Morning Espresso, 6.9: Drama in World Cup qualifying, CWC transfer deadlines, and more

things turned out yesterday. Portugal, they became the first nation to win the UEPHA Nations League twice. They lifted the trophy back in twenty nineteen and Cristiano Ronaldo pulled Portugal level at two two. Very fortunate ball found him and it's a great finish that made it two to two in the sixty first his one hundred and thirty eighth goal with Portugal, his nine hundred and thirty eighth goal in total. You know, Mendez was the player of the match.

He scored. He really made it difficult for La Mignamal to influence the match. On the attacking side. Yamal seemed a step off Mendes was brilliant. Spain have not been great defensively as of late. They have conceded fifteen goals in their last six games. They end up losing on penalties to Portugal. Christiano Ronaldo also said that he does not plan to play at the Club World Cup this month. He received quote quite a few unquote offers from participating clubs.

He did leave the match yesterday before the end of the ninety minutes. Speaking of Club World Cup, the transferred deadline for deals to get done and rosters to be submitted is tomorrow. Tournament starts on Saturday. I likely playing Inter Miami down in South Florida, BRUSA. Dortman. They have agreed a thirty eight million euro deal with Sunderland to sign job Bellingham. They might sound familiar. I will see if that one is ahead of Club World Cup or not.

And that's one of the confusing elements here is not every deal that is being talked about or getting finalized is going to impact the Club World Cup rosters for these teams. We'll just have to wait and see a little bit. Victor Osieman he rejected Al Hilal's contract proposal over thirty million euro per year. Napoli had agreed to the transfer fee of seventy five million, but Osiman does not want to go to Alhilal. Galatasarai is going to

try to sign him on a permanent basis. Mike Magnon he wants to complete a move to Chelsea and he wants to do it ahead of the Club World Cup. According to let Keep, Magnon has told Milan he's not going to sign a new contract, so he's got one year left on his deal. Brizzio Romano has said there's a big gap between the two clubs on his valuation. Chelsea say that he's worth ten million euro because he only has one year left on his deal. Milan rate him at thirty million euro. That's a pretty big gap.

Italian journalists have said that a fifteen million euro offer was submitted. Some reports in Italy say that an agreement has been reached. Lakeip says that's not the case, but everybody says that the deal is moving forward and they want to get it done for him to play for Chelsea in the Club World Cup. Chelsea also added Mama Dusar from Strasbourg, of course, owned by the consortium led by Todd Bowley and clear Lake Capital that bought Chelsea

in twenty twenty two. The nineteen year old saw He is a France U twenty international, was a regular last season for Strasbourg. He was previously at Lynn and Leon. He is expected to be coming in for Club World Cup. Manchester City they are trying to get the deal over the line for Ryan Cherokee and according to reports literally within the last hour from li Keep, the agreement has been reached a five year contract. He will be playing

for City at the Club World Cup. Somewhere between twenty three million euro and forty million euros the final price tag. The initial valuation was in the thirty five to forty million euro range from Leone reports initially where that Manchester City offered twenty three, so somewhere in between. They found

a way to get the deal done. According to LIKEEP and pretty much everybody else in the world, in the last hour, Manchester City are also preparing an offer for Chelsea goalkeeper Marcus Bettinelli ahead of the Club World Cups. Got Carson, the long time number three at City, is leaving the club. According to new reports in Spain. Interesting moves right now with an Arsenal target that could affect

Club World Cup Martin Zubimindi. He is a associodod Arsenal have wanted to get him for the last six months. They've thought a deal was all but done, but according to the words of Marca, nothing is closed and according to them, Zubimindi has halted his move to Arsenal. Real Madrid is interested. His idol is Shabi Alonzo. Alonzo wants to bring in Zubimindi for his midfield at Real Madrid, so this could get very interesting and will it get

done ahead of the time for Club World Cup. Madrid have also struck out, at least for now, according to reports, on getting Alvaro Carreras, the left back from Benfica. He's been named to Benfica's roster for the tournament. Now that list isn't final and nothing is closed right, but it's looking more unlikely that Carreras would play for Madrid in the Club World Cup. Byron, they have agreed to pay two hundred and fifty million euro or two hundred and

