u/Sparky-moon

> A joint letter to the Fifa president from the Uefa and Concacaf confederation presidents says that an analysis of Fifa’s finances shows the payout, worth $10m each to the 211 member associations, would be “conservative and more than manageable”.

> The letter has been copied to all members of the Fifa Council who meet in Zurich this week, with many seeking answers from Infantino as to why they were not consulted about his plan to set up a new body called Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) to sell off 20 per cent of the World Cup and other tournaments.

> The letter to Infantino also states that there should be a “simpler, more accessible process” for national associations to access Fifa funding. It adds: “We propose a prudent reserve of approximately USD 2.3 billion, representing one year of projected recurring expenditure.

> “I looked into how to get rid of him, but I was told he couldn’t be fired.” This harsh statement is directed at the author of this article.

> Maarten Petermann (1), a Dutch partner and executive at Merlyn Partners, the company that has owned LOSC since 2020 wrote this on June 17, 2022, in a WhatsApp group chat.

> Years of investigation have brought new information to light. These revelations originate from an investigation conducted in Italy by the Milan Public Prosecutor’s Office into RedBird’s acquisition of AC Milan from Elliott Management in 2022 (3), following a complaint filed by a minority shareholder, Blue Skye. Searches conducted by the financial police, the Guardia di Finanza, in January 2023 and then in March 2024 led to the seizure of WhatsApp chats, emails, and text messages from Giorgio Furlani’s phone. This former Elliott finance executive previously oversaw the hedge fund’s investment in LOSC.

> These exchanges reveal links between Lille and AC Milan in how the two clubs were managed. They also show decisions on Lille's transfers (Sanches, Onana, Botman) that were tied to discussions about AC Milan's governance.

> Elliott was suspected of exercising control over the Dogues, since the companies (Birch) that finance the holding company behind Lille (Callisto Sporting) are registered at Elliott in Delaware (United States). A situation that, if proven true, would have disallowed Lille and AC Milan from competing in the same European competition during the same season, which they did twice.

> Cristiano Ronaldo was the best. He no longer is. And it's not his fault, it's the dictatorship of time. This is not a criticism. It's life. It's football.

> The problem begins when people expect the past to keep ruling the present. Because the past matters. It's memory, identity, history. But it doesn't step onto the pitch.

> If Cristiano Ronaldo were Norwegian, would anyone imagine Haaland on the bench just because Ronaldo was the best player in the world? If he were French, would Mbappé have to leave the starting eleven because Cristiano once stood at the top? If he were English, would Kane lose his place for the same reason? Of course not.

> So why should it be any different because he's Portuguese?

> The National Team is not a museum. It is not a monument to Cristiano Ronaldo. It is a football team. And in a football team, whoever the manager feels should play, plays. This is what Jorge Jesus rightly decided to remind everyone, including Cristiano Ronaldo.

> One club chief told The Times it would be “unacceptable” for the case to drag on into next season and said new Premier League rules around the timescale of appeals should be enforced.

> One leading club chief said: “The new regulations around the timescale of appeals have to apply.

> “We have all waited far too long and it is high time that this whole thing came to an end. The view of many of the clubs is that it would simply be unacceptable, after all this time, for it to go beyond the end of the season.”

> The players are discussing among themselves the possibility that the club will be hit with a major points deduction, which would make relegation to the Championship unavoidable.

> JJ Gabriel, the 15-year-old prodigy nicknamed “Kid Messi”, has unexpectedly asked to quit Manchester United.

> In a move that has left United shocked and is almost unprecedented, Gabriel – whose full name is Joseph Junior Andreou Gabriel – has sent formal notice that he wishes to cancel his registration at the club with immediate effect to become a free agent.

> It is understood that Gabriel is not in line to immediately join another club, but has decided he wants to leave United – the club he has played for since the age of 11.

> Spurs have not scored in any of their first four league matches, over 400 minutes of football, and again struggled to create many meaningful moments.

> “I do believe politics and football do not have to be partners in any way,” he begins, “but the problem is that football reflects what people think — it can be heard in the stands: racism, a lot of things. So is it really possible to divide football and politics?”

> “Federations are political, the financial aspect, everything is linked. It’s a bit like a government. As long as the politicians take the best decision for the people, it’s not a problem. But, if the politics are — I’m not going to say ‘corrupted’, but go against sport — then it’s dangerous.”

> “And that’s what we had with Balogun. The consequences of their defeat went on him, but he didn’t ask for anything. This was too much, too much on him. But after that incident, this conflict, everyone wanted us to beat America because of that situation. Everyone wanted them to be eliminated.”

> “The positive is that we have seen America is a sports country and they have the infrastructure to organise a World Cup every year. But as long as it stays about football and nothing more. The problem is that football was not the first priority at World Cup 2026.”

