European Super League

[Stan]

 

[Tommy]

Is this going to ruin football as I know it?

[Tommy]

[Rick]

Never thought the day would come where I switched allegiances, but if this happens and we leave the PL then I’m completely done with it. I’ll just go and follow Bremen. 

[El Profesor]

I can understand why the continental powerhouses want this. I mean, the likes of Bayern, Juventus and PSG all have fired their coaches after winning their leagues.

It´s clear that for them that the domestic league is not big enough for their ambitions. 

But the Premier League clubs are a head scratcher for me. The league is by far the most popular in the world and it´s on a path to become the hegemonic league of world football. Why have they agreed to join this? Seems an unnecessary and stupid risk to take. 

[carefreeluke]

What a fucking time to announce it as well during a worldwide pandemic, football is escapism for a lot of people around the world and they've just gone and fucked something simple right up.

[Stan]

2 minutes ago, El Profesor said:

I can understand why the continental powerhouses want this. I mean, the likes of Bayern, Juventus and PSG all have fired their coaches after winning their leagues.

It´s clear that for them that the domestic league is not big enough for their ambitions. 

But the Premier League clubs are a head scratcher for me. The league is by far the most popular in the world and it´s on a path to become the hegemonic league of world football. Why have they agreed to join this? Seems an unnecessary and stupid risk to take. 

Bayern and PSG, at the moment, have declined...

[Stan]

Superb article. So eloquently put. Couldn't have said it better. 

 

 

 

[Dan+]

6 minutes ago, carefreeluke said:

What a fucking time to announce it as well during a worldwide pandemic, football is escapism for a lot of people around the world and they've just gone and fucked something simple right up.

It's no coincidence. It's the only time they'd get away with it and they know it.

They're just plain scum. There's no more to it than that.

[El Profesor]

1 minute ago, Stan said:

Bayern and PSG, at the moment, have declined...

My bad. Isn´t Bayern close to join though? I´ve read something on those lines that Porto, Leipzig and Bayern were about to join. 

PSG is a very special case. I think the last thing Qatar wants to do at the moment is to upset FIFA but I can definitely see they joining up after 2022. 

[Stan]

2 minutes ago, El Profesor said:

My bad. Isn´t Bayern close to join though? I´ve read something on those lines that Porto, Leipzig and Bayern were about to join. 

PSG is a very special case. I think the last thing Qatar wants to do at the moment is to upset FIFA but I can definitely see they joining up after 2022. 

Not sure mate. 

I'm not sure what the qualifying criteria this SuperCunt League have created or what needs to be done to be invited. 

Refreshing to see some huge already-rich clubs decline the choice to join though. Somehow PSG, being the massive oil-club conglomerate they are, have garnered some respect in comparison to the founding 12...

[El Profesor]

Just now, Stan said:

Not sure mate. 

I'm not sure what the qualifying criteria this SuperCunt League have created or what needs to be done to be invited. 

Refreshing to see some huge already-rich clubs decline the choice to join though. Somehow PSG, being the massive oil-club conglomerate they are, have garnered some respect in comparison to the founding 12...

 

The qataris are smart. They play the soft-power game really well. They´ve used this crisis to gather a lot of sympathy across Europe.

This is very important for Qatar them, especially considering the recent exposure of the huge ammount of immigrant worker deaths in the infrastrcuture projects for the World Cup. 

[Burning Gold]

17 minutes ago, Stan said:

How can they have the nerve to even call it 'Leading European Football clubs...' but they include Spurs and Arsenal  

 

 

Anyway, these clubs are getting 3.5bn Euros to save themselves as they shove 2 fingers up to clubs that are actually struggling further down the pyramids in each of their leagues. But hey, they're safe and secure and happy so that's all that matters in their eyes.

The FAs/Leagues the clubs currently play in should have the balls to say fuck off to these clubs now. Let them have their shitty Super League, watch them try and come crawling back when they realise it's not all rosy cos they're winning fuck all and then tell them to fuck off even more.

The success of this Super League rests on whether or not they're allowed to keep playing domestically. If they are, they'll keep winning things, keep attracting the money, the talent, the supporters. It'll be a more elitist version of the Champions League. Disgusting, but life will probably go on. The Premier League and the rest of the football pyramid will be poorer for it, but life will probably go on.

If not, you're right. We're looking at clubs used to dominating, all of a sudden losing more often than not. I don't think they can sustain that.

This is pretty shocking stuff. I can't promise I won't watch it (I can't not be interested in elite-level football) but I've lost a lot of passion for it all. This cripples football as we know it almost immediately. What does it mean for this season? We're gearing up for an exciting top 4 battle to finish off, with 4 teams trying to squeeze into 2 spots, but that's all meaningless now. Every season now for Liverpool it's win the league or don't bother playing. Even as a supporter of one of the 12, this is shit. I can't imagine what it's like for a team like Leicester or Atalanta, who both sit in third, but now find themselves closed off from the top level of football.

[Cicero]

Just makes European football lose a lot of prestige. Same 15 clubs can’t get relegated. Incredible. 

