European Super League

[Luftstalag14]

I'm not a specialist, but from what I've quickly gathered, Chelsea gave almost 8M pounds to charity in 2018/2019. I really don't think those 1.5M are as crazy as you think, especially since giving to charity also gets you tax cuts in most countries (gotta admit I'm not a spanish tax law expert, but in France for example you can basically deduce between 33% and 66% of any money given to charity from your taxes). Again, it's a nice gesture, but it's far from being enough to buy morality. Especially when the real reason behind it was to pave the way for shirt sponsors.

If it was just a ploy to pave the way for the shirt sponsorship, we could have stopped a long time ago when UNICEF was replaced by Qatar Foundation on the front of the jersey.

We have donated 19m so far to UNICEF. To suggest somehow that was a superficial thing to do... hmmm, go ahead and donate then.

 

[FCBfan22]

The interesting thing is that apparently City removed all anouncements today. Laporta cancelled his presser.

Next few days will be interesting.

 

[malvolio]

The current Champions League could do with a revamp no question. But its much better than 12 arrogant club owners thinking their team should be guaranteed qualification and prize money to something every year without having to do fuck all.

Man City lost to Monaco, Spurs and Lyon last few years.

Juventus another supposed top team hasn't got past Lyon, Porto, or Ajax themselves the last few years. Barca got their pants pulled down away to Roma.

Spurs just got knocked out of the Europa League in Zagreb.

Yet somehow they can be immune from having to work for their seat at the table.

and yet no roma, lyon, monaco or spurs won the competition in the last 20 years(with 1 year anomaly in porto). mighty fine competition this.

ESL could implement a promotion/relegation system, once more clubs come on board and there are lower tier leagues.

 

[Luftstalag14]

The one issue is now a precedent has been set. What's stopping clubs from attempting something like this again? Also it essentially awards and approves UEFA/FIFA for all the sketchy things they did because at least "it could be a lot worse to fans".

Threats, bans and government sanctions.

 

[messi2140]

The current Champions League could do with a revamp no question. But its much better than 12 arrogant club owners thinking their team should be guaranteed qualification and prize money to something every year without having to do fuck all.

Man City lost to Monaco, Spurs and Lyon last few years.

Juventus another supposed top team hasn't got past Lyon, Porto, or Ajax themselves the last few years. Barca got their pants pulled down away to Roma.

Spurs just got knocked out of the Europa League in Zagreb.

Yet somehow they can be immune from having to work for their seat at the table.

Let's say everything about the ESL stays the same but they remove that founder status (which I think is pure BS as well) would you take it ?

 

[serghei]

In before everyone says it was all Florentino's plan, really throwing him under the bus .

 

[Adversus]

Another thing the fans of these clubs should consider is if this goes through the owners are now in charge with no regulations and nothing stopping them from doing what they want.

That includes playing home games around the world, turning this into a world wide super league, renaming clubs or even moving those clubs from their original cities.

This may sound ludicrous but that's what happens in the NFL. I wouldn't be surprised if the first thing the do is rename the clubs to something like Liverpool Shipbuilders or whatever, then drop the Liverpool part and then eventually move them away from Liverpool. After all there's far more lucrative cities in the world to base your club in and why even stop at 1 when you could play in multiple cities.

 

[Joan]

Exactly. This is already bad enough. I'd ban all of them for a season. And would force Florentino to put a "We are sorry UEFA" on the roof of the new Bernabeu for a year. And ban Barca and Madrid from doing transfers for 2 seasons. No Depay and Aguero for us, no Mbappe and Haaland for them. Sounds fair.

This some kind of a joke? "We are sorry UEFA"?!

UEFA proposed a similar concept with fixed spots for elite clubs months ago, their version of the super league. Lite or not, it's not the direction Perez and other self-indulgent billionaires want to take, it's the direction football's moving into whether we like it or not. UEFA's cries are nothing but a display of displeasure they're not part of the future's most attractive football competition.

UEFA offers nothing for the fans and has the same principles in mind as the founders of the ESL, been obvious since forever.

 

[Andresito]

This thread is a nightmare to keep up with lol

 

[KingLeo10]

What global fanbase, of fatties with pizzas in front of the TV or chinese people having dinner in Shangai?

New ages fanbase yeah sure..

Red Star in the semi's would be an absolute fantastic story with passion you can not even imagine on stadium with no clapping quiet money fans, but with real fans.

If you want a fancy football with Beyonce and potato chips then we speak differently

Are you a Barcelona fan?

Are you from Barcelona?

If the answer to the first is yes and the second is no, then you don't have much ground to stand on with this outrage. And frankly it makes you a hypocrite. What makes you a real fan in this case as opposed to someone in Shanghai. Maybe have a look in the mirror.

 

[Bulgroz]

If it was just a ploy to pave the way for the shirt sponsorship, we could have stopped a long time ago when UNICEF was replaced by Qatar Foundation on the front of the jersey.

We have donated 19m so far to UNICEF. To suggest somehow that was a superficial thing to do... hmmm, go ahead and donate then.

I actually give (much) more than "0.2%" to charity every year. And believe me, it hurts my finances much more than that money hurts Barca's pocket. But thanks for the suggestion. Enjoy living in your world where Barca is really "mes que un club" then I guess.

 

[Birdy]

Agree with Yannik's take on it from an ethical point of view,
but harsh reality says other things: football has become entertainment looong ago, and it's inevitably to succumb to the laws that govern all business that produce entertainment.

And tbf football is an important aspect of my free time/hobbies in life.
But if I decide to revolt against the ills of capitalism, I would rather start from realms that are more 'real life' than football.

We should also be honest with ourselves. It's not only the newbies in football that want the big matches
Just ask yourselves how motivated and interested you are in watching Ferencvaros - Barca for the CL rather than PSG - Barca.

Exactly. This is already bad enough. I'd ban all of them for a season. And would force Florentino to put a "We are sorry UEFA" on the roof of the new Bernabeu for a year. And ban Barca and Madrid from doing transfers for 2 seasons. No Depay and Aguero for us, no Mbappe and Haaland for them. Sounds fair.

The question is who has the power to do what.
Let's assume UEFA moves on and bans the SL clubs from its competitions.
Let's assume Domestic leagues do the same.
Let's assume players are NOT allowed to play Euros and World Cup.

Then, look at what's left:
a CL without the best teams, where the final would be a Lazio - Villareal (Europa League level)
Domestic leagues where Valencia and Betis will fight for LaLiga every year
Euros and World Cups where France would feature an XI without Mbape, Griezman, Dembele, Pogba, Kante etc etc

Who is the winner? UEFA and FIFA? Domesti Leagues? Probably Not.
Or it's rather the opposite?
Fans will care only about the ESL, and the rest of the competitions will deteriorate into indifference and oblivion?

Plus, the financial aspect:
What will happen to tv rights and income for these competitions when declined that much? Will it go up or down?

As much as I hate this motherfucker Perez,
he knows what he is doing. He knows very well that big clubs have power in their hands

 

[FCBfan22]

In before everyone says it was all Florentino's plan, really throwing him under the bus .

If the plan fails, everything will land on Florentino (main spokesperson and current president), Agnelli (who betrayed UEFA, Italian style), on the Glazers (who provided the funds for ESL) and on the FSG (who also helped provide funds).

 

[Jenks]

 

[Joan]

The ffp (not a bad thing in itself, regulations are needed) was the first attempt to cement the place of the elite clubs and minimize chances of an overhaul. The ESL is the step forward and it would happen with UEFA too.