Isn't this just the same as what UEFA proposed a few years back to replace the Champions League? Looks like UEFA have been gazumped by this consortium although its hardly a Super League without Bayern, PSG, Benfica etc.
I will be watching the developments very closely on this proposal as I don’t think that the football authorities have the bottle to expel them from their respective domestic leagues, however it would be a very good day if it did happen.
Be interesting to see how those clubs fans take to it. I can see virtually empty stadiums. The fans on social media are saying they dont want it, and the best way to show dissent is to boycott the games.
They've prob already got deals in place on the TV rights for £billions, they won't care about a few folk in a stadium
There was a similar uproar when the Premier League broke away from the EFL. It still happened. If UEFA/FIFA are offered a few quid each, they'll sanction it.
Im sure i echo the views of many (well i hope) that this just confirms that football is just all about one thing....money. I do hope that fifa, uefa and all the other organisations get together to ban teams and players from playing internationals and domestic footy.
This is happening, the greedy lawyers have now sent their legal representations to fellow greedy lawyers working for UEFA and FIFA. Give it a few weeks and they'll have a few others clubs signed on from struggling top flight leagues. If UEFA and FIFA buckle to this then officially the game is dead. If folk don't watch it or support it the big boys will get the message. However the US, Indian, Middle East and Asian markets will be key audience, not the European one. If real football fans want to take back control they need to petition for the clubs involved to be stripped of any formal standing both nationally and internationally. We'll then see which players are in it for the love of the game (which already pays stupid amounts) and those who are just greedy. Time to reform agents as well who will be involved in this.
The Guardian reporting that they've been told by a Premier League chief executive that he believes the EPL will move to kick the clubs out of domestic competition but that they'll go ahead with it anyway. Wouldn't mind that outcome at all, to be honest. Got a strange feeling that the 12 clubs are overplaying their hand here.
Think the FA /EPL should issue a statement thanking the 6 for being participants in the league and wishing them well in their new endeavour which is incompatible with continued membership. A sort of goodbye and thanks for all the fish
This is the whole point though - and the greedy clubs will capitalise on this. Empty stadiums won't happen. A club may have 40k ST holders, and a waiting list or 'membership scheme' of twice that. A club knows full well that if the 40k ST holders boycotted (as if!!) then the fans on the waiting list will jump in within minutes to buy, and not only buy, but buy at an inflated price.
How have the so called "big 6" managed to appoint themselves? One of them has never won the Premier League, another one has only just won their first. Three of them have never won the European Cup, while another has only won one. Why not get Blackburn, Leicester, Notts Forest and Aston Villa in there?! The amount that this would devalue the Premier League could have disastrous impacts on the EFL as well. How will club's owners, including our own, react to the issue of the Premier League no longer being the pot of gold that it has been?
Remove the clubs from all FIFA/UEFA/FA sanctioned competitions, ban the players and coaches from all FIFA sanctioned competitions, and if possible ban the English clubs from playing competitive football in England. No EPL, Champions League, FA Cup or anything else for the English clubs, and no international games for the players. Promote the top 6 in the Championship, and play-offs between the 3 relegated clubs and 7-10 in the Championship - rinse and repeat further down the pyramid. Personally, I'd expunge their historic record too, but that might be a step too far
European Club Association. Looks after the welfare of all 200+ clubs under UEFA. Juventus have also followed them
Some big boys gentlemen-only club Ian. They are leaving it in order to form a new ........................ big boys gentlemen-only club.
Maybe. It will certainly take a hit in the short term, but it will be interesting to see whether some smaller clubs benefit from a big increase in support. I'm thinking mostly about Salford City immediately, but I could see well-funded 'successor' clubs to the ones that leave working their way up within a few years (whether they be new or adopted by a proportion of fans). The ESL would be midweek only, after all, and with their huge infrastructure the likes of Sky are still going to be wanting to show as much football as before. There might be less money around, but it'll still be plenty.
Some good points in here and this if definitely happening. Some key thoughts. Many of the clubs involved are massively in debt, Barca and Real Madrid in a complete mess, so the lure of billions of euros to expunge that debt in year one is too tempting. Huge amounts of TV rights are generated internationally. The self titled "big 6" believe they drive this commercialism and deserve most of the money. This has been blocked over and over by the PL and they cant get a majority through. The only way to try and generate these huge sums is leave the existing league structure. The new wave of owners from US, Russia and Middle East have no sentiment to football and the integrity of the pyramid. US especially have competitions that have no relegation and can change locations on a whim. Players. Many retire early from internationals to preserve their club careers where they make all their money. What will happen to the perception of the champions league and premier league with 6 of the biggest clubs not representing them and having an alternate league structure potentially rich beyond imagination outcompeting for the best talent and brand names? My overarching feeling is apathy. This started in 1992 through greed. Greed fed more greed. Football became a game for cheats on and off the pitch. Morality and integrity got deposed to a now long lost era. A game with corrupt cartels leeching money from the game while they trod it deeper into the dirt while profiting from its demise are now the ones calling foul. Its rank hypocrisy. anyone who advocated the PL can't now criticise this. It's just a new variant of the same. Football is completely dead. Franchised teams. Multiownership. Financial misappropriation. Corrupt regulators. Deaths of people building stadia in countries with abhorrent human rights records. Losses and debt at eye watering levels. Ever increasing sponsorship and TV rights. Inflation busting pay rises or average players who only operate part time earning more per day than many earn in a year. Diving, timewasting, abusing officials, cheating, play acting. These are the hero's we're asked to worship for the sake of a can of coca cola and a bottle of budweiser. Well I say no. No more. At a time of global pandemic where more than 3 million have died and millions more have had their lives altered forever, i say it's time for change. Not to greed and never ending self indulgence, but instead to fair play. To the spirit of competition and where reward is earned for your efforts and results. Lets start again. And this time, do it fairly.
An old mate of mine who's since passed away used to have a high profile job at Birmingham airport. He was a Villa supporter and, as 'Deadly' Doug Ellis (then Villa's owner) was a frequent flyer, he would take every opportunity to have a natter with Doug. When the Premier League was incepted and just before the Bosman ruling changed the economics of the game Doug confessed that if Villa Park was empty Aston Villa would still turn a profit such was the TV revenue flooding in to the game from Sky TV. 12 months of empty stadiums due to Covid because the football authorities decided that the competition was more than fans in the stadium, we can't upset Sky and BT after all, has set a model for the future competition. TV revenues from Asia and America will more than compensate for the lack of gate receipts.