European Super League

[Mickeza]

You think City and PSG would agree to that?

Their entire clubs exist as PR machines for states. They need to be at the top table which this would be.

 

[Ludens the Red]

Yeah this is it for me. We are lucky in that we are a huge club but even when you look at how the PL allowed the Glazer's come in a straddle us with their debt accrued from buying us is disgusting. I mean Liverpool (the joint most successful English team of all time) came close to bankruptcy. The likes of Leeds and Wigan paid the price and the PL didn't do jack shit about it. They talk about 'fair play' but they have allowed so many clubs be taken over by predatory owners.

Now they scream about fairness while showing clips of that Aguero goal, with no mention of the murderous regime that funded that shit. It's all a bit like Ted Bundy preaching about ethics to Ed Gein overall.

Yup. Didn’t even really think of us but yeah you can definitely make a point that we’ve been victims to this.
We should have taken some lessons from Germany with ownership regs.

 

[Berbasbullet]

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Great, now I’m for it, cheers Johnson.

 

[GhastlyHun]

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Oh right, if Boris is against it, I'm willing to give it the benefit of doubt.

 

[crossy1686]

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Will 100% happen now

 

[Mainoldo]

Fans will feel passionately about this and rightly so, but please make your own minds up and don’t be sucked in by this ridiculous narrative being pushed by Sky. The way they bang on and moralise, the competition they have helped create is some Marxist utopia where all clubs compete on a level playing field and fans pay thru’penny bit to watch their local heroes play for the love of the game. Rubbish.

Let’s not kid ourselves. The Premier League has always been about money. It was about creating wealth for the original twenty breakaway teams and Sky Sports. Furthermore, its always been a “closed shop” dominated by a handful of rich sides. The only teams who have successfully broken into the top few sides are those who have had billions pumped in by shady owners. What’s so great about the current set-up, dominated by a Championship-sized team who have had the ill-gotten gains of corrupt trillionaires poured into “their” club?

I can’t understand what legitimate arguments exist against the ESL. All of the arguments against are emotive. People don’t like the idea or don’t feel comfortable with it, which is fine. But let’s not pretend it’s some major shift in direction away from what’s already been happening in football for 25 years. The game gave into greed long, long ago. The Premier League and UEFA had their chance to reform and did nothing. Now they are scrambling, along with Sky.

Very good post. Mainly because a lot of people are angry based on not actual thought of what they actually believe.

Neither side is wrong but let’s logically look at what is being proposed.

 

[sullydnl]

He's fecking shill. Sully you've made more informative posts in 12 months than Ducker and Ogden have did in years. Last time Ogden got something right was when he said that United wanted Lukaku on Phill Brown's show. I mean he's a total fecking shill. It would be awkward if you were that ugly looking creature.

Nope I am safely someone else.

 

[Brophs]

I struggle to imagine this happening in reality but i can see this being the end of collective bargaining if the English clubs can be persuaded to stay. That's the pot of gold.

 

[RedDevil@84]

Respect to the German clubs

True. When you have zero competition and every lad in the country is born dreaming of playing for Bayern and you can just pick any player in the league just by blinking eyes at them, then it's so easy to be good on moral compass

 

[balaks]

I'm not outraged, because of the bigger picture. If City and PSG were stopped, I'd be dead against it, but feck the U.A.E and the FA, the fecking cnuts have utterly devalued the competition and City's domination is accelerating, no team can compete against a state without massive reform.

Neither city or PSG have even won the champions League in the past decade. What are you on about?

 

[VeevaVee]

What's so annoying is that football is clearly due a shakeup, and these clubs obviously have the power to do it, but of course when they do it's not for the benefit of football or the fans in any way

 

[Salus Populi Suprema Lex]

Fans will feel passionately about this and rightly so, but please make your own minds up and don’t be sucked in by this ridiculous narrative being pushed by Sky. The way they bang on and moralise, the competition they have helped create is some Marxist utopia where all clubs compete on a level playing field and fans pay thru’penny bit to watch their local heroes play for the love of the game. Rubbish.

