[Football] FC Barcelona statement on the Super League

[Triggaaar]

Its not "clearly" a lot worse

I disagree with you.

but if you think so - it means the PR divisions of the PL clubs did a good job as you are obviously buying the apology hook, line and sinker.

Bearing in mind that I've stated that I think the apologies are BS, then I don't really see how I'm supposed to be buying them? It's not that I don't think the actions of the 9 clubs are awful, it's simply that a think it's a lot worse from the 3 that are carrying on, trying to make out that they're doing this for the good of football.

Yes, its a need for survival (because they have been greedy and its gone all kinds of wrong).

It's really weird to see someone who appears to follow Brighton (even if it's just because of the manager - I'm not sure what you're position is there) spout such nonsense about 'survival', when actual Brighton fans really know what fighting for survival is. Really fighting for survival is selling every player you can, not paying them more than a couple of hundred million a year in wages. Clubs fighting for survival aren't simultaneously fighting for the title.

 

[Braggfan]

The biggest problem I see with that, is that quite a few of the big clubs will simply cheat. They'll secretly pay money money to players (and their families) etc, from hidden accounts, making it so that the law abiding clubs have no chance to compete.

Yeah I imagine there will be clubs that try to do that. On a smaller scale it sounds similar to what Chesterfield did all those years ago. But i guess there's no way to stop clubs doing that, only throw the book at them if they get caught.

 

[Triggaaar]

Yeah I imagine there will be clubs that try to do that. On a smaller scale it sounds similar to what Chesterfield did all those years ago. But i guess there's no way to stop clubs doing that, only throw the book at them if they get caught.

If those clubs are outside of the PL, who's going to throw any books at them? Are any books being thrown for what just happened?

Let's see what happens to Barca and Madrid now that they're both broke.

 

[Braggfan]

If those clubs are outside of the PL, who's going to throw any books at them? Are any books being thrown for what just happened?

Let's see what happens to Barca and Madrid now that they're both broke.

Well that's quite true, its why we need to look at what options are on the table.

It will certainly be interesting to see what happens to Barca and Real, I would imagine a fair bit of weaseling will be on the cards.

 

[Swansman]

I disagree with you.
Bearing in mind that I've stated that I think the apologies are BS, then I don't really see how I'm supposed to be buying them? It's not that I don't think the actions of the 9 clubs are awful, it's simply that a think it's a lot worse from the 3 that are carrying on, trying to make out that they're doing this for the good of football.

It's really weird to see someone who appears to follow Brighton (even if it's just because of the manager - I'm not sure what you're position is there) spout such nonsense about 'survival', when actual Brighton fans really know what fighting for survival is. Really fighting for survival is selling every player you can, not paying them more than a couple of hundred million a year in wages. Clubs fighting for survival aren't simultaneously fighting for the title.

Bunch of sanctimonious horseshit. Yeah you fought for survival but during any transfer window it takes about two minutes of scrolling this board to realise you've all forgotten about it 99% of the time, the 1% being like now, when you could use it as a bat.

In fact, its pretty ****ing funny when someone from Plucky Island points anywhere else but in their own backyard. "Look at these greedy ****ing spaniards, at least our clubs APOLOGISED!"... haha. There is no other country where clubs, fans and players alike fully accepted and even embraced the monstrous development of football. Cheapest season ticket at Barcelona is at £100, cheapest over at Emirates Stadium £1000. Chepest ticket in Brighton? Dunno, but its more expensive than over in Barcelona or Madrid.

Fighting for survival for Barcelona will be to sell every player they can (like they did last summer, with the exception of LM who pays for himself, and will this summer as well). They dont have a sugardaddy who can pay up when things go bad and they dont have greed so deeply ingrained into their culture that they would be able to extort their fans to pay bizarre money. They need to look elsewhere, and this disgusting Super League was what they considered one of their solutions because due to mismanagement they are in a situation where cost cutting simply isnt enough. Do I approve of their Super League wishes? No, but I understand them.

 

[origigull]

If those clubs are outside of the PL, who's going to throw any books at them? Are any books being thrown for what just happened?

Let's see what happens to Barca and Madrid now that they're both broke.

Didn't the RM owner/president say that he needed the money to pay for Mbappe and Haaland and that's what the fans want to see (I gather its RM fans though) I suppose now they can't afford them. Shame.

 

[Pinkie Brown]

Real and Barce are in desperate denial now that their pipedream is collapsing all around them. Perez comes out with more unhinged & deluded nonsense as each day passes. Footballs equivalent of Sadam's information minister Baghdad Bob.

 

[Triggaaar]

Bunch of sanctimonious horseshit.

Charming. Regardless of your rudeness, you are wrong. I (and many other Brighton fans here) do know what it's like to fight for your clubs survival, a battle we had to fight not because our club had overreached on the pitch, but because of crooked owners who wanted to steal the clubs money.

