Topic: Five English clubs named in ‘European Super League’ plan for 2021

[El Lobo]

If showing lower league games wasn’t profitable or of interest to anyone they wouldn’t show 183 lower league English games per year. Sky don’t have any requirement to buy and show these games. But they do.

If a game between mid table sides is on Monday night football, the next day when I’m in work, everyone has watched it.

The only thing that kills clubs is mismanagement. There is more than enough money for teams across the league structure, and obviously there is more at the top, but that is natural.

If anything attracts more money into football, it will not be negative for any club finances, whether they’re in the European Super League or not.

 

Do us a favour, just go and google something like 'most watched TV PL matches' or something and then try and work out what might happen when certain clubs are no longer included.

Sky shows the Championship because its pretty cheap to do, and they have space to fill on their channels. If they televised League Two, people would watch it. But in much lower numbers. Which is sort of the point that you seem to be struggling with. It honestly isn't rocket science, or even slightly difficult.

[4pool]

All tv contracts would become moot and need to be revised.

Take 5 teams from the Premier League, that leaves 15 clubs.  Surely they will add clubs to make a new renamed top flight. Or they take the Championship teams and make a two tiered League. In any event, the tv money for that new league will be significantly less than what those clubs are used to earning.

The playoff winner at Wembley to get promoted to the Premier League is worth 100 million plus.

The EFL’s current TV deal amounts to £90m a year – just 3% of the Premier League’s £2.8bn a year, shared among all 72 clubs, although the 24 in the Championship receive the bulk of it.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jun/07/championship-financial-gap-premier-league-annual-accounts

Teams in the new League--minus the 5 most watched clubs--won't be getting 100 mil each anymore. The slice of the tv money pie will be significanly less. They will get something more along the lines of 10-20 mil at best.


And from the same link :

The Championship continues to be a financially punishing league, with 19 of the 24 clubs having made losses in 2016-17, according to an analysis of their most recently published accounts by the consultant Deloitte.


What will be left when the Big 5 leave will be those clubs left struggling for financing. Make no mistake about it. A few will be healthy for a few years but without the Big 5, eventually those who are will need to restructure their player payroll and club for lessening revenues.

[CornerFlag]

There's an expansion of the whole story on Der Spiegel's own site: http://www.spiegel.de/international/football-leaks-manchester-city-paris-saint-germain-gianni-infantino-a-1236277.html

Can you imagine Bayern Munich withdrawing from the Bundesliga, Germany's national football league, and only playing away games in places like Barcelona and Madrid from now on? Can you picture a battle for the German league championship without the best players and best teams? Is it conceivable that the country's most successful team is involved in the planning of a European "Super League," and perhaps even exploring whether it can withhold its players from the German national team? Completely implausible, right?

Wrong. In 2016, FC Bayern spent months forging its plan for a Super League with the most powerful and the richest football clubs in Europe. They managed to keep under wraps just how meticulously they were pursuing an elite league for quite some time, but now the secret's out. Confidential documents show that many top clubs are still pursuing plans for a Super League.

Starting today, DER SPIEGEL, in cooperation with 14 other European news organizations, will publish a series of disclosures about the "dirty deals" of the football world. Dozens of articles will dive deep into the business of European football -- a billion-euro industry. German public broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) also participated in the project and will air a 60-minute (German language) documentary on Sunday, Nov. 4 at 21:45 p.m.

The revelations are based on data from the Football Leaks platform, which made the information available exclusively to DER SPIEGEL for evaluation. The newsmagazine then shared it with the European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) network and with NDR. It is the biggest leak ever reported on by investigative journalists, and the results of that work lay bare the inner-workings of a corrupt industry.

Representatives of the football sector reject the charge they are doing football fans a disservice. Indeed, they continue to speak publicly about transparency, fairness and common values. But in the end, their values seem to be more focused on money than morals.

