The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur news and links for Friday, June 7

Hey, everyone!

Happy opening day of the women’s World Cup! Good time for me to mention that I’ll be in Paris by the end of next week, and should be back by the end of the following week. I’ll take recommendations if you have them.

Ramble of the Day

I’ve shared my love of many foods, from pizza to potatoes. I’m probably missing a few that I’ve mentioned in my time leading the Hoddle, but one I will officially add to the list today is garlic bread. I really love garlic bread, and I’m actually thinking about it now as I type this.

To be clear, I am a huge fan of bread in general. I love many types, and even the ones I like a little bit less I feel have a place in the culinary world. As for garlic bread specifically, it’s an extremely simple thing. I guess if the ingredients are standard but extremely great, the sum of the parts is also going to be that. Sometimes crunchy, sometimes soft, and full of flavor all the time is a hard combination to beat.

I’m beginning to understand that for me, I know I really like something if I like it in almost all its forms. High quality garlic bread is obviously enjoyable — working with something really soft, like a baguette and sticking some butter and chopped up garlic on top and throwing it in the oven is a real treat. Yet, I have a soft spot for lower quality garlic bread, too. On a day I’m bored, I’ll mix some butter and garlic powder for a piece of toast.

There’s something to say about garlic bread, though, when you can pick up some Texas toast out of a fridge at a grocery store and enjoy that just as well as you would the nicer stuff. Texas toast as a concept — bread that’s cut at twice the width of a regular loaf slice with a crunchy, thick crust is awesome, and sticking butter and garlic on it can only make it better. It still tastes pretty freakin’ good when you’re getting out of the grocery store fridge, though, and I must give credit to anyone who knew this and designed it in such a way.

Maybe it’s all part of that simple formula being hard to mess up. It is quite special, though, isn’t it?

tl;dr: I love garlic bread, and also gave a shoutout to grocery store Texas toast.

Links of the Day

Former UEFA president Lennart Johansson, creator of the Champions League, has died aged 89.

Australia’s Laura Alleway has had to withdraw from the team’s World Cup roster with a suspected foot fracture.

Manchester City has filed an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport following UEFA investigators’ conclusion that the club breached Financial Fair Play rules.

FIFA vice president Ahmad Ahmad has been arrested in Paris in relation to a corruption investigation.

Emails were sent to FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation more than two years ago regarding alleged sexual assault by Afghanistan’s football officials.

Today’s longer read: Sam Borden on how Cedella Marley, Bob Marley’s daughter, revived the Jamaican women’s national team for ESPN