The Champions League in current format is a bit stale for me, I am kinda bored of it. I struggle to watch the games which are not knockout games. 

This European super league stuff has a long term inevitability about it, but what can you do. This could lead to the moment where 'the bubble' bursts and attendances plummet, for the 'proper' fans. 

The commercialism of football was great up to a point, but now we have guys like Pogba prancing around and guys like him will become the norm. He cares more about his instagram posts and advertisement revenues than how he plays on the pitch. 

 

5 minutes ago, Zola said:

The Champions League in current format is a bit stale for me, I am kinda bored of it. I struggle to watch the games which are not knockout games. 

This European super league stuff has a long term inevitability about it, but what can you do. This could lead to the moment where 'the bubble' bursts and attendances plummet, for the 'proper' fans. 

The commercialism of football was great up to a point, but now we have guys like Pogba prancing around and guys like him will become the norm. He cares more about his instagram posts and advertisement revenues than how he plays on the pitch. 

 

Personally I think money has already impacted this to bring out this level of staleness.

I disliked EPL teams being knocked out of the CL and going straight into the Europa that seemed more like protecting big club's revenue -WRONG!

Secondly why do we want 6th place teams in Europe surely they should be working on getting up the league not having 6 hours flights to Russia.

Better than the Europa would have been the Cup Winners Cup as at least then it would mean something.

Gets more 'big teams' on tv + advertising = £££££££££

It's all money as we all know... football is on TV nearly every single night of the week if you really want to watch it all. 

This has supposedly been about to happen for as long as I can remember. I don't see it becoming reality. If it ever comes close, the fan reaction is going to be overwhelmingly hostile.

8 hours ago, benjsross said:

It would ruin the premier league as places 2-6 mean nothing anymore

Well that would probably be the one major plus points of it if it takes away this top four is a trophy nonsense.

As for my views on it, if we are leaving the English game for this league then it's a massive no no, however if it's the Champions League that it's replacing i think we might be surprised on how much we take to it.

1 hour ago, Kentonio said:

This has supposedly been about to happen for as long as I can remember. I don't see it becoming reality. If it ever comes close, the fan reaction is going to be overwhelmingly hostile.

The one way to win over fans is by making things a success. The average football fan is strongly resistant to change and the change from the European Cup/ Old Division one to CL/PL wasn't exactly greeted with party banners. We would still be on two points a game, lumpy pitches, passbacks, freezing dressing rooms and defenders scared of the football if we left the evolvement of the game in the hands of the average supporter.

We are arguably the biggest culprits as supporters, how many times have we cursed a decision made within the club (especially regarding our managers) only for it to turn out to be spot on?

11 minutes ago, Argo said:

We would still be on two points a game, lumpy pitches, passbacks, freezing dressing rooms and defenders scared of the football

And what exactly would be wrong with most of that?

3 minutes ago, yorkleyblue said:

And what exactly would be wrong with most of that?

There's nothing wrong per se, but football has remained the most successful sport due to it's constant evolvement with the times. It's the case in any walk of life, for example 20 years ago you booked transport by ringing up or going into the nearest office for the train/coach etc, now you can book it online and have the ticket on your phone instead of a piece of paper.

If this 12 team league replaces the CL as Europeans footballs number one tournament, would it be that much bigger a change than the European Cup to CL? 

1 minute ago, Argo said:

There's nothing wrong per se, but football has remained the most successful sport due to it's constant evolvement with the times. It's the case in any walk of life, for example 20 years ago you booked transport by ringing up or going into the nearest office for the train/coach etc, now you can book it online and have the ticket on your phone instead of a piece of paper.

That's true,  and I was just being a grumpy old fart.  I am not sure that the modern ways of instant gratification in all spheres of life are good or even beneficial, but, until I can fully develop my virus that disables the entire mobile phone network world-wide, and renders the internet usable ONLY for this forum and watching Chelsea on a good stream, I'll have to put up with it and just chunter away in the background.

It's like having the World Cup tournament 3 times a year, it would lose its prestige and not be considered such a great magnificent legacy of a tournament that it currently is. 

How would us playing against the top European teams every week not lose its prestige? This is really ugly and I can't see this happening without a huge revolt from fans from all sides. I'm not sure how American sports work but isn't this similar to the NFL with the Super Bowl? Correct me if I'm wrong here but I think it is. 

53 minutes ago, Argo said:

The one way to win over fans is by making things a success. The average football fan is strongly resistant to change and the change from the European Cup/ Old Division one to CL/PL wasn't exactly greeted with party banners. We would still be on two points a game, lumpy pitches, passbacks, freezing dressing rooms and defenders scared of the football if we left the evolvement of the game in the hands of the average supporter.

We are arguably the biggest culprits as supporters, how many times have we cursed a decision made within the club (especially regarding our managers) only for it to turn out to be spot on?

