pdr4332

From Twitter: "The worst-run league since the League of Nations. And that includes Zach Snyder's Justice League." LMAO

I assume megalomania is a hella powerful drug. Pérez (and I assume Agnelli too ) was into this also because of lust for power and "to leave a legacy" (usually the motive of politicians when they do stupid things)

Trolololo, this is amazing! I hoped ESL will flop but did not expect it happening so quickly. As Vektor said it doesn't mean that dominant clubs will be less dominant but at least the plan aimed at the Americanization of European football has been stopped. And that's why the possible failure of the Super League is a big deal.

Hungary has 100 quotas so far, writes today's Nemzeti Sport. Detailed breakdown : Table tennis 4 Athletics 5 Wrestling 4 Canoe - sprint 13 Cycling - road 1 Boxing 1 Modern pentathlon 2 Shooting 4 Gymnastics 1 Water polo 2 teams / 24 Fencing 9+3 Surf 1 Sailing 3 Swimming - open water 1 Swimming - 27 (limited due to 2 swimmers per distance and country)

This is the minimum rational decision which can be taken at the moment (they can decide more flexibly to what extent they allow Japanese spectators based on the situation in say, May or June - for local spectators it requires less planning in advance to attend) It has to be announced as soon as possible. This is like ripping off the band aid - it has to be done quickly.

Congratulations for and ! Hopefully tomorrow qualifies too. Whether or not there will be an Olympics that's now another question (I hope it will, as both our WP teams qualified

This might be possible, provided HU does not meet SRB in the knockout stage prior to the final's.

Well in the 2016 qualification tournament Hungary was very close to being defeated by Germany in the knockout stage, if I remember correctly. (Granted, this year's Croatian team is stronger than 2016's Hungarian team) Still, I don't think CRO will fail to qualify.

Good job for Georgia today. If they finish 3rd in Group A while Russia end up 2nd in Group B, there will be another epic vs. battle in the quarter-finals :D

Common sense would say just let it go (that is, cancel it). But in one hand, big time political and business interests are in play, both by the IOC, the JP government, the big TV networks, and so on. On the other hand, it might be devastating for the athletes, some of whom might not be able to participate in the next Olympics (2024) or they will not be in a form needed for a medal or top-6 finish. The large scale boycotts of 1980 and 1984 have a lot of these personal stories. Of course it is different to miss the OG for a once-in-a-century pandemic and a political decision. My money is either on an Olympics with no spectators, or a cancellation in the last possible minute (say late March or so), after every alternative approach is exhausted or discarded as not viable (IOC and local organizers will deny the cancellation as long as possible, the same way they denied the postponement last year)

Yes I do think too that all games between the Big 3 are open-ended esentially, results-wise. PS. and you have a point that it is fair to assume that CRO will beat RUS, but GRE v. MNE can go either way.

In that case (i.e. Greece=1A, Montenegro=2B), it will be most probably Croatia v. Montenegro in one of the semifinals, and Greece v. 3A/2B (might be Canada or Russia) in the other. Then either CRO or MNE will be in 3rd place game.

To retain a chance for that, they need to finish no worse than 3rd in the Group A. Then in the QF they face the second of Group B (most probably the Russians), and if they manage to do that, they move to the 3rd place game (after losing to Montenegro in the semifinals). But that game will be exceedingly tough, as one of the 3 big teams (Croatia, Montenegro, Greece) will be there too. Greece might be the most beatable. PS. this assumes that every match in the group stage ends according to expectations , e.g. Montenegro=1A, Greece=2A, Croatia=1B, Russia=2B

Hopefully the Olympics will have the same fair and transparent process to decide about disqualifications which debuted on last year's US Open... /sarcasm

Even if partly due to the crazy conditions, but what a weekend for Latvia... Agree with dcro that Bots/Plume are one of the surprises of this season. Even though LAT is not the only country "raising" new talent successully by time time their older big-name athletes going to retire in the near future.

I mean the official opening day, that is 4 February, so its not yet belated. Thank you anyway

It turns out the opening day will be on my birthday

I also read in Hungarian media that the HU Olympics Committe together with the HU gov decide to priorize athletes going to the OG if by that time they did not get the vaccine anyway.

Hungary But here comes the hard part as I am not 100% convinced there will be an Olympics...

Pfizer yes. But in AstraZeneca's case, European Medicines Agency (EMA) authorization is missing - according to todays' news, it will come until 31.01. as latest. Hopefully they do it then. After that, it will be indeed the manufacturers (AZ) task to deliver it promptly.

This was my idea as well, as the Ice Hockey WCh will probably be held in Riga without spectators, and I read somewhere that the IIHF will agree to reimburse part of the shortfall for the organizers. In case of the IOC this might be carried out more easily, given the massive TV monies involved (granted, the prospective loss b/c of no spectators is also greater by orders of magnitude)

So maybe this time we qualify but there will be no Olympics? Ed. This is how the unlucky streak can continue, haha

Good weekend for my beloved Latvians Too bad they did not win the relay (with Austria DSQ and Germany underperforming this would have been the best opportunity to win)

Well at least geographically Saudi Arabia is closer to Morocco, Mauritania and Senegal than Latin America was :D

Somehow I am not surprised - this video is just par for the course for an entitled oligarch son: not only doing it but also sharing it proudly even though it is a huge self own from PR perspective. But if you were born and raised as the son of an oligarch, you are probably not aware of such mundane things like not sharing embarrasing videos about yourself - that is just for us peasants....