European Super League

Do you want the ESL to happen?


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FIFA's relative silence suggests to me that as a minimum they're interested in testing the water. Their big money sooner is the WC and they want more. The obvious place to look it is at the money in there club game and the European club game in particular.

The other side of that is that if FIFA let these club owners get away with this, they will be the next target. What value does FIFA add to the SL model once the initial storm has passed? Corrupt, bureaucratic and with a structure that encourages the rise of factions and bloques - they're only useful to the European franchisees as cover.

No doubt they'll be interested, they've been wanting in on club football for years, the club world cup wasn't the money spinner they'd hoped it would be.

FIFA being involved would add an air of legitimacy and the clubs get their closed shop Champions League that they control with FIFA getting a slice of it. And FIFA get rid of Uefa with the other regional confederations to follow shortly after and a 64 team World Cup every 2 years.
 
Guys, I've been thinking about the other 5 clubs who'll play in this. I've got a feeling they'll offer up annual places to the previous season's CL semi-finalists and the EL winner.

Edit:
I'd actually be OK with this as long as the original 12 can also go down.
 
Oliver Holt: "Told two English clubs are close to losing their nerve"


Things might start getting a bit more interesting if there's any truth in this
 


I'm expecting Howard Webb and Mark Clattenburg to become referees in the Super League (along with that one English referee who was disgraced a while back).


Please please please don't hire any PL refs, they're all shit.
 
What really worries me about all of this is that it feels like we are all United in despising the plans, but I have no idea of the demographic of this forum, or blue moon, or RAWK or Twitter even but I imagine it's all 'legacy fans'. What is the opinion of fans from Asia, USA, rest of the world that the proposals are clearly targeting?

If in favour then all that we will fight for will mean nothing. Manchester United will be nothing more than a brand name
 
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.

From the get go apparently.
 
Why is this keep getting branded around it's a european tournament designed to be played at home and away, no team will play in America and the naming rights won't become Manchester Red Devils Fire Rapids or whatever concoction someone makes up. It's getting ridiculous. This will not happen.
Although the exact scenario may not happen, but when a tournament has fixed teams who are competing with each other year over year, the uniqueness factor wears off pretty quickly and the organizers have to constantly keep churning out something or other to keep the show going. Else lose the TRPs and stuff and get lessened revenues.

So somewhere down the line, the game maybe taken to places where it will generate maximum money. It is a very plausible scenario.
 
Susie Dent weighs in with her word of the day: "ingordigiousness"
 
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.

You're right. This is all a result of corporate greed. The end result of capitalism in football.

Clubs are losing all of this money? The solution should be to stop paying such high transfer fees. Why are the fees so high? Because the PL stood by and did nothing while rich oligarchs and States bought clubs while the Spanish government bailed out the big two in Spain whenever they ran into a spot of bother.

This should have been reigned in years ago but the "Free market" and "growth" was prioritised over stability and values. Now you have media trolls holding up Chelsea and City as paragons of virtue.

We all cheer for PSG and City, two clubs that are just adverts to make the people that own them look less detestable to the outside world. The same with Chelsea. The American owners, don't give a shit about what people think of them. They're just here to make money like leeches.
 
| Florentino Perez: "Will our first Super League championship be considered the 14th?

No, it will be considered the 15th, because maybe the 14th is coming this year."

:lol:
 
I know I'm in the minority but I'm looking forward to a CL without these teams. Less money, but hopefully more historical teams making the final rounds and a lot more variety in terms of countries. I'm excited about it, I hope UEFA doesn't do away with it.

Really? Looking forward to what, Slavia Prague vs Dinamo Zagreb in the quarters? Roma vs Shakhtar in the final? It will be CL in name only.
 
You're right. This is all a result of corporate greed. The end result of capitalism in football.

Clubs are losing all of this money? The solution should be to stop paying such high transfer fees. Why are the fees so high? Because the PL stood by and did nothing while rich oligarchs and States bought clubs while the Spanish government bailed out the big two in Spain whenever they ran into a spot of bother.

This should have been reigned in years ago but the "Free market" and "growth" was prioritised over stability and values. Now you have media trolls holding up Chelsea and City as paragons of virtue.

We all cheer for PSG and City, two clubs that are just adverts to make the people that own them look less detestable to the outside world. The same with Chelsea. The American owners, don't give a shit about what people think of them. They're just here to make money like leeches.

100% agree.
 
I wouldn't blame UEFA if they expunged every European Cup/Champions League winner from the 15 Founders.

1. Bayern 6
2. Ajax 4
3= Nottingham Forest 2
3= Benfica 2
3= Porto 2

I get the sentiment but in reality why would they care about that though?

It amounts to editing a wikipedia page.
 
If the club continues to participate in European competitions, then maybe not that bad. It just means the Super League teams are going to be more tired than other teams. I don't know.
 
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 also moot. National leagues will never be able to compete financially, so they'll wither away and turn into feeder competitions at best.

I reckon the ESL top division will gradually get expanded until it's about 25 teams strong. That'll give us a 48 game league campaign followed by a 9 game (16 team) NFL-style playoff. So 57 games a season, with no piddling cup games to interrupt the TV coverage with their low viewing figures.

This is what it's going to be about. All blockbuster, all star teams, all the time.
 
I get the sentiment but in reality why would they care about that though?

