How grassroots lobbying push blindsided Monsanto

Big EU capitals get cold feet on approving widely used weedkiller, nudge Commission to take political hit.

American agricultural giant Monsanto thought it was on a glide path to EU renewal of its controversial weedkiller Roundup.

It was wrong.

Advocacy groups seized on a routine World Health Organization report from last year, which connected the active ingredient in Roundup to cancer, to inflame politicians. They generated enough outcry to prompt key players, including Germany and France, to publicly back away from what the industry and the European Commission thought would be a no-hassle vote after food safety officials declared in November that the pesticide is safe to use across Europe, as it has been for decades.

Those NGOs and their backers are declaring victory this week following a vote on the chemical’s future that ended in a deadlock. The Commission is scrambling to figure out how to keep Europe’s most widely used herbicide on the market to make a June 30 license expiration. It could face a raft of lawsuits from agriculture heavyweights if it fails to pass an extension.

“Less than six months ago, the member states and the Commission still thought it would be a piece of cake to reauthorize glyphosate in the EU,” French Green MEP Michèle Rivasi said. “We proved them wrong.”

The left-leaning groups’ ability to mobilize political opposition to an industrial giant fits a pattern. They are gaining strength in public debates as well as national politics, with their work also evident in the Commission’s flagging effort to secure a mammoth free trade deal with the U.S. The fight underscores a challenge facing big institutions and their ability to adapt quickly to deal with insurgent campaigns fueled by social media and savvy NGOs.

The Commission could issue the renewal without public support — and wind up bolstering the image of top-down governance that doesn’t consider populist views.

Its next attempt to extend glyphosate’s use is slated for the same day as the U.K. referendum on EU membership, June 23, or the next day. Stubborn opposition from many countries that has stalled renewal three times is not expected to change, and glyphosate could very well inch closer to its EU death.

Under Commission rules, the majority of member countries representing at least 65 percent of the population need to sign on, a benchmark it failed to reach this week.

“We hope that this situation of the glyphosate will be a type of learning case of the Commission,” European Crop Protection Association Director General Jean-Charles Bocquet said. “This one is the type of precedent on which we need to really build to avoid that in the future.”

Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has been pushing countries to be more accountable for EU actions and avoid hiding behind the Commission on politically unpopular decisions. Juncker could override member countries and reauthorize glyphosate without their backing, but thus far that is something he hasn’t wanted to do.

“Member states should take their own responsibilities and not try to hide behind the Commission,” one Commission official said earlier this week, echoing the recent exasperation.

Health and Food Safety Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis told his fellow 27 commissioners Tuesday that he had been privately contacted by the governments of France, Germany and Italy ahead of the vote urging the Commission to move forward with the reauthorization without their support.

According to sources familiar with the meeting, he blamed the three for silently supporting the pesticide but publicly blaming the Commission.

Gift from WHO

The Commission’s predicament in large part stems from a March 2015 report from the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, released as the EU was nearing the end of a standard review of the chemical, which happens every 15 years.

German authorities had said in January 2014 that the pesticide was safe when used as intended, and the European Food Safety Agency was reviewing those findings to make a recommendation to the Commission.

The WHO agency report proved caustic. The March paper handed opponents of pesticides in agriculture a gift with its conclusion that the weedkiller is a probable cause of cancer in humans. Those findings were tucked into a larger report with four other pesticides — just another regular release for the agency.

Environmentalists seized upon the findings to fuel their push for a ban with regulators in the EU and United States, where the pesticide is also under review. Advocacy groups Avaaz and Green 10 met with Andriukaitis’ staff on glyphosate in June 2015, according to meeting logs.

The loud and instantaneous response took the WHO agency by surprise.

A spokeswoman said reports on cancer can attract attention but “the level of interest in the evaluation of glyphosate has been exceptionally high, probably because of the reauthorization process underway in the EU and the USA.”

But the report didn’t appear to sway the European Food Safety Authority. In November, it concluded glyphosate is safe at the level at which Europeans are exposed to it. The agency called for reauthorization and the Commission issued a proposal for a full 15-year renewal.

