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European Super League - Dead on arrival

I don’t think Everton fans realise what this could mean to them. They are over there on their forum getting excited about possibly getting champions league football.

Very funny!! If fans of other teams genuinely are happy about this, then I really do worry about them! The CL will be dead in terms of status. Will be interesting to see whether the TV companies seek a reduction in what they paid UEFA
 
Tbh I'm not at all bothered.
Football has changed immeasurably since I was a kid, not just playing but watching it.
Late 70s early 80s I went celtic Park, ibrox and hampden regularly and a few others occasionally.
They were pits, absolute fudging pits.
My first visit to hampden was a cup final replay and walking under the main stand to get the enclosure was like the scene in gladiator where they first enter the arena.
Celtic Park the stands were a river of urine, ibrox didn't have enough stalls and it wasn't unusual to see crap lying in the stairwells.
Women and kids were a novelty.
Outside was worse, running the gauntlet of "casuals".
Never mind the bigotry and hatred.
I doubt it was any different anywhere else.
Football on TV was once a week and pitiful.
Try following a club from a distance, you had no chance. If you didn't follow man utd or Liverpool you never had a chance. Results and a table.
Merchandise, ha, that will be the day. 1981 I got my second only football strip, a Tottenham Hotspur full strip, took over six weeks to arrive. The main sports shop in Glasgow said it was the first one they had sold in seven years!
All that has gone, well apart from the bigotry, and it needed money to do it. Money the working class man was unwilling or unable to pay.
Sky was willing to pay for it so they call the tune. But look what we get in return.
I can watch spurs whenever I want, the stadiums are a Palace in comparison to "the good old days", the product is better (oh yes it is, no more ploughed fields, no more vinnie Jones, refs are still crap though), it is family friendly, its inclusive and it is driving social change and for the better.
Others saw sky make money and have jumped on it, Competition is good for the consumer.
Is it all roses, no.
I hate sky, loath them, and do everything I can to not give them money.
The instant experts do my head in.
The hype is cringe worthy, average players are feted as World beaters.
Tactics pulled apart forever, and usually by idiots.
Saddest bit for me, there is no fun anymore, that's our fault.
There's a playing field with 12 grass pitches half a mile from my home, you never see anyone playing football on them.
There's loads of kids with balls, but they're all doing drills, dribbling round fudging cones, I mean WTF!
They're all gone now, paved over for motorway and houses, but I grew up 500 yards from south pollok playing fields, 30 pitches and in the summer there was always people actually playing football on them.

Football is a product, end of.
I don't follow football, I follow Tottenham Hotspur, where they go I go.
And don't think the clubs, fifa, eufa and the broadcasters don't know it. If you or me decide we don’t like it, there are plenty more who will take our place.
And they won't be moaning about the cost, or good old days or soulless clubs.
When people have signed their life away to amazon, Netflix Fb, twitter etc it's easy to ignore another soulless corporate entity.
 
It's about international fanbase and wealth alone. They are holding places for Bayern, Dortmund and PSG. The other clubs that you mention will be in the five invitation places but I wouldn't be surprised if you saw another breakaway and a super league b formed of Ajax, Benfica, Porto etc
Us playing in any super league ahead of Ajax is a nonsense.
 
Watching Messi destroy us at Wembley , Crouch getting sent off at the Bernabau. The agony that night . To the ecstasy of that night in Amsterdam.

We savour those good and bad nights the memory’s of the agony and ecstasy.

We got to have those nights because of what we done on the pitch. We got there through merit and deserved to be there.

European nights like that are special because they are few and far between. Not some watered down closed shop financial league.
 
I guess it depends on (i) whether UEFA, PL etc carry through on their threat to expel these teams (I doubt it) and (ii) if they dont, how teams juggle competing demands of the ESL and PL.

Setting side qualification rules for now, if this thing essentially replaces the CL it wont be that different will it?

It will be massively different because clubs in the PL will have nothing to play for other than the title and avoiding relegation. The Super League clubs will have a huge financial advantage and will hoover up all of the best players. I agree with @Glenda's Legs, I don't think that the Super League Clubs have any interest in remaining in their domestic leagues. They will want to be playing Super League games on weekend evenings to maximise the value of the rights.
 
Watching Messi destroy us at Wembley , Crouch getting sent off at the Bernabau. The agony that night . To the ecstasy of that night in Amsterdam.

We savour those good and bad nights the memory’s of the agony and ecstasy.

We got to have those nights because of what we done on the pitch. We got there through merit and deserved to be there.

European nights like that are special because they are few and far between. Not some watered down closed shop financial league.

