Bizarre soccer world cup

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Niemand
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Bizarre soccer world cup

Post by Niemand »

Don't know if anyone is following the stooshie around the current football world cup. Apart from the obvious scandal about Scotland not qualifying 😄, the whole thing is a mess from start to finish. A lot of virtue signalling going on. A few of the highlights for those who are unaware of the situation.

* The host country, Qatar is tiny, and many people have probably never heard of it. The only reason it seems to have got the tournament is because of bribery. (Oil money.) Size comparisons to Florida, the UK and New Zealand below.
* It's also hot and dry and utterly unsuitable for a world cup. The games have to be held at night in air conditioned stadiums and the entire tournament had to be shifted to the winter.
* The stadiums seem to have been constructed from very low paid labour. Some say slave labour. Not quite.
* The capacity of the stadiums changes by the day. Some of the games have huge swathes of empty seats.
* Qatar is a country where gayness can be repaid with death. Cue all the people wandering around with rainbow armbands, including players and the Danish prime minister. (She looks like a total moron or even the last Doctor Who). The general fanbase isn't as interested in doing this but the media claims that they are. You can even see in thst picture that she's the only one campaigning for it. (Rarely a major soccer game goes by in Europe these days without some advertising message about gays, women, anti-racism etc.)

Image

* Last but not least, Budweiser is the chief sponsor, except Qatar being an Arab country doesn't really allow alcohol.

Not aware of any players "falling suddenly", but considering it is in the middle of a desert, it may just equally be the heat as the you know what.
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Niemand
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Re: Bizarre soccer world cup

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https://www.vox.com/world/23450515/worl ... -explained
According to an analysis by the Guardian, at least 6,500 migrant laborers have died in Qatar since the tournament was awarded to the country in 2010
Controversy 1: Qatar’s bid was marred by accusations of corruption and bribery
FIFA’s decision in December 2010 to award the 2022 tournament to Qatar caught the world off guard, with many fans expressing surprise — and more than a little doubt — that a desert monarchy whose soccer team had never qualified for a World Cup had legitimately beat out global sporting powerhouses that made bids to host the tournament, like the United States, Japan, and Australia.
Until the late 2010s, the vast majority of Qatar’s roughly 2 million migrant laborers — who compose about 94 percent of the country’s total labor force — were employed through a notoriously coercive labor system known as the kafala (or sponsorship) system, which tethered workers to a sponsor through a series of legally binding contracts.
Also mentions environmental impact of building stadiums in desert.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other/pe ... r-AA14l3UP

Stadium capacities grow by 12% overnight
https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/magic- ... 56742.html

Ecuadorian players bribed by Qatar to lose world cup opener
https://m.republicworld.com/sports-news ... eshow.html

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Reluctant Watchman
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Re: Bizarre soccer world cup

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I think there actually was slave labor btw:

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LateOutOfBed
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Re: Bizarre soccer world cup

Post by LateOutOfBed »

Niemand wrote: ↑November 23rd, 2022, 4:19 am * The host country, Qatar is tiny, and many people have probably never heard of it.
And some of us, have been there. April 2006 I was stuck there for 2 weeks. :)

-- Geoff

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Niemand
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Re: Bizarre soccer world cup

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LateOutOfBed wrote: ↑November 23rd, 2022, 5:57 am
Niemand wrote: ↑November 23rd, 2022, 4:19 am * The host country, Qatar is tiny, and many people have probably never heard of it.
And some of us, have been there. April 2006 I was stuck there for 2 weeks. :)

-- Geoff
I know a church member who used to work over there...

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Niemand
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Re: Bizarre soccer world cup

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Reluctant Watchman wrote: ↑November 23rd, 2022, 4:51 am I think there actually was slave labor btw:
From the description given it sounds like mediaeval serfdom like we used to have here. The workers don't get paid properly, have their movements controlled and probably have to live in fleabag accommodation.

I gather North Korea has a similar system for its overseas workers in Mongolia, Siberia and China.

The whole thing reeks of everything that is wrong with clown world today. The hypocrisy and the dark side, the fruitless virtue signalling vs the money...

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Niemand
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Today's weirdness. Pictured, a fan village in Qatar. I've seen better looking refugee camps.

