GM football fans. It’s Thursday, Jan. 15 - Arsene Wenger’s offside proposal receives opposition, PSG are the biggest winners from last season’s Uefa competitions, and everything else you need to know. Forwarded this email? Sign up here.
KEY RESULT
EFL Cup, semi-final first-leg: Chelsea 2-3 Arsenal. The Gunners led from the seventh minute onwards, with Ben White, Viktor Gyokeres, and Martin Zubimendi scoring the goals. Substitute Alejandro Garnacho scored twice to keep Chelsea’s hopes alive in the second leg, though Liam Rosenior is the seventh consecutive Blues manager to fail to win their first home game in charge. See the second leg fixtures here.
Results…
AFCON semi-finals: Senegal 1-0 Egypt | Nigeria 0-0 Morocco (Morocco win 4-2 on pens)
Copa del Rey quarter-final: Albacete 3-2 Real Madrid
Serie A: Napoli 0-0 Parma | Inter 1-0 Lecce (Table)
Bundesliga: Koln 1-3 Bayern Munich | Leipzig 2-0 Freiburg (Table)
Scottish Premiership: Falkirk 0-1 Celtic | Hearts 2-0 St. Mirren (Table)
TOP TALKING POINTS
Offside Rule Objection
The British football associations are opposing (paywall) Arsene Wenger’s proposed changes to the offside rule. The associations believe the so-called ‘daylight’ rule, which would keep an attacker onside if any part of the body that can score is level with or behind the defender, is far too drastic a change. Specifically, they argue that defenders will be forced to sit much deeper than usual. Uefa is reportedly in agreement after the British associations sought their opinion last week.
Instead, the bodies are expected to propose a compromise: an attacker would be offside only if any part of the torso is ahead of the defender, while feet, legs, and head would not be measured. This differs from Wenger’s approach, which would deem attackers onside unless there is clear daylight between them and the defender.
Fifa is set to propose that new trials are authorised next month by Ifab, the game’s lawmakers, before a change is implemented. The British associations have one vote each on Ifab, while Fifa has four votes, and any decision needs six votes to be passed (there’s a total of eight votes). The UK’s four nations hold 50% of the Ifab votes because they invented the modern game and formed the original board in 1886, predating Fifa—read about the history of Ifab here.
Dive deeper into whether Wenger’s daylight rule fixes offside’s problems here.
AFCON Final Confirmed
Senegal and Morocco will play each other in the 2025 African Cup of Nations final on Sunday (Jan 18) at 19:00 GMT / 14:00 ET. Viewers in the U.S. and Canada can watch the final on beIN Sports, while UK and Ireland readers can watch on Channel 4.
Senegal advanced after Sadio Mane scored the decisive goal in a 1–0 semi-final win over Egypt, ending Mohamed Salah’s hopes of winning his first continental title. It marked the third time Mane has beaten his former Liverpool teammate in decisive Afcon or World Cup matches, having previously prevailed on penalties in the 2021 Afcon final and the 2022 World Cup play-off. Notably, Salah failed to record a single touch in the opposition penalty area for the first time at Afcon in a match he played more than 45 minutes.
Hosts Morocco reached the final after defeating Nigeria on penalties following a 0–0 draw. They will now play in their first Afcon final since 2004 as they chase a first title since 1976.
PSG Win Big
Paris Saint-Germain topped Uefa’s prize money distribution last season, earning €144.4m (£124m; $168m) after winning their first Champions League title. Uefa distributed a total of €2.47bn among 36 clubs in the expanded format, up from €2.08bn the previous season–an increase of $400m due to the expanded format.
Seven clubs earned at least €100m, up from five the year before. Runners-up Inter Milan received the second-highest earnings at €136.6m, twice as much as each of the other four Italian clubs in the competitions. Meanwhile, Aston Villa were the only quarter-finalists to receive less than €100m, while Manchester City earned the lowest among the four English clubs, at €76m. Having lost all eight league-phase matches, Slovan Bratislava got the smallest payment of a Champions League team with less than €22m.
In the Europa League, Tottenham Hotspur earned €41m for winning the competition, while Chelsea received €21.8m for lifting the Conference League.
POLL
Should matches be 60 minutes (instead of 90) with a stop clock whenever the ball is out of play?
Editor’s note: Again, today’s poll question comes from a reader, Lee. You can also submit a question by replying to this email or emailing [email protected].
ON THE BALL
Europe
> Real Madrid were knocked out of the Copa del Rey by second division Albacete in Alvaro Arbeloa's first game in charge (More); watch the incredible 90+4’ winning goal (Watch / US readers)
> Tottenham have confirmed the signing of Conor Gallagher from Atletico Madrid for £35m (More) | West Ham United’s first-team squad have 50% salary reduction clauses in their contracts in the event of relegation to the Championship (More)
> Manchester City Women have signed United States midfielder Sam Coffey from Portland Thorns on a three-and-a-half-year contract for around $800,000 (£600,000) (More)
> Ajax have confirmed the loan signing of the son of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Maximillian, from AC Milan (More)
> Former Scotland and Chelsea player Eddie McCreadie has died at the age of 85 (More)
Americas
> USMNT and Crystal Palace defender Chris Richards has been voted the U.S. Soccer Male Player of the Year for 2025 (More)
> The New England Revolution’s ownership group plans to build a $500m football-specific stadium on a waterfront site on Boston’s northern border in Everett, Mass (More)
> The Mayor of Fresno, California, Jerry Dyer, announced an exclusivity agreement with the USL in a step to bring professional men’s and women’s football teams and a dedicated stadium to downtown Fresno (More)
Rest of the World
> Burkina Faso has fired coach Brama Traore and his assistants after the team’s disappointing Afcon (More)
ROUTERS’ VOICE
Yesterday’s Poll: Should rebounds be allowed from penalty kicks in normal time?
🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 👍 Yes (64%)
🟨 🟨 🟨 ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ 🙅♂️ Nope (34%)
🟨 ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ✍️ Other (2%)
Your punditry takes:
👍 P.D: “Of course they should. As soon as the penalty is missed (whether from hitting the post/bar or being saved), the ball is back in play. That also gives the defending team the opportunity to break forward quickly. I can see no reason why this should change.”
🙅♂️ G.M: “I believe a penalty kick is what it says it is, a penalty kick, nothing to do with rebounds. If they wish to allow rebounds, then the opposing team should be allowed to stand behind the goal line so they can defend the rebound better than if they are behind the ball during the kick.”
✍️ D.W: “Rebounds from where? From the keeper, yes, from the woodwork, no.”
EXTRA TIME
Every transfer in Europe’s top five leagues.
Why has no English boss won the Premier League?
See what football training was like in 1951.
The teams that have scored with just eight players.
Which Liga MX teams can stop the Toluca three-peat?
Where it all went wrong for Xabi Alonso.
What it’s like to be a caretaker manager.
GAME FACE ON
Question: What do the following players have in common?
Peter Schmeichel. Johan Cruyff. George Weah. Zinedine Zidane. Diego Simeone.
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.
This is my last Afcon and I hope to bring the cup back to Dakar.
Answer
They all have a son who played for the same club as them.
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