The letter went out on Monday to all 211 of FIFA's member associations, and it was written in the register of a man who knows he has a problem. Gianni Infantino told the federations he was willing to put his own house under outside inspection. "First, I will ask the Council whether it wishes to commission an independent external review of FIFA's current governance framework for major strategic initiatives and recommend potential improvements," he wrote, in a passage reported by Reuters. Of the scheme that triggered the crisis, he was blunt: "It remained a proposal, not a decision, and was always subject to the necessary approvals of the Council and the Member Associations. It has now been withdrawn and will not proceed."

The scheme was FIFA Forward Enterprise. Announced on 28 July, it would have moved World Cup and Club World Cup broadcasting, sponsorship, ticketing and licensing rights into a commercial subsidiary valued at roughly $20bn, with Joshua Kushner's Thrive Capital taking about 20 per cent for $4.2bn. The sweetener was aimed at the small federations who hold the votes: annual development funding would have climbed from $8m to $20m for the 2027 to 2030 cycle. For the confederations that generate the revenue, it was the sale of an asset FIFA holds in trust rather than owns.

The revolt was faster than anyone at FIFA appears to have modelled. On 30 July all 55 UEFA associations voted unanimously to boycott future World Cups and FIFA competitions. CONCACAF and its 41 members rejected the plan. The Asian Confederation's Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa called it "totally unacceptable." Infantino withdrew it on 31 July, three days after announcing it. That is not a retreat. That is a rout.

Withdrawal did not buy peace. On 27 August UEFA launched legal action against Infantino personally, alleging he had "fraudulently" offered the stake without proper FIFA authorisation at an "absurdly low enterprise value of only approximately $20bn," and describing the vehicle as a way for "Infantino and that small circle to acquire a permanent stake in and otherwise profit from FIFA's most valuable assets." The boycott was suspended only once FIFA confirmed in writing that the plan was "irrevocably and permanently withdrawn" and would "not re-appear in any other shape, construction, name or form." UEFA added that the underlying crisis had not been resolved. Reporting differs on where the action was filed, so we are not naming a venue. (Yahoo Sports)

Which brings us to this week, and to the reason Monday's letter did not land the way it was meant to. Within twenty-four hours Bernd Neuendorf, president of the German Football Association, went on the record with Reuters: "I regard Gianni Infantino's letter as a transparent ploy to secure his re-election next year." He added that Infantino "is definitely not the right person to lead a reform process" and "has squandered all credibility." Germany is not a peripheral federation lodging a protest. It is a four-time world champion, the host of the last European Championship, and one of the four or five associations whose position other federations read before settling their own.

On Wednesday it escalated again. The Associated Press reported UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin speaking directly to the damage, framing the task ahead as repairing trust broken by Infantino's World Cup plan (AP, 23 September). The choice of word is deliberate. A governing body that has to litigate against its own president to establish what he is authorised to sell has a problem no external review can write away.

The arithmetic, though, still favours the incumbent, and that is the uncomfortable part for the reformers. Reuters reports that Infantino stands for re-election in March 2027 and that sources believe he retains the votes to win, with opponents concentrating on limiting his powers rather than fielding a rival. FIFA's electorate is one association, one vote, which means Germany and Gibraltar count the same.

The federations that were offered a tripling of their development grant in July are the same federations who will fill in the ballot in March, and Infantino's letter took care to promise that a federation's position on governance "would not affect their treatment by FIFA." It is a sentence that only needs writing if people were worried about the opposite.

So the shape of the next six months is clear. Europe and CONCACAF have the money, the clubs and the lawyers. Infantino has the ballot box. Every reform proposal from here will be read by both camps as a vote count, and the confederations will keep the litigation running because discovery is the only mechanism capable of establishing what was actually promised in July and to whom. None of it is incidental to the football. The question underneath is who decides what the World Cup is for, and it will be settled by a show of hands in a conference hall.

