Football Daily | In praise of Brest, the Champions League’s Pirate kings
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You will be shocked, shocked, to learn the 2034 World Cup is going to be held in … Saudi Arabia. Niall McVeigh has all the latest news.
Here is an idea I’ve been incubating for quite a while now. I suggest that Premier League clubs are seeded for the FA Cup third-round draw. Year after year we get all-Premier League ties when most clubs below that are hoping (desperately in many cases) to land one of the big boys and boost their coffers. TV only add to the farce when they decide to televise the all-top-flight tie (see Aston Villa v West Ham this year) and awarding the rights/fees to clubs already financially better off. Elitism in football continues to get worse by the day” – Tony Dunbar.
Further to Jonathan Kendal’s missive on FC United (yesterday’s Football Daily letters), I’d like to note (as a founder member of AFC Liverpool) that the benefits of non-league are not just financial. The sense of community among fans, players and staff at clubs below the professional-ish league is worth the (low) cost of entry itself and would warm even the cold heart of a Fifa official. I implore those that don’t already have a second team to look for a local one in a lower division and enjoy yourself, or at least get rained on watching a 6-0 thumping for less than a mortgage payment for a change” – (not that) Andrew Tate.
Ah, Jonathan, get real. Your proposed model of supporting football offers me nothing. Why on earth should I support a club I can only read about by struggling to find an informed local paper that Reach hasn’t destroyed, when I can have constant vacuous clickbait piped into my very phone? Why should I actually bother going to a match and smelling Bovril and turf when I can go to a generic pub and drink the same overpriced lagers, and have constant hyped factoids deafeningly boomed into my ears? Why should I exert myself to travel to an away game when I can sit at home with football blaring in the background, while I distractedly scroll on about Strictly or Timothée Chalamet or some death that’s nothing to do with me? Look, I just want to don expensive nylon and claim to be into football without needing to support a team I ever go and see or even live anywhere near to. That way, when every game gets moved to the Middle East, I won’t even notice the difference” – Jon Millard.
Fulham certainly are coming up in the world. Not only did we appear in yesterday’s letters but we also got an honourable mention in David Squires’ latest take on modern-day football. Whatever next? By the way, please note that the Spursy equivalent term is Fulhamish and has long been established, in fact it’s the subject of a very well-produced podcast and more” – Marisa Cardoni (and others).
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