This needs its own thread.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/56795811
This needs its own thread.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/56795811
Here's the thing I don't understand. Let's say it is a (fairly dramatic) negotiating tactic. What is it that they're trying to negotiate that is of such amazing value added that they need to resort to pissing off their domestic fanbases and shitting on their own dignity?
Because, let's face it, the status quo is brilliant for the clubs concerned, and the proposed Champions League reforms only make things even better.
Real must recognise that La Liga is becoming moribund though, no?
The biggest lol for me about the whole thing is the rug of cuntery being pulled out from under UEFA and FIFA's very own feet.
It's the scale of the money involved that's maddening. A good run in the Champions League right now will gain you £50-70m in a season. The way they've announced this, just for signing up clubs will get £300m each, then there'll be further money in the pot. And it will be guaranteed for all of the clubs that have signed up. €10bn to be shared among the founding clubs over the "initial commitment."
The only way I'd care in any way is if the 6 clubs joining from the premiership were to disappear and the entire English pyramid were to jump 6 places, thus saving Southend from all but guaranteed relegation.
That said, Covid has pretty much killed all interest I have in the sport anyway. Not that it wasn't already dwindling long before that.
It's grubby and can fuck off. As if I needed more conformation that United's owners were only interested in one thing.
Dock them points, relegate them from the top leagues, do whatever it takes. Reform the league while you've got a chance (nationalise the top clubs if you want to get a fans model).
I voted disgrace. I don't personally have the enthusiasm to get actually angry about it but I find it hard to muster any joy for football these days anyway and I can see why people would get worked up about it. The top European Leagues and UEFA/FIFA have absolutely no grounds to play the victim here but you'd think they hold the power. I'd LOVE IT if they called these teams' bluff. Bar them and their players from any of their competitions and tell them to piss off and see how they get on.
It is presumably just trying to get a(n even) better cut of the Champions League money for the unwatchable new group phase we're getting.
They don't actually have the nukes for mutually assured destruction though.
The Champions League and The Premier League die a death without their biggest draws. The nature of fandom means the clubs will endure in the long run. The footballing authorities have created this mess to a large extent, by creating such inequitable structures and pandering to [and emboldening] the marquee clubs for so long. For all the threats, FIFA effectively reducing the World Cup to an amateur affair is not exactly going to be a winning formula is it? And as far as I can see that is the only vaguely viable threat.
I agree this does seem pretty extreme as a 'negotiating tactic' - particularly after PROJECT BIG PICTURE rapidly went in the bin - so you have to imagine something is actually going to happen, which will probably be pretty shit.
It's obviously a complete disgrace but I'm not sure I have it in me to be at all bothered, so conflicted on voting.
It would be good to see someone like Klopp come out against it and just walk away but I highly doubt that'll happen.
The naive international fanbase might endure but I genuinely don't think a lot of the domestic fanbase would. I have supported Chelsea for 25 years (often as a paying customer) but I couldn't give the first fuck how they get on in the European Super League. Why would I? We don't have to qualify for it, we aren't there on merit, we're there because our owner has conspired with some other owners to make themselves a shit ton more money. It doesn't matter to the fan. It's meaningless.
That should happen right now. Cancel the six's remaining games, move everyone up. Let them have their shitting NFL staged in Dubai watched exclusively by Singapore betting agents.Originally Posted by Spikey M
And if they did get kicked out of the big tournaments and domestic leagues then even the domestic fanbase who do stick with it, if they actually like football and don't just watch their team out of habit then they're going to need to seek out other football to watch while these 15 clubs works out what happens after they've played each other once a year and so they'll inevitably stick with their Sky and BT subscriptions, though the effect of all this on that if it happened would be interesting too.
I might be talking myself into equal parts thinking it's a DISGRACE but also wanting it to go ahead just to see what happens. If it triggered some sort of financial collapse among the footballing elite (and some of them already seem pretty close) then maybe I'm all for it after all.
The FIFA M8 generation will be climaxing at the very thought of a ESL.
I'm on the fence with this. It SHOULD render the whole thing pointless and ruin the lot of them, but, as with the forming of FC United of Manchester, the majority of fans are too fickle to make it stick and the domestic market is the tip of the iceberg these days.
They don't care about upsetting Dave who's watched every home game from the Shed end since he was kid when there's eleventy billion Asians still buying every bit of tat with a Chelsea badge on it
Last edited by Spikey M; 19-04-2021 at 08:31 AM.
I'd be happy to watch a domestic season minus the six as a 'neutral', though obviously I'd be pretty upset (at least as far as hopefully balanced adults get 'upset' about professional sport) that my lifelong club had chosen to vote itself out of a great thing in order for the ownership to make more money.
More likely though most of my football watching time would just go to other sports/activities.
I might dust off my copy of FIFA '99. I need to see which clubs they have down in that Superleague.
I think this is it really. Support the players/the franchise rather than have any affiliation with the club.
I feel as sick as I did at the Glazer takeover.
I think this would be it with me. Big finals, maybe, and international tournaments I'd still watch but I already barely watch any club football I'm a 'neutral' for these days and I don't think that'd suddenly change.
Sums it up.
If whatever this is runs alongside domestic football I don't think that would be the case (total loss of interest). Obviously all bets are off if this is a stand-alone franchise league type thing and is the only thing that the entrants are participating in. More likely it's just a anti-UEFA power grab which has been on the cards for a long time and/or a 'new format' for the European Cup, which has happened before. In theory it's rubbish and anti-competitive and whatnot, but in reality football is rubbish and anti-competitive, always has been, and is what 'the fans' actually buy into (see the Why England Lose etc book).
