New Euro Super league to be announced Sunday

Time to Mo Vaughn

RIP Dernell
SoSH Member
Mar 24, 2008
7,202

EvilEmpire

paying for his sins
Moderator
SoSH Member
Apr 9, 2007
17,178
Washington
I imagine part of the issue here is that organizations outside of the clubs (the PL, UEFA, etc.) had the final say on the rebates. The clubs clearly weren't thrilled with the outcome and have decided to cut out the middlemen.
I know this is an ignorant question, but I'll ask anyway: when the different league organizations are described as the middlemen, how much are we actually talking about? How much money isn't actually going to teams or to things that directly benefit teams?
 

Joe D Reid

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Jan 15, 2004
4,208
Yeah, I've heard that before, I just don't know how to correlate it with my USA-based experiences. The impression I have is that American franchises continue to rake it in as TV money gets larger and larger, and depending on the sport, international expansion brings in more and more fans and outlets for revenue. The players make more money, the owners make more money, and the business just gets bigger and bigger. I assume that gigantic franchises in Europe would be in a similar boat, especially given the global popularity of the sport and the fact that the system is less egalitarian and thus more favorable to the bigger clubs.

For a team like Barcelona, with a 100,000 seat stadium, a global fanbase and eating up like, 25% of the La Liga TV money, I don't know how they can be so far in the hole. Is the business model in American sports just that much more successful?
WelI, I don't think they were that far in the hole until the COVID losses and givebacks--what they apparently didn't have were reserves sufficient to cover those losses and givebacks.
 

Joe D Reid

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Jan 15, 2004
4,208
I know this is an ignorant question, but I'll ask anyway: when the different league organizations are described as the middlemen, how much are we actually talking about? How much money isn't actually going to teams or to things that directly benefit teams?
UEFA's financial statement says that it disbursed 80% of the nearly 4 billion Euros it took in during 18-19. So 20% is going to UEFA off the top. Because UEFA takes in money for both club (CL) and national team (Euros) competitions, not all of the revenue is generated by the clubs. I don't know if the overall 20% haircut maps to the club competition side. But 20% overhead for a bunch of often demonstrably corrupt bureaucrats is not great.
 

teddykgb

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 16, 2005
11,016
Chelmsford, MA
Look at you guys talking yourselves into this. UEFA and FIFA are horribly corrupt criminal organizations. Solving that by giving power to fucking Agnelli and Perez is like trading corrupt police protection for Mafia protection
 

Dummy Hoy

Angry Pissbum
SoSH Member
Jul 22, 2006
8,232
Falmouth
Maybe this is an American outlook (or as a Spurs fan, because my team is included), but I'm struggling to think of a reason why I *wouldn't* want a pan-Europe league with the best of the best.
It's because you, like @coremiller admitted early, are American and therefore give no fucks for the traditions and history of other places.
 

singaporesoxfan

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Jul 21, 2004
11,882
Washington, DC
Maybe this is an American outlook (or as a Spurs fan, because my team is included), but I'm struggling to think of a reason why I *wouldn't* want a pan-Europe league with the best of the best.
That’s what the Champions League is already, or at least closer to. This league is some of the best plus some teams with history even if they’re nowhere near the best now. It’s like saying the NFL playoffs should always include the 49ers because they were so great in the 1980s
 

Cellar-Door

Member
SoSH Member
Aug 1, 2006
34,457
UEFA's financial statement says that it disbursed 80% of the nearly 4 billion Euros it took in during 18-19. So 20% is going to UEFA off the top. Because UEFA takes in money for both club (CL) and national team (Euros) competitions, not all of the revenue is generated by the clubs. I don't know if the overall 20% haircut maps to the club competition side. But 20% overhead for a bunch of often demonstrably corrupt bureaucrats is not great.
20% seems massive. I wonder how league offices in other major sports compares.
They don't keep the 20%? Did y'all just stop reading when you got to the direct dibursement to clubs? The clubs get 80% of the REVENUE.
They remaining 20% is used to pay the event expenses, refs, etc out of that, made a disbursement to the participating association, and then the remainder goes to solidarity.

