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Top European Soccer Teams Announce Formation of European Super League


Cash or Czech

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https://theathletic.com/news/european-super-league-confirmed-latest/oZNUFvMCU06R

 

Europe's leading clubs confirm they have agreed to establish new Super League

 

Twelve of Europe’s leading football clubs have made a joint statement to announce they have agreed to a new European Super League.

 

The league will be governed by its founding clubs who are: AC Milan, Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, Chelsea, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Juventus, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Tottenham Hotspur.

 

The clubs say that 15 founding clubs - the 12 who have reached the agreement plus three who they expect to join - will be joined by five other teams who qualify each season.

 

They say the games will be played in midweek, starting in August, with teams playing home and away fixtures in two groups of ten, with the top three in each group automatically qualifying for the quarter-finals.

 

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Seems like a cop out or financial greed from the owners who aren't happy with the Champions League/Europa League revenues.

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All that, when those CL reforms were marketed as "preventing a Super League".

 

I wish they would just f off and do it seriously. Make their own League with all the clubs that strangle the competition in the national leagues and let the rest of us have some fun again.

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This isn't "supposed to" replace domestic competitions though, and both Bayern and PSG said no to their invitations. Yet the domestic leagues, FIFA, and UEFA are all obviously opposed and condoning the move. As an Arsenal fan, we've been shit for several seasons. We wouldn't even qualify for this league if it had qualifications other than "Stan Kroenke wants to get richer".
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Yh, I know it's not supposed to replace them (yet), I just wish it would so we can get back some actual competition and not wonder if this is the year that Bayern finally has less than 78 points for once.

 

Tottenham hasn't won shit since I was a toddler, so why are they even invited? :rofl:

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btw it seems that the FAs came together and said that any club that joins such a league will be banned from competing on all levels, including domestic.

https://www.euronews.com/2021/04/18/uefa-condemns-plans-for-a-european-super-league

 

Probably a lot of empty threats and at the end they will come together, give the big clubs even more money and pretend everything is fine, until we dance this dance again in 2-3 years.

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#SuperLeague founder clubs are gonna receive €3.5 billion for their 'infrastructure investment plans and to offset the impact of the COVID pandemic’.

 

Nothing done/announced yet about FC Bayern, RB Leipzig and Porto joining the SuperLeague too - it will be decided ‘soon’. Red circleFlag of European Union

 

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Follow the money.

 

If this goes through, I might be following Everton or Southampton next season.

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The rich keep on getting richer. Will ruin the romance of the sport (and certainly taints European competitions rendering the Europa League and UCL completely pointless) whilst more and more clubs drift into oblivion. I can see the English league losing a whole tier of football in the next 5-10 years, following the recent path of clubs like Bury and Wimbledon before them.

 

What makes me laugh is Spurs have signed up, yet they have won nothing in forever, and Arsenal who are still dining out on their team from 15 years ago. Nothing ‘Super’ about this league whatsoever. It’s just the equivalent of a private school for the rich and powerful. Elitist, even though most of them aren’t elite anymore (Arsenal, Spurs never were, AC Milan, Athletico, Inter etc.).

 

 

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I mean the "Champions League" hasn't been "Champions"-related for over 2 decades.

 

It might crash the system and some clubs, but whatever it could return us to have an actual competition that isn't won by the same 10 clubs each year, which is why it won't happen. At least not in the way it appears to happen now.

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I mean the "Champions League" hasn't been "Champions"-related for over 2 decades.

 

It might crash the system and some clubs, but whatever it could return us to have an actual competition that isn't won by the same 10 clubs each year, which is why it won't happen. At least not in the way it appears to happen now.

 

This is still just dumb. A league for only a handfull of teams that get 3 billion pounds extra?

 

Imagine the original six teams playing an extra tournament just so they can get 10 mill extra in cap space and Dolan fills his bags. Not really fair.

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Not that I'm for it, but how is this any different than a bunch of teams with a shit-ton of financial power just establishing a league that abides by the exact same rules as the NFL does?

 

It's a dick move given the history and the frankly, amazing pyramid system they've already got, but it's not exactly unprecedented. It's exactly how American sports work.

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Not that I'm for it, but how is this any different than a bunch of teams with a shit-ton of financial power just establishing a league that abides by the exact same rules as the NFL does?

 

It's a dick move given the history and the frankly, amazing pyramid system they've already got, but it's not exactly unprecedented. It's exactly how American sports work.

 

That's what all the Euros hate about it. It's an Americanization of the sport.

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As a casual American fan, I don't see the big deal here. It's clearly a power grab and a money grab. But why should I really care about that? At the end of the day, for me, it's a product for entertainment and the best entertainment is when the big teams go head-to-head. Do I hate to see the greed from some of the biggest sports teams in the world? Sure. Will that mean I won't ever watch another Manchester United game? Fuck no.

 

I can totally see why you would think it's a travesty if you buy into the history of the clubs and the leagues, and the principle that the competition is merit based. But that stuff doesn't resonate with me because I'm an American conditioned by the total capitalist nature of pretty much all sporting the country.

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That's what all the Euros hate about it. It's an Americanization of the sport.

