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

[tommybooth]

Went to bed after reading BM for an hour. Feel like an A bomb was dropped yesterday. Still feel shit today.

 

[LangleyBlue1970]

May I ask why you voted yes? Genuinely curious

Because times change. You either move with those times or get left behind. Football is changing beyond recognition, and has been for some time. This is just the next move.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Does anyone else get the impression this may be a move to scare UEFA into getting more with the new champions league structure?

It undoubtedly is, given that the stories are they hadn't got their way over a key proposal around commercial revenue in the about-to-be-agreed new CL format. So a small voice in me says wait and see, as breakaway threats have been used many times before. And also that we might be in this mainly in order to piss on their chips, as someone obviously leaked this & we've seemingly used Ziegler before.

But these threats have never gone as far as this, at least as far as UEFA are concerned. We've seen the introduction of the Premier League of course, which the FA implicitly backed then found that the clubs it thought it had got onside were in fact not interested in them as an ally.

We could have gone to a point where we put out a statement saying that we were invited to join but had no intention of doing business with these clubs, who'd tried everything to stop us getting richer while trying to line their own pockets. That would have been powerful in my view.

But we went ahead and put our name to this, which I'm deeply ashamed of, but not wholly surprised at sadly. The line's been drawn now as far as I, and I'm sure others, are concerned.

City till I die? We fucking died when that statement went on the OS.

 

[The1nvisibleMan]

 

[Marvin]

And that makes it ok does it?

The game has been going this way for years. This is its logical conclusion.

Of course I hate it to the core. No relegation and right by entitlement is against sport but I don't think City had much choice in this.

 

[Cheesy]

Because times change. You either move with those times or get left behind. Football is changing beyond recognition, and has been for some time. This is just the next move.

And the next move after this?

A world league? Franchises? Clubs moving to another city, maybe even another country?

 

[nmc]

I'm really indifferent to this at the moment until everything comes out. I do find it very hypocritical of Sky, BT and former players talking about greed and greed during a pandemic.

The same Sky and BT that put games on Pay Per View in a pandemic.

I'm sure all of the ex players that do the really difficult job of mostly slinging out clichés have donated money to these fans they suddenly have so much simpathy for. The same players that probably demanded huge pay rises that meant ticket prices had to be increased above inflation.

Rio Ferdinand was on BT talking about greed. He must have forgotten the time he was banned for missing a drugs test. Then paid in full by the rags for the 8 Months he was banned for. Then went and banged down baconfaces door to demand a pay rise when his suspension was up.

Yeah this is all about greed and Sky, BT and these ex players that are now pundits are just p'd off because they're not going to be a part of it. DAZN supposedly has the rights and the ex players missed out on even bigger wages.

Until of course they can themselves make money off it themselves and they will join in.

The same BT and SKY who will be bidding billions for the tv rights to show said league...

 

[jim tolmies perm]

A draft system for players instead of transfers? Would make it more interesting but should be for all leagues

 

[PragueBlue]

If it means getting kicked out of the PL then it can absolutely fuck off however.

I just can't see that happening. The SL wouldn't have enough games as a 'cup competition' and so would probably decide to make it into a proper league, playing at weekends. This would attract a lot of sponsorship/broadcasting revenue away from the PL.

The PL would then be Leicester, West Ham, Everton a group of mid-table clubs and 9 Championship level teams. It would immediately become a 2nd tier competition. BT and Sky would be renegotiating their contracts with the PL as would all other sponsors. This would lead to a huge loss of income for the clubs left in the PL and they would then also have their own sponsors looking to renegotiate deals. Those PL clubs would suffer enormously financially and probably lose their better players to the SL. In effect the PL would ultimately become the equivalent of the Championship

That's the reality that we were facing as a club. If it hadn't been us, one of Leicester, WHU or Everton would have no doubt taken that 6th berth in the SL and we'd have been totally screwed financially and competitively.

I hate it but I really don't think we had much choice. I believe our owners would have preferred the status quo (as we haven't been doing too badly) but that was never an option.

 

[RandomJ]

I respect this opinion but I want you to sit in the cold light of day and think - what were the options put in front of us that we should have taken?

If we pick to not go, we're essentially relegating ourselves to the standard of team currently in the Europa League at best. We'll get some decent players in and we could have a go maybe at the league on a fluke season but we don't play in the biggest competition so we'll always be behind the top clubs. No Pep, no De Bruyne, no Haaland or Messi or Kane.

The decision was this - do you want a morality that harks for a competitive standard that hasn't existed for 30 years or do you want trophies, top players and big games?

Because there's the biggest rub in all of this - this isn't the death of competition. Competition hasn't existed in the Premier League for decades. Why purposely limit the potential of the club to chase not just an idea of morality but a totally false one that doesn't even exist?

I feel like a lot of you are facing the battles that I have already mentally faced in 2008 when Sheikh Mansour took over. We were to become a global club, one of the biggest in the world, and we would eventually be the people who were doing the smooth talking in the hallways of UEFA. I settled with the idea that a globalised Man City was what we were and celebrated the idea that our club could become something akin to a New York Yankees or Barcelona or Chicago Bulls. An instantly recognisable symbol of excellence in their sport.

Agnelli, Perez, Glazer, etc, they're business men. They want us in it because the league will generate significantly more money with us in it. Football has always been a competition in the boardroom as much as it is on the pitch. I'm not really pissed at this. They tried to stop us and they couldn't so they invite us to the group to get some reflected glory. Was always going to happen; what's that quote about how they laugh at you first? Our boys in the boardroom are savvy operators and they'll know that these guys wouldn't piss on them if they were on fire but they need them.

My point being that you should try to think about this and let the details come out. City aren't dead nor have they changed, they're just potentially playing in a different European competition. The people there are all the same as they were yesterday. Phil Foden still has a shit fringe. Almost all the complaints I've seen about this are about what "might" happen. Cheerleaders (?!), no away fans, a bunch of literal shit like that. People are overreacting. Let's see what it looks like before we start throwing away 40 years of support - it's not even been a day yet.

You don't need to keep harping on. You've made your position abundantly clear that you don't give a toss about the soul of the club or competitive football. You just want to see us get richer and play "glamour" games. The fact you even make attempts to hand wave away people like the Glazers tells us everything we need.