Village Idiot

They do, but politically they will probably budge if La Liga manages to muster enough internal support (mainly, the players, the clubs already are in favor).

The Spanish FA has formally told La Liga that it won't give authorization to playing league games abroad, citing that it would question the purity of the competition.

Ugly win for us yesterday, but a win nonetheless. We always have a very hard time at Anoeta. Ter Stegen saved our asses. My biggest worry is that Valverde tried to rotate with a Coutinho and Busquet-less midfield, and it really didn't work at all.

Jeezee... that picture hurts just by watching it.

La Liga limits wage expenditure as a % of revenue, and these are the officially issued wage caps for the season: Betis are really coming around after getting promoted.

Girona fans to stage a walkout in protest for moving their home game against Barça to Miami. Good on them.

I admire the brass neck of La Liga to have not bothered consulting literally anybody before announcing it I think they wanted to show a fait accompli expecting it would make everybody fall in line. We'll see what happens at the end. The clubs do want it. The FPA and the FA can be bought, if those agree the government will probably then stay clear.

Time to get the bribes out.

Spanish papers saying that the Spanish Government intends to veto the La Liga game in yankland. Looks like FIFA and CONCACAF are also against it, too.

Yeah, much more fun this way. My only but is that the 3-team groups are a bit sucky (would love more variety of opposition), but I guess it wouldn't be impossible to fit the extra games. They could always do like yank sports and not have a balanced schedule. It's just a tertiary competition after all.

From the article: That's pretty crap. I mean, the EL needs reform with less teams and more meaningful games and rewards, but if UEFA's answer is to kick out the teams from minor leagues to a shithouse third-tier competition...

Really? I missed that. It would be surprising for us to loan a prospect like him during his first senior year. We never do that. We were possibly looking at a loan this year, but his injury put a damper to that.

Caught the Barça B game this weekend, Aleñà was back after a 3 month layoff and was class during the half hour he was on the pitch. It's Segunda B, but he certainly was on another planet. Hope we get to see him more often for the first team.

It's a terrible idea. Besides timezone issues (are they going to play at noon, in June?), not every fan of a rich club is rich himself. It's already expensive to pay for travel to an away game in Europe, now they are planning to take the biggest game your club might play to another continent. Plus it just doesn't make sense to crown the best team in Europe in the USA

It's the biggest game of club football played in Europe. Goddamn yanks can have a CL final when I get to see LeBron win a ring in Barcelona

One of the biggest media moguls in Spain (owner of La Liga's rights and one of the masterminds behind taking it to the USA) has just said that he's aware of talks to hold a CL final in NYC.

Fuck this crap, now I have to boycott the game.

Our first Wembley win since 1981. Granted we haven't played England that much.

And that's why we want VAR.

BBC is holding a poll to choose the greatest Spanish footballer to ever play in the PL: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/45425893 As much as I love Silva, I voted for Xabi Alonso. Fábregas was a monster for Arsenal too, I think people seem to have forgotten that, probably influenced by how indifferent his stint at Chelsea has been.

The Maradona show goes on. He's apparently left that Bielorrusian club he was chairman of, and signed for - kid you not - Mexican club Dorados de Sinaloa. I guess he wanted a guaranteed quality supply.

Has the MLS said something about La Liga coming to America, by the way? I'm drawing a blank via google. Can't see the game happening if the MLS opposed it. I guess it could hurt the league if the Europeans start playing official games regularly down there.

The Spanish FA said they will block the Miami game. The league's president botched it by signing the agreement before getting all the stakeholders behind it. But he probably expected that a fait accompli would make everybody fall in line. The relationship between La Liga and the Spanish FA has always been rocky at best.

Apparently they’re after Cassano too. Can’t think what might tempt him there Ibiza and Cassano? Match made in heaven if you ask me

They threatened with a strike if this moved forward, will see how they react. I suspect it will end up with players being compensated for the trip and that will be it.