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Post by davycrockett on Apr 19, 2021 16:07:37 GMT 1
Fans of clubs such as Everton, Newcastle, Wolves and Leeds all taking the moral high ground must be staggeringly deluded if they think their clubs would’ve turned it down had they been considered a ‘super club’. The league’s been sordid and money oriented for ever and it only gets worse. Not to mention fans of the 6 breakaway clubs.... All vermantly against it so won't happen
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Post by northwestman on Apr 19, 2021 16:27:11 GMT 1
For all the chorus of condemnation of the European Super League, the galling truth is that its architects planned for exactly this reaction all along. It is why they detonated a nuclear explosion across the game with a statement at 11.15pm on a Sunday night.
It is why Manchester City and Chelsea chose to make the announcement on their websites, not to fan the flames on social media. These clubs knew they would incur a hellish wrath, but they calculated that such blowback could be controlled, that it was a price worth paying in their implacable resolve to go it alone.
Here is the harsh if unpalatable reality: Joel Glazer, Stan Kroenke, John W Henry and Roman Abramovich are not about to be deterred by the fans’ hue and cry. In this quest, they are impervious to the nostalgia and romance of the game.
They do not care about your stories of Nottingham Forest twice winning the European Cup, or Leicester once qualifying for the Champions League. All this pales into insignificance against their realisation that by forcing a Super League through even the most vehement public opposition, they can double their clubs’ value overnight.
This is no mere negotiating gambit for these owners. They are not simply throwing mud at the wall and seeing what will stick. In their minds, this is all but a fait accompli. They are already lawyered-up to the hilt, telling Fifa and Uefa that legal action is under way to prevent their act of secession being thwarted.
In JP Morgan, who have promised to underwrite the project to the tune of £2.5 billion, they have the support of the largest investment bank in the world. And in Real Madrid’s Florentino Perez, they have a chairman without peer in his ruthlessness, a man whose eyes are so fixed are on the prize that he had his club’s statutes changed so that it became almost impossible to unseat him as president.
Supporters will rightly gnash their teeth and vent their spleen. In non-pandemic times, they would surely be mobilising en masse, staging protests inside their grounds. And yet this time, the die is cast. Out in the owners’ boardrooms in Boston and Tampa, in Denver and Abu Dhabi, the response of their match-going supporters is a purely secondary consideration.
You saw as much in the wording of the Super League’s opening statement, in which Perez declared: “Football is the only global sport in the world, with more than four billion fans.” You can be sure that he cares more about the money there is to be made in Beijing and Tokyo than about whatever angry banners might be unfurled at Anfield and Old Trafford.
And now comes the most scalding insult of all: the suggestion that the traditional supporters of the Super League’s 12 founding clubs are being openly described as “legacy fans”. That could be any of us: those who have travelled thousands of miles to chase their clubs’ European dreams, or those who still supported Manchester City when they were 12th in the third tier and losing to York.
All that money spent, all that emotional tumult experienced, only to be patronised as a “legacy fan”. A relic, in other words, ready to be cast aside when the money trail moves elsewhere.
So yes, the Super League is an undertaking of monumental cynicism, but it is not just a fashionable fruit that will wither on the vine. Nor is it some overnight fad: this is an exercise at least five years in gestation, created by clubs resentful at having to share their colossal wealth with others. Today, the exigencies of Covid have turned it from a pipe dream into a grimly imminent prospect.
For the “dirty dozen”, as the founders are being called, this is their only chance at throwing off an estimated £7.4 billion in combined debt. Set against those parlous financial conditions, supporters’ feelings are a frippery. Even historic rivalries are an afterthought: why else would you have the astonishing spectacle of Manchester City publishing comments by Glazer of United?
Daily Telegraph.
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Post by Pilch on Apr 19, 2021 16:27:40 GMT 1
does Gary Neville see this as an opportunity for Salford to gain a lot of fans ?,I'm sure he's genuine to be honest and more likely FC united support might grow very quickly too and march into the league
I've always said I really enjoy the occasional Saturday when town have no game, and sometimes I wish I'd never go into supporting a club, I never missed watching the town from late 80s until early 2000s and could quite easily turn my back on it again given a excuse to
and I'm sure many fans or the greedy 6 will jump at an opportunity like this to walk away
I hope they do
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Post by Deleted on Apr 19, 2021 16:34:48 GMT 1
Is anyone surprised this has happened?
If the answer is yes then I suspect you are wearing rose coloured glasses.
Since 1992 when football was reborn it's all been about the money.
Clubs not taking the League Cup or FA Cup seriously. Being in the Europa League (UEFA Cup) used to be a big deal.
The fans of the top 6 will whine and moan but they'll all be eagerly watching the newsfeeds for transfers and buying the club merch.
