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European Super League, Good Or Bad.


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Let them go, Ban any player / manager / Staff that joins the clubs from playing in the remaining leagues (except those currently playing for those clubs that might be taken across without their permission.)

Very soon the group of 6 would be come a retirement home for Ex good players..

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I certainly hope this breakaway league doesn't happen, if for no better reason than I see it removing the last remaining vestiges of financial fair play, as pathetic and unenforceable as they seem to be. At least the "state owned" clubs like PSG and Manchester City have to make some pretense of staying within a set of rules, even if we know that in truth there are any number of loop holes which they use, seemingly with impunity to spend what they like. Even the other "super rich" clubs like Man U and Liverpool cannot compete with their spending. Will a European Super League have financial fair play rules? I doubt it. For the fans of the clubs involved I think it's a terrible idea, for the fans of the clubs "left behind" I think it's a terrible idea. 

I come from a football family, two cousins who played in the then 1st division in the days before the Premier League and one currently playing in the Premier League and a late Uncle who was one of the countries premier player's agents. I find it extremely ignorant that whenever the subject of football raises it's head on the forum and the comments pour in about players being paid "just for kicking a ball around". 

Just so that these people know, what these players are being paid for is a lifetimes commitment to their sport, training often starts before school age. By the time they get to junior school age they will be training or practicing most nights of the week after school, rain or shine. By the time they are high school age the very best will be living in or closely associated to an academy where they entire day, seven days a week revolves around training and schoolwork. Everything they do, everything they eat and drink is closely controlled. On top of all of this they are still studying for their normal school qualifications, as they will be very aware that even from those kids taken into an academy, only a very small percentage will ever see a professional contract, and a tiny part of one percent will see a top premier league deal. 

Players are paid what they are worth, their market value just like anyone else. It might surprise you to know that most professional footballers are "in it" because they love it, you have to in order to make the sacrifices needed to get there. A club like Manchester United might but a player for £50m, they know that they will recover that revenue in worldwide shirt sales within a few months, and if that player helps towards a higher premier league place, or the holy grail a champions league place then the seven figure salary is also a snip. 

The reason all of that money is available is down to the popularity of the sport, the huge number of people who follow it and the money they are willing to commit to it. If those people didn't want it, if they didn't pay for it, then it wouldn't happen. 

And that links nicely to my final point, the one thing that might stop this European Super League. Governments can't do it, governing bodies can't do it, in fact the more they try, the more they squeeze and pressurise the clubs involved the greater I believe the resolve of those clubs will become. What can stop it is the fans, the players and the management. Jurgen Klopp in his extended press conference last night stated that he doesn't want it, that the players don't want it and the fans don't want it and that the clubs relationship with the fans is part of his remit and, to quote him exactly "I will sort it"

I have little doubt following that comment that Liverpool Football Club,as we know it now will not be part of any European Super League. What I do worry about is the club being taken in the style of American sports franchises away from the city to become some non entity somewhere, stripped of it's fan base, management and current players and rebuilt artificially elsewhere, as we have seen with NFL clubs in recent years. 

 

 

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13 hours ago, Wonderwall said:

Just out of interest, do you ever attend a football match?

Yes, though I have to admit I have not been to one in over a year now. Oh wait, neither has anyone else! I get to Anfield whenever I can and also watch my local home town team in the Southern League Premier. Interestingly one of our great rivals in recent years has been King's Lynn so I have made a number of visits to the Walks, though they have now moved  couple of divisions above us. 

Our greatest moment came in 2011 when we all made the trip to Wembley for the FA Vase final, and in 2004 when we made he first round proper of the FA Cup. 

I used to hold a season ticket for Anfield but had to give it up as I could only make games on a Saturday. Liverpool play very few games on Saturday. Ironically now I work Saturdays and not Sunday and Monday I would probably be able to make more games then I used to, but despite the recent stadium expansion there is still a waiting list for season tickets a mile long. So I have to rely on the ballot system for general tickets, which is a shot in the dark really though hopefully the next stadium expansion will make things easier. 

