European Super League

[MrMarcello]

Yeah real, if you Google "John W Henry Gazidis Glazer Woodward restaurant" you'll find numerous newspaper articles about it from the time

Most of the first hits are from the likes of the DaiyMail, Daily Star, and The Sun but I managed to find this long read from The Guardian, which confirms the dinner occurred. https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/jan/17/how-a-deluge-of-money-nearly-broke-the-premier-league

--- When Manchester City reached the midpoint of the 2017/18 campaign with an insurmountable lead at the top of the table, it seemed that the rest of the season might turn into one long victory lap. But if that suggested a Premier League season devoid of suspense, the reality was far different. There was still intrigue, tension and drama out there. You just had to know where to look. For example, in the dining rooms of hip Manhattan restaurants. On a warm night in the middle of October 2017, an incongruous group of diners sat down to eat among the dark wood tables and black leather banquettes at Locanda Verde, a high-end Italian eatery in Tribeca.

The group of old white guys with not much hair between them didn’t turn many heads amid the usual gaggle of well-tanned, well-Botoxed VIPs. But if anyone with a keen knowledge of English football executives had passed their table on the way to the toilet, they would have recognised that this party represented the most unlikely gathering of enemies since the heads of New York’s mafia families held their regular meetings in red-sauce joints to keep the peace. Around the table that night were Joel and Avram Glazer, the owners of Manchester Utd, along with the club’s chief executive, Ed Woodward; Liverpool’s principal owner John W Henry; and Ivan Gazidis, then the chief executive of Arsenal.

That these clubs had ended up brushing off more than a century of mutual loathing to sit down to dinner together was due to an emerging crisis that concerned all of them. Over the previous 12 months, the Premier League’s “big six” had jointly reached the conclusion that the exorbitant sums the league were now raking in from the sale of overseas TV rights – currently worth £3.3bn – should no longer be distributed equally among the league’s 20 teams as they had been since the Premier League was first founded 25 years earlier. --- (excerpt, much more in the link above)

 

[UnofficialDevil]

Didn't United officially pull out before Chelsea did?

No, it was City and Chelsea.

 

[Snowjoe]

 

[0le]

So, it seems like people decided that proxy battles between Russia, Qatar, China and Saudi Arabia on the football pitch is better than having an ESL. That's fine by me, but I hope people realize what they're rallying against.

Do you?

I for one am not happy about United, Real Madrid and Barcelona becoming irrelevant clubs because they can't really compete against nation state levels of wealth and excess.

Real Madrid recently won three CL's in a row and Liverpool and Bayern won the next two.

Know that financial fair play is well and truly dead because of what has transpired over the past year or two. A billion for Qatar is nothing - a rounding error in their oil revenues. A billion for Barcelona is the difference between bankruptcy and survival as a football club.

That is the fault of how poorly run Barcelona is.

If anything, I'd welcome our Saudi overlords if they chose to take over United. I hope you do too, otherwise what awaits is just a slow fade to obscurity.

A slow fade into obscurity? We are something like the 4th richest club in the world and remain one of the biggest clubs in the world. The PL recently got one of the biggest ever TV deals.

Everyone recognises that UEFA and FIFA are terrible corrupt organisations. Everyone recognises how bad oil clubs are. But most people recognise that the ESL was one of the most ridiculous "solutions" which if anything, would have made things far far worse.

 

[sullydnl]

Perez isn't giving up!

I seriously don't know what else they can do to make this a reality.

"due the pressure out on them"

These cnuts literally can't get anything right.

 

[Hectic]

If anything, I'd welcome our Saudi overlords if they chose to take over United. I hope you do too, otherwise what awaits is just a slow fade to obscurity.

I feel like you've really managed to capture the spirit of today's events there.

 

[stevoc]

No, it was City and Chelsea.

I'm confused here then, Chelsea only made their official statement on their website less than an hour ago, United before 11pm.

Did Chelsea announce it somewhere else before then?