What does FC Bayern Chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge have to say about those much-described values? The same Rummenigge who, in a memorable press conference on Oct. 19, invoked the first article of the German constitution to demand "respect" for veteran football players. Rummenigge, the Football Leaks documents show, was instrumental in the preparation of a revolution against UEFA by the largest European clubs. And he did so while keeping it secret from the European Club Association (ECA), which represents the interests of more than 200 European clubs, despite being chairman of that organization. This week, the investigative series reveals:

that FC Bayern Munich checked whether and how it could leave the Bundesliga to join a European "Super League;"
that FC Bayern explored its legal options for withdrawing its players from the German national team;
that Rummenigge's closest confidante negotiated a reform with the football association UEFA, which has made rich clubs even richer and competition in Europe even more unfair;
that at the same time, the Bavarians made plans to reverse this very reform;
that Bayern Munich, together with 15 other leading European clubs, appears on a draft of a "binding term sheet," which foresees the creation of a European Super League;
and that this term sheet, according to a draft, is intended to be signed in November 2018.
The investigative reports are protected under Article 5 of the German constitution, which guarantees freedom of the press. Here you can read the full story about Rummenigge's surreptitious efforts.

The around 80 journalists who sifted through and evaluated the Football Leaks trove describe a football industry at a crossroads. After years of corruption scandals and power struggles, the sport's functionaries have weakened themselves to such a degree they must now fear being swept away entirely. The top clubs are in the midst of a major power grab. If they succeed, it will be the end of the football world as we know it. A private league geared toward the rich would ultimately siphon money away from national competitions and the best players would switch to the Super League. Clubs around Europe with lower profiles, such as Mainz 05, FC Valencia or Benfica Lissabon would fade into insignificance.

And what about the football associations? For years, they have posed as responsible guardians of the rules and transparent governments of the sport. UEFA has imposed strict rules on clubs to restore financial competitiveness between smaller and larger clubs. And FIFA, the global football organization? It has promised a fresh start following the scandals surrounding its former president, Sepp Blatter. It insisted it would reform itself and move past the days of corruption and cronyism once and for all.

But that was all a false front. The investigation shows how the most powerful man in football, FIFA President Gianni Infantino, secretly obstructed and torpedoed the work of his own regulators.

The Football Leaks documents reveal how he:

did favors for a friend, a senior public prosecutor, who returned the favor;
interfered with the drafting of a new code of ethics and watered it down;
championed a $25 million project, known as "Trophy," even though as president he wasn't supposed to be involved in the operational business;
exerted pressure internally so that money was paid in advance to associations in violation of rules;
and protected submissive subordinates and fired critics.
Here is the full story about Infantino's "work" at FIFA.

DER SPIEGEL and the EIC describe in meticulous detail how Infantino, as then-secretary general of UEFA, thwarted his own organization's investigators in order to take the side of the clubs Manchester City (ManCity) and Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), both owned by emirates in the Gulf.

Both clubs are blatantly controlled by authoritarian governments of super-rich Gulf states. Thousands of pages of Football Leaks documents prove:

ManCity and PSG systematically violated FIFA's financial fair play rules for years;
Infantino, as UEFA general secretary, buckled under pressure from Abu Dhabi and Qatar and allowed the clubs from Manchester and Paris to operate with virtual impunity;
UEFA meted out only mild punishments to the two clubs and did not expel either of them from the Champions League as it did with smaller clubs;
Infantino -- despite an obligation to strict neutrality -- secretly met for negotiations with club bosses from Paris and Manchester;
he fed internal association info to the clubs and cleared the way for "settlements," although he was not authorized to do so;
that he thus systematically undermined UEFA's own oversight procedures and bodies.
In other words: Infantino trampled the values of the sport. Here is the in-depth feature on his activities.

The revelations that DER SPIEGEL and the European Investigative Collaborations network are now publishing affect anyone who provides the football industry with money, whether it 5 euros a month for Eurosport broadcasts, 10 euros for Dazn, 30 euros for Sky, 50 euros for a seat in a stadium or 90 euros for their favorite team's jersey. The money from marketing deals and TV broadcasts -- not to mention injections of state money -- have attracted shady characters who negotiate horrendous commissions for themselves while being shrouded by confidential contracts. Football Leaks will pull back the curtain on many of them.

