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How Soccer is Ruining America: A Jeremiad
First Things ^ | 5 March 2009 | Stephen H. Webb

Posted on 03/11/2009 8:56:05 AM PDT by AreaMan

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To: Wil H

Your problem comes in with the “defeated”. See to defeat all comers they have to play everybody and beat them. It’s rare in sports for anybody to play the whole league (though the NBA and NHL do it, but with very few games across to the other conference), but you make the not just play the whole league but BEAT everybody. That’s just not gonna happen. And of course in the tournament section, the playoff tree part of the schedule, as you point out, comers will be eliminated before your world champion gets to face them. So therefore your world champion will NOT have “defeated all comers” and therefore NOT, by your definition, be a World Champion.

Maybe there’s no argument in most sports. But boxing proves that international organizations are just as unilateral in deciding they hand out World Championships. There are four organizations (IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO) that hand out World Championships in boxing. Unilateral decision making by international bodies.

FIFA’s first “World Cup” was 1930, FIFA’s first competition was 1906, 3 years before non-Europeans were in.

They’re ALL hollow titles. They’re sports titles, none of them mean a damn thing. And pro-boxing proves that even when you have your precious international body there “world champion” title means nothing. It’s no different if there’s one participating country or a hundred, it’s all silly sports titles. You’re right in one thing, intergalactic champion is just as meaningless as world champion. What you don’t understand is that ALL world champion titles that have EVER been given out by ANY organization in ANY sport are JUST AS MEANINGLESS. FIFA is no different than the NFL, just a silly sports organization that unilaterally decided they were going to crown world champions.


241 posted on 03/29/2009 5:16:48 PM PDT by razorboy
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To: razorboy
Your problem comes in with the “defeated”. See to defeat all comers they have to play everybody and beat them. It’s rare in sports for anybody to play the whole league (though the NBA and NHL do it, but with very few games across to the other conference), but you make the not just play the whole league but BEAT everybody. That’s just not gonna happen. And of course in the tournament section, the playoff tree part of the schedule, as you point out, comers will be eliminated before your world champion gets to face them. So therefore your world champion will NOT have “defeated all comers” and therefore NOT, by your definition, be a World Champion.

Your semantics are ridiculous. Defeating the rest of the field means winning the competition according to the previously agreed rules.

If it's a race, then 1st place defeats everyone else.

If it's a series of races, then it's the best combination of results that wins.

If it's a league, it's the best league points total.

If it's a sudden death knockout competition it's the last team undefeated (but they don't play everyone, just one other team per elimination round.)

You are making up ridiculous criteria and applying them to things I never said to justify your indefensible position.

Have you ever actually competed in any kind of competition? just wondering..

You can label all sports titles as trivial if you so choose, but there are millions of people who make a living from those sports and their income is affected by their success, or lack of it, based on those titles.

And just what is your point about FIFA? It was founded in 1906 to administer the international game, it oversaw the soccer in the 1908 Olympics and added members from beyond Europe shortly after that. Argentina, Chile, The USA and South Africa all joined before the First World War. By the time they put together the World Cup it was a worldwide organization. It now has over 200 member countries. So I don't understand your beef. The World Cup is a Global competition, and even from the outset had robust international participation.

242 posted on 03/29/2009 7:47:44 PM PDT by Wil H (No Accomplishments, No Experience, No Resume No Records, No References, Nobama..)
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To: Wil H

Talk about ridiculous semantics. You said to be a world champion you need to defeat all comers. Again if you want to change that go ahead but admit what you said. You’re the one that made up ridiculous criteria, I’m pointing it out, and now you want to weasel away and pretend you didn’t say it. “Defeat all comers” means defeat all comers, if you don’t like what it means retract, but don’t pretend it doesn’t mean it. Funny for a guy so picky about the high and important meaning of “World Champion” you sure are quick to want to make up new and lesser meanings for “defeat all comers”.

I’m not going to answer your well poisoning question because it’s immaterial.

People make money on trivial things. There’s many trivial industry, tourism, TV entertainment, movies, crafts, out door hobbies, and yes sports. It’s all still trivial. Fun, but trivial.

My point about FIFA, which has been plainly stated multiple times, is that they’re just another organization that unilaterally decided they got to declare national champions. Just like the NFL. You complain about the NFL making that decision all by themselves but ignore the fact that every organization that has ever handed out any title, which include FIFA and ISAF and all your other pet groups, made the exact same unilateral decision. All world champions are the result of a unilateral decision, by somebody wanting to make money on trivial things.


243 posted on 03/29/2009 9:04:15 PM PDT by razorboy
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To: razorboy

I’m not “weaseling my way out” of anything.

“All Comers” means everyone that comes to compete, as in all who enter to compete in the World Championship.

As you correctly state, there are almost no competition formats where a winner has to individually vanquish every other opponent, so why would you think I would mean that in my definition? You make no sense!

If you win the competition, you defeat all the other opponents according to the rules of the competition, how hard is that for you to understand?

Clearly it IS pretty hard for you, because it appears that you’ve never actually competed in anything but somehow from your vast experience and intellect you are able to tell those who have done so just what the rules are and how their achievements, if any, count for nothing.

You clearly don’t know what you are talking about.

BTW, FIFA didn’t “declare ANY National Champions”, the respective National associations did that based on their own National Domestic competitions, such as The Premier League (England), the Bundesliga (Germany), the Serie A Italy) or the Apertura (Argentina), - The winners of which DON’T call themselves WORLD Champions like the NFL does....LOL!

So, once again you are talking out of your ass..

And all the World Organizations I cited set the rules and administer the respective sports on a global basis and by global consent, and the entire world operates under those rules. So it is not “Unilateral” as you incorrectly claim, the only thing that is unilateral is the NATIONAL Football League (of the USA) staging a SINGLE COUNTRY “World Championship” excluding all teams from the other 49 countries that are affiliated to the World governing body for the sport.

How pathetic is that?

That is my last word, you are wasting my time.


244 posted on 03/29/2009 11:05:19 PM PDT by Wil H (No Accomplishments, No Experience, No Resume No Records, No References, Nobama..)
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To: Wil H

But you still have the problem that everyone in the league isn’t necessarily everyone that WANTS TO or CAN compete. All leagues are artificially limited, so you never do face “all comers”.

Which is all part of my point. Once you start thinking “world champion” matters, that it actually has a set definition involving a particular level of competition, you’ve opened the door for increased silliness. Silliness like saying that a world champion must “defeat all comers” and then having to add all kinds of tweaks to the definition of “defeat all comers” to mean not truly defeating not really all but merely rising to the top of a preset heap constructed through artificial means by a group that unilaterally decided they get to hand out world championships.

The problem for you is the more tweaks you add to your definition of “defeat all comers” the closer you get to saying the NFL hands out World Championships.

Tehre you go with the well poisoning and ad hominems again. Shame shame shame. Stick to logic, needing fallacies just proves you wrong.

Brain fart, here’s the sentence I meant: My point about FIFA, which has been plainly stated multiple times, is that they’re just another organization that unilaterally decided they got to declare world champions. See how easy it is to admit a mistake. You should try it.

I doubt that’s your last word. And you’re wasting your own time. Don’t blame other people for the fact that you can’t put sports in perspective.


245 posted on 03/30/2009 8:26:06 AM PDT by razorboy
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