The New European Super (borefest) League

[BG1980]

The irony is that the Premier League itself has ruined the competition in Europe as the money is just too big now. Old guard teams like Benfica, Ajax, Porto, Celtic, Rangers, Marseille, Milan, Inter and to some extent Juve who were decent teams just cannot compete financially and all their decent players that they had have long since retired.

You can already see just how dominant England has become in Europe. Standing back and looking at it now you just realise the current setup of European football is already a closed group and has been for a long time. Basically football has been buggered for at least ten years already.

I agree 100% with this post. Money has destroyed football and the leagues that don’t get big TV money have been left miles behind.

The joy of European football and the leagues to an extent was quite a lot of teams had a chance of winning the trophies so there was excitement. Now it’s the same few elite rich teams that are dominant and it will only get worse.

Not much fun for the neutral fan to watch.

 

[fez]

This is almost entirely a game of brinksmanship and I fear that the only losers will probably be the fans and the lower teams.

Will FIFA actually ban 90% of the top players in the world from the world cup? Will they massively devalue their product that brings in billions in revenue just to spite the SL. They are using all these as threats but will they follow through with any of them. The SL teams will have been planning this for a long time and will know exactly how FIFA are going to try and shut it down and I assume they are happy to take the tiny risk that FIFA will fall on their sword to try and keep some control.

I imagine that this will go ahead in some capacity and FIFA will make the best of a bad situation. The CL will disappear, the EL will probably still remain in some way and we will see what happens with the league. The CL may even remain in a much reduced format where there is some sort of tournament at the end of the season over a week where its all decided.

 

[ik9000]

Because the government weren't involved and it was about workers rights

but you acknowledge a legislative body can pass laws that make companies act differently in a way the law makers prefer so I fail to see your point, but again do explain why I'm wrong, your novel thinking is fascinating.

 

[ik9000]

I've seen multiple type of these new English teams, no one ever seems to pick Keane and Calvert-lewin which is odd lol. Have those 2 in all day.

I wouldn't have Calvert Lewin at the moment. Last few times I've watched him I've been distinctly underwhelmed.

 

[McBain]

FIFA threatening to ban players from the World Cup is a bit weird, this isn't anything to do with the players so why punish them.

Whether any player would be fit enough to compete at international level if they aren't playing regularly domestically is another question.

 

[ik9000]

Give it time; if they get desperate for clubs you never know; although in some regard I'd actually understand the Old Firm wanting to join up; even the Scottish Champions face ridiculous hurdles to get into the "Champions" League Group stage; why the hell should a 4th English, Spanish, German or Italian Club get straight in to the Groups when the actual champions of many countries don't.

The CL is already to a large extent a "closed shop" you can't expect teams to improve in Europe if its made all but impossible for them to get into the money-spinning stages;

The companies driving this don't give a monkeys about improving other teams and the football community. They care about profit and maximising revenue with year-on-year increase to themselves (and their co-investors), and that is all. Americans didn't buy into our game out of love, passion, or even interest. They did a financial assessment and saw a lucrative opportunity - more so than any NFL/NBA/NHL/MLB team. This has been the long-term plan since day 1. It's just been a waiting game.

 

[ollies]

This is almost entirely a game of brinksmanship and I fear that the only losers will probably be the fans and the lower teams.

Will FIFA actually ban 90% of the top players in the world from the world cup? Will they massively devalue their product that brings in billions in revenue just to spite the SL. They are using all these as threats but will they follow through with any of them. The SL teams will have been planning this for a long time and will know exactly how FIFA are going to try and shut it down and I assume they are happy to take the tiny risk that FIFA will fall on their sword to try and keep some control.

I imagine that this will go ahead in some capacity and FIFA will make the best of a bad situation. The CL will disappear, the EL will probably still remain in some way and we will see what happens with the league. The CL may even remain in a much reduced format where there is some sort of tournament at the end of the season over a week where its all decided.

FIFA haven't mentioned banning of players, only UEFA. FIFA came out saying they need to constructively discuss and work with all parties to resolve the situation. I can't imagine FIFA will be banning players, UEFA are only threatening this because the ESL is a direct rival to their competitions.

 

[ik9000]

FIFA threatening to ban players from the World Cup is a bit weird, this isn't anything to do with the players so why punish them.

Whether any player would be fit enough to compete at international level if they aren't playing regularly domestically is another question.

Bale seems to manage it when required

 

[chrismscotland]

The irony is that the Premier League itself has ruined the competition in Europe as the money is just too big now. Old guard teams like Benfica, Ajax, Porto, Celtic, Rangers, Marseille, Milan, Inter and to some extent Juve who were decent teams just cannot compete financially and all their decent players that they had have long since retired.

