Thursday cannon fodder

Because of its “failure to reform and embrace diversity”, the FA, a group run by a bunch of old white dudes, is the subject of a no-confidence vote in the English Parliament today. The FA faces a loss of government funding if things don’t improve, which let’s be honest, will only hurt the grass roots that the FA purportedly exists to help.

I still remember where I was when the Challenger exploded. Junior year of high school, second period band class, as a matter of fact. The whole rest of the day was a blur, as every class stopped to watch the live TV coverage and try to process what was happening. Thanks to the daughter of one of the astronauts on that voyage, a soccer ball he carried on Challenger finally made it to space last week.

Manchester United’s Henrik Mkhitaryan says the Premier League is harder than he expected it to be.

I wonder what the German word for “hubris” is?

One of the most tiresome debates in US soccer is “should MLS be a promotion/relegation league?” Sunil Gulati, head of US Soccer, doesn’t think it will or needs to be.

One of the criticisms of The MLS League Of Soccer is that it hasn’t been transparent in its business dealings - fans didn’t know trade terms in detail, for instance, we only heard things like “Player X was traded for allocation money and a draft pick”. That’s changing this season, as clubs are starting to reveal how much money changes hands in trades and things like that, which is all to the good. But it’s still a very, very (needlessly) complex thing to try to understand how an MLS team builds its roster.

And finally: Next time you go to a game and want a player’s shirt, bring pork.