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

[Alan Harper's Tash]

Yep I get that but the rule book is season specific in effect the 2021/22 can’t be written until the membership is known

It will depend on whether they signed up as members or whether they signed up to be members.

 

[I'm Blue]

I'm not suggesting Sheikh Mansour is any better

He is though.
The difference between our owner and that wanker is ours isn’t a money grabbing twat, he’s done so much good, not just for the club but for Manchester.
This was the first real major mistake he’d made since the takeover and that’s why we’re not trying to drive him out of the club.
Everyone makes mistakes, some can be unforgivable.
But for me up until a few days ago the club was perfectly run and fans were always respected.
Unlike Henry, Glazers and Kroenke etc.. who only care about money.

 

[bobbyowenquiff]

I don’t know if you have been watching the hype those saviours of football-aka Sky Sports, are saying about how the clubs have broken the PL rule book but yet again the coverage is not just biased they are deliberately mis quoting the applicable PL rule.

Each year the rule book is reprinted and is only relevant to that season. So the 20/21 season is about season 20/21. I know that’s obvious but bear with me.

Here’s the rule that Sky are suggesting the 6 have broken

L.9.
Except with the prior written approval of the Board, during the Season a Club shall not enter or play its senior men’s first team in any competition other than:
L.9.1. the UEFA Champions League;
L.9.2. the UEFA Europa League;
L.9.3. the F.A. Cup;
L.9.4. the F.A. Community Shield;
L.9.5. the Football League Cup; or
L.9.6. competitions sanctioned by the County Association of which it is a member.

Unless I misread it , and that’s possible, how have any of the clubs entered the 20/21 version of the ESL?

Spot-on. SKY have been running this fake story for 48 hours. The rule is clear. They can't retrospectively deduct points. We are still in the PL and never joined the ESL. Even if we had it would only apply to next season not 20/21.

 

[Magicpole]

Great words there and really well put, I agree with them all.

It's been a weird couple of days and the emotions have been all over the place for me personally.

I think mostly I just felt drained by it all, especially at the thought of what this would have done to football in this country and what would have been taken away from everyone else.

I did find it hard to be particularly outraged though, over the last twelve years there's been so much ridiculous political infighting and goings on that it's hard to care about football beyond what happens on the pitch. It's more a case of just taking each game as it's own as a separate entity separate from everything else going on off the pitch. If we win, lose or draw as long as the result was fair and square then I'm happy.

In a world where part of being a modern football supporter means having to also have a solid grasp of Middle Eastern socio-political events, American venture capitalism, media manipulation, the complexities of multi billion companies financial affairs, Far East betting syndicates, how bots spread football related misinformation on social media, the frame rate of television cameras and how that relates to the relative velocity of two athletes, not to mention how to tell if someone is a journalist, a blogger, an online troll or a paid media mouthpiece of a football club/country and which ones from these groups wank off dogs eventually it just all becomes a bit tiring.

I don't think anyone would have thought as we were watching Stuart Pearce think a footballing masterstroke was putting David James up front as a striker that just a short time in the future this is where we would be; a load of people up in arms about a scheme to protect the wealth of a few clubs that would eventually destroy football while just a week earlier people were complaining that the current plan in place to protect the wealth of a few clubs that would eventually destroy football didnt go far enough and was too weak.

What a load of old bollocks this entire shit show has become.

There are many things wrong with the game that you highlight. This venture woukd have just made it much worse. Clubs, UEFA and FIFA need to be forced to make the game fairer, not destroy it by creating a distinct separate path for the richest owners to make more money in the short term that ultimately leads to reducing the game to a dividend scheme.

I hope this sorry episode mobilises people everywhere who love the game to say, you can't use our game as a trinket or a way to enriched yourself. It will be interesting to see what will happen. UEFA can't try to be the good guys here, as we know they aren't. It's the people's game but they seem to think they are the only people who matter. They would be advised to remember that their job us to improve football at every level and not just for those who have power. That power has been shown to be dependent upon supporters accepting it. If they undermine what it's all about to us then they and their plans have been routed.

The next week's will be interesting and uneasy for a lot of people running the game, and not just the six in England who totally misjudged their own supporters, but the governing bodies. Let's see if their incompetence can be rectified. No laughing at the back.

 

[Postman Pep]

Did they really need to beat Uefa's vote on CL reforms? I'm not sure. That is claimed but I dont think it is relevant.

Agree though, they had to rush it through, but possibly not for that.

The desperate state of their finances and the scale of the losses due to covid?

 

[VinceYoungisaBLUE]

Cool story.

The same AC Milan that is absolutely broke and hasn't finished above 5th in a weak Serie A for 10 years? Whos last Champions League title was 15 years ago? Who hasn't even been able to qualify for the champions league from a weaker league in a decade now?

Or the Inter Milan side who is again, broke, and hasn't won a declining Serie A in 10 years, finishing outside the Champs league spots more often then not?

