October 24, 2022
The brief from today:
Media leak reveals Germany squad
As the World Cup draws closer, so do the deadlines for squad announcements. Most national teams will either announce their final squads around mid November, or start off with a provisional squad earlier in the month before narrowing it down to the final list. Germany coach, Hansi Flick, was planning on taking the latter approach, with the rumored date of his preliminary team expected to be disclosed on November 10. He had his plans, but the local media also had theirs, and thanks to either really impressive investigative journalism, or more likely a possible leak, the squad was revealed early. Sport Bild in Germany released the 26-man provisional team that was thought to be a tightly kept secret, until it wasn’t. Flick had been evaluating roughly 44 different players, and while he had finally whittled it down to 26, the announcement was snatched away from him, and the list is currently public. There are many of the usual names in the side, but the former Bayern Munich manager surprised a few with the selection of some youngsters like: Moukouko and Wirtz—who is just returning from a long-term injury. Meanwhile, there was also space for the scorer of Germany’s World Cup winning goal in 2014: Mario Gotze despite not playing at the highest of levels. It will now be interesting to see if other countries also discover their potential national teams through media leaks before coaches can make the announcements.
Hansi Flick will not have been pleased that the media announced his squad before he could
Lyon sale delayed once again
The sale of Lyon to Eagle Football, the company owned by American John Textor, has once again been delayed. Originally announced in June, the purchase of the Ligue 1 side by Textor, who also owns Premier League side Crystal Palace, was expected to be a formality. Unfortunately the takeover hit a roadblock when Lyon’s creditors expressed their dissatisfaction with members of the consortium’s financial status, which caused a delay until September 30. Textor was eventually forced to recalibrate his investing group and another revised date of closing was set for October 21. This latest group was said to have passed the due diligence of Lyon’s creditors, but once again delays reappeared. This time the extensive process to verify the validity of funds within Textor’s group, has now extended past the creditors and includes the French football authorities. The relevant parties involved have moved to quash any concerns saying, “To date, substantial progress has been made on all the steps that are necessary to complete the transaction.” That said, the latest extension for the closing being pushed back to November 17 has left more question marks than assurances.
The sale of Lyon to John Textor has hit yet another delay