2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar - UEFA Qualifiers

[Juggy777]

The thing is, I do not even believe that 2022 world cup would happen that easily, we still need to make sure that nobody gets infected there as well, we are talking about bringing everyone together and putting them in one common place, and by the way these people do not even come from same nation, they are coming from all over the world, so we will literally need to be careful about this more than anyone has ever been careful about anything.

And in return of that we maaaay watch some games but there could be some covid spread and postpone games and considering how fast this is, postponing usually is not in the books so it will be a new thing. I also do not believe in Qatar neither, we all know how they are using slave labour to build stuff and how they bribed UEFA to get it as well, they may just ignore it as well now that they are not going to make much money from it.

@RealMalatesta good news is situation in Qatar looks good for now, and if they can continue on reducing the case counts then it’s possible that World Cup will go ahead without any issues. Also I believe all the persons travelling to Qatar will be required to take vaccines, and they’ll be asked to arrive early so any covid like situation can be tackled early on.



Source:

https://thediplomat.com/2021/03/will-japans-olympics-be-rescued-by-chinas-vaccine/ (We could witness something like this)

[Lucius]

Yeah, vaccination rate in Russia is low, but according to official data, situation isn't bad there...

Of course we believe them in their statements, Russia is known for its honesty - I just think they decided to put the economy first and human lives second. I also know that there is a big problem with alcoholism in that country, and for effective vaccination one needs to give up alcohol for a long time.


Let's go back to the topic - As for the match Slovenia-Croatia, two very important players for Croatia (Brozovic and Perisic - Inter Milan) are currently banned from leaving Italy due to 4 positive cases of the virus in the club. The Croatian Football Association has already taken action to release them, the outcome is not yet known. Of course all the other players from that club are in the same situation, and there is a good chance that they will not be able to play for their national teams.

The Dutch Football Association has announced that it will allow 5000 fans in the match with Latvia - provided they have a negative Covid-19 test.

[Sithara007]

The Dutch Football Association has announced that it will allow 5000 fans in the match with Latvia - provided they have a negative Covid-19 test.

One of the most irresponsible decisions. What is the point in allowing the spectators, when Europe is witnessing the third wave of infections? The test results may be 24-48 hours old by the time the match begin. And by that time, at least a handful out of this group of 5,000 may get infected by the virus. And it will spread to other spectators in the stadium. They could have held this match without any fans/spectators.

[RealMalatesta]

@RealMalatesta good news is situation in Qatar looks good for now, and if they can continue on reducing the case counts then it’s possible that World Cup will go ahead without any issues. Also I believe all the persons travelling to Qatar will be required to take vaccines, and they’ll be asked to arrive early so any covid like situation can be tackled early on.

I do not want to sound racist at all, but I do not trust these middle east nations with these numbers at all, many of them could be lying very easily (and not like west doesn't). Not just because they are in middle east but because they have super wealthy and basically "rulers" of their nations as well and that makes it a semi-dictatorship in my eyes, while millions go hungry in desert, there are wealthy that owns millions of places all around the world, that's bad, I condemn same when USA corporations does it, why not Qatar as well.

I feel like considering all the human rights breaches as well, we should be easily saying that these numbers could very well be wrong. How can I know for certain that they are just notifying WHO with the wrong numbers? Maybe they have 10x more and hide it? How can we be certain about it? Not like uefa would care? They didn't care when Qatar used slaves to build stadiums, they won't care about covid situation neither.

[Lucius]

One of the most irresponsible decisions. What is the point in allowing the spectators, when Europe is witnessing the third wave of infections?

Life must go on with all possible precautions, and if the situation in the Netherlands may be better than in other countries, why not allow a limited number of people who are tested to watch the game outdoors? The 5000 people strategically deployed in a stadium that accommodates nearly 55 000 people pose no great danger to transmit a viral infection.

https://sportstar.thehindu.com/football/fifa-world-cup-qualifiers-netherlands-vs-latvia-dutch-to-allow-5000-fans-football-covid-19-negative-report/article34090437.ece

[Sithara007]

One of the most irresponsible decisions. What is the point in allowing the spectators, when Europe is witnessing the third wave of infections?

