It has been talked about for decades, and today 12 clubs announced they want to form a super league of midweek games. FIFA and UEFFA already threatened clubs not to do this.
I really don't like this idea, sounds like pure greed to me.
Milan put this on their official site like all the other teams involved
Quote:AC Milan, Arsenal FC, Atlético de Madrid, Chelsea FC, FC Barcelona, FC Internazionale Milano, Juventus FC, Liverpool FC, Manchester City, Manchester United, Real Madrid CF and Tottenham Hotspur have all joined as Founding Clubs. It is anticipated that a further three clubs will join ahead of the inaugural season, which is intended to commence as soon as practicable.
Going forward, the Founding Clubs look forward to holding discussions with UEFA and FIFA to work together in partnership to deliver the best outcomes for the new League and for football as a whole.
The formation of the Super League comes at a time when the global pandemic has accelerated the instability in the existing European football economic model. Further, for a number of years, the Founding Clubs have had the objective of improving the quality and intensity of existing European competitions throughout each season, and of creating a format for top clubs and players to compete on a regular basis.
The pandemic has shown that a strategic vision and a sustainable commercial approach are required to enhance value and support for the benefit of the entire European football pyramid. In recent months extensive dialogue has taken place with football stakeholders regarding the future format of European competitions. The Founding Clubs believe the solutions proposed following these talks do not solve fundamental issues, including the need to provide higher- quality matches and additional financial resources for the overall football pyramid.
https://www.acmilan.com/en/news/articles...ompetition
(04-18-2021, 11:41 PM)reza Wrote: It has been talked about for decades, and today 12 clubs announced they want to form a super league of midweek games. FIFA and UEFFA already threatened clubs not to do this.
I really don't like this idea, sounds like pure greed to me.
Milan put this on their official site like all the other teams involved
https://www.acmilan.com/en/news/articles...ompetition
DOn't like the look of this at all
04-19-2021, 01:32 AM
(This post was last modified: 04-19-2021, 01:39 AM by nefremo.)
Wow. When i first saw the news this morning, I thought it's just bullshit as usual and it'll go away within a couple days, as usual.
But god damn...seems like it's real and seems it's going to start in August of this year already.
It most definitely is greed. But, budiness is greed one way or another. Each of the "founding" 15 teams will receive an insane 3.5 Billion Euros...UP FRONT! (I keep seeing that everywhere. And I don't believe it...so let me know if i'm mistaken here...but surely thay's what it seems)
To put that in perspective....it will take Milan about 14-15 SEASONS to make that much money at the current revenue amounts. Even for clubs like Real or Barcelona who consistently bring in 600+ million in revenue...this up front payment itself is 5/6 seasons worth of cash. And again...that's just up front. They're still able to rake in most of their other revenue from match days, sponsorships, etc...even TV rights, I'm sure.
In a way...they are "american-izing" European Football. The "ESL", as it's called, will function in a way like American sports do. It'll be the premier competition with the same 15 clubs competing every season. They'll just allocate 5 extra spots each season for "qualifying teams", which they haven't yet explained how that'll be done.
At first glance, my initial reaction is that I don't like the looks of it. I am a traditionalist, I guess. I like the national leagues and I like how it's always nerve racking that you have to qctually qualify to play in the CL. It meant something. That part will be gone as you'll have the same teams playing. But on another hand, you'll have the best players in the world playing against each other week in week out. Eventually, all the best players in the world will end up playing for a team in the ESL. I guess similar to the NBA. Eventually, the best basketball players end up playing in the NBA.
In a way...is this the end of the Champions League/European Cup? Definitely seems like it.
I guess all things must come to an end eventually. This will take some getting used to. Us older generations that grew up with the European Cup and then the Champions League will find this hard. But newer generations will not know any better. They'll dream of the club winning the ESL jist as we dreamt of our club winning the European Cup.
It's sad for the smaller clubs and especially the smaller leagues. Those teams, players and fans dream of getting an opportunity to even qualify for the CL. To play against a European giant and host a big club at their stadium. I guess...no more.
The questions remain though. The ESL says clubs will keep playing in their domestic competitions. Yet UEFA, FIFA and the domestic leagues said they'll ban the ESL clubs. Not sure how that can work legally. UEFA can certainly ban them from playing in European competitions (not that they want to anymore)....but UEFA can't ban them from playing in the National leagues. That's up to each individual league. And I don't think the EPL wants a league without City, United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham. Or La Liga without Barca, Real, Atletico. Etc, etc.
I mean...a club can opt not to play in the CL. A club can opt to NOT register for European Competition every season. We've seen it happen several times. So how is this different. If Milan/Inter/Juventus decide not to register for European Football and do not obtain the necessary UEFA license, that's their right. Not sure UEFA can do anything about that. Lega Serie A can, for sure...but probably not in their best interest. And probably it'll be an absolute legal wreck. After all, for example, it's not Milan's agreement with Lega Serie A that we'll play in european competition. It's up to Milan to register for it each season. If not, the next club down the list (that registered) will go and play. So unless Milan get relegated from the league...how can the league "ban" Milan?? I'm not sure this can be done legally and I'm sure the ESL teams know this fully well.
