Admiral Pickles

Live fast, play hard, eat cakes. ⚽️ #COYS 🏉 #COYB 🏈 #FinsUp

[Admiral Pickles @Pickard19]

Doesn't say a lot for the supposed lion...

[Mark Goldbridge @markgoldbridge]

Spurs trying to hijack the Fernandes deal lol! It's like a puppy trying to take a bone from a lion

[Admiral Pickles @Pickard19]

@AlasdairGold Utterly delusional. We are sleepwalking into a relegation battle and it's the same rubbish game in, game out.

[Henry Winter @henrywinter]

The Adoration of the Maga. A few thoughts. It all felt a step too far by Gianni Infantino. The award of the inaugural Fifa Peace Prize felt more to do with its president’s desire to please powerful politicians as much as Donald Trump’s love of such glitzy, expensive offerings of loyalty last seen in medieval courts.

It felt more about politics than sport, a risky game for Fifa to play whenever it wants to bring a national association into line for perceived interference by government in the future. The Trump trophy weakens Fifa statutes. It also distracted from the real trophy, the World Cup, and the group-stage draw, traditionally a celebration about bringing countries together. Infantino took his eye off the balls.

A football draw designed to work out who plays who and (eventually) where and when is not the time or place for such politics. Infantino wasn’t speaking for the world in bestowing the Peace Prize, as he claimed. So presumptuous. So out of touch. Many probably agree that Trump has been a force for good in geopolitics, some might disagree. Most would probably feel such decisions should be left to experienced experts like the Nobel Committee and, please, can we get on with a football draw.

It’s spectacularly naïve or simply arrogant for Fifa to enter such non-football areas. It feels more and more that this was as much an Infantino initiative as Fifa’s. Infantino was supposed to drain the swamp when he arrived at Fifa in 2016 in the wake of assorted corruption scandals bedevilling the governing body of world football. How fitting that the nadir of Infantino’s propensity for self-aggrandisement as leader of what’s supposed to be a team game came in Washington. It was there that Trump promised to transform politics with his “drain the swamp” rhetoric, also in 2016.

The selfie moment was particularly cringe-worthy. Infantino forgets that football is the star of the show, not a 55-year lawyer. A senior football executive, who’s been at the heart of the English and European game for more than 20 years, messaged me during the drawn-out draw with his verdict on Infantino. “I feel revulsion, anger, shame, disgust – how has our sport been taken over by a Swiss ***** and turned into a total travesty???” He also pointed out that ensuring the leaders of USA, Mexico and Canada each somehow pulled out their own country’s name was not a good look for a draw based on chance.

Great for the cameras, though. Flash, bang, wallop, what a picture of Infantino's priorities. And who gets the next FIFA Peace Prize? And wouldn't Infantino have gained more respect had he used the money for the Trump trophy to subsidise excessive ticket costs? He's lost sight of what should be the real priorities for the leader of football. The game.

It's sad, really. Many sensible people work at Fifa, passionate about the game not their own ego, but it's alarming what happens to the leadership when they take power there. Even the great football manager Arsene Wenger has changed since becoming Chief of Global Football Development at Fifa. He now campaigns for more games, backing the expanded World Cup, which he would have railed against as a widely-admired, free-thinking club manager, fiercely protective of his players' well-being. "I believe that 48 teams is the right number." Arsene, just listen to yourself.

Many fans probably won’t lose much sleep that Wenger dances to Fifa's tune or that Infantino cosies up to Trump, Aramco and co. Some probably think Fifa’s a video game. Most just can’t wait for the football. The game’s about Mbappe and Messi, Haaland and Salah, Kane and Dembele, not Infantino and Trump.

The game’s about the Tartan Army, the brilliant Mexican following, the ever-hopeful English, the mobile carnival of Brazilians and the millions of other fans flocking to venue cities next summer, only a third with tickets. The USA is prepared for the party. I covered USA 94 and you couldn’t really tell there was a tournament on, certainly where I was in Detroit, Chicago and DC. You will this time, also in Canada. Mexico's total immersion was never in doubt given their passion for the game.

Infantino should remember this. He runs a great football organisation, not a political organisation. He needs to re-focus. Fifa is undeniably a force for good in many countries. The Fifa Foundation runs a new community programme that supports 154,924 people in 54 nations. Its new Digital Education Programme works on computer literacy amongst disadvantaged groups, helping them into the workplace. It’s easy to say it’s all about Infantino (Foundation board president), soft power and ensuring he keeps countries onside, voting for him, but the Foundation undeniably changes lives.

Infantino needs to look at his Adoration of the Maga and remember what he should be doing for football: serving it, not himself. #FIFAWorldCup.

[Admiral Pickles @Pickard19]

@pokeefe1 @ZJN17_ @Eujhn2 @scottdougie @lukeherbert @jordyymeady @FabrizioRomano Have you heard anything regarding Kubo as an alternative target?

[Admiral Pickles @Pickard19]

@McLarenF1 Kimi at Suzuka in 2005 for me.

JB's win in Canada in 2011 and Mika at Spa in 2000 run it close, though!

[Lionesses @Lionesses]

It's home, again.

[Ryanair @Ryanair]

Ryanair🤝Coldplay
splitting up couples

[Admiral Pickles @Pickard19]

@Hobbsmemor84241 @pokeefe1 Makes perfect sense, thanks for the quick reply.

[Admiral Pickles @Pickard19]

@joeolivr Still absolutely fucking buzzing mate!

[Admiral Pickles @Pickard19]

Very fucking Spursy. Big Ange aura.

[Tottenham Hotspur @SpursOfficial]

Spursy.

[Admiral Pickles @Pickard19]

I don't want players at the club who don't want to be there, but the fact that we are no longer attractive to top young talents is a problem. The total lack of ambition at board level is dragging us further and further into the mire.

[The Spurs Web @thespursweb]

It looks like the promise of Beyoncé tickets, an NFL meet and greet along with a lap of the F1 track did not convince Mathys Tel, despite Levy’s trip to Germany.

Top players want to join clubs who are showing on-the-pitch ambition to win trophies, not a shiny stadium and training ground. This is what we have become, we have lost our appeal.

[Admiral Pickles @Pickard19]

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. We must always remember.

#HMD

[Admiral Pickles @Pickard19]

On the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, on #HolocaustMemorialDay, my thoughts have continued to turn towards my own experience of visiting @AuschwitzMuseum in 2019.

[Admiral Pickles @Pickard19]

All around the world, we are still dividing ourselves and judging others based on things like colour, ethnicity, or sexuality. I do not understand it, I will never understand it, and I don't get why people are brought up to hate rather than love.