[Albion] Who will lead the EPL fightback against the Super League?

[Jolly Red Giant]

But the premier league is only the main draw because it is where the world's biggest English teams play. Sky/BT pay a premium because it gives them access to Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelsea, Man City. If they spend £10Bs to get the rights for those teams with the ESL, they've got their main draw right there. A premier league full of #teamslike Burnley, Brighton, Barnsley, Fulham, Norwich are not going to draw another £10Bs deal just because it's the biggest domestic league.

It's naive to think sky and BT are paying for it simply because it's the top division. There's a reason for the bias towards the big six in their coverage - it's what the audience want, that is where their audience interest lay. Those of us who want to see more coverage of our own teams are in the minority.

I agree - and it could potentially rebalance the entire league system. Sky's money set in the rot 25 years ago - this Super League is the culmination of that rotting corpse. the 'Financial Fair Play' stuff is a joke.

I grew up in an era when a dozen teams had a chance to win the league and there was pretty much a different winner every year - when the FA Cup and the League Cup were big competitions. The year the PL was established players were getting paid £5K a week and full-time players in the Conference were getting paid £200 a week - now a PL player can get £500K a week - but the guys at the bottom are still getting money in the £200s range. £5million would buy you a superstar in 1992, now you need £150m at a minimum.

Hopefully the TV money results in shifting the emphasis of clubs off TV and back to the fans in the stands - hopefully it results in a better distribution of the finances throughout the leagues to level the playing pitch a bit - hopefully it sees the end of the mad transfer fees and wages.

Then again - that may all be a bit of wishful thinking.

 

[Jolly Red Giant]

Betis have already updated the La Liga table on their website to exclude Real, Barca and Atletico.

Saw that - and there are demands now that the super league clubs get kicked out of the CL semis with Dortmund replacing Man City, Porto replacing Chelsea and Atalanta and Leipzig playing off for the remaining SF spot.

 

[Bry Nylon]

Govnt just said they will 'stop at nothing' to prevent this.

Hopefully they will revoke / void stadium certification required to host PL games for the 6 English clubs.

 

[severnside gull]

I wonder who will break the current situation and vote with the “Big Bollox 6” after accepting a super league invite? My money is on Leeds

 

[Randy McNob]

Govnt just said they will 'stop at nothing' to prevent this.

Hopefully they will revoke / void stadium certification required to host PL games for the 6 English clubs.

....just sayin'.........

 

[Gwylan]

Govnt just said they will 'stop at nothing' to prevent this.

Hopefully they will revoke / void stadium certification required to host PL games for the 6 English clubs.

The simplest thing would be for the Chancellor to announce a windfall tax of £300m a year for any club playing in the Super League. That would have massive support in the country and cross-party support in Parliament. It would cost virtually nothing to implement and would be a decent boost in revenue.

As I said earlier, words are one thing, I'm not holding my breath that the government actually does something (but I'll certainly applaud them if they did)

 

[Husty]

So... Paul Barber - the man with an opinion on everything (TM) keeping his mouth shut on this then? Always been obvious he's the kind of greedy suit who'd love to be involved in this kind of thing. I imagine he's spent the day touching up his CV in-between feverishly tugging himself off at the potential to get his about in the trough.

 

[vagabond]

So... Paul Barber - the man with an opinion on everything (TM) keeping his mouth shut on this then? Always been obvious he's the kind of greedy suit who'd love to be involved in this kind of thing. I imagine he's spent the day touching up his CV in-between feverishly tugging himself off at the potential to get his about in the trough.

That’s a bit of an unpleasant thing to say about Paul Barber. Seems a good bloke to me. I’m quite happy to have him fighting our corner in PL meetings.

He’s not a talk show host, it’s not his job to come online and give his hot take to you or whoever on the latest developments. I’m sure there’s undoubtedly been internal discussions in most clubs today. There’s a meeting tomorrow with all the non 6 PL clubs, it’d be stupid to say anything hasty until afterwards. I expect there’ll be an update from Paul and other CEOs based on the outcome of that.

 

[Swansman]

Govnt just said they will 'stop at nothing' to prevent this.

Hopefully they will revoke / void stadium certification required to host PL games for the 6 English clubs.

....just sayin'.........