The revelations of the coming weeks will also show the unvarnished face of "football capitalism," which in many ways is not unlike a debt-financed speculative bubble. It spreads all the way to developing countries to secure underage talent and bet on their careers like one would bet on the stock market.

The reports of the coming weeks will also reveal the positive doping tests of a multiple Champions League winner as well as the tax avoidance models of some Premier League titans.

The research partners DER SPIEGEL and the EIC already tackled tax evasion in their first Football Leaks series in December 2016. Since then, many of the greatest football stars in history have admitted their guilt. Cristiano Ronaldo alone had to reimburse the Spanish state 19 million euros and accept two years of probation after those revelations. They also triggered police raids across Europe and made the unscrupulous work of many agents significantly more difficult.

At the time, the European investigative journalists pored over 1.9 terabytes of data and 18.6 million documents. Meanwhile, the trove has grown to 3.4 terabytes of data and more than 70 million documents. For months, researchers combed through the material, searching for topics, collecting clues and connecting the dots. They communicated over an encrypted online platform and at conferences in Hamburg, Brussels and Mechelen. The results of their searches were supplemented with information from confidential sources and verified by trips to Ghana, Qatar and Switzerland. We journalists interviewed experts and those directly involved to produce our stories and films.

We will now pull back the curtain on the football industry. So when you head to the football stadium this weekend or watch a Bundesliga game on TV, maybe you'll do so with a different perspective.

Some big, big stories in there.

[mikey_LFC]

Do us a favour, just go and google something like 'most watched TV PL matches' or something and then try and work out what might happen when certain clubs are no longer included.

Sky shows the Championship because its pretty cheap to do, and they have space to fill on their channels. If they televised League Two, people would watch it. But in much lower numbers. Which is sort of the point that you seem to be struggling with. It honestly isn't rocket science, or even slightly difficult.

I do understand that some teams and some games attract more money than others. But championship clubs survive and make more than they did 30 years ago. Some are even able to get promoted and compete in the premier league.

The same will be true if a European Super League gets created in a similar format.

What more do you want for those teams?

[4pool]

I do understand that some teams and some games attract more money than others. But championship clubs survive and make more than they did 30 years ago. Some are even able to get promoted and compete in the premier league.

The same will be true if a European Super League gets created in a similar format.

What more do you want for those teams?

I suggest you read my post above..

[El Lobo]

I do understand that some teams and some games attract more money than others. But championship clubs survive and make more than they did 30 years ago. Some are even able to get promoted and compete in the premier league.

The same will be true if a European Super League gets created in a similar format.

What more do you want for those teams?

You honestly don't seem to.

The whole reason the Championship is such a rat race is because of the discrepancy in money, and that getting promoted is like winning the lottery. You take the main attractions away from the PL then its absolutely inevitable that the money would go down pretty substantially. Especially as you'd likely see a lot of that money pumped into this new Super League.

[WhereAngelsPlay]

And the football would be no better,players and agents would just get richer and fans would be expected to spend more.

[Red_Mist]

Problem with that, is that the biggest teams are playing each other all the time anyway.

Juve, Bayern, Real and Barca seemingly have some combo of match up (UCL) every season. So that is already a reality.

That’s fine if they’re earning it.

We haven’t played Bayern since 1981 (super cup aside). Good, it’ll be brilliant next time we do (unless it contrived through this crap idea)

[rob1966]

You've just said it yourself though - BT only pay £400m to show ALL the CL games. That doesn't really suggest a European Super League would bring in as much as that PLUS the PL TV income.

The real interest though is in the big clubs. I think to show those games, the TV companies will have to pay a lot more.

[mikey_LFC]

I suggest you read my post above..

I did. It doesn’t really add much that isn’t evident.

Premier League clubs make a lot more than championship clubs. Yep, clearly.

Championship clubs often make losses. I would have guessed so.

I’d guess premier league clubs often make losses too. Making a loss doesn’t mean a lot without understanding how much was invested, how much was withdrawn, how much has the value of the club changed etc.

