I thought this was probably important enough to merit a specific thread. Anyway, it's here if people want to use it.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/56812151 Real Madrid president says it will 'save football' Load of tosh really!
Some players might be hesitant to join a Super League club because of the threat of not being able to play for their countries in the World Cup and possibly the Olympics.
Well that didn't last long. Hopefully the bigger clubs may have to start living more within their means, which may level the PL playing field a bit.
Hopefully the anger from fans/FA/UEFA/FIFA/government that has been stirred up by this doesn't dissipate by the clubs backing down. The threat of the Super League got the Champion's League reformed in their favour, there's suggestions they've been promised more money by UEFA to back down, and if there's no real penalty for starting a separatist league, they'll try it again when they have a less crap plan. There needs to be reforms to curtail the power of rich clubs (and especially their owners), and rather than skew the playing field further in their favour, it should be levelled. The massive broadcast contracts that the Premier League and "Super League" command need to work for football as a whole, not a handful of rich clubs, their owners, players and agents.
I think government came out this morning and said that they would continue with the review. These big clubs may have massively shot themselves in the foot and could potentially end up with less revenue than they get now.
Since ITV lost the rights for Champions League matches I didn't bother watching it. I used to even sign up because I wanted to watch the return legs . I don't watch the Premier league if we are not in it either.
I think the whole thing also smacks of being tone deaf. People have lost their jobs or been cooped up for a year or more and to hear that these poor big clubs are making a monopoly to 'save football' is just plain stupid. If they want to make it a league or a cup it has to allow full promotion and relegation. Juventus already spearheaded a change to the European coefficients to make it far harder for a new club to break into the competitions. Australian sport is similar to American sport where they have a few teams that play each other then half the league goes into a play-off and the winner is decided there. It's a bit stupid, but in a way I understand moreso than in America because Australia has so few population centres that they can't have loads of teams.... it does mean the league isn't too interesting until it becomes who is going to get what place for the play-off series.
It'll be interesting to see what Barcelona do now. They are in serious financial trouble, with falling profits and massive tranches of debt coming due very soon. I feel like they must have been a driving force behind this move, as in some ways it was a necessity for them.
Yeah Barcelona in particular are up **** creek, with Madrid not far behind. Not at all surprised that they haven't officially pulled out of the project yet, they need it desperately. If anything, I'm surprised the other clubs haven't been ruthless enough to realise that letting the two Spanish giants fail is probably in their own interests, given their propensity for driving up transfer fees and wages. Barcelona have more than €600m of debt to be paid off this season (including €200m owed to other clubs, failing to pay that could lead to UEFA sanctions, transfers bans, etc), with a further €450m of long term debt. Their wage bill is €500m a year, and they couldn't even pay their players in January. Then they've got Messi out of contract this summer, with Alba, Pique and Busquets all nearing the age where they need replacing. It's an absolute unsustainable mess. Now there's no Super League, they'll probably have to mortgage the Camp Nou to raise funds, but that's only a short term fix which lumbers the club with longer term problems. They need a firesale of expensive players and a complete overhaul of their wage structure, and instead their eyeing up a long-term deal for Messi and looking to sign Aguero. It doesn't make sense.
A long time ago, I think in the '60s, Barcelona and Madrid were in serious financial trouble. Guess what? The Spanish government bailed them out. I would assume that could not happen now. At least I bl..dy hope it can't.
They've retreated this time, but they'll be back. More difficult for the UK contingent, though, because it's now clear that the politicians will get involved. There's clearly lots of votes in talking tough about a European Super League, and the Tories and Labour will be scrambling over each other to virtue signal to the 'Red Wall'.
https://news.sky.com/story/the-rich-revenues-and-huge-debts-behind-the-super-league-dozen-12281465 this was quite interesting on the clubs involved which is interesting because this article on Barca says their debt is 3 times higher than the first article at 1.2 billion euros! https://www.espn.com.au/football/ba...bts-and-wage-billmanage-super-league-backlash
