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

[ayrshire_blue]

Its all about the insidious Americans. It started with Murdoch and the Sky deal (and it will ultimately end with him deciding the future of football based on what Sky do). Then came the Russians, Thais and Middle East sovereign states, who bloated the fatted calf. But the current game changer are the Americans: Glazers, Kroenke, FSG and our own Silver Lake. At least the oligarchs and Sheiks have always pretended to care about the game - not true at all of the Americans - they only see soccer as a cash machine - after loading their clubs up with debt, they were always playing a long game - and this is it - a NFL 'light'. I can promise you if this happens, in the next decade - a 'franchise' like City will move to London, or the South of France. They simply don't care. Its never been about the fans - its about the pay-per-view subscriber, and this season, with fake crowd noise and empty stadiums has taught them the show can go on. The great tragedy here, is that the there are no 'good guys' - FIFA, UEFA and FA are either cabals of corruption or utterly hopeless. For me, if this happens - which is allegedly very likely - its the end of football for me. It is not about being a nostalgic dinosaur, or standing in the way of change. Its about the essence of what football is. Which is about live, real and emotional engagement - its about being in the moment - and it makes no difference, as a City fan, if its Dickov's goal in extra time at Wembley in the second division playoff final or Sergio's winner to clinch the title a decade ago. Same emotion - same commitment - same passion. From 'tunnel clubs', to VAR, to the fact that over the past year, if you wanted to follow your club, you were forced to pay for Sky, BTSport, Amazon Prime - we are now more than ever, football 'consumers', not football fans. Another step into the 'NFLism' of football. RIP Football.

Great post. Fully agree.

 

[WNRH]

Well done James Milner.

 

[The1nvisibleMan]

Good lad Milner

What’d he do?

 

[hilts]

It'd be a lot easier to keep up with this thread if all the posters who are now done with the club actually followed through with their implicit and explicit threats and turned their attention to something else.

Didn’t know the European invitational soccer league had started, what times kick off. Eastern daylight time will do.

 

[Cobwebcat]

For the original 12 it will be a completely level playing field.

For the other 8...Newcastle? Shalke? etc etc...no...no it won't be.

It’s not though. A percentage of the money will be split between the 15 on the basis of engagement meaning how popular they are with viewers.
Popularity over ability.

 

[Nicholas van Whatsisface]

At least the Champions League is merit based and not a closed shop.

Afraid not mate - their new version awards places based on historical achievements rather than merit.

You’d still have the scenario where West Ham in 4th could miss our to Liverpool in 7th based on the latter’s history in the tournament.

There really isn’t a morally acceptable option on the table at the moment.

They’re both as unpalatable as each other, frankly!

 

[RobinHood]

What about TNS?

Ah. The English/Welsh hybrid club.

 

[Craig]

What I do find highly amusing is the likes of Neville and Carragher saying "we can never allow this closed shop to happen with no relegation etc" but that's exactly what we've got anyway - there's so much money at the top the chances of those top 6 clubs being relegated is nill anyway.
And saying they dint want this closed shop with such ferocity.... NOW THEY KNOW HOW US CITY FANS FELT WHEN FFP WAS BROUGHT IN!!! They effectively did make it a closed shop then!!

So fkin blinkered because it doesn't fit their criteria that NOW they want to act outraged!

Well as much as I don't want this either I do think 'fk you' because we've been battling against this shit for years!

The FFP that Neville backed City over and said it was a disgrace?

 

[Don Karleone]

You are fully entitled to that opinion bud. Emotional time for all fans. I don’t agree with some of the negative comments as I do believe the owners have earned time to answer for the decision to join the super league. The club did not let us down against uefa at CAS and I believe they won’t let us down now. You can’t stop change unless you want left behind. This foolish nostalgia about football has not existed for a long time.

We were told we would be kept informed about how the club was going forward. What happened to that? They still haven't said anything. It's bullshit.

 

[lee one pen]

What’d he do?

Slagged it off mate