You tend to have clubs that are badly run and clubs that are well run, either can make a loss and that isn’t what defines them.

In the last 10 years 8 clubs have gone into administration in England. In the 10 years before 26 did.

In that time TV deals in the premiership have gone up more than tenfold. The survival of the lower clubs has little to do with the bigger sides. Any impact, I.e bigger tv deals for clubs in top divisions, tends to be positive for the lower leagues.

[4pool]

I did. It doesn’t really add much that isn’t evident.

Premier League clubs make a lot more than championship clubs. Yep, clearly.

Championship clubs often make losses. I would have guessed so.

I’d guess premier league clubs often make losses too. Making a loss doesn’t mean a lot without understanding how much was invested, how much was withdrawn, how much has the value of the club changed etc.

You tend to have clubs that are badly run and clubs that are well run, either can make a loss and that isn’t what defines them.

In the last 10 years 8 clubs have gone into administration in England. In the 10 years before 26 did.

In that time TV deals in the premiership have gone up more than tenfold. The survival of the lower clubs has little to do with the bigger sides. Any impact, I.e bigger tv deals for clubs in top divisions, tends to be positive for the lower leagues.

But your argument is there will be money for the clubs left behind.

The EFL’s current TV deal amounts to £90m a year just 3% of the Premier League’s £2.8bn a year, shared among all 72 clubs.



90 mil for 72 clubs. Add the 15 left from the Premier League, that's 87 clubs to split 90 mil. Ok, they get a new tv contract, 120 mil next season.

So explain to me how much Everton, West ham, Spurs, etc will get as their share for the new League v what they get now and what does that do to their Revenues? Further attendances will drop, as they do when a Premier League side isn't playing one fo the top 5. And further, the clubs won't be charging  £40 for a ticket. They will need to reduce their ticket prices in order to keep attendances somewhere near what they are now. Same as the Championship charges less for tickets.

It all spirals down their revenues, which means they can't pay players as much, which means they don't have the quality of players, which means why should i pay £40 to watch second rate players, etc.


 

[Lycan]

I'd like to know where all this extra money would come from as well.

[fudge]

What a load of shite. A league competition where you can’t get relegated for 20 years? Playing the same teams every year? No thanks.

Exactly, a fundamental misunderstanding of what makes the tournament even the Europa exciting which is being paired up against new teams and even more so for the match going fan the chance to go to new places.

I couldn't give a fuck if this is the right economic choice its wrong morally and in any sporting and enjoyment sense.

If they're determined to have that top closed shop one then FIFA  and Uefa need to get together and make the world club championship that event.

[Suareznumber7]

This would leave us with "Liverpool FC" playing in the "Euro super league" and "Liverpool B" playing in the Premier league.

[4pool]

mikey..

A couple examples:
here is what Everton earned last season from TV and broadcasting £131m.

here's West Ham...Premier League and broadcasting £119m

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jun/06/premier-league-finances-club-guide-2016-17


Each premier league club alone gets more than the EFL got for all 72 clubs.

How or why do you expect the 15 clubs remaining, once the 5 leave, will get anywhere near what they get now?
Please explain.

[Hazell]

It might have caused a bigger discrepancy but that isn’t the same as not everyone getting richer. The amount of money invested in football is particularly small in comparison to other industries. There is plenty more money to be invested if people want. Especially if the likes of amazon, Facebook and google get involved. Championship sides are richer now than 30 years ago, they’re just not as rich as premier league sides. If you want an equal sports system, then copy the NFL, but I’d rather not.

Not suggesting individual away games won’t be more expensive but I’d suggested a new system could mean less games and no champions league on top so someone who went to every away game may have to go to 12 or so more away European games, although 4 of them are in England but they’d save the other away games, which is around 25 a season in the current format.

Yeah but about the rest of the costs.