The match itself was tight and bad-tempered. Atletico Madrid beat Real Madrid 2-1 at the Metropolitano on Sunday. Dean Huijsen was dismissed after a VAR review, Alejandro Grimaldo converted the resulting penalty on fifty minutes, Jonathan David made it two on 59 and Antonio Rudiger headed a consolation on 89. Real Madrid's own match report, published on the club's website, carried the headline "Un pesimo arbitraje decide el derbi": a dreadful refereeing performance decides the derby. Clubs do not usually put that on their own front page.

On Monday and Tuesday the Spanish referees' technical committee published its review, and the outcome was genuinely split. The committee ruled that Lee Kang-in's 44th-minute challenge on Fede Valverde was a clear and obvious error: it should have been a red card and VAR should have intervened. It also ruled that the earlier incident involving Cristian Romero and Jude Bellingham was correctly handled, and that Huijsen's red card and the penalty were correct (via El Nacional). Two right, one wrong. Madrid had a legitimate grievance and, in the committee's judgement, not the one they were shouting loudest about.

Jose Mourinho, in his first Madrid derby since returning to the Bernabeu bench in June, did not wait for the review. "Son dos tarjetas rojas claras," he said, two clear red cards, before turning on the video official: "this gentleman has a very complete history as a VAR referee in Real Madrid matches" (La Opinion). It is the oldest script Mourinho owns, and at the Bernabeu it plays.

Then the institutions took over. On Tuesday Real Madrid issued a formal statement calling it "intolerable that the LaLiga president uses his institutional position to continue discrediting and attacking Real Madrid," and said the competition required "a leader capable of administering it with the essential duty of neutrality" (EFE). The trigger was Javier Tebas's social-media reply to the refereeing row, in which he said that arguing referees are directed against Real Madrid is living in another galaxy.

Tebas answered the statement the same day and aimed straight at Florentino Perez: "The president of LaLiga is not the owner of the competition. Neither is the president of Real Madrid." And: "I am not the owner of LaLiga and I will not run it as though it belonged to a single club. Respect for everyone. Subordination to no one." (beIN Sports)

Two things are worth holding onto. Tebas is also among the loudest voices calling for Gianni Infantino to resign, which made this a week in which Spanish football's most combative administrator fought on two fronts at once. And then there is the table. While all this went on, Barcelona won 3-1 at Sevilla to move to seven wins from seven. Real Madrid are fourth, six points back, and go into the break without Fede Valverde, whose club medical report described a severe trauma to the left ankle (Real Madrid). Spanish outlets say two to three weeks. The club has given no date.

The best transfer story of the week did not involve a fee. David Alaba has been without a club since his Real Madrid contract expired on 30 June, and on Wednesday Fabrizio Romano reported that Udinese had reached a verbal agreement with him. Tuttomercatoweb photographed the Austrian arriving at the Villa Stuart clinic in Rome for medical tests the same morning, with a journey north to Udine to follow. Foot Mercato reports he turned down Inter Miami, Union Berlin and Austria Vienna to take it. Contract length has not been disclosed. Status: medical completed, announcement pending.

On paper it is absurd. Alaba won four Champions Leagues across Bayern Munich and Real Madrid and took eleven trophies from 131 Madrid appearances. Udinese have conceded eleven goals in five matches. But that second number is the explanation: Kosta Runjaic has an injury-thinned back line and a defender with 400 elite matches behind him is available for nothing. The risk is his fitness record. The upside is the most decorated centre-back in the division, at no cost.

He is not the only serious name changing address outside a window. Juventus lost goalkeeper Kamil Grabara to a ruptured cruciate ligament in training on 22 September and moved within a day: Gianluca Di Marzio and Tuttosport both reported a deal agreed for free agent Neto, 37, on a contract to 30 June 2027, nine years after he left the club. He will back up Guglielmo Vicario. Alfredo Pedulla had flagged Neto as the first name on the list from Saturday. Status: agreed, signature imminent.

Luciano Spalletti dedicated Saturday's win over Atalanta to his injured players, Grabara in particular, and the goalkeeper posted on Wednesday that he never wanted to have to publish such a message.

