The future of European Football??

Again it all comes down to money though. I find their statement - "that any sanction imposed on the 'Big Six', such as points deductions or fines would hurt the wrong people - the players, managers, and, crucially, the fans of those clubs." - to be rather spurious. Where was that concern when other clubs had points docked or were demoted for rule breaches? No thoughts then for players, managers or fans of those clubs - were they 'too small' to worry about?

 

Sadly, this issue is going to come back again and again, until the monetary rewards for footballing success are reduced significantly - to the point where the moneymen lose interest. This can only be done by some form of income change, rewards change , and , probably, ownership rules change. Having said that, Barca are in a dire state financially, and they are 'fan owned'. Puzzles me. Sports-washing needs to be addressed too, but that is another issue altogether.

 

Perhaps the FA need to tighten their act too. They already have in place the 'fit and proper person' rule and sometimes seem loathe to apply it. Whilst I've never studied it in detail, I wonder if it can be applied both before and after approving owners? Those owners who apparently 'signed up' to the ESL have effectively broken a contract which requires them to obtain permission before doing so. For me, there should an appropriately harsh punishment applied - to send a clear message to others. And those others should include the ones who dangled the financial carrots - the Yankee moneymen - which enticed them to sign up. To use their own vernacular, one strike and you're out - we don't want or need them back.

 

Some interesting points made by our rivals' chairman in their programme notes from last night's game. Given where we so nearly ended up, and where we might be in the future, it's worth reading, including points about financial fairplay and how to go forward. Important as well, since we are all hoping we are going to be back in the PL, where we will not be competing on the same basis as the big money clubs.

https://www.lutontown.co.uk/news/2021/april/gary-notes/

 

Thanks for finding that. It is a good opinion piece that many club owners should spend a little time thinking about. In there he is demanding that the six clubs who threatened the stability of the pyramid should be punished. L'Équipe the sports newspaper here has been saying the same thing about punishment, although if PSG had been involved I am not sure that they would have taken the same line.

 

So their one ambition over the last 15 years has been to beat us at least once, on a par with us beating Liverpool, Man United, Aston Villa and Wolves in four consecutive home games in one season

 

I have just been reading about the new Champions league format.

Yes, it is not as bad a the super league. However, under new "reforms" how I understood it is past teams in the competition will benefit if they fall out of form:

"The new format will see 36 clubs qualifying for an expanded 'first phase', where all clubs will play against 10 opponents of varying strengths. This will result in a league table, with the top eight qualifying for the knockout phase and the next 16 going into a play-off for the remaining eight slots.
The format has been criticised by fans' groups, not least because two of the additional four slots will be allocated on the basis of past performance, to the clubs with the highest Uefa co-efficient that did not qualify for the Champions League automatically - but did qualify for another European competition. If the process was in existence this season, Liverpool - depending on the outcome of the domestic cup competitions - and Chelsea would have been the clubs who stood to benefit" from - https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/56771500
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Not as devilish as the proposed Super League but still benefiting the big boys with more games to be played.

 

Ilkay Gündogan

With all the Super League stuff going on... can we please also speak about the new Champions League format? More and more and more games, is no one thinking about us players? The new UCL format is just the lesser of the two evils in comparison to the Super League...

 

https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsl...-1000--new-champions-league-format-explained/

More explanation of the chances here.

 

I've just listened to Radio Four's News Quiz. There is a running gag which starts with the statement, "A new Superleague was announced by eleven of the top teams in Europe and Tottenham Hotspur."

 

The Arsenal is an even bigger joke involved in it really.

 

Some wag on Twitter suggested that having spurs and arsenal included is "a bit like me putting a pound coin on the table in the Crucible."

 

Can I extend this to include Chelsea ? A club who have to actually name themselves after another fashionable part of London despite being only the second club in Hammersmith and Fulham

 

Here was me thinking Fulham was a fashionable part of London...

My wife's brother-in-law inherited his mother's terraced house, not far from Craven Cottage, a while back - he's just put it on the market with a guide price of £1 million.

 

Fulham is a nice area of London BB, but I think Stamford Bridge may be in Hammersmith. Anyway QPR were actually founded in Chelsea but didn't use the name thus leaving it free for Chelsea FC to steal despite never having been there ! So it was a case of theft, or calling themselves Hammersmith or the second team in Fulham and so they chose theft !

 

It looks as though the fat lady may not have sung yet.

 

The Italian Football Federation (FIGC) has approved a rule that would ban clubs who sign up to breakaway competitions from competing in Serie A. Clubs playing in leagues not recognised by Fifa or Uefa will now not be able to play in domestic tournaments in Italy.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...tles-in-a-world-without-the-big-six-knowledge

I'm too lazy to do the maths, but according to this guy if the 'Big Six' were taken out of the PL (and all the results vs them removed) we would have been Champions

Is it too late to retroactively kick them out?