Club World Cup — Final

What on earth is this pre-game Robbie Williams monstrosity?

Joe 90 singing the Yankee national anthem.

FFS……supposed to be an 8pm kick off.

Woo Hoo Yee Haw USA USA USA!

THE airways stewardess is a nice touch.

Oh Gawd, fireworks.

I don't really understand why there are female air stewards?

FFS…..more adverts. 😡😡

Can’t even kick off on time with all the boring razzmatazz.

'We'll kick off whenever we want...USA USA...Robbie Williams...Donald J...land of the free...boxing announcer WTAF'

There's more of this shite at half-time apparently.

I like the ref, just told Cucu to shut his mouth twice while giving him hand gesture.

Chelsea started really well.

The PSG kid shoulda burst the net with that chance.

Got to shoot.

Andros Townsend talking nonsense saying he did the right thing to pass.

Yep, it looked a tap in for Doue.

Doue could have had due.

Forgetting all the pre-match nonsense, it's not been a bad match so far. The PSG player should have gone for it instead of trying to square it.

I'm flicking between the two. Looks like it's lights out for Wales in the women's Euros, already losing 2 - 0 to England.

Great finish by Palmer.

Been a lot tighter game than anticipated.

Quite brilliant from Palmer for the second

Sheer class from Palmer x 2!

Oooer…PSG in a bit of a pickle now!

The ref looks like Mexican middleweight boxer. Wouldn't mess with him.

Great 2nd finish

So till chflsea start the season on hire as this tournament is their pre season. OO they start shite, moan there are to many games and the FA cup is once again shortened

Chelsea have destroyed PSG this half. No one saw this coming

Cole Palmer superb

Seriously dislike Chelsea but I’m enjoying seeing PSG get rogered.

That 3rd finish was special.

Looking forward to the HT show

Bovril and hit the bar challenge would have been better

I see the kids are into some overrated stuff these days.

She's nearly got a dress on.

Must be nice to support a team where NSNO really does mean something

Longest HT ever.

If I go the game and this happens I'm going home

WTF is all this shite?

Seen some shite but this takes the Izal. You play in sweltering heat for 45 minutes and then some stupid interviewer asks you how you feel about winning. Cucurella should have just told her to fuck off, and gone for a rest. Then there's a bunch of stupid bastards dressed in yellow prancing about. Presumably what we get from tossers like Infantino cross fertilizing with Trump

Now a chat with the Donald - this is crackers. Truly

Fucking Trump getting interviewed now. Albeit only very briefly. If this is what the World Cup will be like next summer, then you can shove it.

So nearly 25 minutes passed the scheduled kick off time for the second half.

Okay, there was six minutes added on time in the first half, so this second half should have kicked off around 21:15 pm, not 21:25 pm. Plus don't forget the game kicked off 8 minutes past the scheduled time. Bloody joke!!

Its becoming like American sport. 4 hours of adverts interspersed with 20 intervals mins of sports.

People actually watched this? FFS

Well, that's Chelsea with a welcome £97M.

Here comes The Donald! 😆

Chelsea… Champions of The World!

They did stuff PSG.

Will wind the Shite up this surely.🤣

They won't like it, Peter.

Donald must have been woken up. There was a clip of him earlier and he definitely looked asleep!!

It's funny, my cousin, the Chelsea fan, was spent most of last season complaining. Didn't like the owners (quite widespread actually. Told me they had no chance of Champions League. Cole Palmer was shit and they wouldn't win the Europa Conference League.

Champions League qualification and two trophies later, his mood is very different.

Football supporters, eh?!!

Haha, Danny!

I think Maresca was being heavily questioned too at times wasn't he.

On top of the World now!

This will put the RS noses out of joint because Chelsea can now say they're the best team in the "weeerrrllld!"

Haven't watched the competition overly much but I did see the PSG v Real Madrid semi-final (and the odd game before that).

In conversation with a colleague yesterday, I said Chelsea would fare better than Madrid had.

Why? Well, I just didn't think much of the Real defence from that viewing. Rudiger was never wholly reliable and I'm amazed at how the over-hyped Huijsen has apparently been given a starting role (at least in some of the games I'd noticed).

People often scoff at the quality in the Premier League but I think there is plenty; at least enough that any of those clubs that regularly qualify for Europe have a chance against any of the world's elite teams if they happen to get it all together for the 90 minutes required.

Cole Palmer may have had a ‘difficult' season but he didn't suddenly become ‘shit'.

Still expect a ‘roller-coaster' season from Chelsea though.

Infantino needs to go now. He's completely screwing up football and only interested in the money the game can generate by licking the colons of the Super Rich. Asking Trump or was he told by Trump, that he was coming to get in on the act. Fat Orange Man Baby even got in on the winners photo, by making sure he did. (Glad some players had the decency not to shake his hand.)

As Rob says above, I'll be giving next summers World Cup a miss because it going to be Americanised to death. Expect adverts at watering time half-way through each half, which will lead to the game becoming 4 quarters of 22½ minutes or more likely 4 periods of 20 minutes in the long run.

