Discipline Blotter: Argentina Trump Cup Aftermath

Someone please explain to me why Argentina was not disqualified from the World Cup for the altercations at and after the Final.

If I go any further as to rationale, it would violate the blog's boycott.  But let's just say that Argentina walked around like it owned the place, and threw a violent hissy-fit when they found out they didn't...

Today, the suspensions came down:

Leandro Paredes has been banned from all international play for one year (10 matches) and fined $90,000 for assaulting two Spain players after the match.

Nahuel Molina was banned seven matches and fined $90,000.

Thiago Alamda was banned one game, fined $30,000.

One of the coaches has also been banned three games and fined $30,000.

The Argentinian federation has been fined $210,000 for an array of offenses in the semifinal and final.

#1, why is Argentina not disqualified, stripped of all ranking, and it's $32,000,000 runner-up prize money?

#2, why are they not disqualified from the 2030 Centennary Cup?

The INFANT cries all the way home. WAH!!!!!

The FIFA plans for monetizing the World Cup toward the likes of Jared Kushner will not go forward.

Losing Europe would be too much.

Now, fire INFANTino.

Sounds like the boycott of the World Cup may be getting larger, and existential!

The plans to sell stakes in the World Cup to Trump-aligned parties isn't going over very well.

In fact, it might kill the entire process.  UEFA is ready to boycott.

And without UEFA, there is no World Cup.  Any sane thought of a top tier of the World Cup would have 13 European countries, Brazil, Argentina, and Morocco.  And that's IT.

If UEFA actually considers a boycott of the World Cup, that's it and full stop.

The only way you stop this, though, is to drum the Trump INFANTino out of the equation.

Otherwise, soccer is corrupt enough that he would go through with it without question.

It sounds like the World Cup boycott may be permanent...

The next step in INFANTino's plan to Trump-ize the World Cup is that he wants to sell a 20% stake in the tournament to corporate investors.

Trump ally/toadie Jared Kushner is involved.

Anyone who knows my stand on what comes with paying the bills understands the next thing I'm saying:  Within some degree of reason (else, the fraud that is the United States would've won this tournament), the investors will almost certainly have a say in who wins.

sigh

I think this is one of the reasons I've hard a dark fantasy of receiving an international letter from FIFA personally -- banning me from all relevant soccer events.

PS:  I will be shocked, if not stunned, if either the IOC or the LA Organizing Committee doesn't similarly ban me from the Los Angeles Games.

Two words:  They'd better.  (Or they'd better hope my situation holds that long -- I don't expect it to.)

Day 6 of the Trump Cup

• In a move surprising NO ONE, Donald Trump will be presenting the trophy to the winning team.
• Iran's team has been thrown out of the United States after it's first match, they'll be expected to train in one of the other host countries until being brought in for it's next match next week.  Fucking FIFA Peace Prize, am I right?
• We have a VAR official under investigation for a White Power symbol...  Like begets like, I guess.  Being as he is in the United States, one of the burgeoning White Right Power nations...  

I'm sure there's more, but I've been trying to avoid as much as I can about the Trump Cup...

This is going to be a LONG month. (Day 2)

Two things today:

1) Joe Rogan is noting the booing Donald Trump and the American flag are receiving in a number of sporting events, and is telling the Shithead to stay with similar Shitheads with the UFC.

Tomorrow is the debut of his possible White House execution chamber.

2) Yesterday, Mexican shirts all over downtown of my city.  This is going to be a long fucking month, isn't it?

May It Burn To The Ground, Day 1

It is of no wonder that the headline picture on ESPN's website on Mexico's group's opening day of the World Cup is Trump and FIFA tyrant bitch Infantino (yes, that is his name, and it's so appropriate) shaking hands at the draw last December.

This is not the world's cup.  This is Trump's.  And saying anything more on that vis-a-vis result may infringe on the boycott.

