European Super League soccer

[csirl]

Any views on the new European Super League for soccer announced last night?

12 of the top teams already signed up. Looks like it will be modelled on the NFL. Buccaneers Joel Glazer is the Vice-Chair.

 

[atlantacowboy]

Any views on the new European Super League for soccer announced last night?

12 of the top teams already signed up. Looks like it will be modelled on the NFL. Buccaneers Joel Glazer is the Vice-Chair.

I really enjoy the set up now. Its hard to have an opinion on the super league b/c I don't know how this will impact domestic leagues, champions league, or national teams. Is this a pure money grab or does this new league solve an on going problem?

 

[CATCH17]

As a casual fan I love it.

If I grew up with the way it is i'd be very upset because i'm a traditionalist when it comes to these types of things.

I have friends in europe that are big fans of the sport and I always told them that I wish they would go this route and to my surprise that is where they are headed.

I really do think the Champions league made this move unnecessary but as a casual fan i'm glad to see it.


I always wanted college football to form a Super league and trim the fat. Too many college games are irrelevant. Nobody needs to see Alabama take on Georgia Southern.

 

[joseephuss]

I like the idea of a super league. It is kind of boring watching the same few teams win their respective leagues over and over again in Europe. It is basically the same four or five clubs(even less in some countries) battling for the title. Very rarely do you see a so called lower tier team compete for a title. And when a lower tier team does start to show promise, their best players are then plucked from them and go on to the big time clubs. That doesn't mean the super league will work. They can definitely screw things up, but a shake up is needed in my opinion.

https://www.si.com/soccer/liverpool/news/perez-prepared-to-create-new-world-cup

Super League Chairman says they will create their own world cup
The Chairman of the Super League, Florentio Perez, has said that if any players are not allowed to play in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar that they will create their own World Cup.

The Super League announcement has shocked the footballing world. 12 clubs, including Liverpool, have announced that they have formed a new European mid-week competition called the Super League. The competition will consist of 20 teams, 15 Founding Clubs, and five other clubs that have to qualify on a year to year basis.

The Super League, which was officially announced just hours ago, is already receiving wide-spread push back from supporters and football governing bodies alike.

 

[csirl]

It's been a long time coming. With modern air travel and the amount of money in the sport its easy to play in a pan-European league. Someone was always going to do it if UEFA didnt.

The Champions League doesnt go far enough. Its still a supplimental competition in addition to national leagues. The European League needs to be teams' main league.

From a pure sporting perspective, having the best players/teams playing each other every week is something that fans should welcome.

The proposal is not going down well with traditionalists and fans of other teams. They're advocating banning everyone involved.

 

[Skullmiester]

Over here in the UK even supporters of the 6 English teams are furious, there have already been protests against the Liverpool team coach as it arrived at Leeds for tonight's Premier League game. There were Liverpool supporters protesting along with Leeds fans.

The view here is that a bunch of billionaires are hijacking the tradition and history of the clubs in order to make as much money as they can.

Players of these clubs will likely be banned from playing from England and the Government are actively trying to stop this happening at all costs.

This new Super League would destroy football in England and will make the Premier League obsolete as a competition.

 

[csirl]

Over here in the UK even supporters of the 6 English teams are furious, there have already been protests against the Liverpool team coach as it arrived at Leeds for tonight's Premier League game. There were Liverpool supporters protesting along with Leeds fans.

The view here is that a bunch of billionaires are hijacking the tradition and history of the clubs in order to make as much money as they can.

Players of these clubs will likely be banned from playing from England and the Government are actively trying to stop this happening at all costs.

This new Super League would destroy football in England and will make the Premier League obsolete as a competition.

I think the reaction has been a bit OTT. Listening to Carragher and Neville last night you'd think their lives were at stake.

I live in a large city in a small country. One that is currently excluded from top level pro soccer due to the cartel that the large national leagues have created. Several times in recent decades proposed teams have been blocked from both the English Premier League(Wimbledon/Dublin FC) and Scottish Premier League. A league that might allow franchises to join in the future is our best hope. The only alternatives are allowing e.g. the Premier League accept overseas teams or the often proposed Atlantic League (combine league of Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland and Scotland).

Fans in my country spend millions on the Premiership including an estimated 25% of Liverpool home crowds (Liverpool are nearest team). But we dont get the benefits e.g. youth academy, live games in home city, inestment in underage football that is paid for by contributions from top level pro football.

