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World Soccer XXX: We Have Men Too!

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I'll put this here because it's kind of the best spot, but the BBC and their soccer coverage is an absolute mess right now.

It all starts with the Tories announcing a new batchit anti-immigration policy in typical Tory fashion. Gary Lineker, former Leicester City and England player, who hosts the BBC Premier League highlights show Match of the Day (and once hosted the show "in his pants") tweeted critically about it from his personal Twitter account. This was, according the Tory party donors who run the BBC, a violation of the BBC's impartiality clause, despite Lineker not covering politics on the BBC and also from his personal account. He refused to take down the tweet and was suspended by the BBC. In response, the vast majority of on air staff for soccer at the BBC have refused to go on the air (most notably MOTD pundits Ian Wright and Alan Shearer) and apparently most of the techinical staff too.

MOTD, one of the highest rated shows in the UK, is set to be whopping 20 minutes tonight.
 
US Soccer released the report on the Berhalter/Reyna situation.

Berhalter was cleared as the report basically corroborated what he said.

The Reyna's... did not come off well:

Danielle to an unnamed U.S. Soccer employee: “Once this tournament is over, I can make one phone call and give one interview, and his cool sneakers and bounce passes will be gone.”
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In an email in 2018, Claudio complained about a female referee in a match Gio played in. “And in all honest [sic] can we get real and have male refs for a game like this. Its embarrassing guys. What are we trying to prove? A game like this deserves bett[e]r attention.”
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(That one got a response from the Professional Soccer Referees Association, the union representing MLS referees.)

Claudio Reyna interviewed for USMNT GM job in '19 and has a long history of trying to influence different aspects of USSF as it has related to Gio. An unnamed US Soccer employee “characterized Mr. Reyna’s historical outreach as “inappropriate,” “bullying,” and “mean- spirited.”
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https://twitter.com/BonaguraESPN/status/1635341276450271232
 
FIFA thankfully scraps the three team group idea and will instead go with 12 groups of four teams. Top two teams of each group plus 8 best third place sides will advance to the 32 team knockout round. So you’ll really have to under perform not to make it past the group stage now.
 
French Rage said:
Yeah three team groups sounds dumb. Would they have taken 16 or 32 in that case? (32 team knockout seems a bit much though.)
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Yeah, it would’ve been top two teams from 16 groups. They were going to get rid of ties and have penalties after 90 minutes too. Hopefully that was scrapped too in this new 12 group format.
 
FIFA also announced the specific format for the new Club World Cup to take place in Summer 2025.

32 teams: 1 from Oceania, 4 each from Africa, Asia, and CONCACAF, 6 from CONMEBOL, 12 from UEFA and 1 host slot. A country can't have more than two teams unless that country wins multiple Champions League titles.

Because it's taking place in 2025 we already have qualifiers:

Asia: Al Hilal (2021 AFC Champions League Winner)

Africa: Al Ahly (2020-21 CAF Champions League Winner), Wydad Casablanca (2021-22 CAF Champions League Winner)

CONMEBOL: Palmeiras (2021 Copa Libertadores Winner), Flamengo (2022 Copa Libertadores)

UEFA: Chelsea (2020-21 UEFA Champions League Winner), Real Madrid (2021-22 UEFA Champions League Winner)

CONCACAF: Monterrey (2021 CONCACAF Champions League Winner), Seattle (2022 CONCACAF Champions League Winner)
 
Does each confederation decide the manner of qualification, or is it just whoever wins the Champions Leagues? (guess Europe will also choose the runner-ups and/or Europa winner?)
 
Spartanforlife4 said:
Does each confederation decide the manner of qualification, or is it just whoever wins the Champions Leagues? (guess Europe will also choose the runner-ups and/or Europa winner?)
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Sounds like FIFA is determining it as it's Champions League winners and then clubs based on a "4 year ranking" to be finalized later.

The "no more than two clubs per country unless they're Champions League winners" rule is likely to throw a wrench into things.
 
Champions League Quarter and Semifinal draw.

UCL quarterfinal draw:
Real Madrid (Spain) vs. Chelsea (England)
SL Benfica (Portugal) vs. Inter Milan (Italy)
Manchester City (England) vs. Bayern Munich (Germany)
AC Milan (Italy) vs. Napoli (Italy)

UCL semifinal draw:
Real Madrid/Chelsea vs. Manchester City/Bayern Munich
AC Milan/Napoli vs. SL Benfica/Inter Milan
 
Seeing it in several places that SoFi Stadium is NOT up to FIFA spec to host the WC final in 2026.

Like, I get that the NFL is king here in the US, but being LA, you'd think that they would at least consider FIFA's spec minimums... It really doesn't change anything when under an NFL configuration.
 
RaceBoarder said:
Seeing it in several places that SoFi Stadium is NOT up to FIFA spec to host the WC final in 2026.

Like, I get that the NFL is king here in the US, but being LA, you'd think that they would at least consider FIFA's spec minimums... It really doesn't change anything when under an NFL configuration.
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All the more hilarious is that Kroenke owns an MLS and EPL team.
 
I didn't realize the Nations League had started yet, let alone being through 4-5 of 6 games.

US needs to just not lose their next two games and they'll advance to the semifinals. On the road at Grenada and at home against El Salvador. It's going to be awkward if the US ever finishes below first place in one of these and Vegas ends up hosting a neutral site tournament.
 
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