GM football fans. It’s Tuesday, May. 27 - Aston Villa file a complaint against a costly referee decision, Liga MX side ends a 15-year title drought, and everything else you need to know. Forwarded this email? Sign up here.

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KEY RESULT

League Two Play-off Final: AFC Wimbledon 1-0 Walsall. AFC Wimbledon return to League One after a three-season absence, joining Doncaster Rovers, Port Vale and Bradford City in promotion. Walsall missed out on automatic promotion despite initially having a 12-point lead at the top of the table earlier this season, but they went 13 games without a win and Bradford City scored a last-minute winner on the final day of the season to pip third place. Full match report here.

Results…

• Scottish Premiership Play-off Final: Ross County 2-4 Livingston (Agg 3-5)

• German Bundesliga Play-off Final: Elversberg 1-2 Heidenheim (Agg 3-4)

TOP TALKING POINTS

Villa File Referee Complaint

Aston Villa have filed a complaint to the referees’ body PGMOL, accusing referee Thomas Bramall of making a “mistake” that potentially cost the team a place in the Champions League. Villa will lose at least £30m from being in the Europa League rather than the Champions League.

The incident in question involved a disallowed goal by Morgan Rogers, who poked the ball away from Manchester United goalkeeper Altay Bayindir, who the referee believed had control of the ball. As the referee blew his whistle before the ball entered the net, VAR was not permitted to review the goal. The match was 0-0 at the time, and Villa went on to lose 2-0. See a close-up of the incident here.

Part of Villa’s complaint is the Premier League’s selection of an “inexperienced” referee for a high-stakes match. In a statement, the club acknowledged that, while the result won’t be overturned, they want to highlight the decision to assign an inexperienced international referee for this fixture. Bramall, 35, was promoted to Select Group 1, the highest level for referees in England, ahead of the 2022-23 season.

New Liga MX Champion

Deportivo Toluca defeated Club America 2-0 in the Liga MX Clausura play-off final to secure their 11th Mexican championship. Toluca now place third on the all-time list of champions in Mexico behind Club America (16) and Chivas (12).

Antonio Mohamed, now a four-time champion as a coach, has earned the nickname ‘The New King Midas’ of Mexican football–a suggestion that everything he touches turns to gold. As well as ending a 15-year Liga MX title drought, Mohamed guided Toluca to the top of the Clausura regular season, finishing three points ahead of America.

Club America will have little time to rest before they play LAFC in Los Angeles on May 31 in a qualification play-off for the last spot in the Club World Cup.

Dive deeper into why the Mexican league splits into Apertura and Clausura seasons here.

Mbappe’s Golden Shoe

Kylian Mbappe has won the European Golden Shoe for the first time, scoring 31 league goals in his debut season in Spain. Mbappe is just the third Real Madrid player to win the award, after Hugo Sanchez (1989-90) and Cristiano Ronaldo (2010-11, 2013-14 and 2014-15).

Although Mbappe’s 31-goal haul in La Liga was behind Viktor Gyokeres’ tally of 39 in the Primeira Liga for Sporting, the Frenchman claimed the honour as goals are worth two points for teams in Europe’s top five leagues, as opposed to 1.5 for clubs outside those divisions. Dive deeper into how the Golden Shoe is calculated here.

The top five in the rankings were as follows: Mbappe (62 points), Gyokeres (58.5), Salah (58), Robert Lewandowski (54), Harry Kane (52).

POLL

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ON THE BALL

Europe

Breaking story: A man has been arrested after deliberately driving a car into a crowd of fans during Liverpool’s Premier League parade (More); Watch incident (Watch/Viewer discretion advised); Route One will report tomorrow once the facts emerge.

> Xabi Alonso has officially been announced as Real Madrid’s new manager, replacing Carlo Ancelotti, on a three-year contract (More) | Robert Lewandowski has now scored 100+ goals for three different teams: Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich, and Barcelona (More)

> Bayer Leverkusen have appointed Erik ten Hag as their new head coach to replace Xabi Alonso (More)

> Midfielders Gavi and Isco were recalled by Spain manager Luis de la Fuente on Monday in his squad for next month's Nations League semi-final against France (More)

> Sporting CP have won their first domestic double in over 20 years, having beaten Benfica in the Portuguese Cup (More)

> Union Saint-Gilloise sealed their first Belgian league title in 90 years with a 3-1 win over Genk (More)

Americas

> Mauricio Pochettino announced his 27-player roster for the upcoming training camp that will conclude with friendlies against Turkey on June 7 and then against Switzerland on June 10; see analysis of the roster (More)

> Palmeiras drop points in the Brazil Serie A with a 2-0 loss to Flamengo, reducing their lead at the top of the table to just one point (Table)

> Huracan and Platense will face off in the Argentine Apertura final on June 1 (More)

Rest of the World

> Simeone Inzaghi, Inter manager, is in advanced talks to become Al Hilal’s manager in the Saudi Pro League (More)

ROUTERS’ VOICE

Yesterday’s Poll: Do you think your club has had a successful season–and why?

🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 👏 Absolutely... (53%)

🟨 🟨 🟨 🟨 ⬜️ ⬜️ 🙅‍♂️ Nope... (43%)

🟨 ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ✍️ Other... (3%)

Your punditry takes:

• 👏 K.M (Arsenal fan): “Though plagued with injuries, they managed to land in second place again and made it to the CL semi-finals without a striker. I’m not tripping over another trophyless season; we didn’t lose the titles due to having horrible players. The team is simply incomplete. That is their only weakness. And I hope that this weakness is addressed this summer.”

• 👏 S.H (Leeds fan): “A return to the Premier League is what we all hoped for. But having seen the gulf in class through the failings of the previous season’s promoted teams, I do worry about being able to establish ourselves in this league.”

• 🙅‍♂️ C.L (Juventus fan): “Juventus secured a Champions League spot in the last match, only to save some face from a season which started with big spending on promising players (Thuram, Gonzalez, Koopmeiners, Douglas Luiz, Conceicao) most of whom were a total flop. They built a team for Serie A glory and Champions League dreams, and they ended up avoiding disaster (missing out on UCL football) by an inch.”

• 🙅‍♂️ J.D (Man City fan): “City lost their way during the season, and it will be interesting to watch Pep ‘rebuild' for next year. In addition to some tough injuries to key players, I hope Foden can reset over the break and get back to enjoying his football again. If Foden and Rodri perform like they have in past seasons, these would be like two new signings for us!”

EXTRA TIME

Gary Lineker says farewell to Match of the Day.

Images of Morocco’s world’s largest stadium plans.

How accurate are pundit pre-season predictions?

Real Madrid 25-26 home kit leaked.

PSG vs Inter: Who will win the Champions League? (Podcast)

Which PL teams finished in the wrong positions?

… and the best PL facts this season.

Can the NWSL withstand the allure of Europe? (Op-ed)

GAME FACE ON

Who Am I…

• I have played for four Premier League teams, including one on loan.

• In 2015, I was bought for £49m, the highest transfer fee for an English player at the time.

• I was dropped by the England national team before Euro 2020 qualifiers because I had a clash with Liverpool’s Joe Gomez.

Scroll below for the answer.

ON TODAY

Swiss Play-off Finals

• Grasshoppers vs Aarau (19:30)

*All times in UK. ET -5. CDT -6. PDT -8. MDT -7. CET +1.

Answer

Raheem Sterling.

Want more? Try our daily football Wordle – guess the name of a current or former player in six tries. Play it here.