So they’ll be playing the normal number of games, against the normal teams and then adding 22 more (assuming 11 games home and away) and the fans are supposed to pay money to fly to these and buy tickets ? I’m not seeing this as being reasonable at all.
I'm dead against too.
There's plenty on websites about the structure, no need to 'assume' anything.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/56795811
It's proposed to be 20 teams (these 12, another 3 in negotiation, and then 5 invites per season based on performance) in 2 leagues, with the top 4 going on to a knockout.
IDK how many more or less games that will make it compared to a full Champions League campaign with league stages, multiple H&A legs, etc. Certainly looks like more though.
If FIFA/UEFA don't support / sanction, it'll really nail down the club vs country as FIFA could refuse to register any players that play in it and make them illegible for domestic leagues and national tournaments.
I agree with ElShalimo - I honestly don't see this Super League tournament ever happening - it's all a bluff. This is just the larger clubs in Europe using it as a bargaining chip, threatening to leave competitions unless they get a greater share of the wealth. I'm reckoning 90% of new foreign PL fans support one of these 6 clubs, and the clubs know how much poorer the league would be without them. Same for CL.
Tottenham won't want to leave the PL, as we know it'll destroy the fan base. We might consider leaving the CL as it has less history and the format has changed throughout the years.
It's totally unfair on the smaller clubs, but I can't see the big six leaving the Premier League - we just want more money.
Without sounding arrogant, Uefa would prefer Spurs/Arsenal etc in the CL rather than a less well known European side (simply as we have a higher profile of club/players, better stadium etc) even if we are less deserving and don't actually qualify via our league - it's all about getting the likes of Son (arguably most famous sports person in Asia) & Kane etc on the big stage as they bring in more viewers / cash to the game.
I imagine we'll all settle for guaranteed inclusion in the CL and a greater share of the income from all competitions.
Again, not fair on the likes of West Ham, Everton, Leicester, Wolves etc and totally pulling up the ladder after we've climbed up, to prevent the rest from catching us.
*checks tables*
Nope, the Big 6 leaving still doesn't lift Ipswich Town back into the Championship...🙄
Well I'll just love it, just love it, if Reading refuse to join this super league.
Less seriously, if this happens it will go the same way as golf. Only on pay per view with dwindling numbers watching.
Tottenham won’t want to leave the PL, as we know it’ll destroy the fan base. We might consider leaving the CL
<confused face>
Seems like a fairly empty threat this season.
The fans are supposed to pay their Sky subs and sit at home.
I read DAZN were lined up to 3.5 billion for the TV rights... not sure if this has put it up the Sky or BT pundits
This is really a terrible offering, two thoughts from me, this current big 6 is a joke, United who I support havent won a league in 9 years, Liverpool have won one league in 30years, Tottenham have never won it and Arsenal havent won it in nearly 20 years. You could argue from recent form that Leicster have been hard done by here, then you are forgetting the years when Everton where a top 6 side every season.
Man United have been pretty awful since Fergie left and gone through numerous managers with some good moments and some bad with some awful league finish positions, the low league position finishes have meant we haven't been in the CL which has been good as then I dont get to see us get destroyed by a European team at their peak (although Pep's Barca destroyed two very good teams). If a United went through another rebuild why would I want to watch that and see United prop up a table they couldn't be relegated from!
It’s also interesting to see no German or French teams there.
Naïve to believe that Uli Hoenss and Bayern aren't a big part of this, they just have to be more careful with the announcement due to to the 50+1 rule.
I hope some of the managers speak out against it, won't hold my breath though.
I also saw that the Juventus president was the head of the European clubs association, how the **** did that happen when he has been proposing this power and money grab for years, just shows the power the big clubs already exert in intimidating the smaller clubs.
This is really a terrible offering, two thoughts from me, this current big 6 is a joke
I think that when they're referring to 'top six' they're basing that on one metric only...
Revenue
Given that money is the only metric, once a seat at the table has been guaranteed, can't see the likes of MU, Arsenal and Spurs wasting cash improving their mediocre squads.
The only thing that gives me hope is the second sentence of the Arsenal statement; "There’s lots more to do to bring the competition to life".
The fans are supposed to pay their Sky subs and sit at home.
If this happens, I guarantee this will be pay-per-view via the nobbers own platform.
As a spurs fan I want to stay part of the premiership. If this is mutually exclusive with the super league...I want to stay part of the premiership.
Overhaul the European comps, fine. Not sure that a league is the best thing, but well... Fans opinion matters little.
