European Super League

Do you want the ESL to happen?


  • Total voters
    1,921
  • Poll closed .
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?
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.

 


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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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
Christ that Perez interview is an absolute car crash. It comes across as the senile ramblings of a deluded lunatic. That is the man that has been chosen to be fecking President of the ESL? Really?

This fiasco continues to lurch from bad to worse. An utter embarrassment for all involved and surely now confirmed as the worst and most universally despised idea in the history of football.
 
This is simply peak capitalism. It speaks of a 'free market' but its never been that. Some will always be too big to fail. A true free market would see Real and Barca cease to exist because of their financial mistakes and two other Spanish clubs take their place. However there is no free market. Just like in every facet of business. The 'free market' is a fecking lie sold to the stupid.

Its business optimisation process.

There is a shift in power from the traditional structures of traditional broadcasters; from terrestrial broadcaster like the BBC (in the past) to the previous new (satellite) SKY --- to now the likes of digital broadcasters like BT but on a bigger scale, players like Amazon, Netflix, Google who can deliver content cheaper than via the expensive satellites.

The other shift can be seen in content makers pulling back power back into their own hands away from the powers of the broadcasters.

So folks like Disney started taking control of their own content. I always have thought that ''content is king''/ top of the pyramid -- and always wondered why content makers always seemed to have relented their powers to the delivery guys. So the Big 12+ who like Disney recognised the shift, and are trying to pull back control of their own content and maximise their powers and profitability. And its not the Glazers who are that crazy. United along with Spurs and Arsenal were the original breakaway clubs from the old Division One. So things change and yet they remain the same. The usual suspects.

This is an evolutionary step. Not some radical revolution.
 
They’ve been working on this for years they will have done their research. Talk of them getting kicked from domestic leagues is a bit pointless although fun.
 
It’s easy to say I will renounce United forever if this goes through, but I will. I commit to all caftards.

What I have found is that life is too precious and short to live without principles. We stumble amd get back on our feet, but to abandon principles altogether would be tragic.
 


This should all be noted.


Agreed. It'll happen with United too as soon as we make any new signing as a result of this and some fans will forget and forgive very quickly. Hopefully the majority remain strong and firmly opposed.