Match Day 59
5 Things from the world of footy that my eye this week.
If it’s your first time here, welcome!
If it’s not, I’m so happy you find yourself here again.
I don’t take any eyes that land on this publication for granted.
It’s been a BUSY few weeks and therefore I’ve left you all with no match day to read but here we are.
Let’s get into it!
1) 48 in, No trust
It’s been a while, so we need a World Cup update.
All 48 spots for the 2026 World Cup are locked in. Qualification wrapped up early April with the final playoff rounds — Bosnia and Herzegovina beat Italy on penalties (Italy’s third straight World Cup miss), Iraq edged Bolivia to grab the last spot, and debutants Cape Verde, Curaçao, Jordan, and Uzbekistan punched their tickets. Reminder: the World Cup kicks off June 11 in Mexico City.
Cool. Now let’s talk about why everyone’s pissed.
People who bought Category 1 tickets — FIFA’s top-tier public option, hundreds of dollars per seat — are finding out they got played. You read that correctly. When they bought tickets months ago, the stadium maps FIFA showed them suggested Cat 1 could mean lower bowl, midfield, premium sidelines. Then FIFA assigned the actual seats. Corners. Behind the goal. Upper sections. Spots that used to be labeled Category 2 on the old maps. Yikes.
FIFA’s response? The maps were just “guidance,” not guarantees. Oh, and they quietly created a new ultra-premium hospitality tier after public sales closed, carving out the actual good seats without telling anyone. Some fans are saying the value gap between what they thought they were buying and what they got is close to a thousand bucks.
Here’s the other thing: fan zones aren’t free.
What was a sacred ground of strangers and countrymen alike coming together under the name of football now has a price on it. What. The. Actual….
Organizers are calling the prices “nominal” and that it’s “only” $10 including fees, but that’s not the point!
They say it’s about crowd control and quality of experience. But when match tickets are already sky-high and now even the free alternative costs money, it’s hard not to see it for what it is: another revenue grab dressed up as logistics.
The World Cup is supposed to belong to everyone. Charging people (no matter the amount) to stand in a big public viewing area and watch on a screen doesn’t feel like that.
Oh, and let’s not even get into $100 round-trip train tickets in some parts of the country to access stadiums.
Meanwhile in Mexico… all three host cities will have FREE fan zones.
Ugh.
2) Where Football and Everyday Overlap
The Lack of Guidance x New Balance collection dropped April 17, and the visuals go as crazy as the drop itself. Eleven pieces called “Around The World,” built around one very specific reference: the neon-yellow Sunday League training bib.
That’s it. That’s the anchor. Everything pulls from that — the color, the mesh construction, the vibe of something functional that somehow became iconic. The reversible track jacket’s military green on the outside, neon mesh on the inside. The track pants have zip panels at the knee that open to reveal more neon mesh. The bib itself got reworked into a vest that converts into a tote bag. There’s a pair of 442 turf sneakers, jerseys, shorts, socks, a ball, a cap. The whole thing’s cohesive without feeling like overkill.
Lack of Guidance has been doing this since 2016 — existing in the space where football and everyday life overlap. Not “lifestyle football” in the branded sense, but football as it actually lives outside the pitch.
Pair that with a brand like New Balance that has been leaning into that same territory lately, and often proving it has a voice in the beautiful game. This collaboration makes sense because both sides get it.
It doesn’t try too hard. It doesn’t need to.
That’s the whole point.
At the end of the day, even if you are unfamiliar with both brands, the creative direction on this collab is enough to get anyone to pause their scrolling.
3) Change Is Coming?
The NWSL board of governors is voting later this month on whether to flip the league calendar from spring-to-fall (March through November) to fall-to-spring (late summer through late spring).
To those thinking, but why? Well, why not. This is less about being opposed to change, and more about aligning with global football. If the NWSL wants to be the best in the world, this is a massive step in that direction.
PROS:
Overseas fan alignment: Matches Europe’s top leagues making it easier to follow from an international standpoint.
