European Superleague teams to be announced today

[Crimson Dynasty]

Joe Blott from Spirit if Shankly saying nothing is off the table, even potentially boycotting games.

Not really going to have much impact (or much of the intended impact) now with fans still not allowed on the grounds for games.

It's probably the reason they chose to do it now and at this moment - It spared them the ugly scenes, boos, walkouts, boycotts and the like - instead of waiting until the start of next season when fans most likely will start to be able to get back into the grounds.


By then (which in football terms, is an eternity away) the entire landscape will almost certainly have shifted and changed and tempers will have cooled.

[Crimson Dynasty]

Lots of sound and fury. Sky promoting opposition because they will be a massive loser -the clubs will own and sell their own media access. And the idea that the CL was "open" to any club is a bit of a fantasy if you analyse the clubs getting to the serious end of the competition. The domestic fan base hasn't mattered since the launch of the break-away Premier League. This is one group of rich parasites - UEFA/ FIFA/ Premier League fearing loss of control and revenue to another bunch of rich parasites - the owners. UEFA were already friggin around with the competition and encouraging smaller, crap teams and more games for LFC. Frankly, if this seismic shift happens - it won't make LFC's global fans unhappy with more access to the club - and that's all they care about.

PS I follow the NFL - and few fans complain about the lack of relegation or promotion. It's an odd concept to Europeans but not one that I believe will stop football fans from adapting.

PPS I think VAR will destroy the game more than the Europe Super League

It's not entirely that alien or foreign to Europeans.

The (relatively) popular Euro League Basketball uses the same format - and actually it's closer to what the Superleague is now proposing than the completely closed American format since they have a similar rotating rota of 5 or so slots where teams can get relegated and lower league teams get promoted outside the permanent teams.

It may be foreign and alien to Britons though seeing as basketball as a sport is not as popular in Britain as it is in the rest of (continental) Europe.

[skyebo]

Boycotting matches when fans can return won't bother the owners. They already have your money through season tickets.

[Steveo]

Another fail alright, certainly not a bit of humour!

I get what you are saying mate - and yes it was mildly funny especially at my expense ( I know I am always moaning ) but I doubt any of us would find it funny if we lived near Melwood.

[LEGS]

Sydney - Have Americans always had this system ?

I think the reason it is wrong is for example Southampton could finish top 4 and get to play Bayern/Madrid.

Now they are likely to lose and not qualify again but it is a memory that stays with their fans.

That is what football is about you get to play in competitions by results on the pitch not the boardroom.

[CCTV]

I get what you are saying mate - and yes it was mildly funny especially at my expense ( I know I am always moaning ) but I doubt any of us would find it funny if we lived near Melwood.

True, I dont use nimbyism to inflame, but it's true of many things like the energy sector or problematic facilities.

[Taksin]

A parasite destroys its host in order to advance itself and its agenda.

The owners of these clubs are not trying to destroy their clubs - they are trying to make them stronger, so let’s try and keep this in perspective. If you are a fan that demands more and more be spent on players, you have to demand that the club makes itself stronger in order to do that - UEFA have in fact now made it a law that that is the only way you can do it.

Simultaneously, UEFA controls how much the clubs are able to benefit from their own success. They even control how many tickets you’re allowed - pitifully few- when you reach a final, one reason I hate them and their corruption.

So one just aspect of this demoralising plan is that the clubs are trying to control their own ability to grow stronger. That can’t be mere parasitism. There is something to be said for that aim. And the response against the aim will only strengthen UEFA, in my estimation. So that’s depressing too.

The best outcome I can see is we return to sanity with UEFA having been weakened in their grip over our income. But that won’t happen if these owners are perceived to be acting against the interests of their clubs, as seems to be the case.

[CCTV]

Sydney - Have Americans always had this system ?

I think the reason it is wrong is for example Southampton could finish top 4 and get to play Bayern/Madrid.

Now they are likely to lose and not qualify again but it is a memory that stays with their fans.

