***Official Soccer Discussion Thread*** (5 Viewers)

[Sinn Fein]

[seppBlatter] NOTHING TO SEE HERE....IT'S ALL ENGLAND'S FAULT! [/seppBlatter]

:waveshand:

these are not the bribes you are looking for

 

[Tom Hagen]

So basically the only way to get a World Cup is to bribe FIFA, but this allows them to protect Qatar by claiming all the bidders offered bribes.

Well played FIFA. :golfclap:

 

[Sammy3469]

So basically the only way to get a World Cup is to bribe FIFA, but this allows them to protect Qatar by claiming all the bidders offered bribes.

Well played FIFA. :golfclap:

You see what you really need to do is have someone from your country contemplate a FIFA presidency bid while you are bidding for the World Cup. Then say every bribe you are giving out is related to the Presidency bid. WA LA World Cup bid is free and clear.

 

[Dinsy Ejotuz]

The FBI doesn't care for FIFA's not-really-the-report report, apparently.

U.S. investigators are stepping up the pace of a corruption investigation into senior leaders of FIFA, even as the world soccer body is giving itself a clean bill of health, according to U.S. law enforcement officials.

The FIFA ethics committee announced Thursday that it was closing its investigation into alleged corruption in the 2018 and 2022 bidding process that awarded the World Cup to Russia and Qatar, respectively.

FIFA said its investigation found no corruption and has no reason to reopen the bidding process.

But the FBI, which is leading the U.S. probe, isn't ready to do the same. Investigators are moving ahead with their probe, which could result in charges against senior FIFA officials, the U.S. law enforcement officials said.

FBI agents based in New York are moving ahead with their 3-year-old investigation, which will likely benefit from the findings of a former U.S. prosecutor, Michael Garcia, who was hired by FIFA to do an internal probe. The FBI plans to seek access to Garcia's report, which FIFA hasn't yet released.

 

[T Bell]

Russia, which won the right to stage the 2018 tournament, is understood to be criticised for its failure to co-operate with the investigation and is believed to have claimed that its computer systems were wiped in the wake of its victory so few email trails exist.

this is just FIFA saying we give zero ####s what anyone thinks about us, we will always go with the bid paying us the most money.

I can't wait for FIFA to be taken down a few pegs. They're so shamelessly corrupt it's not even funny.

I read an article that said the US's anti-corruption laws actually worked against hosting a future World Cup because FIFA was afraid to become subject to US jurisdiction.

 

[Native]

[seppBlatter] NOTHING TO SEE HERE....IT'S ALL ENGLAND'S FAULT! [/seppBlatter]

What a sham.

 

[El Floppo]

[seppBlatter] NOTHING TO SEE HERE....IT'S ALL ENGLAND'S FAULT! [/seppBlatter]

:waveshand:

these are not the bribes you are looking for

 

[Autumn Wind]

Wow, some real creative work by NYCFC on those new kits. <_<

 

[Dinsy Ejotuz]

Nice summary of the whole affair:

Fifa’s brazen effort to tick its 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding process with a spick and span bill of health was plunged immediately into further discredit when its own investigator, the former US prosecutor Michael Garcia, protested its portrayal of his report was “erroneous and incomplete” and he himself will appeal.

That was dramatic, edging again into Zurich farce, but no great surprise, because while Fifa had congratulated itself with characteristic smugness, saying Garcia’s report cleared its integrity and should constitute closure, even the 42-page summary of the report screams the opposite. Garcia’s report was only commissioned in response to huge concerns over Fifa’s integrity and that of its executive committee members, who in December 2010 sent the 2018 World Cup to Russia and 2022 to Qatar, in that closed, claustrophobic process.

Several appalling instances of apparent corruption, collusion and vote-buying are identified even in this summary, spun by Hans-Joachim Eckert, the chair of Fifa’s ethics committee’s adjudicatory chamber, of an investigation for which Garcia did not have full cooperation, particularly from Russia. Yet complacency, in the face of dreadful, apparently institutionalised graft, seeps from every paragraph of Eckert’s statement, in which he repeatedly concludes that Garcia’s findings, even on limited evidence, “do not compromise the integrity of the Fifa World Cup 2018/22 bidding process as a whole”.

In reaching that conclusion, which was depressingly expected, Fifa has again damaged its own integrity, because it cannot seem to recognise the gravity and unacceptability of corruption within its moneyed walls. This summary report is of a piece with the attitude of Fifa’s president Sepp Blatter, who has served football’s world governing body at the highest level during a time of proven bribe-taking, cash presidential vote-buying and other corruption by several of its executive committee members, but kept calm and sailed on, mostly reserving anger for the media which has exposed it.

Eckert recites some of the dire facts already known: that even before the vote in 2010 – for a tournament Fifa’s own report states now to be worth $4bn – two of the 24-member exco, Amos Adamu and Reynald Temarii, were suspended after a Sunday Times sting found them receptive to vote-buying in return for “financial investments”.

Fifa merely proceeded with 22 voting members in that trademarked way of Blatter’s – the captain of Fifa’s little bateau, as he put it when he was re-voted in as president five months later, in June 2011, on a one-man ballot paper.