Let’s not kid ourselves. The Premier League has always been about money. It was about creating wealth for the original twenty breakaway teams and Sky Sports. Furthermore, its always been a “closed shop” dominated by a handful of rich sides. The only teams who have successfully broken into the top few sides are those who have had billions pumped in by shady owners. What’s so great about the current set-up, dominated by a Championship-sized team who have had the ill-gotten gains of corrupt trillionaires poured into “their” club?

I can’t understand what legitimate arguments exist against the ESL. All of the arguments against are emotive. People don’t like the idea or don’t feel comfortable with it, which is fine. But let’s not pretend it’s some major shift in direction away from what’s already been happening in football for 25 years. The game gave into greed long, long ago. The Premier League and UEFA had their chance to reform and did nothing. Now they are scrambling, along with Sky.

You make a lot of good points there. Football has indeed been heading this way for a long time. At the top level wages are far too high and tickets far too expensive, to name just a couple of issues. The wealth gap between the richest clubs and the rest is widening all the time. The national associations, UEFA, FIFA and the broadcasters like Sky have enabled it all. This latest proposal is the clubs trying to take control, in order to maximise income. It's a high risk strategy, one that ignores the fans (yet again) and one that might backfire. It just provides further evidence that the fans are nothing to the owners: just customers who get no say in what happens. Well done to the German clubs, where things are very different.

 

[El Zoido]

Well no. were regulated and we can get regelated and were abided by the very same rule that lowest club is. Do you really want to end that?

No, what I want is a league that stops Roman Abramovich buying Chelsea. That stops the Glazers buying United and plunging us in to debt. That stops the Sheik buying Man City and letting them financially dominate the sport. Football hasn’t been for the fans for decades now, so I simply don’t care anymore. I don’t like the idea of a super league but I didn’t like any of the above either and it all happened, and was as shitty as I knew it would be. So at this point it’s all irrelevant as far as I’m concerned.

 

[mancan92]

Of course he did, he's probably the footballer whose benefitted most from Sky's dominance.

I must have missed Gary ripping Sky a new one over their above inflation price increases at the time of pandemic.

Its as if there isn't levels to corporate greed. 10 clubs taking up the entire football world and losing the hundreds of clubs in Europe is a different level of corporate greed to increasing the price of sky.

 

[Ranchero]

That's not why they were able to take Ronaldo, it's because he wanted to leave.

And to take him required what? Money. Real cant get players from us just because the player wants to leave. They have to pay the cash. That is how transfers work. It is why we didnt get Sancho. No dough? No go. Simples

 

[Zlatan 7]

Tottenham out of all teams got an invite for this and they are a nothing club.

They’ve got a cheese room though so it’s understandable

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

The likes of Utd, Spurs etc have been battling oil money for a long time now, just join in on the struggle at this point.

And from nothing City have won 5 from 10 Premier Leagues, accelerating now to be soon 3 from the last 4. No-one can compete, it's getting harder and harder.

That's the point many are missing, we're looking at a U.A.E total domination unless a bloody Saudi buyer comes in.

Who the feck wants that?

 

[kouroux]

True. When you have zero competition and every lad in the country is born dreaming of playing for Bayern and you can just pick any player in the league just by blinking eyes at them, then it's so easy to be good on moral compass

It's still better than this ESL though, not even comparable.

 

[Paxi]

Nope I am safely someone else.

I'm going to take my time to think who you are.

 

[mazhar13]

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Of course Ducker would say nothing about City's owners and leaders. This is typical of the Telegraph's City correspondent.

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

And to take him required what? Money. Real cant get players from us just because the player wants to leave. They have to pay the cash. That is how transfers work. It is why we didnt get Sancho. No dough? No go. Simples

Yeah that's not why we didn't get Sancho either, we just rightfully deemed him overpriced.

United could've easily turned down the Madrid offer, and did just that the previous Summer.

 

[RedDevilRoshi]

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Boris has spoken. Guess it’s happening now folks.

 

[bond19821982]

It's a total dead rubber of a tournament they want that no fans are remotely interested in and at the same time it's a slap in the face to all the other clubs in Europe. It's utterly shameless and every fan should be outraged.

Again, can you explain how is this a slap in the face ? What exactly is lost here by having an additional tournament?

 

[kouroux]

"treason", bloody hell. I think so many fans are getting too emotional, they want it to replace the CL, we've replaced the old EC in my time, we've been banned from it for years too.