A third name joined the available list. Wolfsburg, relegated last season, announced on 22 September that they had mutually terminated Christian Eriksen's contract, which ran to June 2027. Sporting head Dieter Hecking said the decision belonged to the player: "we wanted to give him this freedom in this particular situation" (via Tuttomercatoweb). Eriksen is now the most accomplished unattached midfielder in Europe. No next club has been reported.

The single biggest expiry in world football belongs to Harry Kane, who is in the final year of the deal he signed with Bayern Munich in 2023 and who on 18 September became the fastest player ever to 100 Bundesliga goals, reaching the mark in his 98th appearance. Bayern are not hiding. Chief executive Jan-Christian Dreesen has said the club are "having productive discussions" and expects matters to wrap up after the international break; president Herbert Hainer has gone further: "We want to extend his contract further, and I also think that's what will happen" (bundesliga.com). Kane himself, on the night of the record: "All I can say is that I enjoy every minute of it. I'm extremely happy here. The talks are ongoing" (beIN Sports). Bild has reported a target of 2029, a broadly flat salary near €25m a year and an exit clause under discussion. Status: advanced, not signed.

The renewal nobody is covering properly is Christian Pulisic's. Marco Conterio of Tuttomercatoweb reported on Wednesday that the American's AC Milan deal runs to 2027 with a club option, that he currently earns around €4.5m net, that his camp opened at €8m and would settle at €7m, and that this sits above Milan's wage ceiling.

The detail that matters is procedural rather than financial: talks were serious in the autumn and then stalled, and Pulisic's side expected a formal written proposal of the kind other players received and never got one. A club that values a player's commercial weight in North America while declining to put a number on paper is a club that may find itself negotiating with Barcelona's lawyers in January instead.

Elsewhere on the expiry board: Jude Bellingham's Real Madrid deal runs to 2029 and Matteo Moretto has reported an extension to 2030 or 2031 is close, though we could only reach that reporting second-hand and are labelling it accordingly. Kevin De Bruyne's Napoli situation produced the week's cleanest contradiction: Nicolo Schira reported on Wednesday that renewal talks on his 2027-expiring contract are stalled and the parties look close to parting at season's end, while the player told reporters from the Belgium camp a day earlier that he "never considered the idea of leaving Napoli" and is very happy there (Fantacalcio). Both can be true. Only one will be true in June.

And then there is the renewal that is not happening. Alexis Mac Allister is contracted to Liverpool until 2028 but said earlier this month that he felt a little sad watching Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboszlai sign long-term deals while his agent was told the club was "not in a position to renew." On 22 September, on Argentina duty, he softened it: "it was more about my emotions than judging the club," and if it is two more years, "that's absolutely fine" (Sports Illustrated).

Read the club's behaviour rather than the player's manners. Liverpool are comfortable letting a 2028 contract run down, and that is usually the first visible step toward a summer sale.

In Barcelona the news was better. Sporting director Deco told the club's general assembly on 19 September that renewals for Raphinha (to 2030), Marc Bernal (to 2031) and Xavi Espart (to 2030) had been all but completed, with formalisation expected within a week (Football Espana). None had been signed as of Wednesday, which is a distinction worth preserving. Given what Raphinha has done in the first seven matchdays, it is also the cheapest business the club will do this season.

Barcelona bid €100m for Julian Alvarez in late May and Atletico Madrid refused to sell to them specifically. On 21 September Joan Laporta finally said out loud what the club had been briefing privately: "They acted offended; they had no way to justify their attitude. We were constantly hearing that they would sell him to every club except Barca. Then they dropped the pretense and said it openly." He added that he had suspicions about why, but no proof, so he would keep them to himself (Sports Illustrated).

It is not the language of a president who intends to try again in eight weeks.