That is what football is about you get to play in competitions by results on the pitch not the boardroom.

I'd like to see more details tbh, if the top6 stay in the pl, the other sides in the pl that do well will be in a lesser euro cup and either true those cups or the league would win a spot in the esl each year. A lot of outrage imo seems to be an assigned reaction when the details are so sparse.

[CCTV]

Not really going to have much impact (or much of the intended impact) now with fans still not allowed on the grounds for games.

It's probably the reason they chose to do it now and at this moment - It spared them the ugly scenes, boos, walkouts, boycotts and the like - instead of waiting until the start of next season when fans most likely will start to be able to get back into the grounds.


By then (which in football terms, is an eternity away) the entire landscape will almost certainly have shifted and changed and tempers will have cooled.

I would say it's a bit too close to the announcement of the new CL format, klopp asked about it in 2019, would seem to be a longstanding grievance of these clubs and the breakdown of talks at the 11th hour.

[Crimson Dynasty]

It's so indicative of how deranged the situation is that UEFA, the embodiment of corrupt-to-the-core, look like the "good guys" in a basic black-and-white narrative.

This whole thing is such a mess. Very much hope it doesn't happen and the momentum against it has certainly built quickly, but if there's enough money/appetite from the business people, it won't be easy to halt a financial Monolith to start broadcasting this shit-show.

Imagine for example, instead of Sky or BT Sport (and let's be real here, if Sky had the rights to this already they'd have had an editor knock up a flashy ad for it already in the background) you get someone like Disney come in and say "yep, we'll televise this" - it's so worrying.

In a stand-off, UEFA probably crack first and we see compromises that make us all feel uncomfortable. It's just.....eugh, I don't know.

Will be interesting to see what happens from the Government actually. There's a lot to digest.

UEFA have no leverage here.
They never have.
Same with the FA, the PL and FIFA.
Short of appealing to public sentiment and leaning on the public outrage that they're now playing to the hilt.

For all their bellowing and firebreathing with the threats to ban them and whatnot, they know better than anyone that banning those 12 clubs from the Champions League would basically destroy the competition and render it a joke.
Otherwise they would have done it already to this year's edition and handed the trophy to PSG, as all the other three semi-finalists are in on it.

Same with the Premier League and FIFA (with the threat to ban players from the World Cup).

The league knows the big 6 are the ones that actually bring in the bacon and are the draw for advertiser money, broadcasting fees, endorsements et al.

Nobody in Oz or Taiwan or Singapore is tuning in to watch the Tyne-Wear derby - outside of people living in the North East.
They're tuning in to watch the Manchester derby, or the Merseyside derby or Liverpool taking on their traditional and fiery rivals, the Scum.

Ditto with FIFA and the World Cup.
You're going to hold a World Cup and not have players like Messi, Ronaldo, Dybala, Lukaku, Griezeman, Kroos,....and yes,.....Kane, Son, Rashford, Salah, Pogba?

Who's going to watch that World Cup?

These 12 clubs knew what they were doing when they did it - including expecting the backlash they're receiving now.
Which is why they haven't budged an inch.

They know they have all the leverage in the world.

Consider the fact that everyone is saying 12 clubs can't be allowed to destroy the game through their greed and that no single club is bigger than the sport.
And then consider all the histrionics and angst that's occurred over the past 36-48 hours and ask yourself whether that's really true.

And the government's not going to do anything either despite BoJo's bog-standard shite-talking and usual threats (read : playing to the gallery and the cheap seats)
It's a legal minefield for them to involve themselves and they could get sued into oblivion with all the free market implications in trying to legislate against something like this.

Again,... if anyone could ban anybody involved in this - club or player - they would have done so already.
Why haven't they?
Bans are reversible.

UEFA couldn't even levy a ban or a punishment to City a couple of years ago that could stick for something that everyone agreed needed punishing, and now they're suddenly going to ban 12 City's?

Not very likely.