I really don't get your point. None of things stated were opposed by the average supporter at the time. All seater stadiums maybe which I personally still oppose and the constant tinkering with the offside rule.

As for a European Super League this has been touted for at least 40yrs. IF it was just a revamp of the Champions League I'd think most would be up for it. What has been apparently proposed though is a replacement for the domestic leagues, this would be a nono in the eyes of most fans. Rivalries that have been the bedrock of why the game has been so successful would soon disappear, games against European rivals will soon lose their appeal after the novelty has worn off, true fans replaced by even more tourists. No relegation takes the meaning from a lot of games towards the end of the season and as @Zeta pointed out most of these clubs are used to being successful in their own leagues, how will they take to being regularly mid table? Fans are fickle in even in the best times. At the end of the day the clubs who have the richest owners will still be up at the top.

If you don't think its about money and looking after the big money teams ask yourself how in gods name does AC Milan automatically get elected?, and no relegation, death of football in Europe

5 hours ago, Argo said:

Well that would probably be the one major plus points of it if it takes away this top four is a trophy nonsense.

As for my views on it, if we are leaving the English game for this league then it's a massive no no, however if it's the Champions League that it's replacing i think we might be surprised on how much we take to it.

Without 6 big teams pushing for 4 places, youre left with two aiming for one and 4 having nothing to care about after December 

5 hours ago, Argo said:

the change from the European Cup/ Old Division one to CL/PL wasn't exactly greeted with party banners.

Those changes in the 90s were not major changes, they just revamped the leagues and tournaments. These rumoured changes would be the biggest at the top since the sport began.

Isn't this all about 'global audiences' now; think how many PPV armchair fans there are around the world cheering on the 'elite' teams in Europe, not only for their domestic leagues but in the Champions League as well. While historic rivalry between teams domestically in each country perhaps draws a big crowd, new European rivalries can be and have been hyped up, and as we have seen in many cases rivalries created by the media, an example of which is Chelsea and Barcelona, but only for the fact that we somehow manage to been drawn against them more often than not; it has been the media that has created this rivalry.  Is it really a rivalry? I'm not so sure....the TV pundits will tell you it is.  I am sure there would be a larger PPV audience for the Chelsea v Barca game than there would be for a Chelsea v Spurs game.  Multiple the CFC V Barca audience by the number of games each week as the elite teams in Europe battle it out and someone like Amazon, Netflix etc are going to be making a whole ton of dough, especially if they have the right teams in the mix as every game will feel like a CL final.

The 'global' audience will see the worlds best and highest paid players every week playing against each other.  A high level of competition will be seen every week and despite the EPL perhaps being recognized for 'anyone can beat anyone in any given week', that will eventually tail off in the next 5-10 years and the top 6 or 7 teams will start to pull away, if they haven't already and perhaps over the years we will end up no more than what we have in other countries on the continent with 2-3 team leagues and the Premier league title going to City every year.   None of the Super League games will be a roll over as they will be evenly matched and that may also present a problem in itself, as goals may be hard to come by.  Who wants to pay to watch a 1-0 or 0-0 game?  So along with the 'super league' will we see rule changes that will generate goals either for the league itself or change in rules across the globe?  Then of course there is the travel costs for the fans...I bet who ever came up with the league idea really couldn't give a toss I suspect because the money will be generated by the paying audience lying on their couches not the fans standing or sitting on the terraces.  In addition these games will be played in various countries around the world to generate even more cash.  Games in China, the US, India, the Middle East will become the norm.......get your shovels out because football as us old gits know it just maybe about to die...hopefully not before I do. 

Good points CFCCAN, for me it will probably be thanks for the memories Chelsea now time to move on.

Don't think I will switch to Millwall though the Cherries might get my armchair support if we do get this super league.

4 minutes ago, Strider6003 said:

Good points CFCCAN, for me it will probably be thanks for the memories Chelsea now time to move on.

Don't think I will switch to Millwall though the Cherries might get my armchair support if we do get this super league.

I don't understand this attitude.  What the f**k is this "time to move on"??????  What the f**k is this "switch to ...." and "might get my armchair support"?????

Supporting Chelsea (or any team for that matter) ISN'T a choice, like what f**king jumper to wear or how to have your haircut.  

Saying you could even contemplate changing allegiances is the ultimate in plastic JCL w**kerness.

@Strider6003, I know you are a weird little sod, with your silly herbal remedies and space-alien conspiracy theories about how you cure cancer, but I though at least you were genuine Chels.  Seems I was totally wrong. 

How would one go about switching allegiance from one club to another, anyway, or decide whether that's just "armchair allegiance" as opposed to whatever.....stadium seat allegiance perhaps? Throw out anything related to the club of first allegiance, delete all links to forums, and start buying kits and scarves from the new club?