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I remember discussing RB Leipzig here a year ago or so, with pretty much everyone defending their ways of circumventing the 51% rule because it means they could compete with Bayern. My argument that German (and Swedish) fans wants the fans to be in control of the football clubs were seen as not important whatsoever, the only thing that meant something is that Leipzig could get rich enough to challenge Bayern. Guessing this ESL thing might change the opinions of a few of those who found the whole 51% rule silly and dumb.

So... Paul Barber - the man with an opinion on everything (TM) keeping his mouth shut on this then? Always been obvious he's the kind of greedy suit who'd love to be involved in this kind of thing. I imagine he's spent the day touching up his CV in-between feverishly tugging himself off at the potential to get his about in the trough.

No, but perhaps he is not suffering from a severe ADHD-tourettes, meaning it could take several days (!!!) to think of a decent and well-grounded response to possibly the largest event in modern football.

 

[el punal]

That’s his initial summary. When do you think he’ll post his full response?

Ask him.

 

[el punal]

No principles in football. Have not heard a word from any of Managers of the clubs involved.. Whatever Paul Barber says he would be off like a shot if offered CE job of new league

Really?

 

[dazzer6666]

So... Paul Barber - the man with an opinion on everything (TM) keeping his mouth shut on this then? Always been obvious he's the kind of greedy suit who'd love to be involved in this kind of thing. I imagine he's spent the day touching up his CV in-between feverishly tugging himself off at the potential to get his about in the trough.

More likely he’s been on calls about this all day, and has agreed with counterparts at the other 13 clubs to wait until they have the planned meeting tomorrow and issue a coordinated and agreed statement- it’s 100% imperative the clubs are together on this so individual CEOs spouting off now would be unhelpful at best.

That doesn’t suit your agenda though........

 

[dazzer6666]

Leeds fans already on it

https://twitter.com/jamespearcelfc/status/1384198296277700621?s=21

 

[boik]

So... Paul Barber - the man with an opinion on everything (TM) keeping his mouth shut on this then? Always been obvious he's the kind of greedy suit who'd love to be involved in this kind of thing. I imagine he's spent the day touching up his CV in-between feverishly tugging himself off at the potential to get his about in the trough.

Wow. You're an unpleasant chappie aren't you. Getting close to libelous possibly.

 

[Swansman]

Leeds fans already on it

https://twitter.com/jamespearcelfc/status/1384198296277700621?s=21

[tweet]1384209782282747915[/tweet]

 

[el punal]

I get what you mean, but this is American businessmen trying to recreate a lucrative American sports model. I would say that 99.9% of non-US consumers of US sports do not follow teams outside of NFL, NBA or MLB. In fact, I'd suggest 99% couldn't name a team in each of the 3 sports who aren't in one of those leagues. This will be a franchise model where teams who, may previously have been English or Italian, will relocate not just to another city (Mk Dons) but to another country because the local connection will be broken and a stadium filled with whoever lives in the new city - not that 100k attending a game mean anything against the 100m watching on TV.

I think this is the reset and I think it will eat itself, but I can see where its heading in the meantime and it isn't based on 100+ years of English footballing history with close ties to the local population and culture. The Boston Manchester Uniteds here we come.

Welcome to South East Asia folks! Home to Manchuria United, Kuala Lumpudlians, Ho Chi Man City, Singapore Spursy, Hue The Gooners, Saigon Bluesheds.

Go on, eat your f***ing heart out!

 

[vagabond]

]

What’s the response to all this like in Sweden, Swanny?

 

[Hugo Rune]

Leeds fans already on it

https://twitter.com/jamespearcelfc/status/1384198296277700621?s=21

Very impressive.

However, if this story is still live and running come the 15th May at the Amex, that display will look like Swampy greasing his dreds up a tree compared with what the world will see unfold in Brighton.

 

[Weststander]

I think we all know the answer.

I’m looking forward to Mr Barber’s views on the break-away proposal.

Turns out it was Steve Parish!

 

[Swansman]

What’s the response to all this like in Sweden, Swanny?

For Swedish clubs it doesnt matter a lot... rarely any team qualifies for the CL (AIK once, Helsingborg once, Malmö a couple of times) and none of them would ever get invited to the ESL even if it expanded significantly. And the members of the clubs would downvote any suggestion to join, just like they recently downvoted the idea of bringing VAR to Allsvenskan.

People supporting English/Italian clubs generally look at this with disgust, while the Madrid/Barca fans are more open about it for whatever reason.