What makes me laugh is the Premier league saying they'll ban these 6 clubs from domestic football. Hey good luck with selling them tv rights for £3 billion plus. I can see it now a must see top of the table clash between Everton and West Ham. Sky will be falling over themselves trying to buy them rights. The European Super League has been talked about for years. It was bound to happen sooner or later. The Premier league has only themselves to blame. They allowed these billionaires to buy these clubs so they now can't complain that they want to form their own competition. They are businessmen. Also makes me laugh that these same fans (City and Chelsea mainly) who have never complained about the vast sums pumped into their clubs are now moaning that these same people want to make money from their investments. At United it's kinda different as the Glazers have milked the club for years and the fans have had issues with them from the start.
European Super League
- Thread starter esmufc07
- Start date
Score points and create a diplomatic incident? There's limits to what they're willing to do. Nationalisation only occurs when public utilities are at stake or a tyrant comes to power.
Can anyone summarise below article. It's behind a paywall.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...iscuss-eu6b-financing-proposal-from-centricus
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...iscuss-eu6b-financing-proposal-from-centricus
I'm not sure how you can ban players. They have signed contracts and therefore obligated to play or they would be in breach of their contract. Can FiFA ban players that are representing their country. (for free) That would be a national body issue. I bet their would be backlash from players, if others were banned.(they do play for free). You could be talking about 400 of the best players in the world.
It is just a horrible concept. 5 teams can qualify for the ESL. The founding teams will observe them from their lofty perch. If any player stands out then he will be purchased. As a result the likelyhood of the selling team qualifying the following year is reduced. It's a rigged system and against the principles of sport.
Same as PSG. Their owners bought the clubs to help improve their image abroad, particularly in the West, and lining up behind something that has generated this much outrage runs counter to that. After seeing the negative reception the ESL got, making a statement about not having any intention to join it was a no-brainer for PSG. I'm betting the heads at City are regretting letting themselves get press-ganged into this (if the reports are to be believed.)
UEFA is in discussions with Centricus Asset Management over a 6 billion-euro ($7.2 billion) financing package to overhaul its flagship soccer tournament and stop plans for a new breakaway Super League, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Switzerland-based sporting body is working with Centricus on a plan to fund a new-look UEFA Champions League tournament, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information.
Negotiations are ongoing and there’s no certainty UEFA and London-based Centricus will reach an agreement, according to the people. A representative for Centricus declined to comment, while a spokesperson for UEFA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
It comes as UEFA prepares to battle with a new Super League that could mark the biggest upheaval of European soccer since the 1950s and end the Champions League’s decades-long reign as the world’s premier club contest.
A group of the world’s richest soccer clubs, including Manchester United and Real Madrid, announced plans for the breakaway league starting in August in a statementearly Monday. The marquee names -- six from England, three from Italy and three from Spain have signed up so far -- would play each other midweek as an alternative to the UEFA tournament. In addition to what will be 15 permanent teams, another five will qualify each year for the Super League.
The 4 billion-euro plan, which is being bankrolled by JPMorgan Chase & Co., has already drawn heavy criticism from domestic leagues and politicians. UEFA has said it could ban Super League team players from national teams that take part in the national Euro and World Cup competitions.
Centricus has been in talks with UEFA for a number of months regarding financing, a person familiar with the matter said. The investment firm had discussed an initial package of about 4.2 billion euros, which was raised to 6 billion euros following the rival Super League proposal, the person said.
Centricus, which oversees about $30 billion in assets according to its website, is well connected to large, wealthy institutions in the Middle East and Asia, and helped SoftBank Group Corp. raise $100 billion for its massive Vision Fund.
The firm was started in 2016 by Nizar Al-Bassam, a former investment banker at Deutsche Bank AG, and ex-Goldman Sachs Group Inc. partner Dalinc Ariburnu.
Despite running a small team from London, Centricus has become known for a string of opportunistic deals. It is currently working with Indian commodities tycoon Anil Agarwal on a plan to invest $10 billion in turnaround opportunities in India, and last year made a last-minute pitch to buy TikTok’s operations in several countries for $20 billion. In 2019 it made a foray into the high-end hotel and resorts sector and bought the iconic Capri Palace Hotel & Spa.
