European Super League

Do you want the ESL to happen?


  • Total voters
    1,921
  • Poll closed .

mitchmouse

loves to hate United.
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seriously, european super league - go sit on it and spin. It will be dull as hell and who will screen it and how much will they expect us to pay! how do fans get to watch away games?

Can't say I'm a fan of the suits who run the PL but they are right to slam this. Bayern Munich showing the class that they pretty much always do. Glazers and Woodward are a disgrace if they've back this. go feck yourselves.
 

TMDaines

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I’ll keep my powder dry until we see the detail behind this.

I won’t spare a tear for the death of the top four race every season at the expense of interest in domestic cups and just proving yourself in the domestic league. My understanding from what I have read is that this is more of a threat to the CL, rather than the domestic leagues. Why does the CL have to be the premier continental competition?

People have to be careful not to take a luddite attitude to change. The Football League was against any English teams even competing in European competitions initially.

I’d be pretty aghast if this turns out to be Manchester United no longer wanting to play English domestic football though.
 

Superunknown

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This seems like the kind of thing that will favour the super rich clubs (City, Madrid, PSG etc) in the long run, so I'm actually surprised the "rich, but not that rich" clubs like United, Arsenal and Liverpool are actually in favour.
PSG aren't backing this, are they? They're super rich, but then again, they're already doing very well and are in a good position with their league, squad and set-up.
 

RashyForPM

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Of course, this can only happen based on two things:

1) United (and the rest of the big 6 clubs) negotiate with the PL to also play there, along with staying in the Carabao Cup and FA Cup. The European Super League becoming the main league for us (and everyone else signing up) would be stupid to say the least. We are an English club, Barcelona are a Spanish club, Juve Italian etc etc.

2) There is a yearly qualification for the European Super League, thus sides like Leicester, Everton and West Ham can still make it. Otherwise, the top end of the PL, aside from winning it, would be absolutely pointless.

If this criteria is met, then it’s fine. I’ll be indifferent to it. It’s basically just us playing the likes of Real and Barcelona in both halves of the season instead of just the second.
 

SwedishFish

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and Sky, BT, BBC, ITV etc will likely lose out too, so obviously there will be a lot of vested interest in discrediting the proposal
Yes, I mean I'm not in favour of the super league. But you have to look at this as a complete campaign by Sky to discredit these clubs. Ridiculous.
 

kidbob

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Yet not one of you have ever cried about how the champions of Ireland have to play CL qualifiers to get into the competition after winning their League while the 4th best team in England automatically gets in. Hypocrites. The only fairness is in keeping the current absolutely unfair system we have. I hope to god this League never happens but it serves to give UEFA a kick in the ass to makes the changes that are necessary. I certainly won't towards UEFA and the PL as the bastions of fairness.
 

Boavista

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So UEFA essentially confirmed that clubs in other countries (France and Germany) refused to sign up to it. The sporting merit of this super league is already questionable, but they'll look ridiculous if Bayern and PSG don't join. Can't see it happen.
 

TMDaines

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Problem is that Gary Neville is having a go at something he has no understanding of. We are all dealing with rumour.
 

Pexbo

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Completely agree with Neville but can’t help but think that Sky Sports have a contract with the EPL and a huge stake in the league. If this goes ahead, Sky Sports will be at the front of the queue bidding for broadcasting rights and none of this will be mentioned again.
 

Reapersoul20

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Gary Neville is minding his own investments, you sheep. His Salford City project depends on the big clubs staying and not messing up the payment structure.
What does it matter? He is right - and it most certainly doesn't look like he gives two fecks about Salford FC. You're WAY off here.
 

mitchmouse

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Ole is right not to comment: this is beyond his job title - it stinks of Glazers and Woodward
 

cyberman

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Yes, I mean I'm not in favour of the super league. But you have to look at this as a complete campaign by Sky to discredit these clubs. Ridiculous.
Yep. Its fecking rich that Sky employees are coming out with this. They wont even move fixtures for clubs because they want them for their prime time and thats that.
 

RashyForPM

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People have to be careful not to take a luddite attitude to change. The Football League was against any English teams even competing in European competitions initially.

I’d be pretty aghast if this turns out to be Manchester United no longer wanting to play English domestic football though.
Agree with this bit. It’s fine unless we pull out of the PL, which would just be appalling.
 

Shiva87

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If this European Super League comes to fruition, I'm done with football. It would be heartbreaking to walk away from United, but I couldn't be involved in such a circus. The participating clubs will be out of UEFA, when it was our club that took English football into Europe. The new league would be a billionaire's cartel; a closed shop of a dozen mega clubs, and just think how many domestic titles and European trophies they would be throwing in the bin combined!

Away games means travelling to Madrid, Munich, Turin etc. No access to UEFA competitions, pariahs but with even bigger wallets. A dozen teams of the Harlem Globetrotters, only playing each other, with the rest of football excluded. Greed would finally win out completely. It would be an unforgivable betrayal of the game, the club and the United fans.

It had better not happen.
The last sentence of the UEFA statement could be devastating. If players aren't allowed to represent their country, you could see a lot of top players chose to stay away from the 11 clubs.

This was coming though from the time the City ban was reversed and FFP became a joke.
 

