That finish by Kulusevski was special.

I don’t know about other sports in the rest of the world, but in the US all the pro sports have unions representing the players who collectively bargain with the club/team owners for standardized terms and conditions. There is no world governing body that the NBA, MLB, NHL, or NFL listen to, so they handle their own contracts. MLS follows most of FIFA rules but still handles their own collective bargaining (there was a major dispute in the US about solidarity payments to lower clubs where MLS had to move closer to FIFA rules). I know LigaMX also has their own closed system that royally fucks over players in that league. So instead of FIFA doing all the bargaining and controlling the transfers of players, the PL would have a standard set of terms and conditions for contracts, which would be different from the BuLi and different from L1 and LaLiga. Maybe the BuLi contracts have game limitations for players but the PL doesn’t? Or maybe L1 guarantees a percentage of transfer fees to players?

While I like to think this would give some power back to the players, since they could start having preferences on which league they go to based on their contract conditions, we all know the mega-clubs will find a way to fuck over players. This might also lead to collusion among billionaires exactly like what happens in LigaMX.

How in the world was this not a red? Did VAR not look at it?

That was absolutely horrific from the ref. The player was clearing the ball from danger, not kicking it away to waste time. He kicked it just barely after the whistle, so I don’t think it was out of frustration.

I can see some kind of game/minute limit coming in maybe, but that would be an advantage to the bigger clubs with better squad depth.

Exactly. The difference between Man City playing 61 games in 2022/23 and 66 games in 23/24 versus LAFC (my team) playing 53 games in a season is that City has a second team that could challenge for the PL in addition to their first team while LAFC’s second team could barely beat a 3rd tier team that doesn’t have their own stadium. If City had a cap like MLS, they couldn’t challenge for every competition like they do now. Look at how Seattle did in the regular season when they won the CCL. Teams who can compete with their second team will dominate with minute caps.

I hope they do. It’s ridiculous how many games they play for cash grab tournaments and friendlies.

Last year in MLS, LAFC had the chance to win 6 trophies in one season. They didn’t and ended up losing in the final of 3 cups, which really sucked, but the fact they could have won that many trophies in one season is kind of dumb… and they weren’t even in the club world cup! At some point, there just isn’t any granularity between why one comp is different from another. And you could absolutely tell how tired the players were by the middle of the season. It definitely affected how well they performed in the regular season games.

OP has the appropriate username to post this video.

Hmmm, solid point.

3. You’re right. Commentators have been saying for years it was the bottom of the sleeve, but the actual rule says bottom of the armpit. That’s close to the bottom of the sleeve, depending on the length of the sleeve, but not technically the rule.

1. Agree on 1. Another big issue is the VAR refs being from the same organization as the on-field refs. That leads to buddies not wanting to hurt each others’ feelings.

2. I like this but would extend it to being the rear-most foot of the attacker that is on the ground and the front-most foot of the defender that is on the ground. Making it about feet only and not all attacking-eligible body parts, while also making it about what is actually touching the ground, makes it sooooooo much more easily measured by VAR. No more drawing vertical lines from shoulders to connect to a horizontal line from the ground, just two lines that are easily seen by cameras and the existing lines on the field.

3. As it is right now, anything above the sleeves is already not classed as handball. Maybe headers are only allowed inside the box?

It’s wild how fast he went from absolute hero to absolute outcast.

I have two authentic jerseys I bought (one home and one throwback retro) and one replica jersey given to me as a perk for going to my team’s very first game… plus (technically) a practice jersey that was stolen at a game when I changed to the new jersey I bought that day.

The practice one was cheap, like $35 or something. The perk one was kind of free but not really, since I had to pay for tickets plus travel to go to the game away. The other two were both ridiculously expensive for a shirt.

Is this your first time watching CONMEBOL or CONCACAF?

I predicted Spain/Austria/Germany/England as the possible finalists. Not terrible.

Compliments to the security staff who misdirected him in mid-air. That was a fast reaction time.

I was impressed by Spain. Didn’t expect them to be so dominant. I was disappointed by France. It feels like they are wasting a golden generation.

I don’t predict Spain to win, but I wouldn’t bet against them. I have a feeling it will be Austria and Spain in the final, with no real justification why. Germany - England is also a strong guess from me.

I love stats like this.

That boy is looking at Death himself and is trying to maintain his own sanity.

He scored a hat trick in the World Cup final and won the golden boot playing with France. If that doesn’t cap tie you to a country, I don’t know what would.

Neglecting him being cap tied to France and could never play for Spain, I feel like Spain might be even less aligned with his values.