There is no way any of these teams should be allowed to play in this and the premier league. These clubs will be guaranteed the big money each season and then be allowed to use that extra wealth to build squads and at the weekend get to then play against clubs in domestic competition that can never access that money.
If any of these associations have anything about them they need to act now and not wait until the end of the season.
Someone just raised the point that this could actually be illegal under EU competition law as it creates what is effectively a cartel.
Now Spurs have the money from the ESL they have been able to pay Jose off
Jose off
This is more horrible news for this morning. As a gooner I was hoping the full 3 yr destruction cycle 🙁
I wonder how much money he's made over the years with severance deals?
He's had 25 million just from Chelski, hasn't he?
Spursy
It's very strange timing since they have the League cup final on Sunday.
It’s very strange timing since they have the League cup final on Sunday.
I think yesterday's events tell you how much interest the Spurs board has in the UK cup competitions.
Normally he loses the dressing room, but when you've even lost the Dulux Dog, it's time to go.
I wonder if he only found out about the super league stuff yesterday and didn't react the way the higher-ups were hoping? Let's face it, a team like Porto isn't going to get a sniff in the future.
They're just showing their ambition.
They don't want to carry on winning nowt in the England, they want to spread their wings, broaden their horizons and win nowt in Europe instead 😉
rumours are he was sacked for refusing to take training after been told about the league thing. we shall see he doesn't strike me as a fall on his own sword type or maybe he wanted out anyway.
rumours are he was sacked for refusing to take training after been told about the league thing. we shall see he doesn’t strike me as a fall on his own sword type or maybe he wanted out anyway.
I think the writing was on the wall anyway. Levy would get rid at the end of the season. Taking a stand means he can use Super League as a reason for leaving rather than results.
I wonder if he only found out about the super league stuff yesterday and didn’t react the way the higher-ups were hoping?
I've no doubt he'll come out and say that he had it out with Levy because he feels it is against football and that has cost him his job (definitely not Spurs being 7th). Then next season he'll rock up at RB Leipzig when they become the only German club that join the ESL.
True, very convenient, particularly as his next employer is unlikely to be one of these 'founder members'.
So.... who next for Spurs?
I honestly don't care, as long as Mourinho's gone. Despite some exceptionally talented players, we've been playing horrible football that clearly wasn't working, with everyone to blame except Jose. I can tolerate it if we were grinding out results, but we've been appalling.
Quite happy with Mason til the end of the season, or even Harry in for 7 or so games. Cup final aside, we've got an easy-ish run in, so anyone who can get the players to play close to their abilities will get results.
Edit: Bet Mourinho spins this as his brave protest against the Super League, rather than him being sacked for being outdated, stubborn and not getting results.
It's nothing to do with the ESL, and everything to do with trying to keep Kane from pissing off at the end of the season.
I love this Super League stuff, been looking forward to this for a long time.
The entire edifice of elite football is hopefully about to come crashing down. I hope it's captured on VAR for posterity.
It's been heading in this direction since Murdoch got involved, and here we are - American finance companies, Russian plutocrats and quasi-fascist Middle East states are about to make it all blow up in the faces of the stupid idiots who've enabled this.
A world cup staged in Qatar! Ha ha ha!
At the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, the base of each goalpost was painted with a black band on the otherwise white upright. This was done by the groundsmen at the stadiums, as a mark of protest and respect for the disappeared victims of the ruling military dictatorship. The junta wanted to use the tournament to portray itself in a positive light to the rest of the world and the request from the national team to wear black armbands was firmly turned down with sinister threats. So the ground staff took matters into their own hands, and explained to the dictatorship's generals who cared little for football that the painted black bands were an obscure FIFA rule. This protest went by largely unnoticed by everyone except the target audience - the Argentine people, who the tournament rightfully belonged to. They knew.
This story reminds me of that story.
Read this this morning - made me smile:
Tottenham joining a European super league is like bananaman getting called up as an avenger.
Spurs fan here..
We haven't won a trophy in 13 years and we call ourselves a big 6 team. We are an embarrassment.
Gary Neville summed it up nicely yeaterday unfortunately when he said liverpool and man u should know better, arsenal were a shambles of a club right now and in no way deserving of being called a top team, and most damming of all..he didn't really care about spurs whatsoever..
Re Jose going. The problem isn't the manager. It's that fundamentally spurs are a club who think they are better than they are, yet conversely seem to have a losing mentality about them.
the base of each goalpost was painted with a black band on the otherwise white upright. This was done by the groundsmen at the stadiums, as a mark of protest and respect for the disappeared victims of the ruling military dictatorship.
