European Superleague about to become reality?

[Trotter]

Is this the league that they want to be played on weekends rather than midweek?

I'd love to see a poll showing how many fans would go to these games, pay to watch them on TV, stop watching football altogether, etc.

No, European Premier League they are suggesting is to be played midweek, with the clubs still playing in the Premier League at the weekend (assume they would want more than 25 player squads though, or alternatively use a lot of youth players in Premier League).

Would totally devalue both the Champions League and Premier League though both from a playing and commercial perspective, and those clubs not invited into it would likely have to cut their cloth accordingly.

 

[cliff jones]

I can’t see the fans of the EPL clubs allowing any such thing, in the short to medium term- it’s just another sabre rattle by those who want more European dates to sell globally.

There would be pickets outside and fans going in would be hammered

 

[spurs9]

As I've mentioned on the Project Big Picture thread, the change to the Conference system killed Super Rugby for me. Seeing the domestic sides play each other more, when I already see them play in local tournaments, took the fun out of it. There were no games to look forward to anymore. It was at this point that Newlands started running empty. I even stopped watching Curry Cup rugby. Super Sport started televising games between non professional clubs around SA and I watched one of those games when lazing in front of the telly. It was actually a blast to watch. Since then I only watched those games and Varsity rugby. Way more fun.

I think they changed to that format as it was already dying on NZ and Australian and the format change has made it even less popular.

 

[King of Otters]

Interested to read in The Times today that six English clubs could be included as founding members of a 15 team European Superleague.

It often feels like we've been overlooked in these proposals in the past, so it's good (for Spurs and our reputation, if not the game), to see us included by implication here.

Personally, I'd rather my team be inlcuded in this thing than not. Also, the idea of the biggest clubs completely breaking away from Uefa is pretty fucking funny.


https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/european-super-league-would-have-six-premier-league-teams-each-being-paid-up-to-310m-to-join-63prbtbfl

Founder members of a proposed European Super League would be offered up to £310 million each to join the competition and could earn as much as £213 million a season from it, according to an incendiary document seen by The Times.

Six English clubs would be among the 15 permanent founding members, according to sources with knowledge of the proposals. They also say that Manchester United, Real Madrid and AC Milan are the driving forces behind the plans for a Super League, to replace Uefa’s Champions League.

The 18-page proposal for the Super League says the 15 founding members and five other clubs, who would be decided via qualification each year, would be split into two groups of ten and play between 18 and 23 matches a season. The document adds that the potential revenues would be huge, with clubs having the rights to show some of the matches on their own digital platforms. The clubs would still also play in their domestic leagues.


The emergence of the document has caused extreme concern in the higher echelons of the European game and led Fifa to join Uefa in an agreement today to ban any player or club who joins the breakaway group. However, there is concern that a European court ruling last month could make it easier for unofficial and breakaway competitions to be set up without the approval of a governing body.
The Super League document does not break down the number of clubs from each country, but sources say the plan would be for six from England — presumably the “big six” of Liverpool, the two Manchester clubs, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur — plus three from Spain, three from Italy, from Germany and one from France. The investment bank JP Morgan Chase is in talks to provide financing for the project. Liverpool are understood to have been involved in the talks but Manchester United have been the main driving force from the Premier League.

The Super League proposals include:

The 15 founder clubs sharing an initial €3.5 billion (£3.1 billion) “infrastructure grant” ranging from £310 million to £89 million per club, which can be spent on stadiums, training facilities or “to replace lost stadium-related revenues due to Covid-19”

A projected annual prize fund of more than £2.66 billion, within which the founder clubs earn a minimum of £130 million and a maximum of £213 million a season (compared with a maximum of £100 million from the Champions League)

● Two groups of ten clubs who play home and away, with the top four from each group going through to the two-legged quarter-finals and semi-finals and a one-legged final
● Matches would be in midweek and clubs would still play in their respective domestic leagues
● Clubs would have the rights to show four matches a season on their own digital platforms across the world
● Income from TV and sponsorship would favour the founding clubs: 32.5 per cent of the pot would be shared equally among the 15 clubs, and another 32.5 per cent among all 20
● 20 per cent of the pot would be “merit” money “distributed in the same manner as the Premier League’s merit-based system” according to where clubs finish in the competition or group if they don’t make the knockout stage
● 15 per cent would be a “commercial share based on club awareness”
● 12 clubs would qualify for Fifa’s new Club World Cup
● A cap of 55 per cent of revenues would be imposed on salaries and transfers (net)
● A “Financial Sustainability Group” would monitor clubs’ spending
● Real Madrid and Barcelona would each receive an extra £27 million fee.

Lars-Christer Olsson, president of the European Leagues, which represents domestic leagues including the Premier League, said: “This is a significant threat to European football and would lead to a closed European Super League for a limited number of clubs similar to the franchise models operating in North America.”

Fifa, Uefa and the other five continental confederations have issued a joint statement warning that any player involved in such a league would be blacklisted and banned from tournaments such as the World Cup and European Championship.
The statement also follows a meeting this week between Real Madrid’s president, Florentino Pérez, who has been the driving force behind proposals for a Super League, and his Juventus counterpart, Andrea Agnelli, who is the chairman of the powerful European Club Association (ECA).