That said, I'm not necessarily going to do such a post every day of this tournament, but some thoughts to keep in mind at least periodically thereto:

Like a thought which resurfaced yesterday that the Pigfucker had when he said that the trilateral trade agreement between the three hosts of this World Cup (US, Mexico, Canada) might not be renewed.  You probably know his feelings on Mexico through his immigration scowling.

Here's a thought or two from the Asshole on Canada:  (from comments at the World Economic Forum four days after his reinstallation last year)

"We don't need them to make our cars. And they make a lot of them. We don't need their lumber, because we have our own forests. 

"We don't need their oil and gas. We have more than anybody." 

His eventual stated goal is to seize Canada, Mexico, and the entirety of what we now know as CONCACAF, from Greenland to Panama.

And it's his Cup.  Not yours, not the game's.

Enjoy your political farce, fuckers.

The shit is officially hitting the fan...

Just a general round-robin of stories with one overreaching thread -- the plates are wobbling and about to fall off:

Karmelo Anthony (named after, obviously!!!) will spend 35 years in prison for the high-profile murder of a White track athlete in Texas.  They didn't wait to sentence him.

The NBA is being forced to condemn the actions of Knicks fans against Spurs fans in these Finals.  Monday's game was marred with several viral attacks on Spurs fans by Knicks fans on New York's streets.  (ESPN)  If the Spurs come back and win this series, you don't need to know the two reasons why.

After two days of meetings of concern among Big XII officials, Texas Tech is doubling down on the "gambling addict" angle with Brendan Sorsby and states he is going to play this season. It was largely immediately recognized, as an example, that the Debbie Gibson incident I had in 1998 was believed fueled by mental illness. I really wish people would understand not only the hypocrisy, but the danger, of Texas Tech going this route. Sorsby should be in prison for his gambling addiction and the obvious sports bribery which resulted from it. Additionally, this kind of an angle, if successful, renders the future policing of fair play impossible across American sports, with devastating results.

But this is nothing compared to the debacles on the soccer pitch:

The Trump Administration has made complete mincemeat of the World Cup.  At least two teams (Senegal and another) have detailed mass security efforts on American soil.

One of the assigned World Cup officials, a Qatari man, has been expelled from the World Cup, banned from the United States, and declared with terrorist ties.  Gee, you think that might not apply to MOST OF THE PEOPLE ASSOCIATED WITH FIFA, YOU ORANGE PIECE OF SHIT??   

Need I go into the Iran situation, especially with Trump bombing Iran just two days before the tournament is scheduled to begin?  Juicy, juicy terrorist targets all over the United States, Canada, and Mexico, by the way...    

Protests in Mexico appear ready to impact the fan experience in THAT host nation.

And, lastly, one on-the-pitch women's moment:  Last night, an edgy high-end international friendly between the United States and Brazil went VERY UNFRIENDLY in Brazil.  In the last 30 minutes of the match, the official sent off basically every coach for Brazil (four of them) and eventually sent off four players (including two after the whistle -- technically leaving Brazil with the minimum contingent to avoid an embarrassing abandonment of the match).  The United States won on a second-half own goal, 1-0.

The 2026 Trump Cup Boycott Post

This is the official Super Fraud boycott post of the FIFA 2026 World Cup in North America.

The homophobia and transphobia and murderous nature of FIFA in past World Cup locations would be enough.

But this particular Cup, I call it the Trump Cup for a reason -- and there's a far larger story developing across sports which is going to fold into the boycott post:

The fact that President Pedophile Pigfucker Donald Trump is trying to insert himself into the national culture.

And recent stories indicate that I can come up with at least FIVE DIFFERENT SPORTS in which this is becoming apparent -- and I'm not counting the Trump Transphobe Games in Los Angeles in 2028 on this list:

The first is the recently completed "Enhanced Games" in Las Vegas, NV -- partially financed and supported by the Trump family, led by Cocaine Donald himself, Don Jr.

There are two major problems with what went down at the event:  The first is that only one world record was actually beaten by a steroided athlete:  The 50-meter butterfly.