It amounts to editing a wikipedia page.
They'll request their replicas back from the club museums. But, yeah, I take your point.

However, it may be the only card UEFA have left to play.
 
I highly doubt this doesn't go through.

It's just too far advanced at this point.

A complete disgrace.
 
It's also moot. National leagues will never be able to compete financially, so they'll wither away and turn into feeder competitions at best.

I reckon the ESL top division will gradually get expanded until it's about 25 teams strong. That'll give us a 48 game league campaign followed by a 9 game (16 team) NFL-style playoff. So 57 games a season, with no piddling cup games to interrupt the TV coverage with their low viewing figures.

This is what it's going to be about. All blockbuster, all star teams, all the time.
Are they changing the name to soccer also
 
Does anyone have a doubt anyway that the group stage of this competition will basically become the NBA regular season vol 2, in which clubs have no problems losing in it, the ones who are guaranteed to reach playoff in it start to rest players and lose and those who have no hope of qualifying just tank games for the draft ?

This what will happen.
 


Things might start getting a bit more interesting if there's any truth in this

Pretty sure they said contracts are signed. It really does seem too far gone. Hope not but theres a weird PR exercise over Chelsea and City at the minute with this reluctant participants nonsense.
 
When City have more morals than us. Christ.

I suppose it's easy to have morals if your owners are an Oil-rich state.

In any case, Perez literally said all contracts were signed and bonded 30 minutes ago so it would be kind of out of place.
 
The Super league has been slaughtered. I'm not for it but I'd still like to know more details etc before I can fully say that no way this is a joke that must be stopped.

At the end of the day, who is the lesser of the 2 evils, UEFA in bed with PSG and Man City with their intentions to dominate the champions league for years to come, or the super 12 clubs and their new 'vision'? Can we know for sure that UEFA are the lesser of the 2 evils right now?
 
You're right. This is all a result of corporate greed. The end result of capitalism in football.

Clubs are losing all of this money? The solution should be to stop paying such high transfer fees. Why are the fees so high? Because the PL stood by and did nothing while rich oligarchs and States bought clubs while the Spanish government bailed out the big two in Spain whenever they ran into a spot of bother.

This should have been reigned in years ago but the "Free market" and "growth" was prioritised over stability and values. Now you have media trolls holding up Chelsea and City as paragons of virtue.

We all cheer for PSG and City, two clubs that are just adverts to make the people that own them look less detestable to the outside world. The same with Chelsea. The American owners, don't give a shit about what people think of them. They're just here to make money like leeches.

Top post, this has been festering inside football for years. And the authorities UEFA/FA/PL all allowed it to grow because they benefited from it.
 


Things might start getting a bit more interesting if there's any truth in this


City and Chelsea were the last to join and have been reported as the most reluctant.

Seems this has largely been pushed by the Americans (United, Liverpool, Arsenal) together with Perez and Agnelli. The others just came along for fear of missing out.

If Chelsea & City pull out, I wonder if Barca, Spurs, Atletico, Inter and AC Milan might follow.
 
When City have more morals than us. Christ.
From an ownership point of view... They are the play things of some rich Saudi's. But you can't deny at least is that their goal is to just be the best (whatever the motivation/background/alternate reasons behind that goal is irrelevant to this), while the goal of the owners of United/Liverpool/Arsenal are purely to make as much money as possible and they care nothing about actually winning. It's the same with Abramovich. People with so much money that they don't know what to do with it they just want to stroke their ego's. They are a cancer to football, but in a sick way they at least just want to do whatever it takes to be the #1 team. It's fecked up whatever way you look at it though.
 
It’s all that spit in his mouth. Messes with his sibilance.

This is how Scouse is spoken. He clearly didn't say 'shitty'. It's how Scouse sounds. Just fill your mouth with spit and snot and try to speak, this will sound genuine Scouse.
 
Man City Chelsea. bet

Yeah no way we're one of the two. This is a dream coming true for the Glazers. Ton of money ? Check. No expectations or worrying about top 4 anymore ? Check. The Glazers will support Perez to the extreme for it to go through.
 
City and Chelsea were the last to join and have been reported as the most reluctant.

Seems this has largely been pushed by the Americans (United, Liverpool, Arsenal) together with Perez and Agnelli. The others just came along for fear of missing out.

If Chelsea & City pull out, I wonder if Barca, Spurs, Atletico, AC Milan and Inter might follow.
Barca won't. Barca need this financially because they are a horribly run business. It's Barca, Madrid, Juve and the American owned English clubs (more so United and Liverpool) who are responsible.
 
Imagine City and Liverpool pull out, we have to watch them fighting for the Premier League while United carry on with the Super League bullshit.
Swap ‘Super’ for ‘Europa’ and it’s basically what you’ve spent the last three seasons doing anyway.
 
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.
Everything about this smacks of it being data driven, the Americans involved will have done intensive market research in to why and how this can work. What issues are at the forefront of fans minds and champion themselves as saviours by enacting those changes I.e microphones on refs.

The stuff on young fans shorter games it all points one way. They’ve been thoroughly planning this out for a long while. When FSG came in their approach was to be innovative and use data to exploit gaps in the market and bridge relative financial disparity.
It’s sickening they’ve decided to then use that same approach to close competition and maximise their own profits and revenues.