer refunds to everyone that had paid for it and also made its sports channel free to everyone until August 31.

The whole thing has been a complete debacle.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-21/optus-financial-fallout-from-floptus-world-cup-fail/9893338

[Zzzptm]

Free to watch here on Telemundo, for sure. ¡Viva Mexico!

[Charger]

I sorta hope Portugal get knocked out, I know Ronaldo is a great player and all that, but I just want to punch him everytime I see his smug face... and I'm normally mild mannered!

Well Ronaldo is a bit smug but considering all the talent he's got I think he has the right to be a bit smug...

[Zzzptm]

I sorta hope Portugal get knocked out, I know Ronaldo is a great player and all that, but I just want to punch him everytime I see his smug face... and I'm normally mild mannered!

Well Ronaldo is a bit smug but considering all the talent he's got I think he the right to be a bit smug...

The man is quite amazing. As we say in Texas, "It ain't bragging if it's true!"

[Charger]

I sorta hope Portugal get knocked out, I know Ronaldo is a great player and all that, but I just want to punch him everytime I see his smug face... and I'm normally mild mannered!

Well Ronaldo is a bit smug but considering all the talent he's got I think he has the right to be a bit smug...

The man is quite amazing. As we say in Texas, "It ain't bragging if it's true!"

Well said by you Texans!

[Zzzptm]

Just tuned in to the Urugay-Russia match and it's already 1-0, Uruguay! Go Uruguay!