Good morning everyone, a quick recap of Saturday.
Arsenal plays Juventus tonight in what is our last (public) game of Pre-Season 2, the Re-Seasoning. I say public because I wouldn’t rule out a game behind closed doors sometime next week as teams look to get in shape for the Premier League to resume.
The previous two games have gone well, beating Lyon 3-0 and AC Milan 2-1, and tonight we could see the return of some of the World Cup attendees. Whether it’s too early for the likes of Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli remains to be seen, but we should see Granit Xhaka back in action.
The game is at 6:00 pm tonight and I don’t know where anyone can watch it. There’s no video via the official website, which is a bit strange considering they sold the games at the Dubai Super Cup, but I’m not available to watch it anyway, so I wish you the best of luck finding some kind of coverage. Will it be like the Carabao Cup match against Brighton that was, like an old man with prostate problems in the middle of the night, without drafts?
Update: It turns out that it is available on arsenal.com and reportedly on the official Juventus website for free.
If you’re more of a local and on the loose, it looks like there are still tickets available:
Today’s Arsenal game:
???? Saturday December 17
⚽️ First Team ???? Juventus ???? Friendly ???? Emirates Stadium⏰ 18:00 ???? ???? ???????? 19:00 ????????
Tickets are still on general sale. pic.twitter.com/KmQUiegFso
— Arsenal Fixture News (@AFCFixtureNews) December 17, 2022
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In the World Cup, the most pointless match in football, the third/fourth place playoff, takes place today between Croatia and Morocco. Honestly, I think it borders on cruelty to put players through this, not to mention fans who are still dealing with the heartbreak of a semi-final loss. The only ones who could be thankful for it are the players who didn’t play much and who might now have a chance but ultimately need to realize it’s because this game doesn’t matter and I’m sure they would. everyone prefers to be at home.
Meanwhile, reports of illness are coming in from the France team, including Ibrahima Konate and Raphael Varane. I know William Saliba has had a wonderful season for Arsenal, but imagine his first World Cup start was in the final. I don’t think it will happen, as there are suggestions that Varane is already feeling better, and Didier Deschamps prefers the clumsy Dayot Upamecano to Big Willy as he is, but it’s something to watch out for.
All eyes will be on Qatar tomorrow for the final as this World Cup comes to a close. There will no doubt be a lot of thinking and discussion, and I thought Ken Early wrote a fantastic article in the Irish Times yesterday. Having spent a month in Doha, his observations of the city and the tournament are really interesting. Unfortunately, it’s for subscribers only, but luckily for you, I came across this where someone seems to have pasted the full text of the article. You can simply read it there, or copy and paste the text into Word or Google Docs and adjust the font to make it easier to read. The Internet is really a wonder.
Released on the same day that FIFA announced the creation of a new 32-team Club World Cup, it’s hard to shake the thought that the inextricable link between soccer and money will be at the forefront of most discussions of the game in the future. Who wants this? Who asked for it? Who needs it? Nobody except FIFA.
FIFA’s mandate is, through its website, “FIFA exists to govern football and develop the game around the world. Since 2016, the organization has rapidly evolved into a body that can more effectively serve our game for the benefit of the entire world.”
But we know that’s nonsense. FIFA exists to benefit FIFA and to add to its already overflowing coffers. Gianni Infantino, like some kind of marble-headed Croesus, will preside over this decadent children’s corruption club until 2031, and all FIFA does is push international football at the expense of club football. There was a time when international soccer was the pinnacle of the game, but it was surpassed as clubs became better, richer and smarter, as barriers to traveling top talent were broken down.
The Premier League, the other major leagues in Europe and the Champions League in particular are nominally where you watch the best players and the best football. FIFA hated that, and what FIFA does is designed to tip that balance the other way, as well as make a lot more money. And by doing so, they show that they have absolutely no regard for the welfare of the players. injuries? They don’t care about the quality of the ‘product’ when players play 11.5 months out of the year? They don’t care, because the schedule = TV rights, commercials and sponsorships, and he maintains a lifestyle for these FIFA execs that is pampered, jet-setting, 5-star and has nothing remotely connecting him to true FIFA fans. football.
I know that for some people, sympathy for young men who play football for a living and are extraordinarily well paid may be low, but fantastic wealth doesn’t make you Superman. It doesn’t prevent injury, it doesn’t insulate you from mental health issues or the realities of normal life, because at the end of the day you are human and we all have problems and difficulties in relation to our own lives.
That is, burn FIFA to the ground. Metaphorically. Or literally. I couldn’t care less. This organization does not operate in the best interest of football, it sees you and me as irrelevant serfs with wallets they will empty over and over again, and it does not care one bit about the players they purport to publicly praise but whose only use is to them. is to obtain even more obscene wealth.
Sometimes when you write, the words just flow. That was, unlike the old man with prostate problems in the middle of the night, a heavy flow.
Have a good Saturday.
