I get that, but I think the first non-european and non-south-american team to win will be an underdog who organised their team well and also got lucky - just like Greece at Euro 2004. Greece were huge underdogs and their odds were some of the longest at the tournament. I think any of those teams could do that, or maybe also someone like Nigeria or Japan.

It might take 100 years or it might happen in the next decade, but it’ll happen sooner or later.

If we look at the last 50 years, the teams who have made it to the quarter finals or further are:

Mexico
USA
South Korea
Cameroon
Costa Rica
Morocco
Ghana
Senegal

It’s very similar to your list!

This idea is alien to me.

Surely Salford has some of their own fans? It can’t just be fans of Man Utd going because they can’t get tickets at Old Trafford?

Even tiny teams in the 9th or 10th tier have their own dedicated fans. It isn’t just fans of other clubs who are “slumming it”.

I agree, but average is a really unhelpful word to use here.

If you’ve only ever watched Champions League level football then your definition of “average” will be very different compared to if you’ve spent your life watching lower league football.

I posted the Lewis McGugan goal, but was a bit hesitant to call him average because he was one of the best players in the Championship at the time.

Whereas OP gave Richarlison (20 goals in 43 appearances for Brazil) as their example of an average player.

Sinclair was very highly regarded in the 90s. Every summer there were transfer rumours about him going to the biggest clubs in England and around Europe. The media were mystified why he stayed at QPR for so long.

He also scored more than 40 premier league goals and got 12 England caps whilst playing as a midfielder for bottom half teams.

Describing him as “bang average” is laughable.

I’m not sure it’s a two-sides rivalry, but Forest fans tend not to have a high opinion of Anderlecht.

When the clubs met in the 1984 UEFA Cup Semi Final, Forest won the first leg 2-0. The second game had some dodgy refereeing decisions and Anderlecht progressed to the final with a 3-2 aggregate win.

It came to light in 1997 that Anderlecht’s president had paid the referee £20,000. Anderlecht received a ban from European competitions.

If that wage cap is at the wage level of the Big 6 then it’s meaningless.

If that wage cap is below the wage level of the big 6 then it hinders those clubs’ ability to win trophies in Europe. The league will never vote for that.

Why are you glad Turner wasn’t in goal? Surely if the keeper couldn’t have done much it doesn’t matter who was in goal.

Exactly. In the Forest vs Villa match, I think that VAR official was correct in all the calls they made.

The decisions I was annoyed about didn’t even make it to VAR review. The ref and linesman fucked up and moved on without any VAR review.

Derbyshire borders Greater Manchester.

Having watched welcome to Wrexham, I suspect this is an intentional joke for british audiences.