Champions League final meets T20 Blast at Hove – and Goodman can’t wait

Sussex are screening the Champions League final between Arsenal and PSG at Hove before their opening home T20 Blast clash of 2026 v Middlesex.

Arsenal v Paris Saint-Germain kicks-off at 5pm, and will be shown around the ground - including in the Sixes bar - on before the cricket starts at 7pm.

It gives fans the chance to take in two top class sporting events in one fantastic place - and aims to offer football and cricket fans the ideal Saturday night out.

See https://www.eticketing.co.uk/sussexcricket/EDP/Event/Index/696 for tickets to Saturday night’s action.

For Sussex player and Arsenal fan Goodman, it’s a big day for him involving two teams special to him, and his first experience of a night T20 game at Hove since signing.

Here’s a Q&A with Dom looking ahead to the occasion and looking at Sussex’s season so far.

How did you start following Arsenal and how long have you been following them?

I’ve been following them for as long as I can remember, really. My parents aren’t football fans, but some really good friends of my mum and dad were big Arsenal fans and took me and my brother along when we were younger and ever since then we've just followed the Gunners religiously, me and my brother.

So it’s a club that means a lot, I’ve followed it for a long time. It's special to see them winning the league after 20-odd years.

It must be even more special with the league title being followed up with a game in which they can win another major trophy?

I remember us losing to Barcelona in the final. It’s a long time ago. And it's super exciting to think of us doing this double now. And to silence some of the haters, maybe! It’s really exciting.

A lot of cricketers that you speak to, and spectators as well, must discuss other sports like football with you too..?

Yeah, definitely. Certainly within the dressing room, it's something that's spoken about widely. At Sussex, football is followed by pretty much all the lads. We've got quite a few Arsenal supporters in the changing room. And, yeah, it is a hot topic of conversation.

It must be really good to see cricket embracing other sports, rather than being separate, like you're doing here?

100 per cent. Football's a massive part of dressing room conversations. And I think for most teams, football forms part of the warm up most of the days and I think it's probably for some people the highlight of their mornings before they go out and play, kicking the ball around!. So it’s definitely a large part of the dressing room.

As cricketers, can you take inspiration from what you see in football?

Definitely. For me, being an Arsenal fan, I love seeing the way that Declan Rice plays, the way he works so hard up and down the field. And some of the special stuff that he does as well, like his free-kick taking against Real Madrid.

Moments like that, you try to emulate in your own way. It’s well covered how good defensively Arsenal have been this year, and thinking about the hours they've probably put in to get their structures right is certainly something that inspires me.

You’d want people to be at Sussex in good numbers on Saturday and at the same time you know how big this football game is, so the fact the two have been brought together must be exciting?

It’d be great to see as many people there in the Sixes bar at the ground watching the football, prior to watching the Blast in the evening for sure. It's great to see the two joined together.

How exciting a time of the year is it when the Blast starts up again?

It's really exciting. Personally, I love four-day cricket. It's a great format, one we get a lot of satisfaction out of. But I think when the T20s come around, it's a really exciting, fun format. The boys love trying to give it a whack, bowl quickly, throw themselves around in the field. You hope to get a good support following that because it is such a fun format.

In the Blast, you get decent crowds, and at this event there’s the chance to mingle with supporters - how good is it to have that interaction between players and spectators in cricket?

It's really good. It's great to get a feel of what everyone feels about Sussex as a club, why they're there and how long they've been supporting, and what it means to them coming to watch, it's really cool. I think it's something that all the guys really value, interacting with people from around Brighton and wider around Sussex. It's not lost on anyone when chatting to people; you value the interactions you have with them for sure.

Sussex have had Finals Days appearances in the recent past, so the history's there to inspire you guys, isn't it?

100%, Sussex as a club have had quite a lot of success in recent years; getting to Finals Day in 2024, getting promoted the same year from Division Two - and it's certainly something massively on the radar. All the guys are aiming to get back to Finals Day again this year.

