HTG Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 The FT article makes clear how closely this ESL proposal aligns to elite sport in the US. At the same time, the driving forces for this thing have apparently been Liverpool and Manchester United. So, we've got Americans wanting to adopt the American model, we've got some clubs who are riddled with debt and then some who just don't want to be left out. The short answer is that if Messrs Henry, Glazer and Kroenke don't like sport based on at least some merit, they should f**k off back to America. If Real Madrid are utterly fucked then they should take their medicine - I'm sure the Spanish govt will bail them out again. I'll not be in the least bit surprised if Man City pull out but they can hardly claim to have been lied to - surely to f**k lawyers would have read the proposal. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dunfermline Don Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 A sidenote in all this, Boris Johnson apparently clearing his diary to attempt to stop this is utterly ridiculous given he didn't show up to COBRA meetings about COVID in February last year He’s looking to shore up his vote in the ‘red wall’ seats in the North of England. Expect a few embarrassing photo opportunities with him in the press soon. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coprolite Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 2 minutes ago, Dunfermline Don said: He’s looking to shore up his vote in the ‘red wall’ seats in the North of England. Expect a few embarrassing photo opportunities with him in the press soon. Confidently predict that Have I Got News For You will be showing a video of Boris's tackle on Friday evening. There you go Hislop, you can use that cheap innuendo for free. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aladdin Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 Its incredible the way this has been (mis)handled by the parties involved. Even if they do have a broadcast partner lined up and some confidence in their position about being able to remain in their domestic leagues, it just points to American owners being utterly tone deaf and ignorant to how football is viewed in Europe and how it is structured completely differently to the big American organisations. Even more so when, like it or not, you cant imagine that a supra national European top flight is really that far away. Its something I would be fairly ambivalent to if it could be integrated with the domestic leagues with some form of promotion and relegation. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotThePars Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 Just a reply to some of the chat earlier but if young people are less interested in football than previous generations then the solution isn't making the games shorter to cope with their dang pathetic attention spans it's giving them much greater access to watch football. I've barely watched anything in the last few years outside of the big international tournaments because my options are watching it on a shitey stream or going to the pub. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigkillie Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 The response of the American sports journalists and pundits on this has been telling - they seem genuinely surprised that people are against it. It might be that the owners were of the same mindset and have been in their own bubble for so long that they don't really understand the essence of the sport. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jambomo Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 (edited) 4 minutes ago, NotThePars said: Just a reply to some of the chat earlier but if young people are less interested in football than previous generations then the solution isn't making the games shorter to cope with their dang pathetic attention spans it's giving them much greater access to watch football. I've barely watched anything in the last few years outside of the big international tournaments because my options are watching it on a shitey stream or going to the pub. I honestly don't think its even true that young people do have any issues watching games as they are. As you say just because someone watches highlights on You Tube or whatever doesn't mean they aren't watching the whole thing live as well, or that maybe they are only watching it because that's the only access they have or something. There are plenty of kids still going to games or watching full games, it strikes me they've taken the online popularity of clips and made an assumption that's not there. Edited April 20, 2021 by Jambomo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alert Mongoose Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 Or not counted the millions watching the live games through Hesgoal etc. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiegoDiego Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 De Zerbi saying he doesn't want to play Milan tomorrow and describes the ESL as a coup.Roma strongly against it: "certain things are worth more than money"Italian media seems to be against it, but not as vehemently as UK media. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest TheJTS98 Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 17 minutes ago, NotThePars said: Just a reply to some of the chat earlier but if young people are less interested in football than previous generations then the solution isn't making the games shorter to cope with their dang pathetic attention spans it's giving them much greater access to watch football. I've barely watched anything in the last few years outside of the big international tournaments because my options are watching it on a shitey stream or going to the pub. Yeah, but that's where you run into the issue of clubs wanting people to pay for stuff. I saw an interview with a guy who used to be a French tv exec, I think CanalPlus, a while ago talking about how young people and students want to watch games, but will not (cannot) pay the subs required. So, the two obvious results of this are piracy and people just watching live goals come in or short highlight clips on social media. He said that age group aren't even keen on highlight shows. The argument that some media types have is that once that's how people watch their football, a large number of them just adopt that as their way of watching football. You never see the games you want to see, so you don't bother about watching games. Nobody is saying that nobody under 25 likes watching football. But it's simple reality that the current young generation have grown up in a world with different viewing options to what existed before. It would be a surprise if the rapid advances in technology since the 90s had no impact on how people watch sport. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Granny Danger Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 I see a Madrid court has made a ruling preventing EUFA and FIFA from taking preemptive action against the rebel clubs. Not sure what authority a Madrid court has over these bodies. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marty_j Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/queensparkrangers/news/54841Decent synopsis this 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahemps Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 59 minutes ago, UAE1929 said: Does this solve the problem though? Throw more money at the super rich to make them change their mind. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jambomo Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 10 minutes ago, ahemps said: Does this solve the problem though? Throw more money at the super rich to make them change their mind. Its just exacerbating the problem, these clubs will never be happy. I think its difficult for UEFA though, these big clubs keep wanting to change the rules to suit themselves and if they don't agree this is what you get. It will be interesting to see if the fans of the Bix 6 clubs do anything to get rid of these owners and if the UK Gov help them with that. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miguel Sanchez Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 As a fan of an American sports team owned* by Stan Kroenke I'd just like to tell you all that his first name is actually Enos. *currently by his wife, technically, I think 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim McLean's Ghost Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 43 minutes ago, Aladdin said: Its incredible the way this has been (mis)handled by the parties involved. Even if they do have a broadcast partner lined up and some confidence in their position about being able to remain in their domestic leagues, it just points to American owners being utterly tone deaf and ignorant to how football is viewed in Europe and how it is structured completely differently to the big American organisations. Even more so when, like it or not, you cant imagine that a supra national European top flight is really that far away. Its something I would be fairly ambivalent to if it could be integrated with the domestic leagues with some form of promotion and relegation. That is what surprised me. That this Super League wasn't an actual league replacement for the EPL, La Liga and Serie A. 20 teams, 38 games. Every game shown live across the weekend. This version is just a shittier version of the Champions League. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caledonian1 Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 47 minutes ago, NotThePars said: Just a reply to some of the chat earlier but if young people are less interested in football than previous generations then the solution isn't making the games shorter to cope with their dang pathetic attention spans it's giving them much greater access to watch football. I've barely watched anything in the last few years outside of the big international tournaments because my options are watching it on a shitey stream or going to the pub. How many kids say 11-16 do you see going to games with their mates these days? The only kids are those being taken along by parents. The game has been too expensive for many many years - look at someone taking a corner at say Old Trafford in the 70's or 80's the corner taker is surrounded by young kids on their own waving their teams colours.....fast forward to the Premier League years and all you see are foreign tourists with half and half scarves taking photos on their phone - to capture that moment they actually saw Man United V West Brom. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thistle_do_nicely Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 (edited) 3 hours ago, Hedgecutter said: Scottish football UEFA competitions need a strong Rangers & Celtic: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/56815127 Talk about desperate. wonder if UEFA are thinking they might be able to i) let them f**k off to form their own super league, praying domestic leagues hold firm and expel them all and ii) go back to a champions only format. The European Cup/Uefa Champs League is still a strong brand name (feels a bit yech saying that but given all thats gone on that's where we're at now) edit: ii) is unlikely come to think of it, but they've maybe got limited options - a top 4 in England of Arsenal, Man City, Man Utd and Liverpool is a world away from say Everton, West Ham, Leicester and Newcastle. Main thinking is that if/when broadcast revenue drops since the big boys are no longer there, instead of splitting a smaller pot among clubs to fill the void you just reduce the number of clubs involved and they get larger shares. Bit shite for the domestic leagues but the carrot is there and its not wildly different from what happens now anyway, just different names benefitting... bit of a chicken and egg situation tbf; is the UCL "big" because it has Real Madrid etc. competing and winning it frequently, or are Real Madrid "big" because they compete in and regularly win the UCL? UEFA would prefer to have the big boys at the table but if they go out guns blazing it could well be a big "brand split" going on. All hinges on how tough the domestic leagues are on the breakaway clubs - if they go off and have the ESL and ESL only, then there's still well backed English and Spanish clubs to go into a CL potentially. Always then run the risk of the ESL trying to expand/invite more European clubs too, or create their own 2nd tier, but I think an ESL would be more likely to go global imo. End result surely is a ESL running as its own replacement for domestic league seasons, and then what is the Club World Championship now effectively expanding so you'll have a CL style tournament involving MLS sides, Qatari sides (now away from any Fifa/Uefa rules on holding stakes in multiple clubs) etc. Fucking nightmarish with timezones but you just cater to wherever the matches are physically played. Edited April 20, 2021 by Thistle_do_nicely 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coprolite Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 28 minutes ago, Granny Danger said: I see a Madrid court has made a ruling preventing EUFA and FIFA from taking preemptive action against the rebel clubs. Not sure what authority a Madrid court has over these bodies. The jurisdiction will be whatever spanish law says it is but the actual authority in terms of being able to do anything about it will be pretty limited. I'd guess any assets or possibly (but unlikely) senior or expatriate personnel located in Spain could be put at some sort of risk. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caledonian1 Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 34 minutes ago, DiegoDiego said: De Zerbi saying he doesn't want to play Milan tomorrow and describes the ESL as a coup. Roma strongly against it: "certain things are worth more than money" Italian media seems to be against it, but not as vehemently as UK media. I wonder if we will see an entire team and mangement come out against it - the likes of the Liverpool squad and Klopp stating that they will not re-sign unless Liverpool withdraw from the ESL. This would be fantastic publicity for the club and potentially lead to other teams doing the same -if as I suspect all players are against this, These are all players earning more money than they could ever spend - do they need any more so that they can go abroad every mid-week to play a select number of teams....the same ones as last year, and the same ones the next. No clubs need this.......it's their greedy owners who think they do. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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