You can already see just how dominant England has become in Europe. Standing back and looking at it now you just realise the current setup of European football is already a closed group and has been for a long time. Basically football has been buggered for at least ten years already.

Frankly I think the 6 English Club's are the biggest villains in all of this; not a single one of the 6 clubs can honestly claim this is anything but a massive money grabbing exercise; not a single one of the 6 clubs is in any kind of financial hole.
The Spanish and Italian Clubs are in a pretty dire financial situation currently and have never had benefit of the frankly ludicrous Premier League TV money; which as you say is starting to show in English club's recent European form.

 

[omnomnom]

Frankly I think the 6 English Club's are the biggest villains in all of this; not a single one of the 6 clubs can honestly claim this is anything but a massive money grabbing exercise; not a single one of the 6 clubs is in any kind of financial hole.
The Spanish and Italian Clubs are in a pretty dire financial situation currently and have never had benefit of the frankly ludicrous Premier League TV money; which as you say is starting to show in English club's recent European form.

The Spanish clubs have put themselves in that position. They get absolutely no sympathy from me.

 

[manic111]

FIFA threatening to ban players from the World Cup is a bit weird, this isn't anything to do with the players so why punish them.

Whether any player would be fit enough to compete at international level if they aren't playing regularly domestically is another question.

It's leverage - Uefa and FIFA have control over who can play internationally, so are hoping to worry the players sufficiently to get them to push back against their clubs. They don't have control over lots of aspects of this, so need to make use of areas where they do have control

 

[fez]

Frankly I think the 6 English Club's are the biggest villains in all of this; not a single one of the 6 clubs can honestly claim this is anything but a massive money grabbing exercise; not a single one of the 6 clubs is in any kind of financial hole.
The Spanish and Italian Clubs are in a pretty dire financial situation currently and have never had benefit of the frankly ludicrous Premier League TV money; which as you say is starting to show in English club's recent European form.

Its just business and football is a business and has been for a very long time. For at least the last 10-15 years its primarily been about the money. If the Glazers could get rid of the football side of things at United and still make the money they would do it in a heartbeat.

 

[omnomnom]

but you acknowledge a legislative body can pass laws that make companies act differently in a way the law makers prefer so I fail to see your point, but again do explain why I'm wrong, your novel thinking is fascinating.

So not the government then?

FYI they have already dismissed it this morning on the radio so there we are.

 

[BaZ87]

I don’t believe he has profited hugely. Which is why the other two Palace fans who rescued the club at the time were happy to sell their stake and Parish to reduce his.

The deal to buy Palace & Selhurst Park out of admin was sub £5m (which was split between the entire consortium) and they may have put a few £m in on top after, although this would have likely been a directors loan rather than straight cash. How much did Parish himself invest? If we're generous we could say £5m but likely to have been much less. On the basis of Newcastle being worth £350m, even if we're really conservative we could say Palace is worth around £200m, of which Parish now owns 18% of. That's a massive profit and doesn't factor in how much he received when he reduced his stake a few years back.

 

[GIBURROWS]

As a Chelsea fan I'm for the ESL because football was taken away from the fans by sky and the Premier league in 92 so this is just someone bigger coming along and doing the same to them.

Support your actual local club if you're that bothered, be at the start of something.

 

[omnomnom]

As a Chelsea fan I'm for the ESL because football was taken away from the fans by sky and the Premier league in 92 so this is just someone bigger coming along and doing the same to them.

Support your actual local club if you're that bothered, be at the start of something.

Not quite the same thing though.

 

[XeNoN89]

As a Chelsea fan I'm for the ESL because football was taken away from the fans by sky and the Premier league in 92 so this is just someone bigger coming along and doing the same to them.

Support your actual local club if you're that bothered, be at the start of something.

Not even close to the same thing

 

[Ayahuasca]

As a Chelsea fan I'm for the ESL because football was taken away from the fans by sky and the Premier league in 92 so this is just someone bigger coming along and doing the same to them.

It's not the same type of situation at all, three years after the PL formed Blackburn won it... Since then they've been as low as League 1 for a season.

 

[manic111]

As a Chelsea fan I'm for the ESL because football was taken away from the fans by sky and the Premier league in 92 so this is just someone bigger coming along and doing the same to them.

Support your actual local club if you're that bothered, be at the start of something.

It's not the same thing at all. The Premier League has promotion and relegation. Any team, in theory, can come up and win it, and any team can have an awful year and go down. The ESL is 12-15 clubs breaking away in a manner which means they never have risk again, and making the rest of the sport poorer for doing so.

 

[mmj_uk]

It's a similar argument, all of this "football is for the fans" and yet football was taken away from the people on terrestrial TV and made subscription only on Sky, how is that not greedy anti-fan behaviour? the Premier League was founded in the same sort of way with breakaway clubs looking for a bigger pot of gold.