Monsanto and the other companies that sell glyphosate in Europe thought they were in the homestretch. They assumed the Commission would rely on this analysis, which included reviews of scientific and industry-backed reports, according to an industry source familiar with the process.

Advocacy groups turned to their members to lobby lawmakers in national capitals and Brussels to reject the proposal, arguing that EFSA’s work was too influenced by the industry, said Bert Wander, campaign director for Avaaz, a member-funded group with roots in MoveOn.org and which works to launch online petitions.

Protesters dressed as bottles of Roundup and called for officials in Paris, Berlin and Brussels to ban the chemical at rallies this spring. Avaaz also launched a petition urging the EU to “immediately suspend approval of glyphosate.” More than 2 million people signed on.

Their efforts have been effective but inexpensive. Wander said that the Avaaz campaign consisted mostly of member outreach as well as some advertising, including on POLITICO.eu. One ad touts the group’s petition and other public opinion surveys on glyphosate, with an image of a skull and crossbones carved into an apple and the catchphrase “We are not lab rats.”

“The campaigns did have a lot of influence over left-wing parties who are currently under pressure from populist parties within their countries,” said an EU diplomat.

The French government needed little convincing. Socialist Environment Minister Ségolène Royal has long expressed concern about glyphosate and called for pulling mixtures and certain other chemicals from the market due to health concerns in February.

And once Royal went public, it soon became clear France was going to vote against, or abstain with the same effect. France’s objection swayed Italy — which typically takes Paris’ lead — into siding against renewal, an EU official said.

Advocacy groups celebrated when the Commission wound up scrapping a planned March vote of member states for reauthorization.

“Rushing to grant a new licence now, without waiting for an evaluation by Europe’s chemical agency, would be like skydiving without checking your equipment first,” Franziska Achterberg, Greenpeace’s director for EU food policy, said in a statement at the time. “As long as there is conflicting scientific advice, glyphosate should not be approved for use in the EU. And countries would be better advised to do without it.”

The Commission had not lost hope, tweaking the proposal to appease different countries, including one for Germany calling for greater biodiversity protections.

Public opinion was not in Roundup’s favor. In April, a YouGov poll of 7,000 people concluded that two-thirds of Europeans supported a ban.

The weedkiller has become a victim of its own success. Residues of the chemical are everywhere, in food and rivers, in human blood and even, as some advocacy groups claim, in breast milk. To emphasize that point, 48 Green MEPs had their urine tested following an April vote calling on the Commission to reauthorize the chemical for only seven years instead of 15. All of the tests came back positive.

“I really am peed off,’” said MEP Keith Taylor, a member of the Greens on the environment and health committee, in a statement following the release of the results. “Our urine test might seem like an attention-grabbing stunt, but it has proved our worst fears about glyphosate, which is that it really is everywhere.”

Nein!

Meanwhile the industry was quietly lobbying its way with commission officials.

Representatives from the industry have met twice with Andriukaitis’ staff this year. In January, the industry-funded Glyphosate Task Force’s lobbyists from Hume Brophy, paid his office a visit, while representatives from Monsanto and Syngenta went in late May, according to meeting records.

Monsanto declined to comment on the record for this article. In a statement Monday, the company called for the Commission to follow the recommendations of the European Food Safety Agency, arguing that “regulatory decisions should be based on the best available science.”

When the Commission finally scheduled a vote in late May on a new proposal for a nine-year extension, with recommendations for restrictions on the pesticide’s use in residential areas and public parks, it was confident that Germany would be on board and other countries would fall in line. They didn’t.

Hours before member countries had to submit a response to the Commission’s plan, Germany’s environment minister issued a statement making her position clear.

“NEIN,” began a long statement issued from Barbara Hendricks, a member of the Social Democratic Party, adding that her entire party, the junior partner in the German governing coalition, would not back renewal.

