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In out-of-character news, via PA Media.
Luis Suarez has been suspended for six matches after spitting at a Seattle Sounders coach at the end of Inter Miami’s 3-0 defeat in Sunday’s Leagues Cup final.
Miami teammates Sergio Busquets and Tomas Aviles were also suspended for their part in the altercation, along with Steven Lenhart, a member of the Sounders coaching staff.
The ban only relates to Leagues Cup matches, although Major League Soccer (MLS) could impose further punishment. A statement from the cup competition’s organising committee said Suarez had been reported by match officials for spitting.
He will be ineligible to play in next season’s tournament, which pits MLS teams against clubs from Mexico’s Liga MX, and, potentially, into the following season. Busquets was banned for two matches, Aviles for three and Lenhart for five, all for violent conduct.
The statement said all four had also been fined.
On Thursday, former Liverpool striker Suarez said he “sincerely regrets” his part in the melee when he also grabbed an opposition player by the neck.
Feels like international break fatigue is setting in already.
We're all grown ups and understand the need for some mid-season International games but the September one is always THE WORST urgh. Kills the early season momentum. See these lovely new players you've signed? You'll have to wait a couple of weeks sorry while they go and get injured playing for Sweden.
That being said (pretending I care for a moment) Tommy T's scattergun squad selection needs to stop now. The hope is come the actual tournament his tactical astuteness will be the difference we've lacked but that's not going to come unless he has a clear idea of who the best English players are. Picking Loftus-Cheek over Curtis Jones for example makes no sense to me.
There's a logic to including more teams in the final tournament, it's a World Cup after all. But why not take the opportunity of having ever more teams active in the finals to eliminate the long drawn out period of qualification games completely?
It's not as if the qualification is a realistic reflection of how teams do in the finals. Tournaments are about managing a tight squad, pacing, injuries and fatigue over a month or so of successive games in summer. Qualification leagues are about mix-and-match cobbling together from a cast of potentially hundreds for random weekends. They endure varied conditions, long term injuries and various levels of reluctance in participants over a couple of years. It's disruptive to the rest of the game and takes no account of different league seasons across the continents.
A better format, and a more realistic assessment of team strength would be to hold regional qualification tournaments in a tightly defined period, either the same summer, or summer before the World Cup. Add pre-qualification, to avoid the many mismatches and there's a real chance to maintain interest (public and media across the whole globe) following the development within the qualifications and then the finals of the tournament rather than appearing as random disruptions across the year.
Things you never thought you’d see, and really don’t want to see: Boris Johnson in conversation with Nottingham Forest president Evangelos Marinakis. The Greek tycoon has some interesting views on the Ukraine-Russia war, one that rather contravenes his stance on Morgan Gibbs-White being allowed to join Tottenham.
If England can make it four wins from four – and it would be one hell of a shock if they didn’t – Ireland’s campaign begins this evening in a four-team group. They really need a win over Hungary to set the ball rolling.
Heimir Hallgrimsson, the 58-year-old Icelander took charge in July last year and has since been gearing up for the qualifying campaign.
Hallgrimsson’s record to date is modest - he has won four competitive games and lost four, albeit two of them to England in the Nations League - in addition to two friendly draws, but he is confident the squad he inherited from Stephen Kenny has developed and continues to do so.
Your World Cup qualifying action today:
7.45 pm BST unless stated
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Group F: Armenia v Portugal (1700BST), Republic of Ireland v Hungary
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Group H: Austria v Cyprus. San Marino v Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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Group K: England v Andorra, Latvia v Serbia (1400BST).
Feels like much of the England camp has involved discussing the recently closed transfer window. Dan Burn on Alexander Isak was the order of the day on Friday.
About last night, Denmark 0-0 Scotland was a tough watch but a decent result for Steve Clarke. Scotland don’t find goals easy to come by – their leading scorers are still Denis Law and Kenny Dalglish on 30 each.
Clarke sprang a surprise with the deployment of two strikers, Che Adams and Lyndon Dykes, from the outset. “If I am not brave, I might as well not be in the job,” said the manager. Equally striking was the sight of John McGinn, who has typically operated on the left or centre of midfield for his country, on the right. Rasmus Højlund, fresh from his loan move from Manchester United to Napoli, was among Denmark’s replacements.
Much-needed win for Italy.
Italy opened Gennaro Gattuso’s reign as manager with a 5-0 home win over Estonia in World Cup qualifying, wasting chances for almost an hour before exploding in the final stages of the second half to turn dominance into a rout.
Remember the 39th game? Well, it could be coming to a football league near you, should Uefa allow a regular-season Liga game to be played in Miami, and a Serie A match to be played in Perth – that’s Western Australia not Caledonia.
There are no illusions that, even if permission is granted only for these individual cases, this genie can be squeezed back into the bottle. Nobody could consider that realistic having heard the Serie A president, Ezio Simonelli, say last month that he would have liked to play the league’s entire first round on foreign soil.
Below the line comments are open, so why not let us know what your plans are for today?
Ahead of Arsenal v London City, Suzanne Wrack, our lead women’s football writer, will join us for a Q&A on all matters WSL and beyond.
Get in touch at: [email protected]
Last night’s action for starters? Big, statement win for Chelsea.
Preamble
Good morning, Guardian Football. It’s international weekend, but that doesn’t stop our live coverage of your football weekend. The World Cup is fewer than 300 days away – 278 to be precise – and there’s actually a lot to be decided. The key fixture here is England v Andorra at Villa Park, what with Coldplay at Wembley. They never meant to cause trouble, they never meant to cause harm and instead Thomas Tuchel’s barmy army will play in Birmingham.
Join us we build up to that, the WSL, where it’s a London derby between Arsenal and big-spending London City. Just join us.
