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At this point Aston Villa and Newcastle United supporters are shouting at the clouds, knowing complaints about a broken system laughing in their face are futile.

The Magpies specifically are being pickpocketed in plain sight, a club with the richest owners in world football selling to a team who have finished 17th in back-to-back seasons.

“Cry more” is the Big Six response, for it is easy to laugh from this position. As in The Sims, the ladder has been removed from the swimming pool, and the powers above are watching those below them tread water.

It is now five years since the Saudi Arabia-backed takeover and Newcastle remain far behind Tottenham Hotspur in the pecking order because the restraints in place may never allow them to get ahead.

At this rate, Newcastle are even going backwards. Sandro Tonali joining Tottenham after Anthony Gordon departed for Barcelona means £169m to reinvest, but it will be be difficult to attract players who view joining them as anything but a stepping stone to bigger things – or even Tottenham.

That Tonali was desperate to join the north London club, as The i Paper reported, is a damning indictment on the Newcastle project, which has stalled on the pitch and is struggling off it.

A horrendous summer transfer window last year did not help, but going into a new season fishing for Gordon and Tonali replacements is a sorry starting point for a club with ambitions of winning the Premier League by 2030.

And while Spurs take their summer spend north of £230m – having also signed Mateus Fernandes for £85m from West Ham and Jan Paul van Hecke for £52m from Brighton – recent rule changes and fines suggest both Newcastle and Villa cannot spend anywhere near as freely.

Uefa fined Newcastle £5.2m for breaching its financial rules, while Villa were fined £19.4m, with £12.9m of that amount suspended provided they decrease their squad cost ratio (SCR) going forward.

SCR is the new three-letter acronym for Newcastle and Villa fans to roll their eyes at in the Premier League, as it is replacing profitability and sustainability rules (PSR).

It also explains Spurs’ ability to dig deep into their pockets. “They’ll be outspending, you’d imagine, every team from at least eighth down,” football finance expert Rob Wilson, professor of applied sport finance at the University Campus of Football Business, told The i Paper this week.

Wilson also said in May that Villa are not as desperate to sell as they have been in recent years, but there is no chance, like Spurs, of them spending £100m on one player – let alone £177m on two.

All this despite, in the last three seasons, Villa picking up 199 league points, the fourth-most, while Newcastle are sixth with 175 and Tottenham are down in 13th with 145.

Flip that around for net spend since 2023-24, where Spurs top the lot, their £528m ahead of the other Big Six clubs while Newcastle are 11th (£110m) and Villa, remarkably, are down in 21st (£14m).

Villa have therefore won 54 more points and spent £415m less on incomings than Tottenham in the last three years.

In that time West Ham, Brighton and Nottingham Forest are also among the clubs to have spent more on players than Villa, who continue to fight in the face of these restraints thanks to head coach Unai Emery.

Read more

• Kat Lucas: How Tottenham afforded £177m Tonali and Fernandes – and their transfer plans now
• Mark Douglas: Newcastle will reinvest £100m Tonali cash – with one deal agreed and two targets

Another Champions League campaign awaits, too, but the sense they have reached their ceiling under the Spaniard – especially after finally ending their trophy drought in Istanbul – is difficult to shake given they have been flying close to the sun for three-and-a-half seasons.

A drastic drop-off would be a surprise, but sustaining this level is difficult. In Emery they trust, but losing Morgan Rogers – whom they want £130m for this summer – would put them in a similar situation to Newcastle.

And whether it is this summer, next summer, or the summers to follow, the Big Six will only continue to poach from those below them even if they are above them. That is just how it works now. Newcastle and Villa know their place, and are at pains to fight it.

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NEW YORK – The kindest interpretation is that some of the chaos is by design. The late goals, the introduction of the “finishers”, the fact that England remain in the World Cup only by virtue of Harry Kane’s greatest performance at a major tournament.

Beyond that, the prognosis has been bleak. Long before Thomas Tuchel, Gareth Southgate often trod the line between being able to identify their problems and address them – but not all of them can be traced back to Tuchel and not all of them can be easily fixed.

The right

Noni Madueke’s end product will continue to be scrutinised. The bigger problem is that he is largely doing what he is supposed to be doing in this system – rolling it back to Djed Spence. England are both predicable and fragile down the right, but it is not going to be rectified because 1. Tuchel has left Trent Alexander-Arnold at home, 2. In Reece James and Tino Livramento he picked two right-backs who were predictably going to get injured and 3. Bukayo Saka can come on but he is not fully fit either.