The only thing you can really consider as "their cut" is the 100M in salary and benefits which is about 2.5%.
UEFA's managers are power hunger clowns, but they are not at all soaking the clubs. The problem the big clubs have isn't UEFA taking a cut, it is that UEFA is set up to distribute money to a lot of clubs and nations to encourage growth and sustaining the game.
The big clubs want their cut to be bigger and fuck the minnows.
 

Joe D Reid

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Jan 15, 2004
4,208
They don't keep the 20%? Did y'all just stop reading when you got to the direct dibursement to clubs? The clubs get 80% of the REVENUE.
They remaining 20% is used to pay the event expenses, refs, etc out of that, made a disbursement to the participating association, and then the remainder goes to solidarity.

The only thing you can really consider as "their cut" is the 100M in salary and benefits which is about 2.5%.
UEFA's managers are power hunger clowns, but they are not at all soaking the clubs. The problem the big clubs have isn't UEFA taking a cut, it is that UEFA is set up to distribute money to a lot of clubs and nations to encourage growth and sustaining the game.
The big clubs want their cut to be bigger and fuck the minnows.
I hadn't seen that the solidarity was after the 80%. I still struggle to see how it costs UEFA 240M in event expenses and 60M in "other" expenses to put on tournaments held entirely in other peoples' existing facilities, especially when those numbers don't include UEFA's own overseer employees, the refs, or the tech infrastructure necessary to distribute the matches (each of which have separate line items). But I agree with your basic point that the big clubs see other entities at the trough and want to elbow them out.
 
Last edited:

Morgan's Magic Snowplow

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 2, 2006
22,345
Philadelphia
The big clubs clearly want to elbow others out but I think the even bigger issue is that they think UEFA is doing a terrible job monetizing the product. They believe they can double the size of the pie.
 

67YAZ

Member
SoSH Member
Dec 1, 2000
8,729
The big clubs clearly want to elbow others out but I think the even bigger issue is that they think UEFA is doing a terrible job monetizing the product. They believe they can double the size of the pie.
I completely agree, with one minor revision - they believe they can double the pie and quadruple the size of their slice.
 

teddykgb

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 16, 2005
11,016
Chelmsford, MA
Florentino Perez out there doing his best Baghdad Bob impression right now. Poor old Real Madrid just had to save all the other clubs in the world. This is altruism!
 

Phil Plantier

Member
SoSH Member
Mar 7, 2002
3,419
All 6 should be relegated to the bottom tier.
I know this is an off-the-cuff remark, but why should we be stuck with them? Lower leagues in England have been waging a prolonged struggle to keep reserve teams out of the pyramid, this would be the same wolf dressed as a different sheep.
 

Cellar-Door

Member
SoSH Member
Aug 1, 2006
34,457
Florentino Perez out there doing his best Baghdad Bob impression right now. Poor old Real Madrid just had to save all the other clubs in the world. This is altruism!
I enjoyed the... "listen COVID has made finances bad, so to fix that the people who have a lot of money should be allowed to get a lot more money, and the people who don't have a lot of money should shut the fuck the up and give the rich more money" argument
 

teddykgb

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 16, 2005
11,016
Chelmsford, MA
I enjoyed the... "listen COVID has made finances bad, so to fix that the people who have a lot of money should be allowed to get a lot more money, and the people who don't have a lot of money should shut the fuck the up and give the rich more money" argument
Yes and what he was really wanting to say is “Madrid and Barca have once again fucked up their finances and need saving but for once the Spanish government isn’t going to bail us out and what is football without Barca and Madrid?”
 

wade boggs chicken dinner

Member
SoSH Member
Mar 26, 2005
30,482
The big clubs clearly want to elbow others out but I think the even bigger issue is that they think UEFA is doing a terrible job monetizing the product. They believe they can double the size of the pie.
Only double? I don't know anything about soccer revenue structure, but if this article - https://qz.com/1998582/how-much-tv-money-could-the-european-super-league-command/ - is anywhere near correct, the big teams are looking at the NFL and wondering why they aren't in a league that gets $10B a year in rights fees.
 

