11 h. ago Welcome to the future of football, where the ability to entertain is king | Jonathan Liew

The Baller League is one of a series of seven-a-side ventures aiming to challenge the traditional model of the gameThe first ever goal in the UK version of the Baller League is scored by the influencer PK Humble, just in case you ever find yourself taking part in a pub quiz in 2045. Humble – a midfielder for Hashtag United and star of the recent YouTube series Inside – takes the ball out of defence, advances it at a frankly embarrassingly leaden pace and side-foots it past a goalkeeper who should really do better.Welcome to the future of football. It’s faster, better and more exciting than the real thing. Albeit not faster in a strictly physical sense, or better in a strictly technical sense, or more exciting in the sense that you actually need to care about who wins. But it is, nonetheless, all of these things. Why? Because we said so. And don’t just take our word for it. Maya Jama says so too. Slow, lingering camera shot of Maya Jama. Now, what was the question again? Continue rea...

Politics

11 h. ago Welcome to the Baller League, the future of football – whether you like it or not | Jonathan Liew

The series in London is one of a range of seven-a-side ventures challenging the traditional model of the gameThe first ever goal in the UK version of the Baller League is scored by the influencer PK Humble, just in case you ever find yourself taking part in a pub quiz in 2045. Humble – a midfielder for Hashtag United and star of the recent YouTube series Inside – takes the ball out of defence, advances it at a frankly embarrassingly leaden pace and side-foots it past a goalkeeper who should really do better.Welcome to the future of football. It’s faster, better and more exciting than the real thing. Albeit not faster in a strictly physical sense, or better in a strictly technical sense, or more exciting in the sense that you actually need to care about who wins. But it is, nonetheless, all of these things. Why? Because we said so. And don’t just take our word for it. Maya Jama says so too. Slow, lingering camera shot of Maya Jama. Now, what was the question again? Continue reading...

Sport

47 h. ago Preston’s attempts to bore Aston Villa to distraction crumble like pastry | Jonathan Liew

Championship perennials are beige down to their signature snack but their existence is still something to savourThe man behind the counter at Greggs on Fishergate has never heard of a butter pie, but try Poundbakery over the street. Poundbakery doesn’t do butter pie, but try Greenhalgh’s on the corner. Greenhalgh’s: closed on Sundays. The chip shop on Market Street does meat pie, meat and potato, steak, steak and kidney, chicken and mushroom, cheese and onion. Butter pie? A shake of the head.You’ve got to try the butter pie. That’s what everyone says the first time you visit Preston. It was created in industrial times, for the largely Catholic working population to eat on Fridays when meat was forbidden. Often you hear it described as a “delicacy”, but even this is to overstate its intensely yeoman nature. It’s layers of potatoes, onions and butter in a pie. It’s cheap. It’s hearty. It’s unpretentious. It exists to be consumed and then immediately forgotten. It is – with deepes...

Politics

6 d. ago Why the double standards on ‘leadership’ when it comes to Black players? | Jonathan Liew

Jordan Henderson is a great English leader. But he has been encouraged and applauded for the very same acts for which minority ethnic players are castigated and stigmatisedHow shall I lead thee? Let me count the ways. I lead thee by stepping up and being vocal, around the dressing room, setting standards in training. I lead thee quietly by example, you know, the not-much-of-a-shouter‑and-a-screamer-but-when-he-speaks-people-listen kind. I lead thee by having been there, done that, won everything in the game. I lead thee by never backing down from a challenge. I lead thee by sheer gravitas.By any of these measures, Jordan Henderson is a leader. He was a leader for Liverpool, raising standards and setting the tone for 12 golden years. He was a leader for the NHS and the LGBTQ+ community off the field. He was still a leader when he left Liverpool and moved to Saudi Arabia in an attempt to create – in his words – “positive change” in the country for his beloved LGBTQ+ constituents....

Politics

9 d. ago Jude Bellingham will antagonise and frustrate, but that is the price of genius | Jonathan Liew

England midfielder’s simple, repetitive talent can make all the difference for Thomas Tuchel. We need to go with itThe deception begins before he has even received the ball. As Ezri Konsa steps forward, Jude Bellingham leans towards his marker, Ylber Ramadani, and intimates he wants the pass in behind. Ramadani steps across to cover. On this, Bellingham immediately switches direction and takes two quick paces towards Konsa. The pass comes, as it was always going to do. But Bellingham’s sleight has earned him five precious yards of space.The striker Myrto Uzuni now drops in to close him down. Myrto, meet Jude. Pull up a chair. You’ve played against him before at Granada, you’re familiar with his work, and you want to help, you really do. You try to get around his body to where the ball is, only to find that body and ball have mysteriously vanished: a quick swivel and then off in the other direction, beyond your despairing grab, in the general direction of your penalty area. Four seco...