In terms of turning off 'traditional fans', they've been doing that for years anyway with pricing, and as has been pointed out, this is aimed at the sort of twats who follow footballers on social media and invest large sums into wank like FIFA games. The stadiums will still be full, even if the atmosphere isn't the same (plus ca change) and I guess they've learned they can pipe a lot of that in anyway.
Aye, 'legacy fans' sums it up pretty well.
Last edited by niko_cee; 19-04-2021 at 08:59 AM.
I'm mostly interested in the carnage that will ensue if UEFA actually do what they're threatening and immediately ban the involved clubs from all competitions and players of those clubs from the Euros.
How badly have UEFA been running things to only be operating at 20% of what the clubs could have got? And really, will this be any worse than that Swiss style format abomination they'd put forward?
That would probably put me firmly in the "bring it on" camp. Love a shambles
The one thing I am absolutely all for is that kind of bloodbath.
'Legacy fans' is so lol. And I said years ago that as soon as Americans started owning clubs they would want something like this - relegation is not in the American psyche, the very idea makes them feel hurt and confused.
Last edited by Jimmy Floyd; 19-04-2021 at 09:07 AM.
The Swiss style format which is ironically done to placate the big clubs.
“Fans of the future”.
Fuck these clubs. They probably love the covid restrictions with no fans in the stadium. Now they’ve got a great opportunity to sack off their local fans and focus on selling cheap tat to the Chinese while playing in these All Star games.
#SomehowAboutLiverpoolCovid
Isn't that your mate, Keeks?
It's surely no bluff when it's this reckless. I don't have a great deal of hope in the younger generations but I don't think there's many over the a certain age who would be drawn in by the promise of Mbappe, Haaland, etc (even assuming ESL somehow manage to get the best 100 players in the world signed up). Add in the competitive nature and match day experience of Legacy Football and this shit will just collapse almost instantly like those failed TV deals but with the added beauty of making it almost impossible for these clubs to work their way back in to the picture.
Have faith, this will end well. Either that or I'll at least finally have a cause for martyrdom.
He's lost the plot. Check out the quote tweets, they're brilliant.
Absolutely understand that it was, but why should they need to be placated in the first place? If European football and World football had been run properly then I'd sympathise with them, but they've had their snouts in the trough for decades so I find it pretty hard to. In fact, it's pretty lol from where I'm sitting - the gravy train is over gents.
This is all a bit like Blockbuster video mailing physical copies of DVD's to people while proper outfits who understood the times had changed were nailing the streaming side of things.
I need a minute by minute on this injected into my veins.
Got your life savings on France to win Euro 2020 yet?
I'm a twit
England would be losing Stones, Maguire and Walker.
Obviously Kane too but I'm sure somebody else can practice penalties ahead of the tournament.
IT'S COMING HOME.
Would absolutely love this to happen and see the carnage ensue. But doubt they have the balls (and legal appeals will no doubt follow).
I can imagine quite a few sponsors would absolutely lose their shit, with years of lawsuits to follow.
I love that Yev has answered his own poll with "Who cares?".
SI on top of things.
Josh voted Bring It On, the world holds its breath to see where the Greg vote falls.
I was trying to figure out who would be favourite if you ban ESL players and it's probably Germany, isn't it?Got your life savings on France to win Euro 2020 yet?
While this is all going in the real question remains, what was Paul Pogba doing?
The whole concept of a "European Super League" smacks of something you drafted up and attempted to play out with your mates on FIFA when you were 12, and then got bored of in an afternoon. Silly cunts.
One of the interesting dynamics in how this plays out will be whether those players/managers who work hard to have (and I'm sure genuinely believe in) an image rooted in social responsibility - think Rashford, Sterling, Mata, Klopp and others - will go along with their owners in something as nakedly awful as this.
It's not really fair on them to have such a dilemma but I guess it comes with the territory.
The big-hitters have already come out, I've seen comments from Ander Herrera, Bacary Sagna and Patrick van Aanholt...
Klopp and the players being left to do tonight's media sessions without a statement (or probably even direction) from the club is magic. I hear Tuchel has a pre-match conference this afternoon too.
I'd really like to just stop following Liverpool from today like a cliff-edge but it's not happening, I'll watch the game as usual. I need to spend some time considering how I will focus my extra time and energy now but I don't see a way back beyond this season.
I wonder if there will be contractual issues too. I haven't seen a footballers contract, but considering the money involved I am assuming they're pretty detailed and the club choosing to join a new league, potentially at the expense of sacrificing many other competitions makes things muddy as hell.
Especially if the players have success based rewards drafted into their contracts.
What I would give for a full capacity Elland Road making its opinion clear on the matter tonight. It would be an absolute cauldron.
Grow a spine.
If this goes ahead then it more than likely kills off football for me, although I'd probably still watch international tournaments.
I have pretty much transitioned to this over the last year. It's unsurprisingly liberating not giving a team of millionaires the ability to make or break your weekend.
Although he's speaking out against it let's not pretend Radrizanni and the 49ers would have jumped at the chance to get it involved in this.
Last edited by Bob Sacamano; 19-04-2021 at 12:37 PM.
I wonder who the biggest/best club is in England that has an owner who'd actually have been against it given the chance to be in it?
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