Of the other 2010 exco members, Mohamed bin Hammam, Blatter’s challenger until he was suspended for handing out cash in brown envelopes to Caribbean football delegates whose presidential votes he was courting, was finally banned for life in December 2012 on other corruption allegations.

Jack Warner, a very senior exco baron at the time of the World Cup votes; the president, no less, of the Confederation of North, Central and Caribbean football associations (Concacaf), and a Fifa vice-president, resigned in June 2011 corruption allegations. Eckert’s summary report highlights “personal benefits” Warner sought while dangling his World Cup vote, including from the English Football Association, which is horribly tainted by its “willingness, time and again” to “curry favour” and meet Warner’s expectations.

Blatter has long clung to the comforting falsehood that the English media only reports all this because England lost out, but he should realise there is outrage here that the FA spent £21m of football money, and £3m public money from 12 hard-up local authorities, courting a corrupt Fifa. If it is true they bent over to comply with improper requests for favours, that – and those who did it – should be fully exposed.

Chuck Blazer, long Warner’s executive at Concacaf and another exco voter for 2018 and 2022, has also now been the subject of corruption findings by an internal investigation, although he continues to deny wrongdoing.

Three other voting members of the exco who sent that great and most lucrative of sporting showpieces to Russia and Qatar, Nicolás Leoz of Paraguay, Ricardo Teixeira of Brazil itself, and Issa Hayatou of Cameroon, were exposed afterwards for having received cash, described as bribes, from Fifa’s appointed marketing company, ISL, years earlier. Blatter was found in a court settlement to have known of the bribes but Fifa said he committed no wrongdoing because such commercial payments were not a crime in Swiss law at the time. That in itself sums up Fifa’s attitude to integrity.

Just one of those incidences ought to be enough for most modern organisations – let alone the one entrusted with the world’s most beloved sport and the tournament which transfixes children – to express disgust and cancel decisions taken by these men. But Blatter and Fifa have always just seemed indignant about doubts cast on the vote.

Fifa’s statement, calling for closure, would suggest that Garcia found nothing, but he has identified a lot, even without the Russian bid’s cooperation – their computers were only leased and have now been destroyed, Russia apparently said, and Google US “would not cooperate” with their requests to recover emails.

Of Qatar, the tiny gulf autocracy which – without question – bid for and won the World Cup due to its natural gas cash billions, there are several questions. The activities of two individual advisers are said to have raised concerns, as did a Brazil v Argentina friendly in Doha in November 2010, and money which then found its way to the Argentinian FA – whose president, Julio Grondona, had a World Cup vote.

The sponsoring of the Confederation of African football associations’ congress in Angola in January 2010, in return for Qatar’s exclusive access to it, may have cost the $1.8m stated, the summary report says, but that is unclear. No rules outlawed a bidding country lavishing such expensive benefits on a voting confederation, Fifa says – without much sense that the organisation recognises how awful this is in itself – and while the lack of transparency creates “a negative impression”, Eckert decided it was “not relevant to affect the 2018/22 World Cup bidding process as a whole”.

Even more outlandish is its short section on Hammam. He is a Qatari, and was a longstanding and rich and powerful member of the exco, who in 1998 masterminded Blatter’s presidential election over the Uefa challenger, Lennart Johansson. Hammam decided to challenge Blatter for the presidency, and the report confirms the Sunday Times stories, based on internal leaked emails, that he made cash payments to senior figures of Caf associations. Yet Eckert concludes that this was to influence votes for his presidency, not World Cup votes, which those particular Caf members, Eckert says, could not influence. So that was all right then, and does not at all sully the integrity of the World Cup vote.

Most blatant, the report finds another Sunday Times story correct, that Hammam offered to pay the legal costs for Temarii to appeal his suspension, because for convoluted reasons, this favoured Qatar’s position in the World Cup vote. Yet still, Fifa can see no evil even there, and Eckert says that as Hammam did not have a formal, documented connection to the official Qatar World Cup bid, helmed by the professional and apparently decent young executive Hassan al-Thawadi, even this “did not affect the outcome of the Fifa 2018/22 World Cup bidding process as a whole”.

And there lurks a significant little difference. Where elsewhere in his summary Eckert concludes that “problems” do not affect the integrity of the process, with Hammam’s actual manipulation of the vote itself, Eckert’s conclusion is that it did not affect the outcome.

Therein lies the truth of this hideous saga, the whitewash of a necessarily incomplete investigation into a blatantly unsatisfactory voting process by an exco which was endemically corrupt at the time. Fifa does not want the headache of cancelling the votes and re-running the bids. Rather than admit to their faults, they would prefer the World Cup to go to Russia in 2018, where the bid team gave incomplete cooperation with this investigation, and 2022 to Qatar, moved from the summer, necessitating a massive construction programme in a place where migrant workers are treated appallingly.

In this, Fifa heartbreakingly fails again to give a semblance of the leadership which its privileged position ought to necessitate as the governing body of the great game, whose simple beauty is so continually betrayed by the people in charge of it.

