Has a relegated side ever played in the Champions League? | Listener Questions
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Fan ownership vs. private investment
Motherwell FC are the anti-Wrexham. They had the former CEO of Netflix turn up at their door with a whole bag of cash. They're fan-owned, and they said to him, off you, pup. We don't want any of that.
2026 World Cup broadcasting
Zlatan is going to be doing some World Cup coverage this summer here in the U.S. I'm stoked about that whole thing.
US Open Cup/CONCACAF Champions Cup
MLS has taken a lot of their good teams out of the Open Cup, which should, in theory, open the door for a lower division team to go and compete in CONCACAF.
English football regulation
There's proposals to introduce an independent regulator for football in England and so the government are quite in there. They're sort of in favor of that but only to a certain extent and then the FA has pushed back against that.
Champions League/Europa League qualification
Wigan Athletic won the FA Cup in 2013. That same season, they were relegated out of the Premier League. And so the next season, they were playing in the championship, the second tier of English soccer, and also in the Europa League.
Goalkeeper substitutions/manager conflict
I remember it happening to a goalkeeper called Wes Foderingham once... Paolo Di Canio was his manager, and Foderingham had a bad opening 21 minutes and is hooked off. He gives Di Canio a mouthful as he's walking past him, and the two of them end up in an argument on the touchline. He never played for Swindon Town again.
Champions League qualification rules
The only way that this could happen is through winning the Europa League, which does have a Champions League qualification place attached to it and that's only really been in place for like the last 10 years.
Goalkeeper substitutions
Jens Lehmann was taken off after a couple of mistakes for Milan in their game against Cagliari back in 1998. The story that I read was that he was left the stadium and had to take public transport home but didn't have any money.
Club ownership and sustainability
Real Betis are ranked as the second greenest club in Europe, apparently. They are majority fan owned. And as far as I could see, their other shares are owned by local business people who it does seem, yes, they're wealthy, but are like fans or locals.
Premier League sustainability
Brighton might be the Premier League club I would push forward as being good guys. They were named the greenest club in the Premier League in a study last year.