New Euro Super league to be announced Sunday

singaporesoxfan

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Nasser Al-Khelaifi talking about principles of "good faith, dignity, and respect for all." The same guy who was instrumental to greasing every palm in FIFA so that we could have a World Cup in Qatar during the middle of winter taking place in hastily constructed stadiums built on the blood of Bangladeshi guest slaves.

Honestly, you just have to laugh at this whole thing. The self-interest, corruption, and hypocrisy is so brazen on all sides.
Agreed here, so where I stand ends up being based less on who are good guys here (spoiler: no one is) and on 1) which system seems to create the best football and 2) which system pays the actual players more money. My conclusion on #1 is that the current system rewards the best football better than an ESL system. On #2, it feels like a salary cap and cost controls are part of the motivations for the move, which makes me suspicious of it, though balanced by perhaps better monetization of football money flowing through the system.
 

Section30

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Do we know anything further about the structure for the new league?

I'm interested to find out if they feel they have to release players for national team duty? I mean if they are separate from the rest of the soccer world what rules, if any, do they feel they have to follow?

Will the 5 non permanent members come from selected leagues or are all leagues allowed to participate?

If a permanent member is coasting and spending minimally on players do they have a salary floor?

Are some pigs more equal than other pigs? As in equal division of revenues or will some teams get more?

If domestic leagues collapse after this move how they handle the negative fallout from fans, cities and governments?

Can't wait for Sunday.
 

TheBenzingerGame

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From the Athletic: Jordan Henderson calls emergency meeting between Premier League captains on Wednesday

The meeting has been called following the announcement of the Super League.

Henderson is seen as one of the Premier League’s most influential captains, having also led the players’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The meeting is significant because it will include representatives from the clubs included in the Super League plans, as well as from the clubs who have been left out.
This ought to be interesting.
 

swiftaw

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I think its the 45 minutes without commercials that he is hinting at. My guess, he wants 30 minute halves with clock stoppages for commercial breaks.
 

ypioca

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I think its the 45 minutes without commercials that he is hinting at. My guess, he wants 30 minute halves with clock stoppages for commercial breaks.
That would make it longer to sit through, still. But of course, the goal is not to actually shorten the games, it's to put more commercials in the broadcast.
 

DJnVa

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Invalid contracts, secret Whatsapp messages and worries over bonuses - what players think of Super League – The Athletic

A source close to Manchester United players said: “The boys aren’t happy. They feel exposed by the club, uninformed, and as though the club didn’t bother to fill them in or consult the players over career-influencing changes.”
As the Premier League threatens expulsion for those clubs jumping ship, players potentially affected are considering the repercussions. One agent said: “I’ve spoken to a few players and they think it’s an absolute joke. They like playing Premier League football. The owners think it’s a positive, but not many others do.”
The absence of novelty in facing Europe’s biggest sides is a worry voiced by one top-six player to The Athletic. Another said: “I’m quite happy to beat Burnley one week and then go and take on Liverpool. That’s what it was like when I was a kid watching. Last night, when the news was starting to break, I messaged a few of my mates (in the game), joking about it.
Clause 6.1.1 of a standard Premier League contract relates to employer obligations and dictates the club should not do anything that stops a player featuring for his country. It also states that clubs shall observe the rules, which are defined as “the statutes and regulations of FIFA and UEFA and the FA Rules and League Rules”, meaning in theory any club leaving those competitions would be in breach of contract.
A Premier League without the six clubs involved would lose significant appeal, he added: “As a player, you work your whole life to play at Old Trafford and Anfield, and you’ve completely lost that. For me, it just wouldn’t be the same. I’ve spoken to boys here and at higher clubs and they’ve said the same – they’re not supporting it, but they can’t do anything about it. They feel powerless.
 

swiftaw

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It’s amazing how completely quiet the owners of the clubs have been (excluding Perez). The English players and managers are getting grilled by the press because they are the only ones that are visible.

It is clear that the owners knew there would be outrage and their plan is to hide till it dies down.
 

Average Reds

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To me, this seems very reminiscent of the plans made by Greg Norman to create a "World Golf Tour" 27 years ago.

