James Harkin

Podcaster: @nosuchthing Head Elf: @qikipedia Book: Tour: IG: nosuchthingasjamesharkin email us: [email protected]

[James Harkin @JamesHarkin]

Woo hoo! ‘Quite A Good Sport’ is currently the Gold Medal #1 sports podcast on Apple. It’s your very gentle, slightly silly, no previous knowledge required, accompaniment to the Olympics. Listen at the link below or search your podcast app…

https://t.co/tZwan1Z6Yw

[James Harkin @JamesHarkin]

@existenz12 This season is an excellent one to start with. Or find one of the European tag games.

[James Harkin @JamesHarkin]

I’ve been a cheerleader for this for many years now. It’s amongst the best content you can find anywhere in the world. If you don’t already know it, search for ‘Jet Lag The Game’ on YouTube and thank me later.

[adam chase @adamhchase]

in about 30 minutes, the UK screenings of the Japanorama theatrical finale will start--if you are in one of them, we would love to see pics!

[James Harkin @JamesHarkin]

Very brave decision by this year’s Traitors celebrity bookers.

[James Harkin @JamesHarkin]

Tonight, on one of the biggest box-office nights of the year, a Central London cinema didn’t show Spider-Man, or The Odyssey… Instead, every single screen showed the premiere of a YouTube/Nebula series… Jet Lag: The Game. Utterly thrilled for such a lovely talented group.

[James Harkin @JamesHarkin]

The winner of the Golden “Sir, Sir, the big boy did something naughty. He covered his mouth, Sir” award.

[James Harkin @JamesHarkin]

@Bobby_Seagull Shame his only impact in his final WC game was to try to get a fellow professional sent off.

[James Harkin @JamesHarkin]

Terrible game; Argentina player sent off for dissent and a horrible foul; Spain win; Argentina acting like children at the end.

The only thing to make it more perfect for the classic England fan would be for Spain to unveil a “It’s ok, we’ll let you keep hold of Gibraltar” flag

[James Harkin @JamesHarkin]

I feel like Argentina would have had a better chance if Messi hadn’t retired immediately after the England game.

[James Harkin @JamesHarkin]

Well done anyone who bet on 0-0 for this game. The most obvious scoreline in history.

[James Harkin @JamesHarkin]

I might be proved wrong, but I assume the chaos of this England-France game will be very different to the ‘sideways-pass’ versus ‘opponent-kicking’ match we’ll get tomorrow.

Not everyone will agree, but I think that will be the final that this tournament deserves.

[James Harkin @JamesHarkin]

I know Trump gets a lot of stick for randomly falling asleep, but I absolutely wouldn’t blame him for doing so during this game.

[James Harkin @JamesHarkin]

We’re doing a run of live shows next week, at the very venerable Royal Institution in London. They’re all sold out except for Wednesday. Grab those final tickets quickly, here…

https://t.co/xPV8MXOUIK

[James Harkin @JamesHarkin]

I might be proved wrong, but I assume the chaos of this England-France game will be very different to the ‘sideways-pass’ versus ‘opponent-kicking’ match we’ll get tomorrow.

Not everyone will agree, but I think that will be the final that this tournament deserves.

[James Harkin @JamesHarkin]

Dirty. Unfair. Not really how you would expect the game to be played. Borderline against the rules.

So what’s everyone’s Wordle score today?

[James Harkin @JamesHarkin]

@DaleJohnsonBBC I think this would be an excellent argument if the funky ball flight didn’t coincide exactly with the moment the Norwegians claimed interference. Also to the moment many claim to see a deflection in replays. Overall, the weight of evidence does seem to point to an anomaly.

[James Harkin @JamesHarkin]

@ChrisCJTucker @DaleJohnsonBBC My understanding is that this 3D stuff is powered by FIFA’s own data. It’s a company called Immersiv and they’re one of FIFA’s tech partners.

[James Harkin @JamesHarkin]

@SamMonsonNFL I think this is very true. Also, my feeling is that outside the social media noise, regular fans have gone from calling ‘unfair’ to ‘corrupt’ especially since FIFA gave the appearance of kowtowing to Trump for the Balogun card.

[James Harkin @JamesHarkin]

@DrOsitaMba Hi Osita. Thanks for your messages. My hypothesis is a general one which holds up statistically. Your well thought-out counterexamples are good pieces of data but the overall trend is that large teams and home teams are treated more favourably. This is demonstrably true.

[James Harkin @JamesHarkin]

This is a great interview with Haaland. I think “better teams always tend to get decisions” is a much more plausible explanation for many of the worst VAR interventions helping the top-4 teams in this WC, than there being a big conspiracy.

Question is: how do they stop it?

[James Harkin @JamesHarkin]

@DrOsitaMba My feeling is that home teams also tend to get the rub of the green, and that’s what happened in the England-Mexico game.