The risk-taking and aggression of Qatar has been on surprising display in the last week from the beer ban to Infantino's press conference performance. We attempt an explanation by way of regional and ideological conflict in the Gulf, the different positions of oil and gas in the energy transition, and, of course, the Muslim Brotherhood. Support the show

What Was Gianni Infantino Doing? (and how does it relate to the Arab Spring proxy wars?)

Soccer analysis, analytics, and commentary with hosts Mike Goodman and Michael Caley

Sports

A lot is happening right now in the administration of the game of football. There's a proposal for a Premier League salary cap, and we discuss what exactly this means, why it's so very different from PSR, and whether it stands any chance of succeeding. And there's the government regulator, which we have both become convinced will not happen in the UK government has any sense. And there's referee discourse, which has sufficiently annoyed us that we have to talk about it again.  Support the Show.

Salary Caps, Regulators and Referees

A big weekend in the title race, Liverpool and then Arsenal lost winnable home matches in succession and it was highly dramatic, but it seems far from obvious to us that we learned much from the drama.  Support the show

In Which We Refuse To Construct Narratives

The club is in an odd spot. They're at risk of relegation, and worse, relegation would probably be a death sentence for Everton Football Club as an operation. But they're also pretty good? With some valuable assets to sell? And a good manager? If it weren't for everything else...

So we discuss how we would approach the problem of running Everton.  Support the show

If We Ran Everton

We take questions from the mailbag on how we watch games, on Jeremy Doku and Brennan Johnson, and then we end up building an entire theory of the intersection of player development and modern tactics in the development of really fast guy wingers.  Support the Show.

Mailbag: Castles in the Air

Part Two of our conversation with official Double Pivot Financial Shenanigans Correspondent Skanda Amarnath (@irvingswisher). And while there are a lot of important details, there's a simple takeaway. Chelsea's PSR crunch is significantly worse than has been generally reported. Support the show

What Was Gianni Infantino Doing? (and how does it relate to the Arab Spring proxy wars?)

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