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GM football fans. It’s Monday, Mar. 23 - Fifa projects record revenue, relegation looms for Spurs after their loss to Forest, and everything else you need to know. Forwarded this email? Sign up here.
KEY RESULT
English League Cup final: Arsenal 0-2 Manchester City. Pep Guardiola, who has won 19 trophies with Man City, has now become the first manager in history to win the EFL Cup five times. It is also Man City’s ninth EFL Cup/League Cup trophy, and they’re just one behind the all-time competition leaders, Liverpool. Meanwhile, Arsenal have lost each of their last four such finals and hold the outright longest run of finals without taking home the trophy by any side in the competition’s history. See the match report here.
Results…
Premier League: Newcastle 1-2 Sunderland | Spurs 0-3 Forest | Villa 2-0 West Ham | Brighton 2-1 Liverpool | Fulham 3-1 Burnley | Everton 3-0 Chelsea | Leeds 0-0 Brentford (Table)
La Liga: Real Madrid 3-2 Atletico | Barcelona 1-0 Vallecano (Table)
Bundesliga: Bayern 4-0 Union Berlin | Dortmund 3-2 Hamburger (Table)
Serie A: Fiorentina 1-1 Inter | AC Milan 3-2 Torino | Juventus 1-1 Sassuolo | Como 5-0 Pisa (Table)
Ligue 1: Nice 0-4 PSG | Lens 5-1 Angers (Table)
MLS (Results)
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TOP TALKING POINTS
FIFA’s Record Revenue
FIFA forecasts record revenue of $14bn (£10.5bn) for the 2027-2030 cycle, driven by the expansion of its flagship tournaments. Previously, football’s world governing body said it expected to bring in $13bn (£9.5bn) for the 2023-2026 cycle, which was already roughly more than double the amount Fifa earned in the cycle that ended with the 2018 World Cup in Russia and around 72% more than the $7.5bn over the 2022 Qatar cycle.
Fifa said the World Cup remains its main source of income, enabling what president Gianni Infantino described as “unprecedented resources” to be channelled back into global development. Fifa aims to reinvest 89% of its “budgeted investments” back into the game. See a breakdown of the budget here.
Last year, Fifa released a report, conducted by independent analysts, which said that both the Club World Cup and the 2026 World Cup would boost the U.S. gross domestic product by $47bn and create nearly 300,000 jobs. This optimistic projection is often countered by some research, which shows that, while short-term economic benefits are real, with Qatar seeing a 4% bump in GDP during the World Cup period, long-term impacts are much smaller than forecasts suggest.
Spurs’ Relegation Reality
Nottingham Forest have leapfrogged their fellow Premier League relegation contenders Tottenham by two points after their 3-0 victory on Sunday. Tottenham, who now sit just one point above 18th-placed West Ham, are given a nearly 40% chance of relegation by a major prediction market.
Spurs have not won any of their last 13 league matches, three off their longest top-flight winless run (16), which came between December 1934 and April 1935. Additionally, the north London side is the only team without a win in the Premier League this year, drawing five and losing eight of 13 league games since the new year. Only three teams in Premier League history have gone on longer runs without a win from the start of the calendar year.
Spurs’ next match comes against Sunderland away, a match considered “hard” by the Premier League’s fixture difficulty rating. After Brighton at home on Matchday 33, they will face fellow relegation contenders Wolves away, then Aston Villa (A), Leeds (H), Chelsea (A), and Everton (H).
Champions League Projections
Arsenal remain major favourites to win the Champions League with a 29.7% chance, according to Opta’s projection model. Mikel Arteta’s side will face Sporting in the quarter-final on April 7 and 15, following the Portuguese side’s second-leg comeback against Bodo/Glimt in the Round of 16 last week, where they scored five goals (aggregate 5-3).
Second-favourites Bayern Munich are given an 18% chcance of winning the Champions League after their 10-2 win over Atalanta on aggregate. Bayern are given a lower projection due to their tougher route to the final than Arsenal, as they face Real Madrid in the quarter-finals and then either Paris Saint-Germain or Liverpool in the semis. See the bracket here.
