Good morning football fans. It’s Wednesday, Apr. 1 - The first professional league to use the new offside rule, Fifa insists Iran will play its World Cup matches in the United States, and everything else you need to know. Forwarded this email? Sign up here.
KEY FIXTURES
UEFA Women’s Champions League quarter-finals (April 1): Bayern Munich vs. Manchester United, Agg 3-2, 17:45 GMT / 12:45 ET. While Bayern have a one-goal advantage, they have failed to progress from each of their last four UWCL quarter-finals. However, the German side have won all five of their previous UWCL home meetings with English sides, including a 3-2 victory over last year’s winners Arsenal in the league phase. Chelsea vs. Arsenal, Agg 1-3, 20:00 GMT / 15:00 ET. Chelsea overturned a two-goal deficit in last season’s quarter-final tie against Manchester City. That said, Arsenal have now won each of their last 11 competitive matches - a run that started with a 2-0 win over the Blues in January at Stamford Bridge. See every UWCL fixture here.
Results…
European World Cup qualifying play-off finals: Kosovo 0-1 Turkey | Sweden 3-2 Poland | Bosnia 1-1 Italy (Bosnia win 4-1 on pens) | Czech Republic 2-2 Denmark (Czech Republic win 3-1 on pens) (See World Cup groups here)
International friendlies (All Results)
TOP TALKING POINTS
New Offside Rule Trial
The Canadian Premier League (CPL) has officially confirmed that it will become the first professional league to use the new offside rule. The new rule, pioneered by former Arsenal manager and current Fifa Chief of Football Development, Arsene Wenger, states that an attacker will only be considered offside if there is a clear gap (“daylight”) between them and the second-last defender. Dive deeper into the new offside rule here (video).
"We like to do things that are different,” CPL’s chief executive James Johnson said. “We want to create some debates and also make sure the CPL is at the heart of a global football conversation, because we're innovative and that's how we want to be seen.” The CPL is trialling the new rule in the upcoming season, which begins on Saturday (April 4), and will work with Fifa to evaluate the impact on matches. Wenger thanked the Canadian Soccer Association “for their willingness to support Fifa” in testing the new law as it had previously been limited to youth football.
Alongside the offside experiment, the CPL will also introduce Football Video Support, a cost-effective VAR system, aimed at reducing time-wasting and improving match efficiency.
Spurs Hire De Zerbi
Tottenham have appointed Roberto de Zerbi as their new head coach as the Italian signed a “long-term contract” with the club. De Zerbi, who previously managed Brighton and Marseille, takes charge of Spurs when they’re just one point above the relegation zone and seven Premier League games remaining in the current season. His first match in charge will be at Sunderland on 12 April, followed six days later by a home game against his former club Brighton.
De Zerbi's footballing DNA “traces back to the Pep Guardiola tradition”, reports Guillem Balague for the BBC, including principles of positional play, pressing triggers, and control of the ball. The Italian coach, who is widely considered to be an outspoken character, left Marseille with the highest win percentage of any of the 34 managers at the club this century (57%), though Spurs’ outgoing manager Igor Tudor (56%) ranks second.
Fan groups said they can’t support De Zerbi’s appointment after he controversially supported winger Mason Greenwood at Marseille, following sexual assault charges against him, which were eventually dropped.
In related news, former Spurs chairman Daniel Levy has reportedly hired a law firm to assess potential litigation against ENIC — which owns 86% of the club — for what he believes was an “unceremonious” removal, per Bloomberg reports. Levy was in charge of Spurs for 25 years but was ousted from the club in September 2025. No reports indicate that a lawsuit has actually been filed yet.
FIFA Assures Iran’s Participation
Iran will play their World Cup 2026 games at US venues as scheduled, Fifa President Gianni Infantino has insisted. His comments follow the Iranian football federation’s statement in March that it was negotiating with Fifa to relocate its World Cup matches from the US to Mexico in the wake of tensions and the war involving the two countries.