People hate change, but makes no mistake, the takeovers of PSG and City have forced this.

How did PSG impact then ? They refused to be part of the ESL and yes it's treason as per the Barca fans comment I'm reading on various sites

 

[Deery]

I don’t think I’d give a feck to be honest football has already lost it’s soul and I haven’t felt the same attachment to it for a while all about money, players earning ridiculous wages and the oil clubs have ruined it with outrageous transfers.

It’s like anything new it’ll be met with objections but ultimately what’s really the difference to a cash rich premier league or champions league?

It would be better if they had a relegation and promotion aspect to it but the premier league would never agree to that so I guess this way is the only way possible for it to happen.

Though I don’t think it will go through it all seems a bit rushed and out of the blue.

 

[Tincanalley]

Definitely feels like the idea came from America. They don't use the system of people being relegated or promoted. NFL and NBA teams are fixed...not matter how bad they are.

Yes, clubs moved around the map like pieces on a board. Ed Woodward invented this.

 

[Vidyoyo]

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Right, so the government stands to lose some money. We know that for certain at least.

 

[Halftrack]

Are you not seeing this from the wrong perspective? If Arsenal, Chelsea et al are not in the CL but in the SL.It gives everyone else the chance to go in the CL. The SL isnt coming in to replace but rather compete against the CL.

When all the big sides feck off to their own sandbox, and the CL basically becomes another EL.

Exactly, shitty teams from all over Europe that haven't won feck all and never will, they just happened to have a good season or so. You've got teams from Germany and France that haven't won their league competing for the CL, and that's not even mentioning the likes of the Romanian. Latvian, Danish teams etc that aren't even good enough for the Europa, yet they're in the group stage? How is that good to watch? How is that an elite competition?

You've got teams like United, AC Milan, Inter, PSV, Valencia, Roma etc who would add a lot more to that competition than FC Cluj, yet they can't get into the CL because every player wants to play CL football and they had one or two bad seasons and can't get back in and therefore can't get decent players.

It doesn't even help the small teams, they just end up monopolising their leagues because they get a windfall for £5m and that's more than their whole league is worth.

It's utter shite

Whole lotta disdain for small leagues/clubs here. I'll leave you to your righteous indignation over football teams daring to compete.

 

[Ace of Spades]

Fans will feel passionately about this and rightly so, but please make your own minds up and don’t be sucked in by this ridiculous narrative being pushed by Sky. The way they bang on and moralise, the competition they have helped create is some Marxist utopia where all clubs compete on a level playing field and fans pay thru’penny bit to watch their local heroes play for the love of the game. Rubbish.

Let’s not kid ourselves. The Premier League has always been about money. It was about creating wealth for the original twenty breakaway teams and Sky Sports. Furthermore, its always been a “closed shop” dominated by a handful of rich sides. The only teams who have successfully broken into the top few sides are those who have had billions pumped in by shady owners. What’s so great about the current set-up, dominated by a Championship-sized team who have had the ill-gotten gains of corrupt trillionaires poured into “their” club?

I can’t understand what legitimate arguments exist against the ESL. All of the arguments against are emotive. People don’t like the idea or don’t feel comfortable with it, which is fine. But let’s not pretend it’s some major shift in direction away from what’s already been happening in football for 25 years. The game gave into greed long, long ago. The Premier League and UEFA had their chance to reform and did nothing. Now they are scrambling, along with Sky.

Well said, and I agree with this sentiment.

I don't like this new idea, but I can't stand Sky, FA, UEFA and FIFA trying to act morally superior.

They let this happen, these are the same cnuts that allowed these parasites in the game in the first place.

 

[Walrus]

From my POV, if they could find a way of making it work with relegation/promotion from the domestic leagues then I’m all in favour.

Maybe a playoff system between the lowest finishing super league clubs, and the winners of the top domestic leagues for their nation that year. Put that in and I’m broadly in favour of it - as a replacement for the top domestic leagues and CL, all rolled into one competition.

 

[Blades1889]

Definitely feels like the idea came from America. They don't use the system of people being relegated or promoted. NFL and NBA teams are fixed...not matter how bad they are.

