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.
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 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.
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.
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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.
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!
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.