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9 hours ago, floydraser said:

What I don't get with football is why poor people throw all their spare money at rich people?

I know this forum is no litmus paper for the rest of the World but when F1 became slightly more expensive to watch live recently there was immediate talk of cancelling subscriptions and finding cheaper ways of watching. And people questioning how much they really needed to watch it anyway.

No such thing with football, it's more like a religion; there is no question of actually NOT watching it. I haven't seen any suggestion of a boycott and if there is, it's been pretty slow in coming. Maybe the powers that be would take more notice if subscriptions were cancelled, season tickets weren't bought and over priced replica team shirts stayed in the club stores.

That said, there are hard core fans of any sport with the same addiction. Pre covid, you would meet one if you went to Leicester Tigers rugby ground and stood in someone's regular spot!

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7 hours ago, Chelsea14Ian said:

180-21.Some players going back to the seventies used to drink the brewery dry. How they managed to throw darts is beyond  me.

Now let's look what you would have won!:default_biggrin::450_trophy:

Ian I worked with Mike Gregory a couple of years ago back the stories he told me when they was a way on tournaments and what a legend Jocky Wilson was how hilarious he was.. He said it was none stop booze up lol 😂....  His big regret was not joining the PDC at the time and he stayed with the BDO.. 

If you remember it happened to the Darts... 

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But at least you true fans can now see what your club's owners really think of you. You are simply a pile of pound notes to them. They have shown their colours, do you really want to carry on giving them your support? Look to lesser clubs who need your support. Don't bother with Southend, though, you'll be able to watch them in your local park soon.

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2 hours ago, Chelsea14Ian said:

Sorry but will be Chelsea for ever.At least they saw sense. 

Very true, you can't give up on your 'real' team. I've now lived longer in Norfolk than anywhere, and have a huge soft spot for Norwich City - right up to the point they play West Ham

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football is only worth big money if people are willing to pay through the nose to watch it, if all the fans suddenly said, I'm not paying to watch that on TV, then things would have to get back to realistic figures, where the pay was limited by the number of fans who paid to get through the gate and could watch the game live, even I as a non football supporter can see that. we have seen that with formula 1, as tv stations decided they wanted exclusive rights, they slowly drive the fans away with the additional costs to watch, all of a sudden they find the sport in decline and not worth the charges they are asking.

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1 hour ago, ranworthbreeze said:

it has become big business with clubs not paying their way

In a way Alan your comment is exactly what this is all about, but perhaps not as you intended. Revenue generated by larger clubs is used to fund smaller clubs, it is they who are not paying their way but rely in hand outs - funding fed down the pyramid by the FA. It is no secret that these clubs, and it goes beyond the six mentioned here want more control over more of the revenue they generate. This was not the way to go about it. 

An excellent statement from John W Henry this morning. 

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3 minutes ago, grendel said:

they find the sport in decline and not worth the charges they are asking.

the point where that argument falls down is that the sport is not, at top flight level at least, in decline. In fact most clubs have waiting lists for season tickets. At my club, Liverpool it is literally dead mans shoes for a new season ticket. Grounds are mostly full, the few general admission tickets available at Anfield are hugely oversubscribed every week. More people than ever before pay subscriptions to watch football in England and the revenue generated by those subscriptions support football at every level, not just the premier league. Many of the smaller clubs Regulo urges us to support would not exist without that financial aid. 

Those who buy these season tickets, who pay those subscriptions are free to spend their money as they like. They may well look at a boat owner and ask why do you waste so much money on a boat to keep driving along the same bit of river week in, week out. You do it because that is your choice (or whatever you send your money on). They do not bemoan or belittle that choice yet every time football is mentioned grown men, and sometimes women feel it is fine to ridicule those who do support their chosen club. 

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it may not be in decline just yet, but there is such a thing as killing the goose that lays the golden egg, i am quite happy for people tp choose their own hobbies and pastimes, but it seems to me that we had a first division, then a premier division, now a proposed super league, each more expensive to access than the previous, as state that cant go on indefinitely, at what point does it price itself out of the general market, super league, ultra league, ultimate lead, or when?

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