 

[Steve Tasker]

Russia, which won the right to stage the 2018 tournament, is understood to be criticised for its failure to co-operate with the investigation and is believed to have claimed that its computer systems were wiped in the wake of its victory so few email trails exist.

this is just FIFA saying we give zero ####s what anyone thinks about us, we will always go with the bid paying us the most money.

Classic

 

[Steve Tasker]

What incentive does FIFA have to change? Billions of people will still watch the World Cup, and any host nation will bend over backward to throw money at FIFA to earn the right to host.... we all knew this was coming.

 

[El Floppo]

Wow, some real creative work by NYCFC on those new kits. <_<

but but but... the logo is different.

wow.

there's branding and brand identity, and then there's "#### it". this one's the latter.

 

[GoFishTN]

Wow, some real creative work by NYCFC on those new kits. <_<

Even the logo looks like a knockoff.

 

[Sinn Fein]

Qatar announces wish to host AFCON after Morocco withdrawal

Of course they do...

 

[Sammy3469]

What incentive does FIFA have to change? Billions of people will still watch the World Cup, and any host nation will bend over backward to throw money at FIFA to earn the right to host.... we all knew this was coming.

I do think there are a limited amount of places left that will properly bride them. After Russia and Qatar (and I'm sure Brazil wasn't clean either), they're now left with China...and? It can't (or more correctly shouldn't) go back to Asia or Europe in 2026, so your left with Mexico or one of the S American countries with the wherewithal to pay the brides. So conceivably you're at the end of the bride paying (in a major way) anyway.

Oh who am I kidding...I'm sure Carlos Slim or the Colombian drug lords could buy the 2026 WC if they wanted.

 

[El Floppo]

Australia 2026

 

[Sammy3469]

Australia 2026

Australia's (all of Asia) is out since the same Confederation has to be skipped for the next 2 WCs....oh who am I kidding, if they're they highest bidder Sepp will just change the rules and it'll go there

 

[Sinn Fein]

Don't kid yourself. The US is not above bribery when it can get away with it - the Atlanta games did not come cheap, and the SLC winter games were chalk full of bribery. I have no doubt someone funneled cash into FIFA's coffers when we hosted the WC.

Someone one will pay to host a WC, they always do.

 

[Tom Hagen]

Australia 2026

Australia's (all of Asia) is out since the same Confederation has to be skipped for the next 2 WCs....oh who am I kidding, if they're they highest bidder Sepp will just change the rules and it'll go there

Qatar 2026 "We won't need as many slaves this time so the bribes will be even higher"

 

[Sammy3469]

Australia 2026

Australia's (all of Asia) is out since the same Confederation has to be skipped for the next 2 WCs....oh who am I kidding, if they're they highest bidder Sepp will just change the rules and it'll go there

Qatar 2026 "We won't need as many slaves this time so the bribes will be even higher"

You just blew my mind...could make them permanent hosts and go to an Feb to October calendar. WA LA every problem solved.

 

[El Floppo]

Australia 2026

Australia's (all of Asia) is out since the same Confederation has to be skipped for the next 2 WCs....oh who am I kidding, if they're they highest bidder Sepp will just change the rules and it'll go there

with enough money they can counter-convince FIFA that they're NOT part of Asia and bring New Zealand in to bolster that idea.

money and hot busty blondes.

 

[Sammy3469]

Australia 2026

Australia's (all of Asia) is out since the same Confederation has to be skipped for the next 2 WCs....oh who am I kidding, if they're they highest bidder Sepp will just change the rules and it'll go there

with enough money they can counter-convince FIFA that they're NOT part of Asia and bring New Zealand in to bolster that idea.

money and hot busty blondes.

don't forget the Viagra

 

[Tom Hagen]

Australia 2026

Australia's (all of Asia) is out since the same Confederation has to be skipped for the next 2 WCs....oh who am I kidding, if they're they highest bidder Sepp will just change the rules and it'll go there

Qatar 2026 "We won't need as many slaves this time so the bribes will be even higher"

You just blew my mind...could make them permanent hosts and go to an Feb to October calendar. WA LA every problem solved.

The logistics would make sense. One thing I have learned watching soccer is that every major airline is headquartered in the middle east.

 

[Sammy3469]

Australia 2026

Australia's (all of Asia) is out since the same Confederation has to be skipped for the next 2 WCs....oh who am I kidding, if they're they highest bidder Sepp will just change the rules and it'll go there

Qatar 2026 "We won't need as many slaves this time so the bribes will be even higher"

You just blew my mind...could make them permanent hosts and go to an Feb to October calendar. WA LA every problem solved.

The logistics would make sense. One thing I have learned watching soccer is that every major airline is headquartered in the middle east.

Plus they have private first class cabins now, so the bribing and whoring can take place en route!

 

[QuizGuy66]

By the end of this we'll have the headline "Blatter Demands 7 Losing Bid Nations Formally Apologize to Russia and Qatar."

-QG

 

[Native]

Nice summary of the whole affair:

Fifa’s brazen effort to tick its 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding process with a spick and span bill of health was plunged immediately into further discredit when its own investigator, the former US prosecutor Michael Garcia, protested its portrayal of his report was “erroneous and incomplete” and he himself will appeal.

