So you'd rather the game run by people we already know don't give a **** about the game just to "show UEFA"...? UEFA aren't saints, in fact their ****s too. But you wanted to jump out of the lion's pit and into shark infested tank!
I am not suprised with the fact this thread is 37 pages long. My two cents on this is as follows I understand the core problem is a financial one and the clubs wanted to devise a tournament that raises these funds. I personally think their approach was horribly wrong and they ended up with eggs on their faces. If the problem is financial one, then it means your product/business model is oudated and you need different ways to commercialize the product. Business Model Footballs financial problems are one of a legacy business model that relies on linear television to raise the bulk of TV monies. The BT /Sky type of solutions are outdated. By centralising TV rights, the clubs are limited to what the rights provider can access in terms of markets. These clubs should have been exploring the technologies available to have a pay per view subscription model either online or via digital video broadcasting platforms that integrate payment platforms like VISA Paypal Venmo etc for real time payments. Decentralisation of access I watch the games via pay tv and nowadays I am forced to stream CL via internet. I literally watch CL matches on my mobile phone and most people do this and pay more in data charges than what I am proposing below. The reality is there are probably over 1 billion football fans who are willing and are able to pay $1 a game. I can easily purchase all of Liverpools game for $38 over the season. I come from a low middle income country and I can tell you the youth are gambling much more on the games per week than $1. The poor folk are charged a minimum of no less than 0.5$ to watch a game by bar owners or football vendors. Even using a conservative number like 100 miillion active global subscirbers paying a 0.5$ per game for the premier league, that would raise a crazy figure of $19B per season 380 games. You can even price the marquee games slightly higher and place them at time slots that effectively require me to purchase than watch at the bar. This is just one piece of the income as there are weaknesses I have seen in the commercial and merch space that clubs can improve to increase revenues. The beauty of delivering your product via a platform business model is you can then access the global markets, make it way cheaper and thus increase your customer base and revenues. Cost curve declines are directly linked to customer uptake and demand. All this can be achieved without even investing much in broadcast infrastructure as some of the delivery platforms already exist and even legacy linear TV models can pivot around the pay per view model. All the football authorties need to do is piggyback. I sometimes wonder what those are the top are thinking but at least this time round the fans have managed to tame thier crazy solutions.
This is essentially what the big want to do - they know they are the product. They are what attracts global audiences and ultimately, brings in the money.
they have allowed for up to 2 of the traditional big names being parachuted in if they fai to legitimately qualfy . History tells us that if that isn't enough the number will be increased to ensure Barca , RM , Man Utd etc are always in it .
I think the most worrying thing and sums up all the issues is the statement from Juve chief ‘Football is no longer a game, it is a business sector and what it needs most is stability’ Thats the crux of it. It’s gone so far away from what it actually is, 22 people kicking a ball around on some grass.
but your reform is devil take the hindmost with the big clubs taking an ever greater share of the pie to the exclusion of the rest of the football community .
And that stability needs to come from clubs managing their finances properly rather than hoping for handouts to compensate for their reckless spending.
Because whether we like it or not, these clubs hold a lot of power (ourselves included). These clubs realise they have this power and leverage due to the money and global audiences they bring in.
they don't but that is already in the CL "reforms" that were announced a couple of days ago . oh actually the correct answer is filthy lucre .
It's not my reform. And I was never fully on board with the SL without a detailed proposal. And I always said that I don't like the closed format of the competition.