When the vote was finally held this week on a short-term extension until the end of 2017, the measure failed after Germany, France, Italy, Austria and Portugal and Luxembourg abstained. Only Malta voted against.

“I don’t think they expected this,” Avaaz’s Wander said of the Commission. Support for his NGO’s petition proves that people “want their decision-makers to make decisions that err on the side of caution,” he added.

“I think that for the industry in particular, this is their worst nightmare,” Wander continued. “This has gone from being a fringe issue to a mainstream issue. People across Europe are writing to their governments … and saying we are very, very worried.”

Natalie Huet contributed reporting.

CORRECTION: An earlier version included a quote from Greenpeace’s EU food policy director from the wrong month. In addition, an earlier version may have overstated the presence of glyphosate in breast milk.

Leaked TTIP documents reveal ‘irreconcilable’ differences

Greenpeace to publish 248 pages of leaked negotiating texts.

U.S. negotiators on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership want to keep details of the talks secret and may be less interested in the deal than their EU counterparts, according to leaked documents to be released by Greenpeace Monday.

The NGO said in a press release it had obtained 248 pages of confidential TTIP negotiating texts, which it plans to publish at 11 a.m. According to French newspaper Le Monde, the texts are from March and reflect the state of negotiations shortly after the 12th round of talks in Brussels.

The Guardian, which has also seen the leak, reports the talks are floundering, with “irreconcilable” differences between the EU and U.S., particularly on animal testing of cosmetics, drug safety testing and on the environment.

Greenpeace claims the leaked texts make no reference to climate protection, which it says raises the question of whether a TTIP deal would be compatible with the goal of the Paris climate summit to keep global average temperature increases below 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Le Monde says the texts make no reference to the so-called “precautionary principle,” which allows the certification of new products, particularly drugs in the EU, only if the producer can prove that they do no harm. European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström has previously stated the precautionary principle would not be abolished under TTIP.

Hans von der Burchard contributed to this report.

European Parliament scolds Poland

The resolution calls on the Commission to bring Warsaw to heel.

STRASBOURG — The European Parliament voted overwhelmingly Wednesday in support of a resolution saying the Polish government’s confrontation with the country’s top constitutional court posed a danger to “democracy, human rights and the rule of law.”

The non-binding measure, approved by 513 votes to 142 with 30 abstentions, also called on the right-wing government in Warsaw to end a crisis over the country’s Constitutional Tribunal, and if that doesn’t happen for the European Commission to activate the “second stage” of its rule of law procedure against Poland.

The vote is another blow for the Law and Justice government (PiS), which has seen relations with Brussels worsen significantly since it came to power in late October.

The government has embarked on radical changes to Poland’s institutions, the most controversial of which critics say reduces the Constitutional Tribunal’s independence. Changes to the tribunal’s procedure have been ruled unconstitutional by the tribunal itself, but the government refuses to recognize the verdict.

Poland’s constitutional crisis was examined by the Venice Commission, a body of the Council of Europe, which had been invited to the country by the foreign minister. Its report rebuked the government, but Warsaw has not followed its recommendations.

The Commission launched an unprecedented probe into Poland’s rule of law in January, a procedure that could theoretically end with Poland losing its voting rights as an EU member. However, such an outcome is unlikely as the decision has to be unanimous, and Hungary — which has similar issues with Brussels — has promised to stand by its Polish ally.

“I don’t think that today or in the near future anyone in Europe would want to impose sanctions or penalties against Poland,” Donald Tusk, president of the European Council and former Polish prime minister, said in Strasbourg. “I wouldn’t support such a step.”

The European Commission also wants the government to obey the tribunal’s verdict, but has been reluctant to worsen the confrontation with Warsaw, which is why the Parliament stepped in with its resolution.

“Respect for European values is not a choice but an obligation,” said Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the centrist ALDE grouping. “The PiS government is distancing Poland from a community of shared values.”

The Polish government puts the blame for frictions with the EU on the opposition Civic Platform party, saying the party first tried to change the makeup of the tribunal illegally just before losing power and still hasn’t accepted its October defeat.

