European Super League

Do you want the ESL to happen?


  • Total voters
    1,921
  • Poll closed .

Lay

Correctly predicted Italy to win Euro 2020
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BBC were right. It's all about attracting the young fans that prefer watching superstar players over following clubs.
Pretty sure there was a thread on this, how young fans follow players more than clubs.
 

Lay

Correctly predicted Italy to win Euro 2020
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I've already mentioned that because they have not anyone to answer to. They can even play with 5 players each, have rules like no offsides or that ball must be a square. Maybe even play shirtless holding an egg on the head. They can do what they want because they don't have anyone to answer to. No rules. Nothing. Money rules.

They might even invite "fans" to controll a player for 5 minutes with a joystick or "be a manager for a game".
bring on the multi ball?
 
Ian Doyle: "What must Robertson, McTominay and Tierney be thinking now? Help Scotland to a first major finals this millennium then find out they may not be able to play in Euros because of their owners"

Klopper76

"Did you see Fabinho against Red Star & Cardiff?"
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jojojo

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The more I hear about this, the more I think FIFA are involved in this. They were linked to a new Super League last year.

FIFA have been talking about a World Champions League and they've been pushing for a World Cup every 2 years instead of 4.

Might be a power grab by FIFA to push Uefa out and replace the Champions League and European Championships.
FIFA's relative silence suggests to me that as a minimum they're interested in testing the water. Their big money sooner is the WC and they want more. The obvious place to look it is at the money in there club game and the European club game in particular.

The other side of that is that if FIFA let these club owners get away with this, they will be the next target. What value does FIFA add to the SL model once the initial storm has passed? Corrupt, bureaucratic and with a structure that encourages the rise of factions and bloques - they're only useful to the European franchisees as cover.
 

stevoc

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Looks like he's scared of government involvement most of all.

They obviously predicted fan backlash and UEFA throwing a strop and maybe trying to get clubs sanctioned or ban players, which they could fight in the courts.

But they cant fight the governments.
Whats FIFA's stance on government interference in football?
 

rojo81

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This would absolutely have happened regardless. Most of these clubs are run by businessmen looking at this as an investment with a need for a growing return. The only way to accomplish that, in their eyes, is to eventually do something like this, even if they succeed at some point it won't be enough and something else will come up because these are the corporate culture where enough is never enough.
The status of this clubs as the big dogs is being threatened by clubs that spend more money than what they can or are willing to spend. With this the number of potential future fans and share of the total football money pie in the future is potentially reduced for these clubs, losing fans to the likes of city and psg if they start to be constant protagonists in the CL. With functional FFP rules this would likely not have happened.

The fact that these clubs are run like a business is the problem. They don't spend absurd amounts of money because they need to be profitable, while the oil clubs don't care. In the case of Juventus it's not that the Angelli family doesn't have absurd money to spend, they just don't do it, at least not to the extent of city and psg. With functional FFP rules their status would not be threatened.

So no, it's not clear at all if this super league would be a thing if the clubs hierarchy wasn't at risk.
 

Pow

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if this goes through we'll leave the PL within a few years, I'm sure of it.
Not one single one of us wants to see the fecking franchise league played everywhere but our own stadiums or even this country.
 
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Closed league.. Shorter matches..

He is clearly trying to copy the IPL .
It will be full Americanisation, like the NFL and NBA. There will be all kinds of gimmicks for the Americans with their short attention span: time outs, music during breaks in play, fireworks, half time singers.

They will want more goals for entertainment - end offside, make the goals bigger, player zones etc.

They won't do it all on day one but bit by bit.

The answer is good old solidarity. Nobody in the countries involved should subscribe to it. This thing is all about money; deprive them of income and it's dead. If they force this abomination through against the wishes of almost everyone, I will not watch a second of it.
 
Last edited:

JSArsenal

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Okay, let's imagine for a minute that his ESL thing is scrapped because of government intervention (who would have thought that the Tories would "save" football) How do you even go about punishing the 12 if this doesn't come off?

Ban them from European competition for 3 years? Then they'll push harder than ever for the ESL

If you don't punish them, then that shows them they can get away with it.