 

[daschoo]

I hate it.
Find it interesting that international fans as a general rule are in favour while folk who go to games (whoever decided to use the term "legacy fans" in the press release should lose their job) are generally against it.
As has been previously said it's been coming for a while with the champions league becoming more and more of a closed shop for the big teams from the big leagues but to do away with having to qualify for the top competition and cutting off access to the rest of Europe can't be the answer.

Also worth pointing out that Juve, whose chairman made the lack of competition argument, are currently 13 points off the top and in danger of not qualifying for next years champions league (albeit having won the last 9 titles in Italy)
In England as well Arsenal and Spurs aren't qualifying with a very real chance at least one of if not both Liverpool and Chelsea miss out.

There are major issues in European football in terms of the same few teams dominating. Last time Serie A wasn't won by juve or one of the Milan clubs was 2001, Germany is dominated by dortmund and particularly bayern, psg are on a different level to the rest of France, Atletico have won one but other than that it's been either barca or Madrid for years in Spain.
Even further down the rung here in Scotland it was the mid 80s the last time someone other than Celtic or Rangers won the title and we have been playing the same handful of teams in European qualifiers over the last 5 or 6 years.
If they're genuinely concerned that fans are losing interest due to a lack of competition domestically then the obvious solution (which I fully appreciate won't happen) is surely to look at how the money is distributed rather than creating even more of an imbalance in the favour of the wealthiest clubs.

I think for a lot of people it'll be the final nail in the coffin. Again as previously stated there's been an uneasiness among fans for years that our sport has become a plaything/status symbol/cash cow for billionaires. The vast majority of clubs have working class backgrounds and historically working class support. My own club were founded in 1888 to feed the destitute in the east end of Glasgow and the current PLC board are often at odds with large sections of the fanbase when it comes to the values of the club (recently over alcohol and gambling shirt sponsorships and last week they put out a tweet that was sponsored by a debt collection agency)

Not that my opinion matters, as a legacy fan of a club outside the cabal I'm very much in old man shouts at cloud territory.

 

[atlantacowboy]

I like the idea of a super league. It is kind of boring watching the same few teams win their respective leagues over and over again in Europe. It is basically the same four or five clubs(even less in some countries) battling for the title. Very rarely do you see a so called lower tier team compete for a title. And when a lower tier team does start to show promise, their best players are then plucked from them and go on to the big time clubs. That doesn't mean the super league will work. They can definitely screw things up, but a shake up is needed in my opinion.

https://www.si.com/soccer/liverpool/news/perez-prepared-to-create-new-world-cup

Super League Chairman says they will create their own world cup
The Chairman of the Super League, Florentio Perez, has said that if any players are not allowed to play in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar that they will create their own World Cup.

The Super League announcement has shocked the footballing world. 12 clubs, including Liverpool, have announced that they have formed a new European mid-week competition called the Super League. The competition will consist of 20 teams, 15 Founding Clubs, and five other clubs that have to qualify on a year to year basis.

The Super League, which was officially announced just hours ago, is already receiving wide-spread push back from supporters and football governing bodies alike.

And people wonder why US sports have salary caps. Its to prevent exactly what has happened in European soccer where 90% of the teams are essentially farm systems for the same top teams. The super league just exacerbates the disparity. On the other hand, as a fan, I'd rather watch Man City play Barcelona than Swansea.

 

[csirl]

I hate it.
Find it interesting that international fans as a general rule are in favour while folk who go to games (whoever decided to use the term "legacy fans" in the press release should lose their job) are generally against it.

.

I think this is very true.

Fans in the big 5 leagues in Europe - EPL, Germany, France, Italy & Spain - are very well looked after by UEFA. They have top class domestic football and all the benefits that go with it plus they have guaranteed representation in the Champions League.

UEFA has been very very anti multi-country leagues. There has been a whiff of contempt for fans in medium/small countries - we are supposed to know our place and, by the way the national league system is structured, are effectively excluded forever from top class soccer. This in turn has a huge knock on effect on the development of the sport (due to inability to attract money) and the competitiveness of our national teams. I live in Ireland. The multi-country league is something that is raised regularly. Even now, there are discussions about mergers with Northern Ireland and possibly Scotland - anything to raise the critical mass/attraction of the top level of the sport and as a stepping stone to the "Atlantic League" with a further merger with the Benelux countries.