I actually would prefer it to be more equal but hey, that's not gonna happen. I'd rather it didn't get any more unequal. Championship sides are richer than 30 years ago but relative to the top, they aren't and that's the point. It'll be much harder if this goes ahead. Regardless of how much money there is, it's still a finite amount and a huge proportion of it will go this Super League. Thinking that other clubs will get a significant amount is illogical as others have explained, the interest doesn't lie in Burnley vs Everton for most people so why would Amazon or Facebook pay much for it? I know I've brought it up already but the Premier League is an example that's pretty obvious, hence the Championship (and beyond) clubs being a lot poorer off in relative terms, that much should be obvious.

[mikey_LFC]

But your argument is there will be money for the clubs left behind.

The EFL’s current TV deal amounts to £90m a year just 3% of the Premier League’s £2.8bn a year, shared among all 72 clubs.



90 mil for 72 clubs. Add the 15 left from the Premier League, that's 87 clubs to split 90 mil. Ok, they get a new tv contract, 120 mil next season.

So explain to me how much Everton, West ham, Spurs, etc will get as their share for the new League v what they get now and what does that do to their Revenues? Further attendances will drop, as they do when a Premier League side isn't playing one fo the top 5. And further, the clubs won't be charging  £40 for a ticket. They will need to reduce their ticket prices in order to keep attendances somewhere near what they are now. Same as the Championship charges less for tickets.

It all spirals down their revenues, which means they can't pay players as much, which means they don't have the quality of players, which means why should i pay £40 to watch second rate players, etc.

If the top league generates more revenue and publicity then you’d have to assume the race to get into the league would as well.

You’ve also created less competition for those games. Rather than championship games constantly competing for viewer time with Champions League games you’d have the midweeks free for them.

You also have the addition of a playoff into the league which creates more publicity and revenue.

Teams at the top like Spurs will be in and out of the top league which will allow them to generate more revenue too. The same applies across Europe.

At the moment, the Premier League has done well to basically market itself as the best league in the world. This has huge adverse effects on the sustainability of clubs in other countries. This at least will bring everyone on to a level field and spread the wealth around Europe.

Yeah but about the rest of the costs.

I actually would prefer it to be more equal but hey, that's not gonna happen. I'd rather it didn't get any more unequal. Championship sides are richer than 30 years ago but relative to the top, they aren't and that's the point. It'll be much harder if this goes ahead. Regardless of how much money there is, it's still a finite amount and a huge proportion of it will go this Super League. Thinking that other clubs will get a significant amount is illogical as others have explained, the interest doesn't lie in Burnley vs Everton for most people so why would Amazon or Facebook pay much for it? I know I've brought it up already but the Premier League is an example that's pretty obvious, hence the Championship (and beyond) clubs being a lot poorer off in relative terms, that much should be obvious.

Yeah I know, the extra costs of going abroad and all are higher. It’s just not as cut and dry, way more expensive, as you’d initially think. Obviously people will raise prices too but even so it won’t be at the level of Kiev and so it makes it less of difference in cost, driving to Brighton or flying to Barca.

They won’t be as much as they would for the top league, undoubtedly. But they will still pay for it and show it, because clearly there is a market for it. It will certainly make the clubs poorer in relative terms too, no argument there. But it probably will make, as has happened with the championship, clubs better off actually, rather than relatively. Which has to be what matters.

[PoetryInMotion]

And the football would be no better,players and agents would just get richer and fans would be expected to spend more.

Teams in this Super League can never be the best team in their country (can't win national league by not being in it) and several teams in the Super League have to wait several years before they win this Super League, while much lesser sides will rake in National League Titles. Doesn't make sense to me.

[4pool]

If the top league generates more revenue and publicity then you’d have to assume the race to get into the league would as well.

You’ve also created less competition for those games. Rather than championship games constantly competing for viewer time with Champions League games you’d have the midweeks free for them.

You also have the addition of a playoff into the league which creates more publicity and revenue.

Teams at the top like Spurs will be in and out of the top league which will allow them to generate more revenue too. The same applies across Europe.

At the moment, the Premier League has done well to basically market itself as the best league in the world. This has huge adverse effects on the sustainability of clubs in other countries. This at least will bring everyone on to a level field and spread the wealth around Europe.