The players need to strike, because they are being used now, as show ponies to promote the Billionaires and their all embracing corporations / and products. Fuck 'em all, Fuck 'em all to Kingdamn Come.

UK going to absolute shit and we've got people on here complaining about the "Americanization of the next World Cup" (News flash: the last one in America wasn't) and the Donald who lives rent-free in Evertonian heads.

Amazing really.

I was disappointed the wasn't any ice hockey ascending organ music for each kick off.

Bill @ 49;

Not 'going', mate… Gone! — like football and the world in general.

“UK going to absolute shit.”

How so, Bill?

What is actually “absolute shit” about the UK?

Wobbly growth, troubled trade and rising debt: UK plc is in a fix

Bill, I'm not sure where "the Donald lives rent-free in Evertonian heads" came from. I don't recall that being mentioned when his name has come up.

Anyway, Club World Cup and Women's Euros all done.

Later we should see the pre-match preview for tomorrow night's pre-season against Accrington Stanley, so back to Everton.

Jack #48, I bet you didn't go to the last World Cup in the USA. Or you wouldn't say something so ridiculous.

I did. And the only thing uniquely Americanized about that World Cup was that they played some games in college football venues, which fortunately won't happen this time.

It was a joyous, international and wildly successful tournament, breaking every attendance record at the time. I traveled to every game on a train full of dancing Brazilians, and they thought it was the best World Cup ever held.

If this one sucks, it'll be because of too many midday games at 90°F. And the USA isn't doing the scheduling. You wanna miss it? Be my guest.

Anybody else coming over to see it? Literally, be my guest. I have a couple of guest bedrooms and a view of the Seattle World Cup venue across Puget Sound.

Mike, I tend not disagree with you but on this one I will. I thought the ‘94 World Cup was probably the worst I've ever seen (South Africa came close).

The football was slow and turgid. The most exciting bit was the Mexican wave. The bikini clad “fan” became a permanent fixture for the cameras. Diana Ross missing a pen was a prelude of things to come. And the final was even duller than the previous (Argentina-Germany) one. Also, England wasn't present.

Overall, it was shite imo.

Quality of Life

Not so bad it seems.

I'm an ordinary citizen of the UK.

I'm 66, semi-retired on a part-time wage and my state pension. My wife is a teaching assistant on a low salary. We have 3 grown-up sons who all went to a local school in a “rough” catchment area. Two of them went through Uni and are happy, the 3rd is an accomplished chef living the life on a super yacht in the Med. My wife has a blood condition similar to Leukaemia and has regular treatment with the NHS. Her drugs cost thousands of pounds but she gets them on the NHS.

We live in a mid-terrace 3 bed house in West Sussex, where the cost of living is quite expensive. I drive an old Volvo and love it. We are happy and both of us have active social lives – I still play cricket and football weekly. If I need a doctor I get one easy and I have regular dental treatments on the NHS. I just paid £300 for partial dentures (they're going in the bin though).

The only part of living in the UK that I find shit is the aftermath of Brexit. I work in travel and my 4-year-old passport is already almost full of stamps. The queues at passport control, always accompanied by people whinging that “they are punishing us for Brexit”, are a pain in the arse, especially when you see the EC passports just strolling through.

I'm not a little Englander at all but I find living in the UK quite pleasant actually, certainly not shit.

Mark, that doesn't surprise me that the Scandinavian countries and Switzerland top the list. They are not without their issues, especially Sweden.

I also like living in the UK and I don't think it's anywhere near as bad as the late 70s / early 80s. "The sick man of Europe" as we were labelled.

I haven't found Brexit too bad. The queues have been no different, as at places like Dusseldorf and Munich (maybe more). Perhaps it depends on the country and airport you fly into. Bucharest is a nightmare, chaotic regardless. And passport control officers who look like a throwback to Soviet Eastern Europe!!

There did seem a bit of resentment. We never stopped allowing citizens from EU countries to pass through the same e-gates as UK citizens, whereas they did. That seems to be resolved from October when we can use them again.

The best World Cups have tended to take place in countries in which football is the dominant sport and the home nation has passionate, informed supporters who don't call football, 'soccer'!

The World Cups in the USA, South Africa, Qatar and Russia weren't great. To be fair, I enjoyed the World Cup in South Korea & Japan, so perhaps there is hope for next year.

My favourite top five World Cups (I'm 63 and therefore too young to remember 1966):

1. Spain 1982

2. Mexico 1970 (Even though aged 8 and a long time ago, I can remember this vividly and have watched it many times since.)

3. Mexico 1986

4. Brazil 2014

5. Argentina 1978

I didn't watch any of the Club World Cup barring PSG thump Real Madrid in the semi-final, and the final last night. I'm hoping the cringeworthy half-time antics or entertainment yesterday don't foreshadow the fayre on offer at the World Cup in 2026 and, more importantly, what goes down at Bramley-Moore Dock at half-time.