"Iran will be at the World Cup," Infantino told AFP at half-time of Iran’s friendly against Costa Rica in Turkey, which Iran won 5-0. “I've seen the team, I've spoken to the players and the coach, so everything is fine.” Infantino went on to stress that Iran's "matches will be played where they are supposed to be, according to the draw".
Iran are due to face New Zealand and Belgium in Los Angeles on 15 and 21 June respectively, and Egypt in Seattle on 26 June. Iran’s national team is ranked 21st in Fifa’s World Rankings (see the list here), and they’ve qualified for six of the last eight World Cups. They exited the 2022 Qatar World Cup in the group stage following a 1-0 loss to the United States.
POLL
Do you think the proposed 'daylight' offside rule is a good rule for the game?
ON THE BALL
Europe
> Turkey, Sweden, the Czech Republic, and Bosnia-Herzegovina are the final European nations to have qualified for the World Cup (More) | Italy become the only nation to have won the World Cup and not make a third consecutive tournament (More)
> Man City’s Bernardo Silva has informed the club that he will leave in the summer with his contract expiring, per reports in Portugal (More) | Newcastle United’s CEO David Hopkinson says the club is not “looking to make a change” when it comes to manager Eddie Howe (More)
> England’s final home game before the World Cup ended in a 1-0 defeat to Japan (Match Report) | Sarina Wiegman has named her England squad that will be playing in April’s World Cup qualifying fixtures (More); see every upcoming European Women’s World Cup qualifying fixture (More)
> Napoli claims that Romelu Lukaku ignored a request to attend training and could face disciplinary action (More)
> Michele Kang will continue to fund the London City Lionesses’ growth after the WSL club posted a £10.6m loss for the 2024-25 season (More)
Americas
> USMNT vs Portugal and Canada vs Tunisia will conclude shortly after publication; see live results (More)
> The Intercontinental World Cup qualifier finals - Congo DR vs Jamaica and Iraq vs Bolivia - will conclude shortly after publication (Live Results)
> MLS commissioner Don Garber has hit back at the Egyptian football executive who urged Mohamed Salah not to join the league (More)
> Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum met with Fifa’s President Gianni Infantino to assess preparations for the 2026 World Cup (More)
Rest of the World
> Ghana have sacked head coach Otto Addo after four straight losses in their friendlies ahead of the World Cup (More)
ROUTERS’ VOICE
Yesterday’s Poll: Do you think VAR should be completely scrapped?
🟨 🟨 🟨 ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ 👍 Yes (30%)
🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🙅♂️ Nope (67%)
🟨 ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ✍️ Other (3%)
Your punditry takes:
👍 R.H: “VAR had made the game too technical. Sure, refs made mistakes, but they tended to even out over a season. Even VAR has made mistakes, but sometimes it takes too long to adjudicate, spoiling the rhythm of the game. The idea of expanding it to corners and second yellows will make it much worse.”
🙅♂️ E.P: “I would want to see reform rather than complete removal. Perhaps add something like coaches' challenges to reduce the number of reviews. Limit slo-mo. Make the offside line slightly thicker to allow for a margin of error. Those seem like relatively simple fixes that would improve VAR vastly.”
🙅♂️ S.D: “Like all new technology, it will take time to refine and improve. However, if we can make the high-impact (goals & penalties) decision-making more accurate and reduce the time delays through refinements, then most fans want an accurate outcome. Not sure it needs to be expanded to corners, however, if we can identify players faking contact and diving, and then punish them accordingly, that may be a good next step.”
EXTRA TIME
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ESPN updates its NWSL power rankings.
Australian player performs a Michael Jackson celebration.
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GAME FACE ON
Question: Who did Zinedine Zidane famously headbutt in the 2006 World Cup final?
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.
If we don't qualify for the World Cup, I'll move away from Italy, very far away.
Answer
Marco Materazzi.
