European Super League - plans announced

~Rebel~

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121522581#Comment_121522581

The reformed version of the Super League doesn’t seem to be too interested in the PL. It’s more geared towards all the loss making leagues, looking to put in place a better business model so they can be competitive again.

POKERKING

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121522674#Comment_121522674

Statement released tonight saying they are not interested.

Zico

Hard to believe now but the then chairman of the Football League, Alan Hardaker, described the first European Cup competition as having "too many wogs and dagoes". He wasn't alone in seeing European competitions as a threat to English football either. Some things never change.

TheCitizen

The European leagues could start without the EPL and then they'll follow on later. It happened like that with the European rugby competitions, the English initially didn't take part but they joined later. This will happen, it's inevitable.

brianregan09

They say its open (relegation,promotion) but it's not really , if for arguments sake we got another Leicester type PL winner , they would then go into the blue league , which they would then have to finish in the top 2 in the next 2 tiers to get to the top level. So in essence 3 years of that team essentially winning every season , not going to happen so it's still pretty ring fenced to the top teams

All along this has seemed like a plot by Real and Barcelona to keep themselves at the top table because they've slipped behind Bayern, PSG and the English clubs (especially FCB)

A Super League would be pretty cool but this is not the way to do it

thebaz

Liverpool and Arsenal have not made a response so they must be thinking about it - the other 4 in the Premiership have thankfully issued strong negative statements - how much football can people watch , this on top of a World cup for clubs, never-ending International breaks, sometimes less is more but Greed and money seam to be the only drivers in the corrupt world of modern football.

~Rebel~

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121524780#Comment_121524780

No English side will be within a million miles of this for at least a few years, and likely not until it's actively up and running already. That's when the conversations will start more realistically, but until then at the very least, it's a non starter for the English sides - and to be honest, that's probably the way the ESL will want it. This is really a continental Europe V Britain move more than anything in it's new guise.

Kiith

The "Resistance bonus" for Real and Barca is one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time.

IncognitoMan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121525087#Comment_121525087

Some of the biggest crooks going in football those 2 clubs

y0ssar1an22

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121525087#Comment_121525087

whats this?

jacool

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121525741#Comment_121525741

Barcelona and Real Madrid could receive a substantial "loyalty bonus" of up to €1 billion for their support of the European Super League.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121525809#Comment_121525809

There's the real reason for the big push from both of those clubs.

They bled La Liga dry for years gouging almost all the TV money.

Disgusting.

NIMAN

Let's be honest folks, we may accept this, cos it's coming.

Might not be next year or the year after, but it's guaranteed at some point.

Get used to the idea.

y0ssar1an22

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121525809#Comment_121525809

thats shocking but not surprising from those 2 teams.

IncognitoMan

The Spanish and Italian clubs need to change something or they'll just continue to be left behind so it's not surprising to see them be in favor.

English clubs have a call to make - join early and get placement higher up the league pyramid or risk it not working and potentially having to join later and work up the pyramid.

If the Glazers have say I can't see Utd not joining up. That makes it very difficult for other clubs to ignore. If Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juve, Inter,AC and Man Utd are in the new competition the CL is really going to suffer.

UEFA are going to have to get very creative here

McFly85

The issue in European football is the Premier League. Generates by far the most money out of any big league and is happy enough to welcome Middle East investment(without effectively policing them yet) so a reaction from European clubs is natural.

But having the league run by a small number of clubs should be considered a complete non-starter - any suggestion of fair play is completely out the window with such a massive conflict of interest. Perez will ensure that the league is engineered as much as possible to be a RM vanity project. They will want not only the lions share of the money but the success too.

Wouldn’t be against new competitions per se, even closed ones - but would need robust independent administration to really work.

IncognitoMan

The presentation of the Super league is cleaned up to make it more appealing to fans but it's the same beast as before. And we knew it would be back.

Who knows where the money grab ends. Once the foot is in the door it will snowball from there.

Eventually do we get to a point where they are looking at Man Utd vs Wolves and thinking that really could be a super league fixture. Man Utd vs Barcelona etc... Why would the clubs continue to commit to playing domestic games that generate less income?

The PL top teams effectively have their own super league.

Huge amounts of money, and are competing with the top European teams year in year out. Large stadiums packed every week.

The PL is the envy of most leagues I'd imagine.

Fr Tod Umptious

I think it all comes down to who will pay the prize pot for the A22 Super League and how much they will pay.

If the Saudis get involved and offer the money that just can't be refused then the clubs will head that way.

In England the Premier League is maxed out.

The latest media rights deal the way it was structed did not greatly increase the money the clubs earn from TV etc. The threat of star players going to the Middle East for big money is ever present, and that will dilute the appeal of the league even further.

