Rustibrooks

Two decent fixtures today. Ivory Coast vs Nigeria which starts at 5PM GMT and Ghana vs Egypt which starts at 8PM GMT. Ivory Coast being the host nation have to be favourites in that game and although I’d say Ghana have the better squad in comparison to Egypt, I think Egypt will win this game.

Tanzania vs Morocco and D.R. Congo vs Zambia today. I have my mothers side of the family coming over shortly to watch (they are from Tanzania). Fortunately they are unlike the crazy lot that were spamming all of Villa socials over Ally Samatta .

Also this

Some are saying the translation sounds worse than what he actually said. I haven’t got round to listening to this yet as I’m finishing up work (or at least trying to lol), but a guy on twitter has an AI video of the interview with the translation.

Agreed, I wasn’t happy at first but thought to let the club make the changes and if this is the final draft then it looks a lot better than the previous mock-ups imo. Might not look so bad when seeing it with the other Prem team’s badges

What a stupid penalty to give away lol. Happy for Bert though

Guinea gone a goal up against Cameroon after some dodgy defending from Cameroon

IMO some of the players (especially western African nations which usually produces the better players) cba with playing for their nations. I have a few Nigerian/Ghanaian friends for example and for years they have always said their stars can’t be bothered to perform. Alongside rubbish coaching it makes the standard in some matches really bad. Saying that though Senegal for example have been consistently decent over the last 15 years?

As I said it seemed that way due to the questioning of the M.O

Me personally, i maintain the same energy for all countries that’s why I’m saying what I’m saying. If Israel brought forth a case about Russia and people questioned the motives of that I’d agree that Russia do need to be in The Hague and questioned the same way Israel have been. If this were to happen are Israel hypocrites? Of course they would be in this scenario, however in that instance they would be right in that case. I’m not sure if that’s been missed with everything I’ve said. SA as I said have skeletons in their own closet, as pointed out they have turned a blind eye to the Sudan genocide and rolled out a red carpet for the RSF leader. Which seems to be missed as well because you assumed I ignored that. I’m also aware of South Africa being apart of BRICS. Also SA have allowed some of their Jewish citizens to go to Gaza to fight for the IDF I’m sure which will cause some sort of conflict of interest IF Israel are guilty.

Might not been intentional and It may be nothing but it came across that way from the way it seemed when you said ‘I don’t seem to get that Russia hasn’t invaded SA’ and the response after I mentioned with SA assisting with helping D.R. Congo against the M23 rebels. But that’s fine if you didn’t, I probably misread it that way. Apologies. The whataboutism started from when SA’s motive was questioned, because it seemed that people were using that to totally dismiss what SA have done. When if people agree with Israel being in the ICJ, then it shouldn’t matter if it was SA that done it or if it was Columbia. They still deserved to be there no matter the motive.

Thanks for the reply. Again I just said I get your point from a geopolitical standpoint, I don’t get the sarcasm/putting words in my mouth if that’s what you are intending. It was a question I asked because all of this seems like whataboutism to me hence why I’ve pressed for why it’s the case. (Questioning SA’s motives) I’m aware that Ukraine and Israel have a complicated relationship. Russia and Israel also had one thought that’s likely strained due to the Gaza conflict and Ukrainian war. Though admittedly I didn’t know to what extent they have helped each other before your comment. From SA’s perspective, they also have a strained relationship with US/UK from the Mandela days and amongst other things that predate everything.(when they labelled him a terrorist). So to me it’s understandable to some degree why they might side with BRICS which I have my own criticisms of. However clearly they haven’t totally turned a blind eye to what happened October 7th as pointed out in their opening statement of their case. This is why I asked you both, can no country that’s aligned with BRICS criticise/bring forth a case about Israel then in you twos eyes?

Seems like he has no clue how to calm a game down lol

This is the same ref in our game vs Brentford right?

Eeesh that follow through

A confident Diaby may have tried to go all the way instead of holding it up, hopefully he can get a goal soon to get his confidence back up

Ok my points been missed by both of you so I’ll rephrase it. I and many others said Ukraine voting to abstain on a ceasefire back in October/November in the UN was hypocritical considering they are going through something similar to what’s happening in Gaza. However this was explained as them doing so due to political relations etc. Which I understand. SA are bringing Israel to the ICJ on a case of committing possible genocide. They too have abstained or voted against any sort of ceasefire/peace due to their relation to Russia/ being apart of the BRICS alliance. However they have been criticised for the case due to that standing. So I’m asking what is the actual difference if we are basing it on their motives? Are we going to say that no country that has some sort of deal with Russia/BRICS can critique Israel for their actions? SA are wrong for not stepping in with the Sudan situation and to roll out the red carpet for the RSF leader. However they are right for bringing Israel to ICJ, people seem to make the two mutually exclusive when they shouldn’t considering that most countries in the world have done some f’d up stuff. Edit - By the way I’m going to make this clear - I am not comparing Ukraine vs SA, I’m specifically comparing the motives of the two with voting/the ICJ case

Right decision tbh

Good finish but might get disallowed

I compared their security voting intentions/the ICJ case. IMO I think they can be compared. What I will say though and I said it to specifically you at the time of the UN votes, I don’t think geopolitics should matter for what’s right and wrong. I obviously understand why countries hands are tied with certain things. I’m aware SA hosted the RSF and they are a horrible lot(that’s why I said South Africa aren’t perfect). Also recently SA have sent a security force to DR Congo to help with the cobalt mining genocide over there by M23. I don’t want to make this into the Africa politics thread but I wanted to bring that up to say that they aren’t ignoring everything that’s going on in the world. Could they do better? Obviously but that can be said for everyone. A lot of these issues are indeed Russian/Iran led as well as US/UK led.

I didn’t say SA got invaded by Russia that has nothing to do with what I’m saying. Look at what I said again At the time when they had the UN votes, Ukraine abstained and it was questioned and then excused. But SA’s motive is being excused and is now being labelled as hypocrites and being on the same level as Russia. SA also said this about Hamas at the ICJ but this seems to have missed people. (Apologies for the X link I can’t find the website for the court docs)

I remember at the time when there was one of the early UN Security Council votes in favour of a ceasefire, Ukraine voted to abstain and their motive was questioned. This however was quickly excused due to their geopolitical position with US and UK. I don’t get why this is not the same case for SA with their position with Russia/China? SA are not perfect (none of these countries are), however they have every right to bring a case to the ICJ. There are other genocides and atrocities around the world, are the world now going to expect SA to do the same with all of them? I hope not but what I hope that’s come from this is that it inspires others to follow suit with the other genocides. If countries always have to look at themselves before presenting a case like this then we are likely to get no where with peace around the world then.

Pretty much agree, IMO it’s just a bit of whataboutism and most people would be calling it that if situations were flipped around.

Some in America are saying that Biden didn’t go through congress to get permission for the strikes in Yemen.