“The opposition is fighting against the government by using the European institutions as a political football, which shows a total lack of integrity,” said Ryszard Legutko, a PiS MEP, calling the resolution “absurd, harmful, dishonest and counterproductive.”

However, the government’s attempts to shift responsibility to the opposition aren’t gaining much traction. In a new poll by the Ariana organization, 53 percent of those surveyed felt the government is violating democratic standards and 56 percent wanted the government to obey the tribunal’s verdict. Another survey by the IBRIS organization found that 63 percent of Poles feel democracy is in danger, up from 55 percent late last year.

Tusk, a founder of Civic Platform, said there is growing international concern over Poland’s direction.

“If the authorities don’t want international opinion to occupy itself with their affairs, it shouldn’t give them the pretext for doing so,” he said. “Today there are too many pretexts.”

The problem for the government is that it doesn’t have a face-saving way of backing away from the confrontation. Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of Law and Justice and Poland’s most powerful politician, called a recent meeting of fellow party leaders to seek a compromise. However, the opposition demanded that any such attempt be preceded by the government carrying out the tribunal’s verdict.

The fight over the tribunal is only one of a broader series of concerns over Warsaw’s actions. Gianni Pittella, head of the European Parliament’s Socialist bloc, noted “a series of worrying retrogressive measures” in areas such as efforts to toughen Poland’s abortion law, a media law that strengthens government control of public radio and television, and new legislation expanding policy surveillance powers.

Jan Cienski contributed to this article.

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Cameron targets Brussels over Brexit

As Euroskepticism builds at home, British PM deploys diplomats to EU.

British Prime Minister David Cameron has launched a new outreach effort targeting key EU politicians in a bid to stress-test reform proposals that would prevent a U.K. exit.

Cameron and his Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, spent part of their summer touring European capitals to meet with EU leaders. Now top-level U.K. emissaries are focusing on Brussels, with a series of meetings to explain
the British agenda and explore areas of possible compromise.

The diplomatic push comes at a crucial time for the debate on Britain’s status in the EU. Poll numbers show support for U.K. membership dropping as Europe struggles with crises ranging from Greece to migration that do not help Brussels’ already shaky image in Britain. A new survey from ICM showed support for a Yes vote just 3 percentage points ahead of No.

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Opposition to Britain’s EU membership is now a dominant political force in the country, with Cameron flanked on the left by new Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn who has been critical of the EU throughout his career, and on the right by the anti-immigration U.K. Independence Party.

The new Brussels visits are part of a strategy of engagement — not yet negotiations — building up to a European summit in December at which Cameron is expected to lay out his plans for the referendum. The up-
or-down vote on EU membership will be held before the end of 2017 but could come as early as next summer.

The British prime minister has also been asked by the European Parliament’s president, Martin Schulz, to address the assembly before that summit. Cameron, according to Downing Street officials, is still considering the request.

For now, though, the focus is on quiet diplomacy.

“They’re doing a lot of confidential talks in the Commission, the Council and now they’re starting to reach out to Parliament, talking to MEPs from the different groups,” said David McAllister, a German MEP from the European People’s Party.

McAllister, who is half-Scottish, has good relations with British Conservatives in the European Parliament and close ties to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He said he has met with two of Cameron’s representatives in the past two weeks.

Britain’s minister for European affairs, David Lidington, was in Brussels Tuesday for meetings with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, vice president Frans Timmermans, transport commissioner Violeta Bulc and humanitarian aid commissioner Christos Stylianides, as well as with MEPs and diplomats.

Lidington also met with key officials helping to shape the EU’s response to whatever Cameron wants, including Martin Selmayr, Juncker’s chief of staff, and Jonathan Faull, who leads a new Commission task force on the referendum.

“I’ve seen a number of Commissioners, a large number of members of the European Parliament, from different political groups,” Lidington said after his visit with Timmermans, in a video clip made by the U.K. Foreign Office & Commonwealth Office. Lidington added that the U.K. was pushing for trade deals with the U.S. and Japan, deepening the single market and deregulation for business growth.

