European Super League (Indefinitely Suspended)

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European Super League (Indefinitely Suspended) 

Post#1 » by rapstarter » Sun Apr 18, 2021 11:08 pm

https://thesuperleague.com/

Twelve of Europe’s leading football clubs have today come together to announce they have agreed to establish a new mid-week competition, the Super League, governed by its Founding Clubs.

AC Milan, Arsenal FC, Atlético de Madrid, Chelsea FC, FC Barcelona, FC Internazionale Milano, Juventus FC, Liverpool FC, Manchester City, Manchester United, Real Madrid CF and Tottenham Hotspur have all joined as Founding Clubs. It is anticipated that a further three clubs will join ahead of the inaugural season, which is intended to commence as soon as practicable.

Going forward, the Founding Clubs look forward to holding discussions with UEFA and FIFA to work together in partnership to deliver the best outcomes for the new League and for football as a whole.

The formation of the Super League comes at a time when the global pandemic has accelerated the instability in the existing European football economic model. Further, for a number of years, the Founding Clubs have had the objective of improving the quality and intensity of existing European competitions throughout each season, and of creating a format for top clubs and players to compete on a regular basis.

The pandemic has shown that a strategic vision and a sustainable commercial approach are required to enhance value and support for the benefit of the entire European football pyramid. In recent months extensive dialogue has taken place with football stakeholders regarding the future format of European competitions. The Founding Clubs believe the solutions proposed following these talks do not solve fundamental issues, including the need to provide higher-quality matches and additional financial resources for the overall football pyramid.

Competition Format

20 participating clubs with 15 Founding Clubs and a qualifying mechanism for a further five teams to qualify annually based on achievements in the prior season.
Midweek fixtures with all participating clubs continuing to compete in their respective national leagues, preserving the traditional domestic match calendar which remains at the heart of the club game.
An August start with clubs participating in two groups of ten, playing home and away fixtures, with the top three in each group automatically qualifying for the quarter finals. Teams finishing fourth and fifth will then compete in a two-legged play-off for the remaining quarter-final positions. A two-leg knockout format will be used to reach the final at the end of May, which will be staged as a single fixture at a neutral venue.
As soon as practicable after the start of the men’s competition, a corresponding women’s league will also be launched, helping to advance and develop the women’s game.

The new annual tournament will provide significantly greater economic growth and support for European football via a long-term commitment to uncapped solidarity payments which will grow in line with league revenues. These solidarity payments will be substantially higher than those generated by the current European competition and are expected to be in excess of €10 billion during the course of the initial commitment period of the Clubs. In addition, the competition will be built on a sustainable financial foundation with all Founding Clubs signing up to a spending framework. In exchange for their commitment, Founding Clubs will receive an amount of €3.5 billion solely to support their infrastructure investment plans and to offset the impact of the COVID pandemic.

Florentino Pérez, President Real Madrid CF and the first Chairman of the Super League said:

“We will help football at every level and take it to its rightful place in the world. Football is the only global sport in the world with more than four billion fans and our responsibility as big clubs is to respond to their desires.”

Backing the new European league, Andrea Agnelli, Chairman of Juventus and Vice-Chairman of the Super League said:

“Our 12 Founder clubs represent billions of fans across the globe and 99 European trophies. We have come together at this critical moment, enabling European competition to be transformed, putting the game we love on a sustainable footing for the long-term future, substantially increasing solidarity, and giving fans and amateur players a regular flow of headline fixtures that will feed their passion for the game while providing them with engaging role models.”

Joel Glazer, Co-Chairman of Manchester United and Vice-Chairman of the Super League said:

“By bringing together the world’s greatest clubs and players to play each other throughout the season, the Super League will open a new chapter for European football, ensuring world-class competition and facilities, and increased financial support for the wider football pyramid.”


Pivotal moment for football. There's surely more to come, but just a tragic day for the game.
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Re: European Super League? 

Post#2 » by ZoLo » Sun Apr 18, 2021 11:43 pm

rapstarter wrote:
Florentino Pérez, President Real Madrid CF and the first Chairman of the Super League said:

“We will help football at every level and take it to its rightful place in the world. Football is the only global sport in the world with more than four billion fans and our responsibility as big clubs is to respond to their desires.”