fifty thousand euro. Sorry, two hundred and fifty million will be wild two hundred and fifty thousand euro to Haffe for Tom Bischoff to be able to play in the Club World Cup. There could be more in bonus payments as well, so Byron's gonna pay his full salary during this period of time. Earlier reports suggested that Bischoff would join Byron only after the contract with Hoffenheim expires. He's joining Byron on a free, but it looks like Byron said,

you know what, we'll cut a check. We'll get him in now because we could use that extra central midfielder. He's nineteen. He made his German national team debut against France over the weekend. He's been at Hoffenheim since twenty fifteen, a product of the academy. But they're only getting two hundred fifty thousand for him as he leaves on a free. Botha Fogo even though they haven't paid Atlanta United yet for Thiago Almada, and that's from a FIFA tribunal decision

that came out last week. They have brought in three reinforcements somehow, Arthur Cabral for fifteen million euro from Benfica, Alvaro Montro for eight million euro from Velez and Joaquin Correa on a free from Inter Ah just smile a nod. I don't know. Maybe we're talking monopoly money at this point, a layin. They are going to play Manchester City in Atlanta on June twenty second. The Abu Dhabi club is adding Facundo Zabala on loan from Olympia in Paraguay for

the Club World Cup. Looks like Inter is gonna get it done and announce it today of Christian Chivu to be their new manager. He has set his goodbyes to Parma after terminating his contract there. Inter are also pushing to make a last minute deal to sign striker Angjon Bonnie ahead of the start of the Club World Cup. He has been with Parma and Parma won twenty five million euro for the Frenchman. This is according to Gazetta Dello Sport. We'll see if this one gets done in time.

Chivu coming over from Parma to Inter might help everything there. They are coming to the United States and the Club World Cup Inter with Petar Shusch and Luis Henrique. Those deals are done now. The discussions This came out over the weekend. The discussions between the Major League Soccer hierarchy and the MLS Players Association over club World Cup prize money are still ongoing. They have not agreed to terms

yet on a newly revised section of the CBA. The original CBA stated that players received fifty percent of money from outside tournaments, and this was I believe the phrasing is known tournaments or established tournaments. The Club World Cup was not when the CBA was done, so the cap

of that fifty percent is one million dollars. A source with knowledge of the discussions told ESPN that a revised proposal from MLS committed to grant players on the three participating teams twenty percent of the performance related payments for wins, draws, and round advancement. Players collectively would receive one million for participation, in addition to money earned for victory's, draws or round qualification throughout the tournament, and there's escalators in terms of

how far you go. LAFC received two hundred and fifty thousand collectively for the win against Club America in the playoff to get into the tournament. That will go on top of their one million to be split up amongst the roster. The MLSPA received the proposal on Friday. They demanded a larger percentage. They have not formally responded to the league's proposal, but they responded in the media to it.

The organization said that MLS introduced quote back end compensation of twenty percent, an amount that remains below the international standard. Now they don't define what the international standard is and there's not a whole lot of news out there to talk about the international standard. Will come back to that

in a second. The MLSPA said that the league quote did not add a single dollar for players from the twenty eight, six hundred and fifty or twenty million, six hundred and fifty thousand windfall that MLS will be paid by FIFA, so still saying that they should get more than the one million for participating. According to the MLSPA,

the player's share of that amount remains at barely ten percent. Okay, now, there were reports last month that Real Madrid would give its players one million dollars each if they won the Club World Cup. That would result in a prize of over one hundred and forty million dollars for the club. That's around twenty percent of the entire prize that would go to the players, depending on how many players share

in that. I don't know what the international standard is it's being defined here, And I don't know if we're quibbling over twenty percent of or around twenty percent of the entire prize money or if the because the league is saying they'll do twenty percent of stuff that's earned past the initial fee, the one million for participating that the players will get the nine point five that the

club will get. I feel like we're getting into semantics here and I feel like there's a lot of finger pointing and people are just yelling without understanding that issue from Real Madrid, and I think that's a really important talking point here. If they win the World Cup, the Club World Cup, then their players would get around twenty percent of the entire prize that the club would get, if that's the international standard, and that's to win the thing.