Politics

2 w. ago A new Manchester United stadium isn’t about regeneration and never will be | Jonathan Liew

If ‘New Trafford’ is such a nailed-on wealth generator, then why aren’t Ratcliffe and the Glazers funding it themselves?The roof of the proposed new Manchester United stadium has three points, which is more than can often be said for the team who will play underneath it. According to Nigel Dancey of the architectural firm Foster + Partners, the three giant masts will “create a distinctive presence on the skyline”, presumably in the same way that Roy Keane created a distinctive presence on Alf‑Inge Haaland’s knee.But of course aesthetic quibbles are the least of our concerns here. If Manchester United want to erect a giant plastic canopy over their new 100,000-seat stadium in a way that evokes a chicken being wrapped before roasting, then frankly who are we to demur? Beauty is in the eye of the freeholder, and all that. The more pressing question – as someone who, unlike part-owner Jim Ratcliffe, still pays income tax in this country – is what exactly the rest of us ar...

Politics

2 w. ago Relentless Newcastle can fashion new identity in their moment of history | Jonathan Liew

After decades of being a club built on resistance, this could be moment they finally joined football’s establishmentThe last few minutes are a kind of perfection. Liverpool score after a video assistant referee delay to make it 2-1. Newcastle restart, pump the ball into the Liverpool corner and from that moment a kind of elemental life force seems to surge through them. This is what you came for. This is how you wanted it, where you wanted it. Remember your training.Can there be any more forlorn, godforsaken assignment than trying to wrestle Newcastle away from the corner flag in the dying seconds of a Wembley final? Curtis Jones tries and Harvey Elliott tries and Jarell Quansah tries, but these are players desperately unsuited to the task. Continue reading...

Culture

3 w. ago Szczesny’s human touch lends higher meaning to Barcelona’s title charge | Jonathan Liew

The anarchic Barça goalkeeper may not be an idealised athlete but he is writing an extraordinary closing chapter to his careerAccounts differ on just how late Iñaki Peña was to that team meeting in Jeddah. Some reports say two minutes; some go as high as four. Either way, Hansi Flick is nothing if not a coach of fine margins, and by such fine margins was Peña summarily dropped for the Supercopa semi‑final against Athletic Club in January. His replacement: Barcelona’s third goalkeeper, a 34‑year‑old smoker by the name of Wojciech Szczesny.I think it matters that Szczesny smokes. Not because smoking is cool, which any eye-rolling Gen Z will tell you is no longer actually true, but because there is the idea here of competing motivations: of instant versus delayed gratification, of compromise in a sport that brooks none. The bible of modern football reads: your body is your work. Hone it. Optimise every detail. Squeeze out every last drop of capital it has to offer. Szczesny responds by...

Politics

3 w. ago Liverpool go 15 points clear as Manchester United hold Arsenal: Football Weekly

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Liew and Nooruddean Choudry as Liverpool extend their lead at the top of the Premier LeagueRate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.On the podcast today: Nottingham Forest record a huge win over Manchester City as their dream of Champions League football returning looks even closer to reality. Victories for Chelsea, Brighton and Aston Villa will also have left the champions concerned. Continue reading...

Sport

4 w. ago Chelsea fans grapple with the art of omission by Boehly’s trainee regime | Jonathan Liew

Think it is easy spending £1bn with no silverware in return? Leave it out! Letting down supporters is harder than it looks“The one thing I’ve learned about the British press is they exaggerate a lot and leave stuff out.” The words of Todd Boehly there, the jaw-droppingly handsome Chelsea chair whose name was being sung so passionately by fans outside Stamford Bridge last week. “We want Boehly ! We want Boehly !” they sang in their thousands, alongside a sea of banners bearing the words “BOEHLY ” and “CLEARLAKE & BLUECO ”.Clearly Chelsea fans cannot get enough of their hybrid-leadership apparat, and frankly who can blame them when their leaders are in this vein of form? Perhaps, as a functional human with a life, you missed Boehly’s appearance at the Financial Times Business of Football Summit on Thursday, where he treated the audience to a little of the privileged wisdom he has accumulated during his 33 months in the game. Continue reading...

Sport