Backing the new European league, Andrea Agnelli, Chairman of Juventus and Vice-Chairman of the Super League said:

“Our 12 Founder clubs represent billions of fans across the globe and 99 European trophies. We have come together at this critical moment, enabling European competition to be transformed, putting the game we love on a sustainable footing for the long-term future, substantially increasing solidarity, and giving fans and amateur players a regular flow of headline fixtures that will feed their passion for the game while providing them with engaging role models.”


This couldn´t be more dystopian.

These people have no love for this game at all, they never had.
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Re: European Super League? 

Post#3 » by ImSlower » Mon Apr 19, 2021 1:13 am

Absolutely tragic.

I'm American and don't have an emotional connection to any football clubs, but my many Irish, English, and assorted Europeans are unilaterally devastated and disgusted.
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Re: European Super League? 

Post#4 » by Raps in 4 » Mon Apr 19, 2021 1:54 am

I think it's a great move. European soccer has been a joke forever. We cry about super teams in the NBA, but European soccer's entire history has been dominated by them. At least now they'll be playing each other instead of beating up on minor league-level competition. Sure the random little clubs are going to die out in the process, but the final product is going to be so much more competitive.

I see posters on Reddit mocking the idea of having a draft and a salary cap in this new league (as if that's some sort of bad thing). I feel sorry for my friends and family in Europe who have never watched sports leagues with actual competitive balance. They don't see anything wrong with their favourite teams being nothing more than punching bags for the rich clubs. And for fans of the rich clubs, I always thought it was embarrassing when they would brag about winning a league where their team's payroll is higher than the next 19 team's payrolls combined. Great, your team, with it's All-World roster and €1 billion payroll, showed they can beat up on community centre rec league teams. Now how about they win against actual competition... It's ironic that Americans have to teach Europeans about the benefits of socialism in sport.
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Re: European Super League? 

Post#5 » by wco81 » Mon Apr 19, 2021 6:55 am

Here's another article. Says some of the forces pushing this SL are the American owners of Liverpool, Man U and Arsenal.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/top-european-soccer-clubs-threaten-breakaway-super-league-01618779084?mod=home-page

Their goal is to gross 4 billion Euros or $4.86 billion a year from TV deals. In comparison UEFA has been making about $3.25 billion a year from CL, Europa League and UEFA Super Cup.

FIFA and UEFA have threatened bans of players from national team competitions, domestic leagues and of course law suits.

The goal would be to have 15 founding member clubs, which would always be in the league. 5 more clubs would be promoted in based on domestic league results? But if the domestic leagues won't support the league, why would other clubs which are not founding members, which gives them larger share of SL revenues, participate?

Announcements are one thing but it may not launch any time soon until they sort out the legal deals. If these teams do stop playing CL to be in this SL, they'd not only be risking litigation and sanctions but loss of CL revenues. UEFA isn't likely to let say Man U and Liverpool play in the CL next year say and then leave the following year. If those and other clubs planned to leave, they might just be banned from at least the last year of getting that CL money.
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Re: European Super League? 

Post#6 » by HIF » Mon Apr 19, 2021 7:36 am

Greedy selfish rich people.

Personally I hope they go and set up a completely separate league (they don't want to do that of course because they want to dictate to national and international leagues about the sport as well as take their own billions). It would be bad for football in the short term but if anyone taking part has a ban on playing in the "real" football world including national teams their league would fall apart after a few years and the rest of European football would find it's feet again with perhaps a new humility.

It'll be interesting to see if the players in these so called "big" teams are for it or against it. If they say no, you need to sell me to a team outside the league or release me then this isn't going to happen. Will Rashford stick up for the grass roots football in England or look after his pogba like pockets?

I haven't liked the way that FIFA and UEFA have been moving the game in order to satisfy the financial demands of the few, hopefully they'll stop doing that now but I doubt it. At the moment it would be the English, Spanish and Italian leagues affected the most and particularly the lower divisions in England but maybe that will just bring more balance with other European leagues like Belgium, Holland and Portugal.