It is one thing to revel in the power of the substitutes but they have largely masked where England have got it wrong in the first place.

The Pickford problem

The good news, on paper: Mexico have two main attacking threats – one, a forward from the Saudi Pro League and the other, a Championship striker. Julian Quinones is their top scorer with Raul Jimenez close behind. The worse news: at a tournament when Jordan Pickford has had two sub-par performances out of four, Jimenez has scored more goals against the Everton goalkeeper than anyone else in Europe.

The centre-backs

Nico O’Reilly is arguably the biggest victim of how unsettled the back four looks, not least because his development at Manchester City has been crying out for stability to prevent him roaming into the middle.

Whether or not O’Reilly still fancies himself as a No 8, he is too easily being dragged into trouble by Ezri Konsa and Marc Guehi. They can count themselves very lucky that Yoane Wissa was guilty of such an egregious miss.

The approach

There was no real contingency plan for those moments from DR Congo because all the expectation was that they would follow the examples of Ghana and Panama. Congo’s shift to four at the back – not dissimilar to how Mexico should set up – completely threw Tuchel for an hour and all but snuffed out any hope of England pressing to any effect.

What to do about Rice

The safe option – which instinctively feels like Tuchel’s most likely one – is to leave the midfield pairing of Declan Rice and Elliot Anderson alone. In the round of 32 Anderson had more touches than any other player (90), played 10 passes into the final third and created three chances – Rice created two big chances of his own.

The opportunity cost is that Kobbie Mainoo – on his day, just as composed in tight spaces – has not played a single minute at this World Cup and there is always the risk England revert to the staleness of Ghana and Panama. The other obvious move is to use Rice at right-back – that is not a viable solution either, judging by how Arsenal botched that experiment when he was very briefly deployed there during their title run-in.

Read more

• Pete Hall: If only England had 11 men like Harry Kane
• Daniel Storey: In a World Cup that has fleeced fans, one stadium stands apart

The altitude

Aside from the heat (mid 20s), Mexico’s Estadio Azteca sits 7,220 ft above sea level. As far as the players are concerned, Kane said: “My understanding is that we can’t adapt.”

The conditions are so severe they have even affected the movement and swerve of the ball. The body, exercising with so little oxygen, increases breathing and heart rates, leading to dizziness, tiredness and nausea. Ten of Mexico’s 26-man squad play in the country’s domestic league.

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ATLANTA — Three Lions at full-time. Harry Kane embraced by teammates and manager. Thousands and thoussands of England supporters, beery and dancing thousands and thousands of miles from home. Squint and wince a little and you can just about persuade yourself that it was designed this way. The first bars of Wonderwall sound out and the lump in your throat comes out to play.

England fight, crawl, force their way on. Somehow, some way. And by some way, we mean: Harry Kane is the best English striker of all time and the best striker in the world right now. England are the Kane team because their captain is magnificent and this is increasingly the World Cup of superstar attackers.

England are also having to be the Harry Kane team because their manager has us all in a muddle. The result may be king in major tournaments, but my goodness it is just as well because England are a mess on most levels. We wrote after the group stage that we couldn’t tell if this team is good or not. Anyone got better answers?

There was a period in the first half, shortly after a fourth England player in 10 minutes had passed the ball straight out of play, when I looked down at my notes. The general gist was this: the defence looked alarmingly fragile and Jordan Pickford seemed spooked by it. The attack was non-existent because the wingers were offering nothing. And the entire team seemed devoid of belief. But apart from that…

The generous spin is that this is merely more of the same but change is coming. Enlarge the World Cup to 48 teams and the first knockout match becomes an extension of the groups. DR Congo played roughly the same role as Ghana and Panama but actually took advantage of their counter-attack. England struggled to break a team down until they did. Call it a five-team group and England have topped it.

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And the pervading narrative of England’s tournament is that they will be better when they face better opposition. That would have been the great tragedy of losing to DR Congo: not getting to see English attackers inevitably making hay and taking liberties in all that space in behind that elite opponents would definitely give us for a laugh.

As you can tell, I’m not convinced. This notion that England are a coiled spring waiting for space and time and freedom is a fun one – and at least slightly reassuring – but watching this defence against the best attacking players in the world should be enough to make you feel sick. In an open contest England may well create more from open play. The full-backs are also a mess because Tuchel went weird with his selection and Ezri Konsa looks jumpy.

