European Super League.

[Left Back]

5 minutes ago, Monkey Tennis said:

I agree.

However, UEFA were prepared to butcher their tournaments, because not doing so would have resulted in a breakaway back then.  

Man City sure as Hell wouldn't have featured then though.  A few years after the CL launched they wound up in the 3rd tier.

Each of the big 6 in England have had periods of being nothing clubs either during or shortly before the champions league era.  Would Spurs or Chelsea have featured at that time?  

[Jim McLean's Ghost]

Just now, Monkey Tennis said:

I agree.

However, UEFA were prepared to butcher their tournaments, because not doing so would have resulted in a breakaway back then.  

Man City sure as Hell wouldn't have featured then though.  A few years after the CL launched they wound up in the 3rd tier.

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.

[jamamafegan]

I agree.
However, UEFA were prepared to butcher their tournaments, because not doing so would have resulted in a breakaway back then.  
Man City sure as Hell wouldn't have featured then though.  A few years after the CL launched they wound up in the 3rd tier.

Yep. UEFA are partly to blame for this for pandering to greedy footballing nations by expanding the champions league and introducing “wildcards” - a god awful idea geared to get more clubs from the top European leagues into the CL. It’s a fucking mess. Sadly nowadays, if the format was to go back to the old EC folk would be raging because they don’t want to watch the likes of the Polish champions in the competition, they’d rather rub their wee tadgers over more “fashionable” teams and players such as PSG and Mbappe or Barcelona and Messi.

[Ro Sham Bo]

I rarely watch Champions league football anyway, so if that want to replace it with some other nonsense then they should just go for it. And if they get kicked out of their domestic league set up, then all the better as matches between the 'big 6' are invariably bore fests anyway. 

I don't believe a word Neville says though. Just contrived nonsense to make him sound like he's in touch with the average punter. He'll be lapping it up if it goes ahead and United can suddenly attract decent players again because they're in the Super League. 

[madwullie]

36 minutes ago, HalfCutNinja said:

Does anyone remember a cartoon in the mid 80's with a global football league? Teams going around the world competing against the best teams from every continent. That would be amazing. Boca Juniors and some mad Asian team and shit. 

Pretty sure Melchester Rovers ended up  doing something similar too. Kinda like the harlem globetrotters but with hot shot hamish

Edited April 18, 2021 by madwullie

[HalfCutNinja]

22 minutes ago, G51 said:

Aye. Celtic and Rangers have been aware for years now that the way to survive is to produce a player good enough to move to England. Both clubs have been extremely open about it. The minute a top-six English side comes in with a bid for a player, he's gone.

It will mean changes for us, but it probably doesn't really change the quality of player we see in Scotland. It might mean the Old Firm have to cut their budgets, because if the UEFA TV deal loses value, then a huge part of the OF's income is lost. That's probably a good thing for Scottish football overall, because anything that brings the OF closer to the pack is better for the league.

The negatives are that this could end up changing football fandom forever. Kids might grow up with a Scottish team and an ESL team, the same way Americans have a college team and a pro team. I dunno. It's kinda hard to forecast it at this point.

 

Top six your arse, the minute a club 14th in the EPL comes in they're gone. Celtic have sold half a team to Southampton, and Rangers haven't had a player good enough for a top six club in their entire history. Alan Hutton of the old club was the last one.

[Sherrif John Bunnell]

Just about every character in The Hurricanes looks like they were created by Prince Philip.

[Left Back]

9 minutes ago, G51 said:

I can't say I'm overly familiar with the history of Microsoft's antitrust litigation with the European Commission, no.

But the idea that the Commission would step in to stop an ESL on antitrust grounds is fanciful at best. There is a long history of sports leagues being given exemptions to antitrust laws when they need it, and I don't see any reason why the ESL would be different. It will be popular and rich enough to buy the influence it needs to buy.

I didn’t say they’d stop it.  I said they’d stop it acting as a cartel which you claimed they would do.

[Left Back]

4 minutes ago, HalfCutNinja said:

Top six your arse, the minute a club 14th in the EPL comes in they're gone. Celtic have sold half a team to Southampton, and Rangers haven't had a player good enough for a top six club in their entire history. Alan Hutton of the old club was the last one.

Billy Gilmour went from Rangers to Chelsea no?

[G51]

6 minutes ago, Left Back said:

I didn’t say they’d stop it.  I said they’d stop it acting as a cartel which you claimed they would do.

And I said there is a long history of sports leagues being granted exemption to antitrust laws. The Premier League has effectively had exemptions to EU antitrust law, for instance.

Pointless going round in circles here. Last I'll say on it is if owners didn't think this would make them money, then they wouldn't do it. The most obvious way it makes them money is by increasing revenue and capping a players salary. The most obvious way to do that is through a salary cap, which is effectively the behaviour of a cartel. These guys are only ever interested in the bottom line.

Edited April 18, 2021 by G51

[Jim McLean's Ghost]

4 minutes ago, Sherrif John Bunnell said:

Just about every character in The Hurricanes looks like they were created by Prince Philip.

Buckled at Andy Stone "revolutionary cold-compress". it is called the magic sponge ffs.

[HalfCutNinja]

1 minute ago, Left Back said:

Billy Gilmour went from Rangers to Chelsea no?

Never heard of him

[Sherrif John Bunnell]

[Fratelli]

I thought the whole thing was a bit of a bluff to be honest, but that really would be catastrophic if it does happen. Don't think the folk saying that it'll kill football as we know it are bing overly dramatic. 

Edited April 18, 2021 by Fratelli

[Lofarl]

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.

[Jambomo]

How do they expect to compete in their own leagues?
 

They’ll have extra revenue streams not available to other clubs which will make the inequalities even worse (and it’s bad enough already). They already moan about the number of matches.

Its a fucking mess. Yes football needs to change things but this is far from the way to do it.

[supermik]

Ridiculous idea. Unfortunately money talks and it probably will happen.

[jamamafegan]

Oh my days. At this stage I’m not even mad, this is astonishing stuff. Just shows how fucked the game is.

[Forest_Fifer]

Well, shit just got real. They really think Uefa and FIFA are going to roll over?

[Left Back]

So basically the 12 founding clubs have been bribed with almost €300m each to form this league by a consortium thats tapped up a US investment bank for $6bn is what I’m reading.