Champions League restructuring

[Nev]

Screaming hypocrisy abounds with those capitalists and free market thinkers who suddenly think that capitalism and the free market should be restricted. Populist nonsense from people who have bought us to this in the first place.
Reminiscent of the massive volte face after the World Cup in 1990.
Tories and football? No fuckin' thanks.

[SamTheMouse]

Screaming hypocrisy abounds with those capitalists and free market thinkers who suddenly think that capitalism and the free market should be restricted. Populist nonsense from people who have bought us to this in the first place.
Reminiscent of the massive volte face after the World Cup in 1990.
Tories and football? No fuckin' thanks.

The point is that this isn't the free market. What you have here is a cartel, which is very much the antithesis of the competition that free markets are all about.

[Baldy]

That interview with Florentino Perez was characteristically illuminating. 'Football is about the big clubs playing each other', 'how dare Ceferin insult the president of a great club like Juventus', all this shit. Just a reminder of the absolute, illimitable, Francoist entitlement behind all this.

Bear in mind Perez also said "The young people want this?"
What people?
How young?
Where are they?

Bollocks.

Football is about being competitive and risk of jeopardy.  What a lying prick.   

I kind of see what he is getting at.

I think there is a huge swathe of people (saddos) in the world who have never kicked a ball, never been part of a football crowd, never experienced the feelings associated with attending a match with that ball of nerves in the pit of your stomach, making you feel sick.
Never experienced the elation of winning a big game or the utter misery of a defeat.

BUT, they play FIFA or other football related computer games.
They know all the players from the ‘big clubs’ because they are in ‘their’ virtual teams.
They know all the stats of the top players because they study them like a high level game of Top Trumps.

Those are the people being targeted by the new league.
Most of the people who will pay to watch those super league games will never attend a game. They will never have attended one.

This new league wants ‘virtual’ fans watching a ‘ virtual PRODUCT’ but paying real money for the experience.

Excellent post andyh. Frightening but accurate. The ESL logic in a nutshell.

[Clive W]

Screaming hypocrisy abounds with those capitalists and free market thinkers who suddenly think that capitalism and the free market should be restricted. Populist nonsense from people who have bought us to this in the first place.
Reminiscent of the massive volte face after the World Cup in 1990.
Tories and football? No fuckin' thanks.

The point is that this isn't the free market. What you have here is a cartel, which is very much the antithesis of the competition that free markets are all about.

Good point but where does a free market end and a cartel begin?

Are supermarkets a cartel? There are for the sake of argument ten major players accounting for 90% of the business with corner shops making up the rest

[Hockley Lion]

Found this on BBC

BBC News - Why Super League plan makes financial sense for top clubs
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56800611

The promise of trickle down is utter bollocks. They're all too much in debt. Let them go and take their debt with them. Ban all of them from everything. The player's will leave when their wages can't be paid.

Fans should boycott anything to do with this Super Greed League. Clubs involved, TV, Advertisers Investers, the lot.

Clubs owed outstanding transfer fees should call in their debts to increase financial pressure on them..

They'd become untouchable and consequently income would dry up. They'd have to move to Asia to make ends meet, like the Circus they will become.

They're not big rich clubs really. It's all built on runaway debt. Without these clubs there would be a more even playing field with better financial control.

FFP is impossible with these levels debt and exceptions are made for them and their profligacy.

Fans also need to take back their clubs.

Utv, long live football.

[Axl Rose]

That interview with Florentino Perez was characteristically illuminating. 'Football is about the big clubs playing each other', 'how dare Ceferin insult the president of a great club like Juventus', all this shit. Just a reminder of the absolute, illimitable, Francoist entitlement behind all this.

Bear in mind Perez also said "The young people want this?"
What people?
How young?
Where are they?

Bollocks.

Football is about being competitive and risk of jeopardy.  What a lying prick.   

I kind of see what he is getting at.

I think there is a huge swathe of people (saddos) in the world who have never kicked a ball, never been part of a football crowd, never experienced the feelings associated with attending a match with that ball of nerves in the pit of your stomach, making you feel sick.
Never experienced the elation of winning a big game or the utter misery of a defeat.

BUT, they play FIFA or other football related computer games.
They know all the players from the ‘big clubs’ because they are in ‘their’ virtual teams.
They know all the stats of the top players because they study them like a high level game of Top Trumps.

Those are the people being targeted by the new league.
Most of the people who will pay to watch those super league games will never attend a game. They will never have attended one.

This new league wants ‘virtual’ fans watching a ‘ virtual PRODUCT’ but paying real money for the experience.

Excellent post andyh. Frightening but accurate. The ESL logic in a nutshell.

Yes, Andy, mate. You've hit the nail on the head there.

[Hockley Lion]

Screaming hypocrisy abounds with those capitalists and free market thinkers who suddenly think that capitalism and the free market should be restricted. Populist nonsense from people who have bought us to this in the first place.
Reminiscent of the massive volte face after the World Cup in 1990.
Tories and football? No fuckin' thanks.

The point is that this isn't the free market. What you have here is a cartel, which is very much the antithesis of the competition that free markets are all about.

Good point but where does a free market end and a cartel begin?

Are supermarkets a cartel? There are for the sake of argument ten major players accounting for 90% of the business with corner shops making up the rest

I think Nev is saying just that. It's utter hypocrisy coming from people who claim they believe in a free market.

[darren woolley]

Everton response is majestic.

https://www.evertonfc.com/news/2111866

Great response by Everton.

[Toronto Villa]

It's always hilarious when these people try and act like football has a popularity problem. It's insane.

He was pointing to all the empty stadiums for the past year.

