4 minutes ago, Jezz said:

Can't say I would blame him if this turns out to be more then a rumour created by some overjoyed everton fan

46 minutes ago, Zeta said:

I'm not sure I can even be bothered to watch the rest of the season, now

I'm having similar thoughts ... all enthusiasm for the season run in has pretty much disappeared overnight for me ...

I read a comment on another site that resonates, this is not about genuine football, it is about Asia and Africa.

They don't want to see West Ham vs Leeds it does not mean anything to them they want to see Manchester United vs Barcelona every week,

 

1 hour ago, evissy said:

I am sorry and probably a total ignorant in this matter but can someone please explain how this new system will harm grassroots football and football communities in general? Only calm and collected answers. 

As I see it we already have this club-elite bunch anyway. How does this harm 5th tier English side and their communities? 

 

I look at this in this way. The PL dream is everything a small club hopes for. Wanting to one day hit it big is now gone when the money will shift from the PL to the ESL. A lot of clubs depend on the tv rights, sponsors and labels etc to stay afloat. 1st tier buying from the 2nd tier and downwards etc.

The English football pyramid is built on trickling down of money from the biggest clubs all the way down. At one point the smaller clubs will just become feeder clubs for the ESL or sell out to corporations to get out of the debt accrued when the money leaves.

There isn't any hope for smaller clubs to even breakthrough to the elite levels because the elite are just 20 clubs who will never be relegated, sucking up money and circulating between them a la US sporting franchises.

Even promising kids won't go through the lower divisions because as it is, the big club's academies are already sucking up the talent from everywhere in the country.

There will never be a Jamie Vardy again. There is a reason why the US isn't known for grassroot sports.

 

Is there even a way back at this point? Seems like every bridge is burned to me.

Tuchel's presser in a couple of hours might be interesting.

Next thing is we will scrap relegation and just play with 20 teams in league. 

We all love the big games but week in week out is a bit much

Plus, who doesn't love it when a smaller team pulls off a blinder and beats the larger team. 

Money grab and really hope we duck out of it or at least, it opens up to not being a purely set 15 clubs plus 5. Why do Arsenal/Tottenham deserve to be in it if they aren't in the top 6 of UK. 

How can you ignore Germany, France, Holland and Portugal (to name a few from this). 

 

Stupid concept

3 minutes ago, Sindre said:

Is there even a way back at this point? Seems like every bridge is burned to me.

Tuchel's presser in a couple of hours might be interesting.

What does this mean for the CL, will we get to play in the semis and the final if we win? Would be nice to win the last proper CL

2 minutes ago, Strider6003 said:

I read a comment on another site that resonates, this is not about genuine football, it is about Asia and Africa.

They don't want to see West Ham vs Leeds it does not mean anything to them they want to see Manchester United vs Barcelona every week,

 

You think Perez, Levy or Roman care about what fans in Asia and Africa think or want? LOL

4 hours ago, Valerie said:

My main thought when I read about the dazzling money involved was: who's paying for this? What's in it for JP Morgan? In the end they too want to make money, not spend it. How do they intend to profit from it? I probably have a completely wrong idea of sponsorship, but the kind of money that's been mentioned seems a big waste when reading all the negative response. What company wants to be associated with that?

And if other sponsors are involved (or in time will be), are those the same same sponsors that prop up the Champions League? They won't be able to do both, or do I have a wrong picture of that? New sponsors might be interested, but perhaps in Covid times or even in post-Covid times it might not be realistic to assemble £4.6 billion a season for years to come.

As I said, I may have a completely wrong idea of how the financing of this kind of annual sporting event works, but I do wonder about the disconnect between big corporations and the avarage football supporter.

JP Morgan's higher up must be friends with one of the Glazers, Kroenke or any other American billionaire owners. The rich boy's club protects their own.

3 minutes ago, Malta Blue said:

What does this mean for the CL, will we get to play in the semis and the final if we win? Would be nice to win the last proper CL

UEFA would kick us out or render it invalid. 

4 minutes ago, Malta Blue said:

What does this mean for the CL, will we get to play in the semis and the final if we win? Would be nice to win the last proper CL

I can imagine we, City and Real Madrid are about to be kicked out.

I can't imagine UEFA is going to allow either one of the three teams to win and hand their most precious title over to a club who's then going to turn around and "bring it" with to the ESL.

Edited April 19, 20215 yr by Sindre

3 minutes ago, Deino said:

UEFA would kick us out or render it invalid. 

Well that would suck

9 minutes ago, Malta Blue said:

What does this mean for the CL, will we get to play in the semis and the final if we win? Would be nice to win the last proper CL

If UEFA are feeling vindictive, and I'm sure they will be, then I think we'll see Dortmund re-instated to play PSG in semi 1, and a play off at a neutral venue between RB Leipzig and Atalanta to play a re-instated Porto in Semi 2.

Football has been on a downward spiral for some time now. Things like Haarland demanding 1 million a week are just crazy and incredibly off-putting for me. 