He said in his meetings at the Commission there was “a recognition that Europe needs to work together to make its businesses much more effective at creating wealth and creating jobs, especially for young people who need a job today.”

Last week, Downing Street sent special advisor Mats Persson, the pro-EU former director of the Open Europe think tank, to Strasbourg to lobby MEPs on U.K. plans for single market reform and trade deals.

Downing Street has been sounding out individual MEPs for their thoughts on free trade and on the Commission’s plans to streamline regulation and cut red tape. But a Parliament source said many MEPs are also waiting to hear concrete reform proposals from Britain — not to mention a firm date for the referendum vote.

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“The U.K. is upping its engagements with the European Parliament, as the European Parliament has a role in a lot of areas of reform like the single market, so it’s important to talk to them and explain the U.K.’s agenda,” said a British diplomat. “This shows that we’re taking the EP seriously.”

U.K. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond will visit Brussels next week, according to diplomatic sources. While there is constant contact between officials on technical matters, Hammond is part of Cameron’s core team on EU reform, along with Osborne, Lidington and Ivan Rogers, the U.K.’s permanent representative in Brussels.

Commission officials said they are still in “listening mode” and are waiting to see more concrete demands from the U.K. But they are already planning to introduce a new labor mobility package to address two key reform areas Britain has already said must be dealt with before the referendum, and which are related to the migration crisis: freedom of movement in the EU and so-called “benefits tourism.”

There was already EU progress Tuesday on the latter issue, with a European Court of Justice ruling upholding the right of countries to deny certain social benefits to economic migrants. British Conservative MEPs hailed the decision as a positive sign.

“This is a major endorsement of our stance on benefit tourism and our views on free movement,” said U.K. MEP Anthea McIntyre. “Increasingly the rest of Europe is seeing things our way. It bodes well for one of our key areas of renegotiation.”

Cameron still has not decided whether he will accept the European Parliament’s invitation to debate the referendum issue directly with MEPs. But diplomatic sources say Lidington and others are laying the groundwork so that if Cameron does speak in Strasbourg, his visit will go smoothly.

“It’s not going to be an easy process,” said Aled Williams, the U.K. spokesman in Brussels. “There will be bumps along the way, there will be noise around it, but by showing a desire to talk to other leaders in Europe, the U.K. is showing that it wants to succeed.”

The Netflix cartoon, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, is adding a gender non-binary character to its upcoming fourth season.

The character Double Trouble will be voiced by activist and actor Jacob Tobia, who was born male but claims to be “gender-nonconforming.”

Tobia announced the news on Instagram account.

“Tobia voices Double Trouble, a non-binary shape-shifting mercenary from the Crimson Waste, who joins forces with Catra and the Horde,” DreamWorks Animation said in a press release. “Able to magically transform themselves into any person they see, Double Trouble has the soul of a thespian, spending hours in ‘character study’ trying to perfectly mimic their target, and always looking for feedback on their ‘performance’ – just don’t ever give them a negative critique.”

According to Entertainment Weekly, the studio teased the fourth season saying “the respective rises of Queen Glimmer as leader of the Rebellion and Catra as co-leader of the Horde. As the Horde makes advances on the Rebellion under the looming threat of Horde Prime’s arrival, the Princess Alliance makes heroic strides but begins to disagree on the best way to defend Etheria. Ultimately, a shocking discovery about Etheria itself causes Adora to reconsider everything she thought she knew.”

The cartoon series, based off the 1980s Masters of the Universe toy line, has a history of adding LGBTQ characters, and other characters representing minorities.

Season four of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power hits Netflix on November 4.

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The Reds may be marching towards a first title triumph in 30 years, but Jurgen Klopp’s side were humbled 3-0 by Watford at Vicarage Road on Saturday

Liverpool’s 44-game unbeaten run was ended in some style by Watford on Saturday, with former Manchester United defender Gary Neville revelling in a rare setback for the Reds by joking that the Premier League leaders are “bottling it again”.

