The league long term would be better off with 2 divisions. But you'll never be able to get the wealthy to invest millions into a club that could end up in lower division. Also Americans grew up with the monopoly of the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL. Baseball has AAA and lower and the NBA has the development league / G league but its not the same. When I first got into PL football and learned of the relegation system I thought it was pure genius. When Donald Sterling owned the Clippers he spent as little money as possible and made 20 million a season minimum. How? The revenue sharing and merchandise sharing guaranteed him tens of millions. He kept his salary among the lowest in the league despite being in the 2nd largest city and media market. No incentive to improve the team. I would propose using the USL as a 2nd division long term and start with 1 team being relegated a season. Then after 5 or 10 years, 2 teams and so forth till you get 3 teams like everyone else. But it will never happen.
Yep, the Benz has several GS matches, one round of 32, one round of 16, and one of the semis. And yes, there will be modifications to the lower seating in the corners, as well as installing a grass pitch.
I'm hoping for Italy to not qualify after Gattuso's comment on how hard it is to qualify because more slots were given to African teams.
Gattuso went racisliano like a proper one does to excuse how weak Italy has been since 2006. (I know they won euro 2020 and don't care)
Think we all know why Gattuso blames Africa but I feel like CAF deserve 9 more than Asia deserve 8 or CONCACAF deserve 6.
Even with 48 teams Concacaf doesn’t deserve more than 4. Denmark - Belarus just got spicy. Setting up for a great last 20 minutes and some tension on Tuesday.
I’m black American, but my wife is Tanzanian (by way of Italy ironically), so I hear Swahili (and Italian) every day.
Money drives a lot of things. Biggest economy's region, the commercial windfall of having Americans glued in. Also America, Canada and the UK have more English speaking people of Caribbean descent there than in the Caribbean. Basically the former British colonies.
World cup has historically never been about relative quality. If it were Asia and Africa would get very few teams compared to Europe and South America. Especially a team like Australia would have an impossible path to the finals. I am against the ridiculous expansion, but you do need teams from around the world if you want a proper world cup vibe.
Ireland beats Hungary on the last kick of the game to qualify for playoffs .amazing scenes Liverpool kerkez is awful .
I thought Kerkez was Turkish until literally right now. Good for Ireland, and also nice to see Tottenham miss out on a talented scorer.
There’s a clip of Troy Parrott’s Republic of Ireland winner from RTE which won’t get taken down for copyright.The commentary is sensational. pic.twitter.com/4wqT5Z14Ti https://t.co/qrrSfpCL4U— HLTCO (@HLTCO) November 16, 2025
Fantastic week for IRL. There must be much rejoicing in the pubs right about now. ☘️ Edit: just watched the highlights (in Spanish is all I could find at the moment) plus the emotional post-match interview of hattrick hero Parrot. I think I need to figure out a way to watch the RTE TV reaction after the winning goal and at full-time… maybe if I use my VPN creatively?
off topic Tanzania is one of the most beautiful countries in the world… Would love to go back next year Zimbabwe might be tops
He was completely overrated as a player and He is a absolute hack as a coach And today’s drumming by Norway is chefs kiss He has no place on any sideline in serie
Mainland Tanzania has everything if you know where to go. Zanzibar is stunning, especially outside of Stone Town. Dar used to be cool, but it has changed over the last few years given the political situation. I’ve never been to Harare, but Cape Town is a vibe and still is my favorite African city. And if I were younger and single, I’d probably spend a good amount of time in Nairobi.
Sindre Loe Bing! the greatest swiss army knife player of all time. Dude was like Gareth Bale when he was a winger, but if was still fullback, scoring 20 goals a season, from LB and RB.
Yeah Cape Town is indeed a vibe That U from Swakop down to the cape all they way up to Tanzania is proof of higher powers it’s stunning Never been to Nairobi but maybe one day
The gf and I will visit Zanzibar some time early 2026. Have already been to coastal Kenya (Diani and Mombasa). Visited Accra as well. Several years ago, I realized Africa was the only continent I've never been to (if we are calling Australia an island). I want to visit Senegal and The Gambia. Heard nice things. Also, want to see more of South America. So many places. Budapest, Bratislava (Slovakia) and Vienna last summer was great. Budapest is very underrated.