But that leads directly into the second major problem:  If there's anything apparent, at least to date, that only one world record was actually bested at the event, it indicates the amount of rampant abuse almost certainly under the table across the gamut of the relevant sports (which, for these Games, included track, swimming, and weightlifting).

I have long believed, as one example, that Usain Bolt is barely human at all -- that he is in fact the first successful genetically perfected athlete.  For him to so completely dominate at 100 meters to the point that I actually believe his best time was actually done with him all but pulling up 10 meters before the finish before someone saw something absurd like 9.39 (instead of the 9.58 he actually ran) and started asking real questions -- remembering that the sprints contain some of the most chemically-abusing athletes in the sport...

But if the Enhanced Games, at least the first ones, showed anything, it showed almost certainly how much drugs are still married to even supposedly "legitimate" races.

The second is that Donald Trump is going to go to Madison Square Garden and support his friend James Dolan, owner of the New York Knicks, in his shock (politically rigged???) berth to win an NBA Championship.  He goes to see Game 3 on Monday.  Knicks are up 2-0.

Fans are being told to prepare for a thousand or more security force at Madison Square Garden.

The third is Pigfucker's UFC Birthday, his UFC "Freedom 250" (*SNORK*) card on the lawn of the White House.

And we could add two things to that monstrosity right now, since he's not planning on taking down the cage afterward:

1) Execution chamber/Gladiator Games?  He's already said he wants trained MMA fighters to kill illegal immigrants for entertainment.

2) The ballroom is for the elite to have a protected place to watch and spend money for methods, in the style of The Purge?

The fourth, just down the figurative street, is Jaxson Dart and the introductions he's made of Trump, much to the chagrin of some of his team's fans.

Be real, people:  Many people are trying to position themselves in the political realities of sports and entertainment, with President Pigfucker being the centerpiece -- perhaps kingmaker.

And that gets to the fifth and final different sport of this, and his 2026 magnum opus:  The FIFA Peace Prize Donald Trump Cup, as known to the rest of the world as The 2026 Men's FIFA World Cup.

Fuck the World Cup.

Fuck FIFA.

Fuck Trump.

Etc. and so forth and so on.

If there's any way he can get himself named the champion of the 2026 Men's FIFA World Cup, he will do so.  There's obviously believability in both literal and figurative senses to this, but this could end up stinking far worse than the last two did!

Sports and Politics: Why We Can't Stick To Sprots

Part of this, and only part of this, may be considered a breach on the boycott on the Transphobe Games, because a large part of this has come from Italy and several American Olympic athletes speaking out against Trump, ICE, and, basically, their place on the US Olympic Team.

Since this does raise to a larger question, however, I'll speak on it.

What finally motivated me on it was Karl Denninger's post on the subject on his White Right website The Market Ticker. 

His stand has a number of problems, not just with the Olympics, but I'll state the ones evident with the Olympics as they come up:

• Anyone who does not believe the Olympics specifically haven't been abjectly taken over by politics has their head so far in the sand, it's in proverbial China (that it went all the way through and came out the other side of the world).

This could go any of a number of different directions.

Anyone who lived through the Cold War had to know that the Olympic Games, and especially the National Dick-Waving Contest which is the top of the medal table, especially in the Summer Games, and doubly especially between the United States and the Soviet Union, was a national propaganda exercise as to the superiority of one or the other of the two systems.  (Though this has also occurred on a lesser extent with the Summer Games between the United States and China in more recent years.)

A prominent example can be given through the Miracle On Ice.  How much of the actual morale boost came from the fact that it was specifically the Russians that the US college boys defeated in Lake Placid?

We could also discuss the entire regime-led drug rigging of the Sochi Games, and the attempts by Russia to completely manipulate the home Games medal table using a state-sponsored doping ring which has partially led to the to-date permanent expulsion of Russia from the Olympic movement.

We could even decide to discuss the Transphobe Games themselves, since the movement to expel transgenders and anyone of Differences of Sexual Development in the different disciplines -- and eventually the IOC itself -- comes from the Donald Trump Movement in the United States.

