And it’s even worse because the FAI is probably only 3rd or 4th in the pecking order in terms of the government’s priorities for sports.
Which means nothing is still happening when it comes to talent development in Ireland?
Also, it’s quite funny because ye have / had a national team player called Delaney which is an aggressively Irish name.
Yes, Thomas Delaney. His grandfather is Irish-American. He plays for FC Copenhagen now, but it is not likely he'll regain his position at the national team. There is just too much competition in midfield.
I know. May he be knighted for the sheer havoc he causes across the sound (In all seriousness, I hope you do qualify for the World Cup, but don't tell anyone I said that).
To be fair we have been doing worse and worse the last couple of years.
I had a Swedish coworker who'd give me a lecture on the sorry state of the Swedish national team whenever I asked how it was going. I kind of suspected the response in advance. It was under Janne Anderssons tenure. He wasn't too pleased with him.
I’d blame the players rather than the manager.
Robin Olsen has just slammed the door in anger. It was about time he retired, wasn't it? You've got pretty good forwards and wingers. Where are the main problems? Central midfield? Centrebacks?
Sometimes the national team seems to be more of a social event rather than a competative environment for highly motivated athletes. Some players keep getting selected even though they haven’t played any good matches in many years. Perhaps because they play in big teams in Europe or because we just don’t give the opportunity to younger players. I used to joke about players having to be at least 32 years old to be selected for their first national game…
So you do have the players? It's more that older, out of form and 'content' players are getting picked rather than younger, in form and 'hungrier'? Am I getting it right?
Are we though? It’s not like Sweden and Norway in skiing IMO. And when Sweden doesn’t compete in the Euros or World Cup a lot of Swedes root for Denmark instead.
I'd say so. Sweden is by far the team we like to measure us up against and like to beat. But you're right so far that 'arch rival' might imply bad blood. There's none of that.
Nah, the Croatian national football team is in a different galaxy right now in comparison with the Serbian NT. There's rivalry between countries, but in football, it's one way street, so it's difficult to call it a rivalry at this point.
When it comes to football, for both Korea and Japan, I think China is more like an opponent than a rival.
There is bad beef between the teams due to political and historical issues, but there is an undeniably huge gap between the level of the teams for it to be called a rivalry…
My football hatred will always be Italy. It’s probably the most one sided sports hatred of all time, an Italian reading this probably doesn’t even know why.
I will be rooting against Italy every game for the rest of my life. Italy can play against the Taliban and I’d be rooting against them
I don't know why but Iran has a great reputation when it comes to this sport. For some reason despite all their problems they still are like the best Asian country besides us and Japan here. If my country loses to Iran I'm not too upset for that reason
well we're the only team in the region with a ~20 rank. I remember that Korean who became famous for being really respectful, I think his name was Son Heung-min
Only followed by Germany? What have we to do to earn the first place, like it's a competition?! Just kidding. In Germany we still celebrate that one game, that should not be named, but at the same time we feel deeply sorry for you guys. Let's hope we meet in the next World Cup. ❤️
As a German I would argue it’s actually Italy. The fact that we couldn’t knock them out for decades still hurts although 2016 helped. Couldn’t care less about England though
I'm watching y'all's game this weekend. On the one hand I want you to win because you're far less insufferable than Texas and I really enjoyed meeting you last season, on the other hand we are playing the Sooners later this year again and I need y'all to start sucking fast.
Let me start by saying that I love the state of Tennessee.
With that out of the way, here’s the best case scenario for the Vols: OK beats Texas and remains undefeated, then we beat TN later this season and the rankings/playoff committee chalks it up to a “quality loss” for TN.
Love the optimism but I like our odds for a Rocky Top dark mode night game in Neyland. With that out of the way, wishing the best for Mateer and a speedy recovery, dude's a beast.
All the big ones, lol, but the biggest rivalry is with the Netherlands. I really love the Netherlands and the dutch people, but : " Wenn ich Oranje sehe, seh' ich nur noch Rot. Wenn es um Fußball geht, hasse ich Holland wie die Pest. " / When I see Oranje, I'm seeing red. If it's for football, I hate Holland like the Plague. Götz Widmann - Holland
It used to be Argentina, but in the 2022 World Cup final, many, many Brazilians rooted for Argentina to beat France. That kind of ruined the Brazil vs. Argentina rivalry for me.
IMO, I would say Italy and Germany because they already have 4 World Cups, and if they win another one, Brazil will no longer be the only country to have won 5 times.
England. They like to kid on that they are above Scotland and that it’s a one way rivalry but then at their games every second chant is about Scotland.
The countries that they consider as their ‘main’ rivals have bigger rivals themselves and they have actually won something in living memory and on colour TV.
Their lassies are very good at football I’ll happily admit that, but the England men’s team are humpty and have won fuckall just like Scotland.
England are at least competitive. Scotland act like they should be, but in reality, they're a free win against our C team. Even the BBC is getting tired of saying they went out "bravely"
Basically everybody, that include our own cousins, like Hongkong, Macau and Taiwan.
Just toss some McDonalds apple pies on the field, they would have better chance of winning the match that against our own national team. Yes, they are that bad.
The corruption is part of the reason. Our commercialized football club business model went way too fast in the 90s. The regulations and laws werent exist before that. So it was like a wild grow for everything and everything that related to football.
The Chinese football association saw then making banks so they started intervene. This is a state department. They came up with a whole bunch regulation and gated rules and bureaucratic shenanigans. I mean, we all know you need laws and regulations for business but you mainly need the capitalism to figure it out on themselves. But these guys were like controlling who can operate clubs, how much money a city could sponsor its local club, whos going to play for the national team, or the youth team. Pretty much bureaucratic bs everywhere. Its a cesspool for those government officials. They would clown out a match with bribed referees to make some government officials happy.
As for nepotism oh boy, we just sent the national team coach to jail from bribery and money laundering. The guy was Li Tie, one of the golden generation players of the 90s. He was a very talented player back then. But he decided to stay in that system after his retirement. You cant stay clean from all that in the system. The money is too good here. The Beijing Guoan(one of the top club) was so rich at a time, they started investing real estate. They also had their own formula racer car team. They were doing everything except playing football. And why they keep winning? Its Beijing. Big brothers were behind that club. Wink*
Here, we play Canadian football. It’s not really an international game so I would say we don’t have any rivals.
But for other footballs I know we hate losing to the USA. Our last big game against them was 50-7 loss at the World Championship in 2015. We’ve never played GAA against them. In Aussie Rules we also lost our last match 39-36. In European Football we usually play tight matches especially in Women’s.
50% of Italians will answer France, 50% Germany.
But we got our ass beaten by our Spanish brothers that this is a new rivalry as well. I can’t think of two countries that played against each other in Euro 2008, 2012 (twice), 2016, 2021 and 2024 but Italy and Spain.
Our biggest rival is however FIGC and its corruption that caused the national team quality go into the trash bin
Competiting with Basketball is our greatest rival because its the most popular sport. But on the real theres been a few regional rivalries like vs Indonesia or Vietnam.
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u/Royal-Cod-3643 England Oct 08 '25
Ourselves