The Warm-Up: Leeds - yes, that Leeds - are FIFA's fairest players

Some residents of planet football consider winning the ultimate. The only purpose of playing the sport. For others though, there are values which need to be held even higher than those which bring victory. In April 2019, Marcelo Bielsa and the Leeds United squad were chasing automatic promotion to the English Premier League. They faced Aston Villa, and went 1-0 up. However, Mateusz Klich’s goal was scored while a Villa player lay injured. Bielsa ordered his side to allow the opposition to equalise. The game finished 1-1, ultimately allowing their promotion rivals Sheffield United to guarantee their automatic spot in the Premier League, at Leeds’ expense. What was at stake makes Bielsa’s act of sportmanship all the more remarkable.

I don’t 100% understand individual prizes. We are very fortunate, we’ve had a very fortunate past and present and hopefully we will have a very fortunate future. But there are people out there that aren’t in the same place and that is why tonight I want to announce that I’ve joined the Common Goal campaign.

Everyone at the club, from the owners down, is focused on competing for and winning trophies at the highest level. To do that we have invested heavily in the playing squad and will continue to do so. At the same time, the exciting pool of talent coming through from our youth and academy sections is a result of increased investment in this area over the last five years. It’s important to note that while our successful commercial operation helps drive that investment, the priority is the focus on achieving success on the pitch. Similarly, it is worth noting that we are not looking at or buying players based on their commercial appeal. We agree that recruitment is critical. We are committed to getting this right and there has been huge investment in this area to put our recruitment department into a position to be able to deliver the manager the players he wants. This process is significantly more effective than four or five years ago.

Freedom of expression remained restricted in law. For example, Article 138 of the Penal Code still provided for the punishment with imprisonment of anyone insulting the flag of Qatar or one of its allies and Article 278bis of the law continued to authorize the closure of newspapers running fundraising advertisements by groups without a fundraising permit.

A good derby needs a number of ingredients. Proximity helps. There has to be a rivalry between the people, as well as the football clubs, too. A shared culture or language adds to the flavour, but there also need to be one or two key differences, be it in social status, political stance, or simply who won the last major trophy, in order for things to get truly spicy. Take all of that and stir thoroughly for years to let the bitterness really seep through, so that a game between the two sides becomes one where you’re not playing for three points or a place in the next round of a cup competition, but instead for generational bragging rights; for the ability to say to your rivals, “Whatever your tribe claims to be true is false, because my tribe is the truth.”