• This extends beyond the Olympics, as has been evidenced even this week.

We could even, as Denninger notes, speak of the recent Bad Bunny Super Bowl halftime show, and the White Right-led controversies that they believe that an existential fraud has been committed as to how many people watched the game (Terrorist Point) and the halftime show.

People who've read this website basically know of a continuing political movement by the NFL (in some concert with the Federal government -- though, after last Sunday, there is some question as to just how much) to exert political propaganda into the presentation and into who wins and loses.

(Which makes it completely hypocritical that Boomer Esiason has come out in support of Donald Trump and ICE and in opposition to the Olympic athletes speaking up.)

• The entire existence of women's sports (Title IX) and it's end (see boycott post) is political. 

-----------

I am of three different minds with respect to 2026 politics and the athletes speaking out.

1) This is the United States Olympic Team, so the argument can be made that it's athletes do need to be allegiant to the United States.

I have always believed that, by the Trump Olympics in 2028, a loyalty test to Trump will be required to be a member of the team.  I am doubly certain of that fact now.

2) Especially vis-a-vis the Olympics, politics and sport will forever be aligned.  A key component of politics is propaganda, and sports have always been used as propaganda instruments:  East, West, Nazi, etc.

3) There's a very real problem no one else is going to say.  Because of the nature of the United States Sexual Assault (Olympic/Paralympic) Committee and said political ties, every athlete on the Olympic Team is compromised -- as a function of being on the Olympic team.  

The United States has no place on the Olympic movement, as I've said before, because of the number of it's athletes which are on drugs (note that, just before the Transphobe Games started, Trump signed a bill withdrawing all dues-paying from the World Anti-Doping Agency, months before a Trump-family sponsored Enhanced (Steroid) Games event in Las Vegas), as well as the rampant sexual-assault screening of athletes to the team.

I applaud those that speak out against the Piece of the Ultimate Shit and ICE -- even though, in many countries (and soon to be here), that will be a death sentence to do so with that platform. 

Hell just fucking froze over.

Someone suggested that soccer fans should not travel to the Trump Cup -- this year's FIFA World Cup.

Sepp...  Blatter...

Let that process. 

This Blog Should Not Exist, Part 3.10: It's also good on the Left that the USWNT crashed out.

Sweden wins in penalties, the final one literally being called because of the technology in the ball determining that the whole of the ball had crossed the whole of the line by a millimeter.

And the American Right is throwing a defeat parade at the USWNT's elimination from the World Cup.

If you're on the Left, you should be too -- but for a very different reason.

I don't know if I actually posited this possibility when Simone Biles dropped out of Tokyo 2021, but I can't rule it out (and the only thing that could would be access to records I couldn't ask for and don't want to).

But here's a couple questions I think we all need to ask of ourselves as a nation regarding anyone purportedly representing it in any manner:

1) Why would you represent THIS Disunited States?

2) Why would you want to share that representation with people whom you might find completely incompatible?

Let me just give you two examples:

The USWNT:  How many of these women would be literally shot if they were known to be LGBT (given that a number of them are)?  It's clear that Megan Rapinoe is going to have to find another place to live -- fast.

Simone Biles:  How can she represent an American Olympic movement which all but certainly had her raped, fondled, fingered, degraded, etc. before she finally says "ENOUGH!"?

It's one thing (and correct) to say that the rest of the world has progressed, but, especially with the bleating of the Trump MAGA crew the last three weeks, why would I fucking want to represent the United States in tiddly-winks, much less soccer or any other major sport?

If you SERIOUSLY want to apply the bleating of the American Right to this, you would need purity tests, loyalty tests, etc., including:

• No lesbians, bisexuals, or transgenders of any kind.
• Political compatibility with the American Right
• No woman less than an "8", measured by the Bikini Calendar put out beforehand (and this isn't that far from reality -- there was a magazine article before that famous US tournament a number of cycles back where Brandi Chastain was topless, putting two soccer balls where her breasts were)
• etc.

