With the gold medal finally decided in the Olympic Men's Football, as of three minutes ago, it's time to look forward 11 minutes to the start of the new football season.
⚽ It's all go in the Championship at 8pm tonight with a pair of opening matches, one between title contenders Blackburn Rovers and title contenders Derby County and the other between title contenders Sheffield United and title contenders Preston North End. One of these is sure to win the title in nine months time, unless it's one of the other twenty teams who start their campaigns later this weekend.
⚽ All eyes are on Wembley tomorrow for the season's traditional curtain raiser, the Charity Shield. Top teams Manchester City and Manchester United will be playing for glory, honour and an irrelevant bit of silverware before the pitch is urgently cleared in readiness for the return of Taylor Swift next week.
⚽ Manchester United will be back in action for the opening match of the Premier League next Friday, a game in which they may or may not score more goals than Fulham. 379 further matches will follow in which various numbers of goals will be scored and points awarded until one of the teams has more than all the others and their supporters erupt in an orgasm of joy sometime in May.
⚽ The FA Cup is already underway, with the Extra Preliminary Round kicking off last Friday. Royal Wootton Bassett successfully thrashed Mangotsfield United 2-1, whereas Stansted and Biggleswade played out a goalless draw so had to return for a replay on Monday. It was particularly bad luck for Wembley who lost 2-0 to Bedfont Sports so won't be playing at Wembley on 17th May.
⚽ The Scottish Professional Football League also kicked off last weekend, but East Fife aren't playing Forfar Athletic until next weekend so nobody's particularly interested yet.
⚽ If you'd prefer a longer pre-season break, the Women's Super League is still 42 days away.
