European Super League horseshit now a possibility?

[SteveO 35]

Much as I'm opposed to the whole thing, to see self serving UEFA come out and slam the greed of clubs when they've had the most corrupt, backhander-taking muppets running their show for decades is quite amusing. Government ministers including the culture secretary now condemning it - presumably just gutted that he didn't own shares in it, otherwise he would have already been paid a backhander to make it happen.

FIFA joining the condemnation - they of the Qatari World Cup award that of course was done purely for football reasons rather than commercial ones!

[StuartL]

Much as I'm opposed to the whole thing, to see self serving UEFA come out and slam the greed of clubs when they've had the most corrupt, backhander-taking muppets running their show for decades is quite amusing. Government ministers including the culture secretary now condemning it - presumably just gutted that he didn't own shares in it, otherwise he would have already been paid a backhander to make it happen.

FIFA joining the condemnation - they of the Qatari World Cup award that of course was done purely for football reasons rather than commercial ones!

Spot on - all they are worried about is someone else driving the gravy train

A final of a European final in Baku may have been a step too far for some of the clubs.

UEFA only have themselves to blame

[SteveO 35]

Much as I'm opposed to the whole thing, to see self serving UEFA come out and slam the greed of clubs when they've had the most corrupt, backhander-taking muppets running their show for decades is quite amusing. Government ministers including the culture secretary now condemning it - presumably just gutted that he didn't own shares in it, otherwise he would have already been paid a backhander to make it happen.

FIFA joining the condemnation - they of the Qatari World Cup award that of course was done purely for football reasons rather than commercial ones!

Spot on - all they are worried about is someone else driving the gravy train

A final of a European final in Baku may have been a step too far for some of the clubs.

UEFA only have themselves to blame

All their horror, whilst approving an expanded CL format of 36 teams through to 2033 at the earliest - absolute bunch of c.unts. What they were trying to do amounted to little more than eroding domestic football anyway, bunch of c.unts

[Nos89]

If this is an alternative to UEFA competitions, not domestic leagues then I'll support the move. As an organisation, UEFA has been proven as being bad for football. A rival organisation would be good for football.
Premier League at the weekend, European Super League midweek then fine.
If it means opting out of the domestic league then, no, I would not support that.

Far be it for me to stand up for the corrupt c.unts at uefa and fifa, but a lot of what is wrong with the game has come from wealthy clubs looking to maximise money. Forming the premier league was all about money, most of the "fit and proper" tests for new owners is about keeping the status quo and not allowing clubs like the geordies break in with new money. Expanding the champs league, firstly to 2 teams and now at four teams for big countries, is all about the bigger clubs putting a safety net to ensure that they will be in it most seasons. Expanding the uefa and world cup finals is again about reducing chances of a big country not qualifying, and of course increasing the number of countries in it will increase the value of tv rights and buys votes.

If uefa had of stood up to the big clubs years ago when they fought to increase the champs league, the chances are that this breakaway would have happened then. Uefa bowed to the big clubs back then, and they have bent over for them every day since. When some people knock my love of nfl, I point out to them the financial parity system that they use and how it is a far better and fairer system - what we have now in football is a game run by greedy owners and clubs, and supported by greedy players, and I hope it crashes and burns

Isn't that what the people setting up the ESL trying to achieve? The soccer equivalent to the NFL. No relegation. Money gets spread amongst the participating clubs and the league administrators.
Now I can understand why so many American sport franchise owners have been buying into football clubs over the last few years, so they can join this league once it has been created.
UEFA / FIFA would never have stood up to the big clubs because the people running those organisation enjoyed being flirted with by the big clubs, because they were never good enough players to play for them.
The American owners don't give a shit about the big football clubs because they have no emotional attachment to football. It's just a profitable business.
Also, UEFA has done fuck all to reinvest money into grass roots football and the women's game. It remains a chauvinistic, racist organisation. Needs to be confined to history, along with FIFA.
The ESL will match the NFL structure. So, with that I'd imagine the financial parity it offers will match that of the NFL.
Sky created the monster that is the premier league and they're fearing for their future because they'll be left with the EFL, F1 and cricket. And F1 will be moving from them to a bigger platform such as Netflix or Amazon in the near future.

You left out a fundamental part of the nfl model which will not be in play here - the salary cap. Yes those salaries are off the chart, but every team has a total salary cap that is equal to their rivals. In football we can agree to pay real madrid and ath madrid equal prize money, but real madrids commercial and merchandise income would blow ath madrid out of the water, so where is the parity in that ?

There is absolutely no difference to what it is now. Real Madrid commercial and merchandising income blows most clubs out the water now. Apart from salary cap not much difference to NFL.

[arrgee]

And does it mean the losing quarter finalists will be reinstated? Can't see UEFA forgoing the revenue from 2 semis and a final.

Liverpool* get lucky again.

How would the victims* get reinstated? They are one of the 12. They are not going to kick out Real Madrid and put victims* in.

[OneBardGooner]

That's what happens when foreigners get to own our clubs.

also cannot believe they actually consider Scum as a Big Club...

[Nos89]

All this crap about PSG and Bayern Munich not being involved in the ESL annoys me. When UEFA banned English clubs from participating in European competition did Bayern Munich (who were a bit shit then) and PSG (equally shit) say it was unfair and that it would destroy the game? No, they all agreed, mainly because English clubs were the dominant participating nation up until that point.

