Phil Mead #FBPE #RejoinEU #KillBrexit 🇪🇺🇬🇧🇳🇱

Once a global marketer & educator. Now retired. Still much of the world to see, too little time. Family 1st❤️#Hammers⚒️ #Asia #Books #History #Travel #Trains

[Phil Mead #FBPE #RejoinEU #KillBrexit 🇪🇺🇬🇧🇳🇱 @phil_mead]

@SteveLawrence_ @MarcusFitzsimon Dangerous times for the country. The headlong rush towards an extreme right wing oligarchy is well underway.

[Phil Mead #FBPE #RejoinEU #KillBrexit 🇪🇺🇬🇧🇳🇱 @phil_mead]

@suekenmax @ThatTimWalker Does a "gift" of 5 million quid not count as "income"? If so money launderers have missed a trick.

[Gandalv @Microinteracti1]

The Champions Who Forgot to Play Football!

Here is a statistic to frame above your fireplace and show your grandchildren: Argentina’s first shot of any kind in Sunday’s World Cup final arrived in the 115th minute, a record of futility for a World Cup. Spain finished with 20 shots to Argentina’s two, twelve on target to none. Not one. In a final. ESPN called it arguably the worst World Cup final in living memory, and that was the polite version.

NBC Sports put it plainly: Argentina were more concerned with fouling and fighting than playing football, and the way several players behaved was a disgrace that tarnished their legacy.

According to Football365, Scaloni’s men committed more first-half fouls than they completed passes into the attacking third. Their 12.29 fouls per game was, per NBC, far and away the highest of any semifinalist.

The punditry class reached for the thesaurus. “It’s a disgrace,” said Gary Neville on ITV. Alan Shearer told the BBC that Leandro Paredes “threw two or three haymakers into someone’s face” in the post-whistle brawl that earned him a red card after the final had ended. Joe Hart called it “disgusting.” Lee Dixon called it “anti-football.” Wayne Rooney simply shrugged: we’ve seen this from Argentina before.

And where was the captain? Sitting on the turf, weeping, while his teammates disgraced the shirt he made famous. Sorry, but no. A captain’s job in that moment is not to cry. It is to get up, wade into the scrum, grab the idiots by the collar and order them to behave like gentlemen. Messi shook every Spanish hand, as Hart noted, and fair play. But leadership was required, and leadership stayed seated.

Consider the route, too: a group of Algeria, Austria and Jordan, then Cape Verde in the round of 32. All the jeopardy of a heated driveway.

Spain were everything football should be. One goal conceded in eight matches, the fewest ever for a champion. Rodri took the Golden Ball, Ferran Torres the trophy. As Norwegian commentator Trond Johannessen put it: mighty scenes, but the right outcome. The victory bandits were finally caught.

Wherever Argentina play next, anywhere on Earth, they will walk out to a wall of boos. They earned every decibel.

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[Mouin Rabbani @MouinRabbani]

It is ridiculous to claim that Spain’s World Cup victory puts the lie to allegations that Argentina has been receiving preferential treatment.

The preferential treatment of Argentina was consistent, and consistently visible throughout the tournament.

Even in the final, Spain had a perfectly legitimate goal disallowed, and although Argentina received six yellow cards (with one player sent off after receiving a second), they deserved many more.

Any other team playing similarly would have had at least two players sent off and been handed a full deck of cards.

It seems to me quite clear that the FIFA leadership determined that its commercial interests dictated that Argentina needed to stay in contention beyond what the team’s performance warranted.

Ensuring Messi continued to play throughout the tournament was a FIFA priority. Not because of his indisputable qualities as a great player, but because of his unparalleled ability to draw viewers.

World Cup finals are often anti-climactic. This one was doubly so because one team had no business being in it, and would under normal circumstances have been eliminated several games earlier.

Gianni Infantino’s only significant accomplishment has been to make the world nostalgic for Sepp Blatter.

[Phil Mead #FBPE #RejoinEU #KillBrexit 🇪🇺🇬🇧🇳🇱 @phil_mead]

#SPAARG Well done Spain 🇪🇸. You played football. Your opponents hacked, cheated, dissembled, and thoroughly deserved to lose, despite Infantino's love for Messi and FIFA's sly underhand attempts to have the Argies take home the WC trophy.🏆

[Phil Mead #FBPE #RejoinEU #KillBrexit 🇪🇺🇬🇧🇳🇱 @phil_mead]

Gooooooooool ! 🇪🇸 Spain deserve it. The Argies and their dirty excuse for football need to get beaten. #SPAARG 🇦🇷❌

[Phil Mead #FBPE #RejoinEU #KillBrexit 🇪🇺🇬🇧🇳🇱 @phil_mead]

#SPAARG 🇪🇸🇦🇷 Spain's Williams scored a perfectly legitimate goal, ruled out by the referee for spurious claims of a foul in the build-up. Pretty clear-cut pro-Argentinian FIFA bias.

