Fonseca’s nine-month ban, Liverpool’s rope-a-dope win, Club World Cup’s $1bn prize

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Hello! That concerted attack on referees we were talking about… well, the empire is striking back.

Coming up:

⛔ Fonseca’s nine-month ban

🥊 Liverpool’s rope-a-dope win

💰 FIFA creates $1bn CWC pot

🫨 Unexpected Puskas contender?

Gone till November: Fonseca ‘sorry’ for outburst, Lyon consider appeal 

Straight to France, where Ligue 1’s collective jaw hit the floor last night. So did ours when we read that Lyon head coach Paulo Fonseca had been hit with a nine-month suspension. That’s right — nine whole months.

A ban so punitive would normally suggest something along the lines of a betting or match-fixing offence, but Fonseca was taken to the cleaners over something football considers less cardinal: a confrontation with a referee.

It happened on Sunday afternoon, during a domestic league game between Lyon and Brest. Lyon won 2-1 but Fonseca lost it in the closing minutes after a penalty was awarded to Brest. Referee Benoit Millot showed him a red card, at which point Fonseca squared up to him, sticking his face in the official’s (above). His anger was so visceral that his own players had to intervene and push him away.

The irony is that, shortly after, the penalty call was reversed by the VAR. Fonseca didn’t hold it together long enough to find out. He apologised later, telling broadcaster DAZN: “I shouldn’t have done it. I’m sorry.” He also wrote to the match officials, but the LFP (Ligue de Football Professionnel, which runs Ligue 1) took just 72 hours to read the riot act. Here’s what his suspension means:

• Fonseca is allowed no access to the touchline or the changing rooms used by match officials before, during or after matches until November 30.
• He is forbidden from accessing his own players’ changing rooms until September 15. The ban starts immediately and applies to French competitions.
• It means that after five games in charge (Fonseca was appointed by Lyon in January after leaving Milan), he’s in the slammer for most of 2025. It feels unprecedented.

Worrying trend

Will Fonseca be able to manage with his hands tied so tightly for so long? And can Lyon afford to tolerate his misdemeanour by sticking with a semi-absent coach? They’re obvious questions.

The club, who lie sixth in Ligue 1, are examining avenues of appeal. In a statement, Lyon said they were surprised by the “extreme severity” and “unusual speed” of the ban, but they’re standing by their man. Fonseca dialled into his disciplinary hearing from Romania — because Lyon are due to play FCSB (formerly Steaua Bucharest) in the Europa League this evening. It was a novel way to spend his 52nd birthday.

Last week, TAFC wrote about the concerning trend of clubs targeting the competence and integrity of match officials through various means. We mentioned the 15-match suspension that French football imposed on Marseille sporting director Pablo Longoria only last week. Longoria had claimed publicly his side were victims of corruption after a defeat against Auxerre.

Some in the sport think they can confront referees with impunity. But in France at least, the authorities are responding in turn by coming after those individuals. The message from on high is abundantly clear: have teeth, will bite.

News round-up

Sucker punch: Allison the hero after Liverpool beat PSG with ultimate smash and grab

For 86 minutes in Paris, Liverpool were as blunt as a brick. Paris Saint-Germain’s tally of shots on goal climbed to more than 20. A Khvicha Kvaratskhelia special was disallowed for offside by a heel, and Ibrahima Konate got a pass for a last-man barge that really should have been a red card (below).

But it was textbook Champions League rope-a-dope. Harvey Elliott came off the bench. He scored seconds later with touch No 1, Liverpool’s first effort on target. Allison was immense and, in implausible style, Liverpool got out of Dodge with a 1-0 aggregate lead. “The only way for us to win here was to defend as we did,” Arne Slot said.

He’s right. As hard work as the league stage was for PSG, they’ve been getting their act together big time. Before last night, they had won 19 of their previous 20 fixtures, so this last-16 tie isn’t over. But with the second leg in front of an Anfield crowd, Elliott’s strike is a keen blow.

Elsewhere in Europe:

• Bayern Munich’s all-German ruck with Bayer Leverkusen is over. Bayern slapped down Leverkusen, zoning in and winning 3-0. They won’t let that slip, irrespective of Manuel Neuer succumbing to injury.
• There was no second nightmare for Wojciech Szczesny at Benfica. The 34-year-old goalkeeper proved as unbeatable as Alisson as Barcelona survived an early red card shown to Pau Cubarsi to mug Benfica 1-0. Raphinha’s goal won it. He’s such a clutch player.
• We’re not talking enough about Inter. Top of Serie A, beaten only five times all season and 2-0 victors at Feyenoord last night. They’re loitering with intent.