"World Cup officials offer full refunds and free accommodation to disgruntled fans"
World Cup organisers have offered full refunds and free accommodation to disgruntled fans "severely impacted" by issues reported at the temporary villages erected in Doha.

Qatar officials have blamed "owner and operator negligence" after fans faced hours-long queues at check-in before turning up to unfinished or unsatisfactory accommodation
This forced the organising committee to create camping and cabin sites, as well as hiring cruise ships, and encouraging fans to stay in neighbouring countries and fly in for games.

The World Cup Fan Village could hold as many as 12,000 people if booked at capacity, officials said.
The brightly-coloured cabins have been designed to accommodate one or two people with twin beds, a nightstand, a small table and chair, air conditioning, a toilet and a shower inside.

The Rawdat Al Jahhaniya Fan Village was still under construction last week as the World Cup kicked into gear.
In case bad weather like sandstorms or rain makes tents or fan villages uninhabitable during the tournaments, organisers revealed that "backup rooms in a different area" had been arranged, especially for those fans who had opted to stay in an open areas such as fan villages.

At the Free Zone Fan Village, the Associated Press reported that fans couldn't get to their rooms because the reception desk wasn’t sure who had already checked out.
"When we went to our room, it was all messed up," said Aman Mohammed, a 23-year-old from Kolkata, India. "It was stinking so bad, like a bad bathroom. It was pathetic."

Some fans are paying around ÂŁ370 at the tented village at Al Khor, where there are reportedly no locks on tents, or beer on sale
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Niemand
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European football gayness clashes with Middle Eastern traditionalism. FIFA are the corrupt tools who run soccer and got Qatar the world cup in the first place.

Maybe it shows how the Danish, English and the Welsh football bodies don't know what political posturing is. If you can wear a rainbow armband, why not a "Free Tibet" armband against the Chinese or the American team could wear something about the right to bear arms.
Football Association lawyers are examining whether England can challenge Fifa’s threat of “sporting sanctions” for wearing the OneLove armband.

There is deep unhappiness within the FA at the heavy-handed way Fifa threatened to – at least – book Harry Kane if he wore the inclusive captain’s armband during Monday’s opening World Cup group game against Iran.

It led to England, along with six other European nations including Wales, reluctantly backing down and wearing the official Fifa armband, much to Kane’s annoyance. The organisation faced a backlash over the decision but reasoned that putting Kane in danger of being suspended was unfair on the striker.
The [English] FA wrote to Fifa more than two months ago to inform football’s world governing body that the England captain was going to wear the anti-discrimination rainbow armband but received no reply.
Mooney said the Football Association of Wales (FAW) are “absolutely furious” with Fifa for their treatment of teams over the escalating armband issue, and also declared it “appalling” that Wales supporters have had rainbow-themed hats, shoelaces and wristbands taken off them by security.

Wales have added rainbow corner flags to their training base in Qatar in a defiant message to Fifa, having also demanded answers from the governing body over the issue of wearing rainbow-themed clothing or accessories within stadiums.
“We were told this was going to be a really inclusive, welcoming, warm World Cup. That is not what I have seen, I have to say. To have our fans have their bucket hats taken off them is just appalling. We have asked Fifa to come back to us today with some clarification for the Iran game that our fans can wear whatever they wish.”
The head of the Danish Football Association has said he wants talks with other European nations over withdrawing from Fifa amid the growing row over the ‘OneLove’ captain’s armband.
In a major escalation of the toxic stand-off, DBU president Jesper Moller also confirmed he would not vote for Gianni Infantino to be re-elected head of the game’s world governing body.

Speaking about the row at a press conference in Qatar, Moller raised the prospect of his association and others taking the nuclear option of leaving Fifa.

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Re: Bizarre soccer world cup

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Niemand wrote: ↑November 23rd, 2022, 6:09 am
Reluctant Watchman wrote: ↑November 23rd, 2022, 4:51 am I think there actually was slave labor btw:
From the description given it sounds like mediaeval serfdom like we used to have here. The workers don't get paid properly, have their movements controlled and probably have to live in fleabag accommodation.

I gather North Korea has a similar system for its overseas workers in Mongolia, Siberia and China.

The whole thing reeks of everything that is wrong with clown world today. The hypocrisy and the dark side, the fruitless virtue signalling vs the money...
It's what "...you will own nothing and be happy" actually means.