That was dramatic, edging again into Zurich farce, but no great surprise, because while Fifa had congratulated itself with characteristic smugness, saying Garcia’s report cleared its integrity and should constitute closure, even the 42-page summary of the report screams the opposite. Garcia’s report was only commissioned in response to huge concerns over Fifa’s integrity and that of its executive committee members, who in December 2010 sent the 2018 World Cup to Russia and 2022 to Qatar, in that closed, claustrophobic process.

Several appalling instances of apparent corruption, collusion and vote-buying are identified even in this summary, spun by Hans-Joachim Eckert, the chair of Fifa’s ethics committee’s adjudicatory chamber, of an investigation for which Garcia did not have full cooperation, particularly from Russia. Yet complacency, in the face of dreadful, apparently institutionalised graft, seeps from every paragraph of Eckert’s statement, in which he repeatedly concludes that Garcia’s findings, even on limited evidence, “do not compromise the integrity of the Fifa World Cup 2018/22 bidding process as a whole”.

In reaching that conclusion, which was depressingly expected, Fifa has again damaged its own integrity, because it cannot seem to recognise the gravity and unacceptability of corruption within its moneyed walls. This summary report is of a piece with the attitude of Fifa’s president Sepp Blatter, who has served football’s world governing body at the highest level during a time of proven bribe-taking, cash presidential vote-buying and other corruption by several of its executive committee members, but kept calm and sailed on, mostly reserving anger for the media which has exposed it.

Eckert recites some of the dire facts already known: that even before the vote in 2010 – for a tournament Fifa’s own report states now to be worth $4bn – two of the 24-member exco, Amos Adamu and Reynald Temarii, were suspended after a Sunday Times sting found them receptive to vote-buying in return for “financial investments”.

Fifa merely proceeded with 22 voting members in that trademarked way of Blatter’s – the captain of Fifa’s little bateau, as he put it when he was re-voted in as president five months later, in June 2011, on a one-man ballot paper.

Of the other 2010 exco members, Mohamed bin Hammam, Blatter’s challenger until he was suspended for handing out cash in brown envelopes to Caribbean football delegates whose presidential votes he was courting, was finally banned for life in December 2012 on other corruption allegations.

Jack Warner, a very senior exco baron at the time of the World Cup votes; the president, no less, of the Confederation of North, Central and Caribbean football associations (Concacaf), and a Fifa vice-president, resigned in June 2011 corruption allegations. Eckert’s summary report highlights “personal benefits” Warner sought while dangling his World Cup vote, including from the English Football Association, which is horribly tainted by its “willingness, time and again” to “curry favour” and meet Warner’s expectations.

Blatter has long clung to the comforting falsehood that the English media only reports all this because England lost out, but he should realise there is outrage here that the FA spent £21m of football money, and £3m public money from 12 hard-up local authorities, courting a corrupt Fifa. If it is true they bent over to comply with improper requests for favours, that – and those who did it – should be fully exposed.

Chuck Blazer, long Warner’s executive at Concacaf and another exco voter for 2018 and 2022, has also now been the subject of corruption findings by an internal investigation, although he continues to deny wrongdoing.

Three other voting members of the exco who sent that great and most lucrative of sporting showpieces to Russia and Qatar, Nicolás Leoz of Paraguay, Ricardo Teixeira of Brazil itself, and Issa Hayatou of Cameroon, were exposed afterwards for having received cash, described as bribes, from Fifa’s appointed marketing company, ISL, years earlier. Blatter was found in a court settlement to have known of the bribes but Fifa said he committed no wrongdoing because such commercial payments were not a crime in Swiss law at the time. That in itself sums up Fifa’s attitude to integrity.

Just one of those incidences ought to be enough for most modern organisations – let alone the one entrusted with the world’s most beloved sport and the tournament which transfixes children – to express disgust and cancel decisions taken by these men. But Blatter and Fifa have always just seemed indignant about doubts cast on the vote.

Fifa’s statement, calling for closure, would suggest that Garcia found nothing, but he has identified a lot, even without the Russian bid’s cooperation – their computers were only leased and have now been destroyed, Russia apparently said, and Google US “would not cooperate” with their requests to recover emails.

Of Qatar, the tiny gulf autocracy which – without question – bid for and won the World Cup due to its natural gas cash billions, there are several questions. The activities of two individual advisers are said to have raised concerns, as did a Brazil v Argentina friendly in Doha in November 2010, and money which then found its way to the Argentinian FA – whose president, Julio Grondona, had a World Cup vote.

The sponsoring of the Confederation of African football associations’ congress in Angola in January 2010, in return for Qatar’s exclusive access to it, may have cost the $1.8m stated, the summary report says, but that is unclear. No rules outlawed a bidding country lavishing such expensive benefits on a voting confederation, Fifa says – without much sense that the organisation recognises how awful this is in itself – and while the lack of transparency creates “a negative impression”, Eckert decided it was “not relevant to affect the 2018/22 World Cup bidding process as a whole”.

