- Route One Daily Brief
- Posts
- Euro Viewership Skyrockets
Euro Viewership Skyrockets
Club banned from Europe for decade | Yamal handed Messi's shirt | Palace blame Forest for UEFA ruling
GM football fans. It’s Thursday, July. 17 - Crystal Palace place blame on Nottingham Forest for their Europa League expulsion, the women’s Euro sees unprecedented viewership figures, and everything else you need to know. Forwarded this email? Sign up here.
KEY FIXTURES
UEFA Women’s Euro, Quarter-Final: Sweden vs. England, 20:00 BST / 15:00 ET. England have won just one of their last six meetings with Sweden across all competitions (D3 L2), with the most recent two ending in draws in qualification for Women’s Euro 2025. In the group stage, no team recorded a higher xG (expected goals) than both England and Sweden (both 9.34 xG), while only Spain (14) scored more goals than England (11 – level with France).
TV Channels: BBC / ITV (UK) | FOX Sports (US) | TSN (Canada)
Results…
TOP TALKING POINTS
Palace Blame Forest
Crystal Palace owner Steve Parish has suggested that Nottingham Forest played a significant part in his club being removed from next season’s Europa League. Speaking on The Rest is Football podcast, Gary Lineker speculated that Forest had influenced the decision, and Parish agreed, adding: “If there wasn’t someone who wanted to get in as a consequence, then there wouldn’t be a problem.” Forest could take Palace’s spot in the Europa League, representing a promotion from the Conference League.
Reports in June indicated that Forest had written to Uefa seeking clarity after raising their concerns over Palace’s Europa League place, citing a potential breach of multi-club ownership rules. However, there is no evidence that Uefa’s decision to remove Palace was directly caused by Forest’s intervention.
Parish also admitted that the club missed Uefa reminding them of the multi-club ownership rules as the emails were sent to ‘[email protected]’, an email used for general enquiries.
Palace have now confirmed they will appeal the ruling by taking their case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. “We don’t think this is the right decision by any means,” Parish said. “We know unequivocally that John [Textor] didn’t have decisive influence over the club. We know we proved that beyond all reasonable doubt because it’s a fact.”
Euro Viewership Rockets
Television viewership of the Uefa Women’s Euro 2025 has nearly doubled in the U.S. from the 2022 edition. Figures from Fox suggest that an average of 306,000 people are tuning into this year’s tournament, compared to an average of 161,000 three years ago. The most-watched match in the group stage was France’s 2-1 victory over England, drawing in 690,000 viewers, a 329% increase from the previous group stage.
In the UK, England’s group stage victory over Wales averaged 2.9 million viewers on free-to-air channel ITV1—more than double the audience that tuned into Channel 5 for the Fifa Club World Cup on the same day. These figures don’t include DAZN’s viewership as the streaming platform doesn’t release its figures, but reports suggest it was unlikely to significantly impact the UK audience totals.
While viewership for the women’s tournament is growing, a report earlier this month found that interest in women’s football still significantly lags behind the men’s game in terms of popularity. Between 11% and 20% of respondents said they were “very” or “fairly” interested in women’s football, while the men’s game drew 32% to 40% across the six countries surveyed. Dive deeper into the report here.
MLS Player Bonus Boost
The MLS Players Association successfully renegotiated how Club World Cup prize money is distributed to players. Under the previous Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), players received 50% of prize money, but with a cap of $1m. The new agreement ensures players receive at least 40% more than the previous cap and 30% of performance-based prize money, with no maximum cap.
It’s estimated that Inter Miami earned $20.7m in total, while LAFC received around $9.5m and Seattle Sounders slightly less. Under the new deal, Miami players will receive a total of $4.7m, LAFC players will receive $1.8m in total, and Seattle Sounders players will receive $1.4m in total.
These new terms will not apply to the next Club World Cup, which is scheduled for 2029, as the current CBA expires in 2028.
POLL
Do you think VAR should be involved in all decisions, not just goals, penalties and red cards?Leave your initials in your response if you'd like to be featured in tomorrow's edition. |
ON THE BALL
Europe
> Lamine Yamal has been handed the iconic Barcelona No. 10 shirt previously worn by Lionel Messi (More); watch his announcement video (More)
> A Montenegrin football club, Arsenal Tivat, have been banned from European competitions by Uefa for 10 years in a match-fixing case (More)
> U.S.-based fund Apollo is in talks with the owner of Atletico Madrid to buy a significant stake in the La Liga side (More) | Jude Bellingham had surgery on his left shoulder in London on Wednesday, and is expected to be sidelined for three months (More); Lucas Vazquez, who has made 402 apperances for Real Madrid, is leaving the club (More)
> Wales’ most-capped goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey has announced his retirement from professional football at age 38 (More)
Americas
> The Major League Soccer All-Star game will be hosted in Charlotte for the first time in 2026 (More) | Inter Miami are set to sign Rodrigo De Paul for a club record €15m on a four-year deal (More)
> Club America face Club Tijuana in their second game of the current Liga MX Apertura; result to be decided shortly after publication (See Result); see the Liga MX Apertura standings (More)
> Denver’s 2026 NWSL expansion team is close to hiring Nick Cushing, former Manchester City manager, as the club’s first head coach (More)
Rest of the World
> Wrexham lost to Sydney FC 2-1 in front of 40,000 fans on their pre-season Down Under Tour (More)
ROUTERS’ VOICE
Yesterday’s Poll: Are players' transfer fees justified given the amount of money in today's game?
🟨 🟨 ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ 👍 Yes... (32%)
🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🙅♂️ Nope... (67%)
🟨 ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ✍️ Other... (1%)
Your punditry takes:
👍 T.V: “Yes, money will always make money. If they are paying that much, that is how much the players are worth on an investment basis. The question is whether they should be making that much.”
🙅♂️ N.H: “Ultimately, it’s killing competition with only a few clubs being able to spend excessive amounts every year, regardless of how they performed in the previous season. Clubs who do want to compete with them are partly forced to price fans out with ever-increasing ticket prices.”
🙅♂️ V.S: “Some clubs are better than others in the market, but wasteful spending is becoming all too regular. The growing trend to overspend on transfers and agent fees is squeezing the average fan out of the game. Hopefully, the bubble bursts sooner rather than later.”
EXTRA TIME
Who deserves the Ballon d’Or? (analysis)
How American money is reshaping Scottish football.
Premier League clubs that have shared the most players.
A Champions League qualifier ended with 28 penalties.
Neymar shows no mercy–even with his son.
EAFC releases footage of its new game.
Which footballers have names similar to their positions?
Man United release new lilac away shirt.
GAME FACE ON
Question: Can you name the all-time top goal scorers in each of Europe’s top five leagues?
Premier League
La Liga
Serie A
Ligue 1
Bundesliga
Scroll below for the answer.
ON TODAY
UEFA Women’s Euro, Quarter-Final
Sweden vs. England (20:00)
*All times in UK. ET -5. CDT -6. PDT -8. MDT -7. CET +1.
Answer
Premier League: Alan Shearer. La Liga: Lionel Messi. Serie A: Silvio Piola. Ligue 1: Delio Onnis. Bundesliga: Gerd Muller.
Daily Wordle: Guess the football-related word, from player names to classic phrases, in six tries or fewer. Play it here.
I’m leaving Real Madrid, but Real Madrid will never leave me.