August 19, 2022

The brief from today:

Brazil schedules September friendlies

Following FIFA’s recent insistence that Brazil and Argentina complete their suspended World Cup qualifier from September 2021, football’s governing has relented to protests from the Brazilian and Argentine FAs refusing to play the match. As a result Brazil have now scheduled some less strenuous friendlies for the upcoming international break next month. The opponents that have been arranged are African sides: Ghana and Tunisia. Rather than play in Brazil, however, both matches will take place in Europe with the locations still unannounced. This will be one of Brazil coach, Tite’s, final opportunities to tweak his squad for the World Cup, and the fact that both Ghana and Tunisia are sides that will also participate in the tournament makes them a satisfactory litmus test. Squad announcements for the two matches—scheduled for September 23 and 27—will be made on September 9, and will likely give a glimpse into what Tite is leaning towards for his official World Cup squad.

Tite (center with black shirt) will try and finalize his World Cup squad during Brazi’s September friendlies

Luis Campos now addresses nutrition

PSG Sporting Advisor, Luis Campos, has been busy in his first months at the club. While still in the midst of a hectic transfer window, he recently had to mediate a conflict between two of the club’s biggest names: Mbappe and Neymar, and now his latest undertaking is the squad’s nutrition. The Portuguese administrator has recruited a full-time nutritionist for PSG’s senior team, which must be stressed wasn’t a replacement, but an actual first time hire! For a club with a player gross wage bill totaling almost €420 million per year, the fact that a full-time nutritionist wasn’t present in the club’s staff is astounding. Apparently the closest things came to such a hire under the previous regime was someone who occupied the role in a part-time capacity, while they also took care of PSG defender, Marquinhos’s friends. The new employee Campos has brought in said to be a former Spanish footballer who went back to school to acquire a degree in sports nutrition. The new nutritionist is already making changes, with the first being a ban on Coca Cola and Iced Tea from team meals, which, once again, is quite surprising that this wasn’t already the norm. To further change the culture at the club, Campos has also instituted two mandatory meals that the team are meant to share each day—breakfast and lunch—which is something that numerous teams already practice, but will be a novel concept for the Ligue 1 champions.

Luis Campos continues to make his mark at PSG