Even more outlandish is its short section on Hammam. He is a Qatari, and was a longstanding and rich and powerful member of the exco, who in 1998 masterminded Blatter’s presidential election over the Uefa challenger, Lennart Johansson. Hammam decided to challenge Blatter for the presidency, and the report confirms the Sunday Times stories, based on internal leaked emails, that he made cash payments to senior figures of Caf associations. Yet Eckert concludes that this was to influence votes for his presidency, not World Cup votes, which those particular Caf members, Eckert says, could not influence. So that was all right then, and does not at all sully the integrity of the World Cup vote.

Most blatant, the report finds another Sunday Times story correct, that Hammam offered to pay the legal costs for Temarii to appeal his suspension, because for convoluted reasons, this favoured Qatar’s position in the World Cup vote. Yet still, Fifa can see no evil even there, and Eckert says that as Hammam did not have a formal, documented connection to the official Qatar World Cup bid, helmed by the professional and apparently decent young executive Hassan al-Thawadi, even this “did not affect the outcome of the Fifa 2018/22 World Cup bidding process as a whole”.

And there lurks a significant little difference. Where elsewhere in his summary Eckert concludes that “problems” do not affect the integrity of the process, with Hammam’s actual manipulation of the vote itself, Eckert’s conclusion is that it did not affect the outcome.

Therein lies the truth of this hideous saga, the whitewash of a necessarily incomplete investigation into a blatantly unsatisfactory voting process by an exco which was endemically corrupt at the time. Fifa does not want the headache of cancelling the votes and re-running the bids. Rather than admit to their faults, they would prefer the World Cup to go to Russia in 2018, where the bid team gave incomplete cooperation with this investigation, and 2022 to Qatar, moved from the summer, necessitating a massive construction programme in a place where migrant workers are treated appallingly.

In this, Fifa heartbreakingly fails again to give a semblance of the leadership which its privileged position ought to necessitate as the governing body of the great game, whose simple beauty is so continually betrayed by the people in charge of it.

Jeezus. Its just sickening.

I think its time that FIFA did the right thing and handed over the entire bidding process to the NCAA.

 

[GoFishTN]

God ‏@TheTweetOfGod11 minutes ago
Q: What does "FIFA" stand for?

A: Nothing. FIFA stands for absolutely nothing

 

[NewlyRetired]

I feel like FIFA made 3 critical mistakes in how they handled this which instead of closing the door as they hoped, is going to give new life to the fight.

1) Moronically creating a summary report that was so easy for Garcia to publicly shoot down as being false

2) Having Garcia sign an NDA that did not include a provision for keeping his mouth shut about anything to do with the case after the report was handed in

3) Poking England, a country known for having pride in its own ethics and having a voracious media contingent that might be set loose to really get to the bottom of this mess.

This would be a great time for Wiki leaks to get their hands on the document.

 

[NewlyRetired]

The Krafts are funding busses for Revs fans to go down to Red Bull Arena for the conference finals next weekend.

Last I saw already 800 people had signed up (the fan purchases the game ticket and the bus is for free). Very cool by an ownership group that rarely shows any interest.

I have always wanted to see Red Bull Arena so I might go.

 

[The Z Machine]

One has to think that the full text of the report will get leaked at some point.

 

[Good Posting Judge]

I feel like FIFA made 3 critical mistakes in how they handled this which instead of closing the door as they hoped, is going to give new life to the fight.

1) Moronically creating a summary report that was so easy for Garcia to publicly shoot down as being false

2) Having Garcia sign an NDA that did not include a provision for keeping his mouth shut about anything to do with the case after the report was handed in

3) Poking England, a country known for having pride in its own ethics and having a voracious media contingent that might be set loose to really get to the bottom of this mess.

This would be a great time for Wiki leaks to get their hands on the document.

It really is a clumsy and terribly ham-handed cover-up. I mean as soon as they announced the whole report wouldn't be made public, anyone with at least a modicum of critical thinking skills and a passing knowledge of FIFA knew what the score was.

 

[jonessed]

One has to think that the full text of the report will get leaked at some point.

Yeah, I don't see how this report doesn't see daylight soon.

 

[NewlyRetired]

Taylor Twellman has signed an 8 year deal to stay at ESPN. Yikes, that is a long commitment for a guy that is not really loved for his color work.

 

[NewlyRetired]

For those that have been to Red Bull Arena, are there any restaurants in walking distance or should I just plan on getting something in the stadium?

 

[El Floppo]

The Krafts are funding busses for Revs fans to go down to Red Bull Arena for the conference finals next weekend.

Last I saw already 800 people had signed up (the fan purchases the game ticket and the bus is for free). Very cool by an ownership group that rarely shows any interest.

I have always wanted to see Red Bull Arena so I might go.

RedBull is funding tacks to be placed on the highway.

You should absolutely go, andy- really interested in hearing your thoughts on the stadium. My favorite stadium of those I've seen (including England, Germany, Italy, Greece)

 

[QuizGuy66]

For those that have been to Red Bull Arena, are there any restaurants in walking distance or should I just plan on getting something in the stadium?

Walking distance there's a Dunkin' Donuts now. Oh and a 5 Guys Burgers and Fries.

Are you driving NR or taking public transportation?

