The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur news and links for Friday, July 19

Hi, all!

Two Hoddle debuts in one week! That’s Alfie Whiteman at the top today.

Ramble of the Day

I have a question for anyone interested in answering: If you could take any rule from another sport and put in football’s rule book, which one would it be? (If you’d like, you can flip the question; I’m not picky.)

I’ll start, because that’s kind of how the format dictates things. I’ve got two:

• Hockey’s sin bin: I’m not the first person to suggest it, but it would be a lot of fun to force footballers to sit out the match for a few minutes for committing a serious, but not too serious offense. Perhaps it could serve as a warning between yellow cards, if the referee feels a person hasn’t committed a red card offense just yet, or only enacted after certain actions.
• Hockey’s empty net: This pick is a based on my love for a little bit of chaos. Technically, this practice already exists in some form in football, when goalkeepers run up for corners to aid, but this takes it a step further. If you’re unfamiliar: if a team’s chasing a game, they’re allowed to take out the goaltender in exchange for an attacking player, taking the risk of leaving the goal empty. Sometimes it works in their favor and they get the goal; other times, the other team will score on said empty net. It would add a (possibly unnecessary) amount of drama to a tight match in late stages, but if I’m just throwing suggestions out there, why not?

Looking forward to your answers, if you have some.

tl;dr: Copy and paste some rules from one sport into football’s rule book.

Links of the Day

The Qatari organization putting on the 2022 World Cup has agreed to an inquiry regarding the death of a British man during stadium construction two years ago.

Bury will start the 2019-20 League One season with a 12-point deduction.

Daniel Sturridge has received a six-week ban from domestic matches for violating betting rules. The FA is expected to appeal for a six month ban.

A British man has filed a human rights complaint with the United Nations after being detained in the United Arab Emirates.

Transfer updates: Juventus has signed Matthijs de Ligt from Ajax; RB Leipzig has signed Christopher Nkunku from Paris Saint-Germain; Juventus’s Mattia Perin has failed his medical and postponed a move to Benfica

Today’s longer read: Suzanne Wrack interviews Sweden’s Kosovare Asllani on winning a bronze medal at the World Cup and having the support of a nation for The Guardian
Supplemental link: Kosovare Asllani is Real Madrid’s first signing, and will join the team at the start of 2020-21 season