Would not surprise me if these games are played abroad.

 

[Ranchero]

There has to be a mechanism at our club to have execs fired when they have made such abominable decisions. A vote of no confidence is required. Because they are destroying the ethos of our.club.

 

[balaks]

Again, can you explain how is this a slap in the face ? What exactly is lost here by having an additional tournament?

It completely destroys the validity of the champions League that's why and creates a shit tournament that nobody wants.

 

[kidbob]

But that's not the issue, the same set of clubs have been trying to do the same thing since the late 90s early 2000s. It's about money and funneling all the TV rights to themselves. I get that people want to find a rational that is palatable to them but blaming Qatar and UAE for something that was mooted way before they entered football is a bit perplexing.

I'm not blaming Qatar or UAE though. I'm solely blaming UEFA and the rest that allowed what you described to become a thing long before the oil clubs came in. Now they are reaping what they sowed a long time ago so I simply won't blame the original monsters they created for turning against them. This thread is full of 'UEFA and the PL are right and the clubs are awful for this'. My viewpoint is that UEFA and the likes of the PL deserve most of the blame for this happening. They created this monster, as you pointed out, and now they are pissed because they finally can't control it. I hate the idea of the Super League but feel no sympathy to the corrupt organistations who are crying foul now simply because it hurts their bottom line.

Again if it were Rangers and Dundalk and champions from smaller nations threatening this then UEFA wouldn't give a shit. That tells you all you need to know abut the current 'integrity' they are trying to keep intact.

 

[Scottynaldinho]

Every big/rich football club will be part of the league soon enough.

Generation Z will sadly sign up to this without shame. I guess that's the future of football.

 

[Paxi]

No, what I want is a league that stops Roman Abramovich buying Chelsea. That stops the Glazers buying United and plunging us in to debt. That stops the Sheik buying Man City and letting them financially dominate the sport. Football hasn’t been for the fans for decades now, so I simply don’t care anymore. I don’t like the idea of a super league but I didn’t like any of the above either and it all happened, and was as shitty as I knew it would be. So at this point it’s all irrelevant as far as I’m concerned.

Well, mate, surely you can understand that its not some fecking committee made of Ed Woodward, Juan Laporta, Perez, and good aul Silvio that should be making these decisions? I mean surely?

 

[mancan92]

Very good post. Mainly because a lot of people are angry based on not actual thought of what they actually believe.

Neither side is wrong but let’s logically look at what is being proposed.

Its not a good post because he's literally completely missed the moral aspect to it and the fact that football is not just about 15 teams. The world I live in has people enjoy football at all levels both playing and supporting. Without the money trickling down every team closes down. No more grassroots football. Which is exactly what you see in America no grassroots sports.

 

[MDFC Manager]

Aye but it has always peed me off that Real were able to afford to take Ronaldo off us because they got far more money from the La Liga tv rights than we were..and it continues. Talk about Financial Fair play? There has never been any when Real.and Barca get half the Tv revenues and the rest of La Liga including Atletico share the rest, while in the Prem all the clubs get an equal share. So there is no differential between what Burnley get and what United get. Who wants to watch Burnley?

Bolded part isn't quite right, not fully at at least. We could have competed with real financially during those days, if not for the massive debt repayment burdens. Once that eased, we've been far more competitive in the transfer market. Of course, most of that spending has been abysmal but that's a different issue

 

[Banana Republic]

Everyone acknowledges that this is about greed and money, but think about how the ambition of these owners will have to be realised.
They all believe that they should get even more from the TV rights to their games and this SL is a way to achieve that.
They are courting Netflixs, Google and Amazon to sell exclusive TV rights for sums of money that even Sky will baulk at.
It's already known that some owners think those fans watching matches on TV are getting it too cheap and want something closer to parity with match day tickets and season ticket prices, per game.

Are you prepared to pay £20, £30 or £40 pay-per-view, or a TV season ticket for say £500 or £600?
How else will the media companies be able to pay for the rights to live matches?

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

How did PSG impact then ? They refused to be part of the ESL and yes it's treason as per the Barca fans comment I'm reading on various sites

PSG and City have impacted all of football mate, the landscape has been utterly annihilated by them. Staying at the top is costly beyond imagination.