Ukraine invasion: Football uses its voice for good as it applies upward pressure - The Warm-Up

Football's reach and powerful voice was in full force again on Tuesday night. The sport still has the ability to - organically, from a grassroots level - be a huge force for good. A force to push messages of peace and solidarity and, in doing so, place upward pressure on threats to either.

And that has been the case following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with fans and clubs using their voice to pierce through the firewalls of misinformation that blight some corners of the world.

The gestures have ranged. Some fans have simply held aloft signs of support or Ukrainian flags; clubs have made symbolic shows of solidarity - like Manchester City giving Oleksandr Zinchenko the captain's armband for their FA Cup win against Peterborough - and there have been direct pleas for de-escalation, like the one from Andriy Shevchenko ahead of the Derby della Madonnina between AC Milan and Inter.

Given football's persuasive and pervasive nature the importance of these messages should not be underestimated. Marcus Rashford's work, for example, is emblematic of the movement within football to affect change, and long may it continue.

In a world full of uncertainty - and that uncertainty has become that more perilous in recent days - one thing remains consistent: the inconsistency of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.

A matter of days after admonishing Leeds United in a four-goal drubbing, which came a matter of days after being humbled by bottom-of-the-table Burnley, which came a matter of days after beating Manchester City, they fell to Middlesbrough in the fifth round of the FA Cup, going out to a Josh Coburn goal in extra time at the Riverside.

Antonio Conte was - surprisingly - measured in his post-match reflections, telling reporters that patience was required.

"The reality that we are having too many ups and downs," he began.

"We have to try and work, and I think this is a problem now and maybe also in the past. In my opinion there is only one way to try to improve, and to continue to work many aspects and to persevere. To be patient because you need to have patience in this process, and to hope in the future the situation will be much better and not to wait for a long time.

“We had to take good learnings about this defeat and continue to work because there is only one way to continue to work and try to avoid these ups and downs,” added Conte.

Perhaps getting knocked out of the FA Cup will prove a blessing for the long-term health of the club as it will allow Conte much-needed time on the training ground with his squad. Maybe that fact was not lost on the Italian and might have been behind his new-found sense of perspective.

Football is one of the few last genuine meritocracies: the best are, generally, rewarded as such. Talent and application equals reward.

And, thus, according to Le Parisien Kylian Mbappe has been offered a two-year contract to stay at PSG – the specifics of which are a net annual salary of €50 million and a loyalty bonus of €100 million.

That is – on balance – the market rate for a player of Mbappe’s qualities. However, the market rate is problematic – as it is skewed by clubs with access to seemingly unlimited resources.

This inflation does not just impact PSG's contemporaries, but it filters through the pyramid, forcing clubs at the lower reaches of the game to live beyond their means. That can – and has – proved fatal.

Yet, this is no fault of Mbappe. He is in the top percentile of players and should be rewarded as such.

This is quite the scoop by Nicola Imfeld in Blick who has broken the news - via Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss that Roman Abramovich - wants to sell Chelsea.

Here is a snippet of what Wyss has had to say.

"He [Abramovich] wants to get rid of Chelsea quickly. I and three other people received an offer on Tuesday to buy Chelsea from Abramovich. Abramovich is currently asking far too much."

Read the full - sensational - story here.

More FA Cup action. Liverpool against Norwich is probably the standout tie.