Champions League restructuring

[ChicagoLion]

Struggling to think who else they could persuade.

I'm terms of the most viable:

Spain: Sevilla have already turned it down

Italy: Roma have denounced it

England: basically everyone has denounced it and the English clubs seem more scared of the backlash than anyone else

Germany: seems a total non-starter

Netherlands: Ajax have denounced it

Portugal: Porto said no

Russia: all balls deep in Gazprom money and they bankroll the Champions League

Is anyone going to be that excited if the best teams from Switzerland and Denmark start getting invited?

It's dead, I reckon.

celtic and rangers

[algy]

Think Man City have realised that their sportswashing plan ain't going to work if they turn out to be the evil ones in that too.  In that sense they can probably afford to renegade on a 23 year contract, whereas for the other 5 English clubs who perhaps are mainly motivated by the money aspect, it'll be a far more bitter pill to swallow.

[cdbearsfan]

Struggling to think who else they could persuade.

I'm terms of the most viable:

Spain: Sevilla have already turned it down

Italy: Roma have denounced it

England: basically everyone has denounced it and the English clubs seem more scared of the backlash than anyone else

Germany: seems a total non-starter

Netherlands: Ajax have denounced it

Portugal: Porto said no

Russia: all balls deep in Gazprom money and they bankroll the Champions League

Is anyone going to be that excited if the best teams from Switzerland and Denmark start getting invited?

It's dead, I reckon.

celtic and rangers

Quite possibly, though I don't think too many from across the North Sea give much of a fuck about them. So, thirteen teams and no relegation then? Neither this year or last year's Champions League Winners?

Could scarcely be more Mickey Mouse if they stick it on the Disney Channel.

[sickbeggar]

The thing that is nagging away at me is whether this is actually over. I don't mean the ESL which was looking threadbare before City and Chelsea abandoned it. I mean a World league. Given their model for the future ( flush the cash from foreign armchairs and daytrippers) I could see them approaching a team in china, south American, north america middle east etc .. and going the full Harlem globetrotters with the remains of the ESL.

[Ad@m]

They won’t get any sort of punishment.

They won't, but I suspect the rules of the Premier League will be changed at the end of the season to make any repeat of anything like this incredibly painful for those involved.

[VILLA MOLE]

i am pleased it looks like it is going to fail .  but i wish they would not pretend that the premiership is all fair and dandy .  The whole distribution of money still needs looking at down the pyramid. 

[cdbearsfan]

i am pleased it looks like it is going to fail .  but i wish they would not pretend that the premiership is all fair and dandy .  The whole distribution of money still needs looking at down the pyramid.

I'm not sure, I reckon we probably have the wealthiest second tier, third tier, fourth tier, fifth tier and sixth tier of any national football structure on the planet.

I'd rather they gave more to communities or to developing leagues in impoverished countries if they want to redistribute cash. Let the money do something good.

Rochdale don't need to be paying players five grand a week any more than Man City need to be paying them a hundred times that.

[Hockley Lion]

I think we need to be careful where we attribute punishment here. I think a lot of credit must go to the real fans of the clubs in question to come out so passionately over this.

The people responsible should be punished for this and their greed not the inocent. I could say there but for the grace of God go I/we. It could have been our club if our owners were the same. Hopefully they are not. The fans of these clubs have stood shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the football family to kill this abomination. I salute them.

Let's just target the blame on the guilty.

[cdbearsfan]

Agreed.

[sickbeggar]

I think we need to be careful where we attribute punishment here. I think a lot of credit must go to the real fans of the clubs in question to come out so passionately over this.

The people responsible should be punished for this and their greed not the inocent. I could say there but for the grace of God go I/we. It could have been our club if our owners were the same. Hopefully they are not. The fans of these clubs have stood shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the football family to kill this abomination. I salute them.

Let's just target the blame on the guilty.

yep. Is it really any different from when the FA dumped on the Football League to form the Premier League except we were the ones doing the dumping? If that had gone pear-shaped should the fans of those clubs have been punished for being totally in the dark about it?

[Goldenballs]

How would you punish the owners? Any fine that would be given would be like loose change to them. A ban from European football would be the only thing that would bother them.

[TonyD]

Struggling to think who else they could persuade.

I'm terms of the most viable:

Spain: Sevilla have already turned it down

Italy: Roma have denounced it

England: basically everyone has denounced it and the English clubs seem more scared of the backlash than anyone else

Germany: seems a total non-starter

Netherlands: Ajax have denounced it

Portugal: Porto said no

Russia: all balls deep in Gazprom money and they bankroll the Champions League

Is anyone going to be that excited if the best teams from Switzerland and Denmark start getting invited?

It's dead, I reckon.

celtic and rangers

Quite possibly, though I don't think too many from across the North Sea give much of a fuck about them. So, thirteen teams and no relegation then? Neither this year or last year's Champions League Winners?

Could scarcely be more Mickey Mouse if they stick it on the Disney Channel.

RB Leipzig/PSG/Lyon/Marseille/Anderlecht/Napoli/Lazio/Olympiakos/Benfica/Sporting Lisbon/Galatasaray/PSV

[Pete3206]

I still like the idea of Man U and 'The Mighty Reds YNWA' playing in the Vanarama

Make it so.

[cdbearsfan]

It's different in that the Premier League was never a closed shop. The 1991/92 First Division had 22 teams of whom the bottom three went down. The 1992/93 Premier League had 22 teams of whom the bottom three went down.

[Behind Bluenose Lines]

Manure, Liverpool & Arsenal release statements dropping out now.