They’re talking about it in the Baltic countries (🇱🇹🇱🇻🇪🇪) where the countries are small and where football is not that popular. The collective advantages you get from doing it are pretty obvious but it’s up against a lot of conservatism and national interests

Did you see his penalty against Brentford? I found it comical that after Wolves had 2 points after 16 games and 2-0 down, Larsen decides to take one of those penalties with the slow run ups, easily saved by the goalkeeper - cue well deserved boos from the crowd. As if their season wasn’t bad enough!

Maybe it wasn’t the economy stupid in the last US election either?

The only viable solution I can think of is cross-border leagues. Lots of countries are too small to have competitive domestic leagues, and would have more power if they merged. They thought about merging the Dutch and Belgian leagues but it’s probably not going to happen any time soon.

The Conference League probably has that effect as well, and I say that as someone more interested in the Conference League than Champions League. It’s a hell of a lot of money for clubs and leagues whose revenue streams are practically nonexistent

Also no one really seems to care that much about whether they finish in the top 8 or not. You’d have thought Real Madrid and PSG would have won tonight if they really wanted to

In theory all the teams from each pot before draws are meant to be of similar strength, but the lower English teams will all be stronger than their coefficients suggest. It’s cool that Bodo Glimt qualified but I wasn’t interested enough to watch it this evening

How long until he strikes Europe over something?

Bishop’s distribution resembled his namesake chess piece - diagonal and out of play! Hard to believe the run of results at the start of the season given tonight. Probably over 50 points required to stay up, not 42 like season 21-22

Stopped clock is right twice a day. Their criticism of Starmer doesn’t count for much when their solution is still Corbyn

But football clubs aren’t really supposed to be something for everyone, for all fans around the world. Their history is rooted in the place they come from. The core fanbase has to always be its domestic local fanbase. Fans abroad will never be fans in the same way the locals are

Albeit without the arrogance and simplistic discussion of how they’re going to make loads of efficiency savings and cut the waste of the incumbent government that they have such contempt for

Feels pretty hard to care about the Champions League with the new format these days. Don’t know if that’s reflected in attendance or viewership etc. Exciting if you’re trying to make the top 24 but not really for everyone else it seems

And also that it’s unworkable, as if they would do it if it were workable

Woh what happened to Peru and Chile?!

Finland 🇫🇮 is amazing. I went to Tampere and saw Ilves vs AZ this summer, so I’m hoping they win the Finnish league this year and qualify for league phase next year. I will make a football trip organised around a league phase fixture, though Kuopio may be ambitious to get to and not cheap!