GOING SOUTH
It can’t have been a coincidence (it was) that the announcement of a resurrected North v South football match came so swiftly after Newcastle beat a team wearing red 2-1 in a Wembley cup final. That happens also to be exactly what transpired when they faced Arsenal in the 1932 FA Cup showpiece, a game that became known as the North v South Final and aroused such interest that even George V turned up. Indeed, the first fans from Tyneside arrived more than two days before kick-off, reaching Wembley just after midnight whereupon, according to the Guardian, they “made themselves comfortable for the night under a hedge in the Harrow Road”.
The English used to love a good regional battle. Over the years the Guardian and Observer have reported on North v South contests in lacrosse, hockey, water polo, rugby union (“international matches apart, there is no game that arouses so much interest in the football world”, we wrote in 1896), golf, draughts (held at least twice, in 1901 and 1911), bridge (held annually through the 1930s until war got in the way) and chess (in 1905, played by post rather than in person). Cricket was an early and enthusiastic adopter, playing the fixture as early as 1817 and keeping it running until 1961, with a couple of half-hearted attempted resurrections since then.
And now it’s back! Er, in a manner of speaking! With some semi-retired footballers! On 1 June “some of the finest talent to have pulled on the shirts of the biggest clubs on both sides of the North-South divide” (names tbc, subs pls check definition of “finest”) will play at The Valley, home of Charlton, with the South’s side overseen by noted manager Harry Redknapp, and the North’s by Robbie Fowler. “This has been an idea in the making for a number of years,” Fowler said. “It’s a great concept that I hope everyone gets behind.”
The official announcement declared the game was “guaranteed to be a highly entertaining and intriguing contest” and this may be true, though there might not be anything quite as entertaining or intriguing as the organisers’ definition of someone from the north, or indeed the south, of England. Fowler hinted that something had gone awry when he said of his team selection that he’d “already gone overseas and looked at a few players”. Er, overseas? Reuters further reported that players “will either have roots in the north or south of England or come from further afield but [be] adopted icons”. Hmm. Thinking face emoji.
Entertainingly and intriguingly it seems the idea might have sprouted from the mind of Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly. “Ultimately I hope the Premier League takes a little bit of a lesson from American sports and really starts to figure out, why don’t we do a tournament with the bottom four sports teams, why isn’t there an All-Star game?” the American said in 2022. “So we’re thinking we could do a North v South All-Star game for the Premier League, for whatever the pyramid needed quite easily.”
So here we are. And hey, it might not be so bad. On the plus side, at least nobody has so far taken up Boehly’s proposal for a “tournament with the bottom sports teams”, though if Bigger Cup keeps expanding it’ll get there in the end.
LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE
Join Sarah Rendell at 5.45pm GMT for updates on Real Madrid 2-2 Arsenal in the first leg of their Women’s Big Cup quarter-final.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I’m at home and it’s like: wow, I play for Barcelona. When I speak with Alexia [Putellas] or Aitana [Bonmatí] in training they tell me that when they see the ball coming they don’t think where they want to play, they make that decision before they even receive the ball” – Poland striker Ewa Pajor talks to Alex Ibaceta before facing her former club Wolfsburg in the quarter-finals of the Women’s Bigger Cup.
FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
Re: Colin Reed and Jim Arrowsmith’s recent letters on Thomas Tuchel’s artistic resemblances (Monday’s letters), Munch’s The Scream and Giacometti’s ‘Walking Man’ are both strong early contest entries. But if you pop some spectacles on Tuchel, he’s also half of Grant Wood’s ‘American Gothic’” – Conor Williams.
I think you will find that that it’s now Morris Dancing Daily who is much missed” – Harvey Mayne.
Send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s prizeless letter o’ the day winner is … Janus. Terms and conditions for our competitions can be viewed here.
RECOMMENDED LISTENING
Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzy Wrack, Sophie Downey and Ameé Ruszkai to chat over the Women’s League Cup final and the weekend’s WSL action in the Women’s Football Weekly pod.
Oh, and the latest Football Weekly podcast is a Football League special! Max Rushden is joined by George Elek, Ben Fisher and Sanny Rudravajhala to talk all things EFL, from Leeds blowing their lead at the top of the Championship to asking if League Two is the most difficult division to predict.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING
Dan Burn as a giant sandworm? It can only be David Squires’ latest cartoon on Newcastle ending their trophy drought.
