We get a kicking for being sniffy about the Club World Cup, with Chelsea making history and all that.Send your views on all subjects to theeditor@football365.comShall we predict the first Premier League manager to be sacked? That sounds fun…It’s racist to denigrate the Club World CupI’ve been an avid reader of this website ever since I discovered it in 2008. I’ve always loved the balanced and nuanced articles and especially the mailbox. What F365 gives in terms of content can’t be found on many other sports websites.However F365’s coverage of the club World Cup has been abysmal/appalling to say the least.Let’s start with the qualification for the tournament. A tournament that is hosted every four years cannot have the immediate current holders of titles being invited. It’s clearly obvious that FIFA is using a system where the top most consistent performers (coefficient) over a given period are selected. F365 pretends not know this and keep banging on about a tournament without Liverpool blah blah.(Of course we know; we detailed it all here. We know and still choose to be dicks about it – Ed)Secondly F365 has always pushed for inclusivity and have even had some complaints in the mailbox about the political undertone of some articles…(looking at you Johnny Nic) So what happened this time? Is football a European only sport? The dismissive tone towards a tournament that’s been enjoyed and heralded by the whole world beggars belief. It’s this usual dismissive nature of Europeans that manifests itself as racism and all the other modes of bigotry. To put it bluntly your coverage has just been a whole lot of bigotry.We enjoy the World Cup when nations from all over the world come to play so why not a club World Cup in which other tournament format would clubs from different continents play each other? England might not like it. The rest of Europe might not as well. Guess what though…the rest of the world bloody loved it.Also what’s with the derogatory comments about other nations spending money on sports to improve their performance or profile in said sport? Sportswashing you say? No continent has committed more atrocities in the world like Europe has, no country has committed more atrocities in the world than England has. So what moral right does any European have to call this sportswashing by Saudi Arabia. The world watches on as Europe (especially England) and America aid Israel in their genocide of Palestinians..we don’t hear you calling every European investment in sports sportwashing.European club football is what it is today because of the money invested over the years. It is what it is today because the money has attracted the best from all over the world. Europe has no exclusivity to financial investment in sports and must start to accept the fact that other countries have money and are willing to invest in sports as well.The obnoxious coverage from this website has been disappointing and for the first time in years I haven’t visited the site on a daily basis because I know you have no content of any value on the CWC.Do better!!!The CWC was amazing and enjoyed by football fans all over the world. The world isn’t a stage for only European clubs to perform.Paco (Chelsea fan in Accra)READ: Donald Trump and Chelsea turned this into the MAGA World CupChelsea making historyLong team reader, first time writer. Have never felt compelled to write into the mailbox before, usually just peruse on a daily basis to take in the wild and wonderful opinions.But the ‘coverage’ given to Chelsea over the Club World Cup just got under my skin enough to write in.First up? This assertion that Chelsea shouldn’t be in it and that it’s a completely different set of players. Chelsea didn’t make the criteria for the tournament, so can hardly be mocked for taking part. Different set of players? Is that not true in the national sides from World Cup to World Cup. If a team won and then are automatically in the next iteration, does the squad and starting XI have to be the exact same?Next up, this assertion Chelsea simply bend the rules, spend recklessly and look for loopholes. A certain amount of that may hold weight however, when it comes to player sales and income recouped for the club, Chelsea are faraway leaders in this field, having generated over a billion in the last decade. But that doesn’t fit the narrative does it?This Chelsea team, which has been mocked for the last few years specifically just beat the ‘Best Team in Europe’. And it was no fluke. It wasn’t a 1-0 victory with an early goal and backs to the wall. They set out their stall from the very start, worked tremendously hard, were brilliantly set up and had the quality to finish off their chances.Cole Palmer. What else is there to say? My 3 year old son was making the cold celebration after he scored the second goal. Simply a big game player and still unreal how little we paid for him in the scale of things. And you know what? He’s only going to get better.Maybe a bit of credit could go their way instead of belittling the achievements.All the other clubs in the Premier League would have loved to have been part of this tournament. The prize money on offer for a few weeks work sees to that.So everyone else can look on enviously as Chelsea wear the ‘Club World Cup Champions’ badge on their kits for the next 4 years. The fact it’s riled so many people up and they have gone out of their way to try and diminish this achievement just shows that we are on the way back and teams should be scared.Everyone talks about history, Chelsea continue to make it. Beating PSG? Completed it mate.Alan, BelfastMEDIAWATCH: Club World Cup ‘naysayers’ now have to ‘chew it raw, for four years’Actually, it was w***I think this tournament was the point for me where football, and FIFA in particular, jumped the shark.We’ve seen scope creep for years – long-distance pre-season tours, expanded Champions League, introduction of Nations League, etc.But none of that has felt like this.Odd numbered years are meant to be summers that are relatively football free. It gives players a chance to properly recover. It gives clubs a chance to breath, take stock, plan their transfer activity etc. It also gives fans a bit of a break as well – even the biggest obsessives would have to concede, it is healthy to come away from it for a while.But this shit show has ruined all that. It is almost certain that Chelsea, PSG, Real