What I recommend is if you are coming early enough is to find some way of getting over to Tops Diner in East Newark (it's not Newark, it's a tiny boro about 20 blocks total between Harrison and Kearny - I've seen some references saying it's in Harrison, but it's actually East Newark). Anyway it is the best diner in New Jersey. It will be packed but it will be worth it if you have the time to get there early enough.

It is a very short drive - https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Path+Station,+Harrison,+NJ/Tops+Diner,+500+Passaic+Ave,+East+Newark,+NJ+07029/@40.7473698,-74.1600827,14z/am=t/data=!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x89c25389c625d061:0x7495895360e15622!2m2!1d-74.155533!2d40.738879!1m5!1m1!1s0x89c2547b4ec3235b:0x7342f11f69197f92!2m2!1d-74.163916!2d40.750611!3e0

http://www.thetopsdiner.com/

When are you going? We could have a mini-diner soccer cornhole maybe over there - I'm like a 5 minute drive from Tops.

-QG

 

[El Floppo]

For those that have been to Red Bull Arena, are there any restaurants in walking distance or should I just plan on getting something in the stadium?

It's in the middle of industrial nowhere, as best as I've seen.

But the food inside isn't bad (for stadium food). Don't wait for halftime though- they did a poor job designing the mezzanine for handling lines of people for food or bathrooms. Try to get the food before and just keep it at your seat.

 

[QuizGuy66]

The Krafts are funding busses for Revs fans to go down to Red Bull Arena for the conference finals next weekend.

Last I saw already 800 people had signed up (the fan purchases the game ticket and the bus is for free). Very cool by an ownership group that rarely shows any interest.

I have always wanted to see Red Bull Arena so I might go.

RedBull is funding tacks to be placed on the highway.

You should absolutely go, andy- really interested in hearing your thoughts on the stadium. My favorite stadium of those I've seen (including England, Germany, Italy, Greece)

The Tacks and Potholes are already standard on the highway.

-QG

 

[El Floppo]

For those that have been to Red Bull Arena, are there any restaurants in walking distance or should I just plan on getting something in the stadium?

Walking distance there's a Dunkin' Donuts now. Oh and a 5 Guys Burgers and Fries.

Are you driving NR or taking public transportation?

What I recommend is if you are coming early enough is to find some way of getting over to Tops Diner in East Newark (it's not Newark, it's a tiny boro about 20 blocks total between Harrison and Kearny - I've seen some references saying it's in Harrison, but it's actually East Newark). Anyway it is the best diner in New Jersey. It will be packed but it will be worth it if you have the time to get there early enough.

It is a very short drive - https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Path+Station,+Harrison,+NJ/Tops+Diner,+500+Passaic+Ave,+East+Newark,+NJ+07029/@40.7473698,-74.1600827,14z/am=t/data=!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x89c25389c625d061:0x7495895360e15622!2m2!1d-74.155533!2d40.738879!1m5!1m1!1s0x89c2547b4ec3235b:0x7342f11f69197f92!2m2!1d-74.163916!2d40.750611!3e0

http://www.thetopsdiner.com/

When are you going? We could have a mini-diner soccer cornhole maybe over there - I'm like a 5 minute drive from Tops.

-QG

that's good info.

I only take the PATH train, so never venture past the station-to-stadium few blocks.

 

[QuizGuy66]

For those that have been to Red Bull Arena, are there any restaurants in walking distance or should I just plan on getting something in the stadium?

It's in the middle of industrial nowhere, as best as I've seen.

But the food inside isn't bad (for stadium food). Don't wait for halftime though- they did a poor job designing the mezzanine for handling lines of people for food or bathrooms. Try to get the food before and just keep it at your seat.

It's in the middle of what was industrial nowhere and what is becoming commuter condo heaven. In two or three years there will be multiple options I'm sure. the DD just opened a few months ago and the 5 Guys has been there about 2 years or so.

My Tops endorsement is unequivocal btw.

The only other area recommendation I'd make if you have the time would be to check out the restaurants in Newark's Ironbound section. Iberia Peninsula is a good one. Again probably better to take a cab than the one mile walk but it's again a good idea:

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Red+Bull+Arena,+600+Cape+May+St,+Harrison,+NJ+07029/Iberia+Peninsula+Restaurant,+63-69+Ferry+St,+Newark,+NJ+07105/@40.7342854,-74.1610784,16z/data=!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x89c2538affa9859d:0x4838674aa25c2132!2m2!1d-74.150329!2d40.736843!1m5!1m1!1s0x89c25384dc51c5fd:0x2e8a571f61e2e9a7!2m2!1d-74.162601!2d40.731728!3e0

-QG

 

[QuizGuy66]

For those that have been to Red Bull Arena, are there any restaurants in walking distance or should I just plan on getting something in the stadium?

Walking distance there's a Dunkin' Donuts now. Oh and a 5 Guys Burgers and Fries.

Are you driving NR or taking public transportation?

What I recommend is if you are coming early enough is to find some way of getting over to Tops Diner in East Newark (it's not Newark, it's a tiny boro about 20 blocks total between Harrison and Kearny - I've seen some references saying it's in Harrison, but it's actually East Newark). Anyway it is the best diner in New Jersey. It will be packed but it will be worth it if you have the time to get there early enough.

