By Tony Attwood
- I keep meaning to say goodbye to the WC, and then up pops another bit
- The Liberal Democrats have called for the English FA and Uefa to withdraw from Fifa
After wall to wall coverage of the WC it is of course quite hard for the media to let go of the competition, not least because their journalists haven’t had much time to make up new stories about the clubs and players in England. There are however a few laughs at the fact that “Donald Trump refuses to leave stage during World Cup trophy lift” with some noting how he did the same sort of thing with the Club World Cup. There are also a few notes about how even the VIPs got fed up with his attempts to take and re-take centre stage, and reports that some media and indeed Fifa itself has cropped pictures to get Trump out of them. In fact he has been apparently cut from one of the official celebratory photographs “despite lingering on the podium.”
So there we are: it will probably be remembered as the Trump Final because of his antics nevertheless, but now it is all over and done. And all we have to look forward to is the fact that the next WC will have 64 teams in it. It might be worth booking a holiday now.
According to advance notices in the media the preliminary rounds of the 2030 WC will take place in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay on June 8 and 9, followed by the opening matches in Morocco, Portugal and Spain on June 13 and 14. The whole show will continue until 21 July, so there will be no escaping it – and I should add that these dates as yet are not confirmed by Fifa. But at least it gives us a guide as to where not to go on holiday and when not to go there.
But as we bid farewell to the all-encompassing event, here’s a nice comment from the BBC about a man no longer with us: Trossard – “As well as scoring two and assisting two, no player created more chances from open play than Trossard (17) at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.”
However there is another rather worrying article under the headline, Arsenal may be the Premier League team affected most by the World Cup.
Of course the prime news is about the well-being of William Saliba who had a back problem before the World Cup, decided to go despite than, and seems to have made things worse. There is no news from Arsenal as yet on his condition, but if it is bad at least Arsenal still have a good chance to assess what alternatives they have for the line up, and if really necessary, to buy somone else who can fit in alongside Gabriel.
But at least we have a few weeks to sort this one out before the season starts.
There will of course be some concerns about Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka, who had questions over their fitness before the world cup but still played the event. I really just wish these guys would remember who pays their salaries, but that seems to be too much to ask. I suspect neither will be ready to play for the first game of the season .
So we should not expect them to be playing before the new season which is on 21 August against Coventry. Although as I have mentioned before, we also have the Community Shield game being played in Cardiff on 16 August. It is against ManC who are now managed by Enzo Maresca. Before ManC he managed Parma in 2021, Leicester City in 2023/4 and Chelsea in 2024/6.
Maresca won the Conference League with Chelsa by beating Real Betis, and so took Chelsea to their victory in the Fifa Club World Cup. But having done that he left Chelse a on 1 January 2026 “by mutual consent” – which of course means he didn’t resign and they didn’t sack him, but I would like to know why he went. One could suggest he was offered a job to start in the summer, but such tapping up would be illegal. At that moment after 19 games Arsenal were top of the league on 45 points from 19 games while Chelsea had 30 points.
But of course before that we have the rest of the transfer window, which means selling as well as buying, and already the media are lining up clubs who will want to buy Gabriel Martinelli. He did show what he can do, in the WC, and I would like to see him stay but then of course none of this is to do with me. But then what do I know (please don’t answer that).