The finances say the same thing more plainly. Barcelona's vice-president for economics, Ferran Olive, told Cadena SER this week that the club will have positive financial fair play headroom in January but would still need to sell before buying, and that the move to Montjuic during the Camp Nou roof works is expected to push them back outside the one-to-one rule in the summer of 2027 (El Desmarque). Earlier modelling by Cronica Global put Barcelona's registration room at roughly €43m against an Alvarez package costing €50m to €55m a year. The gap is real, the political route is closed, and in the meantime Raphinha has scored twelve league goals in seven games playing centrally. Status: dormant, and we would treat any January revival as a rumour until Atletico say otherwise.

Endrick to AC Milan. The best-triangulated January link on the board. Daniele Longo of Calciomercato reported on 22 September that Ruben Amorim wants a left-footed number ten and that Endrick is the first name on the list, with feasibility resting entirely on whether Florentino Perez will do business. Separately, Joaquin Maroto has reported the player is increasingly frustrated with his role at Real Madrid. Two outlets, two countries, same direction. Complicating it: Romano quoted Madrid in mid-September saying they remain "absolutely confident in Endrick." Concrete interest.

Rayan Ait-Nouri to Juventus. Gazzetta dello Sport, relayed by Tuttomercatoweb on 23 September, reports that Juventus re-established contact with the left-back's entourage during this international break after first talks in late August, and are weighing a loan with an option to buy so the permanent negotiation can wait until summer. The premise is that he is behind the queue at Manchester City under Enzo Maresca. Concrete interest, contact made.

Federico Chiesa and Wataru Endo out at Liverpool. Both were left out of Liverpool's Champions League squad. Endo has played no minutes at all this season; Chiesa has five goals in 50 appearances since arriving from Juventus in 2024 and is now behind Bradley Barcola, Rio Ngumoha, Cody Gakpo and reportedly the 21-year-old Lewis Koumas. Italian outlets have him linked with a Serie A return (via SportBible). Strongly signposted exit, no destination agreed.

Bernardo Silva is being forgotten at the Bernabeu. This one is ours to flag rather than anyone's to confirm. Silva joined Real Madrid on a free from Manchester City this summer on a two-year deal. Under Jose Mourinho he has 282 minutes in six league games with no goals and one assist, including eight minutes across the last two fixtures (Fichajes, a low-tier outlet, though the minutes are checkable).

Barcelona pursued him in the summer before talks collapsed over money and playing time. A 32-year-old who is ninth choice by late September, with a domestic rival who wanted him six weeks ago, is a January story forming in plain sight. Speculative. No contact reported.

Alejandro Garnacho's loan is failing, and the clause may be why. Three appearances for Aston Villa and benched for the last two. Unai Emery earlier this month: "We continue working with him, but for now there are others performing better." The loan from Chelsea reportedly carries an appearance-triggered obligation to buy, which is precisely the mechanism that gives a club a reason not to play someone. The Daily Mail reports Spanish clubs want him in January (via the Daily Mail). Concrete interest, no talks reported.

And briefly. Manu Kone to Chelsea: Corriere dello Sport says Roma now want around €100m, roughly double the summer figure. Rumour.  ·  JJ Gabriel, the 15-year-old at Manchester United who turns 16 on 6 October: Romano called Real Madrid favourites with Barcelona in contact, and Christian Falk added Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain on 23 September (CaughtOffside). Rumour, but serious reporters on it.  ·  Thiago Pitarch, 19, has played no minutes for Real Madrid and was sent to Castilla for the break after the club blocked a summer move to Fulham. Interest expected to revive.

Manchester City are five from five and Enzo Maresca's first autumn in charge is already producing the sort of numbers that make a season feel decided in September. Sunday's 5-3 win over Sunderland was the most entertaining match of the round and statistically one of the strangest of the Premier League era. City took the lead three separate times before half-time, which Opta records as only the seventh instance in league history. Brian Brobbey scored a hat-trick and lost, the sixth time that has happened in the Premier League and the first since Roque Santa Cruz managed it for Blackburn in December 2007.

Erling Haaland scored the fifth and in doing so completed the set: he has now scored against all 25 Premier League clubs he has faced. Regis Le Bris took charge of his 100th Sunderland match, the first manager to reach that mark at the club since Roy Keane.