Life must go on with all possible precautions, and if the situation in the Netherlands may be better than in other countries, why not allow a limited number of people who are tested to watch the game outdoors? The 5000 people strategically deployed in a stadium that accommodates nearly 55 000 people pose no great danger to transmit a viral infection.

https://sportstar.thehindu.com/football/fifa-world-cup-qualifiers-netherlands-vs-latvia-dutch-to-allow-5000-fans-football-covid-19-negative-report/article34090437.ece

My question is what is the need to take such a risky move? Europe as a whole is going through the third wave of the pandemic and even the preliminary phase of vaccination won't be complete by the time these matches start. I agree that only 5,000 people are going to be seated in a stadium with a capacity of 55,000. So what is the point in allowing so little people? As far as gate collection is concerned, it will be less than the expenses that are required to allow the entry of spectators.

[Lucius]

My question is what is the need to take such a risky move?

If you had read the article from the link I posted then you would surely understand why the Dutch decided on this move.

The Netherlands will allow 5,000 spectators who have tested negative for COVID-19 to attend its 2022 World Cup qualifier against Latvia this month as part of a study that could help get fans back into games quicker, the Dutch FA (KNVB) said.

I have already written that I do not see any great risk in such a move, it is only about the home fans who will have to be tested and will be far enough away from each other. The third wave did not hit all countries equally, Poland, the Czech Republic and France are currently in the most difficult situation.

[MonsterV]

What strikes me most is the turnaround at the Dutch national team, in recent years 2x not able to make it to the final tournament, and now they are suddenly one of the favorites at the tournament, I think that the qualification should not be a problem, but I curious about the Belgians, number 1 in the world ranking, they should be able to win easily, it is also a new experience to see a world cup during the chirstmas.

[LTU_btc]

Before upcoming games, there is another factor, worth to pay some attention. Some national teams will be forced to play in neutral grounds, like we saw in Champions league. For example, Portugal will play in Turin. Also, I haven't checked squads of teams, but I think there will be some missing players who weren't able to arrive because of travel restrictions.

My question is what is the need to take such a risky move? Europe as a whole is going through the third wave of the pandemic and even the preliminary phase of vaccination won't be complete by the time these matches start. I agree that only 5,000 people are going to be seated in a stadium with a capacity of 55,000. So what is the point in allowing so little people? As far as gate collection is concerned, it will be less than the expenses that are required to allow the entry of spectators.

Where is the risk? As you said, there will be just 5000 people in 50 000 seats stadium, so distance between them will be huge. And even with vaccination, virus is likely to stay here for long time, so we have to learn how to live with it. Lockdown can be solution for short time only.
Yes, they won't earn much money from such little number of fans, but even 5000 is better than 0

[Sithara007]

I have already written that I do not see any great risk in such a move, it is only about the home fans who will have to be tested and will be far enough away from each other. The third wave did not hit all countries equally, Poland, the Czech Republic and France are currently in the most difficult situation.

Maybe you are right. But I was going through the numbers put out by the Johns Hopkins University. Even in Netherlands, I could see a noticeable spike. The average number of new daily infections have doubled in less than a month, and the number of deaths is also showing an increase. The only European country where the third wave has no impact is the United Kingdom (due to the progress in vaccination). All the other European nations are struggling to deal with the rising number of new cases.

[Kong Hey Pakboy]

Although I love to watch football tournaments, I don't like to watch this current world cup because this event is founded in blood of the slaves in Qatar that died during the creation of the stadium that is going to be used in the tournament, I am shocked that there are still slaves in this modern era, I guess Middle East doesn't really surprise me considering that they have the bloodiest conquest in history back in Medieval times.

