The European Money League

[DangerousSausage]

As any of you not living under a rock will know by now, 12 "elite" clubs have pulled off an unparalleled show of arrogance, greed and hubris by announcing a breakaway European Super League.

You probably don't need me to tell you that the format is rubbish. The idea of having 15 founder teams that are always present spits in the face of sporting merit, especially when you consider that several of these clubs don't even quality for the Champions League regularly. And if they have 38 Money League fixtures plus the Premier League, the inevitable result is that they'll send what is basically a B team into the Premier League. It'd make a total mockery of the competition.

Of course, the American owners of Arsenal, Man United and Liverpool don't care about any of that. They want to secure a place at the top table forever, no matter what.

Now is the time to show backbone. UEFA and the Premier League do at least have the clout to kiss this scheme dead, and the government also seems willing to take action. It is so important - right now we don't really know how many people are going to be returning to the stadiums, and grotesque nonsense like this could motivate many to turn their back on the game completely. But I think and hope the dozen have overplayed their hand - maybe the time has come to finally roll back the tide of corporate influence in football and give fans a real say, maybe roughly in line with the ownership model in Germany.

From a Notts perspective, I can't help wondering how many promotion places would be up for grabs if the dirty dozen are expelled from the PL. And why didn't we think of the "founder members can't be relegated" wheeze back in 1888?

[Piethagoram]

 

[Fozzy]

Quite simply, it should be a case of expelling the clubs from English and world football. This includes the whole of the pyramid that they play at, no reserve football, no academy football, no junior football or women's. 

Deny work permits for any foreign signings as the current legislation was proposed by the Premier League, EFL and FA which the government accepted. Since these clubs will be outside this remit, they could in theory be denied permits. 

It appears the club owners do not care about the fans, they feel that the financial gain of the new league outstrips the integrity of the game.

 

 

 

 

[Piethagoram]

@Fozzy All the government has to do, is to say Border entry requirements for any sporting teams has to be for an approved competition. Say that this competition is not "approved", then no team can enter the country and play these matches.

[menzinho]

If they got chucked out the PL I could absolutely see the scenario where the National League board welcome them to the league, place them straight in at the top and rebrand as the Super National League.

I can already see the scores:

Manchester City 11   Kings Lynn 0
Bromley 0   Manchester United 7
Chelsea 9   Maidstone 0
….
Halifax Town 1   Arsenal 0

But in all seriousness if it does go ahead I hope they do get kicked out. I hope the ESL is a massive disaster, that after the season no-one watches it and they have to scrap it. What is about Americans and the whole hatred of promotion/relegation and teams getting things on merit? You buy into these ‘major leagues’ and just get to stay there – what is the point? It’s all utterly soulless. I agree the 50+ 1 ownership in Germany is looking like something that needs to be introduced over here to stop future madness going ahead.

Obviously, fans will continue to protest but the players and coaches have a lot of power here, what if they all get together and just refuse to take part. Are the clubs going to sack all of them? – I doubt it. Depends how greedy they all are too. I’m sure Marcus Rashford will sort it all out, he’s pretty good at getting horrible greedy people to change their minds…

[liampie]

anyone think it was just to cause controversy? it ended pretty quickly.

all of the english clubs have complained about fixture pileups in the past too, so why during covid where the games are more frequent would anyone believe this stupid idea would work. i think it was just to put focus on the game and try to more branding awareness. i cant believe for a second this was a real thought.

[DangerousSausage]

I'm relieved it all unravelled so quickly, but this is a massive wake-up call for football fans. It's also a big opportunity - for years and years, clubs like this have been threatening breakaway leagues such as this one*, and using that threat to concentrate the wealth in ever fewer hands. Now it's backfired in spectacular style, and there's an opportunity to roll back the tide and give fans a voice in how their clubs are run.

This wasn't just a ploy - these clubs resigned from their pressure group, the European Club Association, and formally set up a new league on an invitation-only basis (and in any case it was truly catastrophic PR for them). They can't just be allowed to carry on as if nothing has happened and try again in a few years, there has to be a punishment. The owners don't care about points deductions, they need to be stripped of their power. Give the fans a 51% share, distribute the wealth more equally and make our top flight competitive again. But we shouldn't rely on the government, we need to keep the pressure up. Hopefully this won't have been long forgotten by the time the stadiums are full again.

* - Notts aren't quite blameless in this - we were one of the clubs to resign from the Football League to form the Premier League in 1992 (before promptly getting relegated and never playing in it). Just shows how fortunes can change in football - and that's what makes our game so fascinating.