European Super League

[David McKeown]

Milner has come out against it.

Seriously? You'd need players that will actually be playing in it. As much as Milner is a great pro, his best days are behind him, If Liverpool are in this league next year he'll be at Norwich.

Unless we get the likes of Salah Rashford Kane and co coming out and s  are ting they won't play in it then it won't get any traction.

These lads are paid a wage and under contract. No one will walk away from an increase in wages, unless another team outside of the 12 offer them the same

The bigger issue might be will players be able to walk away from a contract?  This talk of banning players from other competitions is non sensical to me. Like it or not players are employees and subject to employment laws. They will therefore be in an impossible situation. Forego years of their career and their salary or play for their employers. That's before restraint of trade and monopoly laws are even considered. The governing bodies need to tread softly on this one or they could end up alienating the player base which would make a league like this more likely.

[imtommygunn]

It's an absolute mess. How would a world cup or european championships look without players from these clubs? It would be a mess. Are they really going to pull teams out of the champions league too? How big a can of worms would that be for sponsors, tv companies etc etc. They would all want their money back and probably then some.

[laoislad]

Milner has come out against it.

Yeah fair play to him was great to see.

[imtommygunn]

He's very likeable Milner to be fair to him. Great professional. Even for a Liverpool player

[seafoid]

This ESL thing is senior hurling


https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2021/04/19/super-league-clubs-may-kicked-years-uefa-competitions-president/

Uefa in talks over £5.2bn private investment to ward off Super League threat
By Tom Morgan and Jason Burt

Uefa executives are in talks over a £5.2 billion cash injection from a London-based private investment firm as part of efforts to torpedo the Super League breakaway.

Centricus Asset Management are said to be discussing a $6 bn financing package as an alternative funding arrangement for the Champions League. As it stands, all money European competitions generate is through television rights, leading to annual distribution of around £3 billion.

The breakaway plot that includes England's so-called 'Big Six' will attempt to win favour by telling domestic competitions a solidarity package worth up to £10 bn over 23 years would exceed any equivalent packages from Uefa.

To counter that move, Uefa is said to have been in contact with Centricus to discuss a plan for Champions League reform that could go beyond the "Swiss-system" announced yesterday.

A private-finance backed scheme would offer an immediate threat to the JP Morgan-backed breakaway which still needs to attract three more founding members.

A representative for Centricus declined to comment when contacted by the Bloomberg news agency, which first reported on the talks. Meanwhile, the 14 Premier League clubs not included in the breakaway will meet on Tuesday to discuss legal options to defeat the rebels.

The meeting, scheduled for 11am, will be chaired by top tier chief executive Richard Masters, who will lay out the organisation's planned response. With lawyers due to explain the top tier's legal position, Masters will invite the clubs to take part in a brainstorm and frank discussion. It is hoped the clubs will agree on a position for an updated statement, which sources hope will have "significant ramifications".

The 'Big Six' rebels are confident that the other clubs will not try and expel them from the Premier League and not least because their involvement drives up the broadcast revenues which are so vital to their existence. Without the 'Big Six' the multi-billion pound contracts paid by the likes of Sky Sports would be in tatters and the whole of the football pyramid – including the 72 EFL clubs – would be in jeopardy.

[manfromdelmonte]

FSG don't need the local fans
they're perfectly happy with 30,000 day trippers each week who don't care about this stuff

[seafoid]

The Glazers bought Man Utd for this. It's effectively an option. If it works out they are in the money.  If ESL was defeated why would they stay ?

[BennyCake]

UEFA  are threatening to ban players from Wotld Cups etc because this Super League plan threatens their new look Champions League/Europa League cash cows.

I think we're at a time where less games in Europe are needed, not more (especially what's been going on in the wotld for more than a year). The arsehole has been well and truly ripped out of European competitions. It's become so sanitized and monotonous.

[Maroon Manc]

Perhaps if the premier league and UEFA had clamped down on the Glazer takeover in the first place we wouldn't be in this situation, an absolute disgrace such a highly leveraged takeover was allowed to happen with no interference from any governing body.

Gary Neville is another hypocrite, just looks at what he's doing with Salford and had to laugh when he talked about City and what they've done to east Manchester; You'd think nobody else was interested in the land, he's highly involved with property in Manchester City Centre and has his own relationships with the council.

United were taken over in 2005 so its taken him 16 year to come out and slaughtered them, funnily enough just weeks after United had appointed Fletcher/Murtough to roles that Neville was apparently interested in.

[Louther]

Whoever thought it was a good idea to let Perez talk on behalf of the Super league, shows how unprepared and illjudged they have been to date.

Car crash stuff. Basically blamed years of mismanagement and over spending by Real and Barca on the pandemic and said they need a bail out as a result and this is the way. Then says everyone will be ok because we will go back to doing that again and spend all this money and smaller clubs will benefit as we will pay more money. Bonkers stuff.

And that's before he talks about possibly reducing length of games, agreeing an entry system for CL teams with UEFA and random surveys they have carried out. Even tried to say PSG and German teams not mentioned.

Mad stuff.

