Football Daily | ‘Suited and booted’? Club World Cup lands in a furnace of political tension

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now!After years of existing only as a fever dream inside the shiny, spacious cranium of Fifa’s greatest showman, Gianni Infantino, the first edition of an expanded, summertime Club World Cup that nobody asked for is finally here. Infantino’s most ambitious vanity project to date is about to collide with reality, and as students of the Swiss school of football farce, we’re excited. It’s not so much a question of what will go wrong over the next 30 sun-baked days in an increasingly dystopian USA USA USA, but what might actually go right. Saturday’s opener pitches Egyptian giants Al-Ahly (who qualified by winning the 2021 African Big Cup) against MLS middleweights Inter Miami (who qualified by having Lionel Messi in their team) at the 65,000-capacity Hard Rock Stadium. Fifa has denied reports that fewer than 20,000 tickets have been sold for the game in Miami, but the tournament’s dynamic pricing model is trending in one direction: from $349 in December, some tickets are now cheaper than $60.The time has come for me to move on. But, even as I leave, I know I have left a big piece of my heart at Brentford, not just at the football club but with the community and, of course, the incredible and loyal supporters. For my family and I, it has been a privilege to be allowed to be part of such a special community – it’s an experience and adventure that we will cherish for life” – Thomas Frank pens a love letter to Brentford fans after racing round the North Circular for a different kind of adventure at the Cirque du Spurs.On the dawn of the ‘it doesn’t matter what you call it, it’s a disgraceful monstrosity that shouldn’t exist’, can I make a plea that we just ignore it? I mean, I know any reputable sports writer, or someone who has to knock out The Daily, can’t, because of journalism etc, but surely, the 1,057 can keep the letters section free of any mention of the wretched thing. C’mon folks, pedantry, nostalgic whimsy, godawful puns and lengthy diatribes about the state of it all suffused a sense of powerlessness and angst. We’ve got this. Maybe still go easy on the puns” – Jon Millard.Good luck to Crystal Palace fans, if Woody Johnson does buy John Textor’s shares (yesterday’s News, Bits and Bobs, full email edition). The Jets are an absolute clown show and have been so forever. Johnson is generally regarded as the stupidest owner in the league, and there’s admittedly tough competition. So, yeah, could be fun in south London” – Joe Pearson.Re: Trent Alexander-Arnold’s fluent unveiling (yesterday’s Football Daily). I assume Florian Wirtz will be busy reading and learning his scouse in time for the new season” – Kevin Quinn.When the new manager of Spurs inevitably reproduces his appalling starts suffered at his previous clubs, will the headline be ‘Frank’s side bottom’, accompanied by an image of Thomas’s spherical fibreglass head?” – Peter McHugh. Continue reading...

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