OT: The 2026 World Cup Thread

[Huckleberry1]

The game I’m going to is at Gillette, England vs Ghana.

Go Ghana

 

[XLIX]

The BBC is a publicly-funded service with no advertising so the licence fee is a dedicated tax to pay for it. What's so strange about that?

I still don’t understand…. Do you mean your tax dollars go to pay for public TV…? Because we have that in America.

But the video I saw made it seem like you have to pay for an actual license and if they catch you watching TV without a license, you could be fined.

 

[Mike the Brit]

I still don’t understand…. Do you mean your tax dollars go to pay for public TV…? Because we have that in America.

But the video I saw made it seem like you have to pay for an actual license and if they catch you watching TV without a license, you could be fined.

Absolutely. The point I'm making is that not every tax comes out of a general pot. Some are in the form of licences. In the U.S. you have to pay tax on cars in the form of a registration fee, tax for parking in the form of a Resident's Permit, tax on hunting and fishing in the form of a licence. It's just the same thing.

 

[ScottishPatriots]

I still don’t understand…. Do you mean your tax dollars go to pay for public TV…? Because we have that in America.

But the video I saw made it seem like you have to pay for an actual license and if they catch you watching TV without a license, you could be fined.

If you don't pay £180 a year you can't watch live TV in the UK, £1000 fine if they catch you without one.

You have to pay for all your TV subscriptions on top of that too, that just gives you a couple of free channels that basically don't have any sports bar the World Cup, Wimbledon and a handful of games every now and then.

You're paying another £120+ a month for what you'd call cable if you want to watch any Premier League, NFL, NBA ect.

 

[ScottishPatriot]

My god we were brutal but when you're Scotland at a World Cup you'll take any win you can get.

I can only half agree, my similarly-named friend.

Relieved we won, but a couple more goals - which was totally achievable in the game - would’ve given us an excellent chance of going through.

As it is, we’ve left ourselves needing a point against either the 6th or 17th ranked teams in the world…

 

[Sect140]

Indoors

The roof opens.

 

[DoubleDeluxe]

The NFL is popular yes, but soccer is by far and away the most popular sport in the UK

And the world for that matter.

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

But the video I saw made it seem like you have to pay for an actual license and if they catch you watching TV without a license, you could be fined.

This is correct. There is a specific TV Tax, not part of any general tax. By law all citizens with a television have to pay it because it is a federal law. When I lived there in the 80s, people called it the Telly Tax.

 

[h0c2000]

TB12 enjoying the other football.