[seafoid]

https://www.ft.com/content/e42b84e8-91f3-4642-9306-fe81552453fe

A battle for the soul of European football Super League plans would import a US-style model of competition THE EDITORIAL BOARD

Never has football seen a clash like this. The proposed European Super League pits a US model of a tournament played among members of a largely closed group against the more open style of footballing competitions in the "old continent".

Cynics might call it a brass-knuckle attempt by a powerful new quasi-cartel to supplant a rather older one, in the shape of Uefa, its Champions League and national associations. Who wins will have a profound impact on the future of the European game. The struggle poses questions about football's nature: is it a business like any other, or something more? With billions of euros of television rights and sponsorship money at stake and many clubs owned by investors demanding a return, top-level football clearly is big business. Today's clash reflects its evolution from community-based sport into an arm of the global entertainment industry. Yet TV revenues generated by the big clubs help to support an extensive ecosystem of more minor teams.
As a business, football also relies for its audience on passion, suspense and unpredictability. True, a handful of clubs are now dominant in most countries. But the "pyramid" structure of the game in Europe allows even the smallest teams to break through to the top ranks — including European competitions — or win trophies through giant-killing exploits. Outside the top few, other clubs rise and fall with time. While the Super League is proposed to have five rotating places, it will have 15 permanent members. That will make it look more like US leagues where there is no relegation or promotion and, as a result, revenues are far more predictable — leading to higher valuations. It is no coincidence that four founding clubs — Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool, plus Italy's AC Milan — have American owners, and a US bank is providing the financing. The league may also have US-style cost-control elements such as salary caps and spending limits. Its backers insist there is no shortage of excitement in American sport.

The potential to pull in larger global TV audiences and tap new markets, they add, including through partnerships with the likes of Amazon and Facebook, would create a more financially stable tip of the European pyramid and increase fund flows to the base. Yet having only five places up for grabs each year would limit the intrigues over who will "qualify for Europe". Even if national divisions, such as the Premier League, relent on their threat to bar ESL participants, there is a real likelihood they will become less competitive as the top teams focus on midweek European fixtures. That would erode the attraction for the hundreds of thousands of fans who turn out to weekend games each week, but could never afford to travel repeatedly to European matches.


A better solution would be to rejig the Champions League in a way the big clubs can live with, without caving in to all their demands. There is no reason Uefa itself could not market a revamped product to new audiences via Big Tech. Some elements of the ESL's plans, such as tighter caps on spending and pay — which could reduce the ability of super-wealthy owners to buy their way to success — may be worth copying. Yet even if football is more than pure business, it is not an area in which governments should intervene, despite the spluttering of leaders from Boris Johnson of the UK to France's Emmanuel Macron. The battle may be brutal, and poses a threat to this year's European Championship for national teams. But the future of top-flight football should be decided not by politicians but by players, clubs, managers, if necessary the courts, and above all the fans.

[GetOverTheBar]

Whoever thought it was a good idea to let Perez talk on behalf of the Super league, shows how unprepared and illjudged they have been to date.

Car crash stuff. Basically blamed years of mismanagement and over spending by Real and Barca on the pandemic and said they need a bail out as a result and this is the way. Then says everyone will be ok because we will go back to doing that again and spend all this money and smaller clubs will benefit as we will pay more money. Bonkers stuff.

And that's before he talks about possibly reducing length of games, agreeing an entry system for CL teams with UEFA and random surveys they have carried out. Even tried to say PSG and German teams not mentioned.

Mad stuff.

In fairness, Spurs owe about 1bn on the new Stadium, United have been in debt for years....it's not just the Spanish.

[J70]

FSG don't need the local fans
they're perfectly happy with 30,000 day trippers each week who don't care about this stuff

Sadly, you appear to be absolutely correct.

I would go further even, and say that they're much less concerned with ANY match-going fans and much more with the tv audience.

They know they'll fill Anfield no matter what.

[tiempo]

UEFA/FIFA threating players won't be allowed to play in their own hyper corrupt World Cup is peak irony.

Football sold its soul a long time ago, at this rate it looks to me something on par with the Kinahan infiltration of boxing, these clubs are surely being used to wash dirty money, this is just a further extension of this.

A lot of lessons here for the GAA, grassroots structures and community cohesion is everything as the output is a genuine contribution to society.

[Baile Brigín 2]

Milner has come out against it.

Seriously? You'd need players that will actually be playing in it. As much as Milner is a great pro, his best days are behind him, If Liverpool are in this league next year he'll be at Norwich.

Unless we get the likes of Salah Rashford Kane and co coming out and s  are ting they won't play in it then it won't get any traction.

These lads are paid a wage and under contract. No one will walk away from an increase in wages, unless another team outside of the 12 offer them the same

The bigger issue might be will players be able to walk away from a contract?  This talk of banning players from other competitions is non sensical to me. Like it or not players are employees and subject to employment laws. They will therefore be in an impossible situation. Forego years of their career and their salary or play for their employers. That's before restraint of trade and monopoly laws are even considered. The governing bodies need to tread softly on this one or they could end up alienating the player base which would make a league like this more likely.

I understand it is very simple. Players can be banned worldwide for anumber of reasons. This would be another one. Contracts are tied to registrations. Remember this time next week those 12 clubs may no longer be soccer clubs in the sense we know it. Contracts would void and they would be free agents.