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Good morning football fans. It’s Tuesday, July. 14 - Only one person made the decision to suspend Balogun’s red card, the U.S. considers hosting another Club World Cup, and everything else you need to know. Forwarded this email? Sign up here.
KEY FIXTURE
2026 World Cup semi-final (July 14): France vs Spain, 15:00 ET / 20:00 BST. In what will be a record-breaking 26th game in charge at the World Cup, Didier Deschamps will aim to lead France to become just the third nation to reach three successive World Cup finals, joining Germany and Brazil. History is also on France’s side, having now progressed from all of their last four World Cup semi-finals. However, Spain are in immense form as they have lost just one of their last 27 major tournament matches, going unbeaten in the last 14 while keeping nine clean sheets. See team news and predicted line-ups here.
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TOP TALKING POINTS
FIFA’s American Encore
The United States has expressed interest in hosting the 2029 Club World Cup after having hosted the 2025 edition without a bidding process. Prior to these reports, it was thought that either Spain or Morocco, which are co-hosting the 2030 men’s World Cup, would be the front-runners for the next edition of the Club World Cup. There is, however, interest from the U.S., Brazil, and Qatar to host the tournament.
These reports come just weeks after the executive director of the White House's World Cup task force, Andrew Giuliani, said that the U.S. could consider making a bid to host the men’s 2038 World Cup. Sports business reporter Joe Pompliano speculated that Fifa had deliberately structured its hosting rotation to make the lucrative U.S. market the overwhelming favourite for the 2038 tournament. Under Fifa’s rules, confederations that host a World Cup are excluded from bidding for the next two editions, meaning Europe, Africa, South America, and Asia could all be ineligible by 2038, leaving North America as the strongest available option.
The U.S., which is co-hosting the men’s 2026 World Cup, is also expected to co-host the women’s 2031 World Cup alongside Mexico, Costa Rica, and Jamaica. The bid from these countries is currently unopposed and is expected to be ratified by Fifa later this year.
Premier League Workload
Manchester City players have played the most minutes at the 2026 World Cup among Premier League teams, clocking 5,027 minutes so far, according to Opta data analysed by BBC Sport. Spain’s Rodri has played 537 minutes, while the club’s record signing, Elliot Anderson, has played 533 minutes for England. Elsewhere, Liverpool’s Alexis Mac Allister and Aston Villa’s Ezri Konsa lead all outfield Premier League players with 539 minutes each.
Arsenal's squad have played the second-most minutes (4,285) at the World Cup, and seven of their players will have played up to 65 matches by the end of the tournament — 57 across a 2025-26 season that included a run to the Champions League final, plus eight at the World Cup. Liverpool (3,471), Aston Villa (2,849), and Manchester United (2,535) make up the rest of the top five. Meanwhile, although Chelsea players have been involved in three consecutive summer tournaments, they have the fewest World Cup minutes among the ‘Big Six’, at just 1,483.
Under player-welfare standards agreed by Fifa and player unions, players who took part in this summer’s World Cup are entitled to at least three weeks off after their final match. That means players involved in the July 19 final will not return to their clubs until August 10 at the earliest, leaving them less than two weeks to prepare for the start of the new Premier League season on August 21.
See the full Premier League 2026-27 season schedule here.
Balogun Decision Secrecy
It has emerged that only the chairman of Fifa’s disciplinary committee made the decision to defer the automatic one-match ban triggered by United States striker Folarin Balogun’s red card ahead of their round of 16 match against Belgium. The chairman, Mohammad al-Kamali of the United Arab Emirates, made the ruling without any input from the 17 other members of the committee.
While it’s not unusual for a sole committee member to make a decision, over more than 100 cases analysed by The Times (paywall) show that Kamali has never previously been the sole arbiter. Additionally, more significant cases (arguably including the decision to suspend Balogun’s automatic ban) usually involve three committee members in the decision-making process.
More than a week later, Fifa has still not published written reasons for the Balogun decision. In a statement, the governing body said the decision was made after “considering all of the specific circumstances surrounding the incident and evidence available,” but didn’t detail what was taken into account. Kamali also refused to answer questions from BBC Sport reporters about the decision-making process.
POLL
Would you like another World Cup to be hosted in North America?
ON THE BALL
Europe
> Manchester United are set to sign Aston Villa midfielder Youri Tielemans by activating his £35m release clause (More); they also signed Andrey Santos from Chelsea for £48m (More) | Paris Saint-Germain have agreed a deal with Lucas Digne to bring the Aston Villa defender back to Paris after paying his £10m release clause (More) | Liverpool’s new manager Andoni Iraola has said that the club needs to sign more players to replace key exits (More); see every transfer in the men’s top five leagues (More)
> The intern caught in the middle of Southampton’s spygate saga has now been offered a permanent role at the club (More)
> Slaven Bilic has been confirmed as Croatia's new national team head coach (More) | Ligue 1 club Racing Strasbourg have appointed Hugo Oliveira as their new head coach (More)
> London City Lionesses have signed defender Mapi Leon on a three-year contract following her exit from Barcelona just a week after signing her former teammate Alexia Putellas (More); see every deal from the women’s top six leagues (More)
Americas
> Argentina will wear their navy blue away kit to face England on Wednesday (July 15), possibly linked to a superstition as the kit is associated with Argentina’s wins over England in 1986 and 1998, Argentine media suggest (More)
> MLS side Charlotte FC have signed forward Allan Saint-Maximin to a three-year Designated Player contract (More)
> The United States women’s national team will host reigning World Cup champions Spain in a pair of friendly matches in October (More)
> Diego Forlan has become the Uruguayan interim head coach following the resignation of Marcelo Bielsa after the team’s group-stage exit from the World Cup (More)
Rest of the World
> Australian A-League players could soon take industrial action after their union rejected the latest proposed collective-bargaining agreement (More)
ROUTERS’ VOICE
Yesterday’s Poll: Is it a good thing that the four protected teams were kept apart and all reached the World Cup semi-finals?
🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 👍 Yes (66%)
🟨 🟨 🟨 ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ 🙅♂️ Nope (31%)
🟨 ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ✍️ Other (3%)
Your punditry takes:
👍 L.J: “Yes, it's not like they were given a bye. They still had to top their respective groups and then navigate other teams for this outcome to materialise. We also wouldn't have wanted to lose the likes of Messi or Mbappe had they faced each other in the first knockout round.”
👍 W.G: “It is the reward for being consistently at the top of the football world during four years. Period.”
🙅♂️ D.T: “The World Cup is looking more and more like it's almost 'choreographed' to end with these top countries ALL coming together at the end.”
🙅♂️ E.S: “What's the point of expanding the World Cup if we're just going to keep protecting the top teams to make sure they make it through to the end anyway? The draw should be random, and if top teams face off earlier in the competition, then fine, we get to see that blockbuster earlier. Clearly, the plan is to handhold the big teams to later rounds to get higher viewership and more money. It's a joke.”
EXTRA TIME
Jose Mourinho to feature in three-part docuseries on Netflix.
World Cup drives Google Search to record queries per second.
Tracking the air miles of the World Cup semi-finalists.
Mobile data shows a surge in dating apps during World Cup hydration breaks.
Meet the man trying to replace penalty shootouts.
Breaking down the four potential World Cup finals.
Ranking the most controversial England-Argentina moments.
The story of the World Cup's greatest scorer.
GAME FACE ON
Question: What do the current World Cup semi-finals share in common with the semi-finalists in 1970 and 1990?
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.
You don’t do a documentary with a guy that wins nothing.
Answer
These are the only men’s World Cup semi-finals in which all four teams are former winners of the competition.