 

[Jam]

Yes Bayern and PSG do deserve praise. But I still applaud Chelsea and City for making this fall apart.

No? PSG deserve no praise. They only didn’t support it because their owners have an expensive but lucrative contract with UEFA for the Champions League broadcast rights until 2024 and they need to stay on FIFA’s good side after all the World Cup shenanigans.

If people seriously believed PSG’s God awful “we support integrity in the sport” then shame on you: you’re as bad as those in favour of the ESL.

PSG were dead certs to join the ESL in 2024. They played their cards close to their chest due to already sketchy relationships with football institutions and fans, they saw what way they wind was blowing and followed suit in condemning it.

All in all they played a blinder really, but they’re still genuinely evil inhumane monsters.

The only ones who deserve praise are Bayern, who are probably the best club in the world currently and they’d stand to gain “the most“ financially (Bundesliga performs poorly in revenues in comparisons to other top leagues) and stood firm with their rejection of the proposal in no uncertain terms.

 

[UnofficialDevil]

I'm confused here then, Chelsea only made their official statement on their website less than an hour ago, United before 11pm.

Did Chelsea announce it somewhere else before then?

Manchester City were the first club to pull out after Chelsea had signalled their intent to do so by preparing documentation to withdraw.

 

[Gasolin]

I don't believe that's the case here. We speak about the biggest bank in United States being behind this. I fear there are lots of things going on behind the scenes that explain much of what we are seeing here.

I have seen that JPM has been embarrassed so I think everything is possible. Let's see. But I think Real and Juventus have played and failed.

 

[Jam]

I'm confused here then, Chelsea only made their official statement on their website less than an hour ago, United before 11pm.

Did Chelsea announce it somewhere else before then?

I think it was just “sources” confirming they were first then the dominoes fell.

 

[Jam]

So, it seems like people decided that proxy battles between Russia, Qatar, China and Saudi Arabia on the football pitch is better than having an ESL. That's fine by me, but I hope people realize what they're rallying against.

I for one am not happy about United, Real Madrid and Barcelona becoming irrelevant clubs because they can't really compete against nation state levels of wealth and excess. Know that financial fair play is well and truly dead because of what has transpired over the past year or two. A billion for Qatar is nothing - a rounding error in their oil revenues. A billion for Barcelona is the difference between bankruptcy and survival as a football club.

If anything, I'd welcome our Saudi overlords if they chose to take over United. I hope you do too, otherwise what awaits is just a slow fade to obscurity.

Go support a plastic club and support evil regimes elsewhere.

 

[pratyush_utd]

None of the 6 actually deserve any praise. Infact it's even more embarrassing for City, Chelsea and United to pull out so early. It make them look even more incompetent. Why bother with this in the first place? Whose idea was it?

 

[stevoc]

Manchester City were the first club to pull out after Chelsea had signalled their intent to do so by preparing documentation to withdraw.

Yes officially followed by United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Spurs. It's just semantics I suppose.

I think it was just “sources” confirming they were first then the dominoes fell.

Well yeah I seen that earlier but nothing official until the last hour.

 

[Zehner]

I imagine he means taking current trends into consideration. It's only a matter of time before City or PSG win it. City's spending seems to have made them a better run club than United at this point. I'm sure that's also down to actually making intelligent decisions, but I am pretty sure the final resistance of the old guard clubs is crumbling.

I just don't see that. If anything, the past years have proven that those mega transfers for absurd sums are leading nowhere. Spread the risk more evenly, plan carefully and in advance, show interest in the right players in the right moments, emphasize sustainability and a long term vision, ideally by giving your club a recognizable playing style and identity.

Also, I think the spending habits of PSG, City and Chelsea are less extreme than they're usually made out to be. PSG have been very cautious on the transfer market since signing Mbappe and Neymar. Yes, they maintain a squad with two super stars but the team is very imbalanced - an enormous gap in quality between the worst and the best player. City is constantly spending highly but they distribute the risk very well and ensure they have a well balanced team and distribute the risk. No silly 100+m transfers or anything like that. Chelsea has had a very crazy summer despite Corona but they also had the Hazard fee as well as budget from last year to spend.

