New European Super League

The Cruyff Turn
971

statement
statement900×506

Tue 20 Apr 2021

STATEMENT FROM THE BOARD

By Everton

Expand

Everton is saddened and disappointed to see proposals of a breakaway league pushed forward by six clubs.

Six clubs acting entirely in their own interests.

Six clubs tarnishing the reputation of our league and the game.

Six clubs choosing to disrespect every other club with whom they sit around the Premier League table.

Six clubs taking for granted and even betraying the majority of football supporters across our country and beyond.

At this time of national and international crisis - and a defining period for our game - clubs should be working together collaboratively with the ideals of our game and its supporters uppermost.

Instead, these clubs have been secretly conspiring to break away from a football pyramid that has served them so well.

And in that Pyramid Everton salutes EVERY club, be it Leicester City, Accrington Stanley, Gillingham, Lincoln City, Morecambe, Southend United, Notts County and the rest who have, with their very being, enriched the lives of their supporters throughout the game’s history. And vice versa.

The self-proclaimed Super Six appear intent on disenfranchising supporters across the game - including their own - by putting the very structure that underpins the game we love under threat.

The backlash is understandable and deserved – and has to be listened to.

This preposterous arrogance is not wanted anywhere in football outside of the clubs that have drafted this plan.

On behalf of everyone associated with Everton, we respectfully ask that the proposals are immediately withdrawn and that the private meetings and subversive practises that have brought our beautiful game to possibly its lowest ever position in terms of trust end now.

Finally we would ask the owners, chairmen, and Board members of the six clubs to remember the privileged position they hold – not only as custodians of their clubs but also custodians of the game. The responsibility they carry should be taken seriously.

We urge them all to consider what they wish their legacy to be.

Everton FC Board of Directors

5 Likes
972

Couldn’t have put it better myself. Good for them

973

15 permanent founding members with no risk of relegation, with 5 others coming and going.

Sounds just like when a company hires a token person from a minority to the board just to virtue signal, and not really addressing the underlying problems.

1 Like
974

He financially backed Trump at the last election…

Not surprising anymore

1 Like
976

You make some good points and I’m confused. However the Glassers being in charge of this new euro super league should be a worry as should roly poly football and no qualification rounds imo.
It’s elitest which is dead against ‘our’ club culture, we fight for our place, no?
As the domestic league is my priority I ask how does this really affect me?
I can see some problems and have asked questions.
The backlash from this will be interesting to follow and could be very detrimental.

1 Like
977

I agree with the sentiment, but this is the club who were part of the BIG 5 in the 1980s, and planned (unfortunately we also were involved) to breakaway.

It smacks of they are not invited to the party, so let’s pretend we are principled.

But leaving aside the hypocrisy (if they were invited, they would jump at it), I agree with that statement.

2 Likes
978

He’s at the end of his career so not that brave imo but necessary, younger players will be more careful I think.

979

I take two things from that Perez interview, well three.

Firstly at least he comes out and talks about it.

Secondary this is all about money and keeping Madrid dominate, they are financially fucked which does explain why the none US owners of the PL teams see it more as a bargaining tool.

Finally at no point does he mention expansion and he could, he could suggest as it grows but he isn’t interested in that, his aim is to have these same 12-15 teams play each other year in year out and a token 5 can come on board for a season and then jettisoned out because frankly they don’t have to finance to compete in such a league.

5 teams out of the entirety of Europe, some leagues are basically being locked out forever if the suggestion that the 5 include even more Spanish, Italian and English clubs.

980

Is this the same Everton that are bankrolled by a billionaire who made his money from dodgy Russian mines alongside that fine upstanding character Usmanov?

I hate the idea of the ESL but the rank hypocrisy is sickening

4 Likes
981

Yeah Nate Silver had an article on it, Werner has backed the democrats but out of all the sports owners his name didn’t appear at all and Henry was on the Trump list.

1 Like
982

Also financially you’d think the leagues wouldn’t kick the clubs out but I can’t see how they can guarantee that, I would assume the PL with its voting pattern can remove any club and so demotion to the FL is a possibility and I can’t see how the way it was formed that that isn’t a possibility, whether it happens i would guess unlikely but I don’t think Perez can say it won’t.

The EFL could then demote them further but imagine that with all that money and restricted by the over controlled FFP of the football league

983

Exactly. And on the part of UEFA, that’s greed and incompetence. As Bielsa said, UEFA and FIFA should have seen this coming. Undoubtedly (maybe), it’ll end up with UEFA finding the money to bribe the ESL clubs into staying, probably with some form of guaranteed qualification, and we’ll all live happily ever after.

Except that we won’t. Our club will be forever tainted this. As if we weren’t hated enough already, particularly by fans of the less-successful ‘smaller’ clubs, now our haters will have something else to beat us with. Right now, despite everything they’ve done for us, I really wish FSG would just fuck off. At least if they were no longer the owners that might remove some of the blame. But the problem with that would be that whoever bought us would also be some mega-rich person or group that puts money first and everything else last.

What bothers me though is that there is a part of me that agrees with @Klopptimist in that once the dust has settled and the ESL is established it would be better to be inside playing the glamorous games and wallowing in money, than be outside with our noses pressed up against the window. I’m sure that a sense of moral superiority would soon to turn to envy.

1 Like
984

They have already sat at the table and the break away clubs weren’t happy with what they were offered.
Worth noting LFC aren’t qualified for CL yet which makes our club position problematic if you ask me. We’re profittering.

985

I mentionned that in the Ligue Un thread. It is important and media push this a lot. (Just saying and wish this wasn’t the case but it is undeniable).

1 Like
986
987

exactly what I meant.

In the grand scheme of things people who are not from Liverpool or the UK in general are far more likely to support this.

The football pyramid doesn’t matter to them, the affect that football clubs have up and down the country to their local communities isn’t going to affect you if you don’t live in the UK - so you aren’t going to “get it”.

It would be the same as more commenting on reform in South African football. I can have an opinion on it - but my opinion would be based on me wanting to watch South African teams on TV rather than understanding the affect this decision would have on local communities which built these football clubs.

1 Like
988

Jesus, that means that they didn’t expect the backlash. :grimacing:

If that is the case, they are naive beyond stupid. They really understand NOTHING about this sport, even after all these years as LFC owners.

8 Likes
989

I hold us as a club above every other club… shame that was incorrect thing to do it seems

1 Like
990

The overwhelming backlash by coaches, fans, ex-players, political parties and footballing bodies suggests it still may not happen.

Shankly would almost certainly have a frame of reference: he was very used to rapacious big capital exploiting working people. He saw it from an early age.

2 Likes
991

It fucks me off that Everton are doing the right thing and we are just casually walking into the fire.

Fucking embarrassing LFC.