Sometimes normally the further you go, the bigger cut of the tournament that you get. I don't know if what MLS players are going to get is that far off of the initial money. I don't know, and nobody's really trying to find that. There's just a lot of yelling. It's very frustrating. It's frustrating on both sides that we're

even sitting here to have in this conversation. This should have gotten resolved Again, both sides should have gotten this resolved well ahead of this, because they've known what the prize money would be. I think they've known what this would be. It should not be played out in the way that it is. It doesn't help anybody, and it's extremely frustrating that we're seeing this consistently in these negotiations.

Both sides need to get to the table and when this is done, both sides need to sit down and chill out and have a drink and talk. So next issue that comes up, it doesn't result in this because it does nothing to help the league, It does nothing to help the players, It does nothing to help the game in this country. For this to be the conversation right now, both sides should have gotten this done ahead of time. Both sides should be more professional and react

properly and get this done and move on. This is a giant distraction and it's not solving anything. And the idea about the international standard aspect of it, all we know right now, in terms of what I've been able to find is real. Madrid reportedly saying that the players would get around twenty percent of the entire prize if

they win the entire thing. So if that's the international standard, this isn't that far off, and they need to figure it out and get this done because this is getting ridiculous. What's also ridiculous is the US men's national team right now. Maritzio po Chattino. He became the first coach to lose three straight games since Jurgen Klinsman in twenty fifteen two to one loss to Turkey on Saturday. This follows the losses in the Nations League in March. Pochattino is five

oho four with the US men's national team. They play Switzerland on Tuesday. Gold Cup starts on June fifteenth. No Christian Polisic, no westn McKenny, no Anthony Robinson, no Tim Weea, no Gi Arena part of that Gold Cup squad. We will see how things look. But that was a very frustrating one because it started well and then the team absolutely lost it with a bad goal and a Johnny Cardoso pass it was deflected in, and then they lost their heads and they gave up another goal quickly and

they never got going again. USL Super League Tampa Bay Sun. They will host the fort Lauderdale United FC in Saturday's USL Super League Final. Both teams had to come from behind to win their semi final match. That will be the inaugural title match for the USL Super League, a D one women's professional league. Here in the US, let's get into World Cup qualifying quickly. Luciano Spalletti will not be in charge of Italy past tomorrow. He was let go.

He announced it at his press conference yesterday to say that he had been fired. He did say that he will take charge of the game against Moldova. First. They lost three zil to Norway. As we talked about all last week, they're missing a bunch of people. Francesco at Cherbe, the inter center back. He declined the call up. He said that Spiletti was disrespecting him. It Spaletti's predecessor, Roberto Mancini, who left the Italian national team to go to Saudi

Arabia and lost that job pretty quickly. He liked the post by a Cherbe explaining his reasoning on Instagram. So we have high school drama here. Spaletti was asked by the media if he felt betrayed and reacted to the question by storming out of his briefing again, high school drama with the Italian national team and the road to get qualified for the World Cup after missing the last two is not a easy one. At the moment, the Italian Federation is going to continue to try to convince

Claudio Ranieri to take on the job. He has said he wants to continue working in his new role at Roma. They got to get this done with Ranieri or Stefano Pioli, who is the other candidate to take over. Reports in Italy claimed that Pioli is the more viable option, but Spiletti is the first choice of the federation president Gabriella Gravina.

Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski as we continue with high school drama, he has said he's not going to play for the Polish national team anymore as long as Mikael Probier's is in charge. Lewandowski thirty six years old. He cited physical and mental tiredness at the end of a long season with Barcelona as the reason for making himself unavailable for his country during this window. Probierres opted to replace Lewandowski

as the Poland captain with enters. Peter Zielinski handed the role Lewandowski then announced away from international football, although he's left the window open to return good times Asian World Cup qualifying. Just to give you the reset of where things stand right now, Saudi Arabia, who has only scored six goals through nine qualifying games, they need to beat Australia by five goals to earn direct qualification tomorrow for

the World Cup. Asia's got eight spots. The top two teams in each of the three groups in this round advanced directly. That's six. The third and the fourth place teams in each group go into another round, buying for two more places, and then there's one playoff spot. If Saudi Arabia doesn't win by five, which is extremely unlikely, they will join the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Indonesia, and Iraq in the next stage of qualifying in October. Oman right now is fourth in Group B. They are one