Within the sports industry, Centricus was also part of a consortium, alongside SoftBank and FIFA, to launch a brace of new soccer tournaments, and has held talks to invest in Swiss club FC Basel.
Proponents argue the Super League would create a more exciting competition because the game’s very top teams would play each other more often. It would also be lucrative for them, with permanent membership removing the uncertainty of the Champions League, whose teams must qualify annually or risk losing broadcasting and sponsorship revenue.
But the idea of creating a competition that removes the drama of a smaller team such as four-time champion Ajax winning the trophy or of a bigger club having to qualify in the first place, has angered supporter groups and former players, who say it rides roughshod over the history and culture of the club game.
Even if the Super League plan is stopped by its opponents, it represents a powerful threat that could help the clubs win more concessions from UEFA. The body’s plans to expand the Champions League from 32 to 36 teams and increase the number of games have irked some teams complaining the season already has too many matches.
The 5 free spots is too few. It's happening folks, if Perez says it is, then it is.
UEFA are working to secure funding for an overhaul of the CL that will ensure that it stays the pinnacle of European club football. The talks have been ongoing for months, but the scope of the deal was increased from €4.2b to €6b in the wake of the ESL announcement.
Anybody who disagrees with you is a disgrace? You just showed a lot of maturity by profiling people you know nothing about. Calm the feck down and have a logical discussion.
Anyone who thinks the ESL sounds like a good thing is a bit of a cnut, at least if their posting in this thread is anything to go by.
No, anyone that wants the ESL to go ahead is a disgrace, I thought I stated this in what I wrote originally.
I’ll say it again if you want, anyone who is for the ESL is a disgrace.
Keep your generalization to yourself. You don't speak on behalf of anyone, let alone the whole of a huge continent supporting football.
Get off your high horse and jog on.
I wonder what more information is coming.
Who will you support if this goes ahead as planned?
My dad and his family are united fans but my mother's side of the family are Huddersfield Town fans so that will be my team moving forward.
My dad and his family are united fans but my mother's side of the family are Huddersfield Town fans so that will be my team moving forward.
Them and Inter will also want it. They will be paid far more than whatever Serie A pay them.
They just try to fill those 20 teams up quickly to kickstart this competition. No way, they don't want to add team more down road.
It's a monopoly that will ensure the founding clubs will be forever minted
...everyone else can only wish they had a seat at the table when the European Super League was formed.
It's a sad day for football as we know it.
This is all a slippery slope. I think I read that when the European Cup first started, there were concerns it would affect domestic leagues. Now with the ESL, the same concerns are being raised. I think the main problem with this ESL is the fact that you have permanent members. It really is the in-your-face unfairness of it all.
See, I wouldn't have had half of my problems with this if those founder clubs weren't fixed, if they can get relegated from this league and have to re - promote to it again through the domestic league. Like, kickstart the competition with these 12 teams, give them ton of money, Ok, but relegate the 2 teams that finish last in each group, four total, and then, they promote the teams that finished top 4 in the domestic league instead. If they were among the top 4 anyway, then they can stay. If one of them misses the top 4, they don't return for next season and got replaced by whoever finished top 4 ahead of them.
This will make some of these teams still take the domestic league seriously as well, and will improve competitiveness of the groups after the first 5 positions are settled.
I just can't accept this elitist mentality. "We are the most important clubs in the world so we will have a permanent position no matter what and will save the football". This isn't a sport anymore.
This will make some of these teams still take the domestic league seriously as well, and will improve competitiveness of the groups after the first 5 positions are settled.
I just can't accept this elitist mentality. "We are the most important clubs in the world so we will have a permanent position no matter what and will save the football". This isn't a sport anymore.
It's a fair generalisation. I'm a little more than a casual fan and I'm onboard with this plan. Id much rather watch Arsenal play real Madrid than Dundalk. Always felt that the top four trophy was bs and not something a club should be targetting. A super league makes much more sense than an arbitrary cutoff to determine if Arsenal can play in the CL or not.
Ain't no one watching a CL without the big clubs.
