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Kick every fucking team out of every league right now if they go ahead with this. Make it abundantly clear that if they go through with this, the only option for every club to regain its place in their respective leagues is to earn it via every leagues respective pyramid system. Also relegate Hearts. Just to show that their actions will hurt totally innocent clubs.

Never really understood the Schadenfreude with this stuff, folk are at their limits and others just want to pish themselves laughing at them. Not for me Clive, but each to their own. If you want to pretend that a government advisor playing stupid wee games with her twitter followers during serious interviews aren't a problem then I think you'll be in the minority there. The country is in a fucking state, livelihoods lost, loved ones deid and people are losing their minds but it's okay Sridhar managed to fit a funny wee "pokemon" line into her deadly serious interview about how we're facing lockdown eternally, lmao whits she like.

I can understand people's POV when talking about the chickens coming home to roost for Sky, FIFA and UEFA who have enabled this sort of end-game by opening the door to it and I fully agree with them. Their outrage is purely from a self-serving point of view. However. For 30 years, people have been outwardly lamenting the way the game is gradually progressing. Competitions grow in size but decrease in competitiveness and this is mostly propagated by a small number of teams hoovering up the lion's share of cash. These clubs have long since had their soul and fabric ripped out and replaced by the personal ethos of the scumbag billionaires that run them. Hoovering up as much cash as they can.... What's that?! The biggest 16 clubs in Europe get 65% of the CL prize pot? Unacceptable, it should be 90%! These fucking freaks, people who would never have to earn another penny and still make more money in an hour's interest than most people do in a lifetime will never be truly satiated. They won't rest until they've bled everything, everyone else dry. It's not enough to be a global powerhouse and massively successful, you also need to kneecap anyone that might one day provide any sort of competition because competitiveness - real competitiveness and freshness terrifies these c***s. They fear that the prospect of sharing out wealth will one day be the thing that ruins them and the run their football clubs with the same mindset. It's a sad indicator of where not only sport, but society currently is. You see massive game developers like EA and Ubisoft buying and absorbing successful small games studios only to shut them down because they fear that they'll one day muscle in on their market, a market that is quickly becoming less about games and more about selling gambling products to the pre-teen and teenage markets in the form of lootboxes. You watch massive pharmaceutical companies purchase other semi-established companies in 4, 5, 6 billion dollar acquisitions just to make sure they take control of any IPs the company has and then absorb them without a f**k given about brand reputation. All just to they can hoard more money on top of the billions upon billions they already have. But these people, at the end of the day, are untouchable. Money trumps everything. Not sporting integrity, financial fair play or the spirit of proper competitiveness will ever see them perceive football as anything other than just another business transaction. What a shame it's became what it has.

Aye, how dare folk be annoyed at someone proposing enormous restrictions on our lives, I'm glad we have sensible sorts like you around.

UEFA are a bit hypocritical here, when you look at the Champions League, it's exactly the same. They don't want smaller country Champions polluting their Champions League, they will give them 3 qualifying rounds first, then they are Champions. But 4th placed big league millionaire clubs, that have won absolutely f**k all in 20 years, they are Champions in UEFA's eyes. This is one of the reasons I don't watch the Champions League anymore. It has absolutely nothing to do with merit. UEFA set the wheels in motion for this entitled pish. I am just going to enjoy watching the fall out.

It’s like Bananaman joining The Avengers.

Can't believe the 2 biggest clubs in the world haven't been invited

It would be pretty funny if UEFA and FIFA follow through with their threats to ban players from World Cups etc and JP Morgan end up shelling billions for 20 teams rammed full of journeymen and 35 year old former internationals at the arse end of their careers.

This may still turn out to just be a power play from these clubs to wrestle more money and concessions from UEFA in Champions League reforms. But, this is the natural consequence of what has come before. The EPL, UEFA and Sky's opposition is welcome, but let's not forget that they are the ones who have long sowed the seeds of this situation. They are the ones who have invited nation states, oligarchs, corporations and other predatory motherfuckers into our game to run our clubs and competitions, to the detriment of our game. Their mewlings about 'meritocracy' and 'the good of the game' can get filed straight in the bin. Their only concern is that the geese who lay the golden eggs are going to set up their nests elsewhere. Success in football has nearly always been down to who has the most money, but it's beyond that now. Too much money, but morally and ethically bankrupt with very little regulation. (unironically) The game is gone.

Astonished that the English media are so astonished by this tbh. UEFA, the premier league etc created this monster. They sent a clear message that football was about nothing more than making money so this scorned lover act is quite hard to relate to. Of course this is a fucking travesty for football if/when it happens but it’s just the end game of a journey that started decades ago. If you were wanking over the champions league a week ago and are horrified at the news yesterday then you haven’t been paying attention.