The concept was solid, but the proposal was released without first securing commitments from key players along with an agreement from the main tours and national associations to co-exist. So when the existing tours/national associations threatened to blackball any player who went with Norman, the players abandoned ship and the idea died. But the PGA Tour reanimated the concept several years later with the limited-field World Golf Championships and here we are.

The public backlash and threats to banish teams (from leagues) and players (from national teams) seems destined to doom the idea. (IMO, springing it on the players for the "elite" teams and placing them in a god-awful position was perhaps the stupidest mistake here.) But it's probably going to be the catalyst for future reforms to UEFA and FIFA and will almost certainly result in a future league that looks a lot like the Super League in concept.
 

Morgan's Magic Snowplow

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Agreed here, so where I stand ends up being based less on who are good guys here (spoiler: no one is) and on 1) which system seems to create the best football and 2) which system pays the actual players more money. My conclusion on #1 is that the current system rewards the best football better than an ESL system. On #2, it feels like a salary cap and cost controls are part of the motivations for the move, which makes me suspicious of it, though balanced by perhaps better monetization of football money flowing through the system.
I'm suspicious of the ESL for all sorts of reasons. But I don't feel like we have enough information to say whether it will improve on the status quo on either of these counts. What I would say is that the status quo is pretty shit when it comes to the former and that UEFA and the national associations are not showing really any sign at all that they are interested in or capable of change. In terms of creating the best football, the status quo is basically that there are five big leagues, three of them have been completely uncompetitive for the last decade (all with about 9/10 titles won by a single team, and with the hegemon tending to just buy the best players of any team that challenges them), one has been a duopoly, and one has had real competition but has been trending towards dominance by the sovereign wealth fund of an oil dictatorship. That is paired with a UCL system in which the majority of the games are largely meaningless group stage matches, the R16 usually has a couple competitive ties, then things get interesting in the quarterfinals but half the time the tie ends up turning on a decision made by a poorly implemented VAR system.

Would ESL make it better? I don't really know. Its going to widen disparities between ESL sides and the rest, so in leagues with only 1-2 ESL teams its only going to further entrench a lack of competitiveness. But in leagues with 3+ ESL teams it will distance those teams from the rest while likely increasing parity among that group. I certainly think more teams would have a realistic shot at winning the title in the Premier League in any given year, for example, than under the status quo. More importantly, the real promise of the ESL (whether it would realize this promise is another matter) is that it could create a league in which there are a very high number of legitimately really good sides, with an even enough playing field that a large number of them could actually win the title in any given year. If they pulled that off (totally uncertain, but possible), I think it would be a huge improvement in terms of creating and rewarding the best football.
 
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Vinho Tinto

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To me, this seems very reminiscent of the plans made by Greg Norman to create a "World Golf Tour" 27 years ago.

That idea went nowhere because existing tours/national associations threatened to blackball any player who went with Norman. But the PGA Tour reanimated the concept several years later with the limited-field World Golf Championships and here we are.

The public backlash and threats to banish teams (from leagues) and players (from national teams) seems destined to doom the idea. (The death knell was springing it on the players for the "elite" teams, placing them in a god-awful position.) But it's going to be the catalyst for future reforms to UEFA and FIFA and will probably result in a future league that looks a lot like the Super League in concept.
I completely agree.

The thing that will leave me permanently scratching my head was the way this was structured and announced. There is clearly a silent audience, in and outside the sport, that would be open to a Super League and the benefits it could achieve. This audience is not the current majority, but they could have been won over by the 12 clubs. A proposal that could have outlined how this league could have far reaching benefits and create opportunities to really grow the game.

Instead, they treated it like they were announcing the formation of a hedge fund. It couldn’t have been more cynical. It’s also abundantly clear nothing was learned by the failure of Project Big Picture.
 

fletcherpost

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Have Chelsea pulled out? Scrolling down the BBC time line there's talk of Chelsea Preparing documentation, to withdraw from Superleague. I've got a live streams of the Chelsea Fan protest and they were just singing 'we've got our Chelsea back' - ten minutes before they were singing 'we want our Chelsea back' - shit's moving fast. Damn, they're singing 'we want our Chelsea back' -it's the accents.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/football/56581964

