English pyramid overheating

GM football fans. Route One here, and we’re covering English football overheating, the Champions League draw change, and much more.

A reader asked if we could include a fun fact about Preston North End. So we thought it was the perfect time to tell you that in the 1994-95 season, David Beckham and David Moyes were both teammates at Preston North End. Unfortunately, Moyes was a centre-back who only scored one goal in his career, so sadly he didn’t get on the end of one of Becks’ whipped crosses.

STATS

K-League All Stars 3 - 4 Tottenham 

→ Tottenham have won four out of their five pre-season fixtures so far, only losing to Newcastle 5-4 on penalties in May.

→ Son Heung-min has shon for Spurs in preseason, having bagged three goals in their last two fixtures.

Newcastle 4 - 1 Urawa Red Diamonds

→ Newcastle have won three of their four preseason fixtures. The only loss came from the A-League All Stars in an 8-0 defeat.

→ Alexander Isak has been in good form during pre-season, having scored his third goal in as many pre-season games.

Plus…

• The details of Kyle Walker’s court case have been revealed (More)

• Manchester City fined over £2mn for kick-off delays over two seasons (More)

• Two Zambian women who were ruled out of a 2022 tournament due to “abnormally high testosterone” have scored five goals in 56 minutes at the Olympics (More)

• Jurgen Klopp distances himself from the England job (More)

ENGLISH FOOTBALL LEAGUE

English football showing ‘signs of overheating’

A new report says that the English professional pyramid combined made losses of £1.2bn in the 2022-23 season.

The name of the report - “Bigger and better - but also riskier” - suggests that the English football leagues may be biting off more than they can chew. In other words, the chase-the-dream tendencies of the Championship are now seeping into League One and League Two. 

• Average losses in English football’s fourth tier were £1.5mn.

• Many clubs owe other clubs significant amounts - risking a “house of cards” systemic failure.

It’s not all doom and gloom… two recent studies by Begbies Traynor and Deloitte have praised the English football pyramid. In fact, the former found that “financial distress is at an all-time low in the English Football League”.

So what’s next?

Despite the conflicting views on how the English pyramid is doing financially, the Football Governance Bill is the most likely outcome. Despite being interrupted by the general election, the Bill was included in the King’s Speech so it’s safe to say that the government intend on introducing something of that ilk.

It will mean that an independent regulator will oversee the game’s riches and overall practices.

The problem is… a football regulator is like Marmite, as fans sit on one of two sides of the fence:

• A regulator creates a path to a sustainable financial pyramid.

• Football doesn’t need the government looking over its shoulder.

In terms of what side of the fence the leagues sit on, the English Football League welcomes a regulator, whereas the Premier League is less keen on the idea.

While we don’t know if the Labour bill will mirror the Conservative’s half-finished one, The Atheltic speculates that the new government will focus more on the owners’ and directors’ test.

Why? The new Secretary for Culture, Media and Sport Lisa Nandy will know all too well about unsuitable club owners from her experience as the MP for Wigan.

Either way, it’s going to leave some fans happy and others not so happy.

POLL

HEAD START

😬 Man United’s new signing could be out for a lengthy time. Centre-back Leny Yoro, 18, was seen using crutches in a video shot at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) on Tuesday. This follows Yoro’s substitution in the 33rd minute of the 2-1 defeat by Arsenal on Saturday with an ankle problem. Concerns are growing that the defender could be out for a while.

🏅 France to face Argentina in men’s Olympics football. Hosts, France, will face Argentina in the quarter-finals of the men’s Olympic football tournament on Friday. Tensions have been heightened between the two football nations since Argentina players and fans chanted about French players with African heritage. See the current standing of Olympics men’s football here and women’s football here.

🤝 FA to finalise diversity reporting plans before next season. The FA is expected to finalise a new rule making workforce diversity reporting a mandatory requirement for professional football clubs. It means that professional clubs in the English leagues must provide full workforce data on age, sex, gender, ethnicity, disability and sexual orientation within their organisation.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Supercomputer will decide Champions League draw

It’s official. The 2024-25 Champions League (UCL) draw will be carried out by a computer for the first time in history.

UEFA has commissioned the software because the original draw selection would take four hours under the new 36-team expanded format. To put it into perspective, to carry out a normal draw for this new format, nearly 1000 balls would have been used, as well as at least 36 bowls on stage.

The computer will randomly assign each team 8 matches against 8 different opponents. And it will also determine which matches teams will play at home and which will be away.

Damage control

As with anything digital, there’s always a risk that conspiracy theory that someone, somewhere is manipulating the algorithm to suit their club’s fixture.