[Phil Mead #FBPE #RejoinEU #KillBrexit 🇪🇺🇬🇧🇳🇱 @phil_mead]

#SPAARG 🇪🇸🇦🇷 What's with the vicious fouls the Argentines are inflicting on Spanish players? It's a myth that they play football. The Slovenian referee finally found his cojones to start penalizing the Argies for their dirty bone crunching tackles. Fernandes deserved the red!

[Phil Mead #FBPE #RejoinEU #KillBrexit 🇪🇺🇬🇧🇳🇱 @phil_mead]

@henrywinter Let's not give Tuchel any credit for yesterday's exciting ding-battle and 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 win over France 🇫🇷.
The England players had something to prove to the country (not the coach !) and all those fans whose hopes of a WC Final were dashed by Argentina's win due to stupid game management

[Phil Mead #FBPE #RejoinEU #KillBrexit 🇪🇺🇬🇧🇳🇱 @phil_mead]

This tosspot has crawled from the shadows to blab on about Brexit and promote his Ukraine documentary. Why isn't the clown serving time in jail for condemning Brits to penury and the country to instability & isolation? He shouldn't get airtime or any media attention #SkyNews

[Phil Mead #FBPE #RejoinEU #KillBrexit 🇪🇺🇬🇧🇳🇱 @phil_mead]

#FRAENG 🇫🇷🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 4-6 FT
WTF! Perhaps the most exhilarating match to watch that England has played this WC tournament. Players were up for it in attack and backs to the wall. They were superb.
So possession play isn't in England's DNA? Pish-posh drivel Mr. Tuchel!
#WC2026 🏆

[Phil Mead #FBPE #RejoinEU #KillBrexit 🇪🇺🇬🇧🇳🇱 @phil_mead]

#FRAENG 0-4 (45') 🇫🇷🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 So far an impressive attacking England peformance. It just shows how wrong was Tuchel's decision to defend against the Argies if only he'd brought on attacking players like Rashford & Saka instead of defenders in that last 20 minutes. What a plonker! 🏆

[Phil Mead #FBPE #RejoinEU #KillBrexit 🇪🇺🇬🇧🇳🇱 @phil_mead]

A brilliant takedown of Tuchel's BS about England's 'DNA' instead of admitting he screwed up. Real leaders take responsibility. They don't blame their team😠
'Tuchel would rather put down the English game than admit to his own cowardice' | Jonathan Liew https://t.co/n0Nb6SH5NI

[Phil Mead #FBPE #RejoinEU #KillBrexit 🇪🇺🇬🇧🇳🇱 @phil_mead]

Tuchel was hired to win England the World Cup.
Instead he lost us the match that could've helped us win it.
Is he just a fraud, naïve or generally incompetent?
The #FA is certainly stupid for having renewed #Tuchel's contract another two years.
#WC2026 🏆 ❌

[Mark Harrison @MarkHarrison23]

This is on Tuchel for me. He’s gone defensive very early against Mexico and Norway and tbf it worked but sorry you can’t just keep defending one goal leads West Ham fans know this week enough

If it was Southgate he would be getting pelters

[Phil Mead #FBPE #RejoinEU #KillBrexit 🇪🇺🇬🇧🇳🇱 @phil_mead]

@MarkHarrison23 Yeh. It was like watching West Ham all over again under Lopetegui & Potter. Early Nuno too. As soon as Tuchel went defensive any Hammers fan knew England would buckle under constant Argie attacks. Tuchel could have learnt a lot from us! ⚒️ He lost 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 the match and a WC final

[Phil Mead #FBPE #RejoinEU #KillBrexit 🇪🇺🇬🇧🇳🇱 @phil_mead]

#ENGARG 1-2🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇦🇷 FT
Tuchel's switch to defensive tactics after taking the lead 1-0 has lost 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 the match.
It's entirely on him. Too cock sure of himself. Too complacent.
It's Tuchel's tactical folly that will be remembered by England's fans😠.
#WC2026🏆

[Phil Mead #FBPE #RejoinEU #KillBrexit 🇪🇺🇬🇧🇳🇱 @phil_mead]

#ENGARG 1-2 ! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇦🇷
Tuchel's folly.
Far too early to go on the defensive merely invited the Argies to all out attack.
And so they get their second. Pure and utter folly.

[Phil Mead #FBPE #RejoinEU #KillBrexit 🇪🇺🇬🇧🇳🇱 @phil_mead]

#ENGARG 1-1 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇦🇷
Looks like Tuchel's gamble backloading our defence while stripping our attack and subbing Rice hasn't paid off. Now England has its back to the wall with few attacking options. This will be tough to watch 🥵

[Ross Wynne @RossWynne16]

I’m sorry how does Anderson get booked for that but Simone hasn’t been for like the 10 fouls he’s committed #ENGARG #WorldCup

[Jamie @ihatehumans88]

@FIFAcom corrupt as ever how is that a yellow and NOTHING Argentina have done has had a card brandished #engarg typical Argentina dirty fucking cunts