Germany Hungary

[imp]

German state news interviewed a local LGBTIQ action group planning to give out 10,000 rainbow flags before the game tonight (provided Uefa don't display their respect by chasing them off the premises with taser sticks and attack dogs), so there should be plenty of colour on display.

[Patrick Thistle]

It's a shame Germany didn't say anything and just lit up the arena on the night. Easier to beg forgiveness than seek permission and all that.

[ad hoc]

Maybe ad hoc knows: how much do the Hungarian blackshirts represent national public opinion?

I'd say similar to the knee-booing, skinheaded, most visible element of England's matchgoing support. Which is to say they're unrepresentative in their aggressiveness but uncomfortably close to a fairly widely held viewpoint in the population at large. For people who vote Fidesz in Hungary substitute people who voted for Brexit in England

[ursus arctos]

What's fixed?

The umlaut on Köln

[Sporting]

If the rainbow gesture is political, so is taking the knee and as far as I know there's been no punishment for this.

Maybe ad hoc knows: how much do the Hungarian blackshirts represent national public opinion?

[Sporting]

And fixed.

What's fixed?

[ursus arctos]

And fixed.

[ursus arctos]

I could easily see them closing the ground for a future DFB match.

[G-Man]

I really, really hope they have the courage to light the stadium up anyway ("Sorry, we were showing the new German coach around the stadium and Hansi flicked the wrong switch."). What's Uefa going to do? Call the game off? Take Euro 2024 off Germany and give it to Turkey (or Hungary) instead?

Sue for breach of contracts, or somesuch manouevre.

[G-Man]

Koln are lighting their ground and Eintacht are considering the same.

I think it would be more powerful if half a dozen clubs around the country did it.

German football is really leading the way with this. The action by 11 Freunde earlier this year, whereby several hundred football players committed themselves to equality, probably has articulated and entrenched the more activist drive to non-discrimination. It was there before, of course. For several years now FC Köln has been engaged in this, backed by its ultras. The same applies to some other clubs.

Incidentally, I believe umlauts and accents are working again here.

[Satchmo Distel]

It's nonsense, though, as there is no way of determining what is and isn't "political" that isn't itself political.

Great sentence. I'm stealing it.

[ursus arctos]

Koln are lighting their ground and Eintacht are considering the same.

I think it would be more powerful if half a dozen clubs around the country did it.

[imp]

I really, really hope they have the courage to light the stadium up anyway ("Sorry, we were showing the new German coach around the stadium and Hansi flicked the wrong switch."). What's Uefa going to do? Call the game off? Take Euro 2024 off Germany and give it to Turkey (or Hungary) instead?

[Patrick Thistle]

I wonder if UEFA have noticed the Hungary ultras wear black shirts.

[G-Man]

I love Goretzka saying something to the effect that Neuer will wear the rainbow armband even if UEFA forbids it. Staring the mighty UEFA down in a fight UEFA can't win.

This is a really decent German team, as a group of human beings.

[DCI Harry Batt]

It's nonsense, though, as there is no way of determining what is and isn't "political" that isn't itself political.

[elguapo4]

I can understand UEFA's logic on this. They're thinking that if they let one political gesture in ,you let them all. The fact that morally it stinks, and the far right can easily bring political symbols into football grounds, undermines their stance. That, and they reckon that they might need Budapest for the final.

[Patrick Thistle]

"Political" as in "annoying fascists".

[Nefertiti2]

UEFA - against homophobia. unless demonstrating that involves upsetting homophobes

https://twitter.com/skysports_bryan/status/1407249294655098883?s=20

[scratchmonkey]

Germany just seem to have a classic international-side problem in that while they have loads of good players, they all seem to play the same positions. They're spoiled for choice in central midfield and for wide attackers, and then are fallow elsewhere.

[ursus arctos]

Perhaps not being the undisputed best team in Europe doesn't equate to "doing something wrong" in my book.

[Satchmo Distel]

Struggling to find anything they do wrong since April 2006 and post Lothar Mattheus.

Complacency after 2014, perhaps, or just a generational dip in player quality? 2018 might have been freakish but they have clearly dropped behind France and perhaps Belgium.

[Logan Mountstuart]

And Goretska's hair is bloody cool. Proper 40s.

[Logan Mountstuart]

My impressions of German TV after 2 days holiday: absolutely brilliant female commentary team on ZDF2. They got every nuance of Wales - Italy spot on.

And Bastian Schweinsteiger is a proper nice, modest bloke talking to somebody I could easily fall in love with.

Proper football country, Germany. Struggling to find anything they do wrong since April 2006 and post Lothar Mattheus.

[Satchmo Distel]

Viv Richards wore the Rasta tricolour wristband throughout his career. I don't think it would have been a good idea to try to stop him.