Third favourites are Barcelona (15.6%), fourth PSG (11.8%), and Real Madrid fifth (9.8%). Meanwhile, Liverpool are given just 7%, after being the favourites at the start of the season.
POLL
Do you think Arsenal's EFL Cup loss will impact their Premier League title run?
ON THE BALL
Europe
> Harry Kane scored to move within 10 of the Bundesliga single-season goals record as Bayern Munich beat Union Berlin 4-0 (More)
> Scottish Premiership leaders Hearts maintain their lead following a 1-0 win over Dundee on Saturday (More) | Celtic lost 2-0 to Dundee United to stay third and six points behind Hearts (More); see the table (More)
> Ashley Cole wins his first match in management with Serie B side Cesena, with the club not winning since February 6 (More)
> Khadija Shaw scored the WSL’s fastest hat-trick ever (12 mins 37 secs) in Man City’s 5-2 win over Tottenham (More); see the WSL table (More)
> Former French international Dimitri Payet has announced his retirement from professional football aged 38 (More)
Americas
> The U.S. Soccer Federation paid its men’s national team coach Mauricio Pochettino roughly $5m in his first seven months on the job (More)
> Sam Surridge scored three goals, already his third multi-goal game this MLS regular season, to help Nashville SC beat Orlando City 5-0 (More); see every MLS result (More) and Conference Standings (More)
> NWSL leaders Angel City overcame California rival Bay FC 3-1 on Saturday (More); see every NWSL result (More) and standings (More)
> USL Championship’s Louisville City are now unbeaten at home in the regular season in 26 games after their 4-2 victory over Rhode Island FC (More); see every USL Championship result (More) and Conference Standings (More)
Rest of the World
> The Women’s Asian Cup final, which saw Japan beat Australia 1-0, had the highest attendance in the history of the competition with 74,397 (More)
> Senegal’s 2026 World Cup shirt won’t feature a second star after they were stripped of their Afcon title (More)
ROUTERS’ VOICE
Friday’s Poll: Who do you think is the better goalscorer: Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi?
🟨 🟨 🟨 ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ 🇵🇹 Cristiano Ronaldo (35%)
🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🇦🇷 Lionel Messi (60%)
🟨 ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ✍️ Other (5%)
Your punditry takes:
🇵🇹 R.D.A: “Ronaldo, because the question is strictly about goal-scoring. When you consider that opportunities come from every angle and distance, Ronaldo has proven a versatility to score from anywhere, in open play and set pieces, with anything (left/right foot, head, heel, etc.) as needed. Messi may be the better overall goal-scoring opportunity creator. Full disclosure, I’m Portuguese.”
🇦🇷 L.J: “Time will tell, but Messi is younger than Ronaldo and still scoring at a higher level. As long as he can maintain his fitness levels, I expect him to eventually overtake Cristiano - unless CR7 is still playing aged 45, in the Cypriot 5th tier!”
✍️ J.L: “It's apples v. oranges. Speed and power v. Touch and technique. Work rate v. positional instinct. Both have 900+ career goals. There is no better in this comparison. Great v. Great. Icon v. Icon. The two best players of a generation. Just grateful I got to see them both play.”
EXTRA TIME
England announce 35-man squad for World Cup preparations.
Is Molina’s goal the best of the weekend?
Messi scores (another) free-kick for Inter Miami.
La Liga reveals throwback kits for the teams’ retro matchday.
… and every new Adidas 2026 World Cup away shirt.
Ligue 1 responds to Neymar “was never world-class” comments.
Ex-Chelsea midfielder Jorginho calls out an A-list singer.
One thing Pep Guardiola hates players doing.
GAME FACE ON
Question: Who was the only non-European Manager to win the Football League Cup?
Scroll below for the answer.
Daily Wordle: Guess the football-related word, from player names to classic phrases, in six tries or fewer. Play it here.
We are not artificial intelligence people... I want to celebrate.
Answer
Manuel Pellegrini of Chile with Manchester City in 2014 and 2016.
