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

[OB1]

Listen we've known each other a while and I respect the head on your shoulders. But I'm left today watching your reaction video and reading your posts and the overwhelming thought is "what did you THINK would happen?".

The European Super League was always going to come up, it's too profitable an idea for it to not keep coming around.

Did you think these investors at City from the other side of the planet who were happy to post the biggest financial losses in the history of the sport were going to purposely hurt their growth by dying on a moral hill of competitiveness? These people who purposely distorted "competition" by their huge investments? There's just not a reality where I could have seen that happening in 2011 let alone 2021.

We've spoken for years about City's desire to be one of the big boys in European football. We've all known that that is what we wanted. That's what we've gotten now. We're locked in for a quarter of a century as one of the giants of the game.

City were never the "cartel busting" force that some on here presented them as. City were out to make money for City and grow the club to be the biggest in the world. That was always their goal from the day the takeover happened. Shit, they literally told us that in the Shiekh's first statement if I remember correctly.

Buried in this thread I've argued that competition doesn't exist in the European football and hasn't done for the last 30 years. But I'm consistently surprised that people who support a club who know better than anyone else that you NEED a billionaire investor just to compete can really talk like there's real competition already and this is a death knell for it. Competition died a decade before City were taken over. City's actions over the past 12 years prove that competition is dead because look at what we had to do in order to compete.

And watching Sky Sports come out against this as a money grab is almost making me vomit. Remember free to air top division football? Sky Sports invented much of the economics of football that led to the death of competition. Now that digital distribution is going to be the major player rather than satellite, and they are not positioned like Amazon are to deliver that content digitally, they've suddenly found some morals about the whole affair.

It never ceases to amaze me how corporations suddenly find morals when it is in their financial advantage to do so.

Major league professional team sport is big business and has been for a long time. The business got bigger in the UK because Sky poured all that money into - as you rightly point out - and people running these businesses are only going to look to make them bigger: that is their job.

Things always change and evolve and if you don't innovate and simply stand still, you end up falling behind. If Sky get fall behind, tough shit.

If other clubs get left behind, it's tough but that's business.

 

[chaddblue]

Is there the same amount of anger and disgust from fans in Spain and Italy?

 

[hgblue]

I’ve voted no and I certainly wouldn’t be happy as I’ve said but I’m not sure why some are fixating their anger at supporters that put their support of the club they love before their support of the wider football league. It’s not something I agree with but it’s shit to call them ‘traitors’ because of it.

Actually wresting control of the game away from UEFA and giving it to the clubs is in the long term best interest of the game imo. I’m a lifelong City fan, on a City forum, watching on whilst City fans slag off our owner, call for the club to be banned, and insult fellow blues who see things differently. And I’m the bad one? I think not.

 

[SWP's back]

Does it? If only one of the remaining 5 places goes to an English team, which would seem likely, then it means a 1/14 chance of qualifying rather than a 4/20 chance that exists in the CL today.

58 of the last 59 CL places went to the 6 clubs signed up for the SL. It’s not a 4 in 20 chance. It’s realistically a 1 in 59 chance if the Earth and moon and stars align.

 

[doobyedoobye]

I think its a totally reasonable response given the nature of football for supporters to be highly emotionally invested in this situation and the fact the club has yet to speak on the subject as it's clearly not in the Founders plan to do so is hardly going to endear them to the fans.

 

[Tommy_Catons_Perm]

Micah Richards talking now on radio 5

 

[Robinho's Subbuteo]

So, if the Premier League top 4 is us, the Rags, Chelsea and the Dippers, does that mean 5th, 6th and 7th go into the new CL plus potentially one more on 'Oh, go on then' technicality?

So, the Champions League would consist of even more teams that aren't actually champions of anything, and by some way.

 

[hilts]

Glad I'm not a turn coat like you, just because something isn't how I want it to be.
You called our owner Fake Mansour. I'd put my mortgage on that you didn't when 93:20 happened, exclusively funded by Fake Mansour.

Turn coat I was here before him fella, noticed you couldn’t reply to the posts contents. Keep clapping fella keep clapping.

 

[ancoats]

we all go through rebranding and asked to pay a little more ? super markets products are always rebranding but its the same food ? football will always go through rebranding its nothing new

if the uefa champions league change its name to the uefa super league and had a closed shop would all this moaning be happening ? funny things is all the pundits and broadcasters are running scared or the fear of missing out on the tv rights to show the game ? sky/bt-sports could be down the pan with monthly subscriptions dish

this is what the fear mongers pundits are sprouting today. the fear of internet based company taking over the tv rights. all the cushy jobs they all hold will be up in smoke because they will be hand tied to sky or bt-sports

its nothing to do with other football clubs really it the media the broadcasters are the ones living in fear
you think sky sport or bt-sports give a shit about championship or league football club hahahaha never in a million years sky created the monster and now the monster is killing its master

 

[mccity]

Does it? If only one of the remaining 5 places goes to an English team, which would seem likely, then it means a 1/14 chance of qualifying rather than a 4/20 chance that exists in the CL today.

