Arsene Wenger states the obvious

When discussing the Club World Cup, Arsene Wenger was recently quoted as saying, "If you make enquiries to all the clubs who were here then 100% of answers would be that they would want to do it again."

Yes, obviously. Because FIFA paid them millions of pounds for taking part! The winners will get around £90 million!

Take away the money, and I think you'll find that clubs' interest in the tournament will drop dramatically.

FIFA: "Would you like millions of pounds to take part in a series of glorified friendlies?"
Clubs: "Yes, please!"

Free to air football

As most English football fans will know, there's currently a proposal to make ten Premier League matches available on free to air TV each season.

Sky and TNT will presumably push back against the idea, but I think ten free games per season could potentially increase revenue for the TV rights holders.

Think of it like a single back in the days when people still bought music. You hear the single for free on the radio, you like it, then you buy the album. Singles were used to increase album sales.

If handled correctly, a small sample of free Premier League games per season could work the same, and potentially encourage people to subscribe to more games.

The norm from the BBC

From a recent football report on the BBC website:

"Rohl, however, did not reported back for the start of pre-season."

Nowadays, it seems that 'must be illiterate' is an essential job requirement for anyone wanting to work for the BBC.