The players are more powerful than the owners. Nobody watches football because of Joel Glazer or Daniel Levy.
If the players made an actual stand - strike action in particular - that would be the fastest way to end all of this. Probably the only way actually, outside of a legal intervention.
Unfortunately, most of them are either cowards or aggressively self-serving. We've had exactly one player who's made any sort of statment (Bruno)...and it's no coincidence that he's one of our only players who doesn't have a PR team or a social media manager.
Half the rest are either waiting for others to speak out first, to test the waters, because their brand identity is more important than their princples. The other half are waiting to find out what a Super League would mean for their next contract, because becoming an even bigger millionaire is (much) more important than the supporters wishes.
it’s been less than 24 hours.
given the intense scrutiny on this, if I was a footballer, I wouldn’t go anywhere near this at the moment.
most importantly, they have the same info as is. There’s confusion, accusations, threats and everything being thrown around. Do not blame the players for waiting to see what this really means.
I’ve no doubt we will have people come out and speak, but let the dust settle.
They run the Euros so they can exclude players who have played in unlicensed breakaway competitions. I think FIFA have final say over the World Cup.
I know they can do it (from a practical perspective) - but how CAN they do this? How can they think this is right? Just punishing players who arbitrarily are playing for these 12 players. It’s an outrageous threat to the players - who will have no choice if they are currently under contract.
if players want to go, the reality is they are unlikely to be allowed to, and who expect other ESL teams could afford them?