The result that will echo longest, though, was on Friday night. Brentford beat Chelsea 3-0, and the underlying numbers are alarming for Xabi Alonso. Chelsea have now conceded 23 set-piece goals since the start of last season, joint-worst in the division, and have gone 22 consecutive league matches without a clean sheet at a rate of 2.2 non-penalty goals conceded per game. This was their eleventh defeat of the calendar year, more than in the whole of 2025 (Sky Sports). Alonso was direct: "We concede the first goal, you're still in the game but then we lose the shape. We were out of control." Levi Colwill went further: "At times we have been bullied." Brentford are unbeaten through five for the first time in their history.

All of this arrived four days after Todd Boehly and Mark Walter agreed to sell their combined 25 per cent stake to majority owner Clearlake Capital, taking Clearlake to 86.5 per cent in a deal valuing the club at £5bn (Sky Sports).

At the other end, two very large clubs are in genuine trouble. Manchester United have five points from five, equalling their joint-worst Premier League start, and Michael Carrick spent the week absorbing it: "I'm totally happy taking responsibility, absolutely no problem with that, it doesn't bother me" (Irish News). The 1-1 at Fulham prompted Gary Neville to call a passage of United's play the worst fifteen minutes he had ever seen from them in possession, and Fulham manager Alvaro Arbeloa to complain that officials do not like Manchester United to lose.

Tottenham are bottom of the table on two points with no wins, and the reporting on Roberto De Zerbi is contested. Fabrizio Romano was the clearest: "the message from Tottenham, as of today, remains a message of confidence in Roberto De Zerbi," and "I don't have any indication of Tottenham exploring different ways" (via Football365). Other outlets have run harder lines. Weigh accordingly.

Around them: Coventry City won at Nottingham Forest through Jay Dasilva for their first top-flight victory since 2001, having failed to score in their opening four matches. Oliver Glasner said he had felt the heaviness of Forest's past for the first time; they have not won a home league game since December (Sky Sports). Everton are unbeaten in seven, matching David Moyes's own 2006-07 side, and spent Wednesday morning mocking The Athletic on social media for leaving every Everton player out of its in-season top fifty.

Off the pitch, Profit and Sustainability Rules are gone: this is the first season of the Squad Cost Ratio, capping wages, transfers and agent fees at 85 per cent of football revenue plus net player-sale profit, with a six-point deduction for breaching the red threshold (Premier League). And Daniel Levy received a £27m exit payment from Tottenham, taking his total earnings there to £88m, reported by The Athletic as the second-largest payout to a departing Premier League executive (via Yahoo Sports).

Barcelona have won all seven. The engine is Raphinha, who has twelve league goals in those seven games, three of them penalties, a total bettered at this stage of a season this century only by Cristiano Ronaldo's thirteen in 2014-15. He scored hat-tricks in consecutive matches: seven days after putting three past Racing Santander in a 7-2 win he produced a perfect one at Sevilla, header, curled finish and chip, in a 3-1 away victory in which Barcelona's expected goals read 3.26 to 0.45 (beIN Sports).

Around him, Lamine Yamal is now a club captain at 19, the youngest in Barcelona's history to wear the armband on a Champions League debut, and leads the team for chances created. Hansi Flick's one worry going into the break is Andreas Christensen, who went off at the Pizjuan with a thigh problem.

Behind them the table is unusual. Atletico Madrid are second after the derby, level on sixteen with Manuel Pellegrini's Real Betis. Real Madrid are fourth. Alaves are sixth on eleven, their best start in La Liga history, and promoted Deportivo La Coruna are seventh with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, 37, on five goals.

At the bottom, Valencia confirmed Javier Aguirre as head coach on Wednesday, his seventh La Liga club, ten days after sacking Carlos Corberan and football chief executive Ron Gourlay (Fichajes.net). He starts at Racing Santander on 11 October. One fixture went unplayed: Levante against Athletic Club was postponed under an official weather alert after flooding in Valencia and is rescheduled for 21 October (El Desmarque).

