GM football fans. It’s Thursday, June. 12 - Club World Cup projections ahead of this weekend, Premier League viewership was down last season, and everything else you need to know. Forwarded this email? Sign up here.

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KEY FIXTURES

FIFA Club World Cup, Sunday 15 June: Paris Saint-Germain vs. Atletico Madrid, 20:00 / 15:00. PSG come into the Club World Cup with plenty of momentum, having beaten Inter 5-0 in a record-breaking Champions League final. However, the last time these sides met each other was in November 2024, where Atletico triumphed 2-1 with a 93rd-minute winner. Bayern Munich vs. Auckland City, 17:00 / 12:00. Bayern Munich have a 64.5% chance of winning Group C, and a 93.3% chance of finishing in the top two, according to the Opta supercomputer. Meanwhile, Auckland is projected not to make it out of the group, with just a 0.06% chance.

TV Channels: UK (DAZN UK, Channel 5) | US (DAZN USA) | Canada (DAZN Canada)

Dear Router. The R1 team will be off today for a team offsite, so there’ll be no Friday edition this week. Have a great weekend and we’ll see you bright and early on Monday!

TOP TALKING POINTS

Club World Cup Projections

The inaugural expanded Club World Cup starts on June 14 and will run until the final on July 13 in New Jersey. The 32 teams (see all qualified teams here) will be divided into eight groups of four, with each team playing each other once in a round-robin format. The top two teams from each group will then go through to the knockout stages.

Paris Saint-Germain are named as 18.5% favourites to win the competition, according to Opta’s prediction model. Luis Enrique’s biggest challenge is seen as Manchester City, who follow closely behind with a 17.8% chance. Despite their dip in form last season, City won all eight of their matches in the previous format, scoring 25 goals and conceding only two.

Bayern Munich are third-favourites (12.8%), Inter Milan are fourth favourites (12.3%), and Real Madrid are fifth favourites (9.8%). All 11 European teams make up the remainder of the top 11. River Plate, who are given just a 0.3% chance of winning the competition, are the best-ranked non-European side.

See all the fixtures here and the groups here.

Premier League Viewership Down

TV viewership numbers for Premier League matches dropped (paywall) last season following two previous record-breaking years. The drop was due, in part, to a lack of a close title race or relegation battle.

In the UK, Sky Sports viewing numbers were down 10% last season, compared to the previous year. TNT Sports, which also broadcasts Premier League matches, saw a 5% drop in its Saturday 12:30 pm kick-off. Reports suggest that viewership dropped off, particularly over the last six weeks of the season, and had been close to the 2023-24 season before that.

In January, NBC reported that audience numbers in the United States were down 5% from the same point in the season. The network attributed the slight decline to Manchester United's struggles in the league.

Serie A Abroad

Italy’s top flight is in talks to hold a league fixture between AC Milan and Como in Australia. It would be the first European league fixture to be played abroad, with plans being discussed for the match to be staged in Perth on the weekend of February 7-8, 2026.

The move has been encouraged as, on that weekend, Milan’s stadium San Siro is being used to stage the opening ceremony of the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics. However, Serie A has been open to the prospect of playing matches abroad, having partnered with promoter Relevent Sport to host matches in New York.

Previously, Fifa had forbidden competitive league matches from being held abroad, but Relevent settled a six-year-long lawsuit with the U.S. Soccer Federation, paving the way for European domestic games to be held abroad. Fifa subsequently set up a working group to explore the impact of moving domestic matches abroad.

POLL

ON THE BALL

Europe

> Liverpool and Bayer Leverkusen are in the final stages of agreeing a deal for Florian Wirtz; Liverpool made an improved second bid worth €134m (£113m) (More)

> Manchester City have confirmed the signing of AC Milan midfielder Tijjani Reijnders for an initial fee of £46.5m on a five-year contract (More) | Jack Grealish has been left out of Manchester City's squad for the upcoming Club World Cup (More)

> Serie A is planning to remove its ban on selling domestic broadcast rights to a single buyer, marking a major overhaul of the country’s media rules (More)

> La Liga president Javier Tebas has said that he considers the upcoming Fifa Club World Cup “completely absurd” and says Real Madrid and Atletico’s participation will impact the “entire ecosystem of national leagues” (More)

Americas

> USMNT conceded four goals in the first half against Switzerland as they lost 4-0 in what was their last friendly before the Gold Cup (More) | The US Soccer Federation established a committee tasked with recommending how to integrate the college game with the sport (More)

> Brazil secured their spot at the 2026 World Cup with a 1-0 win over Paraguay, taking the second of South America’s six automatic qualifying berths after Argentina (More)

> Chile will miss their third straight World Cup after losing 2-0 to Bolivia (More)

> The Mexican national team have changed hotels in Los Angeles ahead of their Gold Cup match on Saturday because of safety concerns (More)

Rest of the World

> Senegal became the first African team to beat England in their history (More); see the top 10 football teams in Africa, according to the stats (More)

ROUTERS’ VOICE

Yesterday’s Poll: Do you consider the Club World Cup a major trophy, given its $1bn prize pool?

🟨 🟨 ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ 🏆 Yes... (27%)

🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🙅‍♂️ Nope... (69%)

🟨 ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ✍️ Other... (4%)

Your punditry takes:

• 🏆 J.F.G: “Yes, with a $1bn prize pool, it’s hard to brush it off. It’s not the Champions League, but if you beat champions from every continent, that counts for something. It’s finally starting to feel like more than just a glorified preseason.”

• 🙅‍♂️ C.S: The issue seems to be that the Champions League has the history and tradition to make it more resonant as a trophy for now. Even the Toyota Cup or Intercontinental Cup felt less than the Champions League. A lot of this is due to the mismatched play strength of the teams in each competition. Club World Cup almost feels like the Diet Champions League.”

• 🙅‍♂️ P.C.S: “I suppose it's because it's an out-of-season tournament, basically like a pre-season exhibition, that it's not really a major tournament. And other than the money, there's nothing to be gained by winning it--no inclusion in the Champions League or anything like that. It may also have to do with the relative lack of publicity.”

• ✍️ L.J: “Honestly, I am undecided. It seems like the CWC has yet to establish a real identity for itself. Maybe this upcoming edition will help define it as either a major tournament, or a cash grab.”

EXTRA TIME

Opta ranks the strongest leagues in the world.

The most valuable players in the world right now.

One year out from the World Cup—everything you need to know.

Borussia Dortmund release unique new kits.

The smartest free-kick you’ll see this week. 

11 Club World Cup stars to watch.

What is the secret to Arsenal’s WSL crowd success?

The most followed football clubs in the world.

GAME FACE ON

For which club have each of the following pairs of players been teammates?

• Zlatan Ibrahimovic & Henrikh Mkhitaryan

• Samuel Eto’o & Cesar Azpilicueta

• Iker Casillas & Eder Militao

Scroll below for the answer.

ON TODAY

Brazilian Serie A

• RB Bragantino vs Bahia (23:00)

• Vitoria vs Cruzeiro (23:00)

• Foraleza vs Santos (23:00)

*All times in UK. ET -5. CDT -6. PDT -8. MDT -7. CET +1.

Answer

Manchester United. Chelsea. Porto.

Want more? Try our daily football Wordle – guess the name of a current or former player in six tries. Play it here.