The last manager protected an average defence that was the weak point of the team and England became boring to the point of fault. It went too far. Tuchel is ostensibly doing mostly the same but without the defensive protection bit. England are ragged in their own half and compact in the opposition’s. It is an odd, unattractive mix.

The obvious retort lies within that criticism: this is just what Southgate did. And… maybe. But this was supposed to be the start of a new era during which added an elite winner to the pile of goodwill Southgate had banked. Instead, this has been a mash up of 2022 and 2024. It doesn’t feel different yet despite so much having changed. That’s hard to process and harder to trust.

Read more

• Pete Hall in Atlanta: England would be a shambles without Harry Kane
• Daniel Storey: In a World Cup that has fleeced fans, one stadium stands apart

It is at least still working, just about, because Kane is brilliant and because England’s substitute wingers are better than every other country, particularly true while Bukayo Saka can’t start. If nothing else it’s nice to have wide players crossing with their stronger feet. Anthony Gordon got two assists.

So we can save the worst of the opprobrium for now. Let’s hope that it is never needed. But England now face Mexico in Mexico: far harder, far more altitude, far better opponent, far more febrile atmosphere.

If the theory holds, England will be better against better. The worry from Atlanta that won’t leave this brain: what if better are better against us and we’re already living on the edge of incompetence?

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England begin their World Cup knockout campaign this evening with a round-of-32 tie against DR Congo in Atlanta.

The Congolese are 41st in Fifa’s world rankings, 37 places below Thomas Tuchel’s men.

They reached the knockouts by finishing third in their group, below Portugal and Colombia, and progressed as one of the eight best third-placed sides.

England’s opponents have a number of players who have featured in the Premier League, including Newcastle striker Yoane Wissa, Sunderland midfielder Noah Sidiki and West Ham’s Aaron Wan-Bissaka.

The Three Lions, who topped their group, are without defenders Jarell Quansah and Reece James who are sidelined with injuries, but Declan Rice is set to return after recovering from a calf issue.

Victory tonight would set up a last-16 tie against Mexico in Mexico City following the co-hosts’ 2-0 victory over Ecuador on Tuesday.

Follow The i Paper’s live blog for the latest updates below.

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ATLANTA – You can’t even blame Fifa for this one. The prices of food and drink at World Cup stadiums, particularly when it comes to beer, are outrageous. There is no uniform pricing standard. Stadiums are allowed to charge as they please.

This is nothing new. Anyone who has paid £7 for a pint of tepid Carling in an English football ground knows that. There is no competition and supporters are a captive audience in a confined area without outside regulation. So prices go high and stay there.

To some extent, I don’t blame the owners of these stadiums. Concessions are their way to generate revenue. The ticket money isn’t theirs and hosting matches is expensive. But it squeezes supporters who have been the repeated butt of every joke at this World Cup.

But one stadium, in one city, is fighting back against the tide of greed and price-hiking. Not only that, it always has. When England supporters walk into the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Wednesday late morning, they will see concession prices that may appear like a hallucination.

First look at the menu boards for the #WorldCup inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium.#WeAreAtlanta pic.twitter.com/1Rxai8L2tW

— Mercedes-Benz Stadium (@MBStadium) June 14, 2026

Why is Atlanta different?

In 2017, when the Mercedes-Benz Arena opened, its owners decided to keep prices of food and drink for supporters as low as possible. A year later, those prices were reduced further. In 2019, further still.

The strategy is one of “fan-first”, a determination to treat people with respect and pay supporters back for their loyalty and purchase of match and season tickets. It applies to any host team within the Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

There is another policy that plays well with fans. When a restaurant chain wants to run a concession stand within the stadium, they are restricted by an agreement that they will only be allowed to charge the same prices as in their regular branches. No upselling or manu hiking is allowed.

“If someone takes good care of you at a restaurant or a hotel, then that human experience then extrapolates to your feeling of the rest of their customer experience, or the quality of the venue, or how their operations are run,” Tim Zulawski tells The i Paper.

Zulawski is the President of AMBSE – the parent organisation that manages The Blank Family of Businesses’ sports and venue portfolio. It includes the stadium as well as the Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United

“There will be extrapolations that people will draw upon themselves because ultimately they were listened and responded to. They weren’t treated as a captive audience. They were treated fairly. They were ultimately valued, and that just gives them a really positive feeling.”

And here’s the thing. AMBSE realised that average spending per fan actually increased after price reductions. A two-way street of loyalty was created. You can see how it happens. If prices are low, you are more likely to buy than not. If you believe that your sports team is not treating you like a customer, you are more likely to be generous with your custom.

