Over the course of his 17 years as the most powerful figure in world football, Sepp Blatter was memorably characterised by the venerable British sportswriter Brian Glanville as someone who had 50 new ideas every day, “51 of them bad”.

There was the one where the then FIFA president said the key to attracting more interest in women’s football was for the players to wear “tighter shorts” to “create a more female aesthetic”; the one where he proposed games be split into four quarters; the one where he suggested the goal be made 50cm (19in) wider and 25cm taller; the one where he urged any player racially abused on the pitch to settle the matter by shaking hands with his abuser at the final whistle; the one where, with his regime finally crumbling in 2015, he declared he was the man to “clean up” FIFA.

But Blatter had his moments. He was highly influential in the introduction of the back-pass rule in 1992. He led FIFA’s clampdown on both time-wasting and the dreaded “tackle” from behind. Before he became an eccentric power-crazed FIFA president, he was a skilled administrator with a fervent passion for trying to modernise and improve the game.

One Blatter idea that fell by the wayside was something called “6+5”.

It was as controversial as it was intriguing….

U.S. men’s national team coach Gregg Berhalter said he and Gio Reyna spoke over Zoom “weeks ago” and called it a “positive conversation” ahead of Reyna’s return to the U.S. team from injury — and his first camp since Berhalter was re-hired.

It will be the first time the manager and player have been together since controversy unfolded after the World Cup. The issues began with Reyna’s behavior at the tournament in Qatar and Berhalter alluding to those problems during comments at a leadership conference, albeit without mentioning Reyna by name. That eventually led to Reyna’s parents, U.S. Soccer veterans Claudio and Danielle Reyna, providing information to then-U.S. Soccer sporting director Earnie Stewart about an incident 30 years ago in which Berhalter kicked his then-girlfriend, now-wife when they were freshmen at the University of North Carolina. That prompted an investigation into Berhalter that stretched for months. Berhalter was cleared for employment at U.S. Soccer in March and eventually re-hired as manager of the national team in June.

GO DEEPER

How did we get here? A timeline of the Berhalter and Reyna family’s rift

“First of all, the conversation was a positive conversation,” Berhalter said. “Appreciative of him taking time and being able to…

USFF sporting director Matt Crocker has confirmed that Gio Reyna will be called up to the next USMNT camp, if healthy, after talks with head coach Gregg Berhalter.

Reyna’s relationship with Berhalter was under the microscope after a tricky 2022 World Cup for the pair and the subsequent incident which saw details of the 50-year-old’s historic domestic abuse of his wife leaked by Danielle Reyna, Gio’s mother.

Amid that incident and USFF investigation, Berhalter’s contract expired after the World Cup on December 31 but he was rehired in June to replace interim coach B.J. Callaghan.

In August, Berhalter said he had not spoken to Reyna since the World Cup, having said after he was returned that there was “work to do” on his relationship with the Borussia Dortmund player.

But Crocker confirmed the pair had spoken “recently” when speaking to media on Sunday.

“Of course, we’ve had conversations with Gregg,” Crocker said. “Gregg has had conversations with Gio. They’re in a place where as soon as Gio is fit, he’ll be in the next camp.

“I can’t wait for him to be on camp so we can stop talking about this. I think until that moment happens we’ll still keep writing about it.

“I think both Gregg and Gio are in a good place to move forward and that’s the best…

Wrexham, former U.S. men’s and women’s national team players, a Spanish football legend and TikTok stars are competing for $1 million in a 7v7 tournament — and it’s happening at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina.

Yes, you read that right.

What seems like the most fanciful of fever dreams is a reality at The Soccer Tournament (TST), going on now in North Carolina’s Research Triangle. Set up like the World Cup, 32 teams signed up for the tournament which is set up with groups of four competing in a round-robin group stage and a round of 16 single-elimination knockout before the finals. The five-day event concludes Sunday, June 4 with the winning team claiming the collective $1 million prize. Second place, as the organizer says, gets nothing.

From the founders of The Basketball Tournament, which started in 2014 by Jon Mugar, the idea of TST was born in 2020 when soccer players Mike Volk and Henry Tembon reached out to Mugar about the soccer version of the competition. With the help of former MLS star Alecko Eskandarian, and NBA’s Chris Paul, TST began.

The Athletic has on-the-ground coverage all weekend from Pablo Maurer and Felipe Cardenas, but here are a few quick hits to get you up to speed.

Where and when is the TST tournament?

The TST tournament is taking…

Borussia Dortmund have become the latest team to join ‘The Soccer Tournament’ (TST) in the US this summer.

The German Bundesliga club are joining Premier League side Wolverhampton Wanderers and Wrexham of the English fifth tier, as well as other teams from around the world.

TST is a seven-a-side, 32-team competition taking place in North Carolina from June 1-4 and has a $1million (£813,000) prize.

“We are proud to join the inaugural TST and we will make sure to field the most diverse and ambitious Borussia Dortmund team,” said Benedikt Scholz, BVB’s Director of internationalisation and commercial partnerships.

“We treat this as yet another important step to make black and yellow permanent colors in the United States and to closely engage with our ever-growing US fanbase.”

Dortmund’s team, much like those of Wrexham and Wolves, will contain a mixture of club legends and coaches.

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All TST teams announced:

• Borussia Dortmund
• Wolves
• Wrexham
• Club Nexaca
• US Women: a team of former US women’s national team players headed by Heather O’Reilly
• Team Dempsey: run by former Tottenham and Fulham attacker Clint Dempsey
• Hashtag United: a popular eSports team and football club with a large online following
• ZALA FFF: stacked with former MLS players including A. J. DeLaGarza, Lee…

USMNT interim head coach Anthony Hudson believes his meeting with Gio Reyna in Germany was “positive” and that the situation with the Borussia Dortmund player “needed to be addressed”.

Hudson was named interim manager after Gregg Berhalter’s contract expired at the end of the year. The 41-year-old met with Reyna during a scouting trip to Europe in mid-February and attended the Dortmund-Chelsea Champions League game on February 15. Hudson also met with several England-based USMNT players during the trip.

Reyna, 20, came under scrutiny after the World Cup when The Athletic reported he did not train hard during the tournament after learning he would not be a starter. That controversy was further fueled when comments Berhalter made at a leadership conference went public.

Reyna’s parents, former national team players Danielle and Claudio Reyna, then shared details of a three-decade-old incident involving Berhalter and his now-wife Rosalind with U.S. sporting director Earnie Stewart. U.S. Soccer then opened an independent investigation Berhalter, which remains ongoing.

Stewart recently left U.S. Soccer and the organisation is currently in the process of hiring a new sporting director. That new hire will be empowered to employ the national team coach.

“I think it was…