But..and forgive the caps here...THERE IS NO AUTOMATIC PROMOTION.. to the new Super League.

5 teams will be added to the 11 permanent clubs.

This doesn't mean every year 5 clubs get relegated from the Super League. It might only be 2 clubs or just 1. And what guarantee a club from the UK is one of the two? None.

[mikey_LFC]

But..and forgive the caps here...THERE IS NO AUTOMATIC PROMOTION.. to the new Super League.

5 teams will be added to the 11 permanent clubs.

This doesn't mean every year 5 clubs get relegated from the Super League. It might only be 2 clubs or just 1. And what guarantee a club from the UK is one of the two? None.

Yeah I know. I said before that’s a terrible idea and will make the whole thing boring and sterile. I’m talking purely about a European Super League as a concept not having to have an adverse effect.

[4pool]

But a Super League will have an adverse effect.

There is no way around that fact.

Can a club like Everton, or the other 15 left,  go from £131m tv revenue to maybe £10-20m and it not have an adverse effect?

[newterp]

It would be awful - for the numerous numerous reasons cited above.

[soxfan]

A few points ...

I don't think this is about squeezing more money out of Uefa. Instead, these clubs don't want to follow someone else's rules anymore. They want to create their own rules. Their own schedules, their own TV contracts, their own ticketing schemes. They are going to make an ungodly amount of money while not having to answer to anyone else. FFP, as lame as it is in reality, will go out the window.

To emphasize how it is more about money than athletic competition...these owners aren't completely stupid. They can clearly see, like any of us can, that some of these clubs will go on unsuccessful runs for several years, just like they do now. But an "unsuccessful run" now in La Liga might mean 3rd place for Barcelona for a few years. Or 2nd place for Bayern in Germany. These clubs would instead now face the distinct possibility of finishing -- for example -- 12th, 14th, 16th, 11th, 16th during a bad run of years in this Super League.  If an owner really cared about its club's football legacy and its supporters, why would he subject his club to such humiliation? Humiliation that's guaranteed to happen to most of these "Super Clubs" sooner or later in the next few decades if this concept becomes reality.

Eventually this Super League would expand. Probably to 20 or 24 teams after a few years. Then they would further destroy domestic leagues by picking off the remaining best teams and dictating terms to them. "Celtic, Ajax, Benfica -- you're doing quite well. Would you like to join? This is how much money you'll make (a lot, but less than us "Founding Clubs"). Here are the rules..."

It's ugly, all the way around.

[Hazell]

Yeah I know, the extra costs of going abroad and all are higher. It’s just not as cut and dry, way more expensive, as you’d initially think. Obviously people will raise prices too but even so it won’t be at the level of Kiev and so it makes it less of difference in cost, driving to Brighton or flying to Barca.

They won’t be as much as they would for the top league, undoubtedly. But they will still pay for it and show it, because clearly there is a market for it. It will certainly make the clubs poorer in relative terms too, no argument there. But it probably will make, as has happened with the championship, clubs better off actually, rather than relatively. Which has to be what matters.

I don't agree it's better for them to better off absolutely. If that makes them poorer relatively, then it's more difficult for them to compete because other clubs are better off. I don't see how it would make clubs better of financially in absolute terms either? There'll be less money for them because more will go to the Super League.

[El Lobo]

I think once the Championship becomes the most exciting league in the world, the likes of Gillingham and Barnsley will strike out and get their own TV deals. Thus making even more money.

[WhereAngelsPlay]

But a Super League will have an adverse effect.

There is no way around that fact.

Can a club like Everton, or the other 15 left,  go from £131m tv revenue to maybe £10-20m and it not have an adverse effect?

West Ham would be winners,Everton would stay at Goodison & Spurs would be at risk of going out of business.

[bird_lfc]

I can see why this would appeal to some initially but if it actually happens , i’m done

[Kenny's Jacket]

Sorry if this has been posted but Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has already poo pooed it

Cant see it happening regardless

[drmick]

I agree with the other cynics that this is just a negotiating tactic to pile pressure on uefa for better financial terms at the next go-around.