Those countries with no historical attachment to football, so maybe the new US kids, the Chinese and other Asian markets will happily accept and support the new league in which case it'll thrive financially but to be honest they don't understand that football was created as the sport of the people and made to be a sport of equality and merit.I love the draft system, salary caps and some other parts of the US sports system but that is not what football is about. It is not about a closed shop. It is about teams having dreams of moving from non-league to professional to Europe and it happens. I won't watch any matches in the super league if it happens and I'll be happy to watch little Leicester playing in the little English league (though maybe we can use this as a catalyst for a British league) just as I was happy to watch them play in the second and third division in England though sad that they won't be able to take on the giants in the FA Cup.
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Re: European Super League? 

Post#7 » by Speadge » Mon Apr 19, 2021 8:55 am

Raps in 4 wrote:I think it's a great move. European soccer has been a joke forever. We cry about super teams in the NBA, but European soccer's entire history has been dominated by them. At least now they'll be playing each other instead of beating up on minor league-level competition. Sure the random little clubs are going to die out in the process, but the final product is going to be so much more competitive.

I see posters on Reddit mocking the idea of having a draft and a salary cap in this new league (as if that's some sort of bad thing). I feel sorry for my friends and family in Europe who have never watched sports leagues with actual competitive balance. They don't see anything wrong with their favourite teams being nothing more than punching bags for the rich clubs. And for fans of the rich clubs, I always thought it was embarrassing when they would brag about winning a league where their team's payroll is higher than the next 19 team's payrolls combined. Great, your team, with it's All-World roster and €1 billion payroll, showed they can beat up on community centre rec league teams. Now how about they win against actual competition... It's ironic that Americans have to teach Europeans about the benefits of socialism in sport.


Imho. you have no clue what you're talking about and what this decisions brings.
You're aware that UEFA's income take care with financing everything soccer related in Europe including smallest local clubs, soccer schools, etc ...
This decicion can hurt whole soccer perspective in general. It's beyond my understanding how someone can consider this as great move for soccer in general.
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Re: European Super League? 

Post#8 » by HIF » Mon Apr 19, 2021 8:57 am

Speadge wrote:
Raps in 4 wrote:I think it's a great move. European soccer has been a joke forever. We cry about super teams in the NBA, but European soccer's entire history has been dominated by them. At least now they'll be playing each other instead of beating up on minor league-level competition. Sure the random little clubs are going to die out in the process, but the final product is going to be so much more competitive.

I see posters on Reddit mocking the idea of having a draft and a salary cap in this new league (as if that's some sort of bad thing). I feel sorry for my friends and family in Europe who have never watched sports leagues with actual competitive balance. They don't see anything wrong with their favourite teams being nothing more than punching bags for the rich clubs. And for fans of the rich clubs, I always thought it was embarrassing when they would brag about winning a league where their team's payroll is higher than the next 19 team's payrolls combined. Great, your team, with it's All-World roster and €1 billion payroll, showed they can beat up on community centre rec league teams. Now how about they win against actual competition... It's ironic that Americans have to teach Europeans about the benefits of socialism in sport.


Imho. you have no clue what you're talking about and what this decisions brings.
You're aware that UEFA's income take care with financing everything soccer related in Europe including smallest local clubs, football schools, etc ...
This decicion can hurt whole soccer perspective in general. It's beyond my understanding how someone can consider this as good.


It's because they don't understand how traditional European sport works.
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Re: European Super League? 

Post#9 » by Foye » Mon Apr 19, 2021 9:09 am

Bayern and Dortmund refused? They should ask Schalke to take part in this.

They would surely agree at the moment. :lol:
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Re: European Super League? 

Post#10 » by Inspektor1312 » Mon Apr 19, 2021 9:27 am

Awful news for the sport. Hopefully UEFA and FIFA will somehow stop this, but I'm afraid that money will win at the end, one way or another.
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Re: European Super League? 

Post#11 » by HIF » Mon Apr 19, 2021 10:12 am

UEFA will end up giving them more and more through adaptations to the CL which is already taking up too much time during a season.
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Re: European Super League? 

Post#12 » by brutalitops » Mon Apr 19, 2021 11:02 am

Raps in 4 wrote:I think it's a great move. European soccer has been a joke forever. We cry about super teams in the NBA, but European soccer's entire history has been dominated by them. At least now they'll be playing each other instead of beating up on minor league-level competition. Sure the random little clubs are going to die out in the process, but the final product is going to be so much more competitive.