The winner of this league can play the winner of the Atlantic League every year in football's equivalent of the Superbowl. It is funny seeing Gary Lineker getting outraged by this proposal. The same Lineker who was moaning a few weeks back about smaller nations being allowed to play on the same pitch as England.

It fries my mind. You go onto any Premier league club's twitter and you inevitably have a Man Utd fan from Nigeria fighting with like a Liverpool fan from Thailand and they're all going like 'ahahaha, you're so shit, we're the best' etc and I simply do not understand and never will understand that extensive level of investment in a club that you've never seen and likely never will. It strikes me as almost childlike to do something like this. I could never imagine taking such an interest, even in a club I have gone to see live like Hertha Berlin or Barcelona, to the point I'd call them 'we' or 'us', because I'd never feel I could fully invest in something so far away and with no real prior history or investment. I couldn't feel part of the fanbase or any involvement in the crowd. I was really, really into Man Utd from about 7 or 8 until I was about 12. First team I ever watched and totally fell in love with football over. Eric Cantona was my hero. But then I grew up and grew out of it...I'm not from Manchester, I don't live there or breathe the atmosphere around the club on matchdays - perhaps if I did I'd be far more emotionally invested so that's why I can't understand the mindset of not only a telly/internet fan (and god knows we suffer plenty of them in this country) but a fan who will espouse their undying love for a club that they'll never, ever watch play. I'd much rather give that energy, that passion and that drive to my local team because at the end of the day, watching 22 unknowns playing a game of football live is 100x better than watching 22 superstars on the telly because NOTHING beats live football. not only is it more entertaining, more fun and exciting but it actually gives you a better understanding of the game as there is so much more developing in front of your eyes than a camera will pick up. If I was a Ghanaian, Croatian, or American and was desperately looking for a football team to latch onto, I'd be looking in my own area first, not to foreign shores. And unfortunately, that mentality for the sport is long since lost which has lead to the pit of greed that we have today.

Absolutely gone at fucking Spurs getting involved in this avaricious nonsense having won nothing other than a solitary League Cup since the late 90s

I think this scenario is slightly less extreme as the ESL clubs are still proposing to play in their domestic leagues, but I would never want to leave Scottish football. The best parts about domestic football are having heated debates with your mates and slagging each other off based on their team of choice, going to relatively easily accessible away matches and making a day of it. If we were to leave Scottish football that would all stop. You’d have nothing in common with your mates anymore in terms of football and you’d only be able to follow your team if you’re pretty well off.

Been laughing all day at the faux outrage from the various people/associations who are opposed to this. Fifa, uefa, la liga, epl etc have all sat back for years and allowed an untouchable elite to form. They've never given a single thought to integrity or fair play as long as the money flowed into their pockets too. Now that same elite have realised that Fifa et al are nothing but a drain on their finances and are set to cut them off, it's brilliant. Fifa have had a monopoly on football since day one and it's nice to see them getting fucked over by the very monsters they created.

I'd strongly suggest that you stick to the data updates, because every time you step outside of that you end up verging on UKIP territory.

Don't think she'll shag you mate.

I want to go back to complete lockdown just for this.

Carragher talking about Liverpool fans tearing a stadium down

Well, did a Facebook fundraiser for the school, $250 and I’d dye my hair! Eek!

Spaces for People is great, has the support of most people in Edinburgh and most of those against it are small-minded f*nnies who would rather see children and pensioners killed than be delayed by 30 seconds every day or, God forbid, occasionally leave their Qashqai at home. It's not an SNP council, it's SNP-Labour, and those two parties plus the Greens support Spaces for People. Literally the only reason the Lib Dems don't support it is because they think it helps them in Cole-Hamilton's seat and they are shameless opportunistic kunts who would sell their grannies for a handful of votes. Cole-Hamilton is a hypocrit who lives in a cul-de-sac while opposing other streets being turned into cul-de-sacs, poses in a gas mask and talks about air pollution while opposing absolutely every policy to do anything about it, including Spaces for People, the parking levy, congestion charging and LTNs. There's no constituency result I want more than to see him do a Swinson.

^^^ lives in a benighted hovel with one train station

No tears for UEFA here. They basically kickstarted this when they turned the tremendous European Cup into the shite Champions League. Football at this level has been fucked for years.

Agreed. And stick in the two OF colt teams as punishment.

This is worse than that ESL statement. Corrzo b’christ.

Right, how do we get a full-time club promoted out of a part-time league? I know let's change the formation every week to try and exploit weaknesses in the other teams. Doomed to failure starting with that attitude.