Jurgen Klopp’s side continue to march their way towards a first title triumph in 30 years, but will not be emulating the ‘Invincibles’ achievements of Arsenal from 2003-04.

Just two points had been dropped heading into a meeting with Watford at Vicarage Road, with Liverpool boasting an impressive record in recent outings against the Hornets.

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The form book was, however, to be ripped up as the home side surged to a stunning 3-0 victory.

Ismaila Sarr proved to be a serious thorn in the Reds’ side as he knocked them onto the back foot with a second-half brace.

Troy Deeney also got in on the act as those in attendance and millions watching around the world were left rubbing their eyes in disbelief.

Plenty found pleasure in seeing Liverpool finally come unstuck, on a day which could have seen them set a new Premier League record of 19 wins in a row.

Manchester City’s mark still stands there, with Klopp’s men requiring four successes this season in order to get their hands on a long-awaited title.

United legend Neville led those making the most of an opportunity to aim a dig at the Reds, with plenty of Arsenal followers also getting in on the act.

Former Liverpool stars were a little more sympathetic, but Dejan Lovren was dug out for another forgettable display.

EU opens Amazon e-books probe

The European Commission launches formal antitrust case over clauses in Amazon’s contracts with publishers.

The European Commission has launched a formal antitrust investigation into whether Amazon’s contracts with e-book publishers unfairly oblige them to give Amazon equivalent or favorable terms compared with its competitors.

Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said that clauses in those contracts may have blocked rival e-book distributors from emerging.

“It is my duty to make sure that Amazon’s arrangements with publishers are not harmful to consumers, by preventing other e-book distributors from innovating and competing effectively with Amazon,” Vestager said in a statement. “Our investigation will show if such concerns are justified.”

The relevant clauses force publishers to tell Amazon when they are about to offer rival distributors “more favorable or alternative terms,” then give Amazon “the right to terms and conditions at least as good as those offered to its competitors.”

The suspicion is that Amazon used its dominant position in the market for e-books to force the terms onto the publishers. The probe relates specifically to the sale of e-books in English and German, the two European languages where Amazon is strongest.

Amazon said it was confident that its agreements with publishers are legal and in readers’ best interests. “We look forward to demonstrating this to the Commission as we cooperate fully during this process,” the company said in a statement.

European publishers, who have been critical of Amazon, reacted positively to the Commission announcement.

“The publishers association has been calling for a competition inquiry into the e-book market for some time, so today’s announcement from the Commission is a welcome development,” said Richard Mollett, chief executive of the UK’s Publishers Association.

Alexander Skipis, managing director of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association described Amazon’s business practices as “extortionate.”

The Commission is already investigating Amazon’s tax strategies in a separate case. And there may be more to come: Vestager’s department also indicated last month that Amazon would be among the web companies under scrutiny in a wider probe into the e-commerce sector.

The Commission has also opened proceedings into the e-book market before, when it investigated alleged collusion between Apple and major publishing houses.

At a briefing Thursday, however, Vestager spokesman Ricardo Cardoso said the cases were unrelated “because this one focuses on clauses that Amazon, in our view, may have pushed upon the publishers whereas the prior investigation focused on horizontal conduct.”

Cardoso also said that the Commission launched the new e-book investigation on its own initiative, rather than in response to any particular complaint.

The Bianconeri face an uphill battle to qualify in the Champions League, and the attacking duo are not shouldering the blame

Cristiano Ronaldo and Paulo Dybala were caught on camera blaming the Juventus midfield for their midweek Champions League loss to Lyon.

The Serie A side went into the tie as hot favourites, but after a 1-0 loss at Parc OL it remains in the balance.

Juve turned in a desperately poor first-half display, during which they conceded to Lucas Tousart, and Ronaldo and Dybala have pointed the finger of blame towards the team’s midfielders.

While waiting in the tunnel for the second half of the fixture to begin, the pair were having a chat, apparently unaware that there was a television camera behind them picking up the nature of their conversation, which took place in Spanish.