I never knew that, but the base of my Subbuteo goals had a thin strip of insulating tape to be like them. Even as a nine year old I was a revolutionary!
I think the proposed chairman and vice chairmen reveal the architects, it looks like others may have been less enthusiastic but just not have wanted to be left behind.
And compering it to the rule of a past military junta is less accurate than just comparing it to the current oligarchy that the west has become.
I welcome the ESL announcement.
Do we really think that FIFA, UEFA, Premier League, FA have done such a wonderful job of giving us fans what we want? Or has it just given its stakeholders and leaders billionaire lifestyles? Have they given us the best of all possible games? Are there no improvements to be had? Apart from even more teams in the World Cup, European Cup*. Oh, and VAR.
This is just the opening salvo to get everybody wound up. It's not going to end up like this.
*I'm a Villa fan (not really a football supporter then), so I still think of it as the European Cup seeing as we won it. We absolutely love being the underdogs. Summed up by a bloke standing next to us in the Holte End as we were 3 nil down coming to the end of a winter game: wizard of dribble Frank Carrodus beats 3 defenders heading to an open goal and this bloke in a wonderful brummie accent shouts "Carrodus! Don't you DARE put us out of our misery!"
And the phrases I hate hearing on the radio commentaries are "great game for the neutrals" - sod the neutrals, who are they, the idiots who call it footy? and "playing from left to right" - no they're not.
Spurs are the 5th richest club in the country. The teams wanting to be in the ESL, it has nothing to do with merit (clearly spurs fans 🙂 ) it is all about money, making it and keeping it.
Fly emirates and visit rwanda guys. Dont forget to betfair on you friday evening 9pm kick off with no trains back for the away fans.
Football has been shite for years. Covid proved to them that fans in stadiums are not required despite all the #forthefans hashtags. This is just the logical conclusion.
I'm soooooo HAPPY
He's gone !!
My boycott can be lifted ... I can now watch on Sunday and win lose or draw/lose,lose or lose.... I'll be watching Spurs again.
This is a very HAPPY DAY
UEFA FIFA threatening to ban players is punishing the wrong people IMO. To punish the owners, who seem to be the ones pushing for this, they should release the players registration allowing new clubs to sign them. This isn't a decision made by the players, they are just employees caught up in the melee.
Covid proved to them that fans in stadiums are not required despite all the #forthefans hashtags
I thought much the same. I bet that the next conclusion that the pandemic has helped them reach (they probably already have) is that geographical location isn't important either. So why have the games at Anfield or Old Trafford? Why not have them in Dubai, Singapore or New York?
If this ESL idea ends up anything like the NFL we will have all sorts of interesting changes - adverts every throw in or foul, 4 quarters, franchises (Rome Hotspur, Inter Birmingham) following the money. Can't see it working as several huge teams are missing - Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, PSG, Roma, Lazio, Aston Villa) - and the cultural element of football, such as the rivalries and david beating goliath games which make football such a fascinating and compelling sport to watch. I'm sure Liverpool fans would prefer playing Everton, than a couple of games against Inter Milan.
Christ on a bike. What a crazy 24 hours for football.
My love for the game has been waning for years, and this is pretty much the final huge nail in the coffin for me.
I'm not sure what to think. One part of me thinks this is just a huge bluff, the other that it could change football for ever. But I wish it was how it was about 20 years ago and stayed that way.
Can't get me head around this.
How different is this from, say RL Superleague?
so I still think of it as the European Cup seeing as we won it
Really? Villa fans don't tend to mention that much, I didn't realise.
Oliver Dowden, the secretary of state for culture, media and sport is about to make a statement in parliament about this.
This should be good.
I wonder if someone has sat him down and explained to him what football is?
possible premier league for 2021-22
Leicester
West Ham
Everton
Leeds
Aston Villa
Wolves
Crystal Palace
Southampton
Newcastle
Brighton
Burnley
+ any 9 from....
Fulham
West Brom
Sheff Utd
Norwich
Watford
Swansea
Brentford
Bournemouth
Barnsley
Reading
Cardiff
Millwall
depending what happens with relegation
Euro 2020 England Team looks alright without the ESL teams (assuming Dortmund don't sign up) England might actually stand a chance. We would need PSG to join though, then that'd rule out Mbappe.
Pope/Pickford
Matt Cash
Konza
Dunk
Cresswell
Rice
Bellingham
Sancho
Maddison
Grealish
DCL