The Daily Bee (October 20, 2020): Fans for the Revierderby!

Good morning, Fear The Wall!

Fans Allowed for Revierderby!

Remember how last week we reported that there would be no fans for this Saturday’s Revierderby? Well that’s all changed, and there will be a small number of fans allowed inside Westfalenstadion for the 157th all-time meeting between Schalke and Borussia Dortmund!

There will only be 300 fans allowed inside the stadium, BVB Managing Director Carsten Cramer said to Ruhr Nachrichten from Rome. The newspaper also reported that there will be a raffle among 35,000 applicants, and the procedure will likely be used again for the club’s Champions League home match against Zenit the following week.

Is it disappointing that only 300 fans will be allowed inside to watch this match? Yes. Is it better than no fans in the stands? Infinitely. We’re still in the midst of a global pandemic, and not many countries are like New Zealand where they can hold outdoor sporting events with packed stadiums. Until COVID is fully dealt with or there is a vaccine, expect limited capacity games from this point forward for Dortmund.

European Premier League?

Count me as someone who was surprised to stumble across this on their daily Twitter scroll: According to Sky Sports, Liverpool and Manchester United are heavily involved in the creation of a European super league.

If you can get through their infuriatingly bad website design, Sky Sports states that the two English clubs are at the center of a planned 18-team competition comprised of the best teams in England, Spain, Germany, France and Italy, directly backed by FIFA and worth an eye-watering £4.6 BILLION to fund the damn thing.

As you recall, they were at the forefront of a push for Project Big Picture, which would have changed English football immensely while creating a stranglehold for rules and the like by the top six English clubs. Thankfully that proposal was voted down by the Premier League shareholders last week, but that hasn’t stopped these two clubs from stirring up stuff.

I say this as someone who has genuinely fallen in love with the sport of football and the pagentry of European competition: I’ll pass on this, thanks. The sport already has enough competitions that bring in money for the greedy bastards that are set on ruining the sport. Just look at the UEFA Europa Conference League set to start in 2021-22; nothing more than a money grab while creating even more unnecessary schedule packing during one of the most chaotic seasons of football we’ll probably ever see.

The Daily Buzz

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