Our owners desire all to receive it.

Sir H

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Niemand
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Re: Bizarre soccer world cup

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The leader of a tiny Caribbean nation has decided to weigh in on Qatar's side. So was it the money which swayed him? Not entirely. He and a FIFA official even make a couple of reasonable points in here (which I underline).

https://uk.yahoo.com/news/deranged-and- ... 33977.html
The St. Vincent and the Grenadines prime minister has taken a swipe at ‘deranged and unhinged’ critics of the Qatar World Cup, including the UK ... Dr. Ralph Gonsalves said that Qatar’s staging of the 2022 World Cup underlined its “growing stature and influence in the global political economy".

Gonsalves didn’t hold back in his defence of the emirate, suggesting that the controversy surrounding Qatar’s hosting was “dressed up as high principle, is laced with Islamophobia, racism, anti-Arab sentiment, hypocrisy, and profound disrespect, derived from the notion that a small Arab country like Qatar should never aspire to global influence”.
Gonsalves added: “Qatar is pilloried for its restrictions on alcohol consumption; its opposition to homosexuality, and sexual permissiveness; its stance against wanton abortion; its embrace of Islamic values unconnected absolutely to any form of homicidal violence; its tightly-knit family systems; its rejection of a future decreed by the cultural tsars of western modernity with their nihilistic project and jaundiced relativism; and its promotion of Arab nationalism within an appropriate universal space.”
His comments echo those made by Fifa president Gianna Infantino on the eve of the tournament.

In an extraordinary hour-long monologue, Infantino accused Western countries of “hypocrisy” saying they were not in a position to give “moral lessons” to other nations.

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Post by Rubicon »

We were watching clips of the games in German class (we do a lot of language things through a program with the Bundesliga, but the World Cup is only every four years). Lots of fervent Mexico fans, and all the exchange students want their countries to do well, of course (the Italian students are depressed, again).

We were discussing the stunning upsets or near upsets, and when we watched Saudi Arabia's upset of Argentina, I was stunned to see that Argentina had had five goals called off because of offsides or other things. Then Morocco and Tunisia's games. Qatar would have been too obvious, but it appears that the Muslim countries are being helped, big time (Iran beat Wales over the weekend). My Danish exchange student was livid (Denmark tied Tunisia, which jeopardizes Denmark advancing). She kind of glommed onto my thought that the thumb is on the scale for the Muslim countries in this world cup.

The U.S. will have its hands full with a good Iran team, and since they have vocally opposed their regime (the inter-fan rioting has been interesting), I wouldn't be bothered if Iran won and kicked the US out of the World Cup. The US will have to win to be assured of advancing.

Dave62
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Yeah, well, what do you expect? It's soccer. Watch this, it might be good therapy in overcoming soccer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9muvx0P ... annel=ESPN

OCDMOM
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On the bright side, Japan's team cleaned up the locker room after winning.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/fifa-w ... fts/ar-AA1

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Niemand
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Dave62 wrote: ↑November 25th, 2022, 11:51 pm Yeah, well, what do you expect? It's soccer. Watch this, it might be good therapy in overcoming soccer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9muvx0P ... annel=ESPN
I prefer rugby already.

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Niemand
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https://uk.news.yahoo.com/qatar-officia ... 53902.html
Qatar officials interrupt Argentinian live TV broadcast at 2022 World Cup
A journalist for the show Nosotros a la Mañana was interviewing a disabled fan when local officials intervened, asking to see official media accreditation.

“This is what the Qatar government is like,” a presenter could be heard saying in the studio in Buenos Aires.

Journalist Joaquin Alvarez claims they then threatened to confiscate the team’s broadcast equipment.
From the back of a car, the reporter later explained that he had been told to leave the area where they were filming because it was private. “I was frightened and thought they were going to arrest me,” he said.

“This is an example of severe censorship and we have to say so,” his colleague, Nicolas Magaldi, added.

It comes after other reported instances of Qatari officials censoring reporting at the World Cup.[Maybe they're just Qatari fact checkers? – N]
Last week an Irish journalist said he was stopped by police in Qatar while filming coverage ahead of the tournament. Tony O’Donoghue told RTE how he was stopped by police while filming a piece to camera..

