VAR vote

GM football fans. Route One here, welcome back to your daily dose of football. First time reading? Sign up here.

All feedback read at [email protected].

Head Start

VAR vote incoming

Premier League clubs will vote next month on whether to scrap VAR.

Yup. It’s really got to that point. 

Look, we know that there are three things you shouldn’t speak about in public (or if you’re a football newsletter):

• Politics.

• Religion.

• VAR.

But, today is the exception.

The only reason the Premier League budged was because Wolves put together a list of arguments for why it should be axed… 

There’s a long list so here are Wolves’ best arguments against VAR:

• Impact on goal celebrations and the spontaneous passion that makes football special. 

• Frustration and confusion in stadiums. 

• Exceeding the original purpose of VAR, which was to correct clear and obvious errors, by now overanalysing subjective decisions and compromising the fluidity and integrity of the game.

• Erosion of trust and reputation, with VAR fuelling absurd corruption allegations.

If you didn’t know this list was about VAR, you’d think it had to do with the latest Netflix romance drama. 

But it’s understandable why fans and clubs are so passionately against VAR, especially…

 **promise we’re not spoiling the R1 end-of-season awards**

… after decisions like Luis Diaz’s “off-side” goal against Spurs.

And the most recent National Supporters Survey last June found that two-thirds of fans were against VAR. 

But - and here this out - the Premier League board is directly opposed to the proposal of scrapping VAR. They say correct decisions increased from 82 to 96% under VAR.

Route One take: For the vote to go ahead, Wolves will need 13 other clubs to agree with them which is possible… but we don’t think the vote will be a simple yes or no.

Measures are already in place to introduce semi-automated VAR mid-way through the next season… hardly the act of a league looking to scrap the system. 

Plus…

Michael Olise’s agent has been handed a six-month FA ban following an investigation into a contract agreed with the player’s former club Reading (More)

FIFA has been criticised for lacking mandatory rest periods as it released women’s schedule from 2026 (More)

Sky Sports will show Manchester City’s final game of the season vs West Ham and TNT Sports will air Arsenal’s last game against Everton.

Stats Zone

Leeds (0) vs (0) Norwich

Semi-final Playoff 2nd leg - Tonight at 20:00 BST - Sky Sports 

→ During the first leg of the play-off tie at Carrow Road, there were just three shots on target across the entire match.

→ Norwich have gone five games without a win against Leeds, losing four in a row before the first-leg 0 - 0 draw. 

→ The last time these two clubs met at Elland Road was in January, with Leeds winning 1 - 0 thanks to Patrick Bamford’s 16-minute strike.

Brighton 1 - 2 Chelsea

Danny Welbeck 90+7’ | Cole Palmer 34’, Christopher Nkunku 64’

→ Cole Palmer has opened the scoring for the 9th time in the Premier League this season.

→ Brighton have made 137 changes to their starting lineups in 2023-24.

→ Despite playing just 422 minutes, no player has received more red cards in the Premier League this season than Reece James (2).

Manchester United 3 - 2 Newcastle 

Kobbie Mainoo 31’, Amad Diallo 57’, Rasmus Højlund 84’ | Anthony Gordon 49’, Lewis Hall 90+2’

→ Kobbie Mainoo has scored 3 goals in the Premier League this season. Paul Scholes is the only central midfielder to have scored more (5) in a single season whilst still being a teenager in Manchester United's history.

→ Anthony Gordon is only the fourth Newcastle player to score home and away goals against Manchester United in a Premier League campaign.

Full Matchday 37 results click here.

FIFA

Sunglasses check, passport check…

… football ticket… check?

That’s right, FIFA is exploring the impact of moving domestic football matches abroad. 

The world’s governing body has set up a new working group which will be formed to “issue recommendations” on the topic. The group will consist of around 10-15 members from member associations, clubs, players and more. 

How would it work?

It’s similar to “Game 39” which was proposed in 2008 - where some Premier League clubs wanted to play an extra round of matches at neutral venues outside England.

But, this time around… it’s a little different.

Why?

Well, it’s the Premier League clubs that now say they have no plan of playing league games in different countries.

It looks as though other leagues are leading the proposal as…

• Saudi Arabia is expected to lure competitive games from top European countries.

• La Liga’s president said in April that he hoped to play games abroad. 

• Promoter Relevant Sports has driven the idea of overseas matches being played in the United States. 

I guess the question is: can Haaland score on a sunny day in Los Angeles? Hmm, we think so.

Off The Pitch

🚨 Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico is in a critical position after being shot in an assassination attempt (More)

💔 Golfer Rory McIlroy files for divorce from wife Erica after seven years of marriage (More) 

📩 The owner of Royal Mail has said it is “minded” to accept a revised takeover bid by Czech billionaire Daniel Kreinsky (More)

😬 Google Cloud accidentally deletes $125 billion pension fund’s online account (More)

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Dolly Parton says that she has Welsh ancestry (More)

🤑 New York City has the most millionaires at 350,000 and has 60 billionaires (More)

Around The Football World

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Jude Bellingham is one goal shy of equalling Gary Lineker’s record of 20 for Barcelona in 1986/87, for most goals by an English player in a single La Liga campaign. 

🇮🇹 An early Dusan Vlahovic strike gave Juventus their 15th Coppa Italia trophy in a 1 - 0 win over Atalanta.

🇦🇹 RB Salzburg have appointed Liverpool’s assistant coach Pep Lijnders as their new manager from the start of pre-season training in June (More)

🇪🇸 Former Manchester United defender Daley Blind has signed a new deal at Girona, valid until June 2026.

🇮🇹 Nicoló Zaniolo will miss Euro 2024 with Italy as he suffered a microfracture to his foot against Liverpool. 

🌏 FIFA permitted a member of its ruling council to join a summit via video call despite him being in prison accused of embezzlement (More)

Extra Time

Marcus Rashford confronts fans who were criticising him before yesterday’s game.

Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher give their alternative end of season awards.

Remembering the time goalkeeper David James was put up front and - well - had a questionable performance.

One Spurs fan said he’d rather sell his mother than Arsenal won the league.

It has been 31 years since Ray Parlour tried to world record an attempt at saying the word ‘obviously’ in one interview. 

Aston Villa proved Andy Goldstein wrong…

… and they proved Sir Alex Ferguson right.

Game Face On

Question: Former Leeds player Mark Viduka has a cousin who is one of the best midfielders of the current generation. Who is it?

Hint: Decorated beyond belief.

Scroll below for the answer.

On Today

FOOTBALL

Championship Semi-Final Play-Offs: Leeds United vs Norwich City (20:00 BST, Sky Sports Football)

La Liga: Almeria vs Barcelona (20:30 BST, La Liga TV)

La Liga: Real Sociedad vs Valencia (21:00 BST, La Liga TV)

Saudi Pro League: Al Nassr vs Al Hilal (19:00, DAZN)

GOLF

LET: German Masters (10:00 BST, Sky Sports Golf)

PGA: PGA Championship (13:00 BST, Sky Sports Golf)

*EST -5. PST -8. CET +1. CST +8. JST +9.

Answer: Luka Modric

“Unfortunately in the last 48 hours, I saw that the foundations are really fragile… inside the club and outside the club.”

-Ange Posecoglou