Consigliere

It was the coefficient rankings in addition to the 'only two clubs allowed per association' rule. UEFA was awarded 12 spots and Salzburg ranked 18th over the 4-year coefficient. The teams ranked above them that missed out: Liverpool - because City and Chelsea qualified as CL winners RB Leipzig - Bayern and Dortmund ranked higher on coefficient Barcelona - Real Madrid qualified as CL winners and Atleti ranked higher on coefficient Napoli - Inter and Juventus ranked higher on coefficient Sevilla - same as Barca AC Milan - same as Napoli

It's based on winners of the top continental competition from 2020/2021 to 2023/2024 and then by club coefficient over those 4 seasons. A restriction is that an association can only have a maximum of two clubs unless the association has more than two clubs winning the top continental competition over the 4 year period. FIFA were angling for a way to get Messi into the tournament so they awarded Inter Miami the host nation slot (traditionally reserved for the host nation's domestic champions) and justified it by saying it was because they won the Supporters Shield. On sporting merit, Columbus Crew should've gotten the spot as they won the MLS Cup (and thus officially the domestic champions) in two out of the four seasons and are also the highest ranked MLS team in CONCACAF's club coefficient.

Invest in Arsenal so they can sign Antony. Do it!

It was always the most likely scenario that last season was just a temporary dip for City. Even with a down season they were better than the chasing pack. The top 3 in the PL are locked in - they are simply head and shoulders above everyone else and only a major and prolonged injury crisis could see one of those clubs finishing lower than 3rd. I'd have City as favourites to win the league. Glad that Inter Miami got trounced. They are only at the CWC because they have Messi on their books. They did not earn a place at the tournament through sporting merit.

Boost for Everton. Reports that the club are close to finalising a new contract with Branthwaite.

Some big news out of Ligue 1. The DNCG (the organisation responsible for overseeing the accounts of professional football clubs in France) has found Lyon to be in violation of financial regulations and the club has been relegated to Ligue 2. They can still appeal the decision. There's still a chance that Textor's imminent sale of his shares in Palace might put Eagle Football Group's finances in a good enough position to satisfy the DNCG. A sticking point will be that the DNCG issued a provisional relegation last November and gave Textor 7 months to sort out the club's finances which he hasn't done.

That was a great run chase. Ended up being quite comfortable too.

England making this look easy. Only the weather can save India.

If they can both get into double figures for league goals then that would already be a big improvement. United has severely lacked players who can score goals in the premier league in the last few seasons. Cunha got 12 & 15 league goals in his two full seasons at Wolves and Mbeumo got 9, 9 and 20 so it's not exactly a pipe dream to hope that they can both hit 10+. United's top scorers in the league last season were Bruno and Amad with 8 goals, the season before was Bruno and Hojlund with 10 goals and the season before that was Rashford and Bruno with 17 and 8 goals. We still need a CF but offloading players to fund a move is going to be difficult.

Rather than gloating and opening up a thread as a 'gotcha' to those big liberal meanies, we should be relieved that Trump has largely chickened out. Had he actually stuck to his guns and implemented the tariffs he originally envisioned then there would've been serious negative consequences for the global economy and as usual it would've been the poor and working and middle classes who would've suffered the most.

I doubt there will be much disruption at Liverpool. Slot will have a full preseason to integrate the two fullbacks and Wirtz. A replacement for Quansah (reportedly Guehi) will not require some radical tactical changes. Nunez never really fitted into Slot's game plan anyway.

This should sort out Palace's issue with UEFA. https://www.cpfc.co.uk/news/announcement/crystal-palace-statement/

Reports that Pogba is expected to sign a two-year contract with Monaco. Big ifs, but if he can stay fit and recover a bit of form, it's possible that he can make France's WC squad since their midfield is lacking in creativity. They've got good options in midfield as far as box-to-box bustlers/ball-carriers go but aside from Cherki there's no-one else who can provide that spark of creative play and even Cherki does not have the line-breaking and long passing ability of Pogba.

True. Botafogo won Serie A + Libertadores double so it's time to cash in for Textor. He might be able to keep his ponzi schemes going if he manages to sell his shares in Palace. Last I read, the owner of the New York Jets had tabled an offer of £190m.

Botafogo hadn't finished even in the top three of their domestic league for ages until Textor came in and funded a spending spree which included a bunch of record signings for Botafogo. That spending spree was funded by asset stripping Lyon to the tune of over €250m.

I see that Amazon has The Tyrant Philosophers book 4 listed for a February 2026 release. Book 4: Pretenders to the Throne of God blurb: The title of book 5 is also listed. The Grave of Perfection: will take us back to Ilmar, the 'City of Last Chances' where our story began.

Looks like PSG are determined to sign Zabarnyi in this window. Reports are that a deal with Bournemouth is advancing. Unfortunate for Bournemouth to lose three-quarters of their defence in one window. They'll need a GK too unless they take a chance with Neto or Travers. Adam Smith is 34 so a RB signing will be needed soon as well.

Or Afghanistan. 20 years and close to a trillion dollars spent and all for naught in the end.

I think negotiations for either Sesko or Gyokeres are just going to take some time. You've got Berta as sporting director now so you just have to hope that he's not going to have Arsenal go into a season with no specialist CF like Edu.

Arsenal look certain to get a CF in - either Sesko or Gyokeres. Seems like they prefer Sesko. Zubimendi is wrapped up. And they'll probably look to bring in a winger. That should be doable before preseason gets underway in a month's time. United have the most difficult opening five fixtures. Looks like Amorim will be under severe pressure right from the off.

Sensesi was their starting CB alongside Zabarnyi during the 2023/2024 season. Sensesi is back from injury now and so long as Zabarnyi isn't sold as well (PSG were interested) then they should be okay - don't know if they need to make another CB signing for depth. They obviously need to make a LB signing and possibly GK as well since Kepa was on loan and I'm not sure that Neto is good enough to be a starter. Imo, Zabarnyi is better than Huijsen and losing him would be the bigger loss. It's a bit like the situation with Upamecano and Konate at Leipzig. Upamecano got most of the hype but every time I saw Leipzig play, Konate stood out as the better player between the two.

City have made some big moves. I expect they'll go back to a 90+ point per season team again so Liverpool will be under far more pressure next season. This past season the title 'race', such as it was, was effectively over before the international break in March.

There's going to be a few lopsided matchups in the group stage. This one was the most lopsided of all. Auckland City is the only amateur club in the tournament - they don't even have their full squad at the tournament because some of their players could not get time off from their regular jobs. The knockout stage will just resemble the champion's league.

Bayern vs Auckland City is like a make-a-wish friendly. Bayern 4-0 up in 20 minutes.

Gattuso appointed manager of Italy NT. Guess the chances of Italy missing 3 world cups in a row have just gone up. Hopefully Gattuso is not completely useless though just so the terrorist state of Israel doesn't qualify.