Yeah you fought for survival but during any transfer window it takes about two minutes of scrolling this board to realise you've all forgotten about it 99% of the time

Again you are wrong. I haven't forgotten, I will never forget.

In fact, its pretty ****ing funny when someone from Plucky Island points anywhere else but in their own backyard. "Look at these greedy ****ing spaniards, at least our clubs APOLOGISED!"... haha.

Plucky island? So you're insulting my country because you think I'm insulting either Spain or Spaniards? You're so wide of the mark. Athletico Madrid pulled out of the deal, and I've not said anything against them. It is the owners of all 12 clubs are to blame and a) I'm not defending the English clubs and b) they're not owned by English people anyway. The owners of Barcelona and Madrid are sticking to the pretense that the ESL is a good idea, and I am against that. And you're trying to turn that into me sticking up for my country and attacking a foreign country. Everything you've said is not only offensive, but completely wrong.

There is no other country where clubs, fans and players alike fully accepted and even embraced the monstrous development of football.

You want to attack England - fine, go ahead. Your dislike of the clubs, players and fans here is nothing to do with me, and nothing to do with my dislike of clubs pursuing a European Super League, which I'm against.

 

[Stat Brother]

Didn't the RM owner/president say that he needed the money the pay for Mbappe and Haaland and that's what the fans want to see (I gather its RM fans though) I suppose now they can't afford them. Shame.

Spanish football God Sid Lowe was (unsurprisingly) talking about this, seems to think it's considerably worse.

He went back to the RM President's initial Super League announcement, the wording of which was pretty stark for Madrid and, by association, Barca fans:-

"Football is ruined".
"If we don't do something football is over".
"FIFA's plan is for 2024 - we'll be dead by 2024".
"Need to live calmly for 20 years".


He also said 'the clubs can't afford to not do this'...



...'well the English clubs probably can'.



Sid believes he wasn't talking about 'football', or the Super League clubs.
He believes those facts can be directly attributed to Madrid and Barca.

 

[jimhigham]

Bunch of sanctimonious horseshit. Yeah you fought for survival but during any transfer window it takes about two minutes of scrolling this board to realise you've all forgotten about it 99% of the time, the 1% being like now, when you could use it as a bat.

In fact, its pretty ****ing funny when someone from Plucky Island points anywhere else but in their own backyard. "Look at these greedy ****ing spaniards, at least our clubs APOLOGISED!"... haha. There is no other country where clubs, fans and players alike fully accepted and even embraced the monstrous development of football. Cheapest season ticket at Barcelona is at £100, cheapest over at Emirates Stadium £1000. Chepest ticket in Brighton? Dunno, but its more expensive than over in Barcelona or Madrid.

Fighting for survival for Barcelona will be to sell every player they can (like they did last summer, with the exception of LM who pays for himself, and will this summer as well). They dont have a sugardaddy who can pay up when things go bad and they dont have greed so deeply ingrained into their culture that they would be able to extort their fans to pay bizarre money. They need to look elsewhere, and this disgusting Super League was what they considered one of their solutions because due to mismanagement they are in a situation where cost cutting simply isnt enough. Do I approve of their Super League wishes? No, but I understand them.

Steady on, Swanny. There’s a sweeping generalisation there (highlighted). Yes, there are many on here banging on about the need for Tony to find another £40 million here or there but there are still some of us that will watch the club at whatever level our finances dictate is feasible. Our past troubles are the filter I view everything else through. I nearly didn’t have a team anymore. Anything else that followed that low point has been a bonus and I don’t want to see any action taken that jeopardises our long term sustainability.

 

[Stat Brother]

Steady on, Swanny. There’s a sweeping generalisation there (highlighted). Yes, there are many on here banging on about the need for Tony to find another £40 million here or there but there are still some of us that will watch the club at whatever level our finances dictate is feasible. Our past troubles are the filter I view everything else through. I nearly didn’t have a team anymore. Anything else that followed that low point has been a bonus and I don’t want to see any action taken that jeopardises our long term sustainability.

There's nothing quite like being told what I know, think, remember, and have forgotten about the Albion, by someone unaware of the clubs existence 5 years ago.

 

[Triggaaar]

Steady on, Swanny. There’s a sweeping generalisation there (highlighted). Yes, there are many on here banging on about the need for Tony to find another £40 million here or there but there are still some of us that will watch the club at whatever level our finances dictate is feasible. Our past troubles are the filter I view everything else through. I nearly didn’t have a team anymore. Anything else that followed that low point has been a bonus and I don’t want to see any action taken that jeopardises our long term sustainability.

