Champions League restructuring

[Smoke]

The way this is going, football's going to end up like darts, with competing championships.

Spurs could be the new Crafty Cockneys.

The London Silly Nannies

[OCD]

Sky not involved. Amazon Prime not involved either. Nothing from BT Sport yet I don't think.

The longer this goes on, the more I think the fit and proper person test will be revamped.

They want to sell their own rights. I think they have ever since the early days of the big tv deals and they had their noses put out of joint by having to share the spoils with their fellow competitors. As Gary Neville said, if they can get 150 million people worldwide to pay just a quid to watch a manure match on mutv, that's suddenly unbelievably lucrative.
Regular fans in the ground? They don't spend money. Better to flog that seat at full whack to a football tourist who'll also blow a ton in the club shop.
When it comes to generating the big bucks, we as domestic 'consumers' are now a hindrance to their ambitions, whether that be in the ground or with our cute little digital telly subscriptions.

Football has bent over backwards in trying to appease these greedy wankers over the last thirty years for fear of them fucking off. It's time to let them go. Remember the olden days when chairmen lived in mortal dread of televised football because nobody would turn up? Look how that went. I think we're at a similar juncture. Club football still matters to millions upon millions. There's more of us than there are of them. Ftf.

It misses a key point though. The fans in the ground creates the atmosphere that can drive players on to get the best out of them and makes games more entertaining. We've not had that for more than a year now and it's very much missed. If this trend continued to the point that there were millions watching around the world but empty or near empty stadiums, it would damage the product and viewing figures would gradually fall away over time. It's so short-sighted, it's ridiculous.

[john e]

Is it bad that I'm finding all this very entertaining even exciting

[Lastfootstamper]

To us, it matters who's in the seats. To them, it doesn't. Sooner a gibbering cheering scarf waving simpleton of a tourist on a spending spree at his favorite sports franchise than a curmudgeon in on a discounted season ticket who spends his time bemoaning offsides and their matchday cash in the pub and at a burger van. These clubs have played in vacuous arenas for years now.

[Somniloquism]

From Guardian:
“If Boris Johnson is so minded,” says Geof Walker, “he only needs to bring forward a short bill banning any football in England other than matches organised by the FA. Such laws are already in place in France and Germany.

Anyone know if it is true those laws exist in France and Germany? Maybe that explains why Bayern München and PSG did not join.

You'd no doubt get some zealous cops arresting people for playing in the park. :-)

"Jumpers for goal posts...... is not official FA rules, you all have to come down the station."

[KevinGage]

Is it bad that I'm finding all this very entertaining even exciting

I do as well, to an extent.

It would be cathartic to tell the Cunty 6 to do one. Particularly the Redscouse and Man U. And from a pure sporting perspective, there looks to be the obvious upside that Villa would be in the group of title challengers again and European fixtures against the best in France, Germany, Portugal et al would still be on the table.

But against that is the prospect that Sky and the other broadcasters see less value in ourselves, Everton, West Ham or whoever being the flagship clubs in the new order and adjust (ie drastically cut) the TV deals accordingly.

[Billy Walker]

Is it bad that I'm finding all this very entertaining even exciting

I'm finding it all rather engrossing and reckon we now have a huge opportunity to  smash the cartel that has been allowed to emerge over the past couple of decades.  It's vital this moment isn't wasted.

[Nelly]

I guess that's the other worry for me. Back in MON's days I remember reading with sobriety, the accounts and turnover of the club - finding out that 90% of our turnover was spent on player wages. TV deals are surely the main income for most clubs in the Championship and upwards. How devastating would it be to all clubs if the next TV deal was drastically lower - just because the Asian favourites weren't on the show anymore?

[ian c.]

The Spanish banker who created this reckons they will pump EUR 400M into the leagues and put an end to "madness" of big money transfers. I'm not sure how lower transfer fees help those outside the ESL as I assume they are then poaching our player as we scramble to make ends meet.

Bunch of bankers

It seems Morgan Stanley didn't tell Javid or Umunna first. Umunna leads their environmental and social responsibility governance work in Europe apparantly.

[duddeston]

Reports in Italy that Roma and Napoli might be invited, and I'm pretty certain they'd accept - Roma have American owners, and De Laurentiis at Napoli is a corrupt fuck who's wanted to be in something like this since Berlusconi mooted it three decades ago.

https://www.asroma.com/en/news/2021/4/statement-from-the-club

[CT]

Chelsea fans have blocked the team bus from getting to Stamford Bridge!

[Monty]

Reports in Italy that Roma and Napoli might be invited, and I'm pretty certain they'd accept - Roma have American owners, and De Laurentiis at Napoli is a corrupt fuck who's wanted to be in something like this since Berlusconi mooted it three decades ago.

https://www.asroma.com/en/news/2021/4/statement-from-the-club

Yep, mentioned it myself a few pages ago. Unexpected and great news - it seems Juve were hoping to bribe them in to give the thing more legitimacy (Agnelli actually mentioned Roma being out of the CL after one bad year and replaced by Atalanta as why football is actually Bad now).

[aev]

Chelsea supposedly getting ready to withdraw from ESL.

[Brazilian Villain]

This won't exactly alleviate the anger towards FSG on Merseyside.
https://news.sky.com/story/european-super-league-shankly-statue-should-be-removed-if-liverpool-join-esl-legends-family-says-12281422

[cdbearsfan]

Chelsea, always liked em, great bunch of lads.