I mean, seriously:  What, of this group, would want to give their full effort to THIS America?

An America many of which are about to be killed or hounded in.

Yesterday AND Today's examples of the continuing hypocrisy to attempt to get transgenders killed in the name of "sprots"...

Yesterday, it was the continuing din of trying to get the US Women's National Soccer Team thrown out of the country for not being patriotic enough and singing the National Anthem as if guns were put to their backs to do so.

(More like the number of LGBT players on the squad, of which there are at least almost 100 in the 32-team Women's World Cup now ongoing!)

And then, today, word from LSU that famed gymnast sex object Olivia Dunne cannot attend classes at her own university...  for "safety reasons".

Trust me, some of us have you figured out -- you figure that Dunne is the same height as those divers in bed...  And so did all those creeps hounding her at the College World Series.

WE'RE NOT STUPID, YOU FUCKS.

This Blog Should Not Exist, Part 3.05: You better enjoy this Pride...

... because, as things presently stand, the entire concept will be banned within two years.

Tonight is supposed to be the Pride Night at Dodger Stadium where The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are still scheduled to appear.

It is about an hour before game time as I begin typing this post.  And I can't help but check (in fact, I just did) that the game is still on.

Not only has the appearance of the Sisters been the focal point in the beginning of the retrenching of anti-LGBTQ sentiment across the Big Four Sports, but several realities are coming to foot:

1. Fuck Rob Manfred has openly demanded teams do NOT wear Pride jerseys and has said openly that MLB could not assure the players' safety if they do.  It's one thing to talk about this in terms of Nazi-state teams like the Rays and Marlins, but the fact has resurfaced that Rob Manfred wants this sport to be America's Pastime again -- in a White Right Nazi America.  And that means who are the first to go?
2. CONCACAF, FIFA, etc. need to move the 2024 World Cup from North America.  And I am not blaming any more than basically Mexico and Mexican fans, but last night's utter disgrace (with dozens of arrests and the match being abandoned for homophobic chants that have been glossed over by soccer authorities for YEARS NOW!) should be the final goddamn straw.
1. No Third Place CONCACAF Nations League Match with Panama.
2. Out of the Gold Cup this summer.
3. Banned from international play.  Period, full-stop, end.  It's not going to stop until Mexico is expelled from world soccer, 

EDIT TO ADD LATER:  I want you to listen to this.  This is ESPN's Sebastian Salazar, going so far as to say that the Mexican fans DO NOT CARE if Mexico is blackballed or exiled from CONCACAF or world soccer -- that the team is SO BAD, they would much rather see the national federation dismantled, so it can be rebuilt...

.................

AND THE SHIT HAS HIT THE FAN IN LA!

The main stadium lot was blocked about an hour before game time by these anti-Pride terrorists, who made it clear they were buying tickets to tonight's game to disrupt it.

More coming, obviously -- including more discontent about what's happening, but is now clear and ON!

People do not understand the Laws...

Champions League Round of 16, second leg between Chelsea and Borussia Dortmund.

The German side won a 1-0 decision at home in the first leg, and now needed to draw Chelsea (there is no away goals rule anymore) to win the tie.

Too bad the Laws of the Game screwed Borussia Dortmund terribly.

Reference this video, from CBS Sports, for how it all went down...

After a 43rd minute goal by Raheem Sterling, we go to the 46th minute for all the drama...

A cross by Chelsea drew a massive penalty shout when it went off the hand of a Borussia Dortmund player.

Turns out, VAR ruled it a penalty -- and they were right!  It's the same penalty which should've been called in that USA-Germany World Cup quarter-final when Frings was able to handball a ball off the goal line by opening his hand and extending the amount of the goal he could (then illegally) block.

Penalty goes off the post, but, then, VAR intervenes again.

A still (shown at 8:24 of the video) shows a jailbreak of players from both teams infringing on the box before the penalty is taken.  At least three players from each team have infringed -- no one can enter the box until the ball is struck.