Trying to get a mental picture here...

2 hours ago, yorkleyblue said:

I don't understand this attitude.  What the f**k is this "time to move on"??????  What the f**k is this "switch to ...." and "might get my armchair support"?????

Supporting Chelsea (or any team for that matter) ISN'T a choice, like what f**king jumper to wear or how to have your haircut.  

Saying you could even contemplate changing allegiances is the ultimate in plastic JCL w**kerness.

@Strider6003, I know you are a weird little sod, with your silly herbal remedies and space-alien conspiracy theories about how you cure cancer, but I though at least you were genuine Chels.  Seems I was totally wrong. 

I think the point is with the worst case scenario, which is this; 

Chelsea leave the Premier League. This also means they leave the FA Cup and League Cup as they will fall outside the FA jurisdiction in a breakaway group. 

Chelsea play in a European Super League in a league of 20 made up of invited clubs from across Europe. These teams play 16 scheduled games a season at home and 22 away from home. Either at another club or in a bidded country. The whole thing becomes a globalised football franchise. 

In that case, could you even bring yourself to support Chelsea anymore? 

That's what people are worried about. It can't and won't happen. But that is the end goal for some people in the game who would stand to make a lot of revenue out of it and what I imagine the strider was imagining when he said he would stop supporting Chelsea. 

15 minutes ago, Valerie said:

How would one go about switching allegiance from one club to another, anyway, or decide whether that's just "armchair allegiance" as opposed to whatever.....stadium seat allegiance perhaps? Throw out anything related to the club of first allegiance, delete all links to forums, and start buying kits and scarves from the new club?

Trying to get a mental picture here...

Let's say Chelsea decided to throw it all in and become the Harlem Globetrotters of football. Ignoring all tradition and chucking it all in. Ending any real sense of what I enjoyed about Chelsea. 

I'd probably stop going to Chelsea games, maybe I'd watch some games on TV but I wouldn't really care too much about how we did against Barcelona when the game is in Dallas and none of the squad is even English let alone a Chelsea product. I'd then start going to a few games at Dulwich Hamlets or AFC Wimbledon as they are local to me and see what that was like. Then with the Premier League, I'd probably continue to watch MOTD and if a team had a good set up I liked - maybe perhaps Bournemouth or Brighton, I'd start to look out for their results. 

The phrase "if it aint broke..." comes to mind

12 minutes ago, Imran_CFC said:

The phrase "if it aint broke..." comes to mind

12 hours ago, CFCCAN said:

new European rivalries can be and have been hyped up, and as we have seen in many cases rivalries created by the media, an example of which is Chelsea and Barcelona, but only for the fact that we somehow manage to been drawn against them more often than not; it has been the media that has created this rivalry.  Is it really a rivalry? I'm not so sure....the TV pundits will tell you it is.  I am sure there would be a larger PPV audience for the Chelsea v Barca game than there would be for a Chelsea v Spurs game.

It's not a rivalry with Barcelona and never will be. You go through stages of playing teams were there is a rivalry but not a long lasting one for example Middlesbrough they relegated us in 88 we played them in the Zenith Data in 90 where there was trouble everywhere. Then the rivalry started for a couple more years when we beat them in 97 cup final and 98 CC final.

The rivalry with Liverpool is not as intense as it was from 2005- 2012 or so. We still hate each other but there traditional rivals are Man United and Everton are's are the London clubs and if they get promoted Leeds.

1 hour ago, benjsross said:

In that case, could you even bring yourself to support Chelsea anymore? 

Yes.  My point and concern is how can anyone contemplate NOT supporting Chelsea?

It's like me saying I don't like the way the people of this country have f**ked it up royally by voting to leave Europe so I've decided not to be English anymore, but from now on I'm going to be French.  Or Irish.  Or whatever.  It's genetic, I can't choose that and I can't choose not to be Chelsea.

if you can, I feel sorry for you.

10 minutes ago, yorkleyblue said:

Yes.  My point and concern is how can anyone contemplate NOT supporting Chelsea?

It's like me saying I don't like the way the people of this country have f**ked it up royally by voting to leave Europe so I've decided not to be English anymore, but from now on I'm going to be French.  Or Irish.  Or whatever.  It's genetic, I can't choose that and I can't choose not to be Chelsea.

if you can, I feel sorry for you.

The difficulty here is that if Chelsea did decide to join some trans-European league and ditch the EPL, it wouldn't be truly British anymore. It would just be some trans-European club with the Chelsea badge emblazoned upon it. 

It wouldn't be the same Chelsea that we've all grown to love. It wouldn't be The Pride of London anymore, since many of its matches may not even be played there! 

FWIW, my attitude towards this endeavour is hostile but I haven't gone so far as to say definitively that I would stop supporting Chelsea if it came to fruition. 

Edited November 6, 20187 yr by DaRick