Two things happened in Germany this week and both were emphatic. Borussia Dortmund won 1-0 at VfB Stuttgart through a 70th-minute Maxi Beier finish, assisted by Jobe Bellingham, and went into the break top of the table with four wins from four, their best start in eleven years. It was, remarkably, Dortmund's first shot on target of the match from ten attempts (BVB). Niko Kovac is doing it without Emre Can and Giannis Konstantelias, both with cruciate ligament injuries. Meanwhile Bayern Munich beat Union Berlin 7-0. Michael Olise scored a hat-trick and took 88 per cent of the man-of-the-match vote; Harry Kane scored twice and became the fastest player to 100 Bundesliga goals, reaching the mark in his 98th appearance and demolishing Dieter Muller's 129-game benchmark (bundesliga.com).

The league is scoring at a rate not seen in forty years: 137 goals in the first 36 matches, 3.8 a game, the third-highest total after four matchdays in Bundesliga history (bundesliga.com). Freiburg are third and set a club record with six straight competitive wins before drawing at Eintracht Frankfurt. Promoted SC Paderborn beat Hoffenheim 3-1 for their first Bundesliga win since 2020.

At the bottom, Borussia Monchengladbach have no points from four: Eugen Polanski was dismissed on 13 September and Alexander Blessin confirmed on 22 September on a deal to 2028, arriving from St Pauli (bundesliga.com). Union Berlin have one point and seventeen conceded, and Mauro Lustrinelli is next in the queue. Off the pitch, Jurgen Klopp, now Germany head coach, named a first squad of 44 players for the four Nations League fixtures (DFB), and the cartel office's August ruling that 50+1 is lawful only if applied consistently has left the exemptions held by Wolfsburg, Leverkusen, Hannover and Leipzig looking exposed.

Three clubs are level at the top on thirteen points and the separation is goal difference: Roma first, Inter second, Lazio third. Gian Piero Gasperini's Roma have conceded three goals in five matches, the best defence in the division, and drew 2-2 with Inter at the Olimpico in the round's best match: Manu Kone scored twice in the first half, Lautaro Martinez twice in the second (Corriere dello Sport).

Fourth, and this is not a misprint, are Cagliari on twelve points with two goals conceded in five under Fabio Pisacane. Promoted Frosinone are sixth. Juventus beat Atalanta 2-0 through Francisco Conceicao and Bremer, which leaves Maurizio Sarri with three straight defeats and one goal scored in them, his first such run at Atalanta. AC Milan are fifth and unbeaten domestically after a 3-0 win over Lecce.

Napoli are ninth on seven points, their worst start in a decade, and Corriere dello Sport reported a heated dressing-room confrontation at the Franchi in which Massimiliano Allegri made clear he had wanted two more signings, a centre-back and a striker of substance (Corriere dello Sport; press reconstruction, not on the record). Bologna sacked Domenico Tedesco on 16 September after one point from four and installed Raffaele Palladino on a three-year deal the same afternoon (Il Fatto Quotidiano).

Away from the table, Italian football buried a monument: Sandro Mazzola died on 19 September aged 83 (Sky Sport Italia), and the disciplinary judge fined Juventus €10,000 after a small section of the Curva Sud turned their backs during his minute's silence. Lazio published accounts showing a €10m loss against a €104.6m wage bill, with no European football and a supporter boycott costing roughly 25,000 season tickets (Corriere dello Sport). The Meazza, meanwhile, turned 100.

France has produced the most disorderly table in Europe. Monaco lead on thirteen points, Lyon are second on eleven with the division's best goal difference after thrashing Rennes 4-0, and Paris FC are third, also on eleven. The reigning champions, Paris Saint-Germain, are sixth on eight. Marseille are seventeenth on three. Sunday's Classique at the Velodrome went to PSG 2-1 in front of 61,499: Ferran Torres, the €50m summer signing from Barcelona, scored seven minutes after coming on for Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Amine Gomes equalised for Marseille on 72 and Marquinhos won it two minutes later (Foot Mercato). Luis Enrique was measured afterwards: his side controlled the first period without creating, started the second brilliantly and missed clear chances.

