Gm football fans. Route One here, we’re like an English breakfast - you can enjoy it any time of the day. Breakfast, lunch or dinner - it doesn’t matter.

Today’s briefing is a ~4 min read:

1. The Premier League’s ‘New Deal’ vote… all you need to know 🗳️

2. On this day in 2004… Socrates debuted at age 50 in North Yorkshire 😲

3. Extra time: when Scholes nearly got dropped from United’s academy 🤔

Psst… if you’re enjoying R1, share us with friends, family and colleagues.

Morning Brief 🗞️

THE PREM IS VOTING TODAY… AND IT’S A BIG DEAL 🗳️

Today, the Premier League clubs will vote on the “New Deal”.

It’s not quite as dramatic as President D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, but it’s still major.

So what is it? The ‘New Deal’ will change the way the Premier League calculates the amount of money it contributes to the lower leagues.

Sharing is caring… after all.

What do you need to know?

• EFL clubs receive £132m from the EFL’s central revenue AND £130m in solidarity payments from the Premier League.

• But the Premier League sends around £200m in parachute payments, handouts provided by the league to recently relegated clubs.

• So… all together, the Prem pays 16% of the more than £3bn a year it earns in media-rights income.

But… the EFL now wants to scrap this.

• The EFL wants to combine the four leagues’ media-rights income and share 25% of that much bigger number with the EFL’s 72 clubs.

• They claim it will reduce the “cliff edge” between the top flight and the Championship.

• The EFL thinks this will half the gap.

Another ‘but’… the Premier League doesn't want this. So, they’ve offered a counter-proposal - or the ‘New Deal’.

The Premier League is happy to combine their net media rights and share 14.75% of that figure in solidarity payments - with a further 4.56% ring-fenced for relegated clubs.

Let’s do the maths…

That’s 19.36%. Over 5% short of the EFL’s 25% ask.

Could it get any worse?

Well, yes. The counter deal also means that smaller clubs in the top flight will end up paying a higher proportion of their revenue into the solidarity pot.

It’s likely the leagues will go around in circles for a while.

But, silver linings, we guess… at least there’s something to talk about during the international break. 🥱

EXTRA-TIME ⏱️

Project Mbappe is underway for this young player. It should be illegal for someone this young to have such a good touch and finish. The future is looking bright.

We all know Dan James is fast. But this commentator makes the point clearer with this brilliant, poetic commentary of his goal.

Football is a subjective game, but some opinions are just outright wrong. Lee Sharpe recalls the time that Man United’s youth coach was willing to let go of Paul Scholes. But the young Scholesy proved him wrong in one move.

Salah is known for ducking and weaving past the opposition. We now know he does the same with his teammates.

Portugal’s national team might get a little confused with the number of João’s in their squad. Especially when João and João were substituted with João and João.

ON THIS DAY IN 2004… 🗓️

In 2004, former Brazilian World Cup captain Sócrates made an unusual debut for his only English club side.

He was 50 and retired 15 years prior.

Yet, he decided to lace his boots for the North Yorkshire side Garforth Town.

Garforth’s manager Simon Clifford was known for his mind games, like painting the opposition’s dressing room bright pink. Sócrates’ selection was all part of his psychological games to unnerve the opposition.

Yet, nobody could believe that an all-time great was about to play in the ninth tier of English football.

But Sócrates revealed his motivation: “I’m here because I was invited by Simon to see his children’s project which I find very interesting.”

The same occurred when Clifford invited two other Brazilian legends Careca and Carlos Alberton, with the former making an appearance for Garforth.

The Brazilian legend was the latest player to attempt to rip apart the Northern Counties Football League.

He hadn’t met his teammates yet. “In the video where he gets out of the car and walks into the changing room, that was the first time we had seen or spoken to him,” recalls teammate Greg Kelly.

National media descended on the tiny East Leeds town and 1350 people came to see him roll back the magic.

But, the legend failed to make a mark. He came on as a sub with 12 minutes remaining of the 2-2 draw with Tadcaster Albion.

“I decided not to play him in the next game because his warm-up had consisted of drinking two bottles of Budweiser and three cigarettes that he had in the changing rooms,” said Simon Clifford.

“I didn’t think it was a good idea for him to carry on playing too much more, though he was keen to.”

Either way, the sight of a chain-smoking football legend in the Garforth dugout will live long in the memory.

MEME 😆