Association Football 2023/2024 Discussion Thread

[Mike88]

Spain has won the Women's World Cup, after defeating England 1-0.

[Mike88]

Meanwhile in Portugal...

https://twitter.com/ProximaJornada1/status/1698411576963838404

[Mike88]

Utterly insane format for the 2030 FIFA World Cup--Spain, Portugal, and Morocco tri-hosting the event with the opening matches held in Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay. We're really never getting a normal World Cup again.

Complete bonkers format. In practice, it's Spain who is really going to host the World Cup, the other countries will only receive a few matches. In my country, the media's reaction is that FIFA is just "inventing" things.

[Mike88]

Meanwhile, news from Iran...

https://twitter.com/Renascenca/status/1712542816071557245

Cristiano Ronaldo risks 100 lashes for hugging a disabled artist

Striker Cristiano Ronaldo hugged a disabled young woman in Iran and now risks a sentence of up to 100 lashes. The information is being provided by the Italian television program TgLa7.

At issue is the Portuguese international's meeting with Fatemeh Hamami, an Iranian artist who has 85% of her body paralyzed, and who became famous for the paintings she paints with her feet.

At the time, Fatemeh Hamami presented CR7, who was in the country to face Persepolis FC, in the Asian Champions League, with a painting of hers.

Cristiano Ronaldo, current Al Nassr player, offered a game shirt, but hugged and kissed the artist on the face, something that is prohibited in the country.

[Mike88]

Here in Portugal it's also very, very tight:

31 SportingCP
31 FCPorto
30 SLBenfica
29 SCBraga
25 Vitória de Guimarães

And, has everybody noticed that Girona is still in the lead in La Liga? Wow.

[Mike88]

Sporting CP won the Portuguese Championship after Benfica's defeat to Famalicão, which made it mathematically impossible to overtake Sporting. It is Sporting's 20th title.

https://twitter.com/CabineSport/status/1787363883201544681
Sporting fans celebrating the title in downtown Lisbon.

[Mike88]

Mourinho officially starts the Fener job. As bad as his behavior can be at times (e.g., abusing Anthony Taylor in the garage), I cannot help but love him. First time he's managing in a country where he doesn't know the language, which may slightly dampen his impact with the fans, but I'm sure they don't care.

At the end of the day, Uber Eats really does deliver everything.