European Super League.

[AJF]

1 minute ago, johnnydun said:

Yeah, I totally get you. 

Fair fucks to you like, I would have presumed that all Celt-Gers fans would be looking to jump ship from the SPFL to a European League at the earliest opportunity.

Yeah, it just doesn’t appeal to me at all. The whole premise of it is to make rich clubs richer while breaking away and casting off the smaller European clubs.

If I look at it from a selfish point of view, say Rangers manage to qualify for the champions league next season but we are denied the chance to play Europe’s elite and see the worlds best players in the flesh because they’ve all fucked off to another competition. It’s a farce.

[GordonS]

26 minutes ago, johnnydun said:

Celt-Gers fans, would you like to see your club join this monstrosity?

I think the rest of us would like to see you join.

They were invited but turned it down cos they weren't allowed to enter their colt teams.

Quote

And before anyone starts, having travelled the world, they are up there with those other ESL clubs as a global brand.

Nowhere near as many people watch on pay TV when they play European games, so they're not.

[Fratelli]

It's a difficult thing to imagine but i think i'd just pack it in with Celtic if we got involved with it. I know us and Rangers are very much corporate entities these days, but the main thing Scottish football has going for it is that it still somewhat belongs to the fans. The clubs couldn't survive without the folk who go every week, where as to the big clubs down south their fans are completely dispensable - they don't rely on gate money for income and if the local fans stopped going they'd be replaced by tourists anyway.

i'm fully aware that we have a stadium plastered with advertising for our official gin partner, or whatever latest betting start-up we've accepted money from - but there's at least the feeling or illusion that the club is still somewhat connected to it's roots, and that we as fans still have a bit of a say. 

Edited April 19, 2021 by Fratelli

[AJF]

3 minutes ago, djchapsticks said:

 

Refreshing. I'd always just taken for granted that Rangers (and to a lesser extent Celtic) supporters wholly resented Scotland and the Scottish league setup and would be keen to take the first opportunity to jump ship elsewhere.

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.

[AMMjag]

The SJFA to put in a name infringement 'cease and desist' letter on behalf of their member clubs and put a stop to this Dana White type, flashing lights, VL nonsense.

[GordonS]

1 minute ago, AJF said:

Yeah, it just doesn’t appeal to me at all. The whole premise of it is to make rich clubs richer while breaking away and casting off the smaller European clubs.

If I look at it from a selfish point of view, say Rangers manage to qualify for the champions league next season but we are denied the chance to play Europe’s elite and see the worlds best players in the flesh because they’ve all fucked off to another competition. It’s a farce.

Arguably the TV and commercial deals in Scottish football have allowed the OF to pull up the drawbridge behind them too. They used to be twice the size of Aberdeen and Hearts. Now they're richer than the rest of Scottish football combined.

For all the diversity we've had among league winners since 1985 we might as well be the Isles of Scilly.

[johnnydun]

1 minute ago, Fratelli said:

The clubs couldn't survive without the folk who go every week, where as to the big clubs down south their fans are completely dispensable

I think the pandemic and no fans being allowed in has highlighted this even more.

[AJF]

2 minutes ago, GordonS said:

Arguably the TV and commercial deals in Scottish football have allowed the OF to pull up the drawbridge behind them too. They used to be twice the size of Aberdeen and Hearts. Now they're richer than the rest of Scottish football combined.

For all the diversity we've had among league winners since 1985 we might as well be the Isles of Scilly.

Whilst I don’t particularly disagree with the assessment, I don’t think our domestic league can be comparable to this ESL proposal.

Yes, two teams have dominated in Scotland for X amount of years, but that is quite different to this proposal which seeks to exclude clubs from their closed shop competition for their benefit only.

[djchapsticks]

6 minutes ago, AJF said:

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.

There's something decidedly cold about the thought of checking a fixture list and you see the next 3 away games are in Portugal, Italy and England.....but even between those, the home game is being played out in Abu Dhabi to improve the standing of the game there, so you can't actually get to go.

[Thistle_do_nicely]

which SuperMegaGlobalFranchise are you going to be supporting when they play in the Prince Ahmed Bin Humanrights Stadium in Qatar in the first round of fixtures of the Tampax/Arnold Clark/Trader Joe's/Vauxhall/Opel/Buick/Holden/Saab European Super League?

i'll go for the Manchester City Oilers, will be some real exciting grudge games to come against the Manchester Red Devils. The Liverpool Stanley Knives will be tough competition too.

[Thistle_do_nicely]

2 hours ago, Jim McLean's Ghost said:

UEFA retreated every time and gave into the big leagues. Look at the CL this year. Zero qualifying rounds for any of the big 5 leagues. 19/32 places reserved for those leagues.

A decade before in 2010-11 they only gave 13 guaranteed places to those league.

The big clubs just grab a little more each time.

must... not... break... godwins... law...

 

Hey maybe if we hit them with some nice comfy Lebensraum in Alsace/Lorraine or the Sudetenland they'll finally stop!