 

100%

 

I think it's shitty, tbqh. I love the fact that there's actual punishment for being shitty and real reward for being good. I love that multiple competitions are not only desirable, but are part and parcel of the sport. I love that there's real incentive to put out a great product and serious disincentive to be bad. I think there's something galling about Arsenal and Tottenham and the Milan clubs positioning themselves alongside Liverpool, United, Barcelona, Juventus, Real, and City as stalwart spenders when they're miserly too. I think a club like Everton or Leicester or Napoli get royally fucked here - especially when they've "done it right". Bluntly, I can't understand why as an Arsenal fan we'd sign up to watch our boys get their asses handed to them by Europe's elite even more frequently than we already do, but I'm sure the answer is "well the money will let us spend on players more". Horseshit. Bring in Haaland and we'll believe it.

 

It's just so against the spirit of the game to do it this way.

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100%

 

I think it's shitty, tbqh. I love the fact that there's actual punishment for being shitty and real reward for being good. I love that multiple competitions are not only desirable, but are part and parcel of the sport. I love that there's real incentive to put out a great product and serious disincentive to be bad. I think there's something galling about Arsenal and Tottenham and the Milan clubs positioning themselves alongside Liverpool, United, Barcelona, Juventus, Real, and City as stalwart spenders when they're miserly too. I think a club like Everton or Leicester or Napoli get royally fucked here - especially when they've "done it right". Bluntly, I can't understand why as an Arsenal fan we'd sign up to watch our boys get their asses handed to them by Europe's elite even more frequently than we already do, but I'm sure the answer is "well the money will let us spend on players more". Horseshit. Bring in Haaland and we'll believe it.

 

It's just so against the spirit of the game to do it this way.

 

It reminds me of when Rutgers joined the Big Ten and all the arguments in favor were that they'd get so much money from the Big Ten and it would help recruiting. Meanwhile they just get their shit pushed in on a weekly basis and they still can't recruit top talent.

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It reminds me of when Rutgers joined the Big Ten and all the arguments in favor were that they'd get so much money from the Big Ten and it would help recruiting. Meanwhile they just get their shit pushed in on a weekly basis and they still can't recruit top talent.

 

Yep - same general idea.

 

The expected revenues from year 1 of the Superleague is 500 million Euro per club. You don't get to tell me that we need to keep trotting out Granit Xhaka and Mohamed El Neny every fucking week when you have half a billion Euro per annum squirreled away. For that sort of money, we should be seeing world caliber XIs on the weekly from all of these teams.

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Yep - same general idea.

 

The expected revenues from year 1 of the Superleague is 500 million Euro per club. You don't get to tell me that we need to keep trotting out Granit Xhaka and Mohamed El Neny every fucking week when you have half a billion Euro per annum squirreled away. For that sort of money, we should be seeing world caliber XIs on the weekly from all of these teams.

 

Which on paper, sounds pretty amazing. Twelve teams with top tier lineups, the best players available at every position... But I think we all know better than to think it would work like that in practice.

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As a casual American fan, I don't see the big deal here. It's clearly a power grab and a money grab. But why should I really care about that? At the end of the day, for me, it's a product for entertainment and the best entertainment is when the big teams go head-to-head. Do I hate to see the greed from some of the biggest sports teams in the world? Sure. Will that mean I won't ever watch another Manchester United game? Fuck no.

 

I can totally see why you would think it's a travesty if you buy into the history of the clubs and the leagues, and the principle that the competition is merit based. But that stuff doesn't resonate with me because I'm an American conditioned by the total capitalist nature of pretty much all sporting the country.

 

For you as a casual American fan, the impact is definitely not really there. You watch it for different reasons than a local fan would after all and to be honest there is a lot of casual fans over here as well, who probably don't really mind much either. Which is why you are probably part of the prime target audience this move is intended for.

 

From a more traditional european fans view, it's just contrary to anything our sports system was build upon: Clubs - originally formed by ordinary people like you and me - competing which each other on local and national level and then the later added competitions to see who is best in Europe. Of course this is a long gone era (and England is a bit of a special case in regards to how clubs were formed), but this is widely seen as the final blow to what once was and a lot of people hate it.

 

I was privileged enough to see the last years before soccer totally transformed into a business in the late 90s (again, England was years ahead in that regard) and I do miss it, though I am very aware that there is no going back no matter what. Still, one can dream that we can get back to a point were money wasn't distributed as ridiculously uneven as it is now. If that's not possible I am totally fine with the rich guys doing their own thing, let's see if they can survive without winning against inferior teams every weekend.

Unfortunately for me, it seems Bayern and Dortmund aren't gonna join the new League just yet, likely the last remainder of the old system preventing it. (german Clubs have to be owned by actual club members, can't have a business guys as majority share holder).

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Which on paper, sounds pretty amazing. Twelve teams with top tier lineups, the best players available at every position... But I think we all know better than to think it would work like that in practice.

 

So...there are two ways this can go, because as crazy as it sounds - most European leagues currently give much more than 50% of revenue to players directly. The Premier League actually gives over 90% of revenues to player compensation, which is almost assuredly served in part by the massive debt that some of the larger clubs are in.

 

That said, the owners know the MLS - the one league operating under American standards - is also the league where owners get to keep the revenues, so you have to imagine that there's going to be a space where they'll want the SuperLeague to fall in at around the middle ground.

 

To be clear - their intent isn't to replace national leagues - it's to replace the Champions league. UEFA and FIFA have already heavily sanctioned and declared any SuperLeague player ineligible for international competition.

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