[Clive W]

That interview with Florentino Perez was characteristically illuminating. 'Football is about the big clubs playing each other', 'how dare Ceferin insult the president of a great club like Juventus', all this shit. Just a reminder of the absolute, illimitable, Francoist entitlement behind all this.

Bear in mind Perez also said "The young people want this?"
What people?
How young?
Where are they?

Bollocks.

Football is about being competitive and risk of jeopardy.  What a lying prick.   

I kind of see what he is getting at.

I think there is a huge swathe of people (saddos) in the world who have never kicked a ball, never been part of a football crowd, never experienced the feelings associated with attending a match with that ball of nerves in the pit of your stomach, making you feel sick.
Never experienced the elation of winning a big game or the utter misery of a defeat.

BUT, they play FIFA or other football related computer games.
They know all the players from the ‘big clubs’ because they are in ‘their’ virtual teams.
They know all the stats of the top players because they study them like a high level game of Top Trumps.

Those are the people being targeted by the new league.
Most of the people who will pay to watch those super league games will never attend a game. They will never have attended one.

This new league wants ‘virtual’ fans watching a ‘ virtual PRODUCT’ but paying real money for the experience.

Excellent post andyh. Frightening but accurate. The ESL logic in a nutshell.

Yes, Andy, mate. You've hit the nail on the head there.

And I think this last paragraph confirms Andy’s excellent post

Anas Laghrari, the Secretary General of the Super League, has threatened that the tournament could start as early as September 2021, if an agreement can be reached with Uefa.

Laghrari said: "The Super League has prepared for this, threats of exclusion are not legal. The timeline could accelerate. If an agreement is reached with UEFA, the competition could start as early as September 2021."

When asked what the justification for the League was, he added: "The younger generations are less interested in football. They only tune in for the big matches."[/b]

So can we all agree now that WHU v Villa, Everton v Bournemouth and Arsenal v Watford on the last day of last season were not “big matches”?

I notice they’ve already given themselves fancy titles. They’ve already got presidents, chairmen, vice chairmen, CEOs and now a Secretary General

[cdbearsfan]

I'm sure Real Madrid fans will be delighted to know that five out of their first six European Cup Finals were not "big matches" because they weren't playing Twatty Twelve teams.

[Vegas]

I’m not sure it’s really a simple case of free markets/ Tory hypocrisy (and I say this as a Labour member and voter). Any philosophy, left or right, has elements of private business and public provision, and elements of government regulation.

I think it’s recognition that due to the passion and loyalty of real (legacy!?) football fans, people can’t just switch “suppliers” like they would in a normal market if they didn’t like what was happening. It’s just calling for a special recognition for the unique characteristics of football. I don’t like the Tories at all, but I hope they intervene here, would respect them more for doing so, and wouldn’t see it as hypocrisy.

[Monty]

Hard to emphasise how much worse Juve are than anything you can imagine from Man Utd or Liverpool. Their fans are super in favour (Milan moderately, Inter are pretty divided to be fair), and when Agnelli was told at a Serie A meeting today that the extra money would let them win the league every year he just replied 'same as the last 80 years then'. Cue insults.

It's difficult to express. If you meet someone in Verona, say, or Florence, who calls themselves a Juve fan with no other connection to Piedmont, you know everything about them already. Starfuckers, modernity-hogs, boring-as-hell macho lads who wear the same puffer jackets and white trainers and boring slick haircuts with no dreams, no imagination, and who think racism in football is 'blown out of proportion', whose ideal holiday destination is Dubai and who, once there, will eat nothing but whatever Italian food they can find and splatter it all over Instagram. As my girlfriend's mum would call them 'cani senza patria'.

[dave.woodhall]

Hard to emphasise how much worse Juve are than anything you can imagine from Man Utd or Liverpool. Their fans are super in favour (Milan moderately, Inter are pretty divided to be fair), and when Agnelli was told at a Serie A meeting today that the extra money would let them win the league every year he just replied 'same as the last 80 years then'. Cue insults.

It's difficult to express. If you meet someone in Verona, say, or Florence, who calls themselves a Juve fan with no other connection to Piedmont, you know everything about them already. Starfuckers, modernity-hogs, boring-as-hell macho lads who wear the same puffer jackets and white trainers and boring slick haircuts with no dreams, no imagination, and who think racism in football is 'blown out of proportion', whose ideal holiday destination is Dubai and who, once there, will eat nothing but whatever Italian food they can find and splatter it all over Instagram. As my girlfriend's mum would call them 'cani senza patria'.

I doubt you'll find a Juve fan in Florence but the rest is probably true around the world.

[Monty]

Hard to emphasise how much worse Juve are than anything you can imagine from Man Utd or Liverpool. Their fans are super in favour (Milan moderately, Inter are pretty divided to be fair), and when Agnelli was told at a Serie A meeting today that the extra money would let them win the league every year he just replied 'same as the last 80 years then'. Cue insults.

It's difficult to express. If you meet someone in Verona, say, or Florence, who calls themselves a Juve fan with no other connection to Piedmont, you know everything about them already. Starfuckers, modernity-hogs, boring-as-hell macho lads who wear the same puffer jackets and white trainers and boring slick haircuts with no dreams, no imagination, and who think racism in football is 'blown out of proportion', whose ideal holiday destination is Dubai and who, once there, will eat nothing but whatever Italian food they can find and splatter it all over Instagram. As my girlfriend's mum would call them 'cani senza patria'.

I doubt you'll find a Juve fan in Florence but the rest is probably true around the world.

They slither out when it's Fiorentina-Juve in Florence and then slither back under their rocks again. They're probably the worst.