I’d imagine there’s a hell of a lot in place behind the scenes. Selling the absolute top Euro matches round the world (without Spartak Moscow, Molde and Genk) will be a hugely profitable package. ££££££££
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No it wasn’t that way. Champions went on to play in the European Cup. Runners up participated in the UEFA cup. Teams were rewarded for doing well in their league. Leicester winning the league in 2016 wouldn’t have been able to participate in this scheme.
What’s the incentive to perform well in the league now? Why should Klopp field his strongest team against Leeds in 9 hours other than his and his players’ pride and self-respect? Evidently it doesn’t matter anymore if we get top 4.
It’s a fucking disgrace what they are doing. Not only they are carving out a huge slice of pie for themselves, they are making sure that no one else will get a chance at it.
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I might be wrong but in October it was reported that FIFA is behind (or actually the initiator of it) the Super League but now they are against it.
i think there are possible deals in place including streaming. i mean look how much NFL teams pull in and they not even a global sport compared to football… there is money to be made unfortunately or fortunately depending which side of the fence u sit on
I don’t believe this. They’d promote the best Championship teams into the PL, and go on, albeit with lesser means. They’d not be finished by any means, but we would, at least as long as we are out of our own national competition.
If I was a FA or PL rep, I’d take this very seriously, and insist for these break-away clubs to be excluded.
If we end up being excluded from the PL, then I think the word betrayal isn’t too strong. As for that new ‘super’ league, read Klopp’s quotes above, he brings it on the point.
If (not a flipping chance) we’re kicked out of the PL, I’ll send you a £20 note.
Has there been any word as to whether the Champion’s League will continue? Will open it up for many more clubs.
Regarding Klopp’s comments, I’d far rather see us playing a Pulis / Fat Sam team twice a season instead of Ajax / Inter. Erm…
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Agree with all parts of this brilliant post! People here getting on board with Gary “no1 rat” Neville, the biggest hypocrite in the world, pathetic.
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I feel that the chance for this is far bigger than you think. But even if we stay in the PL, where is the interest? As a founder club, we’d be guaranteed a participation in that pseudo-‘super’ league every year. It would be dull as fuck. If out of the title race by Christmas like this season, the rest of the national games would be played for strictly nothing.
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And yet all teams have fans, 60-70% are out of competitions by Christmas every season. It won’t devalue the PL as there will still be European places on offer, we’re just VIPs 
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The hypocrisy and hyperbole is fightening… People are siding with organisations like FIFA, UEFA and Sky… What have they done to positively progress football in 20 years?
FIFA for example has £1.5billion sat in it’s own accounts… It is rife with proven corruption… It cares nothing for grass roots… It cares for it’s own little cartel and their gains. Why does a not for profit organisation need over a billion pounds sat doing nothing??
People liking Gary Neville who is litterally a co-owner in a club which is financally doping its way through the exact football pyramid he now claims to want to protect.
Jamie Carragher who sat silent whilst G + H ruined our club, even got himself a new contract… Carragher who feed Purslow poisoned information about Rafa and helped bring Roy to this club…
Don’t get me wrong I dislike the very idea of a “closed” shop, but to think any of the above mentioned are not self-centered, greedy, hypocrites and only oppoising this due to the impact on themselves is utterly naive.
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The thing is though, I think a lot people outside of Europe who watch CL games probably don’t pay for the privilege even now. I know. Shocking. Shouldn’t be allowed.
My point being that if the ESL clubs think that there is a global market that UEFA is not exploiting well enough, then they might be disappointed. I can’t see the millions of LFC fans in Asia and Africa shelling out money that they can’t afford just to watch something that they can access for free on the Internet.
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It’s the basic idea of competition which gets undermined. Yes big clubs with big means are more likely to win trophies, it has always been like that. But the idea that you don’t need to qualify for a competition anymore, that you can’t be relegated from it, is a disgusting import of the US principle of the franchise: as long as you pay for it, you are in the competition.
I find this deeply concerning to be honest. It’s the basic spirit of the sport which is threatened by this move.
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What matters to me the most is Klopps take on this, and I will not form an opinion before that.
But it’s the initial drop the mic moment, it’s not the final structure… I think they went huge on shock and this brings all the parties back to the table who have refused to talk for years…
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You’ve just brought it on the point: the very idea of being VIPs in our own national competition is a disgrace.
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Am told by well-placed source; *Man Utd & RM “ringleaders” *3 US-owned PL clubs “really mean this”, sold on the NFL model of closed league with star clubs/players driving value *others see it more as leverage over UEFA - unhappy new CL format means £ shared among more clubs…
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One thing to note about this is that as people have already referenced, talks about a European Super League have been going on for years. The European Club Association has been challenging UEFA for a decade to bring in reform and to pass over greater control to the clubs. They got a seat on the executive body of UEFA but that was about it. UEFA have consistently resisted any requests to relinquish any control and the proposed changes to the CL didn’t address that fundamental issue at the heart of the schism between the regulatory body and the biggest clubs.
This proposal is a culmination of years of this otherwise mostly private tussle. UEFA, FIFA, the Football Associations, the Leagues can feign shocked outrage all they like but they had plenty of warning.
When you think of all the changes for the good of the game over the last 20-30 years how many of them were actually conceived by the governing bodies rather than pushed for by the clubs, the players or the fans? The governing bodies have only shown themselves to be corrupt self-serving institutions with little care for the good of the game. They’ve had years to reform but have done little to do so. They can get fucked.
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Struggling a bit with this to be honest 
. …but I am now very old 
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Well done Dortmund. That’s a properly run club with decent people in charge of it.
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