Exactly, but he has literally no idea. I started going when we were in division 3 at the Goldstone, and I'd be more than happy to be back there. Like many here, I endured Withdean (and a little of Priestfield), and having our own home again is all I ever wished for. That it's a swanky home, and we're being funded to play in the PL is a bonus, but that was never what I craved or dreamt of, and I certainly didn't demand it. If Tony was only able to fund us to play in League 1 (at the Amex), not only would I be happy, I'd be grateful.

When clubs spend the likes of Madrid and Barcelona, despite not having the income, I find talk of their battle for survival distasteful, but Swanny cries that I'm being nationalistic. Utter nonsense. Like most Brighton fans, I can't stand the big achievers in our country and the obscene money they have. I like proper clubs, and some of those are big old traditional clubs around Europe.

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

They don’t give a shit about any other club apart from themselves. I have always intensely disliked the media/armchair fan love in with Barcelona and Madrid and the simultaneous patronizing attitude towards the less powerful.

 

[BadFish]

Steady on, Swanny. There’s a sweeping generalisation there (highlighted). Yes, there are many on here banging on about the need for Tony to find another £40 million here or there but there are still some of us that will watch the club at whatever level our finances dictate is feasible. Our past troubles are the filter I view everything else through. I nearly didn’t have a team anymore. Anything else that followed that low point has been a bonus and I don’t want to see any action taken that jeopardises our long term sustainability.

Quite right, most of us are thankful that we are now a well run club. I don't want this to change at any point.

 

[carlzeiss]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/s...ED-revealing-clubs-pulling-face-130m-fee.html

European Super League contracts are LEAKED, revealing clubs pulling out face a £130MILLION 'break-up fee' - and haven't left yet, teams would broadcast matches themselves and Real Madrid and Barcelona were to be paid extra £52m more than their rivals

Some details of the European Super League contracts have been leaked online
It reveals that those clubs who have pulled out face a £130million 'break-up fee'
Teams would also be able to broadcast some of their matches themselves
Real Madrid and Barcelona were to be paid extra £52m more than their rivals

 

[Guinness Boy]

Bunch of sanctimonious horseshit. Yeah you fought for survival but during any transfer window it takes about two minutes of scrolling this board to realise you've all forgotten about it 99% of the time, the 1% being like now, when you could use it as a bat.

In fact, its pretty ****ing funny when someone from Plucky Island points anywhere else but in their own backyard. "Look at these greedy ****ing spaniards, at least our clubs APOLOGISED!"... haha. There is no other country where clubs, fans and players alike fully accepted and even embraced the monstrous development of football. Cheapest season ticket at Barcelona is at £100, cheapest over at Emirates Stadium £1000. Chepest ticket in Brighton? Dunno, but its more expensive than over in Barcelona or Madrid.

Fighting for survival for Barcelona will be to sell every player they can (like they did last summer, with the exception of LM who pays for himself, and will this summer as well). They dont have a sugardaddy who can pay up when things go bad and they dont have greed so deeply ingrained into their culture that they would be able to extort their fans to pay bizarre money. They need to look elsewhere, and this disgusting Super League was what they considered one of their solutions because due to mismanagement they are in a situation where cost cutting simply isnt enough. Do I approve of their Super League wishes? No, but I understand them.

You do talk some nonsense sometimes.

Others have already started schooling you on our actual history, which I suggest you learn and learn well if you're going to post on here. But the fact is that our "sugar daddy" budget is in the bottom six in the Premier League. Those on here supportive of Potter - the majority by all polls - see him trying to bring success without the need to throw money round any more than necessary. And those of us in the fence to unconvinced camp point out that, at the moment, our results are commensurate with our budget. Nothing more.

Now go away and ask yourself how and why a club whose cheapest ST is 100 Euros were able to buy Coutinho off Liverpool.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Clearly all about products and projects for Barca high-ups. Tho funnily enough, at grass roots level, their set-up as an all-round sporting club is entirely admirable. Guess it don't pay the rent tho

 

[Swansman]

Charming. Regardless of your rudeness, you are wrong. I (and many other Brighton fans here) do know what it's like to fight for your clubs survival, a battle we had to fight not because our club had overreached on the pitch, but because of crooked owners who wanted to steal the clubs money.

Again you are wrong. I haven't forgotten, I will never forget.

Plucky island? So you're insulting my country because you think I'm insulting either Spain or Spaniards? You're so wide of the mark. Athletico Madrid pulled out of the deal, and I've not said anything against them. It is the owners of all 12 clubs are to blame and a) I'm not defending the English clubs and b) they're not owned by English people anyway. The owners of Barcelona and Madrid are sticking to the pretense that the ESL is a good idea, and I am against that. And you're trying to turn that into me sticking up for my country and attacking a foreign country. Everything you've said is not only offensive, but completely wrong.