It is a very short drive - https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Path+Station,+Harrison,+NJ/Tops+Diner,+500+Passaic+Ave,+East+Newark,+NJ+07029/@40.7473698,-74.1600827,14z/am=t/data=!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x89c25389c625d061:0x7495895360e15622!2m2!1d-74.155533!2d40.738879!1m5!1m1!1s0x89c2547b4ec3235b:0x7342f11f69197f92!2m2!1d-74.163916!2d40.750611!3e0

http://www.thetopsdiner.com/

When are you going? We could have a mini-diner soccer cornhole maybe over there - I'm like a 5 minute drive from Tops.

-QG

that's good info.

I only take the PATH train, so never venture past the station-to-stadium few blocks.

Floppo you have to go to Tops sometime

I'm stubborn NJ person that is awaiting a name-change before I throw any $ their way. A well-timed international game is the most likely scenario to get me there before then. I park in Harrison all the time if I'm either going into NYC via the PATH or going to the the Rock to see the Devils.

-QG

 

[QuizGuy66]

So supposedly the FIFA whitewash report pointed the finger at all but one of the 2018/2022 bids in terms of improprieties. Anyone happen to find out which bid that was?

-QG

 

[El Floppo]

For those that have been to Red Bull Arena, are there any restaurants in walking distance or should I just plan on getting something in the stadium?

Walking distance there's a Dunkin' Donuts now. Oh and a 5 Guys Burgers and Fries.

Are you driving NR or taking public transportation?

What I recommend is if you are coming early enough is to find some way of getting over to Tops Diner in East Newark (it's not Newark, it's a tiny boro about 20 blocks total between Harrison and Kearny - I've seen some references saying it's in Harrison, but it's actually East Newark). Anyway it is the best diner in New Jersey. It will be packed but it will be worth it if you have the time to get there early enough.

It is a very short drive - https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Path+Station,+Harrison,+NJ/Tops+Diner,+500+Passaic+Ave,+East+Newark,+NJ+07029/@40.7473698,-74.1600827,14z/am=t/data=!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x89c25389c625d061:0x7495895360e15622!2m2!1d-74.155533!2d40.738879!1m5!1m1!1s0x89c2547b4ec3235b:0x7342f11f69197f92!2m2!1d-74.163916!2d40.750611!3e0

http://www.thetopsdiner.com/

When are you going? We could have a mini-diner soccer cornhole maybe over there - I'm like a 5 minute drive from Tops.

-QG

that's good info.

I only take the PATH train, so never venture past the station-to-stadium few blocks.

Floppo you have to go to Tops sometime

I'm stubborn NJ person that is awaiting a name-change before I throw any $ their way. A well-timed international game is the most likely scenario to get me there before then. I park in Harrison all the time if I'm either going into NYC via the PATH or going to the the Rock to see the Devils.

-QG

the #### are you talking about... you don't go to the stadium because you don't like the name?

 

[Autumn Wind]

For those that have been to Red Bull Arena, are there any restaurants in walking distance or should I just plan on getting something in the stadium?

Walking distance there's a Dunkin' Donuts now. Oh and a 5 Guys Burgers and Fries.

Are you driving NR or taking public transportation?

What I recommend is if you are coming early enough is to find some way of getting over to Tops Diner in East Newark (it's not Newark, it's a tiny boro about 20 blocks total between Harrison and Kearny - I've seen some references saying it's in Harrison, but it's actually East Newark). Anyway it is the best diner in New Jersey. It will be packed but it will be worth it if you have the time to get there early enough.

It is a very short drive - https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Path+Station,+Harrison,+NJ/Tops+Diner,+500+Passaic+Ave,+East+Newark,+NJ+07029/@40.7473698,-74.1600827,14z/am=t/data=!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x89c25389c625d061:0x7495895360e15622!2m2!1d-74.155533!2d40.738879!1m5!1m1!1s0x89c2547b4ec3235b:0x7342f11f69197f92!2m2!1d-74.163916!2d40.750611!3e0

http://www.thetopsdiner.com/

When are you going? We could have a mini-diner soccer cornhole maybe over there - I'm like a 5 minute drive from Tops.

-QG

that's good info.

I only take the PATH train, so never venture past the station-to-stadium few blocks.

Floppo you have to go to Tops sometime

I'm stubborn NJ person that is awaiting a name-change before I throw any $ their way. A well-timed international game is the most likely scenario to get me there before then. I park in Harrison all the time if I'm either going into NYC via the PATH or going to the the Rock to see the Devils.

-QG

the #### are you talking about... you don't go to the stadium because you don't like the name?

Pretty sure he's talking about them being another "New York" team playing in Jersey. And I feel the same way.

 

[QuizGuy66]

For those that have been to Red Bull Arena, are there any restaurants in walking distance or should I just plan on getting something in the stadium?

Walking distance there's a Dunkin' Donuts now. Oh and a 5 Guys Burgers and Fries.

Are you driving NR or taking public transportation?