“We are left alone out there, the midfielders are giving us no support,” the five-time Ballon d’Or winner grumbled to his colleague.

“Nobody is getting the ball,” Dybala replied.

“I know, not even the second balls, nothing,” Ronaldo said.

While Juventus did improve in the second period of the fixture, they were unable to hit back and indeed failed to muster a single shot on the French side’s goal over the course of the 90 minutes.

It was a result – and performance – that served only to increase the pressure on head coach Maurizio Sarri, whose side have slipped to second in the Serie A standings behind Lazio, albeit having played one game fewer.

Juve, so used to being the dominant force in Italy, have won only three of their last seven games in all competitions.

Meanwhile, they will not have the opportunity to absolve themselves on Sunday, with their encounter against Inter called off because of coronavirus fears. 

It is one of five encounters to have been postponed in Italy this week due to concerns that large crowds could increase the spread of the illness.

The fixture has instead been schedule for Wednesday, May 13.

There has been no suggestion that the second leg of the Champions League last-16 match against Lyon could be thrown into doubt, however, with that encounter still pencilled in for March 17 at the Allianz Stadium.

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The former Tottenham midfielder believes the right man is at the helm in north London, with the Portuguese having been unlucky with injuries

Jose Mourinho remains a “fantastic manager” and Tottenham will have no problem attracting top players in the summer because “many” still want to play for the proven Portuguese coach, says Michael Brown.

Questions have been asked of the man calling the shots in north London over recent weeks, with some suggesting that his powers are on the wane.

Former Spurs midfielder Brown is not buying that, telling Goal of the former Chelsea and Manchester United boss: “He’s a fantastic manager. He has a great record.

“Someone with that experience, to have a bit of adversity with the injuries and be up against it, if there’s ever a manager that can deal with these problems then it’s Jose Mourinho.”

Tottenham’s cause in 2019-20 has been hindered by untimely knocks to the likes of Harry Kane and Heung-min Son.

Those ailments have left Mourinho short of attacking options, with no further firepower brought in during the January transfer window.

Brown added: “Kane and Son are wonderful players. When you are missing those, it’s going to be difficult. But they have still got some great quality in the squad.

“As a team, probably defensively they would hope to be a little bit better and not having those goals at the top of the pitch makes it that much harder.”

Pressed on whether Mourinho needs to change his ways to meet the challenges he currently faces, with the 57-year-old once famed for defensive stability, Brown said: “They have different shapes. You look at your squad and see who you are going to play against in your next game.

“You always question what is the right message, which way you go about things, and it’s no different for Jose Mourinho.”

Spurs’ struggles have come at the worst possible time, with the club facing a fight to secure Champions League qualification for 2020-21.

They only sit sixth in the Premier League at present, while a 1-0 deficit must be overcome against RB Leipzig in a last-16 showdown if further continental progress is to be made this term.

Missing out on a place at Europe’s top table could make it trickier for Tottenham to land targets in the next window, but Brown believes players will still buy into the Mourinho factor.

“He’s a good attraction, Mourinho, regarding recruitment and players wanting to come and play for Spurs,” said Brown, who spent two years at White Hart Lane between 2004 and 2006.

“The stadium is magnificent, training ground, so there will be many, many players out there who will want to sign for Spurs. It’s just a matter of how much and how far they can go. That’ll be interesting.”

Tottenham will be back in action on Sunday when they play host to Wolves, with that contest taking place before the gaze of English football switches across north London to Wembley Stadium and the Carabao Cup final between Brown’s former club Manchester City and Aston Villa.

Watch the Carabao Cup final highlights on Sunday on Quest at 9pm. Catch-up and stream live on dplay.

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After watching the likes of FC Cincinnati and Minnesota United struggle out of the gate, one of this year’s newcomers looks like they belong

From the moment Nashville SC’s roster started to take shape, it became clear what the club was going for. This was a team that was interested in laying a foundation, a club that had learned from those that had come before them.

