Adeyemi to Barcelona is 50-50.
If Barca fans can accept some of his limitations - first touch, consistency issues - then I think he can be valuable. If the expectation is for a perfect player, then that will negatively shape the reaction.
Part of the onus is on him, though. It feels as if he’s been the same player for a few years now and that there’s more potential in his game. Time to show it. Be impactful more often, against different types of defending.
This is a big, circumstantial opportunity that he needs to grasp. I hope it works, but it’s a coin flip.
In three out of every four years, FIFA loses money. In the fourth, the one with a men’s World Cup in, it makes that all back plus extra on top.
FIFA’s 2023-26 revenue has been budgeted at a whopping $13billion (£9.7bn) — an increase of over 70 per cent from the previous four-year cycle. Of that $13bn, $9bn is forecast to arrive in 2026, with just about all of it attributable to the World Cup. Final figures will likely be higher.
FIFA’s scope is dizzying. The aim of returning as much money as possible to football means huge costs. To go alongside $13billion revenues, FIFA, a not-for-profit entity, intends to spend $12.9bn, leaving just $100m to bolster reserves.
Yet in each of the past two cycles, FIFA booked $1.2billion in surpluses, way in advance of its $100m budgets. Reserves already sat at $2.7bn at the end of 2025, even before this World Cup. FIFA’s cash pile has swollen to $1.2bn; the organisation holds almost $6bn in bonds, investments and deposits. An entity nearly laid to ruin by bribery and corruption just 11 years ago has more money sloshing around than ever.
📝 @CWeatherspoon_
🔗 https://t.co/ZrOSEXW36f
Once you stop assuming that FIFA as the global guardian of the game would care about optics, transparency or consistency, it makes analysing their decisions a lot easier.
Lo de Infantino es como de un dictador de la Guerra Fría. Abrazos, fotos y decisiones para seguir en el poder por décadas sin darse cuenta, que él solito se está cargando al fútbol.
Los que tengan el privilegio de asistir mañana al Estadio Azteca, déjense la garganta y el aliento en la tribuna.
Tírenles la tribuna encima y hagan retumbar el coloso.
🇲🇽
Perilous altitude, open hostility, and two of the most neurotic fan bases in soccer have turned Sunday’s game at the Estadio Azteca into an electric, tournament-defining matchup. https://t.co/y5cBXYVH5S
A love letter to the Azteca, a stadium that has seen more of the best football history than any other
England have experienced problems but it's a privilege to play here
For all the talk of altitude, this is an altar
https://t.co/Lk437LzUb1
España, aún con margen de mejora, ha hecho un partido serio. Ha dado su mejor juego en el torneo y ha tenido su mejor momento, que fue tras la pausa de hidratación del 1T.
Lamine se comió a Laimer (solo le faltó el gol y estuvo muy cerca dos veces), la repartición de estos roles es la que más favorece al equipo, con Pedri conduciendo y Olmo moviéndose, y Oyarzabal marcó su segundo doblete después de un horroroso partido el primer día ante Cabo Verde.
“Ha llegado” la candidata. Sí, era una Austria de la que se esperaba más (le pesó todo el torneo la ausencia de Christoph Baumgartner), pero había que demostrar la superioridad.