The game's gone.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 19, 2021 17:10:06 GMT 1
Is anyone surprised this has happened? If the answer is yes then I suspect you are wearing rose coloured glasses. Since 1992 when football was reborn it's all been about the money. Clubs not taking the League Cup or FA Cup seriously. Being in the Europa League (UEFA Cup) used to be a big deal. The fans of the top 6 will whine and moan but they'll all be eagerly watching the newsfeeds for transfers and buying the club merch. The game's gone. I was just this afternoon reminiscing about the old days of football with a long time friend (who is a passionate follower of the Town and also grass roots football) and he said the same thing, the game's "f****** gone down the pan"...he was, as you can tell angry about this news and so was I. It's just GREED. And what next is on the horizon? A world league? Franchises from the USA, China...taking on Europe's "best"?
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Post by harboroughshrew on Apr 19, 2021 18:58:21 GMT 1
The Indepedent is reporting that a Danish member of UEFA has said that he expects Chelsea, Man City and Real Madrid to be expelled from this year's Champions League on Friday Could be an interesting week ahead!
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Post by martinshrew on Apr 19, 2021 19:12:59 GMT 1
R.I.P Man City, 2008 to 2021.
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Post by stuttgartershrew on Apr 19, 2021 19:14:02 GMT 1
Heard the Danish UEFA comments reported on BBC radio too. Makes sense I guess. I gather we are now at the stage where this new league has been announced and the clubs have announced their intent to play it so why wait...if they are in breach of the rules then take action now.
No one should be surprised at this and I very much doubt too many who follow the game are. Its been coming and its been coming for a good while now. For all and any efforts made to accommodate these clubs they have always wanted more, they are never satisfied. That's why it might as well come to a head now rather than kicking this down the road again. Let them go, kick them out of UEFA and domestic competitions and see how it pans out.
And I do hope this comes about. I think it is the only way these owners can be taken on. Not saying how it will work out, whether it will be a great move for these clubs or whether they will at some point request to come back to domestic football...but I do think its something that should just be done now rather than later.
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Post by servernaside on Apr 19, 2021 19:15:59 GMT 1
I'm not surprised that this has happened. It has been mooted for some time in one form or another. The only way it can be stopped is for FIFA / UEFA to apply sanctions to the clubs i.e. not allowing them to participate in any domestic competitions and forbidding the players of the breakaway clubs to take part in any international matches. I'm sure such sanctions may be challenged in various courts around Europe, but if FIFA / UEFA hold firm, I don't believe the breakaway clubs could do anything about it. It wouldn't necessarily be able to stop the ESL, but it would certainly give those clubs much to consider.
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Post by thesensationaljt on Apr 19, 2021 19:39:32 GMT 1
I'm bitterly disappointed they haven't approached Cowdenbeath to join.
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Post by horse01 on Apr 19, 2021 19:44:59 GMT 1
I think Gary Neville might just have got himself a ban from Old Trafford?!
‘The Glazers are nothing but scavengers’!!
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Post by harboroughshrew on Apr 19, 2021 19:51:52 GMT 1
I think Bobby Charlton is still a director at Man U and I cannot see someone like him with his history in the game staying in that position if this ESL goes ahead.
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Post by Exkeeper on Apr 19, 2021 19:59:31 GMT 1
I think Bobby Charlton is still a director at Man U and I cannot see someone like him with his history in the game staying in that position if this ESL goes ahead. Bobby has a similar problem to that which his brother suffered from. I am not sure that his health allows him to get involved in such things.
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Post by horse01 on Apr 19, 2021 20:13:28 GMT 1
🤣🤣
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Post by armchairfan on Apr 19, 2021 20:39:21 GMT 1
Of course, I am not really surprised by all of this, but, unlike the Telegraph opinion piece cited in an earlier post, I am not convinced that this is anywhere near over: the clubs may well be "lawyered-up", but one wonders in which forum of legal jurisprudence they will take their threatened action.....the legal profession is rather good at employing delaying tactics in pursuance of their clients interests, and to get to the stage of even deciding which court has the requisite power and authority to rule upon these matters might itself take years, and that is even before any such ruling is reached, followed inevitably by appeals from either side. In the meantime, the potential for financial losses for the members of the breakaway would only increase, as would the risk of eye-watering legal costs. There may well be "people on the pitch" or, more accurately, lawyers in the court sne-rooms, but "all over" - I think not, not by a long chalk.
Has there been an EFL statement, by the way,?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 19, 2021 20:52:52 GMT 1
I wonder what the view is north of the border?
I'm sure Celtic and Rangers would be keen to join the ESL!!!
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Post by tdk on Apr 19, 2021 21:11:22 GMT 1
I'm not surprised that this has happened. It has been mooted for some time in one form or another. The only way it can be stopped is for FIFA / UEFA to apply sanctions to the clubs i.e. not allowing them to participate in any domestic competitions and forbidding the players of the breakaway clubs to take part in any international matches. I'm sure such sanctions may be challenged in various courts around Europe, but if FIFA / UEFA hold firm, I don't believe the breakaway clubs could do anything about it. It wouldn't necessarily be able to stop the ESL, but it would certainly give those clubs much to consider. I think these clubs see themselves as multi-national corporations. They will have a massive guaranteed income from the Super League, and most of the rest of their income will increasingly come from the Far East and Africa. I can see a time when they no longer play in their original cities, but become franchises as per the NFL model. Local fans irrelevant.