The moment Atlanta United broke into MLS, the rules for expansion teams were ripped up and rewritten. Two distinct rulebooks were made. One applied to clubs like Atlanta United and Los Angeles FC and another applied to Minnesota United and FC Cincinnati. One group was expected to push for playoff spots and trophy and the other was expected to push for record-breaking marks of futility.

Nashville were expected to lose on Sunday, and that’s exactly what they did. Facing off with that game-changing Atlanta team, Nashville SC fell 2-1 in the club’s first MLS match. Just a few years after taking MLS by storm, Atlanta United played spoiler, walking into Nissan Stadium and emerging with all three points to open the MLS campaign. That was result was expected. None of it was surprising.

What was perhaps a little surprising, though, is that Nashville didn’t truly look overmatched. There were moments were Atlanta dominated, sure, but it was nothing like the batterings that Minnesota or Cincinnati took in their opening few weeks. This Nashville team looked like a group with a plan, even if that plan didn’t always work. Saturday’s match showed that there’s reason for optimism and that there’s genuine hope that this team might just turn out okay.

From kickoff, you could see the mentality of each side. The hosts were riding high on adrenaline following a pregame experience that was uniquely Nashville. There were songs, guitars and energy from the nearly 60,000 fans packed into Nissan Stadium, and you could see it translate to the field. The problem was that it didn’t translate particularly well. Nashville were all energy, but as sloppy as can be.

It took nine minutes for them to be punished through Ezequiel Barco, but it was at that moment that Nashville settled. Big-money signing Walker Zimmerman provided the club’s first MLS goal later in the first half, giving the club it’s first signature moment. That excitement was short-lived, with Atlanta midfielder Emerson Hyndman’s controversial goal proving the difference. But, by and large, for 90 minutes, Nashville went toe-to-toe with an MLS Cup contender and didn’t look overmatched or outclassed.

“It’s not the result we wanted but you can tell that there’s a lot of fight in this team and we’re going to be pretty successful this year,” Zimmerman said. “Not the result we wanted but I’m really proud of the effort against a good Atlanta side. We showed what we can do.”

This was a starting XI composed of nine MLS veterans, some highly-coveted and some relative cast-offs. Zimmerman is a Best XI defender. Dax McCarty, named the club’s captain, is a 15-year veteran that has faced every imaginable scenario in this league. Anibal Godoy has run midfields for years. David Accam and Dominique Badji have scored goals while Daniel Lovitz and Eric Miller have earned U.S. men’s national team callups. 

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This was a group that, by and large, knew what they were getting into by joining this project. They knew that this road was a complicated one, and that nights like Saturday would be difficult to manage. Every player aside from Hany Mukhtar and Randall Leal had faced Atlanta United before and had seen where previous expansion teams have gotten wrong or right.

In 2017, Minnesota United gave up 11 goals in their first two games as the Loons were undone by their lack of MLS experience. Last season, FC Cincinnati were smashed by the eventual MLS Cup winners, the Seattle Sounders, in their debut on the way to setting the record for most goals conceded with 75.

Nashville shouldn’t have those issues. This is a team built from the back forward, with veteran pieces making up the backline. Nashville may not always be sexy and the attacking unit may take a long, long time to get going, but this team has been built to avoid getting embarrassed week after week like the two above were.

Saturday night won’t be Nashville’s final loss of the season. There will be plenty more along the way as this team goes through all the growing pains that their predecessors have struggled through. Nashville will suffer some beatings against teams more talented, more composed and more familiar with one another. Such is the life of an expansion team. This road is never easy.

That road, though, may not be a treacherous or frustrating as many expected it to be. Nashville proved they belong on Saturday night, but any team can come out hot Day 1. Any team can feed off emotion and adrenaline for 90 minutes.

But doing that over a whole season? Keeping up this pace even as teams begin to figure you out? Handling the wear and tear of an MLS season as a group for the very first time? That’s the big challenge, and now is where the hard part begins.