I see posters on Reddit mocking the idea of having a draft and a salary cap in this new league (as if that's some sort of bad thing). I feel sorry for my friends and family in Europe who have never watched sports leagues with actual competitive balance. They don't see anything wrong with their favourite teams being nothing more than punching bags for the rich clubs. And for fans of the rich clubs, I always thought it was embarrassing when they would brag about winning a league where their team's payroll is higher than the next 19 team's payrolls combined. Great, your team, with it's All-World roster and €1 billion payroll, showed they can beat up on community centre rec league teams. Now how about they win against actual competition... It's ironic that Americans have to teach Europeans about the benefits of socialism in sport.

Imagine believing this and having Arsenal in the league. Absolute joke of an opinion
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Re: European Super League? 

Post#13 » by HIF » Mon Apr 19, 2021 12:33 pm

brutalitops wrote:
Raps in 4 wrote:I think it's a great move. European soccer has been a joke forever. We cry about super teams in the NBA, but European soccer's entire history has been dominated by them. At least now they'll be playing each other instead of beating up on minor league-level competition. Sure the random little clubs are going to die out in the process, but the final product is going to be so much more competitive.

I see posters on Reddit mocking the idea of having a draft and a salary cap in this new league (as if that's some sort of bad thing). I feel sorry for my friends and family in Europe who have never watched sports leagues with actual competitive balance. They don't see anything wrong with their favourite teams being nothing more than punching bags for the rich clubs. And for fans of the rich clubs, I always thought it was embarrassing when they would brag about winning a league where their team's payroll is higher than the next 19 team's payrolls combined. Great, your team, with it's All-World roster and €1 billion payroll, showed they can beat up on community centre rec league teams. Now how about they win against actual competition... It's ironic that Americans have to teach Europeans about the benefits of socialism in sport.

Imagine believing this and having Arsenal in the league. Absolute joke of an opinion


Spurs haven't won a title for longer than I've been alive, and that's a long time.
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Re: European Super League? 

Post#14 » by brutalitops » Mon Apr 19, 2021 1:18 pm

HIF wrote:
brutalitops wrote:
Raps in 4 wrote:I think it's a great move. European soccer has been a joke forever. We cry about super teams in the NBA, but European soccer's entire history has been dominated by them. At least now they'll be playing each other instead of beating up on minor league-level competition. Sure the random little clubs are going to die out in the process, but the final product is going to be so much more competitive.

I see posters on Reddit mocking the idea of having a draft and a salary cap in this new league (as if that's some sort of bad thing). I feel sorry for my friends and family in Europe who have never watched sports leagues with actual competitive balance. They don't see anything wrong with their favourite teams being nothing more than punching bags for the rich clubs. And for fans of the rich clubs, I always thought it was embarrassing when they would brag about winning a league where their team's payroll is higher than the next 19 team's payrolls combined. Great, your team, with it's All-World roster and €1 billion payroll, showed they can beat up on community centre rec league teams. Now how about they win against actual competition... It's ironic that Americans have to teach Europeans about the benefits of socialism in sport.

Imagine believing this and having Arsenal in the league. Absolute joke of an opinion


Spurs haven't won a title for longer than I've been alive, and that's a long time.

Agree, It sounds like a bunch of rich clubs are joining together just bankroll themselves and exclude teams on Merit.
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Re: European Super League? 

Post#15 » by Cactus Jack » Mon Apr 19, 2021 2:38 pm

HIF wrote:
Speadge wrote:
Raps in 4 wrote:I think it's a great move. European soccer has been a joke forever. We cry about super teams in the NBA, but European soccer's entire history has been dominated by them. At least now they'll be playing each other instead of beating up on minor league-level competition. Sure the random little clubs are going to die out in the process, but the final product is going to be so much more competitive.