Better transfer windows: Players can move between leagues without sitting out half a season or missing key months
FIFA window alignment: No more awkward mid-season chunks where your best players disappear for international duty
Playoff visibility: NWSL Championship wouldn’t be buried under NFL and college football in November when nobody’s paying attention
Winter break: Allows for rest/recovery period (like every other major league) instead of playing straight through March-November
Game Load: The current set up often has teams playing 3 games in 14 days for no real reason. With a fall to spring calendar the 27 game week calendar would have plenty of breathing room
Long-term competitiveness: Aligns NWSL with global football calendar, making the league more competitive in signing and retaining top international talent
CONS:
Cold-weather markets: Boston, Chicago, Denver, Seattle, Salt Lake City get brutal in winter — legitimate player safety concerns around frigid conditions
Attendance risk: Cold weather and potential delays could hurt gate numbers (attendance already dipped last year)
Facility control: Many NWSL teams don’t own their stadiums and have limited say over heating/infrastructure for winter games. Stadium availability becomes more complicated, not easier
Implementation timeline: Would take years to execute properly, requiring careful planning around Olympics/World Cup breaks
Bottom line: The pros far outweigh the cons in the long term. The cons are real logistical challenges, but they’re solvable.
The biggest counterargument is weather — Boston, Chicago, Denver, Seattle, Salt Lake City all get cold. Fair. But the league already plays through brutal summer heat in Houston, Orlando, and North Carolina, often times applicable to LA, SD, and Bay as well. The weather’s always going to be a factor somewhere. At least with a fall-to-spring calendar, you can take a winter break (like every other league does) instead of playing straight through. Every other major league deals with winter weather. The NWSL can too.
If the vote passes, it’ll take years to implement anyway. There are natural breaks coming with the 2028 Olympics in L.A. and the 2031 Women’s World Cup likely in the U.S. Plenty of time to get it right.
What are your thoughts?
4) Make it the Norm, not the exception
Union Berlin named Marie-Louise Eta interim head coach on April 11. First woman to manage a men’s team in the Bundesliga. First woman to manage a men’s team in any of Europe’s top five leagues.
She’s not new to the building. Eta’s been Union’s assistant coach since 2023, which already made her the first woman on a men’s coaching staff in the Bundesliga. She’s got the job now with the the final five games of the season. Union’s sitting 11th, seven points above the relegation playoff spot, with two wins since Christmas. They fired Steffen Baumgart after the wheels came off, and Eta’s the one tasked with keeping them up.
For those wondering, She’s 34. Former pro player. Won the Champions League with Turbine Potsdam in 2010, plus three Bundesliga titles as a midfielder. She knows the game. She’s been in the system. She earned this.
The appointment drew the predictable sexist garbage online. Union Berlin didn’t hesitate — “We have 100 percent confidence in Loui,” said Horst Heldt, the club’s director of men’s professional football. “I find it crazy that we have to deal with this in this day and age, that we have to justify ourselves.” That post became one of Union’s most engaged ever, which tells you the support massively outweighs the noise. Good.
Yeah, I find it crazy too, that sexism, racism, classism, capitalism, all the ism’s, find ways to leech on our game. But I digress.
Here’s what actually matters: this shouldn’t be historic, it should be the norm. The hope here is that this is the turning point. Where a coaching appointment of a women coaching and leading men, isn’t ridiculed. The underrepresentation of women on the technical side of sports all around is noticeable.
The barriers that once deliberately kept women out of the game are being dismantled, but there are still no clear pathways for them to follow. The system needs an overhaul. Appointments like Eta’s shouldn’t happen because of individual resilience and determination alone. They should happen because the environment makes it normal. Because the best person gets the job. Period.
Emma Hayes, head coach of the U.S. women’s national team, said it even simpler after Eta’s appointment: “A good coach is a good coach regardless of gender.”
That’s it. That’s exactly it.
5) Symbiotic Collaboration
Fred Perry and Meyba dropped a collection on April 9, and it’s exactly what a collaboration should be when two brands actually have something to say to each other.
For context - Meyba made the kits Barcelona’s Dream Team wore in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Fred Perry is British tennis-turned-terrace-culture royalty. Both built their names on performance, then became something bigger without trying. Both know what heritage actually means — not just slapping a logo on something old, but understanding why it mattered in the first place. See where this is going?
The drop features kits, polos, track jackets, ringer tees, with retro details everywhere: bold stripes, open collars, color-blocking. But the fits are modern, relaxed, wearable. Fred Perry’s Laurel Wreath and Meyba’s crest sit where they’re supposed to sit. No giant co-branded graphics. No “THIS IS A COLLAB” energy. Just clean, considered design.
What makes it work is restraint. They didn’t overthink it. They didn’t force a narrative. The story’s already there — two brands that dressed athletes who changed their sports, now making clothes for people who care about what those sports became culturally.
If you saw this in either brands catalogue you wouldn’t wonder if it belongs on their shelf. Just two brands that know who they are, and know what they’re doing — making something worth wearing.
Delivering a true symbiotic collaboration. Did I just invent a phrase? I likey. (lol)
