The trick is to be massively corrupt in a way that takes fucking forever to bring to trial. To get super advanced, you need to be under active indictments in four different cities under four completely different categories of law.

There’s always been 7-8 slots in Europe, and smaller clubs have always struggled with it. Stoke, Swansea, West Ham basically threw a qualifier one year to avoid it.

What part of that doesn’t mean giving a huge contract to an aging player is a risk? You seem to be arguing that it’s not a risk because he was signed on a free transfer.

Wages still count for FFP. He’s not playing for free.

I don’t think there’s anything inherently bad about talented kids playing with bigger/more physical kids. That’s the intensity what they wanted to give her vs. training with girls her age.

I played hockey with a couple of girls when I was 13-14. They enjoyed the hitting and could take care of themselves on the ice. (No one tried to fight them, of course.)

Go look at his history. He had one hot streak in 2017 where he scored five goals in seven games. He scored three over his next fifteen. He didn’t score a single goal in the next two seasons, and his final year at Everton (19/20) he played three times for 19 minutes total.

He didn’t have a club in 20/21, played a couple of short term contracts in League One, with four goals in 1200 minutes.

7th tier is not a shock.

Jones and Gusto are the example where they’ve set out to stamp out those challenges, with clearly established criteria (high point of contact, leg bent under impact to show sufficient force to endanger an opponent). It’s definitely more harsh than prior seasons but if the standard is “did this endanger the opponent” then bending the standing leg with a high point of contact feels like a reasonable line for actually dangerous. Players will adapt to the standard if they hold the line (and I think they should).