point ahead of Palestine in fifth place. Those two teams meet in Aman on Tuesday. If Palestine wins, they go into the next round of qualifying. If Oman draws or wins, they do it going to be interesting tomorrow as we

watch the Asian World Cup qualifying cycle. We'll talk about everything else tomorrow in terms of Europe and South America and CONCA CALF other news before we go MLS Vancouver, they took the lead in the supporter Shield race three zero win over Seattle, first game since losing in the CONCA CAFF champions Cup final, eleven games unbeaten in MLS for the white Caps. Seattle had two red cards in quick succession, Knew Who and John Bell in the fifty

first and fifty fifth minutes Seattle. They'll start their play in the Club World Cup on Sunday against both the Fogo. Tom Barlow he had his first MLS hat trick. Chicago beat DC seven one. A Toddler ran onto the field to try to help DC to no avail. The Chicago Fire are now back into playoff spots in MLS. Tottenham, they've sacked AND's post to Cooglo after he wins their first trophy in seventeen years. The regular season in the Premier League was not good. They were once ahead of relegation,

so I somewhat get it. I don't know why it took this long. It's all high school drama. Reports are suggesting that Brentford's Thomas Frank has asked to leave Brentford and will join Tottenham Crystal Palace. They're waiting to find out if they're going to get to play in the Europa League. They did state their case to UEFA last year. It all revolves around John Texter and this is not related to him not paying Atlanta United for Thiago Almada with both the Fogo. This is about Eagle Football, which

holds a stake in Crystal Palace and Leone. Palace presented their argument to UEFA. They said that UEFA's regulations are in place to prevent collusion between clubs. Crystal Palace is entirely independent, not within the structure of the multi club model of Eagle Football. Palace argued that chairman Steve Parrish runs Crystal Palace while John Texter has a minority stake and lacks influence at Selhurst Park. The club is also accepted that a fine or temporary oversight measures such as

monitoring transfers would be in appropriate punishment. They don't want to see Crystal Palace banned kicked out of the Europa League. It'd be their first Crystal Palace has never played in European competition. This would be really harsh. I think to kick them out, and FIFA and UEFA and everybody's going to have to come to grips with the multi club ownership models because they're only going to continue at this point. There needs to be better structures in place to make

this work. Bayer Levercusan they have rejected a one hundred and thirteen million pound bid from Liverpool for Florian Verts. They want one hundred and twenty six million pounds that would be a British transfer record and Liverpool it sounds like it is getting a little antsy in terms of this is our final offer. So we'll see if it actually is. Aaron Ramsey, former Arsenal midfielder. He's played all over the place. Actually he is set to join Lega

MX club, who mus be an interesting signing. And we'll end on a positive note since we've had a lot of griping in this edition of The Morning Espresso. Revenues for the Women's Super Clubs sored by thirty four percent during a record breaking twenty twenty three to twenty twenty four season. As these numbers have come into focus now a year later, the twelve teams in the league amassed

a combined revenue of sixty five million pounds. Each club generated more than a million pounds for the first time ever. Revenues grew from forty eight million in the twenty twenty three season to sixty five million the following campaign, driven by growth and commercial revenue, which increased by fifty three percent from the previous season and now the commercial revenue accounts for forty percent of the Women's Super League clubs

in England. Their total revenue revenue increase is largely driven by Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City. That's two thirds of the money made from across the club. Match Day revenue increased by seventy three percent as well. That was driven by a thirty one percent increase in average league attendance. We'll see if that continues in the next season. We'll see if the nw UL and USL Super League

see that kind of growth as well. We'll see if the MLS players in the league can get to a table, get on a call and get things sorted out so we can stop talking about the griping back and forth. The international standard part of it is an interesting one to site when the only one that we have is around twenty percent. There we go. I'm not going to start griping about it again. That's your Morning Espresso today on the SDACH Network. Hopefully everybody can have a nice

cup of espresso and get things sorted out. You got a lot of Club World Cup teams that got a lot to sort out today. They might need a couple extra espressos. As the transfer deadline for Club World Cup is tomorrow now. I don't know if there is a set time or if it varies depending on the country. We'll get you spelled out with all of that in the morning, along with anything else that happens over the

next twenty four hours. That'll be tomorrow a new edition of the Morning Espresso, as always presented by our friends at Oglethorpe University