Phil Plantier

Member
SoSH Member
Mar 7, 2002
3,419
How does this threat have any weight in a world with no return of profitable levels of match day fan attendance anywhere in sight? The moment the EPL kicks out the ESL 6, Sky, NBC and all of the other TV rights holders cancel their checks and the EPL goes bust.
Sorry for the multiple posts, but why would NBC etc bankrupt the EPL instead of suing the ESL clubs, especially if they don't win the ESL contract?
 

swiftaw

Member
SoSH Member
Jan 31, 2009
3,434
Sorry for the multiple posts, but why would NBC etc bankrupt the EPL instead of suing the ESL clubs, especially if they don't win the ESL contract?
Doesn't the ESL already have a deal with DAZN (I thought I read that yesterday)?
 

Zososoxfan

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 30, 2009
9,208
South of North
Maybe this is an American outlook (or as a Spurs fan, because my team is included), but I'm struggling to think of a reason why I *wouldn't* want a pan-Europe league with the best of the best.
There's a lot of reasons why casual American fans can't see the problem here, and the response you got misses the mark (at least in part).

This proposal is NOT what you described. This is a pan-European league with merely the wealthiest clubs, not necessarily the best. Look no farther than our beloved Spurs and those other wretches in North London. If these clubs banded together to improve the Champions League concept, free of UEFA's misguidance, I think they would've been applauded. That's not at all what they did.

And yes, everyone saying that Glazer, Kroenke, and Henry are nudging their ESL co-owners and telling them how much money they're leaving on the table have bingo. The proposal is let's get the 15 or so richest clubs in here and start a league modeled after the US. There's no doubt the ESL has plans for recruitment/expansion to keep taking away the biggest and best clubs from domestic competition. Upon further reflection, the only thing keeping me convinced this might still be for posturing is that the ESL is proposing midweek matches. OTOH, perhaps they thought that was a sufficient olive branch to let this get off the ground before eventually usurping the domestic leagues entirely.

The fact that the world football community has recoiled in horror to the US pro league model should tell every American sports fan why pro/rel is the greatest element of professional sports.
 

Vinho Tinto

Member
SoSH Member
Dec 9, 2003
7,046
Auburn, MA
The fact that the world football community has recoiled in horror to the US pro league model should tell every American sports fan why pro/rel is the greatest element of professional sports.
But how else would fans be allowed to pay full freight for seasons of tanking?
 

Morgan's Magic Snowplow

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 2, 2006
22,345
Philadelphia
The fact that the world football community has recoiled in horror to the US pro league model should tell every American sports fan why pro/rel is the greatest element of professional sports.
I love the system of promotion and relegation. But, ceteris paribus, I'd much rather have a closed league with a salary cap than a league with promotion/relegation in which some teams have 10x the resources of other teams.

I suppose that is an American perspective but I think the dysfunction of the alternative is very easy to see in European football right now.

This is one reason I find all the pearl clutching about clubs not qualifying for the ESL due to "sporting merit" kind of laughable. Anybody truly concerned with competition being decided on the basis of sporting merit wouldn't favor the status quo system in which there are such massive inequalities between clubs. People like Gary Neville don't actually want competition decided on sporting merit, they want the thin veneer of sporting merit while maintaining massive structural advantages for their clubs of choice.
 

67YAZ

Member
SoSH Member
Dec 1, 2000
8,729
Patrick Bamford on the Super League:

“I can’t quite comprehend [it]”, Bamford said. “It’s amazing the amount of uproar when somebody’s pocket is being hurt. It’s a shame that doesn’t happen with issues like racism.”
 

Morgan's Magic Snowplow

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 2, 2006
22,345
Philadelphia
I completely agree, with one minor revision - they believe they can double the pie and quadruple the size of their slice.
Yup, that's probably right.

Only double? I don't know anything about soccer revenue structure, but if this article - https://qz.com/1998582/how-much-tv-money-could-the-european-super-league-command/ - is anywhere near correct, the big teams are looking at the NFL and wondering why they aren't in a league that gets $10B a year in rights fees.
It may end up being more than double but the ballpark estimates I've seen are in that range.

