14 minutes ago, EdinburghBlue said:

I’d probably be in favour and quite excited about this if they’d made this and everyone still had to qualify. I f**king hate UEFA & FIFA for that matter - two incredibly corrupt organisations and the new format for the CL looks absolutely terrible. This could have been much, much better. My only issue with it really is the fact that teams don’t need to qualify. If they did, I’d support it.

Yes, I’d also support a movement from the roots to rid of UEFA and FIFA, but that would be against the spirit of this ESL. All they want is to make it clear that they are the elite, the lords of football, and if/when they decide to share the breadcrumbs, they’ll do it in their terms (they chose to let 5 peasants play with them each year). If anything, this idea is even worse in spirit than uefa (which must be some kind of record).

Have to point out that Rangers have a higher UEFA coefficient than Tottenham. 

I suspect aside from fan ownership, the only reason Bayern aren't in it is because they just defacto win their domestic league and always qualify for the CL. Same with PSG. They also can get their pickings of any player playing for a German club so they'll remain competitive forever. The minute Chinese billionaires take over, say, Dortmund and outspend Bayern and beat them to a few league titles you can bet your ass they'll be running to the super league.

25 minutes ago, EdinburghBlue said:

I’d probably be in favour and quite excited about this if they’d made this and everyone still had to qualify. I f**king hate UEFA & FIFA for that matter - two incredibly corrupt organisations and the new format for the CL looks absolutely terrible. This could have been much, much better. My only issue with it really is the fact that teams don’t need to qualify. If they did, I’d support it.

Even if qualification was in place, I still wouldn't support it. 18 games minimum would still mean giving up the domestic cups. I would hate that.

8 minutes ago, IndianaBlue85 said:

Even if this is true, it doesn't make us look any better, just cowardly.

These 12 clubs have made a commitment to play in the Super League for at least 23 years. 

That result tonight would have been great for us 2 days ago 😐

37 minutes ago, EdinburghBlue said:

I’d probably be in favour and quite excited about this if they’d made this and everyone still had to qualify. I f**king hate UEFA & FIFA for that matter - two incredibly corrupt organisations and the new format for the CL looks absolutely terrible. This could have been much, much better. My only issue with it really is the fact that teams don’t need to qualify. If they did, I’d support it.

For changes in CL and EL have been talked about for 3-4 years now. The idea was to make changes and give up some clubs the idea of a Super League.  However, the coronavirus came and messed up many things, there is no money and no people on the stadiums. Man UTD and Barca together they have about 1.8 billion euros of debts. Real, Inter, Milan are the same, Tottenham are with debts for the new stadium but no people on it.  So with or without Super League the changes in CL and EL it would happen anyway. The point is why the hell is this freak Super League for? What the hell is doing Arsenal in it? Its for money, nothing more

Edited April 19, 20215 yr by Tokata

5 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Even if this is true, it doesn't make us look any better, just cowardly.

Indeed.

These hypocrites piping up are getting an easy ride, two wrongs don't make a right, employee's of Sky, BT, Uefa etc getting on their high horse, f**k off 😂

Edited April 19, 20215 yr by Argo

So this is a done deal then? No backing out? This is pretty much it for us in the PL, CL, and any Cups?

 

I can't see top players sticking with these clubs and not being able to playing with their respective international teams. I'm sure you'll see the older players who have retired from international football tagging along for the pay but eventually it will be an expensive retirement league.

Edited April 19, 20215 yr by seanlu13913

8 hours ago, Argo said:

These hypocrites piping up are getting an easy ride, two wrongs don't make a right, employee's of Sky, BT, Uefa etc getting on their high horse, f**k off 😂

Doesn't change the fact that Gary Neville has been bang on with every point so far...

23 minutes ago, RMH said:

Yes, I’d also support a movement from the roots to rid of UEFA and FIFA, but that would be against the spirit of this ESL. All they want is to make it clear that they are the elite, the lords of football, and if/when they decide to share the breadcrumbs, they’ll do it in their terms (they chose to let 5 peasants play with them each year). If anything, this idea is even worse in spirit than uefa (which must be some kind of record).

Totally that is exactly how it feels. These 12 teams have effectively crowned themselves the kings of football to ensure they get a guarantee of all the money. They have no interest in the grass roots of the sport or the fans. If it goes ahead I have no doubt many will watch it. But I hope it fails for the long term good of the sport. In the meantime I will probably keep watching domestic football as a neutral, unless a new "AFC Chelsea" is created in which case I will be behind that. Once the club moves into this new league they may as well change their name to FC Franchise as far as I am concerned.