The joint statement by the footballing bodies is significant because Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, has signed up to it. Pérez outlined his plans to Infantino in 2019 but he had not categorically opposed a Super League until now. In return, Fifa appears to have won an agreement with Uefa over its new 24-team Club World Cup and will press ahead with the format.

The joint statement said of the proposed Super League: “Such a competition would not be recognised by either Fifa or the respective confederation. Any club or player involved in such a competition would as a consequence not be allowed to participate in any competition organised by Fifa or their respective confederation.

“As per the Fifa and confederations statutes, all competitions should be organised or recognised by the relevant body at their respective level, by Fifa at the global level and by the confederations at the continental level.”

As revealed by The Times, Uefa is planning to shake up the Champions League from 2024, with 32 or 36 clubs in a single division who are drawn to play ten opponents of varying strength based on seeding. The league table would then determine who goes through to the knockout rounds.

Manchester United and Liverpool both declined to comment. United’s executive vice-chairman, Ed Woodward, told a fans’ forum in November that the club were “at the centre of discussions about the future of European club competitions” but that most of his time was spent on strengthening existing Uefa competitions through his position on the ECA.

Key numbers behind plan

20 Teams involved: 15 permanent founder clubs and five qualifiers. The 15 clubs would include England’s “Big Six”, three from Spain, three from Italy, two from Germany and one from France
£3.5bn Start-up fund from sponsorship and broadcast revenue that would be split between the 15 clubs
10 The 20 teams would be split into two groups of ten and would play each other home and away during midweeks, with domestic leagues continuing at weekends
4 The top four in each group qualify for a knockout phase which would include two-legged quarter-finals, semi-finals and a single-leg final

 

[DogsOfWar]

I'd rather see the CL expanded to 6 teams per group with two going through or 8 with 4 going through to the knockout stages.

That would allow more teams to compete in the competition (eg 6 or 8 in the Prem) and the wealth would trickle further down the leagues more rather than this which is the complete opposite.
The 'founding' clubs would have such a financial advantage (which they already have) that the domestic leagues would become pointless.

 

[Dov67]

Think UEFA and FIFA are issuing idle threats TBH.

Mbappe, for example, is not going to leave PSG for a club not in the 15 “founding members clubs” or 5 potential other clubs, just so every 2 years he can play for France in the euros or the world cup.

I think more top players will want to continue playing for Barca, Real Madrid, Bayern etc etc

That threat looks more to be like a something that could kill FIFA and international football rather than something that would kill the threat of a European super league

 

[Dov67]

If this is going to happen then it is better by far that we are in it as opposed to outside looking in.

I don’t like it, hate it in fact, but it does have an inevitability about it

 

[nailsy]

This sounds awful. A single league, but you don't play everyone in the league - what's the point in that? Just have two divisions that you draw at the start of the season. Having permanent teams in this would be awful for domestic competition. The league title would be won by one of the founding teams each season because of their financial advantage with the rest of the teams in the league just playing for a chance of getting the one remaining qualifying spot or to avoid relegation.

 

['O Zio]

Genuine question here, please excuse my ignorance, but don't UEFA and ultimately FIFA have any say over domestic competitions? I thought the FA was part of UEFA who are part of FIFA or whatever. Rather than threatening bans on international competitions could they not say that clubs who do this will be banned from domestic stuff as well?

 

[Goldman]

This concept is like the turd that just won’t flush. Keeps resurfacing in the bowl every year.

 

[tototoner]

 

[slartibartfast]

Can we get a few more threads going discussing the same topic please lol.

 

[hellava_tough]

Interesting, thanks for posting TT.

 

[Danfunkel]

Of course Levy would be all over this. Shocked City haven't joined. Then again without any other fucker, they'd finally win the CL year on year ?

 

[Seafordian Spurs]

Of course Levy would be all over this. Shocked City haven't joined. Then again without any other fucker, they'd finally win the CL year on year ?

They haven't joined.....yet. sure they will.

 

[slartibartfast]

Of course Levy would be all over this. Shocked City haven't joined. Then again without any other fucker, they'd finally win the CL year on year ?

This may be whats happening here, the big clubs flexing their muscles to UEFA that they want guaranteed regular European money. Ditch Europa cup and make CL more expansive with some qualification places available.
I do think its a joke that massive quality teams miss out when they dont get top 4 of an incredibly competitive league like the EPL but then some utter shite from minnow countries get in because they won their tin pot league. That cant be right.
I dont like this idea of a breakaway league or this 10year points qualification shite either though.

 

[SargeantMeatCurtains]

Of course Levy would be all over this. Shocked City haven't joined. Then again without any other fucker, they'd finally win the CL year on year ?

Kane said he would ask to leave if we failed to qualify for the top European competition in club football. Levy is a genius.

 

[VegasII]

This concept is like the turd that just won’t flush. Keeps resurfacing in the bowl every year.

Like our poor form.

 

[slartibartfast]

Like our poor form.

Levy to flush Jose at end of season lol.

 

[spursfan77]

Aren’t they just doing this on the eve of the new CL format to probably force their hand in terms of the finances involved?

It won’t actually happen, it’s a threat.