[Storts]

22 minutes ago, El Profesor said:

I can understand why the continental powerhouses want this. I mean, the likes of Bayern, Juventus and PSG all have fired their coaches after winning their leagues.

It´s clear that for them that the domestic league is not big enough for their ambitions. 

But the Premier League clubs are a head scratcher for me. The league is by far the most popular in the world and it´s on a path to become the hegemonic league of world football. Why have they agreed to join this? Seems an unnecessary and stupid risk to take. 

You’re right but I think for those exact reasons they’re calling the PLs bluff. No way can they afford to expel these 6 clubs and lose such a huge part of their products 

[Smiley Culture]

These English clubs are largely the same clubs who pushed for a power and money grab for the Premier League in the late eighties and early nineties. They’re just doing it again. European clubs then did similar by creating the Champions League and group stages, so that clubs couldn’t go out immediately and could recover from a bad game or two. They’re doing it again, this time devising a plan so they’re guaranteed money and football annually. That’s not an admission of welcoming this. It’s wrong but then again, looking back, the Premier League and Champions League weren’t particularly morally right moves either. 

[Stan]

2 minutes ago, Burning Gold said:

The success of this Super League rests on whether or not they're allowed to keep playing domestically. If they are, they'll keep winning things, keep attracting the money, the talent, the supporters. It'll be a more elitist version of the Champions League. Disgusting, but life will probably go on. The Premier League and the rest of the football pyramid will be poorer for it, but life will probably go on.

If not, you're right. We're looking at clubs used to dominating, all of a sudden losing more often than not. I don't think they can sustain that.

This is pretty shocking stuff. I can't promise I won't watch it (I can't not be interested in elite-level football) but I've lost a lot of passion for it all. This cripples football as we know it almost immediately. What does it mean for this season? We're gearing up for an exciting top 4 battle to finish off, with 4 teams trying to squeeze into 2 spots, but that's all meaningless now. Every season now for Liverpool it's win the league or don't bother playing. Even as a supporter of one of the 12, this is shit. I can't imagine what it's like for a team like Leicester or Atalanta, who both sit in third, but now find themselves closed off from the top level of football.

It makes me sick, to be honest. But what satisfies me is that I have trust in my club/owners that they won't pander to this corporate greed in a breakaway competition like this. It's just now how they do things.

But yes, it makes me sick how clubs who were built on local people founding them, and local traditions or cultures, or those that have built their success over generations are now selling their souls in spite of it just to keep their bank balances high.

Apparently the 12 'founding clubs' have already left the ECA. What this means for their domestic placings in their respective leagues I am not sure. But I hope those domestic leagues aren't strong-armed into backing down in their feelings towards these club. 

I agree with @RandoEFC - I'd love to hear players' thoughts regarding these latest announcements. Their careers could be at stake if their positions in domestic or national tournaments are at stake. Do they stay and chase the money or show any morales/principles against it?

[6666]

I don't like the idea but I am enjoying the drama.

I would really like to see the team that wins the Champions' League spray paint "Super League" on the trophy.

[Stan]

2 minutes ago, Smiley Culture said:

These English clubs are largely the same clubs who pushed for a power and money grab for the Premier League in the late eighties and early nineties. They’re just doing it again. European clubs then did similar by creating the Champions League and group stages, so that clubs couldn’t go out immediately and could recover from a bad game or two. They’re doing it again, this time devising a plan so they’re guaranteed money and football annually. That’s not an admission of welcoming this. It’s wrong but then again, looking back, the Premier League and Champions League weren’t particularly morally right moves either. 

But at least the PL/CL weren't 'closed shops' or done by invitation, like this Super League is supposedly being.

How insecure do you have to feel to make a new break-away league so 'elite' that you can't ever leave it, no matter how shit you are. It's so protective.

[Dan+]

Sport without risk isn't sport. If there's no actual downside of losing then what satisfaction can you possibly get from winning?

I think we'll eventually just reach another compromise personally, and it won't be a good one, but it won't be as bad as this.

[DeadLinesman]

5 minutes ago, Dan said:

Sport without risk isn't sport. If there's no actual downside of losing then what satisfaction can you possibly get from winning?

NFL? Basketball? Baseball? One common denominator of course. 

[RandoEFC+]

7 minutes ago, Stan said:

But at least the PL/CL weren't 'closed shops' or done by invitation, like this Super League is supposedly being.

How insecure do you have to feel to make a new break-away league so 'elite' that you can't ever leave it, no matter how shit you are. It's so protective.

This is the key difference.

I understand that the final nail for some other people came long before this, but it's never been the case that a club who finished 12th can still be in a certain competition automatically, or a club that finished 16th in the Championship can get promoted anyway.

The current structure already leaves a depressingly remote chance of any clubs outside an established few from taking the same positions every year, but at the end of the day, we've always seen clubs ultimately rewarded on a competitive level based on their results.

Teams may have been given unfair headstarts in the past, but we've never had a system where certain teams are guaranteed something that others aren't without at least having to take to the pitch and turn their overwhelming financial advantages into results, just because of who they are.

[RandoEFC+]

And now this... 

 

[Stan]

Apparently Champions League and Europa League have been suspended for the foreseeable...

[Cicero]

Dodger did warn us this would happen