And here's how Dortmund got screwed:  You'd intrinsically think that, since Chelsea players also infringed, it should be refused.  But since both teams infringed, by Rule 14 of the Laws of the Game:

"[If] a player of both teams offends, the kick is retaken unless a player commits a more serious offence (e.g. 'illegal' feinting)"

I was about to write this as a rigged game, but it's another one of those senseless Laws of the Game motifs.

Dammit... Every year, we seem to get one right at the end...

Not that it wasn't expected, but the world mourns the loss of Edson Arantes do Nascimento in Brazil, age 82.

The world knows him better as Pele.

2022 Super Fraud of the Year, And It's NOT CLOSE... Fuck you, you infant...

Usually, I do at least this declaration on New Year's Eve or such, but this one's so obvious -- and so recently finished -- that I do believe I can do this, even with the bald-faced NFL rigging and throwing and manipulating and all that stuff.

But, unfortunately, that pales in comparison to a Super Fraud which wrapped money, oil, obscene power, corruption, and murder into a package -- which, when eventually finally opened, was manipulated into such an event that this picture, with FIFA President Gianni Infantino handing the World Cup to Leo Messi of champion Argentina...

But the key figure of the three in the picture is the grinning son-of-a-bitch behind them.  

Shiekh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the head of state (Emir) of Qatar, could only smile at the barbarism he and his country were able to package a World Cup, seen by those choosing to ignore all the human rights garbage inflicted on basically everyone around them as one of the greatest ever...

• The murder of hundreds, if not thousands, of migrant workers, in the name of constructing the stadiums for this farce.
• In fact, I recall years ago that, when the bid was won, the proposed entire city where the third-place match was to take place didn't even exist.
• At least three major journalists killed during the event, ostensibly by various non-nefarious causes, but, at the minimum, at least one was COVID-related (even if his wife denies it!), and it was clear that anyone in the World Cup area was subject to Qatar's monstrous policies...
• Chief among them the complete denial of any even pro-LGBTQ statement to support the fans or oppose FIFA for even thinking (much less executing) this cup in Qatar.  It is clear that FIFA's anti-racism and anti-LGBTQ talk is just talk (else Mexico never would've been in the Cup to begin with, among others).
• And how many LGBTQ's were murdered in Qatar we don't know about during the Cup?
• Which could not have ever happened without THIS, as reported by Nick Harris of SportingIntelligence...

Well that was a crazy 12-year ride. A World Cup cycle that started in 2010 with Qatar being awarded a 2022 (summer) tournament it could never have delivered (and didn't), by the most corrupt electorate in global sport. pic.twitter.com/8aMYNyGts9

— Nick Harris (@sportingintel) December 18, 2022

Of the 22 men who formed the committee to vote the Middle East this World Cup:

• Ten have been banned from the sport for corruption.
• Eight have been either sanctioned or charged criminally for same.
• Five of the eight were indicted by the United States Federal Government
• And two were accused, but never prosecuted.
• And of the 22 men, only six were not one or more of those facts.

And the worst part of this may be what to come:

Given the plaudits the games were themselves (won't be covered in specifics) and the key movement of Cristiano Ronaldo, who is now almost certain to move from Manchester United to Saudi Arabia for an abject obscene sum, one has to wonder a very prescient question:

Are we about to see the coffers open up even further than the LIV Tour in golf and other sports where it is possible, and we make the Middle East (either financially, physically, or both!!!) the center of sports, to the places where it can be done?

And that infant (his name is so appropriate) at the head of FIFA all but would've allowed LGBTQ executions at halftime of the Final if he could've gotten away with it.  That fucker is governed by one thing:  Money.  And anyone with the possibility of same (starting with the LIV Tour and Ronaldo) will join him into the arms of MbS, Emir Al Thani, etc.