[NickF]

I do wonder, if it came down to it, would the premier league really expel the six clubs which basically includes all the winners (except the scum) since it started. This would massively devalue its worth.

Unfortunately the new league would have a massive following around the world as a lot of people simply wouldn't care about what it does for the individual countries leagues.

[Clummo99]

And does it mean the losing quarter finalists will be reinstated? Can't see UEFA forgoing the revenue from 2 semis and a final.

Liverpool* get lucky again.

How would the victims* get reinstated? They are one of the 12. They are not going to kick out Real Madrid and put victims* in.

It was tongue in cheek mate.

[BobbyPires7]

If this means a return to pre-Premier league era football then I’m all for it. We want dodgy kits, overweight centre backs, talentless hard-men and the return of a Tuesday Club approach. Proper men’s football. Let them have their Super League. We want our pub league back!!

[GoonerMuzz]

If this means a return to pre-Premier league era football then I’m all for it. We want dodgy kits, overweight centre backs, talentless hard-men and the return of a Tuesday Club approach. Proper men’s football. Let them have their Super League. We want our pub league back!!

I've heard you just need to go watch DB10s 5-aside team for that

[rodders999]

So Sky have suddenly grown a social conscience and are trying to position themselves as the champion of the common fan in order to protect the integrity of the game?

GO GET FUCKED.

The same company who have done nothing but shit all over the match going fan for as long as I can remember. Fixture dates changed at the last minutes with zero regard given to the poor fuckers who’d already made travel arrangements, scheduling midweek 8pm fixtures leaving away fans with no trains home because they’d stopped running by the time the fucking game ended.

The PL drove up the price of going to football on a Saturday (3pm Saturday matches remember them eh? ), it priced the working class man out of the working man’s game. Neither Sky nor the clubs gave a flying fuck about that because if you couldn’t afford to go then someone else would be more than happy to take your place. You were expendable and they simply ate you up and spat you out ending a legacy of generations of match going families in the process.

Where was the outrage then?

Sky’s real issue with this move is that it threatens to end the PL juggernaut and the billions of pounds they’ve trousered off the back of it for over two decades now. The tables have been well and truly turned on them here and they’re now the ones in danger of becoming expendable, the people who could be chewed up and spat out if this shit show goes ahead.

Their cosy carve up of the game has been threatened and they’ve dialled up the moral outrage to 10 as a result. Their real grievance here of course, as everybody knows despite all the cynical bullshit they’ve been peddling since yesterday, is that they’re unable to get in on a piece of the action because you can be damn sure if they could have been part of this fiasco they’d have hitched themselves to that rocket and rode it to the fucking moon.

Sky are a massive company but when it comes to buying the rights to televise these games they would be blown out of the water by behemoths like Apple, Netflix or Amazon....and they fucking know it.

There is a need for someone to spearhead the movement against this fucking monstrosity but for it to have any credibility at all and for it to gain the level of backing and momentum it needs to stop it from happening it can’t be those insincere, poisonous, two faced c.unts at Sky

[Perryashburtongroves]

Uefa and Fifa, Two of the most corrupt and immoral organisations on the planet who have ignored match-fixing, drug cheating, money laundering, child traffiking, racism and human rights abuses for 50 years, now suddenly want to care about morality and ethics in football. You reap what you sow.
Back in the 70s, the established cricket world said they'd never watch World Series Cricket and it would never be a success. A few years later, it revolutionised the world and the cricket boards had to wake up to the changing landscape. In 1992, the Premier League basically hijacked English top-flight football, held a gun to the heads of the Football League and FA and created their own league, under their own rules and with their own broadcasting deal. Back then, many people said it wouldn't work and the clubs would be back in the Football League within five years. Perhaps these aren't close comparisons but it does show that the tendency to dismiss big changes in sport and revolutionary ideas isn't always right. As we know, when money and marketing and high quality players come to together, big viewing figures follow.
I'm really not supporting the idea of a European Super League but really, it's been talked about for 25 years and Uefa have had chances to engage with the clubs and come up with something reasonable and mutually acceptable. The top clubs have had enough of the atrocious governance of the sport in Europe and the refusal of the governing body to act whilst happily raking in billions every year whilst seemingly showing more interest in whether countries like Albania and Latvia have more places in the first qualifying round of that new Europa Conference or whether a sponsor's logo is big enough on an advertising board than whether the big clubs are planning a revolution.

[BobbyPires7]

If this means a return to pre-Premier league era football then I’m all for it. We want dodgy kits, overweight centre backs, talentless hard-men and the return of a Tuesday Club approach. Proper men’s football. Let them have their Super League. We want our pub league back!!

I've heard you just need to go watch DB10s 5-aside team for that

Is that the midget team? I never minded Tony Cottee to be fair.

[arrgee]

So Sky have suddenly grown a social conscience and are trying to position themselves as the champion of the common fan in order to protect the integrity of the game?

GO GET FUCKED.

...

There is a need for someone to spearhead the movement against this fucking monstrosity but for it to have any credibility at all and for it to gain the level of backing and momentum it needs to stop it from happening it can’t be those insincere, poisonous, two faced c.unts at Sky

Couldn’t agree more about the self righteousness of Sky. Ditto FA, Premier League and UEFA. My main issue with the super league is the closed shop, but if clubs can rise and be good enough to compete in it I don’t have a massive problem with it. UEFA had every opportunity to create a super league of their own but were more interested in staging games in Baku thanks to err financial incentives rather than the interests of the fans.