So the ESL becomes the premier competition, and all national leagues become second tier. 2nd divisions in a way.
Take it as you will. This is hard to process. But it seems to be happening.
Look, I get the Logic behind it. after all, the UCL isn't as exciting as it used to be. this could possible bring it back to how it was 10+ years ago BUT it potentially comes at a huge cost and also removes the surprise moments like Porto winning UCL against Monaco
Please NO!!!!
You fear because you live without Love Pioli
04-19-2021, 02:12 AM
(This post was last modified: 04-19-2021, 02:20 AM by nefremo.)
Before the current format, the following was true (and I'm glad I witnessed it in my lifetime):
1. you had to be the Champion of your country, to play in the Champions Cup. Only 1 team per country. It was very difficult to be in the European Cup, let alone win it.
2. The Cup Winners Cup was considered the 2nd most difficult competition. Again, because only the cup winners got to play in it. It gave meaning to the national cup competitions.
3. 2nd or 3rd place teams (initially just 2nd) went to the UEFA cup if they didn't win the national cup.
So there was great disbursement of big clubs among all 3 competitions. But eventually, to make more money, UEFA and the clubs had to give in to what the people/market (commercial companies, shirt manufacturers, TV/Media companies) wanted to see. The complaint and desire was for Bayern or Real or Milan or Barca or Manchester United to be in the same competition. It was not good for business that Milan would not play Real for multiple years. Or United would not play Barca for years. Nobody wanted to see Barcelona play Rosenborg. Everyone wanted high profile names playing each other MORE often.
So they gave in. They all gave in to those desires and made a shit ton of money.....Including UEFA.
So for UEFA to go against these clubs now, would be hypocrisy. They burned many bridges with their FFP bullshit too and pissed many people off. But I hope the talks aren't over and that they can negotiate. Maybe keep these 15 clubs in as founders, expand the league to 30 teams and therefore allow another 15 to qualify via national leagues.
But the problem will be money. UEFA wants to control it. The clubs are tired of that. But it's always about money. Always.
So when that reform was going on in the 90s...there were people hating it too. It didn't seem right. The domestic competitions weren't as important anymore, especially the cups. Just look at the Italian Cup for example.
But eventually, everyone got used to it....and more importantly, loved the product. We'll see how this turns out. There will be rejections. It will be weird. I personally don't like it as I already said. The reforms in the 90s killed the domestic cups. The further interest and expansion in the early 2000s even further diminished the cups and the national leagues. This thing right now, will pretty much do the same thing to the national leagues as UEFA's reform did to the national cups in the 90s.
Sad, but true.
Got this from a Liverpool forum. Quotes The Times....
The Super League proposals include:
- The 15 founder clubs sharing an initial 3.5billion (£3.1billion) euro “infrastructure grant” ranging from £310million to £89million per club which can be spent on stadiums, training facilities or “to replace lost stadium-related revenues due to Covid-19”.
- The format would see two groups of 10 clubs who play home and away, with the top four from each group going through to two-legged quarter-finals, semi-finals and a one-legged final.
- Matches would be midweek and clubs would still play in domestic leagues
- Clubs would have rights to show four matches a season on their own the digital platforms across the world
- Income from TV and sponsorship would favour the founding clubs: 32.5% of the pot would be shared equally between the 15 clubs, and another 32.5% between all Super League clubs including the five qualifiers
- 20% of the pot would be merit money “distributed in the same manner as the current English Premier League merit-based system” according to where clubs finish in the competition or group if they don’t make the knock-out stage
- The remaining 15% would get a “commercial share based on club awareness”
- A cap of 55% of revenues permitted to be spent on salaries and transfers (net)
- A ‘Financial Sustainability Group’ would monitor clubs’ spending
The idea has been along and older than many fans. Berlusconi pushed if not founded it, he was an outstanding businessman, and Milan and our dreams have been bond to this business. UEFA esp since platini has cut our legs with ffp and ridiculous referees. Milan made changes, a lot, now barely make top 20 financially and top 60 atheletically. The Super League is anounce one day before the expansion of UCL, it might be a bargaining chip, we'll see. Whatever happens, I'll not stand for UEFA, the unloyal, unfaithful, corrupt and bureaucratic institution.
Rumours *just rumours* that leagues like Serie A will threaten to not award the league if the winners are among the teams involved in this Super League, also rumour about CL and EL being suspended.
(04-19-2021, 03:00 AM)mihan Wrote: The idea has been along and older than many fans. Berlusconi pushed if not founded it, he was an outstanding businessman, and Milan and our dreams have been bond to this business. UEFA esp since platini has cut our legs with ffp and ridiculous referees. Milan made changes, a lot, now barely make top 20 financially and top 60 atheletically. The Super League is anounce one day before the expansion of UCL, it might be a bargaining chip, we'll see. Whatever happens, I'll not stand for UEFA, the unloyal, unfaithful, corrupt and bureaucratic institution.
The corruption of UEFA is not the point here. The new league could and likely will be just as corrupt. Refs and money will not become clean just because of a new league is there who distributes more cash to fewer teams by the way.
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