European Super League

[Captain Scarlet]

This is hardly all shocking carry-on from the good guys at Mes Que Un Club or Real who rig the TV money in their own country. Or from Juve and all their scandals. Or from the USA owners or the nation-state backed club in the EPL.

They are all the worst shower going in fairness. They will end up playing in Qatar or China or they will end up being referred to as the franchise and uprooted to God knows where.

Sadly, the international fan bases will cover any loss of the locals who have been with the likes of City in the lower leagues. Time for a big reboot and get rid of UEFA and FIFA while we are at it.

[seafoid]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2021/04/19/european-super-league-announcement-statement-reaction-live-latest/

Three Premier League clubs – Manchester United, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur – have confirmed to The Daily Telegraph that they have resigned from the European Club Association.

The ECA is the body that represents all the clubs in Uefa and is the only one officially recognised by European football's governing organisation. Quitting the ECA is an aggressive step and significant move towards the formation of the proposed European Super League.

The ECA held an emergency meeting on Sunday evening about the biggest threat football has faced but the clubs did not attend and have now all formally resigned.

[Baile Brigín 2]

Complete and total boycott is the only way. But I'm sure it'll attract enough attention in Asia and Africa to offset a few english and Irish fans.  What has the reaction been from fans in Europe?

The Irish fans are exactly who are being targeted. Man U fans who couldn't find Manchester on a map.

[seafoid]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2021/04/19/sickened-liverpool-backing-shameless-breakaway-fans-will-not/

I am sickened by Liverpool backing shameless breakaway - fans will not tolerate it
Fans will simply not tolerate a plan that places the whole principle of our club system in jeopardy

JAMIE CARRAGHER
19 April 2021 • 6:29am

Funny how the voices on the Kop matter only when it is most convenient.
The more I read about the European super league proposals, the more it seems Liverpool's owners must like empty stadiums because all they have done is raise the likelihood of another mass walkout.
Liverpool's game with Leeds on Monday night could not be better timed to expose the insanity of the closed-shop idea.
It is a game with potentially massive ramifications for Champions League qualification, full of jeopardy, and hence drama.
Millions will tune in for that reason, emotions running high whatever the result. The same anxious excitement will accompany all of Liverpool's remaining seven games, which is why the broadcasters pay millions for them.
That is the beauty of league football – where every action and point matters. That is why, as a former Liverpool player, it sickens me that my club's reputation is being damaged by the arrogance of an ownership group that wants to remove such peril, creating a culture where we no longer need to fight to earn our success. That is the antithesis of everything I understand football – especially in my city – to stand for.
To be tainted by association with the European super league is bad enough, but Liverpool's apparent leading role in threatening football's competitive ideals – the very ideals which allowed the club to emerge from England's second division to become six-time European champions – is a betrayal of a heritage they are seeking to cash in on.
Manchester United's shameless capitalism does not surprise me. United fans will agree that from day one, the Glazers have never hidden the fact they bought the club for the cash. They summed up their contempt for United fans when introducing a system forcing season-ticket holders to pay additional fees for cup matches.
•   European Super League explained: teams, format, winners and losers
But John W Henry is more cunning, courting fans' groups in his early years and presenting himself as keen to engage, yet consistently failing to grasp the culture of the Kop. I was among the paying season-ticket holders who walked out in disgust when Liverpool tried to charge £77 for match tickets in 2016, and only last summer the club were forced to backtrack on their attempts to claim taxpayer funds for furloughed staff.
Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea and Spurs will also get rightly hammered for this. Those four always seem happy hiding behind Liverpool and United when the flak is flying.
Whenever these radical schemes emerge, it is an opportunity for everyone to pile in, accusing the so-called "elite" of self-interest. True as that is, the moralistic intervention of Uefa, the Football Association, national leagues and whatever government minister is after a few votes is laughable.
"It's all about money. It's all about greed," they say. Wow. These organisations would jump on any passing gravy train if they thought it would make them richer.
Football, at every level of the professional game, is about money. The notion of English football being a meritocracy at the summit has been a myth since the Premier League formed, with only Blackburn Rovers (bankrolled by Jack Walker) and Leicester City shocking the world. Only seven clubs have won the Premier League in 29 years.
The actions of Liverpool and United, especially, are grounded on a grievance that for too long they have been denied the chance to make more of what they could earn, blocked from using their global popularity to maximise all revenue opportunities.
But that can never justify efforts to destabilise the system without the backing of those they most need – the fans.
Football executives always make the mistake of believing they are the most influential force in football. They swiftly realise that without the supporters, they are weak and powerless.

[Hound]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2021/04/19/european-super-league-announcement-statement-reaction-live-latest/

Three Premier League clubs – Manchester United, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur – have confirmed to The Daily Telegraph that they have resigned from the European Club Association.