It followed an incident for which Qatari officials apologised after footage of a Danish camera crew being “mistakenly interrupted” on a live broadcast went viral.

Tournament organisers later released a statement, which read: “Upon inspection of the crew’s valid tournament accreditation and filming permit, an apology was made to the broadcaster by on-site security before the crew resumed their activity.”

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Dave62 wrote: ↑November 25th, 2022, 11:51 pm Yeah, well, what do you expect? It's soccer. Watch this, it might be good therapy in overcoming soccer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9muvx0P ... annel=ESPN
This was AWESOME

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Niemand
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https://uk.news.yahoo.com/diplomatic-ro ... 51495.html
A major diplomatic spat between Qatar and Saudi Arabia is brewing at the World Cup after official TV feeds were blocked in an apparent power play from Riyadh.

Streaming platforms for BeIN – the Qatari-owned broadcaster which counts Gary Neville among its pundits – are said to have been turned off across the neighbouring nation.
BeIN is understood to have received complaints from its many customers in Saudi after the streaming platform it owns – called TOD.tv – was suddenly cut.

A letter sent to customers and business partners from TOD outlines how the broadcaster was subjected to an alleged cyber attack before the blockage took place.

"During the Opening Ceremony of the Fifa World Cup Qatar 2022 on November 20th, TOD experienced an unprecedented series of cyber-attacks on our systems between 07:00pm (November 20th) and 04:00am (November 21st)," the letter says.

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Niemand
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Today's latest. One of the scandals about holding this tournament in a desert country was that it had to be moved to winter and put into air conditioned stadiums...

The air conditioning was turned off for the England vs USA game.
The Mail on Sunday has learned that the climate control at the Al Bayt Stadium was switched off an hour before kick-off at the request of FIFA’s operations manager.

As a result, conditions felt noticeably warmer during the 0-0 draw on Friday night than they did during their daytime 6-2 victory over Iran.
Conditions are considered on a match-by-match basis. If necessary, temperatures tend to be set at 24 Celsius for each match and England’s game was no exception. For some of the later games, the air conditioning is turned off an hour before kick-off and that is understood to have been the case on Friday night.

FIFA did not provide this newspaper with the ‘wet bulb’ reading, which combines heat, humidity and other factors, including the angle of the sun and wind speed and which was used in Brazil to determine drinks breaks. Temperature alone is not an accurate indicator .

It is understood that the situation is being tweaked on a case-by-case basis, with matches at 1pm and 4pm local time most at-risk of overheating.

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Niemand
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Latest horrorshow. TLDR version: Arabs and Iranians don't like each other much.
Danish TV presenter ‘detained by Qatari Police for filming Iranians under attack from pro-government mob’
Image
A Danish reporter covering the World Cup in Qatar said he was detained by police after filming Iranians allegedly being attacked by supporters of the country’s regime.

Rasmus Tantholdt, of Danish network TV2, was attending Iran’s final group game against the US on Tuesday when he filmed Iranian fans clashing over the ongoing women’s rights protests in the country at the Al Thumama Stadium in Doha.

Some football fans who showed up in T-shirts with “Women, Life, Freedom” written on them as a message for support for the ongoing protests, were allegedly beaten up by a group of men after Iran lost the game, bringing an end to their tournament.

Mr Tantholdt, who recorded videos of the incident, tweeted late at night on Tuesday: “So now I’m detained by Qatari Police for filming Iranians who were attacked by pro-government Iranians.”

He later tweeted again, saying he was released after being asked to “delete my pictures which I refused”.
https://uk.yahoo.com/news/danish-tv-pre ... 41836.html

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https://uk.yahoo.com/news/grant-wahl-di ... 35483.html

CBS soccer commentator Grant Wahl dies suddenly.
Longtime soccer journalist Grant Wahl died today while covering the World Cup in Qatar. Details surrounding Wahl’s death are murky, but NPR reports he collapsed shortly before the end of the Netherlands-Argentina match today.
Wahl’s wife, CĂ©line Gounder, is a former advisor on Covid to the Biden Administration

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Niemand wrote: ↑December 10th, 2022, 2:11 am https://uk.yahoo.com/news/grant-wahl-di ... 35483.html

CBS soccer commentator Grant Wahl dies suddenly.
Longtime soccer journalist Grant Wahl died today while covering the World Cup in Qatar. Details surrounding Wahl’s death are murky, but NPR reports he collapsed shortly before the end of the Netherlands-Argentina match today.
Wahl’s wife, CĂ©line Gounder, is a former advisor on Covid to the Biden Administration
What was he on, his 8th or 9th booster at this point? I'm baffled about what could have caused this.