Marseille are the story. Five straight defeats in all competitions, including a 4-1 beating at Besiktas in the Europa League, no signings in the summer window, and a balance sheet that recorded €105m of losses for 2025 against a €120m injection from Frank McCourt. President Pablo Longoria has left for River Plate, prompting RMC's Jerome Rothen to say on air that he hoped Longoria had filled his pockets, because look at the state of the club. Bruno Genesio says the situation is not normal but has no intention of resigning (Foot Mercato).

Elsewhere: France's Cour de cassation rejected Achraf Hakimi's appeal on Wednesday, confirming his referral to the Hauts-de-Seine criminal court on a rape charge relating to 2023, a procedural ruling and not a finding of guilt (Foot Mercato). And Zinedine Zidane began work as France head coach, switching to a 4-3-3 with Kylian Mbappe left and Ousmane Dembele central: "I want a team that plays, that decides to take command of the game" (Foot Mercato).

A correction worth making, because it changes how you read everything else: MLS Decision Day this year is 7 November, not early October. The 2026 season was rebuilt around the World Cup, so most clubs still have around eight of 34 matches to play, the Wild Card round begins 18 November and MLS Cup is 18 December. Nashville SC lead the Supporters' Shield race on 57 points from 26 games, eight clear of Vancouver who have a game in hand, and have already clinched a playoff berth.

Below that it is brutally tight: both conference playoff lines are separated by a single point. In the East FC Cincinnati hold ninth on 33 from NYCFC on 32; in the West Portland hold ninth on 32 from San Diego FC on 31 (MLSsoccer.com).

Lionel Messi has 20 goals and 13 assists in 23 games and is the second player in league history to score 20 or more in three consecutive seasons. His free kick in Inter Miami's 2-2 draw with San Diego FC was his 101st goal for the club since July 2023, and he leads MLS in both goals and assists (MLSsoccer.com). Miami have drawn four in a row, though, and sit third in the East on the wins tiebreaker. Denis Bouanga passed Carlos Vela as LAFC's all-time regular-season top scorer, 79 goals in 127 appearances against Vela's 78 in 152, assisted by Son Heung-min (MLSsoccer.com). And Philadelphia trailed Sporting Kansas City 3-0 and won 4-3, scoring in the 64th, 66th, 68th and 73rd minutes.

Robert Lewandowski, 38, has six goals and two assists in his first ten MLS appearances since joining Chicago Fire in late June, but Chicago are winless in seven and their expected goals have fallen from 2.15 a game before the World Cup break to 1.56 after it. Real Salt Lake lost Diego Luna for the season to meniscus surgery (MLSsoccer.com). And the structural story rumbles on: from 2027 MLS switches to a summer-to-spring calendar with a winter break and MLS Cup in May. This season is the last of the old format.

The Champions League did not play this week. Matchday 1 was 8 to 10 September and Matchday 2 is 13 and 14 October, so the European football in this window was Europa League Matchday 1 on 16 and 17 September, and it belonged to England. Crystal Palace beat Lech Poznan 4-0 with four different scorers, Bournemouth won 2-1 at Real Sociedad, and Sunderland beat AZ Alkmaar 1-0 through an Enzo Le Fee penalty in their first European match in 53 years (Sky Sports). Four English entrants, four wins. Juventus top the table after beating NEC Nijmegen 5-0 with less possession than their opponents.

The upset was at San Siro, where AC Milan lost 2-0 to Benfica despite 60.5 per cent possession, seventeen shots and ten corners to one, and were whistled off (Sky Sports). Marseille lost 4-1 at Besiktas, Hoffenheim 2-0 at OFI Crete, and Celtic 1-3 at home to Ferencvaros, after which chief executive Michael Nicholson publicly backed Martin O'Neill (Sky Sports). The Conference League starts on 15 October.