Football Index goes full circle

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Head Start

Football Index: lots of buts…

A couple of weeks ago, we mentioned the Football Index app…

… you know, the one that took £124 million of customers’ money, but never paid it back. Here’s a quick recap… 

• Football Index sold ‘shares’ in football players based on real-life performance (remember, the R1 barber ‘invested’ £300 in Raheem Sterling…).

• But, turns out, it was just a pyramid scheme and the business model changed so many times that fans were confused and short-changed. 

• The company liquidated but didn’t honour its customer’s open bets.

As fans look for justice, there are new developments to share on the story…

The Times revealed that Football Index’s founder Adam Cole is - subtly - behind a new football crypto trading website… KiX.

Here’s where it gets interesting… 

KiX founder Abdullah Suleyman is the face of the app… but Cole conveniently isn’t mentioned anywhere.

And - credit to Joey D’Urso for this excellent journalism - The Times got access to KiX’s investor pitch deck which lauds Football Index as a ‘proof of concept’... without mentioning its spectacular failure.

D’Urso also obtained access to KiX’s internal documents which showed ‘Adam Cole’ as an author of a PDF document. Hmm fishy.

KiX says that Cole has no “executive input” - which may be true - but they did confirm that Cole was an “investor/adviser”. 

Crypto plus Adam Cole… hmm we’re not so sure. We’ll give it a pass. 

Chelsea 6 - 0 Everton

Cole Palmer 13’, 18’, 29’, 64’ (P), Nicolas Jackson 44’, Alfie Gilchrist 90’

In case you missed the game, yup, Palmer got four goals. That means Palmer…

• … is joint-first with Haaland for the Golden Boot - 20 goals.

• … the first Chelsea player to score in seven successive league appearances.

• … scored as many Prem hat-tricks as Hazard, Scholes, Gerrard, Mané, Mahrez, Bale and Sánchez managed in their entire Prem careers.

What. A. Season.

Chelsea’s performance was flawless, despite the embarrassing argument over a penalty… c’mon guys.

Plus…

Everton have appealed against the two-point deduction they faced for their second PSR rule breach (More)

Erik ten Hag holds talks with Alejandro Garnacho after liking Tweets accusing his manager of ‘throwing him under the bus’ (More)

Former Liverpool midfielder Naby Keita faces “consequences” after walking out on his Werder Bremen team-mates when finding out he would not start against Bayer Leverkusen (More)

Champions League Stat Zone

Borussia Dortmund (1) vs (2) Atlético Madrid (Tonight, 20:00 BST, TNT Sports)

→ Dortmund have lost three of their last five against Atlético, but the German side were 4-0 winners the last time they hosted Diego Simeone’s men in the 2018/19 group stage.

→ Atlético have won just two of 10 away meetings against German sides in major European competitions. Dortmund, by contrast, have lost just two of their 13 Champions League home games against Spanish opposition.  

Barcelona (3) vs (2) PSG (Tonight, 20:00 BST, TNT Sports)

→ Christensen’s first-leg winner was the 50th goal scored in 14 competitive meetings between these sides. That’s an average of 3.6 goals per game.

→ Although Barcelona have only lost two of their nine games against PSG in the Champions League knockout stages, their most recent home knockout game loss came against PSG in a 4-1 thrashing in 2021.

Debunked

Kaká’s too perfect for his ex-wife?

Earlier this week, a quote from Kaká’s ex-wife, Caroline Celico, floated around the internet… 

On the couple’s divorce, she apparently said: “Kaká never betrayed me, he treated me well, he gave me a wonderful family, but I was not happy, something was missing. The problem was, he was too perfect for me.” 

Hmm… just too perfect, eh? We get it… 

• … handsome.

• … 6ft something Brazilian footballer.

• … wealthy.

• … 2007 Ballon d’Or winner and 2002 World Cup winner. 

Sounds pretty perfect to us.

But they divorced because he was too perfect? Surely not. It sounds a little - hm - unbelievable…

… and that’s because it is. 

Celico took to Instagram to let everyone know that the quote was not only fake but also inaccurate.

Morale of the story: if you’re a dashing, rich, loyal, athletic, Ballon d'Or winner, you’re still not perfect…

Off The Pitch

👟 Nike debuts AI-designed trainers ahead of Paris Olympics (More) 

🐶 A woman discovers her neighbour’s corgi rides her pony at night (More)

🎭 Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard sweeps the board at the Oliviers with record haul (More)

🚙 Tesla to cut 10% of global workforce, around 14,000 jobs (More)

🌕 A rare lunar event, which takes place once every 18.6 years, will help archaeologists understand Stonehenge’s connection to the moon (More)

🦘 Three new species of giant fossil kangaroos have been discovered, revealing animals twice the size of the species we know today (More)

Extra Time

On this day in 1994, Duncan Ferguson became the first professional player jailed for an on-field incident.

Arsenal’s kit next season has apparently been ‘leaked’ with a cannon badge. 

Lyon came back to win against Brest in the 16th minute of injury time. 

Jeremie Frimpong with a brilliant post-match interview.

Burnley’s Arijanet Muric with this season’s worst goalkeeper mistake.

Jose Mourinho predicted Xabi Alonso’s success five years ago. 

Game Face On

Question: Which team was the first from the UK to win the European Cup?

Hint: Four-leaf clover

Scroll below for the answer.

On Today

FOOTBALL

Champions League: Barcelona vs Paris Saint Germain (20:00, TNT Sports 1)

Champions League: Borussia Dortmund vs Atletico Madrid (20:00, TNT Sports 2)

Championship: Southampton vs Preston North End (20:00, Sky Sports)

NHL

NHL: Multiple Matches (00:00)

*All times in BST… EST -5. PST -8. CET +1. CST +8. JST +9.

Answer: Celtic (1966-67)

“I was watching the Blackburn game on TV on Sunday when it flashed on the screen that George Ndah had scored in the first minute at Birmingham. My first reaction was to ring him up. Then I remembered he was out there playing.”

-Alan Shearer