The Super League | FA + PL: New Charter & Fines | UEFA: Settlement

[razman]

Off topic - For some reason can't access the site from my laptop

 

[iceman]

We need to be the first to pull out of this farce we don't need this bad publicity we are frowned upon enough make a stand we will be netter treated by uefa for a start

 

[hilts]

how would we all feel if the club did pull out? is that enough? have they redeemed themselves or is a big big apology and explanation needed too?

They can’t come out of this looking good I’m afraid. They made their bed and the mattress stinks of piss.

 

[Dubai Blue]

And regardless of which way and where this goes from here, even if it goes back to the status quo ante of last week, football will never be the same again, it will never mean the same again. The emotion, glory, pain, the dreaming, the hope, the passion,everything that makes the game of football what it is and what it means to millions of football fans was murdered and in its place a sterile, insipid product designed to make money for club owners was revealed. The mask that in reality we all knew had been there for a good few decades now, finally slipped to reveal the ugly true face of the monster that has been lurking beneath. The delusion that had kept us interested and engaged up till now, the suspension of disbelief that had allowed us to kid ourselves that somehow all was as it had always been, that the values of something created by working class folk for their enjoyment and entertainment were somehow still intact, that we the people who were the most emotionally attached to what was our sport and our clubs somehow mattered, wasn't just shattered, it was blown to smithereens.
It really does change everything.
It brings football down from a passion and and an obsession for many to a mere entertainment, a bit like going to watch a movie. It's a feeling that a lot of us won't be able to shake. The history, the rivalry, the slights, the injustices, the achievements, the glory and a thousand other emotions that go to making up the psyche of a football fan have been destroyed.
In its place we now have an entertainment offering, with fake clubs, with fake owners, with fake rivalries, with fake fans.
For the sake of football and football fans in this country, I hope the 6 breakaway clubs are expelled and I hope that allows us to focus on the core of our domestic game without the distraction of always looking to European competition to bring in ever more money, to spend on ever bigger wages, with ever more expensive tickets. It would result in a departure of big name foreign players, it would result in a drop in the technical quality of the football but it would give us a chance to rebuild football in way that retains the values that make football what it is to so many passionate, genuine fans of what was the ultimate working class sport.

You've perfectly summed up my disillusionment with it all there. Well said

 

[GSW Blue]

I know it’s over

 

[Onholiday(somemightsay)]

What a disgraceful way of reporting it when we are all desperate for any/some of the 6 to show strength and do the right thing. He should be using the platform he has in the media, to ask/beg that someone does the right thing. Reporting that any of these clubs are showing weakness by considering backing out is completely the wrong message.

I've no problem with the way he has reported it (the board losing their nerve is probably an accurate assessment), my issue is that we know it wouldn't have been reported like that for the 'iiiiiiiiiistory boys.

It would have been an act of courage and heroism........

 

[Phoenix900000]

I really hope that City do a U-turn on this.

 

[OrigamiNinja]

I want to see khaldoon make a club statement today and admit they have got it wrong and with immediate effect we have on board the fans of this great club we have decided we no longer want to join this breakaway. Come on City do the right thing before it goes to far.

My gut feeling is that this whole ESL project is dead in the water because one way or another, the government will not let it happen.

City have a very important choice to make here that could affect the club for a very long time. They either get ahead of the decision, back out and be shown to have done the right thing. I think from a PR perspective this would be a home run. I think the talk of dirty oil club would almost disappear overnight, to be replaced by the club that saved the English game.

The other choice is they let this play out until it gets taken away by the powers that be. This would be a disaster for the club. They will be part of a "group" that nobody wants to be part of. Universally hated up and down the country and across Europe - who (sponsors) wants to be associated with this?

The outcome is the same - No ESL. The impact on the club can be completely different.

 

[Akiva]

They can’t come out of this looking good I’m afraid. They made their bed and the mattress stinks of piss.

Agreed, but at least I think most Blues would forgive (though not forget) if the club do the right thing and pull out, apologise and promise greater fan engagement in future.

The government stepping in and ending things, or another club balking, or the SL simply going ahead and train ultimately crashing, would all prevent that of course. The window is closing, City absolutely need to do the right thing fast, but I fear they may not have the bottle.

 

[FogBlueInSanFran]

I know it’s over

Don't know what this means.