Football Daily | Get ready for chaos in Europe and plotlines more baffling than Inception

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Currently adorned by a giant pin map of Europe boasting photos of pensive middle-aged men in gilets, a dizzying array of multi-coloured Post-it notes and thumb tacks connected by what looks like a drunken spider’s web of criss-crossed red string, the wall of Football Daily’s office currently resembles an incident-room crime board from an episode of Vera. With 18 different Bigger Cup matches due to kick off in different locations around the continent at the same time on Wednesday, we’re not about to go into the evening half-c0cked as the new all-singing, all-dancing 36-team group format reaches what promises to be a denouement so dramatic you could cover it in theatrical greasepaint and stage it on Broadway.

I’m not telling an authentic story if I don’t say that I’m gay, and that I’ve had real struggles dealing with hiding that. I hid my emotions as a young ref and I hid my sexuality as well – a good quality as a referee but a terrible quality as a human being. And that’s led me to a whole course of behaviours” – former Premier League referee David Coote on how his struggles with his sexuality contributed to the “really poor choices” that cost him his job last year. Meanwhile, Paul Field, chair of the Referees’ Association, believes Coote deserves to still have a continued role in the game.

As there was no Premier League football on last night I decided to spend my evening looking at photographs on the British Cultural Archive and I happened to chance upon some photos of 90s football culture. I’m well aware nostalgia is a liar that insists things were better than they actually were but it’s still a fascinating look at a simpler, less corporate time” – Noble Francis.

While watching highlights of Brighton v Everton, an advertisement hoarding and shirt sleeve message exhorting viewers to visit a town in Florida caught my attention. At first it seemed like a strange choice, but when I realised how dreary and cold it is along the south coast of England now, it made total sense to encourage people to Kissimmee from where the sun don’t shine” – Peter Oh.

With reference to Stephen Rankin’s comments about Iliman Ndiaye’s Seagull impersonation brightening a dull game (yesterday’s Football Daily letters), I might add that although this is an entertainment business, the referee was not entertained, but rather booked Ndiaye for excessive celebration. Not dissimilar to Richarlison (when at Everton) and his pigeon celebration. Perhaps The Knowledge can weigh in on a player being booked before for impersonating a bird (flightless or otherwise) during a game?” – Mr Hawtree.

How did the referee manage to discern what particular breed of bird Ndiaye was impersonating? Unless I missed him leaping into the stands and nicking someone’s chips” – Kevin Goddard.

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