Mathematically that's true, but since Abramovich took Chelsea over the only two times a non top 6 side has finished in those 4 spots is Everton in 05 and Leicester in 16. This season it could be Leicester again, but it's not really a 4/20 chance like it is on paper.


The bigger issue is that the top 6 teams finishing outside of the top 4 are rewarded. But then again the new UEFA CL reforms were working towards that anyway.


England is actually the one top league where this whole thing is the "least" unfair. At least compared to Italy and Spain to a lesser extent.

 

[sir baconface]

This is a Man Utd, plan that benefits Arsenal and Spurs significantly but less so Manchester City. We had no say in its inception and were at best cool to it, and yet we are stupid enough to sign up to it and damage ourselves in the process. At least Man Utd had a reason for doing so, as did SPurs. huge debt. What is MCFC's reason?

I will accept pragmatic fear but we had better explain ourselves this time. During the FFP dispute we wer verysilent but they have alienated a lot of supporters and we deserve some explanation - not a statement from Joel Glazer.

I don’t like the plan either. I was pulling up someone calling the Sheikh “a **** who needs to get the fuck off out of our club”.

 

[chaddblue]

But no one is really getting booted out on Friday although I do expect some tough decisions next week in the game.

I agree. It was just some UEFA guy from the Danish FA letting off steam

The suggestion of who would replace the clubs was just speculation I heard on the radio

 

[Northblue]

This word that names certain fans as "legacy."
That's the word we use at work to describe the old "legacy" benefits that are being phased out and no longer seen as fit for purpose for the modern world.
Lovely :-(

Yep, something that needs to be maintained (but not looked after) until we can get rid of it altogether

 

[Bozo]

Fuck me, I never thought I'd enjoy listening to Neville and Carragher...

 

[Bandofblues]

58 of the last 59 CL places went to the 6 clubs signed up for the SL. It’s not a 4 in 20 chance. It’s realistically a 1 in 59 chance if the Earth and moon and stars align.

Well at the present time West Ham and Leicester say hi.....

 

[SWP's back]

Yes really. If we're booted out of the premier league and domestic football is dead for us then so is a lot of people's major hobby. Well for many it's more than a hobby it's a huge part of their lives and has been for many families for generations. There will be a lot of anger amongst that clubs fanbase, a bit like a strike in the workplace the fans supporting this shit "New normal" won't be very popular to say the least.

1) I don’t actually think it will happen anyway.

2) I don’t think for a second the PL will boot anyone out.

3) If any **** attacks someone going to a game because they’ve decided they don’t want to attend games then they’re a **** and I hope they do prison time.

 

[Cityisland]

Whats happened over the last 50 pages?

 

[blueish swede]

Assuming one of the 5 “merit” places goes to the PL, it actually gives those 14 clubs a far far greater chance than they have present in the PL to qualify for the CL no?

How are they going to get a merit place? 6 English clubs already in the competition ad the best they will finish in the league is 7th.

 

[LangleyBlue1970]

Your first point is 100% incorrect. Everton West Ham & Leicester could finish top 4. Potentially no Liverpool, Arsenal or Spurs in next seasons CL, so how is that a closed shop?

with regards to calling everyone a hypocrite who doesn’t agree with you, take a read of the post you made, specifically this part: When we were a mid table yo yo club that was my dream, even just to have one season in it, like Everton, who didn't even get through the qualifiers.
Then try to explain how that’s not hypocritical?

I specifically said, we've been a constant in there for the last ten years - because we were bankrolled into it. That's us being in our closed shop in that competition, like Real, Barca etc. Not a one off like Everton.

And my point for your highlighted bit is that I dreamed of being involved in the CL when we were shit. Now we've been in it for a decade and will now, if this happens, push on with the other elite clubs to a new competition. I won't slate that when I dreamed of just one season, when the person who has spent our way to a decade in the competition I dreamt about being in.

 

[NorCalBlue]

Does it? If only one of the remaining 5 places goes to an English team, which would seem likely, then it means a 1/14 chance of qualifying rather than a 4/20 chance that exists in the CL today.

But that's assuming every team has an equal chance, which is clearly not true. It would be more accurate to say it means a 100% chance that a team not in the "Big Six" qualifies, whereas it's currently a lot less than that.