Mark, you put a nice positive gloss on your circumstance, and I admire a positive mind set.

But our country has been in decline for a long time, big subject, many sub categories, too big for here.

I am 69, wife isn't getting pension yet, live in a flat in north Wales, have a couple of health conditions, paid £260 for a crown tooth last month, waited 8 years for a throat op which I have travelled to Manchester for, lying here now in Royal Infirmary glad it's done but we definitely are a country in decline.

Everton is good therapy for me, and I like a positive outlook.
Britain's not totally fucked, but it will never get back what it's lost.

I think these interruptions you mention are deliberate, Liam, I think we are on a continuum now, and that this 'interference' is only going to get worse.

The game is now being monetised by global players, and a game which continues for nearly an hour with no break is no good for sponsors.

But if we can get VAR to interrupt every 10 minutes, and to take 5 minutes making a decision, then that becomes a very handy slot for Paddy Power to chip in with some inane nonsense.

And they will pay handsomely for the privilege. They are interfering via VAR with the DNA of the game; in 10 years time, it'll probably be 3 hours to get the game done, there'll be interactive stuff going on all the time, and the ordinary local fan will have a very small voice indeed.

The galling thing is they don't tell you what the plan is, they just inch you along… and introduce stuff, little bits at a time.

If you had told the fans 30 years ago that nobody can celebrate goals properly anymore cos of VAR, they would have laughed and said nobody would put up with that. But here we are.

It's not just players Kevin. It's the authorities.

I'm sure that FIFA's already swelling coffers have done well out of this competition. Similar for UEFA and the Champions League. First qualifying matches tomorrow by the way. God there are some unheard of obscure clubs taking part. I think I only recognise Malmo.

I'm still unclear what the selection criteria was for participating clubs in the Club World Cup. I presume by invite? Surely, due to the global reach they command, Liverpool and Man Utd would have been ahead of Chelsea and even Man City? Maybe they did get invited and turned it down.

Danny, yes indeed. I've just seen the footage of Trump on the podium as Chelsea lift the trophy, and he's cheering along. It reminded me of that appalling Trump Gaza video, it's surreal and feels like an AI generation.

It's disconcerting seeing these politicians stuck in the middle of a footy celebration, it doesn't augur well for where footy is heading.

I'm stone-cold certain though that football is used now as a forum for the gobshites in charge to communicate all kinds of messages.

You are probably right, Kevin.

The whole VAR thing has metamorphosised from being 'about getting decisions right' into being about providing drama to those watching on TV.

I've always gone to watch Everton in person and the impact on the matchday fan is huge. It's changed the fabric of the experience.

The effect on TV viewers is different. Within seconds, they are watching replays and commentators, lines being drawn, etc. They are 'entertained' as part of the process, and it doesn't feel the same as waiting unknowingly in a stadium for 3-4 minutes. I noticed the difference when watching TV games.

All this other nonsense, like interviewing players at half-time and players who have been substituted – why? What type of insight are you going to get from a player who doesn't even want to talk to you? Just concentrate on the football.

Another thing that wound me up watching the game last night was the camera constantly focusing on 'celebrities' in the crowd, whilst play was on-going. Watching patterns of play, movement on the pitch, tactical tweaks etc, is more difficult on TV anyway, but even harder when the directors don't even show the bloody game.

You make good points, Liam.

No substitute for a live game, breathing the same atmosphere in a stadium.

Not everyone can get there easily, so the great economic machinery kicks in and takes "the product" to the consumer, for a fee of course.

The world is money driven, economy first, no stopping it now.

It does grate, Kevin.

I can only think of a few members of the UK establishment who warrant any credit attending football matches as a genuine thing rather than a popularise opportunity.

There are probably more, but a few I can think of:

Andy Burnham (Everton).

Whether a royalist or not, Prince William seems genuine following football and Villa.

Despite and controversy, that follows him like flies seeking out dog shit for a tasty meal, our very own Degsy. I may criticise him for a lot, but I can't knock him for his genuine support of Everton.

And right now, the hugely unpopular Sir Kier Starmer. He may be telling more porkies than Pinocchio and has scored a hat-trick of U-turns with another on the horizon, but he has been a long-time Arsenal season ticket holder. He can no longer use his seats due to being PM and security concerns, so takes corporate seats from Arsenal.

I actually thought it was a good thing. I'm not sure on how some of the teams qualified, but it was interesting watching teams from different continents playing against each other.

To me, the only bullshit will be if the PSG manager doesn't get some sort of ban, you can clearly see he aimed at and punched the Chelsea player.

You can see where he aims his punch, just under his own player's arm, while he was having a conflict with the Chelsea player.

Chelsea have been building a young team for this past three seasons. No player in this game over 27.They are going to be challenging in all competitions over the next 4 years with their WCC badges. The owner came clean on anything to do with the previous owner. They served a transfer ban.

Mark#58.

You have done well in life by living it.Well done.It is people like you that I admire.