Moreover, I believe people underestimate the wage bills. Barca is spending around 70% of their revenue on salaries, and they have the highest revenue among all clubs. This is crazy. They afford very expensive players in every position and they spent 500m on transfer fees with atrocious return on top of it. That's just incredibly wasteful. Honestly, I lack words for how badly Barca has been run ever since Guardiola left.

 

[Tapori]

So, it seems like people decided that proxy battles between Russia, Qatar, China and Saudi Arabia on the football pitch is better than having an ESL. That's fine by me, but I hope people realize what they're rallying against.

I for one am not happy about United, Real Madrid and Barcelona becoming irrelevant clubs because they can't really compete against nation state levels of wealth and excess. Know that financial fair play is well and truly dead because of what has transpired over the past year or two. A billion for Qatar is nothing - a rounding error in their oil revenues. A billion for Barcelona is the difference between bankruptcy and survival as a football club.

If anything, I'd welcome our Saudi overlords if they chose to take over United. I hope you do too, otherwise what awaits is just a slow fade to obscurity.

Obscurity how?

 

[pratyush_utd]

 

[Hectic]

Obscurity how?

Don't you remember that famous Sir Matt Busby quote "Football is nothing without Saudis".

 

[Giggs' right foot]

He probably think he’s done a fantastic job in his time here.

 

[Tapori]

I just don't see that. If anything, the past years have proven that those mega transfers for absurd sums are leading nowhere. Spread the risk more evenly, plan carefully and in advance, show interest in the right players in the right moments, emphasize sustainability and a long term vision, ideally by giving your club a recognizable playing style and identity.

Also, I think the spending habits of PSG, City and Chelsea are less extreme than they're usually made out to be. PSG have been very cautious on the transfer market since signing Mbappe and Neymar. Yes, they maintain a squad with two super stars but the team is very imbalanced - an enormous gap in quality between the worst and the best player. City is constantly spending highly but they distribute the risk very well and ensure they have a well balanced team and distribute the risk. No silly 100+m transfers or anything like that. Chelsea has had a very crazy summer despite Corona but they also had the Hazard fee as well as budget from last year to spend.

Moreover, I believe people underestimate the wage bills. Barca is spending around 70% of their revenue on salaries, and they have the highest revenue among all clubs. This is crazy. They afford very expensive players in every position and they spent 500m on transfer fees with atrocious return on top of it. That's just incredibly wasteful. Honestly, I lack words for how badly Barca has been run ever since Guardiola left.

This is

Don't you remember that famous Sir Matt Busby quote "Football is nothing without Saudis".

Yes I do.

Was incredible the way JP Morgan helped us after Munich.

 

[pierrethesnack]

I just don't see that. If anything, the past years have proven that those mega transfers for absurd sums are leading nowhere. Spread the risk more evenly, plan carefully and in advance, show interest in the right players in the right moments, emphasize sustainability and a long term vision, ideally by giving your club a recognizable playing style and identity.

Also, I think the spending habits of PSG, City and Chelsea are less extreme than they're usually made out to be. PSG have been very cautious on the transfer market since signing Mbappe and Neymar. Yes, they maintain a squad with two super stars but the team is very imbalanced - an enormous gap in quality between the worst and the best player. City is constantly spending highly but they distribute the risk very well and ensure they have a well balanced team and distribute the risk. No silly 100+m transfers or anything like that. Chelsea has had a very crazy summer despite Corona but they also had the Hazard fee as well as budget from last year to spend.

Moreover, I believe people underestimate the wage bills. Barca is spending around 70% of their revenue on salaries, and they have the highest revenue among all clubs. This is crazy. They afford very expensive players in every position and they spent 500m on transfer fees with atrocious return on top of it. That's just incredibly wasteful. Honestly, I lack words for how badly Barca has been run ever since Guardiola left.

