Vardar Threw Away a 2-0 Lead in Riga, and FIFA Is Putting the World Cup on the Table for Private Investors

Vardar led 2-0 until the 87th minute, then collapsed in Riga

There are defeats, and there are nights that sit in your stomach for months. This was the second kind. Macedonian champions Vardar led 2-0 in Riga, played almost the entire match a man down, and stood one step from the third round of the Conference League. Goalkeeper Davor Taleski kept the team alive, David Babunski opened the night with a left-foot volley in the 17th minute, Azer Omeragić struck on the counter in the 66th. Then came the 87th minute, Taiwo's equaliser, extra time and a total collapse: 5-2 to Riga, 8-4 on aggregate. Coach Kristijan Fabijani said three minutes separated them from the result they wanted. That's true. But those three minutes repeat every summer, and that is no longer coincidence - it's a description of the state of things.

FIFA puts the World Cup on the table for private investors, UEFA responds

FIFA is considering a plan to set up a new company to run its biggest competitions, including the World Cup, and to sell a minority stake worth several billion dollars to private investors. Majority control stays with FIFA, the financial adviser is JP Morgan, and among the leading interested parties is Thrive Capital - the fund founded by Joshua Kushner, a relative by marriage of the American president. Every member association would also get its own share worth around 20 million dollars, which explains quite transparently how a majority of votes is bought. UEFA replied that football and its soul are not for sale. A nice sentence. The question is whether Europe has anything more than a sentence, because 211 federations with 20 million each on the table rarely vote no.

Zidane finally got France, Mancini returns to Italy

Zinedine Zidane is France's new manager, on a contract to 2030 with an official start on 1 August. He succeeds Didier Deschamps, who left after a World Cup that ended with a 2-0 semi-final defeat to Spain and a lost third-place match against England, 6-4. Zidane said he had turned down club offers for five years while waiting for this job. Italy has no such calm story: after Paolo Maldini and Leonardo left after just 17 days, and Andrea Pirlo's candidacy collapsed over his ambassadorial role with a Russian betting firm, the federation went back to Roberto Mancini - the man who delivered Euro 2020. Two countries, two opposite models: one waited five years for its plan, the other improvised in two weeks.

Liverpool prepare a record bid for Barcola, Savinho wants out of City

The English transfer market is again working with numbers that sound like a national budget. Liverpool are preparing a first offer for PSG forward Bradley Barcola of 110 plus 40 million euros - a club record, and a replacement for Mohamed Salah. In Manchester, Savinho has officially asked to leave City after slipping down the pecking order: 14 appearances since the start of the year, with Manchester City valuing him at 55 million euros. Tottenham and Milan are waiting. Here it's worth recalling what those numbers mean in the Balkans: the price of one unhappy winger on the bench is more than the annual budget of an entire league. That isn't a moral point, just the plain arithmetic of why our clubs play second qualifying rounds and not group stages.

Pelister bring back Spirkoski, and a Swedish village of 1,500 made it to Europe

While the big clubs spend hundreds of millions, in Bitola they work with what they have. Pelister have brought back the experienced Blagojče Spirkoski after a five-year break from the green-and-white shirt - a player who has been through Horizont Turnovo, Kožuv, Tikveš, Shkupi, Pobeda and 11 Oktomvri, and who is now meant to be a trump card in the project for a quick return to the top flight. New coach Borče Hristov is promising more signings. And if anyone needs proof that the small are not condemned to disappear, look at Sweden's Mjällby AIF: a club from a place of 1,500 people that eliminated Lincoln of Gibraltar and secured a league phase in a European competition. So anything is possible. Someone just has to build for longer than one term in office.