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Post by martinshrew on Apr 19, 2021 22:03:10 GMT 1
Hate Leeds with a passion but was begging that to go in.
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Post by champagneprince on Apr 20, 2021 3:50:04 GMT 1
Every man has his price.
I wonder how many back handers will be going on at FIFA and UEFA HQ's over the next few months with substantial brown envelopes supplied by whoever is funding this.
Will it eventually be embraced rather than opposed? Will Liverpool, Chelsea etc have two teams. The First XI in the Super League and the B Team in the Domestic League? Let's face it, that's been on the cards for a while.
No surprises to me if there's an initial opposing stance from FIFA/UEFA, but then a slow acceptance.
There could be an international ban on players in the Super League playing for their countries. But what's to stop the new SL saying 'We will hold our own World Cup, with all the best 'banned' players playing in it'.
Absolutely nothing would surprise me at this stage.
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Post by neilsalop on Apr 20, 2021 6:48:22 GMT 1
Every man has his price. I wonder how many back handers will be going on at FIFA and UEFA HQ's over the next few months with substantial brown envelopes supplied by whoever is funding this. Will it eventually be embraced rather than opposed? Will Liverpool, Chelsea etc have two teams. The First XI in the Super League and the B Team in the Domestic League? Let's face it, that's been on the cards for a while. No surprises to me if there's an initial opposing stance from FIFA/UEFA, but then a slow acceptance. There could be an international ban on players in the Super League playing for their countries. But what's to stop the new SL saying 'We will hold our own World Cup, with all the best 'banned' players playing in it'. Absolutely nothing would surprise me at this stage. I thought that too, but looking at the squads of some of the dirty dozen, I don't think that would be possible. For example Tottenham have players from Columbia, South Korea, Ivory Coast and Holland. Columbia have just two players playing for the 12 clubs, so if they are banned from international football it won't make a huge difference to their country. Where are Columbia going to get another 20+ players to make up the full squad to accommodate those two players and play in this mythical elite world cup, 20+ players that are good enough and willing to risk their own career prospects for one tournament?
FIFA and EUFA will make sure that any player that plays in any competition that rivals their own will face sanctions. This has the potential to make Kerry Packer's WSC look like a storm in a teacup. I don't remember too much about that, but I'm sure that it hindered quite a few careers, not least that of England captain Tony Greig.
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Post by davycrockett on Apr 20, 2021 8:48:43 GMT 1
I wonder what the view is north of the border? I'm sure Celtic and Rangers would be keen to join the ESL!!! 6 spaces available in the Premiership
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Post by stuttgartershrew on Apr 20, 2021 9:22:24 GMT 1
I wonder what the view is north of the border? I'm sure Celtic and Rangers would be keen to join the ESL!!! It's possible isn't it. I think they might well have a better European record than one or two who are set to join too. I guess it might depend on the take up but if one or two decide to turn their noses up at this then they might get a call at some point.
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Post by stuttgartershrew on Apr 20, 2021 9:23:55 GMT 1
I wonder what the view is north of the border? I'm sure Celtic and Rangers would be keen to join the ESL!!! 6 spaces available in the Premiership We can't let that happen. As it would be a tad hypocritical of us to allow Rangers and Celtic to leave their own league to join another.
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electrum
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Post by electrum on Apr 20, 2021 9:42:58 GMT 1
6 spaces available in the Premiership We can't let that happen. No we can’t. The thought of either of them winning the premiership (or whatever it is called by then) is ..... well, unthinkable.
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Post by Exkeeper on Apr 20, 2021 9:46:44 GMT 1
I think Gary Neville might just have got himself a ban from Old Trafford?! ‘The Glazers are nothing but scavengers’!! I think I am probably banned - it is one of the few grounds I have never been to out of the current 92 top four league teams. I have been to cricket at Old Trafford a few times though.
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Post by stuttgartershrew on Apr 20, 2021 10:07:41 GMT 1
Shearer has it right...👍
This is what has to come about if these six clubs are determined to go ahead with this. Just hope the FA, the EPL and the 14 who aren't set to join this league (as yet anyhow) now move to expel them from domestic competition.
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Post by sheltonsalopian on Apr 20, 2021 10:59:10 GMT 1
Easy answer would be to ban them but then you're decimating the value and money in the premier league, it's these six clubs that generate the TV deals. If everyone else can accept the huge loss in revenue then fair enough, ban them, but otherwise it's just fantasy.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2021 11:12:03 GMT 1
Excellent statement from Everton today also
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Post by Dancin on Apr 20, 2021 11:16:56 GMT 1
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Post by servernaside on Apr 20, 2021 11:24:39 GMT 1
I think the threat of a UEFA / FA/ PL ban on these clubs from taking part in any domestic competitions plus a ban on their players representing their countries would soon end this nonsense.
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