☕️🎁 ⚽️ Good morning everyone. The Blue card has started to make some noise again. This time, it’s being reported that the trial for experimenting with the blue card has been given the green light in lower competitions as soon as this year. A player will be shown the Blue card if a foul is deemed cynical but not enough to warrant a red card. That player would go off the field for 10 minutes, sort of like being given a time out so they can think about their actions. What if a player gets two blue cards in a game? Blue + Blue = Red.

Read the full breakdown of the rules here

Giveaway: Wake up and smell the coffee. Just in time for the Holidays, our next giveaway will be a $30 gift card for our favorite coffee brand- Kickoff Coffee. As always, each friend that you refer to subscribe to the newsletter is an entry to our raffle. Best of luck!

Thursday ICYMI

Africa Cup of Nations Semi-Final

Asia Cup Semi-Final

England- FA Cup

Copa del Rey Semi-Final

Coupe de France- Round of 16

Uber Eats Ligue 1
PSG moves out of home

🔜🎒🛫Paris Saint-Germain will depart from their home stadium the Parc Des Princes. The president of the Parisian club, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, confirmed that the club would leave the arena after the Paris City Council voted to prohibit the sale of the stadium. The Qatari investment company, Qatar Sports Investments, which owns PSG, has long sought to purchase the stadium to expand its capacity, aiming to increase revenue from matches.

• PSG said last year that they would explore alternatives after the Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said the stadium was not for sale— a position that City Hall confirmed on Tuesday.

• “A sale is no desirable, because that would be a decision with no turning back. We don’t want to sell off Paris’ legacy” said Paris deputy major Pierre Rabadan.

• PSG has played at Parc des Princes since their first appearance in the top division of France in 1974 and agreed to extend the lease for thirty years in 2013.

🫣🫥💸 Hasn’t been pretty in Paris for Al-Khelaifi. “2023 will be our most successful year for PSG",” he declared. Since June 2011, Al-Khelaifi has been the chairman of the Qatar Sports Investments (QSi), a sovereign wealth fun dedicated to investments in sports and leisure industry. QSi acquired Paris Saint-Germain FC that same season.

• Al-Khelaifi became the new president and CEO of PSG that following October, presenting a five-year plan to take PSG to the top abroad and bringing on former footballer Leonardo as the Director of Sport

• Although Al-Khelaifi initially demanded a major trophy haul for his inaugural 2011–12 season, PSG were soon eliminated from the UEFA Europa League and both domestic cups, leaving the team only able to spend $130 million on players. PSG failed to dominate, and lost out to eventual winners Montpellier, though they qualified for the UEFA Champions League by finishing second.

• Who could possibly forget La Remontada losing 6-1 in the Round of 16 against Barcelona, despite winning the first leg in France by a score of 4-0

• Who also can forget their pitiful 2023 Round of 16 Champions League exit with a roster consisting of Neymar, Kyllian Mbappe, Lionel Messi, and Sergio Ramos.

• PSG have lost more matches in 2023 than in the entirety of 2022.

🔜🧳🏃 Big time signings, big time depatures, and more to come. Since coming on the scene, Al-Khelaifi has scored the signatures of many big-time players; Thiago Silva, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Edinson Cavani, David Beckham, Neymar, Mbappe, Sergio Ramos, Gianluigi Donnarumma, and Lionel Messi. Combined, the above players rack in 10 Champion League trophies, none of which were won with PSG.

• PSG need someone who will build a competitive unit with a style and a philosophy, like Erik ten Hag and Mikel Arteta are doing at Manchester United and Arsenal respectively, or like Jurgen Klopp did at Liverpool seven-and-a-half years ago. Zinedine Zidane is still the dream of PSG's Qatari owners. Could he come this summer? Of course. Would he? Maybe, but only under certain big conditions. Would he be the right choice for a new cycle? That's far from certain.

Matches to catch

Africa Cup of Nations

Asian Cup Final

Serie A

Bundesliga

La Liga

Premier League

Quick Bites 🍕

The next stars to make the MLS move?

The best 16 in Europe

How about a partial refund?

AFC Asian Cup Final preview

Football, by the fans for the fans

In search of a pub? Ever find yourself in a new city and are desperately searching for a local soccer pub? Who would have thought that the premier league took time out of their day to create a bar finder. There really is nothing better than catching an early premier league game on the weekends with fellow fans of the game, and finding that bar that will actually have the game sound on just got that much easier.

USA Bar Finder. Bar finder, aka Intern Jose’s nickname in college. Easy to use search platform on the premier leagues website. It has most major cities included, and they’re even accepting updates to their list if you email them at [email protected]

Find your local soccer pub here.