European Super League (merged)

In a further thought, as hopefully our club will be taken over in the next few weeks/months.....by owners who certainly portray a different approach....then this Super League actually comes at a poignant time in our history.
We are hitting another low point, probably worse than last time as we should have learnt.

With the game as some of us knew it long gone and changed forever, what better time to restart the club as a whole, new perspective, new values and a  new acceptance in that having a club operating with strong identity and purpose in the town for the town is of more value than watching "your team" play on tv every week.

Real football, real fans.

As a lifelong Arsenal supporter, I'm disgusted that the club has not only joined, but that the American owner has been a mover/shaker in getting this off the ground. When you look at the ownership of the clubs involved, it consists of billionaires whose only ambition is to make more billions for themselves.

I won't be subscribing to this - and I doubt many Arsenal or Manchester United supporters will be doing so. In fact, our Supporter groups from both clubs have sent a joint letter protesting at our inclusion.

There's a lot of righteous ire in some of these posts but...

Will the EPL ban Liverpool, Man Utd and Arsenal? Of course they won't.
Will FIFA run a world cup without Messi, Kane, Benzema etc etc? Of course they won't.
Will La Liga ban Barca and Real? No chance.

The screaming we are hearing from 'smaller' clubs and Sky was absolutely what we got when the EPL was formed from 'smaller' clubs and ITV/BBC 20 odd years ago.

But as soon as the deal is done and everyone can start bidding for the TV rights (or the pay per view rights, because that's what's coming...) the mighty $ will blind everyone.

All the same snouts in the same trough.

The problem started with the Premiershit, then allowing foreign owners to had 100% control over the clubs.  So we hear the managers moaning about all these extra fixtures they have to play, but the FA bend over and take right up the bottom.  We have seen 1st & 2nd legs removed from the League Cup and all replays, now replays are disappearing from the FA Cup. Oh then the foreign managers moaning about the Christmas schedule, wanting a winter break.

I say let them f--k off, any take boring football with you, all this hype at Pep and the best football ever played.  The game in the Premiershit is all about stats, complete passes, possession rate, running distance.  How many goals this season have been conceeded in the football league from trying to play out from the back? (the Pep way) I want my goalkeeper to be a goalkeeper, defenders to be able to defend, if means hoofing it out, rather than playing a team mate in trouble just to retain possession, strikers in be in and around the penalty box, not running around doing a marathon chasing the ball. Then you players going to ground if their hair is knocked out of place, or a finger touches them.  I would like to see them against proper footballers, when it was a contact sport.

If they want to breakaway let them, but they leave the English league for good, seems they want the their cake and eat it ie remaining in the Premiershit, but create a new midweek European league.

Quoted from supertown

I agree but there were supposed to be modifications being announced today to both those competitions

Let's hope they go some way to addressing the problems. Hopefully, the ELS will back down and some compromise can be reached.

I'd happily cancel my TV subscriptions (which I don't watch enough to justify what I pay anyway) but the National League coverage is good on BT Sport, one of the few good things about relegation.

The worst thing about Liverpool and Man Utd being so heavily involved in this is that they were the main cause of English clubs being banned from European cups in the late 80s.

Maybe it’s time Liverpool and United paid reparations to the likes of Crystal Palace, Derby, Everton and Luton (ok, maybe not Luton) who missed out on entering European competitions due to the bans.

Does this mean we stay up then or what

Quoted from Knut Anders Fosters Voles

The worst thing about Liverpool and Man Utd being so heavily involved in this is that they were the main cause of English clubs being banned from European cups in the late 80s.

Maybe it’s time Liverpool and United paid reparations to the likes of Crystal Palace, Derby, Everton and Luton (ok, maybe not Luton) who missed out on entering European competitions due to the bans.

I am no fan of Man Utd but how were they responsible for the ban on English clubs? The ban was a direct result of the Heysel 'Disaster' and I say 'disaster' because it was caused by a large group of Liverpool 'fans' attacking Juventus fans in a pre meditated act of hooliganism. This has been lost in the media outpouring following Hillsborough and the myth of Liverpool fans being lovable, immensely humorous scousers. Liverpool have a hardcore following of deeply unpleasant and violent characters who somewhow keep below the radar of the media and the club's excellent PR.

Only last week the Real Madrid bus was attacked as it arrived at Anfield by a group of 400 (according to the BBC website) Liverpool 'fans' who were also breaching Covid rules.

Liverpool are not the only club who were involved in violence in Europe at the time (Leeds' European campaigns were peppered with 'fan' violence) but the ban had nothing to do directly with Man Utd.

But this was all before Sky, The Champions League and the EPL erased history and started the world again at Year Zero.

The European Cup was for Champions only and was quality.  Ruined when up to 5 teams per country eligible.  Quality diluted.  Money talks unfortunately.  Even more so with (mainly) foreign owners and greed.  

Promotion and selection on merit has gone out of the window.  

Quoted from The Yard Dog

The problem started with the Premiershit, then allowing foreign owners to had 100% control over the clubs.

Foreign owners absolutely take some of the blame for this, but foreign audiences are the bigger problem. There's actually an inverse correlation between the proximity and engagement level between fans and clubs and how much influence they have over matters. 50 years ago (even 30 years ago) match-going fans were everything because that's where all the money came from - clubs could not act unilaterally against the best interests and wishes of supporters without risking serious financial consequences.

Today things are very different in the top flight. The last 12 months are a great case study in how little fans in grounds matter in the big scheme of things. Yes, empty stadiums detract from the spectacle but behind closed doors games have proved to be nothing more than a bloody nose to the financial might of elite clubs - it remains silly season in terms of transfer fees and wages.

The simple reality is that the bulk of football's money comes from people sat at home, and even more pertinently people based outside of this country, often many thousands of miles away. It sounds counter-intuitive, but fans on the other side of the world literally have more influence than people buying season tickets and going to games because in totality they account for more income. It stands to reason that those 'fans' are going to be less invested in English football's history and cultural heritage - no doubt for many of those people week after week of Liverpool v Barcelona is going to be of greater interest than a season littered with Burnley's and Norwich City's. It's this reality that makes this whole shambolic affair possible.

What the Premier League has done is created a monster it can no longer control - the robots are taking over. They've allowed the likes of Manchester United and Liverpool to become so big globally, that they no longer need the Premier League. They no longer need match-going fans, or even football fans based in England, to be frank.

The Premeir League model since its advent in the early 90s has been motivated by financial greed, and has only become progressively worse over the years. By becoming so blinkered by maximising their own financial wealth, they've failed to see this coming and have got themselves in a right old pickle. Like it or not, the magic money tree is dead without those clubs with a disproportionate global profile - millions of people in the far east are not going to be tuning in to a season of Everton v Newcastle.

Quite the pickle indeed. How they get out of it, I don't know. Can they? I'm not sure, but I am certain that this will all end very badly for someone.