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GM football fans. It’s Wednesday, Jan. 21 - New York’s Mayor plans on speaking with President Trump over World Cup travel bans, a 71-year-old man has completed the EFL stadium challenge, and everything else you need to know. Forwarded this email? Sign up here.
KEY FIXTURES
Champions League (21 Jan): Bayern Munich vs. Union SG, 20:00 GMT / 15:00 ET. Bayern are unbeaten in their last 37 home matches in the Champions League group stage/league phase, recording 35 wins and 2 draws since their 2-3 defeat by Manchester City in December 2013. Marseille vs. Liverpool, 20:00 GMT / 15:00 ET. Marseille’s 2-1 win over Newcastle in November ended their 12-game winless run against English teams. However, Liverpool have won 16 of their last 19 Champions League group stage/league phase matches. Slavia Prague vs. Barcelona, 20:00 GMT / 15:00 ET. Since winning their first-ever Champions League game in September 2007, Slavia Prague have not won any of their last 17. Barcelona, who are 15th in the table, have won only one of their last five away matches in this competition. See every Champions League league phase fixture here.
Results…
TOP TALKING POINTS
Politicised World Cup
New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani, says he plans (paywall) to raise the impact of U.S. travel bans with President Donald Trump, hoping restrictions will be eased before this summer’s Fifa World Cup. Since Trump’s return to office, the U.S. has imposed travel bans affecting several countries that have qualified for the World Cup, including Senegal, Ivory Coast, Iran, and Haiti.
Mamdani also said he continues to pressure Fifa over ticketing, opposing dynamic pricing, calling for caps on resale prices, and requesting 15% of tickets be reserved at a discount for local residents. He also plans to appoint a World Cup “czar” to streamline local services ahead of the competition.
Separately, a German politician has suggested that the German national team could boycott the 2026 World Cup “as a last resort in order to get Trump to see sense” ahead of his plans to annex Greenland. Jurgen Hardt, who made the comments, is a foreign policy spokesperson for Germany’s largest party in parliament. Polling conducted by German outlet BILD before Trump’s latest threats revealed mixed support for a German World Cup boycott, with 47% of Germans in favour and 35% against if the U.S. took control of Greenland.
Stadium Challenge Complete
A 71-year-old football fan has completed a challenge to visit all 92 football grounds of teams in the English Football League. Malcolm Townrow said it had “only taken him” 57 years, four months, and 27 days to complete the challenge. He then described completing the challenge as a "slight anti-climax", adding he had been doing it for "so long". See a map and ratings of all 92 football grounds here.
Townrow, a retired teacher, went to his first game at the Old Manor Ground on 21 August 1968 to watch Oxford United play Blackpool. Wrexham’s ground, Stok Cae Ras, was the final match he attended, which he completed on Saturday when the home side lost 2-1 to Norwich City in the Championship. Incidentally, Stok Cae Ras is the world's oldest international football stadium still in continuous use, having hosted Wales' first ever international home game against Scotland on March 5, 1877.
The challenge requires watching a match at every Football League ground in England and Wales. Townrow actually attended 109 grounds, having also visited stadiums of clubs that were later relegated from the EFL.
Regulator’s Football Report
England’s independent football regulator will release a draft report later this year to “shine a light on the financial pressures, governance gaps, and structural risks” facing the industry. The regulator says the report, titled State of the Game, will be the most in-depth assessment of English football ever conducted. For the first time, it will be able to use statutory powers to access information from clubs and competition organisers.
One of the most significant areas of focus will be the Premier League’s parachute payments to relegated clubs, which are worth tens of millions of pounds. The English Football League believes these payments distort competition and has long argued they should be scrapped in favour of a greater redistribution of Premier League revenues. Dive deeper into the impact of parachute payments here.
Other areas it is set to cover include club and league finances, models of ownership, the broadcast landscape, and the impact of player wages and academy development on the game's financial sustainability. The final report is expected to be published in 2027.
POLL
Should football stay separate from politics?
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ON THE BALL
Europe
> Holders Chelsea Women will host former winners Manchester United on Wednesday (Jan 21), while Liverpool face Everton in a Merseyside Derby in the fifth-round proper of the Women's FA Cup (More)
> Coventry City have an eight-point lead at the top of the Championship with a 2-1 win over Millwall, though second-place Ipswich Town have a game in hand (Match Report); see the Championship table (More)
> Scottish league leader Hearts will be without injured top scorer and captain Lawrence Shankland for at least six weeks (More)
> Marc-Andre ter Stegen agrees loan move to Girona after suffering three injuries over the past three seasons (More)
Americas
> More MLS pre-season matches will begin this week; see the schedule for each team (More)
> The U.S. Under-17 women’s national team defeated Denmark 3-0 in the second of two friendly matches in Spain (More)
Rest of the World
> Fifa president Gianni Infantino and Uefa president Aleksandr Ceferin have intervened to save a local football pitch in the West Bank from destruction (More)
ROUTERS’ VOICE
Yesterday’s Poll: Is a Panenka ever the right choice for a penalty?
🟨 🟨 🟨 ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ 👍 Yes (27%)
🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🙅♂️ Nope (68%)
🟨 ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ✍️ Other (5%)
Your punditry takes:
👍 W.T: “If you're winning by 2+ goals with a few minutes left in the game and you feel like showing off? Maybe. Any other time, not so much. When Antonin Panenka first did it, it was truly magical. Now it just seems selfish.”
👍 P.J.M: “The job of the penalty taker is to get the ball past the goalkeeper and into the net to score a goal. Unless there is a rule in the code that forbids the technique, it should be available to the taker, just as any other technique to try outsmart the GK.”
🙅♂️ J.C: “Nope. It’s a cute gimmick, but nothing more. It is a clear sign that the penalty taker isn’t confident in their ability to score. Step up, don’t waste time, put your foot through the ball and into the back of the net.”
🙅♂️ J.Mc: “Generally, I feel it is somewhat disrespectful, even if a perfectly legal technique; however, more than that, any kind of technique that gives the opponent a better chance to thwart the taker is a poor choice.”
✍️ L.B: “The Panenka either makes you look like a genius or a complete fool. There is no in-between.”
EXTRA TIME
Everyone’s still talking about Dembele’s goal this weekend.
BBC’s Premier League team of the week.
Analysing Michael Carrick’s first game in charge of Man Utd.
Nike unveil unique Inter Milan fourth kit.
Watch Messi’s heatmap in La Liga from 2005-2019.
Who knew tactics with waterbottles worked so well.
Carragher & Henry brainstorm the next Madrid manager.
GAME FACE ON
Question: What specific combination of achievement (and failure) do these five football legends share?
Ronaldo Nazario. Gianluigi Buffon. Lothar Matthaus. Fabio Cannavaro. Francesco Totti.
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.
Children are allowed to make mistakes. That’s how they learn.
Answer
They have all won the Fifa World Cup, but never won the Uefa Champions League (or European Cup).