That's why the big clubs went with the April 2021 idea, they wanted to leverage more money from Europe thus got involved in this power play between the Super league and UEFA, they backed down when UEFA sweetened the pot*

Now we have the A22 with their idea of a league, which is far more bloated that the original April 2021, but if they can make the prize pot so big that the big teams don't care how many more they have to share it with then they will attract the big teams.

*The April 2021 Super League news came out the day before UEFA were to launch their revamped CL, at the time I read or heard somewhere that during the few days of the revolt UEFA gave more financial concessions to the big teams in that revamped CL to quell the unrest. It was not fan power that killed the April 2021 Super League.

jacool

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121525957#Comment_121525957

I know. I can them getting bags loads of cash.

In 20 years time, they will no longer have bag loads of cash. What then?

A global league, or are they hoping that the Martian league will be up and running by then?

Fitz*

I wonder what the overall perception of this super league would be, if the untrue line of 'they want to disband the football pyramid' wasn't implanted into people's heads by Sky Sports?

Zico

I'm not sold on the idea of the ESL as presented so far but I am interested in any vehicle for an Irish club team(or teams) that could generate enough revenue to retain and develop our own local talent.

Leroy42

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121527399#Comment_121527399

Isn't this the time to think about regional teams? You will need critical mass to compete and there would be massive opportunities to move some supporters away from EPL teams.

This could be an opportunity for Irish football

y0ssar1an22

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121527256#Comment_121527256

i'm still unsure how it was framed that way.

clubs were leaving uefa competitions to do their own thing, the pyramid was never in doubt. if sky lose the PL, they go bust.

the power of the media aint to be underestimated.

Fitz*

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121527491#Comment_121527491

They were leaving UEFA competitions, not domestic competitions, but Sky framed is at the latter and that it would destroy the football pyramid. If you search any social media article about the Super League now, there are still comments about how the 6 clubs wanted to leave the pyramid, how they wanted to block the rest off etc.

Of course Sky were going to do all they could to protect their asset. The Chuckle Brothers at the fore, as usual.

breezy1985

My biggest problem with it is the lies about how teams wil still play domestic leagues.

That is 100% a stepping stone and I think if they are gonna do it go all in. Make Europe 1 and 2 the top leagues and have some sort of promotion system from the domestic leagues similar the way that the Spanish football pyramid is structured.

Zico

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121527472#Comment_121527472

That would be a threat to English clubs. Not the couple of hundred thousand who buy replica shirts or travel to watch games from Ireland but the millions of "Irish" around the world who would automatically support an Irish based team instead of an EPL team.

Zico

There's an over exposure to certain English tabloid opinions in Ireland now..

I've noticed they're often being parroted verbatim about soccer but it even seems to be bleeding into society now.

The Barclay brothers, control a lot of it.

Fr Tod Umptious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121527472#Comment_121527472

I've been saying for years that the future is European wide leagues.

A top flight Super League, a second tier with the likes of Scottish, Dutch, Portuguese teams etc and then further lower tiers.

But the lower tiers would be regional.

An Irish team would be in one of these lower regional leagues.

How much support an Irish team would take from the support Irish people give to the top English teams I don't really know.

People would likely still prefer to follow the big clubs.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121529330#Comment_121529330

People could do both. Plenty of Celtic and United fans out there.

Assuming the Irish team remains in the lower divisions it shouldn't really be a problem to follow both.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121529330#Comment_121529330

That's not the future at all.

It's an awful idea tbh.

As for the Irish teams, they'd be playing bottom tier English teams and wouldn't be be able to afford the journeys possibly.

LuckyLloyd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121524780#Comment_121524780

It will mean less games in the end when the elite clubs eventually stop playing in their current domestic leagues.

Zico

"If you build it they will come"

Ignoring the problems of actually creating a team to compete in the competition to start with, a Dublin based team for example would have a large fanbase and a very competitive commercial revenue stream potential.

With those foundations a well run organisation could compete with the best in Europe.

LuckyLloyd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121528686#Comment_121528686

Exactly. I couldn’t give a **** about small clubs in England or the sanctity of the English league pyramid. Why would I? The EPL has welcomed in the big Middle Eastern walls of money with very limited scrutiny. The old powers of European Football with actual history and tradition need to change something or be happy losing to Man City. It’s an easy choice imo.

Fr Tod Umptious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121529567#Comment_121529567

But why is it awful?

I'd say the people who watched the Lancashire County League were giving out in 1888 about how awful this new national Football League was.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121530028#Comment_121530028

The only people I think this is awful for and won't eventually get over it are the actual local match going fans of the break away teams when the inevitable happens and they either leave their domestic leagues or play academy sides.