European Super League

[serghei]

I'd assume that what you want is a watered down version of the CL that eliminates the "irrelevant" clubs for entertainment purpose.
Eventually only the top 5 leagues will have access to it, which I dont think is the way to go. Ideally there should be ways to reverse the top 5 league dominance for a more diverse CL that will be interesting through the fact that the teams from elsewhere who participate are not statist, but actually decent teams. We had the likes Bucharest, Ajax, Celtic, Feyenoord, Red Star etc competing for CLs before inflation ruled them out of the business. If football can find a way away from oligarch hegemonies then the CL will automatically become interesting again simply because those teams pose a threat once more.

You have two roads. You are either true to the Champions League old tradition and meaning (Like champions from each country duel to see who is the greatest), in which way, tough luck, 2nd place in Spain does not have a legitimate right to get in in front of the Champions of Switzerland for instance. I would vote for this above anything else, but it's too bold for this "commercial" era.

If you leave that aside and you consider money and entertainment factors as the most important, then keeping the no. of games the same, while dropping the odd match-ups Real Madrid - Ferencvaros type is the best route. It will raise the entertainment levels considerably in the first part of the competition.

Right now, it's a confusing mesh between the two. Not a real "champions" league either, and not an elite competition for over half its length (the big boys 99% of the time make it through the groups, at which point it becomes a very short competition where luck plays a big part).

 

[Luftstalag14]

It's a free market and a democracy as long as it suits them.

Luft, have you never dealed with politicians/Ceo's?

Corrupted mafia everywhere.

Democracy doesn't apply there.

When Project Big Picture was revealed, there was a lot of fury among clubs,
pundits and fans in English football but did the British government come out to express their indignation and disapproval like they did this time? Why not?

 

[Sterlingfan2000]

I think the Shameful Six clubs are prepared to fight Fifa and Uefa on court but they didn't expect to fight Governments.

I mean even them must be shocked

 

[malvolio]

says pep after dropping another 300mil for 3 defenders and facing bum teams in CL group stages. competition alright..

 

[FCBfan22]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Binwq50SmA&ab_channel=SkySportsFootball

Full video of Pep about ESL.

Takes shots at ESL and at the UEFA too.

 

[Sterlingfan2000]

The League will continue to work with key stakeholders including fan groups, Government, UEFA, The FA, EFL, PFA and LMA to protect the best interests of the game and call on those clubs involved in the proposed competition to cease their involvement immediately."


It's official , English Government has joined

 

[Yannik]

You have two roads. You are either true to the Champions League old tradition and meaning (Like champions from each country duel to see who is the greatest), in which way, tough luck, 2nd place in Spain does not have a legitimate right to get in in front of the Champions of Switzerland for instance. I would vote for this above anything else, but it's too bold for this "commercial" era.

If you leave that aside and you consider money and entertainment factors as the most important, then keeping the no. of games the same, while dropping the odd match-ups Real Madrid - Ferencvaros type is the best route. It will raise the entertainment levels considerably in the first part of the competition.

Right now, it's a confusing mesh between the two. Not a real "champions" league either, and not an elite competition for over half its length (the big boys 99% of the time make it through the groups, at which point it becomes a very short competition where luck plays a big part).

The traditional route worked great and I'd love it to return, but there have to be tweaks in general to make this a thing because as you said, football in the commercial era is too inflated for that to work out very well. That's why I think football in general has to make tweaks to cripple the top and boost the middle class. Then it would work.

 

[serghei]

Would be funny if UEFA uses this strengthened position now to ban the 12 clubs .

 

[KingLeo10]

I think the Shameful Six clubs are prepared to fight Fifa and Uefa on court but they didn't expect to fight Governments.

I mean even them must be shocked

You've been parading this hype job for the nth time since yesterday.

Looks like we have a new "mighty PL".

"MIGHTY GOVERNMENTS".

 

[Luftstalag14]

Would be funny if UEFA uses this strengthened position now to ban the 12 clubs .

That is their position, if the 12 clubs don’t pull out of the ESL.

 

[KingLeo10]

Would be funny if UEFA uses this strengthened position now to ban the 12 clubs .

UEFA without these 12 clubs is the equivalent of the Carabao cup with Bayern on top.

 

[serghei]

The traditional route worked great and I'd love it to return, but there have to be tweaks in general to make this a thing because as you said, football in the commercial era is too inflated for that to work out very well. That's why I think football in general has to make tweaks to cripple the top and boost the middle class. Then it would work.

The purity of the idea can't take many tweaks though. It's very straightforward. You can maybe include Cup winners as well, but you can't allow teams that win nothing in a season to compete in the next edition. So, this would mean you have up to 2 top teams per league, Cup winner and League winner.

This will spice up the domestic Cups as well.

 

[serghei]

UEFA without these 12 clubs is the equivalent of the Carabao cup with Bayern on top.

CL will survive for 1-2 seasons. Besides, we're crap in the CL so I want as many rivals out until we built a top team . Besides, Florentino probably misses out on both Haaland and Mbappe.

 

[serghei]

That is their position, if the 12 clubs don’t pull out of the ESL.

But that is no penalty for trying to separate.

 

[Bulgroz]

The UNICEF lettering and logo on our jersey might as well be something the club did to prepare for a real sponsor but it is a fact that we have been donating 1.5m euros every year to UNICEF since 2006, IN ADDITION TO the work that Barca Foundation does.

This is something that I am immensely proud of. 1.5m a year might not be much but it still helps, also considering we actually had a huge loss last season and a profit of just a few millions the year before, that didn?t stop us from donating to UNICEF. What other clubs have done something like that regularly?

Don't get me wrong, it's something. But 1.5M a year was less than 0.5% of the club's budget in 2010 (it's like 0.15% nowadays). It's been repaid immensely by the shirt sponsors that the club added since 2011. A lot of pro (and amateur) teams do many things and give a lot of money for charity. They all have a foundation of some sorts (I'd even wager saying that "oil clubs" might even do more of those because they need to work on their public image even more).