I read somewhere that they watched American leagues. That's nice, but the difference is from earth to sky: 1) American leagues have 30+ teams, not 15 2) There is a salary cap (will the players like this?) 3) There is a draft for the players, as the last teams usually draw first. Imagine the new Messi going to the bottom fish Tottenham and Arsenal There are a bunch of other rules. Another thing is that teams often move. What will happen if the owners of Manchester United move them to Lisbon, for example: laughing: Not to mention that in Europe, fan culture is very different. In the NBA, many people go to watch various stars and there may even be sanctions if a team decides to give a break to its top players because the "fans" went to matches because of them. Many people support a player and change teams with him. Otherwise, I also think that the Champions League should be annulled if teams are removed from the tournament. The same for EL

1 minute ago, seanlu13913 said:

So this is a done deal then? No backing out? This is pretty much it for us in the PL, CL, and any Cups?

They are trying to force it, but there are still a few things blocking this. FIFA and the government for example are huge obstacles, I don't see how it goes ahead without both getting on board.

If it does happen, then yes, Champions League is done for us. The Premier League is safe, but the 6 English clubs would have such a huge advantage that I don't see any team ever breaking into the top 6 again. The domestic cups would be impossible to play in because of fixture congestion.

We should mark out all these pundits who are speaking out against the ESL for when they suddenly start presenting and commentating it. Hypocrites. 

The only good thing, it isn't a replacement for the PL, i'm sure there are crossed wires here, its a revamped Champions league, so what, the PL is far more important on the domestic front, iverpools six ECLs or Man Us huge PL/1st Divisions, the fans know whats important?

Edited April 19, 20215 yr by Ballack & Blu

3 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

They are trying to force it, but there are still a few things blocking this. FIFA and the government for example are huge obstacles, I don't see how it goes ahead without both getting on board.

If it does happen, then yes, Champions League is done for us. The Premier League is safe, but the 6 English clubs would have such a huge advantage that I don't see any team ever breaking into the top 6 again. The domestic cups would be impossible to play in because of fixture congestion.

Thanks. I've been off social media and what not for a minute and just read everything about 3 hours ago. As you could expect, not much news circulating about this state side.

6 minutes ago, jack h said:

Doesn't change the fact that Gary Neville has been bang on with every point so far...

Too little too late, he's been complicit in this by working on sky for a decade and defending Man.United's owners for even longer.

I suppose tonight we can't be sure that the 12 will be able to attract another 8. I'm assuming the other 3 "founders" were meant to include PSG and Bayern but that's not happening and how do they attract the 5 "guest" clubs? - presumably UEFA and the ECA will not allow member clubs to participate in the Super League so you'd be risking one year in the Super League against many years of expulsion from UEFA competitions. If they can't get another 8 clubs, this just isn't viable and yet Chelsea may miss out on a chance to win this season's CL and FA Cup because of this - crazy.  

2 minutes ago, Tokata said:

I read somewhere that they watched American leagues. That's nice, but the difference is from earth to sky: 1) American leagues have 30+ teams, not 15 2) There is a salary cap (will the players like this?) 3) There is a draft for the players, as the last teams usually draw first. Imagine the new Messi going to the bottom fish Tottenham and Arsenal There are a bunch of other rules. Another thing is that teams often move. What will happen if the owners of Manchester United move them to Lisbon, for example: laughing: Not to mention that in Europe, fan culture is very different. In the NBA, many people go to watch various stars and there may even be sanctions if a team decides to give a break to its top players because the "fans" went to matches because of them. Many people support a player and change teams with him. Otherwise, I also think that the Champions League should be annulled if teams are removed from the tournament. The same for EL

I regularly watch quite a few US sports. Many of the teams are already out of contention for playoffs by the half way point of the season, and deliberately tank to get a better draft pick. Without relegation the teams have nothing to fear by losing week in week out. They can just try again the next season. Makes a lot of the regular season games boring as there is nothing to play for a lot of the time. You get a bit of that towards the end of the season in Premier League mid-table but the relegation battle creates some excitement and usually ensures that most teams have something to play for until the last weeks of the season. I really think that the US sports would benefit from relegation in their leagues. It would ultimately improve the quality of the leagues but there is no way they will ever change it. To be fair it is their sports and they can decide on the rules. In this case though outside owners have gradually been allowed to take control of some of the major teams and are now changing the rules to something that they like and the fans don't. That should never have been allowed to happen.

 

21 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

That result tonight would have been great for us 2 days ago 😐

We don't how this will all end yet, so as far as I'm concerned it still is.

Supposed to be a protest tomorrow outside the Bridge before and during the match. 

1 minute ago, carrickblue said:

I suppose tonight we can't be sure that the 12 will be able to attract another 8. I'm assuming the other 3 "founders" were meant to include PSG and Bayern but that's not happening and how do they attract the 5 "guest" clubs? - presumably UEFA and the ECA will not allow member clubs to participate in the Super League so you'd be risking one year in the Super League against many years of expulsion from UEFA competitions. If they can't get another 8 clubs, this just isn't viable and yet Chelsea may miss out on a chance to win this season's CL and FA Cup because of this - crazy.  

And because of this I can see clubs back peddling real fast.