Blood money is on the massive uptick.  With Augusta National Golf Club apparently willing to allow LIV golfers in The 2023 Masters, you could end up with The Masters being an LIV Tour event, due to PGA Tour boycotts.

So fuck you FIFA President Infant and your anti-LGBTQ friends in FIFA.  I can finally watch some soccer again now that Christmas has hit.

Grant Wahl: We Have An Announcement

They have an announced cause of death for soccer writer Grant Wahl, who died near the end of the Argentina-Netherlands game in Qatar.

The New York City Medical Examiner's Office and Grant's wife concluded it was an undetected aortic aneurysm.

Far be it from me to question, but I think it's clear:  COVID or the vaccines, because word is he got COVID four months ago.  Bronchitis-like symptoms, an aneurysm, there you go...  His wife wants to rule it out, and I get that.  Working with the government, I think it's clear that she knows that there is increasing...  disconcertion about the number of people who have died of similar maladies, and the only real difference as to the discussion of the cause of death is your political bend and the fact that there are those who believe diseases should be spread far and wide to cull the "unfit".

My honest opinion, even with one of the leading people working with Biden for COVID saying otherwise:  It was COVID.  Grant Wahl is just another one of these people who is added to the list of those we don't dare say died of COVID, because we've probably lost, given the covering of data, 7-10 million to the virus and it's aftereffects.

(BLS data, surveys which now indicate over 90% of the population has had it, etc. and so forth.)

Grant Wahl, Day Two

• The Biden administration and the State Department are in touch with Grant's family.  Whether it's suspicion or who his wife is -- or both! -- we don't know.  In seeing my anonymous friend positing this, I'm thinking both!
• Another piece of evidence that the American journalist was murdered at the World Cup.  Especially after the Eriksen incident at the European championships, your blessed blood-money stadium had no defibrillator to provide in case of that degree of emergency??!?!!??

Absolutely fucking mental they didn’t have a defibrillator to use on Grant Wahl. Especially after the Eriksen incident. FIFA and the hosts are culpable IMO. https://t.co/trFAuqtO3J

— Richard H. (@dustyburners) December 10, 2022

• One of the reasons Grant Wahl has claimed that his situation was not COVID was that he tested daily.  This was probably another reason why, on an anecdotal from a fan:

And Grant Wahl had COVID in August.

It is scary to think that we can do dead, and certainly the Qatari government has done a lot to be wary of, but there is an explanation much closer to Occam's Razor for this

— ConanOfLibraria (@ConanOfLibraria) December 10, 2022

• Yes, a number of people are claiming it's the vaccines too, on top of all the bigot posts from last night.  What some of you sons-of-bitches don't get is that people were dropping dead suddenly in China...  in January of 2020!  Of COVID!!!  Some of us who were following the story back then were seeing what was going on.  So stop your bullshit or start shooting us, because I've seen some of the arguments that you believe WE are, in fact, the superspreaders.  It's YOU and YOUR refusals which have not only perpetrated this pandemic, but also made the vaccines useless enough that I haven't gotten my third yet, because we will never reach herd immunity and this virus will continue to mutate and spread.  Fucking bastards!!!   
• FIFA erected a reminder to toe the line memorial to Grant Wahl in the press box before today's games.  Even if he was not murdered, I would think FIFA finds this a far too convenient message to the press and everyone involved at the Cup to toe the damn line and bow to your Middle Eastern blood-money.   

The Middle Eastern Sportswashing World Cup might just finally have gone over the edge!!!

There have been numerous reports of human-rights abuses, even during the Qatar World Cup.  It is one of the reasons that the official position of this blog, shaped by parties like my anonymous friend, is no on-field coverage.

On the other hand, all parties agreed that, should the circumstances require, abuses would be reported.

It now appears there is a non-zero chance that a famous soccer journalist has been murdered by the Qatari hosts for not bending the knee to the sportswashing realities and the Middle Eastern blood money.

Tonight, it was reported that Grant Wahl, who has covered soccer for the last 26 years, died during the quarterfinal match in Qatar today.