I have no clue how to really think about the comparison between the two sports in terms of broadcast revenue potential. The audience for the ESL is potentially massive, much bigger than the NFL. But the NFL audience is almost certainly much wealthier on average. And the average NFL game is 3 hours and includes about an hour of commercials, while the average European football game has a run time of about 110 minutes and only has commercials during the half time break (...at least until the ESL institutes time outs and a quarters system).
 

Ale Xander

Hamilton
SoSH Member
Oct 31, 2013
72,428
That’s what the Champions League is already, or at least closer to. This league is some of the best plus some teams with history even if they’re nowhere near the best now. It’s like saying the NFL playoffs should always include the 49ers because they were so great in the 1980s
I'm ok with this (49ers always in the NFC playoffs) if it means the Pats can always be in the AFC playoffs due to the success from 2001-2019

Maybe the NFL could make a super history team league with multi-SB winners. (Hard to make geographically and numerically even divisions though)


Pats
Giants
Colts
Ravens
Steelers
WFT
Broncos
Chiefs
Packers
49ers
Cowboys
Raiders
Dolphins
 
Last edited:

Vinho Tinto

Member
SoSH Member
Dec 9, 2003
7,046
Auburn, MA
I'm ok with this (49ers always in the NFC playoffs) if it means the Pats can always be in the AFC playoffs due to the success from 2001-2019

Maybe the NFL could make a super history team league with multi-SB winners. (Hard to make geographically and numerically even divisions though)


Pats
Giants
Colts
Ravens
Steelers
Redskins
Broncos
Chiefs
Packers
49ers
Cowboys
Raiders
Dolphins
The victor can lift the Roger $ Goodell trophy.
 

mikeford

woolwich!
SoSH Member
Aug 6, 2006
29,517
St John's, NL
I hope they do it.

All of these owners deserve scorn but I can’t stop thinking about Arsenal laying off a ton of workers last year while buying Willian and apparently negotiating this. Is Kroenke so hard up for cash he can’t pay like 50 employee salaries for a season until this money showed up?
He's a real estate vampire who married into the Walmart family. This is what ghouls like him do.

I'd post what I think we as a society should do about men like this but I don't need 3 letter agencies knocking at my door.
 

67YAZ

Member
SoSH Member
Dec 1, 2000
8,729
I'm just amusing myself at this point, but...what if Bayern passes on membership and the ESL brings on Red Bull instead? Then RBL could really play up their heel status.
 
Last edited:

mikeford

woolwich!
SoSH Member
Aug 6, 2006
29,517
St John's, NL
Getting any German team into this thing with their 50+1 rule in place seems like it would be pretty difficult at this point considering the public (read: fan level) backlash to this.
 

Cellar-Door

Member
SoSH Member
Aug 1, 2006
34,457
Yup, that's probably right.



It may end up being more than double but the ballpark estimates I've seen are in that range.

I have no clue how to really think about the comparison between the two sports in terms of broadcast revenue potential. The audience for the ESL is potentially massive, much bigger than the NFL. But the NFL audience is almost certainly much wealthier on average. And the average NFL game is 3 hours and includes about an hour of commercials, while the average European football game has a run time of about 110 minutes and only has commercials during the half time break (...at least until the ESL institutes time outs and a quarters system).
You also need to consider fragmentation and saturation though... NFL is literally the only league pretty much. ESL will most definitely not be the only game in town, and determining what rating will be is a very difficult process. The assumption that they will automatically draw like a UEFA final as some have is ridiculous. I can't imagine that 14th place Inter facing 11th place Spurs on a Wednesday night in a match that doesn't matter at all is going to draw consistently.
 

fletcherpost

sosh's feckin' poet laureate
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
12,139
Glasgow, Scotland
Did you know that the first football match I ever attended in person here in the UK was the first leg of that Raith Rovers vs. Bayern Munich tie (at Easter Road)?
That's pretty cool mate. I totally forgot they moved the tie (money grabbers). My best mate's mum was given two grand to paint a picture of the half time scoreboard at Munich. For a time there was such a buzz in Kirkcaldy...winning the League Cup, getting into Europe, playing a proper European giant and putting up a good show, leading at half time ya bass, had them on the ropes. It's what it's all about. Rovers fans still dream of getting those days back.
 