The World Cup window

The World Cup evidently afforded AMBSE an opportunity to be different. With 16 stadiums across three countries all responsible for their own pricing and with the captive audience principle even stronger, it would have been forgivable for Atlanta to step into line with the rest.

But there was a precedent. In 2019, Mercedes-Benz Stadium hosted the Super Bowl. Before the game, there were viral stories about the $2 (£1.51) hotdog. The decision had been made not to charge even an extra dime from regular matches. Doing so would dilute the fan-first principle. Those in charge didn’t want that.

The same happened ahead of this summer’s World Cup. AMBSE knew that other stadiums in other cities would be doing their thing. In Atlanta, they thought differently again. Hosting the biggest tournament in the world makes it more important to demonstrate what you believe in, not less.

“It is a non-negotiable for any event that we would host at Mercedes Benz Stadium, including FIFA World Cups,” says Zulawski. “We aspire to host the 2031 Women’s FIFA World Cup and the rules will still apply. That’s as strong as we can be on anything: the food and beverage programme pricing, and how we deliver for the fans coming through our doors, epitomises the term non-negotiable for us.”

Some relief for England fans

This is all excellent news for England supporters on Wednesday. A lunchtime kick-off may make the beers flow a little less quickly than normal, but the price of stadium food is also far cheaper than they have experienced before in the US.

A beer will cost $5 (£3.77), A hotdog is available for $2 (£1.51). A soft drink is the same price and all of the soda machines are fan-facing, which means that your £1.51 also gets you free refills. We have become so used to being fleeced that it feels like there must be a catch.

After an expensive fortnight, that is being gratefully appreciated. I spoke to multiple supporters this week who were not aware of Atlanta’s uniqueness and were greatly cheered by the prospect. It is a small gesture, a modicum of decency in a World Cup defined by its gouging of football supporters. But small gestures matter.

“There have been plenty of pricing surprises at this World Cup,” says Dan, who is part of England’s most loyal band of supporters. “All of them have been adverse surprises: $98 (£68) train fare from Penn to Meadowlands is a good example.

“So it’ll be genuinely refreshing to experience a venue which appears to be putting the supporters first. I’m really looking forward to Atlanta, and a venue where the prices are entirely reasonable.”

In a sport, and at a tournament, where the headlines on prices have been universally negative, this deserves calling out in a positive way. The hope, those in power here say, is that other stadiums and sporting organisations will follow their lead. This shouldn’t be the exception.

“Our vision for Mercedes-Benz Stadium is to be a catalyst to make Atlanta and Georgia better tomorrow than it is today,” Zulawski says.

“We want bring the best events from around the world here, and we’re doing that right now. You listen and respond to those you serve, and we serve associates, we serve promoters, we serve teams, we serve leagues, and most importantly, we serve the fans.”

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Marcus Rashford has been open to it all along, but very few actually believed the Manchester United outcast would ever wear the shirt of his boyhood club again. Until now.

The i Paper has been told that Ineos are now focusing on bringing in at least two more midfielders this summer, which means they may not bring in another left-winger as originally planned.

Manuel Ugarte’s serious injury, suffered at the World Cup, has left Kobbie Mainoo and the incoming Ederson as the only two senior midfielders in the squad. Ugarte had been considered one of the players up for sale as part of a fundraising effort to strengthen other areas of the team.

To fill that gap, Rashford could be brought back into the camp. He is a forward reborn in Barcelona after his successful loan spell, with his impressive form continuing at the World Cup.

What next for Rashford?

Rashford is expected to return for pre-season training at Carrington after the World Cup, with sources close to the 28-year-old insisting he is open to starting again at United, where he has not fulfilled all his ambitions. Despite interest from Tottenham, Rashford does not want to play for another Premier League club.

United’s stance is where the issues present themselves. The club are aware Rashford will be returning later this month, but Ineos have made it very clear that they do not want to pay his £325,000-a-week wages.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe has identified the wage bill as a priority to trim. Two of the club’s other top earners, Jadon Sancho and Casemiro, have both gone last month.

Ideally, United would have sold Rashford and used the funds to invest in the squad – but their well-known reluctance to pay his wages doesn’t put them in a position of strength in the market, according to insiders.

With two years left on his deal, clubs are put off spending on a 28-year-old on such an expensive contract. It is understood that negotiating a lower wage structure will be difficult. Such deals don’t tend to happen too often.