A reasonable structure for UEFA to introduce would be e.g. 8 regional leagues across Europe. Some might be e.g. 80-90% from one country (i.e. the big 5 leagues) but with a small number of clubs from adjacent small/medium countries. Others could be a merger of a number of countries in the same region - a Scandanvian/Nordic League is a no-brainer. This would mean every country in Europe with have access to top class soccer. Then have the top teams in each of these 8 big leagues qualifying for the Champions League. This would be fair and would maintain the pyramid structure that is important to many fans in Europe.

The top 5 leagues only cover about 50% of the continents fans in terms of population - so there is huge untapped potential. While the European Super league is still a fairly closed shop and may not be a perfect - its departure from the UEFA closed shop gives hope to the 50% of fans in medium/small countries - maybe, in time, some of them will avail of the franchise route as the league expands or teams moving cities ala what we see in the NFL.

 

[daschoo]

I think this is very true.

Fans in the big 5 leagues in Europe - EPL, Germany, France, Italy & Spain - are very well looked after by UEFA. They have top class domestic football and all the benefits that go with it plus they have guaranteed representation in the Champions League.

UEFA has been very very anti multi-country leagues. There has been a whiff of contempt for fans in medium/small countries - we are supposed to know our place and, by the way the national league system is structured, are effectively excluded forever from top class soccer. This in turn has a huge knock on effect on the development of the sport (due to inability to attract money) and the competitiveness of our national teams. I live in Ireland. The multi-country league is something that is raised regularly. Even now, there are discussions about mergers with Northern Ireland and possibly Scotland - anything to raise the critical mass/attraction of the top level of the sport and as a stepping stone to the "Atlantic League" with a further merger with the Benelux countries.

A reasonable structure for UEFA to introduce would be e.g. 8 regional leagues across Europe. Some might be e.g. 80-90% from one country (i.e. the big 5 leagues) but with a small number of clubs from adjacent small/medium countries. Others could be a merger of a number of countries in the same region - a Scandanvian/Nordic League is a no-brainer. This would mean every country in Europe with have access to top class soccer. Then have the top teams in each of these 8 big leagues qualifying for the Champions League. This would be fair and would maintain the pyramid structure that is important to many fans in Europe.

The top 5 leagues only cover about 50% of the continents fans in terms of population - so there is huge untapped potential. While the European Super league is still a fairly closed shop and may not be a perfect - its departure from the UEFA closed shop gives hope to the 50% of fans in medium/small countries - maybe, in time, some of them will avail of the franchise route as the league expands or teams moving cities ala what we see in the NFL.

I must admit that after years of having to go through 4 rounds of qualifiers while the likes of Spurs get straight into the groups and losing out on players to relegation fodder with big bank balances in the EPL I am taking a little enjoyment from the irony of fans of English teams bemoaning the impact that money is having on the game.

 

[Skullmiester]

Chelsea to leave the Super League. The first and won't be the last English club to do so.

 

[Skullmiester]

Man City going as well. The clubs have seriously misjudged their fans and public opinion on this. The remaining 4 need to move quick and withdraw as soon as they can in order to save the remaining 1% of their reputations.

 

[DoctorChicken]

It’s horrible and awful and I hate it

 

[NeathBlue]

Glad to see it’s now stone dead... Ridiculous idea from the start.
And how the hell did Tottenham get in?? Bit like Bananaman joining the Avengers.

 

[atlantacowboy]

Well, that was fun. Super League is dead on arrival. Talk about misreading the room. The next foot to drop will be the firing/resignations of the team presidents who pushed the idea.

 

[csirl]

Well, that was fun. Super League is dead on arrival. Talk about misreading the room. The next foot to drop will be the firing/resignations of the team presidents who pushed the idea.

Owners wont fire themselves!

 

[atlantacowboy]

Owners wont fire themselves!

Nope but they will find a scapegoat. Man U is publicly owned. I wouldn't want to be their president right now.

 

[csirl]

Nope but they will find a scapegoat. Man U is publicly owned. I wouldn't want to be their president right now.

Isnt Man U owned by the Glazers (i.e. Bucaneers owners)? The listed shares are only a small % with no rights attached.

 

[atlantacowboy]

Isnt Man U owned by the Glazers (i.e. Bucaneers owners)? The listed shares are only a small % with no rights attached.

You are correct. Someone at Man U sold this idea to the Glazers and that guy is Ed Woodward. I'll be shocked if he isn't canned as a sacrificial lamb.