It cannot be sustained as the lower divisions in all countries will die off.

Is it even legal if UEFA don't sign off on it? If you have to cut ties with your football federation to join it- how do you get back in when you get relegated from the Super League? Go back begging for forgiveness?

[MolbyLovesGravlax]

who the fuck wants nothing but games against mega teams in mega stadiums? Maybe I am some sort of dinosaur, but it is like some kids story where the spoilt kid has to be taught why if it is Christmas every day then pretty soon it gets fucking boring.
No Meryside derbies? No north London derbies? No seeing Roy rub his face when we smash whatever team he is managing?
No joy when a rival team fucks up against a team of yard dogs?
No repucussions for any team if they get it spectacularly wrong? Finish bottom of the league, no problem.
No enjoying European games against obscure teams in far flung places.
Seriously, fuck off with this idea.

[Zlen]

From a marketing perspective this an absolutely amazing idea. It's perfectly tailored to engage the FIFA playing generation. Masses who overpay for Ultimate Team cards and want to see spectacular goals, crazy haircuts and cool celebrations every game. This is for them - a diluted in meaning, over designed, hyper branded event that is all spectacle and no value. It is also the final nail in the coffin of actual football, but who cares about that.

[Lush is the best medicine...]

Yeah you are right on all your points. There's something special about CL draws and the lottery of drawing a particular heavyweight that would be lost playing against them in a Super League every other week. Like you say it would be just like another fixture and lose its charm.

i love eating a good steak. if I have steak once a week it’s great, if I have it every meal I get bored of it and start to eat chicken or even go vegan.

[killer-heels]

3 lots of Yank owners and other European sides wanting a slice of the pie that Premier League gets makes this inevitable.

[rocco]

Premier league clubs don’t need this it’s one of the most exciting leagues as it is.
Personally think this would ruin English football in the long run .


Bit confused as it says to replace the champions league .

[Ashburton]

3 lots of Yank owners and other European sides wanting a slice of the pie that Premier League gets makes this inevitable.

It seems more the end of the Messi and Ronaldo generation.  Real and Barca have massively unequal TV funding in their league - it makes it a bit of a bore-fest and entirely unsurprising.  Real Madrid 'in crisis' are two wins from the top, they are too big to fail.  Same with Juventus winning 7 championships in a row, or Bayern the last 5.   Once you become the only big fish in the pond you realise nobody is going to watch it other than the die-hard supporters.  Outreach to India, China, Africa, America.. these huge markets just aren't interested and these teams know the PL is only going to grow larger with Amazon dipping their toe in to live streaming.  Rather than the ignominy of  Real Madrid becoming a feeder club for Everton this seems like getting ahead of it.

[rob1966]

Just seen McManaman on BT from last night, he made a good point about by all means the clubs go after the likes of FIFA and UEFA and take over the Champions League so that the clubs earn the lions share of the money from that, rather than the governing bodies, but fuck right off if they think they can abandon the domestic leagues.

[Something Worse]

Wild how this has got more people riled up than actual corruption. Media puffing their cheeks and acting indignant about sporting integrity while glossing over a far worse threat to their precious integrity.

(This is a shit idea and a potential sport killer)

[dimwit]

Fuck this,
Fuck that,
I've contacted my tv subscription, and told them what they can do with plans like this.
so should you
as long as sponsors are paying the bill, owners won't care.
Fuck this nhl of football, and fuck the owners for sporting the idea

There.

[oojason]

Apologies if already posted...

'Der Spiegel’s email leaks more evidence that elite will never be satisfied':-

Leaked internal messages about formation of European super league show again the insatiable desire to consolidate power and resources among Europe’s richest teams.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/nov/03/der-spiegel-email-leaks-european-super-league-show-elite-will-never-be-satisfied

[RobinHood]

What a joke idea, will complete the transition from community clubs to soulless franchises played the benefit of TV audiences in Asia. Would rather support MK Dons than Liverpool if we signed up to this, just chucks our history in the bin.