[bryant.coleman]

Although I love to watch football tournaments, I don't like to watch this current world cup because this event is founded in blood of the slaves in Qatar that died during the creation of the stadium that is going to be used in the tournament, I am shocked that there are still slaves in this modern era, I guess Middle East doesn't really surprise me considering that they have the bloodiest conquest in history back in Medieval times.

I am not a fan of working conditions in various GCC nations, but it would be wrong to call the workers as slaves. They went there on their own, without any compulsion. For someone from Nepal or India, earning 5 times their average salary sounds very attractive. And many would happily opt for it, despite the known risk factors. Thousands of workers lost their lives, and tens of thousands suffered life threatening injuries. It is up to FIFA to make sure that these people are properly compensated.

[Kong Hey Pakboy]

Although I love to watch football tournaments, I don't like to watch this current world cup because this event is founded in blood of the slaves in Qatar that died during the creation of the stadium that is going to be used in the tournament, I am shocked that there are still slaves in this modern era, I guess Middle East doesn't really surprise me considering that they have the bloodiest conquest in history back in Medieval times.

I am not a fan of working conditions in various GCC nations, but it would be wrong to call the workers as slaves. They went there on their own, without any compulsion. For someone from Nepal or India, earning 5 times their average salary sounds very attractive. And many would happily opt for it, despite the known risk factors. Thousands of workers lost their lives, and tens of thousands suffered life threatening injuries. It is up to FIFA to make sure that these people are properly compensated.

I like to disagree with you because there are articles and news reports about the true condition and I don't think that it is not worth turning a blind eye. I don't think that they know the risk factors because if they knew then there wouldn't be casualties reported because no one will accept the job because there is a risk that they are going to die in the work environment. FIFA won't do shit about this as much as any corporation, they only care about profit.

Also here are some articles.
Qatar: Migrant workers unpaid for months of work on FIFA World Cup stadium
Migrant workers constructing stadiums for FIFA 2022 World Cup not paid for up to seven months
6,500 workers have died in Qatar building infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup

[Vishnu.Reang]

^^^^ This is something that FIFA would like to sweep under the carpet. Thousands of poor workers (mostly from South Asia) have died during the construction of the world cup stadiums and most of them were paid measly compensation of $10,000 or even lower. Imagine this, $10K for a human life! On average, the workers were paid around $10 per day, for 12 hour shifts ($0.80 per hour). And as some of the articles mention, many of the works didn't even received this amount as well.

[3meek]

Yeah, vaccination rate in Russia is low, but according to official data, situation isn't bad there...

Of course we believe them in their statements, Russia is known for its honesty - I just think they decided to put the economy first and human lives second. I also know that there is a big problem with alcoholism in that country, and for effective vaccination one needs to give up alcohol for a long time.


Let's go back to the topic - As for the match Slovenia-Croatia, two very important players for Croatia (Brozovic and Perisic - Inter Milan) are currently banned from leaving Italy due to 4 positive cases of the virus in the club. The Croatian Football Association has already taken action to release them, the outcome is not yet known. Of course all the other players from that club are in the same situation, and there is a good chance that they will not be able to play for their national teams.

The Dutch Football Association has announced that it will allow 5000 fans in the match with Latvia - provided they have a negative Covid-19 test.

This problem is no bigger than in England or Ireland! And the fact is that vaccination is not a compulsory but a voluntary decision of every citizen! For example, I am not an alcoholic, but I have enough brains not to inject myself with unknown drugs...

As for the upcoming matches - we'll see a lot of interesting games with unpredictable results... For example Turkey-Netherlands - bookmakers prefer the Dutch, although in my opinion, the Turks are not any worse!
In general, I'm looking forward to the tournament!