I see posters on Reddit mocking the idea of having a draft and a salary cap in this new league (as if that's some sort of bad thing). I feel sorry for my friends and family in Europe who have never watched sports leagues with actual competitive balance. They don't see anything wrong with their favourite teams being nothing more than punching bags for the rich clubs. And for fans of the rich clubs, I always thought it was embarrassing when they would brag about winning a league where their team's payroll is higher than the next 19 team's payrolls combined. Great, your team, with it's All-World roster and €1 billion payroll, showed they can beat up on community centre rec league teams. Now how about they win against actual competition... It's ironic that Americans have to teach Europeans about the benefits of socialism in sport.


Imho. you have no clue what you're talking about and what this decisions brings.
You're aware that UEFA's income take care with financing everything soccer related in Europe including smallest local clubs, football schools, etc ...
This decicion can hurt whole soccer perspective in general. It's beyond my understanding how someone can consider this as good.


It's because they don't understand how traditional European sport works.

It doesn't benefit fans of smaller clubs (Rich get richer).

But as someone who supports Liverpool in America, I don't really have an issue with it. I'm all for it. Selfishly, I love the idea of it. Have for a while now. It just feels right.


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Re: European Super League? 

Post#16 » by Raps in 4 » Mon Apr 19, 2021 3:11 pm

HIF wrote:Those countries with no historical attachment to football, so maybe the new US kids, the Chinese and other Asian markets will happily accept and support the new league in which case it'll thrive financially but to be honest they don't understand that football was created as the sport of the people and made to be a sport of equality and merit.I love the draft system, salary caps and some other parts of the US sports system but that is not what football is about. It is not about a closed shop. It is about teams having dreams of moving from non-league to professional to Europe and it happens.


That's the exact opposite of what football is now and what it has been for decades.

Chelsea and City became perennial contenders because they were purchased by Russian and Emirati billionaires, respectively. Where is the "merit" in that? They didn't earn ****. They bought their way to contention, as that is the only path to contention in European club football. You live in France, you can tell me about how "meritocratic" PSG and Monaco's rise to the top was. ;)

Since 1992, the EPL has been won by a non-big market club twice... This isn't a sport "of the people". It's a sport of the rich.

My view is if the core is already this rotten, you might as well let it die and become something new.

Speaking of equality and merit, let's look at how many different teams have won American leagues since 1992:

NBA: 11
NFL: 15
MLB: 16
NHL: 15

Literally half the teams in these leagues have won titles in that span. It doesn't matter how rich their owners are because there are rules in place to keep rich clubs from outspending the poor (or in the case of MLB, rules that allow the poor to keep pace with the rich). If the European football federations were serious about maintaining "equality" and ensuring clubs rise to the top based on "merit" they would have had checks and balances in place to limit the powers of the rich clubs. But that was never the case. They were happy to ride the fat, rich dicks of the billionaire owners. Now that these owners want to leave them out to dry, they cry foul. They made this bed. Now they can sleep in it. They never cared about the small clubs, and never will.

I think football fans hold onto this romanticized illusion of what the sport was 100 years and don't see that it hasn't been that for decades.
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Re: European Super League? 

Post#17 » by The_Brecht » Mon Apr 19, 2021 3:20 pm

Well, it's just billionaires fighting with billionaires about money.
The game's been gone for some time, so this was to be expected.

FIFA and UEFA creating new cups (Conference League, Nations League), extending existing tournaments (Euros, World cup for clubs, ...) has been a pain in the *** for the bigger clubs and they've had little to no input.
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Re: European Super League? 

Post#18 » by Andi Obst » Mon Apr 19, 2021 3:26 pm

Foye wrote:Bayern and Dortmund refused? They should ask Schalke to take part in this.

They would surely agree at the moment. :lol:


Oh I think I know a German team that would be more desperate for the attention...
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Re: European Super League? 

Post#19 » by Foye » Mon Apr 19, 2021 3:39 pm

Little Nathan wrote:
Foye wrote:Bayern and Dortmund refused? They should ask Schalke to take part in this.

They would surely agree at the moment. :lol:


Oh I think I know a German team that would be more desperate for the attention...


Hamburg?

or

Hertha? :lol:
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Re: European Super League? 

Post#20 » by Andi Obst » Mon Apr 19, 2021 3:50 pm

Foye wrote:Hamburg?

or

Hertha? :lol:


The one that has Lars Windhorst trying to build the BIG CITY CLUB.
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