European Super League announced; collapses

[Adam]

I think this story has peaked now.

Headline on Sky: "Man Utd backer criticises club over ESL"

Story: "Nick Train, who manages the UK Equity Fund Lindsell Train, expressed alarm in face-to-face meetings with representatives of the controlling Glazer family as discontent over the proposals rumbles on; Lindsell Train owns 27 per cent of United's New York-listed Class A shares"

I mean...how far removed from what football is supposed to be is this? And this guy is on the "right" side of the story!

We're lost.

[Lineker]

 

[Lineker]

Quote

The six English clubs who attempted to join the European Super League have agreed a settlement with the Premier League that will see them pay an expected £20m between them to grassroots causes. The sum, which is likely to be confirmed by the Premier League on Wednesday, is more than was agreed with Uefa in a similar act of contrition but still amounts to less per club than they would pay an average squad member in a year.

A further condition agreed between the Premier League and the clubs is understood to involve a much bigger fine – estimated to be in the region of £30m per club – and a 30-point deduction should the clubs attempt such a breakaway again. Under the terms of the ESL, the six – Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham – had planned to continue playing in their domestic leagues as well as in the invitation-only competition.

The Premier League has previously announced that it will attempt to close off the possibility of future breakaways by changing the competition’s rules. The size of the punishment doled out to the clubs, however, will be seen as evidence of how dependent the league is on its biggest names for its global success.

Under the terms of the ESL deal, individual “founder” clubs were set to earn £250m simply for signing up to the project. That money would have been in effect loaned by the bank JP Morgan, however, and offset against future TV revenues.

The government’s review of football in England, led by the former sports minister Tracey Crouch MP, is also likely to look at the possibility of stopping future threats to the English football pyramid. The review is expected to come to preliminary conclusions before the Houses of Parliament go into summer recess.

 

[JasonM]

3.5 million for every team involved is honestly an absolute pisstake of a fine.

[Colly]

Yeah but the rest of us should be grateful or something something trickle down nonsense. 

[Adam]

Pathetic, weak and entirely unsurprising.

[gunnar hendershow]

At least the punishment if they try it next time is so harsh that they'd *check notes* have no choice but to actually go through with a breakaway league.

[Lineker]

 

[Gazz]

So, if they leave the league, they get a 30pt deduction either in a league they won't be in the following season, or during a season where they don't give a monkeys about their finishing position. The £25m fine will be worked into the financial package they receive upon entering to.

[The Kraig]

Honestly, the deterrent is a pisstake. The punishment is a slap on the wrist. If a club has a bad season and sells a player for £25m, free entry to ESL here we go. Even then, I'm sure the ESL will cover that and laugh about it. I'm sure they can find a way around the work visa thing as well...by simply playing elsewhere.

[Baddar]

Real Madrid released a statement and basically, their stance hasn't changed. They're still going forward with the idea.

[Colly]

A three team super league is going to be great.

[Lineker]

 

[Baddar]

I'm shocked. 🙄

[gunnar hendershow]

Some rumors today that 10 clubs (the originals minus Arsenal and Spurs) are set to try this shitshow again.

[Lineker]

Just what the world needs right now as it teeters on the brink of war.

[DavidMarrio]

1 hour ago, damhausen said:

Some rumors today that 10 clubs (the originals minus Arsenal and Spurs) are set to try this shitshow again.

Rumours I've saw is basically the Prem clubs are like nope not trying this again

[gunnar hendershow]

1 minute ago, DavidMarrio said:

Rumours I've saw is basically the Prem clubs are like nope not trying this again

There's no way the Prem clubs can ever make it fly. So that tracks. Kroenke and the Glazers were a bit of the masterminds and if they're both dropping out this just feels increasingly desperate by a handful of clubs who are in potentially dire financial straits in the coming years.

[Benjamin]

Is it just Juventus and the Spanish giants that want this still? Or the EPL ones as well? 

[Lineker]

 

 

Quote

A 10-point manifesto for the resuscitation of a European Super League has again united the established powers in football, this time in derision. Described variously as a “twitching corpse”, a dispatch from “an alternative reality” and a wolf with “big eyes and big teeth”, the proposals, which claim to have rectified the issues that brought down the ESL in 2021, have been given short shrift.

That a new plan exists, based on “stakeholder dialogue” with European clubs, is undeniable. It is being driven by A22, a consultancy hired by the Super League company that has three of European sport’s biggest names – Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus – behind it. Whether an act of desperation or the start of a second, less confrontational, campaign in a long war remains to be seen.

The pillars of a reimagined ESL would include a commitment to ‘open competition’ with no guaranteed permanent members. There would also be an expansion from the original 16 elite clubs to 60-80 teams, all still playing in their domestic leagues. A divisional structure would be implemented, meaning promotion and relegation. The ESL would commit to investing in and growing the women’s game and there would be guaranteed €400m annually in solidarity payments to clubs outside the ESL and the grassroots game.

In response, the chief executive of the Football Supporters’ Association, Kevin Miles, was quickest off the mark. “The walking corpse that is the European Super League twitches again with all the self-awareness one associates with a zombie,” he said. “Their newest idea is to have an ‘open competition’ rather than the closed shop they originally proposed that led to huge fan protests. Of course an open competition for Europe’s top clubs already exists – it’s called the Champions League.”

The scorn was soon piled higher by the European Club Association, which represents 245 clubs. In 2021, the ECA’s chairman, Andrea Agnelli of Juventus, was a prime mover behind the ESL. Since the plan collapsed, with Agnelli departing, the ECA has pivoted into closer working relations with Uefa.

“ECA notes the latest dispatch from A22’s alternative reality,” it said. “However, in the real world, this rehashed idea has already been proposed, discussed and comprehensively rejected by all stakeholders in 2019. This is just another deliberately distorted and misleading attempt to destabilise the constructive work currently taking place between football’s real stakeholders to move things forward in the overall best interests of the European club game.”

The president of La Liga, Javier Tebas, an outspoken critic of the Super League despite it being driven by his two biggest teams, compared the proposals to Red Riding Hood. “The Super League is the wolf, who today disguises himself as a granny to try to fool European football,” he tweeted. “But HIS nose and HIS teeth are very big.”

The Premier League kept its counsel. There is no doubt, however, that the financial success of England’s top flight is driving a continued desire to get the ESL off the ground. Numbers circulated by A22 emphasise the disparity in income between Premier League clubs and the rest of Europe; a new competition that – despite its increased numbers and ‘open’ principles – promises the best of European clubs playing each other each week, is seen as the antidote to the Premier League becoming a de facto Super League.

A22 will not say which, if any, clubs support its reformatted concept and rumours circulate of another briefing document continuing to show a place for guaranteed members. Meanwhile, all eyes are on a pending ruling from the European court of justice. If the court decides that any new competition must receive the approval of Uefa if it is to be integrated into the competitive landscape, the Super League may find itself boxed in, however many tweaks it makes to its proposal.