...

f**k

Edited April 19, 2021 by Thistle_do_nicely

[Theroadlesstravelled]

1 hour ago, Jim McLean's Ghost said:

It is the same teams mate. It is exactly the same except these founding clubs don't want to actually have to be successful to keep their place at the top.

IMO league games are generally more open than 2 legged cup games.

I’m not really that interested in the CL but I’d be more into this format.

[Antony]

57 minutes ago, johnnydun said:

Celt-Gers fans, would you like to see your club join this monstrosity?

I think the rest of us would like to see you join.

And before anyone starts, having travelled the world, they are up there with those other ESL clubs as a global brand.

Nope from me. Never have wanted it, but at the same time neither Celtic or Rangers will ever bother there arse to fix the huge inequality in Scottish football, so them joining England would be one way of fixing it. 

But if the Premier League does actually lose these 6 clubs, I would imagine Celtic, Rangers, Aberdeen, Hearts, Hibs and a 6th Scottish club (which is anyone's guess as to who) could expect an invite from the English FA sooner rather than later. Bringing in 5 Scottish clubs who could all probably average 30k fans in the Premier League and another who could get upwards of 10k would be a wise move in my opinion. People may laugh but outside of Aston Villa and Everton the rest of the English clubs are not much bigger than Aberdeen on a level playing field in my opinion.

[The Golden God]

Celt-Gers fans, would you like to see your club join this monstrosity?
I think the rest of us would like to see you join.
And before anyone starts, having travelled the world, they are up there with those other ESL clubs as a global brand.

Absolutely fucking not. I’d genuinely rather play Dundee United every other week than play Barcelona.

[Thistle_do_nicely]

FC United of Manchester must be loving this tbf, they'll have a good chunk more interest in them now. Probably be at least one or two other new protest clubs born off the back of this too.

[N5 Spur]

1 hour ago, Donathan said:

 

As an Arsenal fan, we absolutely don't. We won't be making the CL any time soon but when we do, it should be because we've built a worthy team on the park and not due to shady backroom deals.

Likewise Tottenham fans, judging by what I see on various THFC  fora, although I’m guessing there will be a number of fans privately thinking it’s better to be in than out. 

We’ll be in a league we haven’t qualified for on merit, and can’t be relegated from even if we finish bottom on merit... The stadium, training ground complex, Amazon Prime documentary, holding back on stadium naming rights, appointing Mourinho, bringing back Bale, it now all comes into focus.

The only possible piece of joy I could get from this would be to lurk on West Ham’s KUMB forum but I’m simply too ashamed to even do that.  

And I thought 2-2 at Everton would be the worse part of the weekend. 

Edited April 19, 2021 by N5 Spur
Typo

[Antony]

49 minutes ago, AJF said:

Yeah, it just doesn’t appeal to me at all. The whole premise of it is to make rich clubs richer while breaking away and casting off the smaller European clubs.

If I look at it from a selfish point of view, say Rangers manage to qualify for the champions league next season but we are denied the chance to play Europe’s elite and see the worlds best players in the flesh because they’ve all fucked off to another competition. It’s a farce.

But from a selfish point of view Rangers would also have a much better chance of progressing without these elite franchise clubs. Having a slim chance of getting to a final up against Olympiacos, Anderlecht, Copenhagen, Marseille, Fenerbahce, Benfica, Red Star Belgrade, Basel, Dynamo Kiev, Malmo, Ajax, Spartak Moscow, FCSB, Sparta Prague, Rapid Vienna etc is more preferable to me than getting pumped off Man City, Real Madrid, PSG etc.

[Guest]

20 minutes ago, The Golden God said:

 

Absolutely fucking not. I’d genuinely rather play Dundee United every other week than play Barcelona.

 

At least Dundee United managed to beat Barcelona at football. All your fans could do was riot in Barcelona. Why change a habit of a lifetime. 

[SlipperyP]

With this news coming out the blue the Forfar Athletic board have some serious thinking to be done.  They better get the managers appointment right this time around.

 

[Buckets]

10 hours ago, Sherrif John Bunnell said:

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.

The Africans, Asians, Americans, Irish and Australian fans moaning about it is also quite amusing. If they supported their local teams instead of Sky Sports we wouldn't be in this mess. Supposedly football is dead because Leicester and Wolves can no longer spend 100 million in a transfer window and give 100k contracts to players but there was nothing wrong or artificial when a club like Bournemouth can pay as much money as Ajax, Porto or Flamengo and take their best players. Greed killed football long before tonight. All that happened tonight was clubs higher up the food chain realised their place as well as everyone else. 

Also not sure why we are meant to feel sympathy for English clubs down the pyramid about this. You should be signing and paying players based on your income. At non league level the vast majority of your income should surely be based on fans through the gates. If Kidderminster Harriers and Gateshead no longer get handouts from TV deals and sponsorships because they don't have man United and Liverpool above them, then tough luck. They are in the same boat as everyone else. Theoretically if the whole SPFL disappeared tomorrow I don't think it would make a difference to clubs like Troon or Broxburn.