Is it possible for the various governments to hold a stake in football clubs? Not necessarily an ownership, but government oversight perhaps? Where a club needs governmental approval before they make a decision like this? What we learn from this, if anything is that a football club isn't just a business. It belongs to the city and community. The history of Manchester United isn't just that the club won 21 league titles. No one person should be able to come and make sweeping changes like this.
 

Jack - City Fan

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This is the inevitable final result of running football clubs like a business. The Glazers, the Saudis, all of them. A closed shop makes the most sense from a financial perspective and thats what they're going to go for, probably with a salary cap at some point. It seems like UEFA's best bet is to impose extremely strict rules on banning players from hopping between the tournaments. This should give the players who do choose to play in the super league massive negotiating power as per wages and hopefully disincentivises the owners from going through with it.
 

Denis79

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Not one single one of us wants to see the fecking franchise league played everywhere but our own stadiums or even this country.
This decision was not made with any consideration for us fans. We don't matter. Neither does anything else for that matter. It's about money and nothing else.
 
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See you back here in 2 years time then! :)
I'm not so sure. I think fans of many clubs who have clung on this long would finally be pushed over the edge. The English/European game as we've always known it would be over. It would mean complete capitulation to the American franchise system. The only way we can stop it is for managers, players and fans to stand together against it.
 

stevoc

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I could just about swallow this if the Founders were allowed to get relegated down to Super League 3 based on performances.
Well it seem they are already floating the idea of a second division at least.

 

Paxi

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This should all be noted.
 

kidbob

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Okay, let's imagine for a minute that his ESL thing is scrapped because of government intervention (who would have thought that the Tories would "save" football) How do you even go about punishing the 12 if this doesn't come off?

Ban them from European competition for 3 years? Then they'll push harder than ever for the ESL

If you don't punish them, then that shows them they can get away with it.

Is it possible for the various governments to hold a stake in football clubs? Not necessarily an ownership, but government oversight perhaps? Where a club needs governmental approval before they make a decision like this? What we learn from this, if anything is that a football club isn't just a business. It belongs to the city and community. The history of Manchester United isn't just that the club won 21 league titles. No one person should be able to come and make sweeping changes like this.
Unfortunately the government and FA had the chance to listen to our fans about the shadiness of the Glazer's borrowing money to buy us and straddle us with the debt. They did nothing. From then on in the club has never belonged to the fans. The time to intervene was years ago. FFS Liverpool almost faced bankruptcy and they did nothing. Its too late to stop this now, they had the chance and they blew it.
 

Sayros

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The status of this clubs as the big dogs is being threatened by clubs that spend more money than what they can or are willing to spend. With this the number of potential future fans and share of the total football money pie in the future is potentially reduced for these clubs, losing fans to the likes of city and psg if they start to be constant protagonists in the CL. With functional FFP rules this would likely not have happened.

The fact that these clubs are run like a business is the problem. They don't spend absurd amounts of money because they need to be profitable, while the oil clubs don't care. In the case of Juventus it's not that the Angelli family doesn't have absurd money to spend, they just don't do it, at least not to the extent of city and psg. With functional FFP rules their status would not be threatened.

So no, it's not clear at all if this super league would be a thing if the clubs hierarchy wasn't at risk.
I'm not buying it one bit. This was something in the talks for a long time, the fact that City and PSG were invited also tells you everything you need to know about their sentiments on status or hierarchy. They just saw an opportunity for a power grab and finally went for it. It's got nothing to do with Financial Fair Play, nothing to do with PSG/City, this is just a wet dream they've had for a while and they think they can use the current climate as a legitimate reason to go for it. Why go by the UEFA/FIFA rules when you can just make up your own and cut the middle-man out? I think it's naive to think a functional FFP would have changed anything, it's simply about power and the UEFA getting a cut of a pie they believe belongs to them alone.
 

redflash

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I've never considered not supporting this club. Until right now.

If this happens I'm done with them. I'll give up completely.

I've realised I'm complicit. I buy the shirts, I go to all the games, I buy loads of merchandise, I've got a sky, bt, amazon and mutv subscription. All to watch Manchester united the club I love and have supported for 30 years.

If they do this I'm out. Completely.