Latest editorial
Football scarves pictured at Hackney Marshes, London
WE see in the plan to create a new 20-club competition the inexorable workings of the capitalist drive to monopoly.
There is already a chorus of criticism — from Britain’s Premier League, from Uefa and from Fifa — that is opportunistically joined by a host of politicians who are with the fans on this issue but with big money when it comes to doing something serious about the drive to monopoly power and corruption of billionaire ownership.
Even if each of our team’s demigods originally hailed from a Spanish barrio, a Neapolitan terrace, a Glasgow close or a Brazilian favela there is a fraternity and sorority of football fans that sees, even in closely fought contests, a sense that what makes football special is its character as the triumph of the popular over the elitist.
With climate change, commercial overload and endless fixtures, footballers are being pushed to breaking point. It’s time their unions became a more powerful, unified force, writes JAMES NALTON
Joao Pedro’s emotional goals against Fluminense captured the magic of an international club competition. But even as fans bring colour and passion, the Club World Cup’s deeper issues loom large, writes JAMES NALTON