I have refused to spend any of my money on football-related products for some time now and will continue to do so. These greedy bastards can do what they want but none of us should support them in their ridiculous attempts to extract as much money as possible while totally disregarding everything that makes football great. For me watching Chelsea play different levels of oppositions as well as local rivals is way more attractive than some "glamorous" games against European teams while contesting in some plastic competition played in Abu Dhabi. 

I am sure none of us likes Gary Neville but what he said is definitely true. The clubs (unfortunately this also includes Chelsea) have to be punished for this.  
 

16 minutes ago, Strider6003 said:

I read a comment on another site that resonates, this is not about genuine football, it is about Asia and Africa.

They don't want to see West Ham vs Leeds it does not mean anything to them they want to see Manchester United vs Barcelona every week,

 

I'm not convinced even the foreign/non-European fans want to see this. I met a few African Chelsea fans while working in the Middle East and they were fully invested in the Premier League and followed it avidly despite never having been to the UK, it was kind of surprising. I'm sure we also have a number of posters from these regions on the forum but I'm not seeing much in the way of support for the so-called Super League.

9 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

You think Perez, Levy or Roman care about what fans in Asia and Africa think or want? LOL

No but they want their money. In the end that is what is driving all of this. A guaranteed bigger slice of the pie from the "future fans".

As a question for those who remember the setup of the Premier League, which was in and of itself a breakaway, was the reaction similar? Seems to me this is the latest in a long line. World Series Cricket, Rugby League Super League.

I could easily see this supplant the UEFA run league with the 12 teams always qualifying and then other league teams coming in on merit. It stinks but I wouldn't be surprised if a hybrid model emerges.

9 minutes ago, Malta Blue said:

Well that would suck

Sucks to be you, HAh! Oh wait...

Can't get knocked out of the CL ---> If you get physically, mentally, spiritually and practically removed from the competition as if you never existed in the first place.

Edited April 19, 20215 yr by Gol15

4 minutes ago, Spiller86 said:

No but they want their money. In the end that is what is driving all of this. A guaranteed bigger slice of the pie from the "future fans".

As a question for those who remember the setup of the Premier League, which was in and of itself a breakaway, was the reaction similar? Seems to me this is the latest in a long line. World Series Cricket, Rugby League Super League.

I could easily see this supplant the UEFA run league with the 12 teams always qualifying and then other league teams coming in on merit. It stinks but I wouldn't be surprised if a hybrid model emerges.

I seriously doubt that they would do all that due to the market in Asia and Africa alone though...

5 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

I seriously doubt that they would do all that due to the market in Asia and Africa alone though...

I would have subbed America for Africa but the sentiment remains. All about the emerging markets and maximising the dollars. Using an NFL/NBA franchise model. 

I’m not convinced that the argument of “looking out for other clubs” is valid and true. If Chelsea get relegated, no one is going to look out for us. It’s dog eat dog and the financial burdens are huge. It’s no wonder they’re looking out for themselves. 
 

UEFA only have themselves to blame. They promised more regulation with FFP, certain clubs followed it very strictly and UEFA allowed others to find loopholes and get away with it. No-one trusts them. 

10 minutes ago, Spiller86 said:

As a question for those who remember the setup of the Premier League, which was in and of itself a breakaway, was the reaction similar? 

It was a different World back then, football was in a financial black hole, all people were moaning about was paying sky subscriptions to watch it, yes we actually expected it free 

41 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

I'm having similar thoughts ... all enthusiasm for the season run in has pretty much disappeared overnight for me ...

It sucked all the fun and energy out for me. Weve come off a great win against city, in contention for 2 major honours, and they decide to spring this on us now. Even if we do win, what will it actually mean, if all our history is just erased next year. 

I've been off the forum a while, but thought good to air my anger here. 

Let's be clear. An NFL style European super league doesn't need 30% of it's clubs to be based in england and 15% to be in London. 

Which team will be the first to be lifted out and moved to a new location? Probably the team with worst stadium and no prospect of building a new one. 

This will be the death of Chelsea. Either in 5 or 20 years. It must be stopped. 

3 minutes ago, bisright1 said:

I've been off the forum a while, but thought good to air my anger here. 

Let's be clear. An NFL style European super league doesn't need 30% of it's clubs to be based in england and 15% to be in London. 

Which team will be the first to be lifted out and moved to a new location? Probably the team with worst stadium and no prospect of building a new one. 

This will be the death of Chelsea. Either in 5 or 20 years. It must be stopped. 

I'm pretty sure atleti will be one of the other teams soon to join, the same could be said for madrid

Just now, coco said:

It was a different World back then, football was in a financial black hole, all people were moaning about was paying sky subscriptions to watch it, yes we actually expected it free 

I suspect this might end up being the same. Moaning to start but people will come around.

There will be a deal and some of the big clubs will get their permanent spots with others getting a chance based on merit.

This is just the nature of professional sport in my view. It stinks but it's no more objectionable than Messi and Ronaldo being paid the GDP of a small country to play football or Raiola and Mendes being paid something similar to facilitate a deal.