When's the last time either of those 2 clubs were serious draws or major powers? At the moment they are has beens.

Oh but they have the history so I suppose they should be given a free pass then yeah?

Fucking Spurs have more of a right to call themselves a top 12 European club than those two at the moment.

LOL im with you 100%, AC Milan hasn't been relevant in a decade (inter not much better)... Porto AND Benefica have just as good a shout.Not even going to mention the Dutch sides that used to dominate. While we're at it, why don't we include Forrest and Hamburg??? Spurs in there is a joke.

 

[ScottSinclair]

A no-brainer as in no thinking person believes fit a nanosecond that it would ever happen?

The SL nearly happened because the “big” clubs want more guaranteed “big” games. Going back to the European Cup is the antithesis of that and would only ensure a breakaway did happen.

No-brainer as it would make the product instantly better.

Agree that it won't happen. Something has to happen though. The amoubt of games is killing the product. If I'm going to commend the SL gang for one thing its that they have put light on this. We dont need nor want tournaments like the CL, EL, Euros and the Worls Cup with a million teams and games starting every other minute. It waters out the product, it takes away from the magic of it and feels less prestigeous and less exclusive. Today we have fans of teams like Burnley giddy and proud finally qualifying for Europe only for their club and management to try and get them out before the group stages so they can focus on not getting relegated in the Prem. It's nothing in it for them because the EL has been made into a complete secound-rate tournament. A team like Portugal can win the Euros by playing absolute shite football and not winning a game before the semi-finals because there are so many teams in it the format hardly works so you can sneak in by finishing 3rd in your group.

If I was at UEFA I would walk in tomorrow to pitch 3 new tournaments. The premium one, the CL would be the NFL format, 12, 14 or 16 teams depending on how many "lower quality" champions you want for the sake of the product. Lets say 12 to make it easy. Then next year before christmas we would have 2 leagues of 6, 10 games home and away for each team. The two groups consisting of Man City, Inter, Madrid/Barca/Atleti, PSG/Lille, Bayern, Ajax, Sporting, Besiktas and then 4 teams from different smaller european leagues qualifying through knockouts. More than enough good match-ups there Then after Christmas the two groups meet each other based on their positions in their table. You have now guaranteed smaller clubs 10 games in Europe, and you have given them a fair pathway to a great european journey, while being able to maintain the tournaments integrity with still having the majority being some absolute powerhouses thats in there because they have proven they are the best in their country.

The secound tournament is similiar to EL today, but maybe with slighly less teams because currently the EL is bloated as hell. If you put the 2-4/5 in England, Spain, Germany, France and the likes into a tournament like this it suddenly becomes very high-quality and nowhere near the tournament you try to avoid like it is today.

What this will do is help spread the revenue over more countries, and it will in time help spread the best players over more clubs. Today all the top clubs can pretty much guarantee CL-qualification(and with that, money). So they can stockpile the talent. But if you make the premium competition more exslusive you avoid that. You cant guarantee winning the league in England. Sure atm there is mostly one winner in the other big leagues, but give Leverkusen or Dortmund, or Marseille or whatever a couple of years in the new EL and this new football landscape this creates and suddenly they have built a team that can compete with the likes of Bayern and PSG over time. It also offers different opportunities for the likes of us. If we dont win the league one year (which happens way too often :P) we miss the opportunity to play in the CL but we get to play and try to win a high-quality EL that we dont get to compete in every year. Rather than how it is now, we have to have a disaster of a season and finish far down the table to even qualify for it. Maybe give the EL winners a spot in the CL like it is now as well

The third comp is to not exclude the midtable teams. Meaning if your midtable in the big leagues you have something to aim for even if a top 6/4 placement is out of reach. It also gives an opportunity to get more smaller teams into europe to experience meeting some relatively decent teams. This would obviously be less prestigeous than the other two, but offers a fun experience and seperates the level of teams based on their league position rather than bloat the other tournaments which is the problem now. In a tournament like this, hypothetically teams like Arsenal, Villa, Leeds or Pool would play in it next year so will still offer some big names any given year

I would pitch it but it definitely would get downvoted lol. But personally I love the idea

 

[BlueRain]

The desperate state of their finances and the scale of the losses due to covid?

Pretty much nail on the head there with the timing of it I think...

I wouldn't at all be surprised if we see at least one of these ESL driving forces come close to (or actually do) go the wall before next season starts - Barca would be my bet.

 

[RandomJ]

Has anyone from the club even apologised yet?

 

[ScottSinclair]

It would make the Europa League great and the Champions League completely irrelevant until the quarter-finals at the earliest. Who wants to watch City in a group with Club Brugge, Rangers and APOEL and then a round of 16 tie vs the incredible Red Star Belgrade?

Your suggestion would kill the Champions League dead.

Change the format, explained it in another post.

But I do see the point of the "secound tournament" being the better tournament simply because of the amount of quality teams. But we also have to find a way to spread the revenue out and make more countries competetive