August 1, 2022
The brief from today:
Women’s Finalissima to be scheduled
After the winners of the women’s Copa América and European Championship—Brazil and England respectively—were confirmed this past weekend, an inaugural women’s Finalissima match will take place between the two sides. While the official date hasn’t been confirmed, the location, also yet to be determined, will be somewhere in Europe. The men’s champions of both tournaments, Italy and Argentina, recently played a Finalissima match in June, with the South American side beating their European counterparts 3-0. The Finalissima match, formerly known as the Artemio Franchi Cup, was first held in 1985, and pitted the CONMEBOL and UEFA champions against each other in a one-off match. With FIFA arranging tournaments like the Confederations Cup in 1997, which included all five confederation champions in one competition, the Artemio Franchi Cup became obsolete after its second edition in 1993. In 2020, however, CONMEBOL and UEFA pledged to strengthen collaboration between the two organizations even opening a shared office in London. Part of their new mandate would be scheduling intercontinental matches, which brought the return of Artemio Franchi Cup, now rebranded as the Finalissima. With the men’s edition drawing some fanfare, both confederations can now start arrangements for the women’s match hoping for similar results.
Brazil (L) and England (R) will meet each other in the first ever women’s Finalissima
Tudor ruffling feathers at Marseille
When Jorge Sampaoli abruptly left his position as coach of Ligue 1 side, Marseille, earlier this summer, the club was left scrambling to find a replacement. The unexpected departure, due to a lack of investment in the transfer market according to Sampaoli, resulted in club president, Pablo Longoria, selecting Igor Tudor as the new coach. Tudor had just completed a relatively successful 2021/22 season with Serie A side, Hellas Verona, finishing ninth. His high pressing style was enough to convince Longoria to make a move, but now there are other issues causing unrest. After Marseille went winless—3 losses and 1 draw—in their preseason matches, the players have called for a meeting with Longoria. In addition to the lack of understanding of Tudor’s expectations regarding tactics, Tudor’s dust-ups with players and staff is part of the agenda meant to discussed. His approach thus far has seen former Juventus teammate, Mauro Camoranesi, who joined Tudor’s coaching staff, leave after one week on the job. In addition to that, he has had recent training ground arguments with defender, Jordan Amavi, and midfielder, Gerson, that saw the former banished from the squad. Marseille captain, Dimitri Payet, on behalf of the team, has led the charge for this summit aiming to clear the air before the league commences this weekend. Marseille, who finished second last season, are not trying to regress, especially due to internal strife, and honest steps are now being taken to mitigate such risks.
Tudor (L) and Longoria (R) will need to clear the air with the players before the season starts