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

[cityontheup]

Not happy about this one bit, which is an understatement and so sad my club are involved in it. What I can’t understand is most if not all of these clubs we have now aligned with have tried to fuck us over at every turn. If this new set up gets up and running and given who have been selected as chairman and board members how long will it be before they find some way to cut us loose?

 

[SLCBlue]

City could have come out on the other side of this smelling like roses had they been a club that chose to denounce this super league. Obviously things couldn't keep going on the way it has been with the likes of the corrupt UEFA/FIFA organizations and something needed to happen to put pressure on them but not like this. Instead of saying no the owners of this club sold their soul to be invited to the party that's being hosted by the same people who wanted to squash City at every opportunity they had. Disappointed but not surprised that the owners chose greed over doing the right thing.

 

[Deyna18]

Before everyone condemns our club, it is blatantly clear this has been led by the American owners and we have reluctantly signed up with the worry of being left behind if we don't. Damned if we do, damned if we don't. Perhaps I am being naive but signing up for it does not necessarily mean we want it to happen.

Can someone tell me where the £3bn is coming from? Have TV cos already indicated how much they will pay?

 

[city warrior]

I would love watching Bayern, City, Barca, Madrid, PSG... constantly playing against each other, but never when that implies the death of all domestic leagues and a dictatorship in who enters their super league. That's killing football.

I cannot believe how UEFA cannot come with a better idea than the current UCL format. The problem is that there are only 7(the knockout stage) elite matches and 6 "less important and exciting" matches. The solution is evident: increase the matches between the 16 more powerful teams.

A format like:

- 2 best English teams(according to EPL) + 2 Spanish + 2 Germans (or whoever is the 3rd best league currently) + 1 Italian +1 french are qualified directly to Round of 16. The remaining 8 spots are battled out in 8 groups of 3, and the best of each group qualifies. This way you minimize the "less exciting matches", improve the competitiveness of the group stages (1/3 advancing is more competitive than 2/4), and promote the importance of each league. Now being top 2 in the EPL is more significant than being 3rd or 4th.

- Now with the 16 top teams you do whatever you want to maximize the exciting matches. 2 groups of 8 with the best 4 of each going through QF, or the 1st going directly to SF, and 2-3rd battling out for the 2 remaining spots in the SF. Or 4 groups of 4 where the best 2 advances, and then 2 groups of 4 where, again, the best 2 advances. Finally, you play SF. With both of these formats, you would at least have 13-17 elite matches.

In the worst-case scenario, a team would need to play 19-25 European matches to be champions, so it would be logical to reduce each European league to 18 teams.

I literally came up with this idea quickly, and it improves the importance of the domestic league + more money due to more elite matches.

 

[bluemoon32]

The elephant in the room is that we all support Manchester City, lots of us have done for many many years.
Nearly 50 years for me of loving City, many on here have many more years than that.
I don't agree with us being a part of this whatsoever but what do us fans do, walk away and go support someone else ?
It doesn't work like that but at the same time i'm disgusted by our owners actions with this.
Fcuking hell, what a mess

 

[bluetonium]

Arsenal? What the actual fcuk? Who invited them to the party, and on what grounds?

Oh yeah, forgot. History and American owners.

Will watch developments with interest, more so than the actual competition itself.

 

[ninjamonkey]

Premier league would attract the finances of the Championship without the "big six".

I don't believe it would be anywhere near that low but accepting for a minute that it would be, that's fine, the championship works. I think it's behind only the big 5 leagues in terms of both revenue and attendance as it is. Most of the financial problems in the championship stem from overspending due to a desperation to reach the Premier league and the riches it promises.

Spending and wages would need a balancing out period but football would continue for the rest, you'd just have the numbers involved go back a decade or so. you'd get an ultra competitive league still with some of if not the highest attendance figures in Europe (post covid) and still the most watched league in Europe.

 

[Roberto Manciti]

You're failing to factor in fans impact. Football in its current form is all about financial strength because they've got a product everybody wants to see and buy into. This super league has been globally condemned, nobody wants it and without the fans paying for it, the sponsorship doesn't exist and the whole thing dies.

They might be able to generate enough interest in the likes of China and Asia to subsidise the total lack of interest in Europe to start with but those fans are short terms fans, they'll be the type of fan that changes club every year depending on who's winning they have no layalty or affiliation to a club so when competition and winning becomes a secondary concern those fans will get bored very quickly and leave in their droves and then they're left with nothing.

You may disapprove of the new generation of football fans who support their chosen club from behind a screen in their homes. But they are there. In volume. And their interest represents a big payday for the club(s). It is delusional to suppose that clubs of the stature of those involved in this breakaway tournament will attract little support. The revenues will be huge. Those fans who will walk away are the old timers who have bought season tickets for many years. Losing them is tragic from a fan perspective, but the money will still flow into the clubs regardless. And a new generation will occupy the vacated seats at the Etihad too. Especially if the clubs price access within reach of less well-off younger fans. Dynamic pricing software means that seats can be priced to sell these days.

 

[Shirley]

The elephant in the room is that we all support Manchester City, lots of us have done for many many years.
Nearly 50 years for me of loving City, many on here have many more years than that.
I don't agree with us being a part of this whatsoever but what do us fans do, walk away and go support someone else ?
It doesn't work like that but at the same time i'm disgusted by our owners actions with this.
Fcuking hell, what a mess

There’s always Maine Road FC !

 

[FogBlueInSanFran]

You're failing to factor in fans impact. Football in its current form is all about financial strength because they've got a product everybody wants to see and buy into. This super league has been globally condemned, nobody wants it and without the fans paying for it, the sponsorship doesn't exist and the whole thing dies.

They might be able to generate enough interest in the likes of China and Asia to subsidise the total lack of interest in Europe to start with but those fans are short terms fans, they'll be the type of fan that changes club every year depending on who's winning they have no layalty or affiliation to a club so when competition and winning becomes a secondary concern those fans will get bored very quickly and leave in their droves and then they're left with nothing.

It's important to note that the American professional model in the big four sports is about winning one thing -- the title -- after a "best of" tournament (playoffs).

Top four? No one cares.

Promotion? What's that?

Avoiding relegation? It just means you suck.

Cups? There aren't any.

Winning the league in the regular season? Doesn't matter except for playoff seeding.

Beating a "rival" in a "derby"? That's still a pretty good feeling, especially in college (American) football, but the teams are sometimes not proximate, and it doesn't matter so much in the professional leagues.

Save for a few baseball teams who celebrate winning a division title (pennant), there's only ONE kind of "victory". And even the teams who win a pennant but don't win a World Series are often seen as "failures" (cf. "Moneyball" the movie).

So a closed Super League creates this model in a sport in Europe where a "successful" season is defined by a singular outcome. That, I'd suggest, is a misreading of how fans generally think about this sport.