I've had a hard time adjusting in adulthood to a middle class lifestyle, which I worked my way into and which is all my kids have known. Having come from below the poverty line in a deprived, unsafe scheme, I didn't realise until relatively recently that it's not "normal" to be on edge all the time, that there isn't violence or problems lurking around every corner and that these subconscious pre-programmed safety mechanisms that I developed as a child are not compatible with my life as an adult. Basically the fight, flight, freeze mechanism of the amygdala works overtime in people from these backgrounds and means they're producing adrenaline and cortisol much more than is healthy, leading to all sorts of stress related side effects and destructive behaviours.

Jim McClean was doing that with young players at Dundee United in the 1980's to be fair.

Brilliant news! Good morning Seasiders I have been advised by the Scottish FA that, at their meeting on Wednesday 14 April, the Scottish FA Board approved the club’s membership application. The membership (and Entry level licence award) will be effective from the Scottish FA AGM, scheduled for 20 July 2021. It’s the final confirmation for us that everyone's hard work here has been recognised. Huge thanks to you all our supporters for their role in enabling the club to make this happen. Our main focus, behind the scenes, is now on getting our squad ready for our senior Scottish Cup debut and an improved performance in the East of Scotland Premier League. Many thanks Stuart Board Chair, Dunbar United FC

FIFA will be bought off. No chance they deprive the World Cup, their number one earner, of all the top players. Institutionally corrupt, they awarded world cups to Russia and Qatar, you think a European Super League is where they draw the line ?

I'd much rather people be raging than be pathetic boot lickers tbh

Immediate expulsion from all domestic and European competitions should be doled out to these twelve clubs this morning. We all know that won’t happen but it doesn’t really get more serious than what they are threatening football with. It cannot be allowed to happen. Spurs - without a league win since 1961, demanding a permanent seat at the top table for no other reason than...actually, I have no idea what the reason is.

What a lot of utter fucking shite. Just spouting a whole load of waffle, chuck in a few cliches then some greeting about injuries. 4 of them working on our ‘shape’ what shape would that be then? We’ve played every formation going this season and been dogshit in them all. One of the things that angered me most was the comment about the Airdrie game how there is a right way to lose a game and against Airdrie the players worked hard and all this shite. I mean does he think we don’t remember the game because it was 2 weeks ago? We were fucking howling and deservedly got beat. Barely laid a glove on them and his ‘performance’ in particular stinking the place out. Genuinely think that interview was their last roll of the dice to try and get the fans back on side. Putting the more popular one out to say how much he’s hurting, what the club means to him etc... unfortunately for them he’s a fucking idiot and spouting utter shite which we can see straight through. Get them out.

These idiots trying to play different formations every week like they’re managing Barcelona. You’re managing players in the third tier of Scottish football. Pick a formation, work on it with the players till they all know what is required of them and then stick with that formation

Yeah not to accuse ICTChris of naivety as it would be extremely unfair, but sadly this type of behaviour is never far below the surface in the average socially depressed housing scheme. That's part of the reason why it's self perpetuating, the kids live through it and take that edgy stress of daily life into their adulthood and the cycle continues. These places come with an inbuilt tension and lack of feeling of safety that causes permanent effects and changes in the brain/hormones. The Glasgow Effect study had some great info in this area, but I'm sure other socio economic studies are available.

Seeing defenders of the Champions League - a tournament where actual champions have to go through three rounds of qualification whereas teams who finish fourth in their league get straight in - saying this ESL is the worst thing ever is some laugh, to be honest.

Most of the clubs involved are operating with colossal debts which they've been able to get away with so far, but an implosion is far from unthinkable if CL revenue is not a year-on-year guarantee and losses continue to accumulate - combined with covid-related losses, creditors in the financial sector will have the knives pressed against directors' necks. Fingers crossed on this going tits up and everyone involved doing a Rangers.

Proof, if it was even needed, that Sridhar is using the pandemic as a tool to raise her profile and nothing else.

10 out of 10. And not a guess amongst them.

That specky wee VL we all know who has never set foot in a Scottish ground but sits in a Liverpool or Chelsea shirt watching his coupon on Soccer Saturday is to blame for this.

Dear Premier League. We hear you might be losing some clubs, are you looking for big clubs with history to replace them? We were wondering...

10 for Monday.

Honestly, it would be nice to be entirely rid of both those clubs and have a proper league restructure.

I have absolutely no issue with people who have different issues that they are equally as passionate about. I don't have an issue either with people that opt to vote for Fergus Ewing or any of the other more unsavoury SNP candidates if they believe it's the best choice. What I have an issue with is your smug condescending attitude that you're more enlightened than people who can't countenance voting for a bigot.

As a side note, the bizarre argument happening on this thread that nobody else seems to be acknowledging is fucking glorious. Keep it up lads.