The ECA is the body that represents all the clubs in Uefa and is the only one officially recognised by European football's governing organisation. Quitting the ECA is an aggressive step and significant move towards the formation of the proposed European Super League.

The ECA held an emergency meeting on Sunday evening about the biggest threat football has faced but the clubs did not attend and have now all formally resigned.

According to the BBC, Manchester United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward and Manchester City chief executive Ferran Soriano have also stood down from their roles at Uefa.

Reaction from supporters groups of the "super" clubs:

Liverpool supporters' group Spirit of Shankly (SOS) said it was "appalled" by the decision of Fenway Sports Group, the club's US-based owner. In a social media post, SOS said: "FSG have ignored fans in their relentless and greedy pursuit of money. Football is ours, not theirs. Our football club is ours not theirs."

Chelsea Supporters' Trust called the move "unforgivable" and said its members and "football supporters across the world have experienced the ultimate betrayal".

The Arsenal Supporters' Trust called the club's agreement to join "the death of Arsenal as a sporting institution", while Manchester City's Official Supporters Club said the move showed "those involved have zero regard for the game's traditions", adding it was "determined to fight against this proposed Super League".

The Manchester United Supporters' Trust had earlier said the proposals were "completely unacceptable" and the ESL "goes against everything football, and Manchester United, should stand for".

Tottenham Hotspur Supporters' Trust said the ESL was a "concept driven by avarice and self-interest at the expense of the intrinsic values of the game we hold so dear".

[GetOverTheBar]

Anybody else not really bothered by it all?

[imtommygunn]

It's horrendous.

Speculation Mourinho booted due to not taking his players onto the training field in protest at it.

[Kidder81]

It's horrendous.

Speculation Mourinho booted due to not taking his players onto the training field in protest at it.

That's not true, few of the banter sites are putting it out there

[RedHand88]

Liverpool fan groups taking their kop flags down in protest.

[GiveItToTheShooters]

Have to laugh at the fake hysteria. The same people making excuses for the premier league being the exact same thing as it was pre 1992 but only being rebranded, are the same people that claim Liverpool have only won the league once.
You couldn't make it up. Hypocrites. According to them, the "Premier League" is fine, but a big no no to the European super league.
The games gone

It's not really the same thing. Until 1991, all 92 clubs had equal voting rights and in effect a group of the weakest clubs could dictate terms to the largest clubs.

What the PL did was maintain almost identical structures to before, but while ensuring that the biggest clubs could pursue financial arrangements that would allow them to match Italian clubs.

The change was oddly enough an implementation of equality: basically "we all started with an equal chance of getting ahead, but that doesn't mean we have to be equal in all things forever"

As Leicester and Man City have shown, progress through the ranks has always been possible

——

What we are facing now isn't the same thing. It's an attempted corporate takeover of football.

This is no different to the formation of the premier league, it is the same thing.
You confirm that the formation of the premier league put power into the bigger clubs hands, this is exactly the same with the ESL. So it was anything but equality.
City progressed through oil money, Leicester did it more in the proper way, by buying and selling smartly.
My point is that the people who are outraged are the same people who only recognise football post 1992. The hypocrisy is astounding.

[trailer]

Load of shite. People can't be moaning about this and yet putting up with the EPL or the Champs league. Neville going off on one yesterday was pure hypocrisy.

[tiempo]

Liverpool fan groups taking their kop flags down in protest.

Groundball, where you can advocate trading meatsuits for £150,000,000 pay it £500,000 a week and still moralise to others

[RedHand88]

Load of shite. People can't be moaning about this and yet putting up with the EPL or the Champs league. Neville going off on one yesterday was pure hypocrisy.

Not the same. There's nothing in the rules preventing any club from making the Premier league or Champions league. In theory any club can do it. There have been 49 teams in England's top flight since 1991.  The open system of promotion and relegation is one of the attractive characteristics of football.

[yellowcard]

Apart from the corruption, sportswashing and greed, professional football isn't too bad! Add in the removal of any spontaneous emotion through the introduction of VAR, the constant diving and cheating and the totally soulless experience of watching football this season in front of empty seats and I often wonder why Irish fans get so worked up over English premier league teams. See it for what it is, a billionaires plaything where every fan is a 'customer' and everything is measured in monetary terms. When entire nations are using football as a way of projecting soft power and sportswashing you know there is something filthy.

[RedHand88]

Apart from the corruption, sportswashing and greed, professional football isn't too bad! Add in the removal of any spontaneous emotion through the introduction of VAR, the constant diving and cheating and the totally soulless experience of watching football this season in front of empty seats and I often wonder why Irish fans get so worked up over English premier league teams. See it for what it is, a billionaires plaything where every fan is a 'customer' and everything is measured in monetary terms. When entire nations are using football as a way of projecting soft power and sportswashing you know there is something filthy.

What sport do you follow?