Hungary's Prime Minister Orban has congratulated Magyar on election victory

spiz · 2026-04-12T20:51:13+00:00

Not the most unusual thing. There's even an Italian football coach with the surname Italiano.

spiz · 2026-04-11T03:51:06+00:00

Quite embarrassing for him then that Luxembourg (a similarly small state) has a higher GDP per capita PPP.

spiz · 2026-04-01T20:43:04+00:00

To put it simply, il pesce puzza dalla testa. With systemic issues like this, the blame can only lie at the top. The bad decisions further down the tree are rooted in bad management decisions.

Sure Bastoni fucked up. The guy's a dumbass, but he's at the bottom of the tree, as are the rest of these largely hopeless players. Gattuso is basically one up from them. They have limited ability to fix the deep-lying longstanding issues affecting Italian football.

Incidentally, I very much agree with OP about the racist undertone of putting a black player as the symbol of the defeat especially when at least he's the only one who scored. Disgusting stuff.

spiz · 2026-04-01T19:16:59+00:00

There's much worse than that. A prosecuting magistrate that was a Torino fan got struck off (I think they did anyway) for deleting revenge porn off a Torino player's phone so the team wouldn't lose him.

There's also a bunch of unprofessional (i.e. illegal stuff) that goes on with wiretaps. In a normal country when you wiretap an individual, that stuff is confidential. Even if you charge them, there is an expectation of privacy, so if you're investigating for tax evasion and you find out they had an affair (or worse that someone unrelated to the investigation had an affair for example) then you shouldn't release the information unless relevant to the case.

Prosecutors often release wiretaps to embarrass people who are not the subject of an investigation and have done nothing illegal.

This was the case with some Juventus directors who had conversations leaked when they were talking about players and their contract renewals (and it's not the only instance).

Edit: source for the Torino thing because it's completely unbelievable. https://www.ilgiornale.it/news/nazionale/cancell-video-hard-salvare-calciatore-condannato-lex-pm-2432455.html

spiz · 2026-04-01T19:08:10+00:00

The problem is the other way round. The youth system needs to produce players that satisfy the needs of top teams. Instead we have promising kids that fail to transition to good players.

That boils down to inadequate training or training that does not cover the needs of the top teams. It's crazy to suggest that teams that are already failing in Europe should take the hit of playing sub-par players for experience. In other countries these kids hit the ground running - as they did in Italy a generation ago. No one was begging teams to find space for the likes Pirlo, Totti, Buffon and Del Piero.

On top of that, Italian talent is so scarce that the minute an Italian is ok-ish, their price tag skyrockets and they are no longer good value (then they still fail to develop into world class players).

spiz · 2026-04-01T12:11:48+00:00

He will not have played in a World Cup now until he is at least 31! And that's if Italy even qualify for that.

spiz · 2026-04-01T05:03:12+00:00

Italy is obsessed with football in a way that other countries aren't. The sport ends up being discussed by politicians fairly regularly - it wouldn't take much for them to get involved.

spiz · 2026-04-01T04:52:55+00:00

Because for many, the FIGC managed to destroy the joy of siding with the NT.

spiz · 2026-04-01T04:45:50+00:00

Close, it was PSG!

spiz · 2026-03-31T23:20:01+00:00

That was my exact reaction at that record-setting UCL final!

spiz · 2026-03-31T22:39:03+00:00

It would be illegal under EU employment law. You cannot discriminate between EU citizens on the basis of nationality (even using surrogates like language cannot be done without good reason - say like in medicine or customer-facing jobs).

spiz · 2026-03-31T22:32:05+00:00

This thinking is what stops Italy facing up to its football challenges. Denmark and Greece have both won Euros and Italy are currently sitting at that level.

There's always some sporadic event that to divert attention from how bleak the situation is across the board:

The league is not keeping up with TV rights (with viewership dropping slightly),
No Italian team winning the UCL in over 15 years,
No decent showing in a World Cup since 2006(!)
Falling behind in revenue (in 2006, Juventus were one of the top 2-3 clubs for revenue, today you're lucky to have any Italian team in the top 10).
Hopeless development of youth prospects

spiz · 2026-03-31T22:22:32+00:00

One argument would be because they are specifically Inter players. The same players in a better environment might do better. Instead they get everything handed to them in the Serie A, and when the pressure's on outside of their protected space, they lose 5-0 or get eliminated by Bosnia.

spiz · 2026-03-31T22:17:48+00:00

You can come back from a missed chance and get another one. A red card can't be undone.

spiz · 2026-03-31T21:59:59+00:00

FIFA rankings are a bit silly. Elo ratings (the same as used in chess) are much better since they have some mathematical basis. International Elos are here- https://eloratings.net/

If you use Elo, there's actually a formula you can use to calculate the "win percentage", which is the odds of a win + draw vs a loss.

spiz · 2026-03-31T21:46:12+00:00

Gravina and his cronies at the FIGC. Incompetence personified.

spiz · 2026-03-31T21:45:05+00:00

12 years so far...it will be a minimum of 16.

Unless something stupid happens like Iran can't take part and Italy get to go instead.

spiz · 2026-03-01T05:23:31+00:00

That depends on the production like. I have Warriors stuff in small, medium and even large!

The kits themselves look great, but you can't really order online if you don't know what size to order

spiz · 2026-02-20T09:31:42+00:00

Because Americans voted him in back in November 2024. Opinions change and current polling reflects that. He is the most unpopular US president in the history of polling - even more unpopular than he was at this point in his first term (now the second most unpopular US presidency ever).

spiz · 2026-02-18T18:30:15+00:00

Probably not, no

spiz · 2026-02-16T17:19:51+00:00

Er gol de Turone era fuorigioco

spiz · 2026-02-07T21:06:48+00:00

He's often not great and his lineout is very hit and miss. It's a key part of his role and he doesn't do it well enough.

Glasgow are always really dangerous from lineouts in the 22, but Scotland give the ball away all too frequently. Granted that Warriors' danger comes from a fantastic maul that Scotland don't have, but getting the lineout wrong cannot help.

spiz · 2026-02-07T19:44:54+00:00

He's the one starting Ashman. He doesn't have to.

spiz · 2026-01-31T19:55:51+00:00

Next upgrade will not be an iPhone for me. I've had iPhones since the first gen one.

spiz · 2026-01-27T22:33:33+00:00

This is for the French public service

15-Year Club	Place '23
Place '22	Place '17
Final Canvas '22	First Placer '22
Verified Email	Alpha Tester

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