‘YOU JUST GOTTA RIDE IT’
Whenever we feel under the cosh at Football Daily Towers, we think of the PR department at Manchester United. What a place to work! There must be paper and coffee cups littered everywhere (which would only anger Big Sir Jim further) as the poor put-upon office staff ride a rollercoaster of emotions, lurching from one PR disaster to another, hour after hour, minute after minute (on repeat). After dousing fires for the first couple of months of 2025 as Big Sir Jim went cost-cutting crazy, confirming 200 redundancies, replacing proper staff meals with fruit and then savaging the “overpaid” expensively-assembled squad, they must have hoped they’d turned a corner when they were asked to fire out lavish images of new stadium plans. But even this PR exercise only seemed to irk fans further, who’d rather have a good team than a world-leading circus tent to play in. Perhaps the international fortnight would give them some respite. Oh. What’s this? Ticket prices are going up a further 5%. Sakes! How are we going to spin this one?
NEWS, BITS AND BOBS
Adelaide United’s Josh Cavallo, Australia’s first out gay male football player, reveals he receives daily death threats and says football is ‘toxic’ for gay players.
How about an exclusive by Matt Hughes? The Premier League has further delayed the introduction of semi-automated offside technology after the record eight-minute VAR check in the FA Cup tie between Bournemouth and Wolves.
Dougie Freedman has left his role as Crystal Palace sporting director and is expected join Al-Diriyah, a club that has just been promoted from Saudi Arabia’s third tier.
Click here for pictures of Thomas Tuchel putting his hands on England players. Nicely, we mean. Not like he’s fighting them.
The average annual salary for a female professional football player globally is just £8,400, says Fifa’s annual report on the women’s game.
The Preston forward Milutin Osmajic has been charged by the FA after an allegation of racist abuse.
Lionel Messi will miss Argentina’s upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Uruguay and Brazil due to thigh-ouch!
Alan Hansen was awarded was given an MBE by the Prince of Wales on Tuesday for his services to football and to broadcasting. Great to see Jockey up and about about after his health scare last year – the Liverpool legend was discharged from hospital in June after the club announced he had been taken “seriously ill”.
Petko Ganchev, a former player for Bulgarian top-flight side Arda Kardzhali, was given a minute’s silence before the club’s game against Levski Sofia on Sunday in the belief that the 78-year-old had died, when in fact the former striker was in the stands watching the match. “I was 10 minutes late [for kick-off],” explained Ganchev. “While driving home, my phone started ringing a lot. I parked in front of our house, entered the yard and my wife greets me crying, shouting: ‘Petko, Petko, they announced on TV that you have died!’ When I heard the terrible news, I poured myself a small brandy.”
Fresh from his Wembley heroics, here comes Dan Burn at a England press conference! “Definitely had worse weeks,” Burn smiled. “It started off with [Tuchel] FaceTiming me on Tuesday, saying that they were debating calling me up and he’d let me know by Thursday. Then it got to sort of 6pm Thursday night and I’d not heard anything, so I said to my wife ‘nothing’s going to happen’ then I got a text saying ‘are you still awake?’ at 10. I was like ‘yeah’ straightaway. He said I was very unprofessional for not being in bed for 10 o’clock!”
And Newcastle’s Kieran Trippier, recently retired from England duty of course, thinks the Magpies need to stay sober focused after their Milk Cup final win. “You don’t want to get carried away,” buzz-killed the right-back.
STILL WANT MORE?
If ‘New Trafford’ is such a nailed-on wealth generator, then why aren’t Jim Ratcliffe and the Glazers funding it themselves? asks Jonathan Liew.
USA USA USA manager Mauricio Pochettino believes “in five or 10 years, for sure the US can be No 1 in the world.” Dave Hytner sits down for a big old chat with the former Tottenham Hotspur or Spurs manager to find out more.
Tom Garry asks: can anybody stop Barcelona in Women’s Big Cup?
David Martin on St Johnstone v Eskisehirspor and the 2012 tie that produced an enduring friendship.
Newcastle’s Fizzy Cup win: part feelgood story, part PR triumph for dictator state ambition, writes Barney Ronay.
Eric Devin on why there is no shame for Ligue 1’s improving clubs losing to PSG.
And Sergio Ramos is up to 30 career red cards now. “It was obvious I wasn’t going to leave this league without [one],” he honked after being sent off for Monterrey in Liga MX. Look back at them all in our favourite retrospective.
MEMORY LANE
Wimbledon appeal to the referee during their 1976-77 FA Cup third-round tie against Middlesbrough. Boro would hold on for a 0-0 draw at Plough Lane and won the replay 1-0, advancing all the way to the sixth-round where they were beaten by finalists Liverpool.
