GM football fans. It’s Wednesday, Dec. 17- PSG have been ordered to pay €60m to Kylian Mbappe, Fifa introduces a new ‘affordable’ World Cup ticket tier, and everything else you need to know. Forwarded this email? Sign up here.
KEY FIXTURES
English League Cup, Quarter-Final (Dec 17): Manchester City vs. Brentford, 19:30 GMT / 14:30 ET. City are on a five-match winning streak in all competitions, while Brentford have only won once in their last five games (3L, 1D). When these sides met in the Premier League in October, City triumphed 1-0 away from home with Erling Haaland scoring in the ninth minute. Newcastle United vs. Fulham, 20:15 GMT / 15:15 ET. Newcastle and Fulham have already faced off in league action this season, with Eddie Howe’s side winning 2-1 thanks to a 90th-minute strike from Bruno Guimaraes. The home side will want to make a fast start as they’ve avoided defeat in their last 17 matches when scoring first.
Editor’s note: The Women’s Champions League league stage also returns on Wednesday for Matchday 6–see fixtures here and additional resources below in On the Ball.
Results…
EFL Cup QF: Cardiff City 1-3 Chelsea (Match Report)
Spanish Copa Del Rey, Last 32 (Results)
TOP TALKING POINTS
PSG Loses Wages Case
Paris Saint-Germain has been ordered to pay former employee Kylian Mbappe €60m (£52.5m; $70m) in unpaid salary and bonuses by a French court. Mbappe, who was initially seeking €263m for unpaid wages worth €55m and ill-treatment by the club, was countersued by PSG for €240m, citing damages and a “loss of opportunity” after he left on a free transfer. The ruling can be appealed and is unlikely to end the legal dispute.
In their counterargument, PSG argued that Mbappe backed out of an alleged August 2023 agreement that included a pay reduction should he leave on a free transfer. Mbappe’s camp denied this, claiming that the French captain never agreed to forgo any payment. The French court ultimately sided with Mbappe and found that PSG failed to pay three months of salary between April and June 2024, as well as an unpaid ethics bonus and a signing-related bonus.
In relation to Mbappe’s claim of ill-treatment, PSG rejected all accusations of harassment, highlighting that the striker took part in over 90% of matches in 2023-24 and worked under conditions compliant with the Professional Football Charter. Mbappe was, however, excluded from the club’s pre-season tour of Asia and missed their opening match of the 2023-24 campaign.
‘Affordable’ World Cup Tickets
FIFA has introduced a limited number of “more affordable” $60 (£45) tickets for all 104 matches at the 2026 World Cup. These tickets will be made available to a subset of “loyal fans” of qualified nations and will account for 10% of each national association’s allocation, equating to roughly 1.6% of tickets per match. Standard tickets for group games ranged from $140 (£104) to $700 (£521), with some of the most attractive matches starting at $500—see World Cup ticket prices here.
The entry-tier tickets will be distributed directly by national associations, with each federation setting its own eligibility rules to prioritise loyal supporters. For each national team’s ticket allocation, 50% of the tickets must be low-priced. For England and Scotland, that translates to around 400 tickets priced at £45 for each group-stage match.
These tickets weren't added as extra inventory. Instead, Fifa took 20% of the existing cheapest previous tier and converted it to this new $60 tier. The news came on the same day that Europe’s leading football supporters’ group wrote a letter to Fifa to say that the ticket pricing risked excluding disabled fans.
Best Awards Announced
Ousmane Dembele and Aitana Bonmati were named as Fifa’s Best Players of the Year for the men’s and women’s award. Dembele helped PSG to their first Champions League, with 51 goal contributions in 53 games, while Bonmati was key to Barcelona Femeni’s domestic treble, scoring 12 and assisting six in La Liga F. Both players also won the Ballon d’Or in September.
A scorpion kick by Lizabeth Ovalle, the most expensive player ever in women’s football, won the Marta Award for the best women’s goal of the year–watch it here. Meanwhile, Santiago Monitel was awarded the men’s equivalent, the Puskas Award, for his long-range bicycle kick for Argentine side Independiente–watch it here.
Elsewhere, The Best Men’s and Women’s coach award was handed to PSG’s Luis Enrique and England coach Sarina Wiegman. Manchester City’s Gianluigi Donnarumma and Chelsea’s Hannah Hampton won The Best Fifa Goalkeeper for the respective men’s and women’s categories.
POLL
Do you think it’s fair for ‘loyal fans’ to receive priority access to cheaper World Cup tickets?
ON THE BALL
Europe
> UEFA Women’s Champions League league phase concludes on Wednesday (Dec 17) with all nine matches kicking off at 20:00 GMT (15:00 ET) (Fixtures); see a preview of each match-up (More) and the league standings (More)
> Celtic can close the gap with Hearts to three points, with a game spare, if they overcome Dundee United away from home (More); see the Scottish Premiership table (More)
> The driver who ploughed through Liverpool’s victory parade with a car has been sentenced to 21 years and six months in jail (More)
Americas
> United States midfielder Tyler Adams has possible medial collateral ligament damage after Monday’s Premier League game; he’s in doubt for the World Cup (More)
> The Leagues Cup 2026 dates have been confirmed, with Phase One to begin on August 4 and conclude on September 6; see tournament information (More)
> Santos are in advanced talks to renew Neymar's contract until the 2026 World Cup (More)
> The NWSL has agreed a deal with IMG to manage and license the worldwide video archive rights for its leagues and competitions (More)
> Washington claimed its first men's national championship with a 3-2 overtime win over No. 15 seed N.C. State in the NCAA Division I Men’s Soccer Tournament final (More)
Rest of the World
> Jordan beat Saudi Arabia 1-0 and advanced to the final of the FIFA Arab Cup where they will face Morocco on Thursday (Dec 18) (More)
ROUTERS’ VOICE
Yesterday’s Poll: Do you think individual awards are important to the game?
🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 👍 Yes (57%)
🟨 🟨 🟨 🟨 ⬜️ ⬜️ 🙅♂️ Nope (40%)
🟨 ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ✍️ Other (3%)
Your punditry takes:
👍 L.K: “The talent and hard work being at the top of any skill should be recognised. Give us all a bar to strive for. Show us what’s possible.”
👍 E.M: “Individual awards stimulate competition at the highest levels of performance and drive average players to strive for higher levels.”
🙅♂️ M.M: “They are not unimportant. But I can't see them as drivers of the game's growth. They just recognise events and performance from the past. Fans like them because they are good for memories and arguments in the pub. Players like them because they give them more bargaining power at contract negotiations. Clubs like them because they sell merchandise.”
✍️ J.L: “I think individual awards are important to the popularity of the game. Anything that brings more people to the beautiful game is important. That being said, anything, actually everything, that happens off the field is not important to me. That is an individual preference. As a fan, I LOVE watching football, and I also do not care in the least about anything that happens off the field except transfers, because that relates directly to what happens on the field. Who wears what.. says what.. wins an award.. makes endorsements... etc, etc. Not important to me.”
EXTRA TIME
Forget Panenka–there’s a new style of penalty in town.
Visually impaired Palace fan makes commentary history.
BBC’s Premier League team of the week.
Olivier Giroud builds his all-time teammates XI.
USL Championship goal of the year nominees.
The EPL sides most impacted by AFCON. (analysis)
The 100 best male footballers–numbers 100-71.
Mainoo's brother wore a 'Free Kobbie' shirt at Old Trafford.
GAME FACE ON
Question: Who was the first player to score 100 Premier League goals?
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.
From the club, I felt it was, 'If you go, it's not so bad for us'. It hurts me a bit.
Answer
Alan Shearer.