Good post, maybe you're right.

 

[rojo81]

So..

Barca get 220m for Neymar, waste 280m on Coutinho and Dembele, then raise a loan to sign a player whose position is already occupied by the best player in the world for 120m. Madrid rebuilds its stadium for almost 800m then wastes 140m on a player with one year left on his contract. Juve signs a 33 year old for 100m and probably pays him around 50m per season. T Luckily there's Perez to identify the root of all these problems: The CL simply isn't profitable enoug!

That's true, dumb decisions affect clubs, on the other hand city can spend millions and millions on freaking defenders and it doesn't matter. If it doesn't work out, they do it again next year. I wonder why the two oil clubs involved where the first to get out.

Good that this joke of a super league is falling apart, but let's not forget that it fell off because UEFA threatened the clubs. UEFA has a lot of corruption and things that need to be fixed, and I think today events will make that harder. It seems that UEFA came out more powerful. I hope Im wrong.

And BTW, I'm really embarrassed that Juventus is still one of the clubs trying to make this work and havent officially abandoned this dumb idea.

 

[pratyush_utd]

 

[always_hoping]

We should still be punished in some form,this was a coup.

Any punishment is pointless unless those responsible are hit where it hurts. So I'd suggest the yearly dividends to the Glazers to be suspended.

Dear Malcolm must be turning in his grave with the way his son Joel fcuked up.

 

[Giggs86]

You lost, unlucky.

Lost what exactly?

 

[UnofficialDevil]

Any punishment is pointless unless those responsible are hit where it hurts. So I'd suggest the yearly dividends to the Glazers to be suspended.

Dear Malcolm must be turning in his grave with the way his son Joel fcuked up.

Yep. There should be some form of punishment.

 

[Abizzz]

I just woke up. Chauvin found guilty of murder and this, the best morning in at least 14 months for me


All of you who said the ESL was inevitable and nothing stopping it now.

 

[TheMagicFoolBus]

That's true, dumb decisions affect clubs, on the other hand city can spend millions and millions on freaking defenders and it doesn't matter. If it doesn't work out, they do it again next year. I wonder why the two oil clubs involved where the first to get out.

Good that this joke of a super league is falling apart, but let's not forget that it fell off because UEFA threatened the clubs. UEFA has a lot of corruption and things that need to be fixed, and I think today events will make that harder. It seems that UEFA came out more powerful. I hope Im wrong.

And BTW, I'm really embarrassed that Juventus is still one of the clubs trying to make this work and havent officially abandoned this dumb idea.

I mean you're omitting salaries here. Ronaldo makes €31m net per season; that's €60m gross, so in 3 seasons, your outlay for Ronaldo has been €280m. That buys an absolute feckton of defenders mate.

 

[Cantonagotmehere]

Yeah real, if you Google "John W Henry Gazidis Glazer Woodward restaurant" you'll find numerous newspaper articles about it from the time

Thank you sir

 

[Foxbatt]

He probably think he’s done a fantastic job in his time here.

of course he has. Didn't you see his statement where he thanked the fans for all their support to him? I mean he is delusional if he thinks the fans supported him.

 

[shahzy]

So..

Barca get 220m for Neymar, waste 280m on Coutinho and Dembele, then raise a loan to sign a player whose position is already occupied by the best player in the world for 120m. Madrid rebuilds its stadium for almost 800m then wastes 140m on a player with one year left on his contract. Juve signs a 33 year old for 100m and probably pays him around 50m per season. T Luckily there's Perez to identify the root of all these problems: The CL simply isn't profitable enoug!

That's exactly what it's looking like now. This was born out of desperation for the Spanish teams finances after wasting so much money. This financial ruin is well deserved. This was their desperation bid. They then probably asked the fellow destatable cnuts the glazers and co who heard 'wait we can make more money??. Where do we sign up'

 

[rojo81]

I mean you're omitting salaries here. Ronaldo makes €31m net per season; that's €60m gross, so in 3 seasons, your outlay for Ronaldo has been €280m. That buys an absolute feckton of defenders mate.