> In the name of love, and of marriage, we excuse many things: concealment, because our parents may not accept whom we have chosen to love; the idea of submission to our parents' will - because, well, they know best; silence, for disclosure may result in rejection. And yet, a question that haunts us all today is, would it break someone - or save them - to simply say: No. I am sorry. This is not for me. I cannot be with you.

> One of the sharper revelations of rewatching Monsoon Wedding after 20 years is seeing how Indian family life runs on a low, continuous hysteria that insists on calling itself love: elders shout across rooms, a mother feeds you against your appetite, a father organises your future education, and an uncle invades your privacy. Such a public performance of love sacrifices the truth of our lives. Indian families make honesty unserviceable. And after doing that, parents offer judgement like a bandage. The great unspoken in many families is not the child's secret, but the possibility of parental error.

> Aristotle recognised that friendship between parents and children is not a friendship of equals. Yet, inequality of role does not amount to ownership. In Plato's Apology, Socrates' peculiar wisdom lies in recognising the limits of one's own wisdom. I may possess experience, the parent who reads Socrates might surmise, but experience is not omniscience.

> Here the parent might ask their offspring: do you have enough experience to make the right decision? Perhaps the answer is that they do not - but the decision must still remain theirs. How quickly we invoke the idea of karma, except when it comes to accepting that sometimes the daughter's mistake is also her own karma to work out. To claim another's karma is to commit a kind of spiritual theft - a confiscation of the very consequence through which a person learns to become themselves.

> Kant is famously uncompromising about truthfulness, arguing that lying injures the very basis on which human beings can trust one another. So a child might argue: I have to tell you the truth, even if it hurts you, because silence may eventually injure more lives than candour does now.

> But why is it so difficult for an Indian parent to hear the word 'no? I will not marry the man you have chosen. And why must the relationship threaten to break down over this refusal? Is it because parents see themselves not only as the biological creators of their children but also as lifelong architects of their fate?

> Such hostile reactions encourage deception. Yet, by withholding decisive information, the deceiver chooses not only for themselves but for another person as well; this is a theft of moral agency. The family that knows its daughter is attached elsewhere, yet proceeds with an engagement, perpetuates this falsehood. It may believe it is saving one child, but it is merely using another family's son as medicine for a condition that has no cure.

> The sooner parents learn to accept that a son or daughter saying no is not a personal rejection but evidence of adulthood, the more room there will be for real love. It is in recognising the otherness of the other person that we arrive at our own individuation: this is where I end, and you, my child, begin. Every boundary is not a wall but a window. It allows two people to truly see one another, rather than consuming each other whole.

> The Bhagwad Gita commences in a moment of crisis, with Arjun facing duties that contradict one another: kinship, justice, compassion. The point of dharm is not that duty is obvious, but that human beings are frequently caught between legitimate contradictions, each one true to itself. A child owes something to the family, but not the surrender of their will; the parent owes protection, but this cannot take the form of possession.

> Unlike Kant, who insists upon absolute truthfulness, the wider Indian philosophical tradition often places satya, truth, beside ahimsa, non-injury. The Gita surpasses both Kant and the confessional tradition - a truth spoken with the intention to wound is not necessarily virtuous; equally, a deception intended to keep the peace seldom serves peace for long.

> Kierkegaard believed that choice creates the self, but every real choice excludes another life. When a woman chooses one person to marry, she is also excluding someone else; this is both her right and her duty. "Man is condemned to be free," wrote Sartre, explaining that, once thrown into the world, a person is responsible for what they do. Therefore, a person who, for whatever reason, does not speak their truth, must suffer for their silence. While silence may imprison the person who keeps it, the unforgivable act is to make another, entirely innocent, person serve its sentence. Perhaps the unspoken thing is not whom we love, but the simple 'no' with which we might spare another life. No, I cannot marry you. No, I cannot live the life chosen for me. No, I will not ask that you pay for my silence.

> "You put Quiñones in, but what did he do at the World Cup (four goals with Mexico, eliminated in the round of 16, editor's note)? When I saw that, I wondered if it was a joke. Let's speak seriously, I don't even watch this ceremony. For attackers, winning the Ballon d'Or is everything. This ceremony no longer makes any sense.”

> "Since the Messi-Ronaldo era, I haven’t paid any attention to this award. They had incredible stats, and if they didn't win a major title, you didn't really care because their season was incredible. Now, there isn't necessarily one great player standing above the rest."

> Lewis Hall has agreed a new five-year deal to stay at Newcastle United, with the contract expected to be announced on Wednesday.

> The Times understands Manchester United contacted Newcastle directly during the summer about the player but were told emphatically that he would not be for sale, regardless of their offer.