Madrid and several other European sides are going to suffer badly this season through lack of downtime, especially at the back end of the season. Also, what sort of tournament allows clubs transfers DURING it? It makes a total mockery of the competition.And don’t get me started on the 25 minute half time “entertainment”.I didn’t see much of it until the semis but what I saw just didn’t stir me at all. It felt like a Barclays pre-season tournament.I pray that common sense prevails and this thing is quietly binned for 2029. Klopp had it right, the worst thing to happen to football in decades.Andy H, Swansea…No Kirk Howard, the reaction to the CWC isn’t because we are all little Englanders. It’s because we can all see it for what it is, nothing more than a cynical cash grab from a organisation that seems to care very little about the welfare of the players who make all this money for them.But if you are happy watching players get overloaded with more and more games and being made to play tournaments in ridiculous locations, at ridiculous times of the year in temperatures that aren’t suitable for football and then have no rest before the next season, then good luck to you.But don’t be surprised that anyone old enough to remember that the you tube shorts, playstation version of football that kids these days seem to think is real life are actually getting more and more bored and switched off to the money grabbing circus football has become – the CWC just being the latest tedious example of it. (For the record, no, I did not watch a single minute of it because I have absolutely zero interest in what are little more than meaningless cash grabbing friendlies).James, Godalming…All you need to do is spend billions, distort the transfer market, exploit every single PSR loophole ever imagined and you too can win a competition nobody cares about.Chris, NUFCBring back BlatterIt shows how bad Infantino is that I would even welcome Sepp Blatter back as head of FIFA.Infantino is single handedly destroying football and no one is stopping him. I didn’t watch one minute of the club WC but as soon as I read the reports of the half time entertainment and Trump being involved I knew I had made the right decision. Not one football fan wants the half time show thing, hell I don’t even watch the opening ceremonies of the World Cup. God only knows the sh*t they have planned for next year’s WC.I have lost interest in the PL for a while and tbh the only football I watch now is the international games for Euros, Nations league and on club side, our local leagues and the UCL. Football is slowly being taken away from football fans and being made into a rich persons play thing and being redefined as entertainment rather than sport.Ken, Cork, IrelandWhy Arsenal to business with ChelseaIn response to Seamus, Sweden’s mail this morning about Arteta’s transfer record I think fans must understand how a club with limited financial resources aiming to compete at the very top works.Despite some big money signings lately Arsenal are not like Chelsea or Man City who can spend so much as PSR allows those clubs to do so (Chelsea sold their women’s team and hotels, Man City sold a lot of fringe and academy players).So how do Arsenal compete and get a squad together (Note I said squad not team, as last season proved the impact of injuries mean you need at least around 18 really good players to be potential champions and compete in other top competitions like Slot brilliantly did last season benefitting from Klopp’s squad building).Well first you spread your limited budget across many seasons. Yes no one else was paying £55m for Madueke and £65m for Havertz. But you know why it works for Arsenal. Chelsea are happy to spread the cost over many years. Unlike a Sporting Lisbon who want a substantial chunk of money upfront for Gyokeres, Chelsea do not need a substantial chunk upfront. Spreading the cost even helps them as they have income coming in over many years aiding their PSR over those years as well as shifting a player they do not want for a profit. Arsenal gains a talented player who can help with their squad and at the same time stay within their limited budget. This allows Arsenal to spend £60m upfont for Gyokeres and explore a deal for Eze if Palace are willing to accept money in instalments.In effect Arsenal payment for new players this window could be like thisGyokeres – £60m, Madueke – £10m (assuming over length of 5 year contract), Eze – £20m (instalment), Mosquera – £15 (instalment), Zubi – £51m, Noorgard – £10m, Kepa – £5. £171m spent to bolster the squad. Clever!So next time someone asks why Arsenal continue to do business with Chelsea. Well now you know!Michael O, ChingfordThe most important business of the summerFrom watching the under 21 Euros (hurrah England) and the Women’s Euros (c’mon England) I have to report the most important and pressing matter in world football is the new 8 second rule for goalkeepers. Specifically three things.Firstly, refs appear to already be going weak on it. I have seen several instances for 14/15 second holds by keepers with no action. I haven’t watched every second of every match but I have watched a lot (as well as a couple of pre-season friendlies live) and have yet to see a corner given. If they have already stretched out to 14/15 seconds, what is the point?Secondly, television needs to catch up. While there has been some stretching out, the vast majority of the time keepers are releasing the ball a lot quicker. However, TV is still in the old world of switching to crowd shots, manager reactions or replays as soon as a keeper catches the ball. In the England v Wales match they showed two super long replays of a Wales shot and by the time they switched back to live football Lauren James had the ball on the left wing level with the Wales penalty area. Showing anything other than the ball in play when the ball is in play is an absolute crime and this is going to get really annoying.Lastly, when the Premier League starts players are going to latch on to this rule and just stand right next to the keeper. Not blocking them as such, but a couple of yards away to stop the short roll out. We are going to see a lot of long balls as a result of this rule.Micki (either have the rule or don’t. I can never understand why some rules are enforced and others ignored) Attridge
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