Yes that's the point. A huge salary for Ronaldo hinders their ability on the market. It didn't work out because the goal was to win the CL. Now they are financially fecked until Ronaldo leaves. Mistakes have an effect on clubs and that's fine, it should be that way. Thats not what happens at city or psg. They can make a mistake, spend whatever they want and keep spending and trying. Or are you trying to argue most clubs spend as much as city?

 

[TheMagicFoolBus]

Yes that's the point. A huge salary for Ronaldo hinders their ability on the market. It didn't work out because the goal was to win the CL. Now they are financially fecked until Ronaldo leaves. Mistakes have an effect on clubs and that's fine, it should be that way. Thats not what happens at city or psg. They can make a mistake, spend whatever they want and keep spending and trying. Or are you trying to argue most clubs spend as much as city?

I'm arguing that City haven't made a mistake anywhere near as catastrophic as what you did with Ronaldo. City haven't come anywhere close to investing that amount in a single player - they diversify their investments across multiple positions to mitigate risk.

 

[Giggs' right foot]

of course he has. Didn't you see his statement where he thanked the fans for all their support to him? I mean he is delusional if he thinks the fans supported him.

Imagine spending 16 years of your life as an employee of a football club, and every fan of the club fecking just goes full Mario Balotelli with the celebrations when you decide to leave.

 

[pratyush_utd]

I am seriously worried about our Club financial future in short term.

 

[Cantonagotmehere]

No? PSG deserve no praise. They only didn’t support it because their owners have an expensive but lucrative contract with UEFA for the Champions League broadcast rights until 2024 and they need to stay on FIFA’s good side after all the World Cup shenanigans.

If people seriously believed PSG’s God awful “we support integrity in the sport” then shame on you: you’re as bad as those in favour of the ESL.

PSG were dead certs to join the ESL in 2024. They played their cards close to their chest due to already sketchy relationships with football institutions and fans, they saw what way they wind was blowing and followed suit in condemning it.

All in all they played a blinder really, but they’re still genuinely evil inhumane monsters.

The only ones who deserve praise are Bayern, who are probably the best club in the world currently and they’d stand to gain “the most“ financially (Bundesliga performs poorly in revenues in comparisons to other top leagues) and stood firm with their rejection of the proposal in no uncertain terms.

exactly!

 

[TsuWave]

Perez isn't giving up!

I seriously don't know what else they can do to make this a reality.

Guy will end up making it a global thing with Corithians, Flamengo, Fluminense, Boca, River, Club America, Atlanta United, L.A. Galaxy, Al Ahly all getting invites

World Super League
World Soccer League

 

[rojo81]

I'm arguing that City haven't made a mistake anywhere near as catastrophic as what you did with Ronaldo. City haven't come anywhere close to investing that amount in a single player - they diversify their investments across multiple positions to mitigate risk.

Yes because they can spend whatever they want. The Ronaldo situation will be no big deal for them. Didn't they just bought Ruben dias for about 70 euros this season? Last season both cancelo and rodri for over 60 each? Every year they have purchases like that.

Anyway I have reached my post limit.

 

[pratyush_utd]

Funny seeing Chelsea and City fans on reddit claiming the moral high ground that it's Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal fault and their club were just deceived.

 

[Liver_bird]

Funny seeing Chelsea and City fans on reddit claiming the moral high ground that it's Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal fault and their club were just deceived.

Tribalism at its finest and unfortunately and rightly as the two biggest clubs in this country we will bear the brunt of this. We will never forget what happened over the last two days. However, never forget the atrocities associated with those two clubs and PSG.

Our clubs have some of the greediest money grabbing cnuts in the world, those clubs are backed by regimes sportswashing their brands and who have committed atrocities against humanity.