Fortunately, UEFA is sticking to tradition by picking a random ball out of a hat and then the supercomputer will decide their fixtures. This should play a part in making the draw as random as possible…

… although we can already see the conspiracy theory headlines.

The draw will take place on Thursday, August 29.

A quick recap on the new UCL format:

• 36 clubs will participate in the league phase - giving four more sides the chance to compete.

• There will be no traditional group stage. Instead, 36 teams will compete in a single league, with each team playing 8 matches against 8 different opponents.

• Teams who finish in the top eight will qualify automatically for the last 16, while those who place ninth to 24th will compete in a two-legged knockout playoff for the chance to join them.

• The number of matches will increase from 125 to 189.

Make sure that the sofa is comfortable. There’s going to be lots of football to watch.

AROUND THE FOOTBALL WORLD

🇪🇸 La Liga: Carlo Ancelotti has confirmed Real Madrid will not make any more summer signings, following the arrivals of Kylian Mbappé and Endrick (More)

🇫🇷 Ligue 1: Marseille have submitted a new bid for Arsenal striker Eddie Nketiah worth €20mn (More)

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿Womens Super League: Netherlands international goalkeeper Daphne van Domselaar has joined Arsenal on a permanent deal (More)

🇨🇦Canada national team: Canada’s appeal against their point deduction for spying on opponents was dismissed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (More)

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿Southern Football League: Former Premier League striker Charlie Austin has joined 7th tier team AFC Totton at age 35 (More)

OFF THE PITCH

🇺🇲 Simeone Biles wins Gold to become the most decorated US Olympic gymnast in history (More)

🥇 Britain’s Alex Yee has won Gold in the men’s triathlon (More)

🍺 Aldi is looking for an official beer taster to review its Autumn range (More)

🤳 South Korean Olympian takes a selfie with North Korean athletes (More)

💰 Meta agreed to pay €1.4bn to the state of Texas to settle a lawsuit over facial recognition (More)

PHOTO OF THE DAY

On this day in 1996. The U.S. won gold in the first-ever Olympic women’s tournament at the 1996 Games with a 2-1 win over China. Even without broadcast television, the 1996 tournament, including the victory in the final against China in front of a record-setting 76,489 crowd for women’s football, had a major impact. It changed the scope completely for how the organising committee for the 1999 World Cup, led by Marla Messing, and U.S. Soccer approached the staging of the tournament.

ROUTER’S VOICE

Yesterday, we asked you: If the Norwegian top flight gets rid of VAR, do you think other countries will follow suit?

🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️ 👍 Yes... (47.1%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 👎 Nope... (50.1%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ ✍️ Other (2.3%)

Your punditry takes:

• 👍 Peter H voted “Yes”: “As a matchgoing fan it takes too long! It’s all theatre for armchair fans.”

• 👍 Nicola T voted “Yes”: “It has ruined football in the top league in this country. If it's going to be used permanently then it should go across all leagues.”

• 👎 Alex H voted “Nope”: “VAR is significantly better than the alternative. There’s no way leagues will go back to consistent errors on offsides, fouls etc.”

• 👎 James M voted “Nope”: “I think getting rid of VAR altogether would be a mistake. It is currently a flawed implementation of a good idea. One of the biggest problems is the time taken to make decisions, especially for offside calls, but semi-automated offside tech should make that a thing of the past once it is introduced. The next biggest issue for me is when the VAR is used. Why can it overturn or recommend red cards, but not yellows, why does it not always get involved when there has been a clear and obvious error and sometimes get involved when there has not been a clear error?! But removing the system entirely would not be the right call.”

• ✍️“ZK voted “Other”: “It needs tweaking for sure, but at the end of the day, they almost always make the right decision, however annoying it can be. However, it needs more structure on when and when not it will be used, and I think everyone should be using the offside tech we saw at the WC and EUROs.”

EXTRA TIME

Which is the best Premier League kit released this summer?

No doubt the worst miss of all time.

Son’s goal from an onfield body-cam perspective.

Maybe the best blind rank we’ve seen.

This made Pep Guardiola know Cole Palmer was special.

19-year-old Ronaldo was unbelievable at the 1996 Olympics.

Jamie O’Hara reveals what Kieran McKenna is like on a night out.

A slo-mo of Messi scoring his iconic first goal against Manuel Neuer in his 100th Champions League appearance. 

Podcast: Tottenham Hotspur board member gives insight into how the club is run behind the scenes.

GAME FACE ON

Question: Across men’s and women’s tournaments, which country has won the most gold medals in football at the Olympics?

Clue: The men’s team have never won a World Cup. The women’s team have won four.

Scroll below for the answer.

ON TODAY

PARIS OLYMPICS

Full schedule of events can be found here.

Answer

United States (4, all in the women’s event).