Looking at the best chance of winning a trophy, this is the sort of thing you can dream of as a group of players?

I think for any club you’d be lining up at the start of the Blast and really, really hoping that you can push to get to the quarter-finals first and then on to Finals Day. But I think looking at how our squad lines up for white ball cricket in the T20s specifically, we’ve got some really talented batters, talented bowlers, and it's something that definitely we'd hope that we could find a lot of success in for sure.

People like Danny Briggs, with his history in this competition, must inspire you as well, knowing what you're capable of, what you've seen in this format before?

Definitely. I think T20 cricket's such a fast moving, fast paced game, to have people who've played much like Briggsy around you only enhances your chances of success, you feel, when you're on the field to chat to them and get their viewpoints on whatever's happening in the game.

Briggsy, Dan Hughes, John Simpson, Tymal Mills, Jack Leaning... there's a lot of guys that have played heaps of T20 cricket. Watching from the outside, it does fill you with faith, knowing that there’s a whole heap of experience, for everyone to draw from.

Ollie Robinson's England call-up must inspire a lot of players, seeing high-level recognition for what you’re doing?

Definitely, I think it is inspiring when someone from your own environment goes into the England squad, it is super inspiring; particularly him being our captain. Everyone at the club was so, so happy for him and I only wish him the absolute best when he does get his opportunity again.

It's similar with when the lads go off to The Hundred - Tymal, James Coles… when they go from playing franchise tournaments, it’s inspiring, chatting to them about their experiences, when they come back from that as well.

Can you sense Paul Farbrace’s valuing of the production of players who can go on to represent the national team including as Lions?

I think it's something that Farby would speak about; trying to win games for Sussex and push on for higher honours. He referenced that with Henry Crocombe recently. He got picked up in the England Lions and I heard him saying that's what the club wants to be doing. They want people to be getting picked up and recognised and in those settings. Fingers crossed, it only continues.

What excites you most about Saturday?

I think first of all, in my first season here, I think it's really exciting to see what a T20 night at Hove is like; first home game for the lads after Essex and Kent. So I'm super excited to see what Saturday nights in Hove will be like.

I’ve heard such good things and I'm really looking forward to just going to watch the boys get stuck in and hopefully see the lads get a win on Saturday evening.

You have that excitement about the Hove experience - you must want to see that feeling among as many people as possible, for members of the public to taste it themselves and get into cricket more?

I think if there's ever a setting for people to get to go and watch a game and see how exciting T20 cricket is, and then hopefully increasingly follow the sport, it would definitely be something like Saturday evening. Saturday night is under floodlights, white ball, the ball will be flying around, the lads will be throwing themselves around, people will be seeing some really, really quick bowling from people like Tymal Mills.

There’ll be experienced players as you say, like Danny Briggs. You get excited, talking about it, thinking about how the lads are going to get on.

You mentioned Declan Rice, is there anyone else you're particularly looking forward to seeing in that Champions League final?

It’ll be interesting to see how we set up, whether Arteta goes with Gyokeres, Havertz up top. I've loved watching Eze play for us all year. I think, just like the social media announcement of him being an Arsenal fan and his family being Arsenal fans, always, I've enjoyed seeing Eze, whether he starts or not.

It would be special for you to see people who love both Sussex and Arsenal being together for this occasion?

100%. Everyone from around the country knows what it means to support their own teams. To have that crossover with anyone who's a Sussex fan and an Arsenal fan, you always have that shared experience, something that can really resonate, in terms of what feelings, emotions, sport can bring to you. There’s been ups and downs over the years for Arsenal and it's really something you can resonate with people when you do discover that they follow the same teams.

Making sure you don’t lose supporters coming through the gates, when there’s another big sporting event on, sets a positive example?

Definitely. If anyone's worried about missing any of any of the Champions League because the cricket is on, I mean, the perfect place is to get to the ground, watch the Champions League in the Sixes bar, and then wander over to the stands to watch a great night of Blast cricket as well. Seems like a great evening to me!