18:49
BreakingChelsea out?!
Whoa everyone. Huge news. I mean, really huge news.
BBC Sport understands that Chelsea are preparing documentation to request withdrawing from the European Super League.
 

swiftaw

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If Chelsea pulls out, expect City to follow suit. Both those teams only joined last week and felt like they had to so they weren’t left out
 

Kliq

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If anyone can set the standard for doing what is right and putting people ahead of profits, it is Roman Abramovich.
 

singaporesoxfan

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The Titans of Footballing Industry thought it was a good idea to trot him out? Of course, his ego is such that he was probably the only volunteer.
Someone said up thread that the ESL clubs had already gamed out what could happen, but if they did, the rollout seems super botched. Players not consulted, announcement made on Sunday night US time while Europe was asleep, Perez as the spokesperson answering questions on what seems to be a B-tier platform...
 

bosox4283

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Someone said up thread that the ESL clubs had already gamed out what could happen, but if they did, the rollout seems super botched. Players not consulted, announcement made on Sunday night US time while Europe was asleep, Perez as the spokesperson answering questions on what seems to be a B-tier platform...
There's no way that heads-up-their-asses billionaires, along with the investment banking partners, created a reasonable game plan and outlined all the scenarios. They thought that there were acting at an opportune time -- no fans at matches to protest, COVID as a distraction, and their woe-is-me whining that the ESL is the only way to save football.
 

Cellar-Door

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I mean one of the issues with the idea that it was gamed out is.... we know who these people are... Perez, Henry, Glazer. All of them have long histories of not understanding supporter/fan behavior. John Henry is barely socially functioning, the idea that he or his support group gamed out fan reaction appropriately is counter to all his history.
 

67YAZ

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Someone said up thread that the ESL clubs had already gamed out what could happen, but if they did, the rollout seems super botched. Players not consulted, announcement made on Sunday night US time while Europe was asleep, Perez as the spokesperson answering questions on what seems to be a B-tier platform...
100%. I could wrap my head around the Super League being a "leaked" plan a day ahead of the UEFA vote on UCL changes as a leverage ploy. I am having a hard time understanding how supposedly intelligent businessmen like Henry, Mansour, the Glazers, et al. would plan a rollout this jacked up. They have invited blowback and resistance at every turn for what was already going to be a very controversial move. Turns out the smartest guys in the room are idiots.

Apparently, JP Morgan's Internal Reputation Committee reviewed the idea and gave it a green light.

JPMorgan’s goodness/badness committee did take a look at this financing, but I suppose the goodness/badness committee is focused on more traditional risks and not full of soccer fans:

JPMorgan’s involvement was vetted by its internal reputation committee, which assesses high-profile and potentially controversial assignments, according to people briefed on the decision. But that committee didn’t fully expect the emotional reaction from sports fans that has flooded the airwaves around the world, these people added.
As a friend of mine said, "Serves the Europeans right for trying to get Americans interested in soccer."
 

bosox4283

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Ben Jacobs is reporting that Atletico are out.

If so, that's the biggest piss off Atletico could ever do to Real Madrid!
 

Ale Xander

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Yeah it's either United or Juve being the stubbornest. With Barcelona and Atletico out, I think Real's minutes are numbered.
 

ninjacornelius

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I'll be curious to see if any of these mutineer clubs will still face any sanctions from their domestic leagues or UEFA even after they pull out of the ESL. After all, they tried to torpedo the entire model of European professional football, and they would've gotten away with it too if it weren't for those pesky fans. Throw the book at them, I say.

Signed, a fan of a club that wasn't invited to the party.
 

DJnVa

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How can something with this many VERY IMPORTANT AND RICH PEOPLE involved crumble after 1 day of backlash? What did they expect? It's stunning.

EDIT: I don't mean "rich" means they're smarter, but they should have enough money to pay smart people to give them an educated guess.
 

Mighty Joe Young

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The writing was on the wall last night when Perez was warning his co-conspirators about backing out.

This was a pretty fragile coalition from the getgo and they knew it.

Another indication - how many of the team owners came out and have PCs to explain their motivations for this? FSG has taken huge criticism for hiding in its bunker and letting poor Jurgen Klopp go in front of the cameras instead
 
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