United’s desperation to move him on will encourage big European sides to enquire about a loan. Barcelona and Bayern Munich are poised. Andre Onana has already been sent back out on loan to save on the wage bill.

Why are United having such a quiet window?

Another player whose wage demands put United off was Mateus Fernandes. Tottenham have agreed an £85m fee for the Portuguese midfielder – a bid United were simply not willing to match.

It is understood that Fernandes, in a deal brokered by super-agent Jorge Mendes, will earn around £250,000-a-week – 50,000 more than the next top earner at Spurs. United were not willing to offer anything like the same salary.

Read more

• Man Utd: Six summer transfer targets – with three players still for sale
• Kevin Garside: The World Cup has exposed all of Thomas Tuchel’s flaws

While there are still two months left of the summer transfer window, there is no panic around Old Trafford. Their transfer targets are dwindling in number by the week.

Adam Scott from Bournemouth is a top target, but he also could command a fee United are not looking to spend on one young player. Bournemouth are understood to be keen to tie him down to a new contract, one that is set to include a release clause.

Sandro Tonali is another top midfield option, but Manchester City are expected to make a big play for the Italian in the coming weeks. He is someone they see as the perfect partner for Elliot Anderson in the heart of their midfield.

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While some American politicians talk up their love for football in the spotlight of the World Cup, San Francisco’s Mayor is the real deal.

Daniel Lurie gets up early at weekends to watch live Premier League games and has now attended five World ⁠Cups, even lifting the trophy with former Brazil midfielder Gilberto Silva during a promotional tour this year.

Since this year’s tournament started, Lurie has been on a whistle-stop tour of San Francisco’s packed fan zones and bars during live matches, sleeves rolled up and mingling with boozy fans in pubs festooned with flags.

“I’ve been a huge soccer fan my whole life,” Lurie told the Reuters news agency.

“A lot of people are excited about ⁠the World Cup. I kind of live and die soccer,” he said, stopping the conversation briefly ​to ⁠get an update on Tuesday’s Brazil v Japan game, eventually won 2-1 by Brazil.

“So, for me, this isn’t just for this month. I get into soccer all year round.”

More than just a fan

There are six games in the San ​Francisco Bay ⁠Area in this World Cup, most notably on Thursday morning (BST), when the United States ‌play a round-of-32 match against Bosnia and Herzogovnia.

Lurie’s football links go beyond fandom. He is also an investor in 49ers Enterprises, the commercial arm of the San Francisco 49ers NFL team, which became majority owners of Scottish giants Rangers last year after taking over Leeds United in 2023.

“We are now ‌staying up again,” he said of Leeds. “We’ve got a long way to go to get ‌to that top six, to get into European competition, but I believe we can.”

Democratic moderate Lurie was elected San Francisco mayor in 2024, and before that was a philanthropist and an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune.

Lurie spent $US10.5 million (£7.9 million) of his own wealth on ⁠his campaign, according to disclosures, with the next biggest contributor his mother, Mimi Haas, a major Levi shareholder, who in 2021 had a net worth of $1.4 billion (£1 billion), according to Forbes.

The USA is taking on Australia in the second game of their World Cup campaign, and we’re bouncing around the city to catch the game. From The East Cut to China Basin Park Social, these spaces are bringing people together to celebrate the world’s game. Get out there, cheer on Team… pic.twitter.com/17nzxFe62x

— Daniel Lurie 丹尼爾·羅偉 (@DanielLurie) June 19, 2026

Social media sensation

Lurie has become a social media sensation in San Francisco, cultivating a man-of-the-people image with videos of him at farmers markets, officiating same-sex marriages, munching on Mexican food and handing out ice creams from a van.

His Instagram account has gone into overdrive during the World Cup, with posts of him sitting on the floor at watch parties and bouncing from pub to pub to see Lionel Messi’s double for Argentina against Austria, the US beating Australia, France v Senegal, and Ghana against Panama.

“We’re hitting every spot around the city,” he said. “It’s been electric. Our neighbourhoods ‌have been teeming with fans from around the world.”

Lurie last year persuaded US ​President Donald Trump to call off his planned federal surge of National Guard and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to San Francisco, ‌telling him his city was “on the rise” and ICE agents and ⁠troops would derail its recovery.

And Lurie hopes the World ‌Cup can provide a lasting legacy.

“We need things to unify us,” ​he said. “The World Cup here in North America and here in the San Francisco Bay Area is doing just that, bringing people together, uniting people. We need more of that.”

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