England rise above another low for European football

The Independent’s football newsletter [View in browser]( [The Independent]( September 03, 2021 [The Independent]( Reading the Game Written by Miguel Delaney England rise above it [Harry Kane]( Another low for European football, another admirable response from Gareth Southgate's players. Many of them maintained after the 4-0 win over Hungary that they hadn't directly heard any of the monkey chants, but they could sense the atmosphere getting worse. They could see it, in fact, and almost got hit by it. The night took a real turn in so many ways when Raheem Sterling scored the opening goal, only to be subjected to abuse and a lot of plastic cups being thrown at them. The players had the perfect response to that. The first was to belittle the aggression by making fun of it. Declan Rice was the first England player to pretend to drink from the cups, and he also had a conspicuous beaming smile on his face after hitting the last goal. The second produced such a flurry of course, since the team's football just went to another level. It had been quite a drab first half from England. The second half was anything but. It reflects a distinctive attitude within the squad on all this. They were naturally faced with a flurry of questions about the situation after the game but it is damning that this is the third time they've experienced this in away games in the last three years alone. The feeling is very much that they've said all they can and - as with the booing of taking the knee at home - there is now just a singular focus. The mood is very much "this is our stance, that's for you to deal with". Authorities have answers to give Hungary had been punished by Uefa for problems during Euro 2020 and will have to play two games behind closed doors, so the big question was why this wasn't the case for these qualifiers. It's a simple but absurd answer. These games are World Cup matches, so are Fifa's jurisdiction, not Uefa's. Those punishments won't stand until two years time, when they have to try and qualify for Euro 2024. It is a ludicrous situation given Uefa are under Fifa's umbrella. The global body are set to open disciplinary proceedings and issued a statement on Friday morning. “First and foremost, Fifa strongly rejects any form of racism and violence and has a very clear zero-tolerance stance for such behaviour in football. Fifa will take adequate actions as soon as it receives match reports concerning yesterday’s Hungary-England game.” We await to see what will happen. Fifa president Gianni Infantino is acquainted with Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban, who has made the revival of football a core part of his populist right-wing politics. There are plenty of levers to pull there. World Cup plan is about something bigger Of course, the main news from Fifa this morning isn't about something so pressing. It is Arsene Wenger endorsing plans for a World Cup every two years. This has been met with a lot of criticism, and skepticism. Many within the game fully believe it is a trojan horse in an ongoing battle between Fifa and Uefa. Fifa have seen how much money the Champions League makes, essentially usurping the World Cup as the major global event. They want their own version, and those in club football believe this is a way to basically railroad Uefa into a choice: either it's a World Cup every two years, or a full Club World Cup that takes in around 32 clubs. Space in the calendar is now one of the biggest issues in football. Blue spark for red deal Cristiano Ronaldo’s return to Manchester United has naturally seen such a massive response that it now feels like it should have been obvious, something that was almost certain to happen. Repeated sources close to the situation claim otherwise. They insist the theories are true. United only moved because City did, and they couldn’t allow one of their legends to go there. Ronaldo was prepared to go to City, but just couldn’t do it once United came in. United strike favourable deal It wasn’t like United actually overpaid to get Ronaldo either. We are told they got quite a good deal considering. The fee will be paid over three years and a lot of it is incentivised. The basic wages are not as high as David de Gea’s, but the performance-linked add-ons will take it beyond. Still a big one to come Paris Saint-Germain took their time even responding to Real Madrid’s last offer for Kylian Mbappe on Tuesday night, several sources on the Spanish side tell us. They were never going to countenance it. They’d set their price, at €220m, and Madrid ended up at least €20m short. It meant the window didn't have that last big sensation. Everyone now believes that Mbappe will end up going to the Bernabeu on a Bosman, but there is at least the possibility someone else can come in. Top stories [The Independent launches Fantasy Football weekly newsletter]( [England turn on the style as Hungary fans turn on Raheem Sterling with grim predictability]( Miguel's Dispatches I have been covering England on the road since 2017 and this is already the third time this admirable team have faced racist abuse. Each of the countries involved share similar root problems but all have their own issues, and a longer read about those specific to Hungary can be read on the Independent today. Just another of the great pities is that Budapest is generally quite a liberal, beautiful and welcoming place, and the Independent actually received an email from a Hungarian local apologising for the situation. From a journalist's perspective, there is that grim realisation where a football report has to become a report on something else, something bigger. This is not what we should be covering. This - above anything else - is not what the players should be facing. Quote of the day “There's no more that this group of players and all the staff in fairness can do in the fight against racism. We're trying to uphold our part of it and other people have got to take the right action to make progress.” Gareth Southgate on his players standing above the depressing scenes in Budapest Reading the game quiz Six previous European Championship finalists failed to qualify for the subsequent World Cup. Name the teams. (Last week's answers: Denis Law, Brian Kidd, Wyn Davies, Sammy McIlroy, Peter Barnes, John Gidman, Mark Robins, Andrei Kanchelskis, Peter Schmeichel, Terry Cooke, Andy Cole, Owen Hargreaves, Carlos Tevez) Essential reading [Manchester United facing replica shirt shortage after Adidas delays]( [How modern football became broken beyond repair]( If you can spare a minute we’d love your [feedback]( on our newsletters. 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