Arsenal and Spurs
Arsenal are having second thought about being the whipping boys of ESL and Spurs are still confused why they are being pulled into this
It’s City and Chelsea, who also believe Spurs can be convinced to join them to make the whole thing collapse.
These founders clearly want want the security of guaranteed entry, so they can save on investment in bad seasons. Going through the domestic league, they're required to have a certain standard, especially leagues like PL that open door for takeover. They're afraid of richer guy joining the PL and throw money at the problem to turn thing upside down for them.
This has business priority written all over them in disguise of saving football (sport). They risk a lot pushing this move, so clearly they want some equal return for this. Relegation clause is never considered by them.
This structure takes alot of teams with serious support out of the running. The likes of Roma, Ajax, Marseille. Don't know what they're thinking.
Perez also said bayern and psg haven't been invited, the leaked docs say otherwise. Perez is blowing a lot of smoke, esl haven't even managed to sign up all 15 founder clubs but if perez is to be believed they have all signed legally binding documents. According to sam Lee who is pretty reliable with city news, this is not legally binding.
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Knowing Perez, the penalties to leaving those contracts are so severe that they are going no where.
I think Saudi PIF bid to buy Newcastle and Covid 19 pandemic pushed this deal.
They basically want to dominate the sport. These 12 clubs will be far ahead of any other club in the world. They would be be gaining ten times more money annually in comparison to any other club. The gap between them and other clubs outside ESL will be huge few years later. Football will basically just revolve around these 12 clubs, feck the rest.
The other option is let them play and win this season and for the champions to then not show up next season because esl is where they want to play.
I am pretty sure they have studied it. India is a low income country and IPL is a two month competition. Yet, IPL generates huge money via a closed tournament format. Now imagine, the biggest sport in the world, with the rich Chinese and American audiences, how much money they are going to make.
Interesting. But they will also have two different groups. Nobody knows how the group's will be sorted so maybe that will make sure different teams play each other on different seasons atleast in the group stage. Plus, I have no doubt they will play reserves in the PL and rest the star players for ESL.
Some talk about the excitment of watching "big" teams clash regularly but if they do it in a context where there is zero competitiveness, zero price to pay for failure what's the point ?
These games would be like preseason tournaments, everyone would turn up for the money but the competition would be terrible.
It amazes me the founding clubs don't see it jut how am I kidding ? Of course they see it but they don't care one bit about competing.
These games would be like preseason tournaments, everyone would turn up for the money but the competition would be terrible.
It amazes me the founding clubs don't see it jut how am I kidding ? Of course they see it but they don't care one bit about competing.
The premier league shut that down to appease the big 6.
The Premier League killed it because the Saudi government has been pirating the PL and undermining its intellectual property rights because the Saudis are pissed at the Qataris.
ipl makes its big money because Indians love cricket. Americans may be rich but they don't give a crap about football atleast not the European version. I think someone pointed this out a few pages ago too, for all the global reach and fan base, the money pl makes is mostly down to TV deals in england not in China or USA or anywhere else in the world.
They're gonna be competing to win the premier european club competition. Why would there be zero competitiveness. The reason they don't get this point is because it's pretty much a EPL thing. Madrid and Barca qualify for the CL every season without fail. I'm sure someone like Perez doesn't get the whole 'top 4' race thing.
Going by the current 12, this super league is meant for business men/ owner/ chairmen's clubs. By what they are saying and briefing, they're moving forward in grabbing the attention of young viewers, new fans. With this in mind, the likes of Roma, Ajax, Marseille... can't draw as big the new fan base outside of their countries. That is only comparing to Spurs with no trophies to show, has been able to become popular to the new fans in the past seasons.
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But would it be? There'd be 12 potential winners vs. a tournament of national champions of the pyramids of each country (the possible other 8 will be there to make up the numbers). How would we even know it's still a competition if it's exclusively managed by themselves, it might as well be the WWE in 5 years time if these "brains" become convinced Hollywood endings are more entertaining ($$$) than regular sports.
That is way down on the motivating factors list.
Football clubs rise and fall. Today it is Man Utd and Man City but previously it was Nottingham Forrest and Derby. This will kill football and franchise the game. It cannot happen. I don't mind an ESL but you cannot have a fair league when teams are protected against relegation.