Zehner

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When I say wage cap, I mean a maximum budget like in the NBA. Lebron James doesn't feel undervalued at all I reckon. Bring in a maximum wage spend for clubs and a transfer cap for each season and that's that for fairness. However lets not kid ourselves that this is anything to do with fairness and instead realise it is a corrupt organisation afraid of losing their cash cows, who themselves are afraid of losing their place at the top of the game to nation funded regimes.

I absolutely agree with everything you've said otherwise. I just disagree that you can't bring in a universal cap on spending. If any of this was about fairness to the PL or UEFA or otherwise then this is exactly what would have been enacted. Everyone and their Granny knows that PSG and City are paying their staff off the book wages and I guess other clubs are getting sick of it. That's in no way to say that these clubs are innocent themselves. The fact that none of these parties involved on either side care about a fair playing field.

Edit: if UEFA want even more fairness then give the winners of the likes of the League of Ireland automatic qualification into the CL, instead of making them play 6 games to get in. The fact is there is no fairness already. I don't want a Super League but I don't want to act like things are ok the way they are right now. Why haven't Dundalk gotten to play in the CL after winning their League but the 4th place in England does? Is that fair?
I think taking something away from somebody will always be more difficult than not giving it tonhim in the first place. Moreover, if you implement the wage cap you're effectively just supporting the giant clubs, taking away some of the share of the player and gifting it to his employer. I don't like that idea.

That aside, you're correct, there is nonfairness in the game currently. It takes decades of organic growth to challenge an elite club for titles, see Dortmund for example, who are still lightyears away from the top clubs and you could even argue they're gaining ground. Investment can be the solution to this if it's done the right way. As I said, I think the primary issue here is that currently some investors are spending more than they get out for different reasons. Thus they don't hace to follow the same economic principles the rest of the bunch have to follow.

And yes, the tournament modes aren't fair at all. What we're witnessing is monopolisation and it'll only get worse. Clubs like Arsenal and Tottenham will get their asses handed to them and will be suprised how the wealth will shift towards the even bigger fishes even more once such a league is seen through.
 

Mb194dc

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You can tell Sky are scared shitless of this happening, who is going to pay their sky subscription fee to watch the likes of Burnley and Newcastle?
Without a top 4 battle for CL who will watch generally? You'll have most of the league with nothing to play for.

Closed shop won't work. There are better was of doing it though.
 

Zen

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Gary Neville is minding his own investments, you sheep. His Salford City project depends on the big clubs staying and not messing up the payment structure.
No chance. He's not banging on to this level if this is his thought process.... it'd be nice to hear from a current super elite player though that works with the agents who obviously back this, not one who's in love with what they want back(football from their day).
 

Sandikan

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They seem to be assuming this is instead of the Premier league just because it has the word "league" in the title.

You're not going to have a mere 18 game season surely.

How they'd work it in with 38 games in the league on top I do not know though.
 

Drainy

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Completely agree with Neville but can’t help but think that Sky Sports have a contract with the EPL and a huge stake in the league. If this goes ahead, Sky Sports will be at the front of the queue bidding for broadcasting rights and none of this will be mentioned again.
To be honest, if they have received £3.6bn from finance they will probably create their own platform and share the profits so all the smaller clubs, and the current media companies will be cut out.
 

Dobba

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"You and your paper can feck off."
Given the last 15 minutes of pearl clutching by Nev, presumably Sky will be lowering their prices and insisting that free to air games, either via them or BBC/ITV, are common place the next time the Premier League's broadcasting rights are up for grabs?
 

Superunknown

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Ole is right not to comment: this is beyond his job title - it stinks of Glazers and Woodward
All of the managers of the teams involved will have zero say in this. This is boardroom/exec level. In Ole's position, it's best just to keep well out of it.
 

Woodzy

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Ole clearly not fecking happy. Call me dramatic but I can see a resignation coming if this goes through.
 

JPRouve

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Ah my bad then mate. I still think if you want real fairness then you need to control spending. Or else its fairness for United and the rest but nor fairness for Burnley and others. So is fairness only for the top clubs in UEFA's eyes. As for the PL they let absolute leeches cripple us with debt without saying a word as far as I know. Is that 'fair'. Is it fair that Rangers won't go straight into the CL next year because they play in Scotland? What is fair?
What you are talking about isn't fairness but equality which isn't how football has ever worked, football has never been fair. Two cities with vastly different populations can't operate with the same budgets unless you artificially create equality which isn't fair for the one that is bigger and wealthier. To be clear I like US sports and their socialist(:D) structure but it's based on varsity teams and the fact that they essentially get the best young players for free while barely spending resources on their developments, professional sports in the US are a business for billionaires and easy way to make hundreds of millions per year. So it's important for them to have an equalitarian system in a closed league because that's where the excitement come from the fact that the worst team can climb the ranks by adding the best rookies to their teams.
 

Revan

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The last sentence of the UEFA statement could be devastating. If players aren't allowed to represent their country, you could see a lot of top players chose to stay away from the 11 clubs.
Yeah sure, players are suddenly gonna choose to play for Sheffield United instead of Barcelona, and get paid 5 times less cause they might not play in a World Cup.
 

pratyush_utd

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It was always going to happen when shady money was allowed to dominate the league. Other clubs will look at options to maintain the status quo especially when they can't compete with state.