What I recommend is if you are coming early enough is to find some way of getting over to Tops Diner in East Newark (it's not Newark, it's a tiny boro about 20 blocks total between Harrison and Kearny - I've seen some references saying it's in Harrison, but it's actually East Newark). Anyway it is the best diner in New Jersey. It will be packed but it will be worth it if you have the time to get there early enough.

It is a very short drive - https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Path+Station,+Harrison,+NJ/Tops+Diner,+500+Passaic+Ave,+East+Newark,+NJ+07029/@40.7473698,-74.1600827,14z/am=t/data=!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x89c25389c625d061:0x7495895360e15622!2m2!1d-74.155533!2d40.738879!1m5!1m1!1s0x89c2547b4ec3235b:0x7342f11f69197f92!2m2!1d-74.163916!2d40.750611!3e0

http://www.thetopsdiner.com/

When are you going? We could have a mini-diner soccer cornhole maybe over there - I'm like a 5 minute drive from Tops.

-QG

that's good info.

I only take the PATH train, so never venture past the station-to-stadium few blocks.

Floppo you have to go to Tops sometime

I'm stubborn NJ person that is awaiting a name-change before I throw any $ their way. A well-timed international game is the most likely scenario to get me there before then. I park in Harrison all the time if I'm either going into NYC via the PATH or going to the the Rock to see the Devils.

-QG

the #### are you talking about... you don't go to the stadium because you don't like the name?

I support New Jersey teams. County tax dollars went to that thing. New York - nothing. Team has never played there and the team was put there because Kearny/Harrison/Ironbound is a big soccer area.

-QG

 

[QuizGuy66]

I think the statement is more of the shock/pressure variety than a real threat at the moment:

http://www.espnfc.us/fifa-world-cup/story/2146712/german-football-league-president-says-uefa-could-leave-fifa

-QG

 

[El Floppo]

For those that have been to Red Bull Arena, are there any restaurants in walking distance or should I just plan on getting something in the stadium?

Walking distance there's a Dunkin' Donuts now. Oh and a 5 Guys Burgers and Fries.

Are you driving NR or taking public transportation?

What I recommend is if you are coming early enough is to find some way of getting over to Tops Diner in East Newark (it's not Newark, it's a tiny boro about 20 blocks total between Harrison and Kearny - I've seen some references saying it's in Harrison, but it's actually East Newark). Anyway it is the best diner in New Jersey. It will be packed but it will be worth it if you have the time to get there early enough.

It is a very short drive - https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Path+Station,+Harrison,+NJ/Tops+Diner,+500+Passaic+Ave,+East+Newark,+NJ+07029/@40.7473698,-74.1600827,14z/am=t/data=!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x89c25389c625d061:0x7495895360e15622!2m2!1d-74.155533!2d40.738879!1m5!1m1!1s0x89c2547b4ec3235b:0x7342f11f69197f92!2m2!1d-74.163916!2d40.750611!3e0

http://www.thetopsdiner.com/

When are you going? We could have a mini-diner soccer cornhole maybe over there - I'm like a 5 minute drive from Tops.

-QG

that's good info.

I only take the PATH train, so never venture past the station-to-stadium few blocks.

Floppo you have to go to Tops sometime

I'm stubborn NJ person that is awaiting a name-change before I throw any $ their way. A well-timed international game is the most likely scenario to get me there before then. I park in Harrison all the time if I'm either going into NYC via the PATH or going to the the Rock to see the Devils.

-QG

the #### are you talking about... you don't go to the stadium because you don't like the name?

I support New Jersey teams. County tax dollars went to that thing. New York - nothing. Team has never played there and the team was put there because Kearny/Harrison/Ironbound is a big soccer area.

-QG

cool

leaves more seats for us NYers.

 

[QuizGuy66]

So supposedly the FIFA whitewash report pointed the finger at all but one of the 2018/2022 bids in terms of improprieties. Anyone happen to find out which bid that was?

-QG

Found the answer to my own question. It was the Belgium/Holland bid:

http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/2014/11/13/7214791/our-favourite-parts-of-the-fifa-report

-QG

 

[Sammy3469]

I think the statement is more of the shock/pressure variety than a real threat at the moment:

http://www.espnfc.us/fifa-world-cup/story/2146712/german-football-league-president-says-uefa-could-leave-fifa

-QG

Interestingly you now have Germany, England, the US, and CONCACAF voicing their displeasure. Pretty soon, it'll get to critical mass.

 

[NewlyRetired]

The Krafts are funding busses for Revs fans to go down to Red Bull Arena for the conference finals next weekend.

Last I saw already 800 people had signed up (the fan purchases the game ticket and the bus is for free). Very cool by an ownership group that rarely shows any interest.

I have always wanted to see Red Bull Arena so I might go.

RedBull is funding tacks to be placed on the highway.

You should absolutely go, andy- really interested in hearing your thoughts on the stadium. My favorite stadium of those I've seen (including England, Germany, Italy, Greece)

I have my ticket now so I am going. Bus convoy leaves at 6:00am (yikes)

I am really looking forward to seeing the stadium and the game should be really fun. It might be Henry's second to last game ever.