[Saint-loup]

Tomorrow there will be several exciting matches for the matchday #1 of Round 1. Which ones do you think are the most interesting to bet on? Which ones are the most undervalued/overvalued by bookmakers according to you?


https://www.uefa.com/european-qualifiers/fixtures-results/

MATCHDAY 1
Wednesday 24 March

Group A: Portugal vs Azerbaijan, Serbia vs Republic of Ireland
Group D: Finland vs Bosnia and Herzegovina, France vs Ukraine
Group E: Belgium vs Wales, Estonia vs Czech Republic
Group G: Gibraltar vs Norway, Latvia vs Montenegro, Turkey vs Netherlands
Group H: Cyprus vs Slovakia, Malta vs Russia, Slovenia vs Croatia

https://www.uefa.com/european-qualifiers/news/0264-110cbe0bf3c8-20065adb8f46-1000--european-qualifiers-fixtures/

[bryant.coleman]

As for the upcoming matches - we'll see a lot of interesting games with unpredictable results... For example Turkey-Netherlands - bookmakers prefer the Dutch, although in my opinion, the Turks are not any worse!
In general, I'm looking forward to the tournament!

Turkey vs Netherlands is going to be the most exciting match in this round. Netherlands is one of the strongest European sides and in normal circumstances this should be a cakewalk for them. But they will have to put in a lot of effort this time, because Turkey is also in excellent form. Recently, Turley held Germany and Croatia to draws. However, in their last match they were defeated by Hungary.

[fullhdpixel]

Turkey vs Netherlands is going to be the most exciting match in this round. Netherlands is one of the strongest European sides and in normal circumstances this should be a cakewalk for them. But they will have to put in a lot of effort this time, because Turkey is also in excellent form. Recently, Turley held Germany and Croatia to draws. However, in their last match they were defeated by Hungary.

I wouldn't bet against Turkey that easily, I mean they managed to beat last champion France in the groups, and they managed to get out for euro cup as well, that seems like a thing that could still happen for Netherlands as well. Don't get me wrong I think Netherlands is the better team here, but I also assumed Turkey would lose to France as well but they didn't.

So that is why I think it will definitely be the most exciting game of tomorrow, because we do not know which Turkey will show up, the one that missed world cup, or the one that beat France? Both of them are different ones and that is why I think it is going to be a bit different this year. Slovenia and Croatia will be a close one as well if you ask me and Serbia Ireland game could be close as well, I just do not know what will happen with those three games, they look closer than anything else.

[Altryist]

Turkey vs Netherlands is going to be the most exciting match in this round. Netherlands is one of the strongest European sides and in normal circumstances this should be a cakewalk for them. But they will have to put in a lot of effort this time, because Turkey is also in excellent form. Recently, Turley held Germany and Croatia to draws. However, in their last match they were defeated by Hungary.

Turkey played in a draw with Germany, because Germany is not having the best times now, conflicts in the team. Turkey is a good team, but the Netherlands look stronger, and they should win tomorrow.

I will also be interested to watch the match between France and Ukraine. Ukraine is playing well in the last matches, even defeating Spain, but their last match, although it was friendly, they lost to the French just with a terrible score...

[bryant.coleman]

I wouldn't bet against Turkey that easily, I mean they managed to beat last champion France in the groups, and they managed to get out for euro cup as well, that seems like a thing that could still happen for Netherlands as well. Don't get me wrong I think Netherlands is the better team here, but I also assumed Turkey would lose to France as well but they didn't.

So that is why I think it will definitely be the most exciting game of tomorrow, because we do not know which Turkey will show up, the one that missed world cup, or the one that beat France? Both of them are different ones and that is why I think it is going to be a bit different this year. Slovenia and Croatia will be a close one as well if you ask me and Serbia Ireland game could be close as well, I just do not know what will happen with those three games, they look closer than anything else.

Bet365 has Turkey at 10/3, and Netherlands at 3/4. It is really surprising. I would not agree with these odds. The gambling sites are under-estimating Turkey. A good strategy would be to place two bets on this match. One for a win by Turkey (10/3, i.e 4.33) and the second one for draw (14/5 or 3.80). I believe that there is a very high chance for either of these two outcomes. BTW, France vs Ukraine also looks interesting.