Phil Plantier

Member
SoSH Member
Mar 7, 2002
3,419
Good Athletic article. Klopp tries to play it both ways (the article is much nicer to him than my take). Milner comes out as an unequivocal "no"

There was plenty of lip biting going on. The Athletic understands Klopp was furious over both FSG’s willingness to join the ESL and the timing of the announcement so close to a pivotal fixture against Leeds.


It’s a concept completely out of keeping with the manager’s values and principles. He described himself as “a football romantic” when he took over at Anfield in 2015. He was attracted by the challenge of reviving the fortunes of a club that valued history and tradition. He felt Liverpool were a better fit for him than Manchester United, in the belief that the motivation of the club hierarchy wasn’t just making money.

(...)

Vice-captain James Milner gave his blunt verdict on the ESL plans after Diego Llorente’s late header had cancelled out Sadio Mane’s opener to force a 1-1 draw that leaves Liverpool sixth: “There are a lot of questions. I can only say my personal opinion, I don’t like it and I hope it doesn’t happen.”
https://theathletic.com/2525745/2021/04/20/klopp-furious-at-fsg-over-super-league-and-liverpool-players-and-staff-stunned-by-abuse-at-leeds/
 

Mighty Joe Young

The North remembers
SoSH Member
Sep 14, 2002
8,401
Halifax, Nova Scotia , Canada

biollante

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Nov 22, 2001
9,823
Land formerly of Sowheag
Promotion and relegation are the only way to go. Real Madrid is a fascist team, or so I was told. I am curious to see what happens. Since I am starting to become a Fulham fan, I have nothing to worry about.
 

Zososoxfan

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 30, 2009
9,208
South of North
I'm ok with this (49ers always in the NFC playoffs) if it means the Pats can always be in the AFC playoffs due to the success from 2001-2019

Maybe the NFL could make a super history team league with multi-SB winners. (Hard to make geographically and numerically even divisions though)


Pats
Giants
Colts
Ravens
Steelers
Redskins
Broncos
Chiefs
Packers
49ers
Cowboys
Raiders
Dolphins
I assume Spurs are Dolphins in this analogy. Of course, Arsenal are a combination of the worst aspects of WFT, Raiders, and Cowboys.
 

Fred not Lynn

Dick Button Jr.
SoSH Member
Jul 13, 2005
5,253
Alberta
Not Uefa but Fifa. Fifa are supporting uefa to this point but with both organizations it’s usually safe to assume that just means a check hasn’t cleared yet.

Either way I don’t think a Ban would hold up if challenged in court by a player
This case might provide some precedent;

https://www.reuters.com/article/eu-isu-skating-antitrust-idUSL1N2IW0XE

The International Skating Union (ISU) on Wednesday lost its bid to overturn an EU antitrust order that it stop penalising speed skaters for taking part in new money-spinning events, as Europe’s second-highest court backed the earlier order.

Legal experts in sports-related cases said the decision could affect other sports and become as significant as the 1995 court ruling involving Belgian soccer player Jean-Marc Bosman, which paved the way for the free movement of players in the EU.

“The judgement is like opening the Berlin Wall for athletes,” said Mark Orth of MEOlaw.

“It puts the long established discretionary actions of sports federations towards their athletes into very tight straits, which opens freedom for athletes.”


The case could, for example, make it easier for unofficial and breakaway events and competitions to be set up without the approval of a sport’s governing body.

The European Commission in its 2017 ruling said the sport’s governing body had imposed “disproportionately punitive” sanctions on skaters, preventing the emergence of rival events in violation of EU antitrust rules.

