The Barca financial meltdown and its subsequent impact on the La Liga competitive picture is maybe the most interesting story in world football right now. I don’t understand how they’ve reached the point they have without falling afoul of FFP rules and would like to know more about it. Apparently, there is a limit to which the super clubs can’t go beyond in an effort to collar the best talent in the world.
I know, right - how could there possibly be any corruption or shady goings on at the top level of world football? It’s independently regulated, right? 
To be clear - snark aimed at FIFA/UEFA et al, not you.
FIFA is indeed a terrible mess and I get grief about my chosen sport’s ruling body from non-footy-loving buddies all the time. Maybe a part of the equation is that teams like Barca are sometimes conduits for public relations boosts from their so-called “sponsors.” Until recently, Qatar Airlines sponsored Barca (now currently sponsoring PSG, I believe) and poured millions – probably in excess of market value – into club coffers, an almost impossible situation for FIFA accountants to evaluate.
I have ideas about solutions but I honestly don’t think that anything will really work to get the result I want out of soccer organization.
Can we rule out fixing with Barca? Or is that still in play?
(Always a little paranoid about the Dan Tan tentacles thing, myself.) (who, IIRC, was released from prison a couple years ago)
(He usually targets lower-level leagues, but still - it’d be nice to totally rule him out.)
Bayern didn’t have much trouble with Lazio today, nice to finally have them see a straightforward match. Jamal Musiala had a goal and was fun to watch, though I haven’t seen enough minutes from him to judge whether he’s a fantastic player, or a fantastic player for someone who’s 17.
Action-packed first half between Dortmund and Bayern Munich, with Haaland and Lewandowski each exchanging a brace. Bastards managed to come back from a 2-goal defecit to beat Dortmund.
More fun stats - Haaland took only 146 games to score 100 goals. For Ronaldo, it took 301 games, Messi - 210, Mbappe - 180.
Looks like there’s defensive issues at Bayern Munich, who have let in more goals, at this point, than they have in the last thirty years.
Oof, you aren’t kidding. Everyone on the back line has had problems, from injury to bad play. Flick tried to play Pavard through a slump, and that never happened, and now it feels like he’s trying to do the same for Davies.
It’s going to be a long remainder of the year.
Löw has announced he’s stepping down from the German national team after the Euros…Klopp has already said nope to taking the role. Tuchel is an obvious choice, as is Flick.
Klopp has said that he won’t be the next national coach because he wants to fulfill his contract at Liverpool until 2024. But what if Liverpool fires him this season, which seems not totally implausible regarding their current crisis? I still have my doubts, Klopp is someone who needs the regular league business with one or two matches per week and I don’t think coaching a national team with only 10 or 12 matches per year and a tournament every two years fits his ambitions. But we’ll see what happens…
Klopp has said he’d take a break if he ever left Liverpool, but who knows…maybe the MNT is something of a break, to your point.
I also see Rangnick mentioned.
If it’s any of those three, or even Flick, we’re going to see a lot of gegenpress, which is always entertaining.
I am, I admit, a CR7 disliker (but not necessarily a detractor - he’s often an astonishing player)…and so I did enjoy watching him bunny hop into the air with his back turned on the Porto free kick, and the ball go between his legs to the goal.
That aside, what an insanely impressive effort by Porto after losing a man.
Also, a wink to all the people who make fun of teams for having a player lie down behind the wall on free kicks. 
And Haaland scores and scores, again. Two against Sevilla, now 20 in his first 14 CL matches.
Rather than be the final piece of the puzzle for Juventus, they have got worse since Ronaldo joined. Being dumped out by Ajax, Lyon and now Porto is epic failure. They barely got over the line in the domestic league last season and are lagging behind this season.
He reminds me, as much as anything, of watching Shaquille O’Neal in college, when at LSU he sometimes played teams of what looked like little kids. Haaland is just SO big and fast, he’s incredibly hard to mark, and it’s a delight to watch.
I agree, he’s incredibly fast for his size. I’ve never seen such a player before.
It appears to me that the national talent pool in Italy is on the decline in general (I realize this doesn’t really apply to club teams but there is a general correlation with the strength of a league). Italy’s recent national teams have not featured very impressive lineups.
I saw the Haaland goal set up by Marco Reus and I was pleased to see Haaland immediately give all credit to Reus for the score.
I’d also note that Juventus has gone backwards in managers since Allegri left. Sarri was never a good fit and Pirlo doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing.
Jesus that Germany-North Macedonia match. Löw’s last WC qualifier for Germany, and what a pathetic way to finish.
Hey dopers. I’m only a half-hearted soccer fan, but I’m looking for a nightly quick-world-soccer-news-roundup show I can watch, with mainly highlights but also some commentary. Apparently there’s something called ESPN FC, but you have to subscribe to ESPN+ to see it. I have normal cable, so could record something nightly on cable, or stream something.
Suggestions?
thanks!
So there is a reason that ESPN FC which was on ESPN in the past has moved over to ESPN+. It got pretty bad ratings. The only thing close would be that NBCSN plays Sky Sports News every weekday at around 11pm Eastern? But that’s a 2 hour show which includes more than just soccer (probably can fast forward the other bits).
Though note, NBCSN is going away by the end of this year.