You want to attack England - fine, go ahead. Your dislike of the clubs, players and fans here is nothing to do with me, and nothing to do with my dislike of clubs pursuing a European Super League, which I'm against.

And likewise, Barcelona are in ruins because of crooked presidents. Rosell spent two years in pre-trial detention (before getting released, not necessarily because he isnt guilty) because of his dealings while being president. Just a year ago several directors resigned, citing corruption within the club. The investigation against Bartomeu is ongoing. The last ten years the club has been ruled by shady people, to say the least. Crooked is probably a good word. Now Laporta, at least a bit cleaner than the previous two men, are taking over a club in a financial crisis that could result in the end of the club. You are talking about "selling all the players" and "cutting costs". Sure, but the club would still have a massive debt. No one is paying for Barca players. There is no money to be made. They released Suarez, they pretty much gave away Raktiic, they had to make a shit deal with Juve to get rid of Arthur ("we'll take him off your shoulders if you buy Pjanic").

More so, if they sell all their good players, they will be even more in the shit. What do you think their next sponsorship & TV deals & merch sales look like if they ship out Messi & Busquets and bring in Jurgen Locadia and Dale Stephens? Its not as easy as "getting rid of all your players". Brighton could have done that in 1997 - kick out anyone making a single buck, watch the club go down the divisions. Happy days in the Essex Alliance Division 2. But just like Barcelona will never be able to pay off their debt if they sell, give away or kill everyone and everything, Brighton would most likely got a new stadium if HWT was playing instead of Jeff Minton back in 1998, despite the few bucks that would be saved.

Imagine in 1997, someone steps into Dick Knights office and says "hey bro you want to join our Megacool League? Everyone who signs up gets a free stadium and £20m on the bank". What do you think he would have said? Even as you and other groups of fans might have protested it, with Manchester United backing out saying "nah its cool we already got a stadium and £20m in the bank", there is a fair chance that DK - if he had any kind of sense which is what I assume - would have said "but... but... it sounded pretty nice." Barcelona are in the same spot now. Same but different, if you get it. They need it. Dirty, greedy? Perhaps. But its a matter of survival just like it was a matter of survival for you, and its far less offensive that someone in Laportas situation wants this to happen since the owners of Barcelona are socios, people like you and mean, rather than someone who if its really needed just could dig up another couple of millions or billions to keep the shit afloat. Them wanting more is the real greed here, the clubs from the "United" Kingdom were in a far better position to say no from the very beginning.

Exactly, but he has literally no idea. I started going when we were in division 3 at the Goldstone, and I'd be more than happy to be back there. Like many here, I endured Withdean (and a little of Priestfield), and having our own home again is all I ever wished for. That it's a swanky home, and we're being funded to play in the PL is a bonus, but that was never what I craved or dreamt of, and I certainly didn't demand it. If Tony was only able to fund us to play in League 1 (at the Amex), not only would I be happy, I'd be grateful.

When clubs spend the likes of Madrid and Barcelona, despite not having the income, I find talk of their battle for survival distasteful, but Swanny cries that I'm being nationalistic. Utter nonsense. Like most Brighton fans, I can't stand the big achievers in our country and the obscene money they have. I like proper clubs, and some of those are big old traditional clubs around Europe.

Thats good and thats the right perspective to have but its pretty far from some all-encompassing narrative of the fan base. During each xfer window and also in between you hear lots of people - not just a small minority - screaming for more investment. A few (in this case a small minority) even say that TB has taken the club as far as he can and should sell it to someone with more cash money.

You are not nationalistic but you see it from the UK perspective. If the owners, like Abramovich or Sheik Whateverhisnameis says its about "survival" you know its bollocks and easily solved. In Barcelona (and Real, but Perez got very decent connections and unlike the case of Barca the government does not want Real to burn to the ground) the owners are thousands of average Pedros who were ****ed up by two crooked presidents. "Distasteful" or not, the club needs money from somewhere because there is no oligarch who can bail them out.

 

[maffew]

"as well as the need to always act with the utmost transparency, FC Barcelona shall act at all times with due prudence and asks for the utmost understanding, respect and most of all patience among FC Barcelona supporters and public
opinion in general."

Transparency!! WTAF. Who wrote this tosh, its utter garbage nonsensical BS.
Piss off Barca, joke

 

[Triggaaar]

And likewise, Barcelona are in ruins because of crooked presidents.

No, you really don't get it at all. Barcelona and Madrid have been winning La Liga and the Champions League, while our owners sold our ground to themselves and ran off with the money, leaving us with nothing (no money, no ground, no players).

'And likewise'

If you are right, Barcelona's ground will be sold for property development soon, and Barcelona will drop through the leagues. When that happens, I'll come back and say you were right.