The case centred on a complaint by Dutch Olympic speed skaters Mark Tuitert and Niels Kerstholt after ISU threats of a lifetime ban stopped them from competing in lucrative Ice Derby events run by a South Korean company.
The difference being that one sport is watched by billions of people, and the other by about three...the event in this case never took place, and the promoters had little more than flashy websites and glossy brochures - talk to me when your event has been held and everyone’s checks clear.
 

Senator Donut

post-Domer
SoSH Member
Apr 21, 2010
5,500
I assume Spurs are Dolphins in this analogy. Of course, Arsenal are a combination of the worst aspects of WFT, Raiders, and Cowboys.
The only American analogy that really works for Tottenham is including the Jets because they play in New York, even though their last championship was before the moon landing.
 

Dummy Hoy

Angry Pissbum
SoSH Member
Jul 22, 2006
8,232
Falmouth
My money’s on Man U and Liverpool being the nervous nellies
They’re two of the main ones pushing this.

somewhere in the piles I’ve read and listened to the last couple of days it was mentioned that Chelsea and City were the two most hesitant English clubs to join the party...
 

Dummy Hoy

Angry Pissbum
SoSH Member
Jul 22, 2006
8,232
Falmouth
I'm ok with this (49ers always in the NFC playoffs) if it means the Pats can always be in the AFC playoffs due to the success from 2001-2019
I don’t understand this mentality in the slightest. I’m not shitting on you, just miles from understanding it. I have strange sports opinions anyways (I don’t root for the Red Sox anymore, haven’t watched an NFL game in nearly a decade, etc). Come to think of it, I have strange opinions in general, or so it seems when I look all around me.

to me what made (for example) the patriots run so awesome was where they came from, the journey to get there, and the mind blowing performances to become a dynasty. We’re seeing the backside of that now, and that’s okay. Seasons change, things run in cycles, teams have good periods and fallow periods, and then the journey begins again.

if sport is only about winning, then it’s entertainment and nothing more. And it’s entertainment that ends with a loss for almost every team, so that’s a terrible way to measure your enjoyment.
 

swiftaw

Member
SoSH Member
Jan 31, 2009
3,434
They’re two of the main ones pushing this.

somewhere in the piles I’ve read and listened to the last couple of days it was mentioned that Chelsea and City were the two most hesitant English clubs to join the party...
Yeah, the BBC is suggesting that Chelsea and City are the wavering ones (and also they were reluctant to sign up in the first place, but signed because they risked being on the outside).

United and Liverpool are the UK ringleaders, so I would doubt they would be wavering.
 

Morgan's Magic Snowplow

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 2, 2006
22,345
Philadelphia
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.
 

coremiller

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 14, 2005
5,846
Yeah, the BBC is suggesting that Chelsea and City are the wavering ones (and also they were reluctant to sign up in the first place, but signed because they risked being on the outside).

United and Liverpool are the UK ringleaders, so I would doubt they would be wavering.
This makes sense. Petrodollar clubs do just fine in the current model and don't necessarily need the massive cash infusion or potential market growth associated with the ESL (see also PSG's reluctance). They're also in it for the prestige and social status, not the money, so upsetting the apple cart and infuriating everyone is not the best move.

Utd and Liverpool are run like actual businesses, however, and so the long-term strategic play to consolidate their leading market position, take control of the business/marketing process of european football, and keep a lot more revenue for themselves makes a lot more sense from their perspective.
 
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.
Maybe Al-Khelaifi just thinks that PSG may finally win the Champions League if Bayern is the only serious obstacle in their path.
 

coremiller

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 14, 2005
5,846
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.
I think my favorite was the Premier League -- itself a breakaway league whose only raison d'etre was to allow the big clubs to keep more money for themselves at the expense of the rest of the English football pyramid -- issuing a statement condemning the ESL for threatening the football pyramid.
 

Morgan's Magic Snowplow

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 2, 2006
22,345
Philadelphia
I think my favorite was the Premier League -- itself a breakaway league whose only raison d'etre was to allow the big clubs to keep more money for themselves at the expense of the rest of the English football pyramid -- issuing a statement condemning the ESL for threatening the football pyramid.
Boris Johnson decrying the ESL as "by the elite, for the elite" is another strong contender in this category.