I get all that, however if we opted out of the ESL those glory nights would never happen - the CL would be much smaller post the ESL and those giant teams wouldnt ever compete in it

We're better off in the ESL that not in it
 
It will be massively different because clubs in the PL will have nothing to play for other than the title and avoiding relegation. The Super League clubs will have a huge financial advantage and will hoover up all of the best players. I agree with @Glenda's Legs, I don't think that the Super League Clubs have any interest in remaining in their domestic leagues. They will want to be playing Super League games on weekend evenings to maximise the value of the rights.
Agree and this all massively devalues the domestic competition. Even if the clubs aren’t kicked out of the domestic leagues instantly, this is all geared for an eventual breakaway league. I’m beginning to wonder if this is the beginning of the end of domestic football and various European leagues being formed....
 
Agree and this all massively devalues the domestic competition. Even if the clubs aren’t kicked out of the domestic leagues instantly, this is all geared for an eventual breakaway league. I’m beginning to wonder if this is the beginning of the end of domestic football and various European leagues being formed....

I think that possibly the best thing the Super League Clubs could do is put youth sides in the domestic leagues. At least there would be competition then.
 
my two pence:

1) it probably won't happen still
2) It's incredible we're even a part of the conversation. Every club in that mix has won a league title in the last 20 years i think. We haven't won one in 60. We aren't big spenders or Euro heavyweights
3) from a Club perspective, if you have the chance to be a part of a financial doping world of football, it's a no brainer. Please take off your football fan hat and look at it from the perspective of the club. If this closed group goes ahead with billions in revenue, you'll be left out in the cold, in the doldrums
4) of course it's a terrible idea to many of us. But it isn't being done to benefit us. It's being done to maximise revenue for rich people quite similar to NFL coming to UK. In fact if these clubs could play a game abroad in Saudi or something, no doubt they would jump at the chance
5) Devils advocate here for a moment, but Uefa can hardly have much moral ground to stand on. The clubs and the players and the employees are effectively unionising. Uefa (and FIFA) are corrupt to the core, taking billions from the clubs "to run football" but most of these are greasers who have no interest in football, never played, never been a fan
6) Least it saves me buying a Season Ticket (although as if Levy will include those games in with the price), time to get down to Southend to watch them play more exciting football than Jose's brand
 
I get all that, however if we opted out of the ESL those glory nights would never happen - the CL would be much smaller post the ESL and those giant teams wouldnt ever compete in it

We're better off in the ESL that not in it

Maybe so. But the ESL is not competition. Square it with yourself however you like it’s just not the same.

Levy is a joke. We have no right to be in that . We are a shambles at the moment. We deserve no place in Europe’s elite on footballing merit. Just because we are worth X amount we are invited. It flys in the face of what sport is about.
 
I think that there is a possibility that the English clubs participating might form separate companies in Europe which own the team (with a UK registered company owning the stadium, rights etc.) to get around Brexit employment rules
 
Maybe so. But the ESL is not competition. Square it with yourself however you like it’s just not the same.

Levy is a joke. We have no right to be in that . We are a shambles at the moment. We deserve no place in Europe’s elite on footballing merit. Just because we are worth X amount we are invited. It flys in the face of what sport is about.

You're right, we don't deserve to be in it. That's why you have to admire Levy for how he's gotten us in. He's anything but a joke. I don't believe that very many other people could have gotten us a seat at the table.

The other thing this tinkles all over is away fans. Away fans really make an atmosphere at most games. Very few will be able to attend games in Madrid, Barcelona, Milan etc. But then, away fans don't account for much revenue by just being away fans and football has survived the last 12 months without any fans at all. Yay money.
 
Maybe so. But the ESL is not competition. Square it with yourself however you like it’s just not the same.

Levy is a joke. We have no right to be in that . We are a shambles at the moment. We deserve no place in Europe’s elite on footballing merit. Just because we are worth X amount we are invited. It flys in the face of what sport is about.
Levy is a joke because we have no footballing success yet are one of Europe’s richest and are locked in the European Super League? Sounds like he’s played a blinder:D...
 
You're right, we don't deserve to be in it. That's why you have to admire Levy for how he's gotten us in. He's anything but a joke. I don't believe that very many other people could have gotten us a seat at the table.

The other thing this tinkles all over is away fans. Away fans really make an atmosphere at most games. Very few will be able to attend games in Madrid, Barcelona, Milan etc. But then, away fans don't account for much revenue by just being away fans and football has survived the last 12 months without any fans at all. Yay money.
If the games are played on Saturdays I’m sure plenty will be able to make it - most of us have done plenty of city break weekends, would actually be good to have a game to go to aswell. I guess a positive for the English teams is that almost half the away games will be in this country....
 
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