On it's own, it's a tragedy.

Once any digging under the surface occurs, it starts getting ugly fast.

Wahl had spent an amount of time, probably not only during the competition, but before it, criticizing the Qatari government and the entire nature that the Cup was being held there at all.

This was Wahl's final reporting post, from yesterday:

NEW: World Cup Daily, Day 25. They just don't care. Qatari World Cup organizers don't even hide their apathy over migrant worker deaths, including the most recent one.https://t.co/WEKoMdSm3J

— Subscribe to GrantWahl.com (@GrantWahl) December 8, 2022

His final post was at the end of regulation time of the second semifinal.

He was withheld from a match during the tournament for bringing a rainbow LGBTQ flag to the tournament -- and then briefly complained of a bronchitis-like situation on a soccer podcast before today's events.

And then this happened, according to the Twitter account of the Columbus Toffees, the official supporters' club for Everton Football Club of the EPL in Columbus, OH:

He visited a medical center TWICE. They did nothing. He collapsed today during the #ARGNED match. An ambulance did not take him to the hospital, he had to get an @Uber instead.

That. Is. Not. Normal. None of this is normal.

— 🇺🇦 Columbus Toffees (@ColumbusToffees) December 10, 2022

As a result, Grant's brother Erik (who has come out as part of this announcement as gay, and the reason Wahl took the flag to the tournament!) has publicly announced on social media that it is his belief the Qataris murdered Grant for speaking out against the government and his pro-LGBTQ protests during the tournament.  Erik alleges that, after being detained for the USA-Wales match due to the flag, he had been getting surveilled and was receiving death threats in the country as the tournament progressed.

This is Bruiser Brody-level stuff.  Brody was murdered as part of a promotion/money dispute by the bookers and owners of the World Wrestling Council in Puerto Rico in the showers after a card in 1988.  The entire handling of the doctors to the legal aspects of the trial indicates that the murder happened with the sanction of Puerto Rican society.

And it has very similar aspects to events coming out tonight regarding the death of Grant Wahl at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Grant Wahl was 47 -- his wife has worked with President Biden regarding COVID policy.  So if the belief of bronchitis is true (or similarly to COVID), we'll find that out in the days and weeks ahead.

The fact is, this is definitely stinking of, at minimum, open-faced negligent homicide.  And we'll know -- we will DAMN WELL KNOW -- if he was or was not healthy.

The extent to even tangential knowledge of this World Cup has fueled reactions such as this, farmed from Twitter tonight:

Everyone watching World Cup soccer is complicit in @GrantWahl death.

— Michael Kelly (@Michael1Kelly) December 10, 2022

At the barest of minimums, it appears that the Qataris put Wahl in a compromised position and he "died suddenly" of COVID (though see below on that contention).  The odds of this being a straight-up murder at the stadium in the height of a quarterfinal match, however, are far too high for anyone's comfort.

7:17 PM PST:  The AP report of how Wahl was feeling:

The @AP's first file confirms that Grant Wahl was stricken in the media area of the stadium during extra time of the ARG-NED game, and notes that he wrote about seeking treatment for a respiratory infection (not COVID) as recently as Monday.https://t.co/VS1aR1ahd9 pic.twitter.com/KGP7lfxOAL

— Ed Tubb (@EdTubb) December 10, 2022

Hmmm...  Cough syrup?  Could that have been... poisoned????

This post and future posts will be updated as more news comes out.

10:17 PM PST:  My anonymous friend found more angles this could take.  FIFA involved DIRECTLY?

Sports illustrated fired him for challenging their pay cuts during the pandemic.

He ran to unseat FIFA’s president.

He challenged human rights abuses in Qatar.

RIP Grant Wahl, who’s career was as much about great reporting as it was about speaking truth to abusive power.

— nikki mccann ramírez (@NikkiMcR) December 10, 2022

Nikki is a political reporter for Rolling Stone.

11:15 PM PST:  TMZ claims it's a heart attack.  ESPN can't even get his age right.