Please. No. Mourinho says ‘why not?’ to managing an Old Firm team. Where to start…

I grew up on the east coast of Scotland but close enough to the west coast to understand what lies between Rangers and Celtic. Their rivalry and antipathy is as ingrained as it gets, a fault line drawn in part through a religious divide: Rangers’ roots are protestant, Celtic’s Catholic.

It takes the merest match to light the fuse, so I recoiled at the headline on our website yesterday, saying Jose Mourinho ‘opens the door to managing Rangers or Celtic in future’. He was speaking before his existing side, Fenerbahce, host Rangers in the Europa League’s last 16 tonight.

“Why not?,” Jose asked. Let’s try and answer that. He can be a lot of fun, Mourinho, but drama follows him everywhere. He’s no good at being Mr Low Profile and in Turkey as we speak, he’s at the centre of a furore: Galatasaray accusing him of racism, Mourinho launching legal action against them in return. Jose in Glasgow would be a Quentin Tarantino script.

What’s interesting about Rangers is that they’re about to be taken over, by a group with strong links to the San Francisco 49ers. If the buyout goes through and repairs their finances, they’ll be in the market for a higher calibre of manager than before. Mourinho never tires of adventures but in this particular case, can we just say no?

$1bn prize: FIFA announce Club World Cup fund

We’re officially 100 days out from the 2025 Club World Cup (CWC). What better way to mark that milestone than FIFA announcing a tournament prize fund of $1billion?

The world governing body has ploughed a further $5.5m into research aimed at preventing any chuntering about the quality of pitches at U.S. stadiums, a theme of last year’s Copa America. And when it comes to the hearts and minds of the teams involved, FIFA seems to be winning.

So much of the CWC coverage to this point has given the impression of contenders embracing the competition under duress, not least because it’s another commitment in an already chocka calendar. But when The Athletic’s writers canvassed fresh opinion, the mood was extremely positive.

I expected that of the smaller or less fashionable clubs, who can only welcome the exposure. But it appears that even your Manchester Citys, PSGs and Real Madrids are CWC converts too. Call me cynical, but I reckon the promise of a cut of a billion-dollar wedge helps.

Around TAFC

• To mark World Book Day, Jacob Whitehead read the books that people in football rave about (Tim S Grover’s Relentless always scores high). My own pick? I Think Therefore I Play by Andrea Pirlo, featuring this gangster line: “I don’t feel pressure. I don’t give a toss about it. I spent the afternoon of July 9, 2006, sleeping and playing the PlayStation. In the evening, I went out and won the World Cup.” Lol.
• Jack Grealish had a heavy night out in the north east of England last weekend. It brought the sort of disapproval that often comes his way. Our Manchester City correspondent Sam Lee wonders if the chastising of Grealish is fair.
• Matt Beard injected passion and purpose into Liverpool’s women’s team but their impetus slowed and last week, the club sacked him. Megan Feringa has the inside track.
• Further to the Raphinha mention, we got chatting about clutch players on the latest edition of The Athletic FC Podcast. Ever heard of the Talisman Tax? You can listen on Apple and Spotify.

Catch a match

(Selected games, kick-offs ET/UK time, Paramount+/TNT Sports unless stated)

Europa League last 16: AZ vs Tottenham Hotspur, 12.45pm/5.45pm; Fenerbahce vs Rangers, 12.45pm/5.45pm — CBS, Paramount+, Fubo/TNT Sports; FCSB vs Lyon, 12.45pm/5.45pm; Real Sociedad vs Manchester United, 12.45pm/5.45pm; Ajax vs Eintracht Frankfurt, 3pm/8pm; Roma vs Athletic Club, 3pm/8pm — CBS, Paramount+, Fubo/ TNT Sports.

Conference League last 16 (both 12.45pm/5.45pm): Copenhagen vs Chelsea; Panathinaikos vs Fiorentina.

And finally…

Farnham Town FC

Onwards with our mission to find the 2025 Puskas Award winner before the ides of March.

Lizbeth Ovalle will take some moving in the women’s award for best goal of the year (named after Brazil legend Marta) but what sorcery was behind the goal above: Sam Merson for tier-nine Hanworth Villa?

The best answer might be genes. Merson is the son of ex-Arsenal forward Paul Merson, who had a knack for sticking them away. Hanworth’s stadium is 10 miles west of Chelsea as the crow flies, and only 204 people were on hand to see him pull off his mask and reveal Tony Yeboah. God bless the age of viral videos.

 (Top photo: JEFF PACHOUD/AFP via Getty Images)