Welcome to Row Z, The Athletic’s weekly column that shines a light on the bonkers side of the game.
From clubs to managers, players to organisations, every week we’ll bring you the absurdities, the greed, the contradictions, the preposterousness and the oddities of the sport we all love…
Sheikh Brendan
In an era of artificial intelligence slop, you find yourself questioning more and more what’s real and what isn’t on social media.
A clip doing the rounds of former Liverpool and Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers holding an assault rifle while dressed in Saudi Arabian attire tested that sense of belief to its very limits.
The Al Qadsiah manager (who is actually doing pretty well having overseen a 13-game unbeaten league streak since his appointment in December) donned the gear as part of Founding Day, which marks the date the country was founded in 1727.
Rodgers also gave an interview to the club’s media channel all about how unequivocally magnificent Saudi is. It was just a shame the interviewer, with Rodgers sat politely but a little nervously in his Saudi clothes, didn’t take the opportunity to start his questions with: “Any team news?”
“You are one of us now,” he did say to Rodgers, rather ominously. “What is your message to the Saudi people?”
Rodgers, being a football manager giving an interview, could do nothing but slip into cliched manager speak, basically making 299 years of the history of a proud nation sound like he was warmly congratulating a young academy graduate for making his Premier League debut.
“Well I want to give my sincere congratulations for all of the people of Saudi Arabia,” Rodgers said.
“Saudi has a really rich heritage and a really exciting future ahead.”
“I want to give my sincere congratulations to all of the people of Saudi Arabia, Saudi has a real rich heritage and a really exciting future ahead” 🇸🇦
Sheikh Brendan on #FoundingDay 🎙️#AlQadsiahpic.twitter.com/Iw689uzoeh— AlQadsiah Saudi Club (@AlQadsiahEN) February 22, 2026
Head-scratching rules
Olympic-based hat news now and a reminder that Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych was banned from competing in the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics for continuing to wear a helmet covered in photos of fellow athletes who had been killed during the Russian invasion.
Heraskevych said he wanted to make a respectful gesture to commemorate those who lost their lives, but he was disqualified and thrown out of the competition by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
It’s all part of strict guidelines around political neutrality on the field of play. “We have no rules, we have no sport,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams said in a press briefing afterwards.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino then wore a pro-Donald Trump cap during a meeting for the inaugural Board of Peace last week. The cap was red, i.e. Republican colours, and had 45-47 written on the side, referencing President Trump’s non-consecutive presidential terms.
Gianni Infantino wears a pro-Donald Trump hat at a Board of Peace event last week (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
Infantino is an IOC member, but after an investigation he was cleared of breaking the organisation’s rules.
Those rules state members must act independently of political and commercial interests, and cannot accept “from governments, organisations, or other parties, any mandate or instructions liable to interfere with the freedom of their action and vote”. Fair enough, you might say. As long as it’s the same rules for everyone.
The latest indignity in Spurs’ season
‘Spursy’ should really be an official dictionary definition by now.
So far it’s only in the online Urban Dictionarywith a few submissions as to what exactly it means, this being the best: “Tottenham’s consistency (to) fail to live up to expectations, drop points in crucial games that should have been won, and miss stunningly simple chances right in front of goal.
“EG Spurs fans are feeling something new; JOY! Happiness! They are winning, nothing could go wrong… JOINK! And the opposition have equalized, OH! And there’s another, this is devastating for the fans. THAT’S SO SPURSY!”
That’s the on-pitch version, but you may have seen last week that a politician compared the Swedish government’s handling of the country’s economy to Tottenham Hotspur.
Mikael Damberg, of the opposition Social Democratic Party, said the government was like Spurs because they have squandered opportunities to make use of their great wealth and resources. “The government risks making Sweden ‘Spursy’,” Damberg said. “That won’t do. Sweden cannot perform like Tottenham.”
That got Row Z thinking… which other Premier League teams should we be comparing to UK political parties?
- Conservatives — Leicester City, the team in blue have had their day but no one really knows who their manager is anymore.
- Labour — Liverpool, the reigning champions with historic socialist principles, but the boss has become increasingly unpopular for making up excuses as to why things aren’t going well.
- Liberal Democrats — well they finish in the same position every time, so it’s got to be Crystal Palace.
- The Green Party — Coventry City; on the way up with a charismatic leader who’s good with the media, but his previous work is a bit questionable.
- Reform – Manchester United. No explanation required.