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Niemand
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https://uk.yahoo.com/news/second-journa ... 16739.html
A reporter covering the FIFA World Cup “died suddenly,” a Qatar newspaper reported—the same day a security guard was left in intensive care after falling at one of the tournament’s stadiums.

The Doha-based Gulf Times announced Saturday that Al Kass TV photojournalist Khalid al-Misslam “passed away recently.” The Qatari reporter “died suddenly while covering the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022,” the Gulf Times tweeted. “We believe in Allah’s mercy and forgiveness for him, and send our deepest condolences to his family.”
How and when al-Misslam died remain unclear. But the announcement of his death came on the same day that a security guard was left seriously injured after falling at the Lusail Stadium. An observer told The Guardian that the man fell from a “significant height” at around 2 a.m. on Saturday following Argentina’s quarterfinal win over the Netherlands. The security guard, who is reportedly a migrant worker, is said to have plunged from the top outside concourse to the ground. Reports on Sunday suggested he was in a stable but critical condition.
Qatar’s supreme committee release a statement describing the incident as a “serious fall while on duty.” “Stadium medical teams immediately attended the scene and provided emergency treatment before he was transferred to Hamad Medical Hospital care unit via ambulance,” the statement said, adding that Qatari authorities are “investigating the circumstances leading to the fall as a matter of urgency.”

News of al-Misslam’s death and the security guard’s fall came a day after U.S. journalist Grant Wahl died. Wahl, 48, was covering the Argentina vs. Netherlands game on Friday when he is said to have collapsed in his seat at the Lusail Stadium. Witnesses said Wahl was quickly treated by emergency services workers before he was rushed to hospital. The World Cup’s organizing committee did not disclose his cause of death but said it was in contact with the U.S. Embassy.

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Lexew1899 wrote: ↑December 10th, 2022, 2:26 am
Niemand wrote: ↑December 10th, 2022, 2:11 am https://uk.yahoo.com/news/grant-wahl-di ... 35483.html

CBS soccer commentator Grant Wahl dies suddenly.
Longtime soccer journalist Grant Wahl died today while covering the World Cup in Qatar. Details surrounding Wahl’s death are murky, but NPR reports he collapsed shortly before the end of the Netherlands-Argentina match today.
Wahl’s wife, CĂ©line Gounder, is a former advisor on Covid to the Biden Administration
What was he on, his 8th or 9th booster at this point? I'm baffled about what could have caused this.
Climate change, obviously.

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Niemand
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15,000 facial recognition cameras have been installed around Qatar for this world cup.

https://www.insider.com/world-cup-monit ... ar-2022-11
The surveillance network will be run by the Aspire Command and Control center, the technical hub that oversees operations for the eight stadiums where the matches will be held, Abdulrahiman told AFP.

Rows of security technicians are seated behind monitors in a room that looks like a NASA mission control center, photos show.
"Basically we can open a door or all the doors in a stadium right from here," Abdulrahiman said.

The control center will have eyes on all nearby metro trains and buses, he added. Experts from Qatar University have also developed drones that can provide estimates of the number of people on the streets.
This is not the first time biometric technology has been used to survey fans at soccer matches. At the 2017 Champions League final in Cardiff, UK, facial-recognition technology mistakenly labeled over 2,000 people as possible criminals, the BBC reported.

The use of biometric technology to survey spectators is not the only security concern that's been raised about the upcoming World Cup event.
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Niemand wrote: ↑December 12th, 2022, 6:00 am 15,000 facial recognition cameras have been installed around Qatar for this world cup.

https://www.insider.com/world-cup-monit ... ar-2022-11
At the 2017 Champions League final in Cardiff, UK, facial-recognition technology mistakenly labeled over 2,000 people as possible criminals, the BBC reported.
Only because they were wearing kilts ;)

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